Productivity – Page 4

10 Simple Habits that Will Save You Lots of Time and Energy

12.09.2015 by Angel Chernoff // 30 Comments

10 Simple Habits that Will Save You a Lot of Time and Energy
by Corina Semph

A human being who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

You wonder … “Where do my days go?”

You are busier than ever before, but you have very little to show for all that time spent working and hustling.

Gurus tell you that time is your most precious resource, but it seems to fly by like never before. You’re overwhelmingly busy, but your to-do list stays a mile long. Technology promises to streamline your life, but in reality, all it seems to do is complicate it.

You spend your days rushing and being pulled in five different directions at any given moment. Priorities change constantly. Your inbox can’t go 20 minutes without a massive download of emails. Your job responsibilities are intense, and, simultaneously, your co-workers keep sending you meeting invites. Then you rush home to try and prepare a healthy dinner that your family will actually like, all the while texting your best friend and catching up with social media updates.

How are you supposed to get things done right?

It’s exhausting! You’re exhausted!

But it’s not just you. It’s happening to most of us, every single day.

You wish you lived that dream lifestyle that TV shows and magazines try to sell you, with plenty of time to relax and indulge in your passions. And although you “know” that dream is not real, you still crave some peace in your life.

Ready for life to feel a lot less stressful?

I have great news: With a few simple habit changes, you can save yourself a lot of time and energy. If you’re ready to get more value out of your limited time, then its time to…

1. Focus until completion.

Have you noticed how starting a task often demands more energy and willpower than actually doing it? Especially when [Read more…]

10 Ways to Free Your Mind When You’re Feeling Stuck

10.11.2015 by Angel Chernoff // 167 Comments

by Thanh Pham of Asian Efficiency

If you’re stuck and you don’t know how to rise, don’t look outside yourself. Look inside.

Have you ever felt like you were racing around in circles without making much forward progress? I know I have, many times. In the past I caught myself feeling stuck more often than I wanted to admit, and eventually I knew I needed to find a new roadmap. I was feeling utterly depressed and trapped by the same old problems and scenery. I needed to free myself!

The first thing I learned as I struggled to find my way is this:

Fear is the cage that keeps you stuck. Faith is the key that sets you free.

And the second thing I learned is that getting unstuck isn’t just a single action – it’s a process – a life-changing journey. And all journeys begin with a call to adventure, and this call is different for all of us.

Here are ten strategies (“calls”) that I’ve successfully implemented over the years to help clients and myself get unstuck, mentally and physically, even when doing so seemed impossible.

1. Relocate Yourself to an Inspiring Environment

One of the simplest ways to get unstuck is to simply shift your environment.

For example, if you went from this:

To this:

Your mind and state of … “stuck” … would shift rapidly.

And the great thing is, it doesn’t have to be that dramatic a shift. You can [Read more…]

The Quiet Rituals that Make Us Remarkably Successful

10.07.2015 by Marc Chernoff // 23 Comments

The Quiet Rituals that Make Us Remarkably Successful

Make today count – at the end of it, let there be no explanations, no excuses and no regrets.

When we think about walking with the dreamers, the believers, the creative types, the planners, the doers, the remarkably successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground, we get excited. We want to jump on their bandwagon, join the party and hoot and holler! We let their spirit ignite a fire within us to leave this world better than when we found it.

And that’s great!

But what we often neglect, at least initially, is the fact that these “successful” people have been working hard and quietly, often for long, tedious periods of time, to achieve what others eventually interpret as remarkable work.

The truth is, the result of remarkable success is pretty noisy – lots of people noticing, talking, and sharing stories about it. The actual process of achieving remarkable success, on the other hand, is far more discreet (and underappreciated). But it’s this gradual process that happens quietly, behind-the-scenes, that makes all the difference in the world.

The Quiet Rituals Interview

People have said that Angel and I are remarkably successful at what we do. Forbes interviewed me recently and classified our blog as [Read more…]

9 Ways to Make Your Days Simple Again

08.23.2015 by Marc Chernoff // 46 Comments

9 Ways to Make Your Days Simple Again

Any darn fool can make a day more complicated than it has to be; it takes a touch of genius to make it simple again.

PLEASE NOTE: This post has been updated with new information and republished here:

How to Make Life Simple Again

Photo by: The 10 Cent Designer

7 Things to Remember When You Feel Discouraged and Defeated

03.15.2015 by Marc Chernoff // 73 Comments

7 Things to Remember When You Feel Discouraged and Defeated

The worst enemy to productivity and creativity is self-pity.

This morning I didn’t feel like doing anything. It’s a combination of exhaustion from a few days of hard work, and a lack of sleep with a baby in the house.

I couldn’t motivate myself to do anything important, which is a rare occurrence for me. I just felt completely discouraged and defeated. I started overthinking things and doubting myself, and wondering whether anything I do is worthwhile.

I sat there in this funk for nearly an hour and wondered how to get out of it. Should I just forget about today? Should I just give up on this project, because I’m not as good at it as I thought I was?

That’s what I was considering, at least for a little while. But the better part of me knew this mild state of depression was temporary, and so I dug into my own intellectual toolbox for solutions – little tricks of the mind that can have a real effect on reality.

Here’s what works for me – seven things to keep in mind (and do) when you feel discouraged and defeated:

1. You are not the center of the universe (stop making it all about YOU).

I think we all have the tendency to put ourselves at the center of the universe, and see everything from the viewpoint of how it affects us. But this can have all kinds of adverse effects, from feeling sorry for ourselves when things aren’t going exactly as planned, to doubting ourselves when we aren’t perfect.

So this morning, instead of worrying so much about myself, I thought about other people I might help. Finding little ways to help others gets me out of my self-centered thinking, and then I’m not wallowing in self-pity anymore – I’m starting to think about what others need. I’m not doubting myself, because the question of whether I’m good enough or not is no longer the central question. The central question now is about what others need. [Read more…]