So You Wanna Do the Stuff Well, Eh?
So You Wanna Do the Stuff Well, Eh?
Adam Vermeer
Buy on Leanpub

So What’s this all about?

Good question, my very astute reader. I’ll give you a quick answer. I recently finished my undergaduate studies in Mechanical Engineering, and throughout those years I made a few friends at my school. Many of them were excellent students themselves, and I learned much by watching their actions and speaking with them about their thinking and studying habits. In addition, many other friends would come to me for study tips and advice on how to better utilize their time at University. There was even a time where I would send out short emails that I called ‘Scholarship Tips’ to members of a club I was in.

My advice was received well, and I’ve still got the tips saved on my computer now. Over the past couple of weeks I have been reflecting on my time at University and I realized that this kind of advice is quite timeless and potentially valuable to other people. So, I think collecting these tips into a short book that I can give out to people is a good way to extend the value even further.

But that’s still not the full picture. I’m working a short summer job as a greenhouse designer, and I am quickly learning that the same tips I wrote about in University apply just as well to office work. And so this guide’s usefulness can extend beyond University alone and act as a nice refresher of good habits and advice for those people who are about to head into new work.

It’s important to recognize that the advice and tips I outline in this book are not necessarily original. Many tips I provide are repeated regularly by all kinds of people. I do my best to add links or book suggestions to sections where you can find more information. If you are at all curious about something I suggest, I encourage you to do your own research and experimentation to find out what works for you.

One final thing to know is that I am in no way a professional. These tips are just what I have tried myself and found to be useful. Give them a shot for yourself, but I cannot guarantee that any one bit of advice will work for you. It ultimately becomes your responsibility to take my words and discern the value and trust you can place in them; I provide my insights merely hoping that they can help you out in some way.

Now, I wish you success. Read on folks, read on.

 

Maybe you don’t actually want to read this whole thing. That’s cool, it’s your time and you can spend it however you want.

I’ve collected the most important points here for you:

There are no shortcuts to success. You WILL be required to WORK HARD.

Even with hard work, success is never guaranteed. It’s a safer bet to base your emotional well-being on the process of improvement, not on the attainment of any level of success.

The ability to focus on singular tasks for long periods of time is critical to using your time effectively. Here’s how you can improve your focus:

  • Use the Pomodoro Technique: 25 minutes of focused work on 1 task. 5 minute break. Repeat 4 times, then take a 15 minute break. Repeat this cycle until your work is complete.
  • Manipulate your location to remove distractions. Do your best to avoid doing work where you also relax (avoid working in your room, definitely avoid doing work in bed).
  • Get your sleep and eating habits under control and treat yourself with care. This will guarantee that your mental faculties are fully operational.

When in doubt, Do something. This relates directly to another great bit of advice: SHOW, Don’t TELL.

If you don’t know how to do an assignment or project or exam correctly, do it incorrectly. The best way to get your brain working on a problem is to start the problem. I guarantee you will think about things differently as you work, and you will end up with something that at the very worst is proof that you tried.

Everyone can talk about ideas or solutions, but the only ones that matter are the ones that provide a result. So, stop talking and get working!

Don’t take notes on your laptop. Keep your laptop in your bag during lectures, seminars, meetings, etc. Write your notes by hand and re-type them later if you absolutely must have them on your devices.

Writing ideas out is slower. This reduction of speed forces you to actively think about how to restate the ideas you are hearing in a more concise manner, which is exactly how we learn and retain information. When you type, you are able to record information efficiently, but you end up just transcribing it and not properly learning it.

Buy nice pens. In fact, it’s generally a good idea to spend your money where you spend your time. DO not rush financial decisions, but if you know you’ll use something a lot, spend the money to get items of high quality.

Seek help when you need it. You have many sources from which you can find help, here’s a good order:

  1. your own notes
  2. your textbooks or similar resources
  3. a quick Google search
  4. classmates or co-workers
  5. Professors / teacher’s assistants, advisers, your boss

There really is no shame in asking for help. I doubt you feel guilty looking up facts on Google, so don’t worry for a second about searching for advice, tips, social help, emotional support, or whatever form of help you need from actual humans. Most of them are quite nice, as it turns out.

Take care of your body

  • Find some kind of exercise that you enjoy enough to keep doing
  • eat more fruits and veggies and less snack food.
  • Sleep. When you are tired, go to bed. When your eyes open up, get up and go to work.

Know what your CORE VALUES are. Make choices that fit those values. Some excellent values to consider for yourself are:

  • learning (just for the hell of it, because it’s awesome as shit!)
  • creativity
  • humility
  • compassion
  • confidence
  • self-reliance
  • health (mental, physical, spiritual, etc.)
  • hard work
  • empathy

NOTE: that list of values is NOT exhaustive, please spend time thinking about your core values, which may not appear on the above list.

People are not better or worse than you, just different.

This keeps you thinking objectively when people piss you off.

This keeps you confident when others are performing better than you.

Here’s What’s Coming:

This chapter’s full of tips and strategies for various aspects of your school or work. Each section is short and practical, giving you a clear outline of why the particular topic is important to pay attention to, what the advice is, and how to actually implement it. I also suggest some further reading material if you’re keen to look into anything more.

The Topics I cover:

  • Setting Up Your Calendar
  • Task Management
  • How to Approach the Next Few Months
  • The Skill of Learning
  • File Organization
  • Single Tasking (Death To multitasking)
  • Building Your Focus
  • The Focus Baseline
  • Saving Time and Ideas
  • Avoiding Distractions
  • Using Priority to Spend Your Time Wisely
  • Some Study Tips
  • Making Every Day Useful

That should be a pretty solid chunk of advice for you to consider as you start doing good work.

Shall we get to it then?

(Yes. The answer is yes.)

Setting Up Your Calendar

At the start of every term I would sling on a backpack, tie my shoes, and wonder how to get to the nearest Starbucks. Realizing that my laptop was neatly packed in my bag, I would reverse the shoe tying and backpack slinging process, pull out my laptop, remember that I could have just used my phone, and finally look for directions.

Fast forward 20 minutes and I would be ready to order myself a coffee and perhaps a cookie (I would just hit the gym later in the term anyway, it’s cool).

Sit down. Spill coffee on lap.

All of this to spend 40 minutes preparing a calendar for the term.

Alright. Why Does This Matter?

Well, at school and work it turns out that routines are common, and deadlines are regular. It helps at the start of a term or the onset of a new work project to have a good overview of how your days will be scheduled for the next couple of months. If you plan ahead and fill in as much as you can in a calendar, you can rest easy knowing that you don’t have to remember all of the plans you make. Your calendar will be a clear reminder for you later about the commitments you have.

Looking at your calendar also gives you a lot of freedom to make more plans, as it turns out. Suppose a friend of yours invites you to hang out. Having made your calendar, you can quickly find out if the proposed hang out will conflict with other plans. If it doesn’t, you’ve got a new plan! If it does, well then you can just suggest an alternative time that you DO have free.

Cool. So What do I do?

You’ll want to set aside around 40 minutes to work on this. You will also need to choose a platform on which to build your calendar. I use Google Calendar, and so do a lot of other people. There are a few other good choices as well like Sunrise Calendar, your default Phone or laptop Calendar, classic pen and paper (you weirdo!), or perhaps even a white board style calendar.

Now that you’ve got a calendar and some time to fill it out, you need to approach it considering the priority of your time. Here’s the sequence in which I added items to my calendar when I was in school:

  1. Put your class schedule on. It should repeat week to week, and there are likely 14 weeks per term (you will have to check this on your school’s website).
    • Use a single colour for ALL of your classes
    • make note of the class’s location
    • If you are making a calendar for work, I suggest roughly planning out the next 4 months.
  2. Allocate study times EVERY DAY.
    • Use a different colour for these study blocks
    • Try to make the blocks at least 1 hour long. This allows you to split the time into decent work / break chunks
    • At work, you should list the various projects you are working on and set times within your week to work on each project. Larger projects need more time, so plan accordingly.
  3. If you want to improve or maintain fitness, place gym / running ,etc. time on the necessary days.
    • Follow the specific fitness routine you enjoy
    • Have some rest periods in your week (at least one rest day is typically recommended)
    • Use a new colour again for these times
  4. Put Social events on your calendar.
    • your calendar may be shared with friends if you trust them to know your availability
    • Social events don’t usually lend themselves to strict scheduling, so block out large chunks of time to maintain flexibility in your schedule
  5. Fill in the gaps
    • At this point, you have plenty of time planned out already and it is reasonable to stop here. Some things you COULD add though are:
      • Reading time
      • Meditation time
      • cooking
      • Hobby time
  6. Ensure you have enough time left every day for rest / sleep
    • People require different amounts of sleep, but the rule of thumb of 8 is certainly a safe and healthy choice. I use 7 hours myself.
    • Remember that it is almost NEVER worth staying up late to finish something. consider waking up early and going to bed early

And If I Want More Information?

Google calendar Help is a good resource if you’ve never used the service before:

https://support.google.com/calendar

I more recently read through the following article and found the approach suggested very useful:

http://www.asianefficiency.com/schedule-management/how-to-use-a-calendar-and-to-do-list-with-each-other/

Task Management

Every day you need to do things. The amount of things you need to do will always be greater than you really will be comfortable with, and you certainly won’t get everything done every day. I ask myself regularly whether or not things are even worth doing since I know they’ll take me way longer to do that I think originally. Well, I can’t always answer that question properly (some days I JUST…. DON’T….WANNNNNAAAA) but having a system to properly track the stuff I need to get done really helps make things easier.

Alright. Why Does This Matter?

Since you’ll already be using your brain for important things, having a task management system in place lets you devote more brain power to the work you need instead of on remembering your ever-growing list of items to complete. If you don’t have a task system at all, something will be forgotten, and eventually you will forget something important. If you develop a system that you regularly use, you will reduce your anxiety about what needs to get done, you’ll remember your work better, and can more effectively plan your time and energy use.

Cool. So What do I do?

The best way to work with the endless demands of life is by setting up a task system that you enjoy using. The key is to mess around with a few variations of task management systems to find one that:

  • you like using
  • doesn’t take too much time to set up and actually use on a regular basis
  • actually helps you accomplish your tasks

As a reference, I’ve provided the system I use to track and execute my tasks. It is heavily based off of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system, so full credit is due to his excellent work.

NOTE: You don’t have to be this detailed, you just have to find something that you will keep using!

Collection

  • consider all of your projects, assignments, errands, promises, or ideas you’ve had that you HAVE TO or WANT TO act on and write them down.
  • be thorough and honest with yourself.
  • Write it down and forget about it. You’ll see it again later (when you might actually be able to take care of it)

Organization

  • Start with your errands and put them all on one ‘errands’ list
  • Put tasks in a list labelled with context (eg. “@campus, or @homeoffice) so that you know what to work on when you are in those contextual locations.
  • Every project you have gets its own list. Write tasks necessary to reach each project’s completion, and pull from these project lists as you are planning your day’s work.
  • Any remaining tasks can go in a ‘someday / maybe’ list to collect your desires, bucket list items, crazy ideas, etc. Feel free to add anything to this list at any time

Operation

  • Go through your tasks as necessary. Urgency is the best way to prioritize. That is, whatever is due tomorrow is what you work on first!
  • take tasks from projects and place them into context lists when you are planning your work time. For example, if I have a write chapter 1 of book task in the project list You Wanna do the Stuff Well, and I plan to do that at the home office, I will add write chatper 1 of book to the appropriate list.
  • Cross stuff off when you’re done, and really learn to enjoy that feeling.

To implement this system in an efficient manner, I use Trello, which is an online App that lets me very quickly shuffle my tasks from list to list, so that I’m not re-writing the same task many times.

Perhaps this system is a bit too complex for you. That’s cool. Here’s an easier system you could try:

  1. Write a continuous list of tasks on a piece of paper, in an app, or in a document on your computer. As new tasks come up, just add them to the bottom of this list.
  2. Every time you sit down to do some work, take 3 minutes to decide what tasks you are going to work on.
  3. Write down 3 tasks for that work session to complete, and then get started!

You want something even easier!? How about this:

  1. Find 2 minutes in the morning (every morning that you work on, anyway) and write down 3 things you need to finish.
  2. Do those things.

More, Please!

Here are a few great articles to read, if you’re looking for more advice:

http://www.asianefficiency.com/task-management/simple-task-management/ http://lifehacker.com/how-to-use-trello-to-organize-your-entire-life-1683821040 http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-ferriss-productivity-hack-2014-6

Scott Belskey outlines a great task management system called the Action Method in his book Making Ideas Happen. If you’re not interested in reading his book (I do recommend it), the method is outlined here:

http://99u.com/articles/7201/8-tips-for-diy-task-management-with-the-new-actionmethod

The most important thing to remember is that ANY system is better than NO system. Find a system that you actually want to use and you will have better results than if you use one that doesn’t fit your style.

Your Approach for the Next Few Months

I really recommend you focus on these points throughout the next few months with the goal of having them answered for yourself before exam time, so that when it comes to actually writing your exams and passing courses, it’s a simple, painless process.

Try different productivity methods.

I have attempted several different methods in the past and have settled on a slightly modified Getting Thing’s Done (GTD) methodology using a small set of cool apps (Trello for tasks, Evernote for thoughts, ideas, future plans).

I think the time spent experimenting with different productivity systems is well worth the effort. If you give every system an honest attempt, you’ll very soon discover that your work habits are hindered by certain requirements and bolstered by others. The point is not to make yourself love someone else’s system, but to make a system that you will enjoy and benefit from.

If your Ikea chair has screws, don’t use your friend’s hammer to build it. Unrelated: Ikea furniture really isn’t hard to assemble. You can do it. I promise.

Attempt various study techniques

There are productivity techniques to keep your tasks organized and clear and then there are techniques and tricks to actually doing those tasks.

It is wise to determine methods to use to actually get your work done because it doesn’t matter how well you organize your tasks if you never bother to do them. This is often the most painful part of the process. This makes it very important to train yourself to FOCUS, press on, and start to enjoy the struggles inherent to study and work.

Review and re-learn your material often.

If you take a bit of time every day to just review what you’ve already learned and completed, when it comes time to be tested or to present the outcome of your hard work it won’t be nearly as difficult to do. You will not have to look back to work you’ve done months ago simply because you will have been looking at it so much already that it is almost completely memorized.

Make your work fun. Fall in love with the process, not the end result.

More, Please!

Learning to love the process of improvement is easier said than done. Amor Fati is a ‘love of what happens’ and Ryan Holiday talks about it in this article:

http://thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-holiday/2015/07/amor-fati-learning-to-love-and-accept-everything-that-happens/

Ryan Holiday also writes about the Stoic Philosophy in his book The Obstacle Is the Way, a book I recommend if you often find yourself wondering why frustrating things always happen to you (hint: they don’t happen to you, they just happen, and you get to chose how to react).

The Skill of Learning

There is, in fact, such thing as a stupid question. You will probably ask some in your life. I know that I have (Why are there only 60 cents in a dollar?) but you can avoid asking dumb questions most of the time with the right mindset, attitude, and discipline.

Asking the right questions is an aspect of the skill of learning. Yes, learning is a skill, just like riding a bike and cooking things without burning them are skills. The nice thing about skils is that you can practice them and become better.

Alright. Why Does This Matter?

Learning is not something that happens to you when people stand in front of you and speak for an hour. Learning isn’t some magic spell conjured up with chalk and poorly made PowerPoint slides. It’s an active process that you need to participate in.

Cool. So What do I do?

The skill of learning will be constantly under development. It’ll be a lifelong pursuit and you will never be a perfect learner, but that doesn’t mean you won’t benefit.

Let’s start small now, because a lot of these skills will develop over time as you continue in school or on projects in your workplace.

Practice the skill of learning:

  • Practice the skill of learning by using something you find personally interesting. Hobbies tend to be an excellent way to train yourself to learn.
    • For example I love graphic design so I took time to learn the basics of colour theory and lighting dynamics. This uncovers a lot of cool and fun information.
    • You may like fitness and could take time to learn names of muscles and how they are best used, for example
    • Think outside the box to create personal desire and interest in learning.
  • make notes for your hobbies or study interests.
    • Get into the habit of hand writing A LOT of information. Write so that YOU understand your own notes. Explain concepts to yourself when you take notes.
    • Ask a lot of questions about the subject of interest. Use Google and real people.
  • Carefully consider how you use your downtime. Try to engage in more active forms of entertainment.
    • TED Talks are excellent to watch, but it would be even better if you take notes while you watch them
    • Read books as opposed to internet articles
    • Avoid social network apps / sites as much as possible during your regular work times. They are things that should be checked AFTER your important tasks are complete, and using them less in general won’t hurt
    • Make something. Anything. If it’s cool, you can brag about it later. If it sucked, you can hide your failure, but still learn a lot about what NOT to do

The goal in approaching your hobbies and interests this way is to strengthen your ability to learn ANYTHING, including even the worst courses you have to take. Learning is a skill that you can improve on over time, so getting in the practice with subjects that you are drawn to just makes the whole process run more smoothly.

More, Please!

Carnegie Mellon provides an excellent list of Principles of Learning:

https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/principles/learning.html

If you’re in school, I strongly suspect that your school’s website will have study tips and learning advice somewhere on the site. The fastest way to find out is to head to your school’s homepage, hit the search button and try “Study advice” or a similar phrase. See what you find and don’t be afraid to check out on-campus resources too!

File Organization

/New folder(2)/new folder - copy/latest_version_rev2b_FINAL_SERIOUSLY.docx … Wait? Is that the right version? Did I even save those changes I made before I went to sleep last night?

I should really start organizing my files.

Alright. Why Does This Matter?

The benefits of file organization are pretty clear:

  • Find your documents quickly and easily
  • avoid file duplication
  • track changes more easily
  • peace of mind

Cool. So What do I do?

Just like with your task system, your own file organization system just has to be one that you like and can maintain without giving yourself a headache. Here’s what I do, as a reference for setting up your own:

  • Organize your documents folder in a project centric style.
    • For example, if you have an essay to write, go to your Documents folder and inside that create a new folder with the title of the essay. Inside that folder create your document, add any pictures, reference material, or other files pertaining ONLY to that essay
  • frequently accessed folders can be shifted to the top of your file browser by placing an @ or _ before the file or folder name (assuming you arrange the files to be shown alphabetically, which is the default for most systems anyway).
  • organize and clean up your files regularly (aim for once a week). I would say at the very least do it monthly. If you do this regularly enough, it takes only a few minutes and keeps you refreshed on what work you have done, what kinds of files you make regularly, etc.
  • Have a TEMP folder or an inbox folder for those times where you need to save something quickly, or just don’t know where to put the file. You can dedicate 5 minutes at the end of every day to empty out this folder by either DELETING the file or MOVING it to a more logical location.

One final note:

Carefully consider where you will keep your up to date digital files. It might be beneficial for you to use Dropbox or Google Drive so that you can access your work regardless of the device you have available. This avoids disaster like a broken or stolen laptop! Back up your most important files on a regular basis to an external drive or backup service, unless you truly don’t care if the files are deleted forever (you probably do care though).

If you’re not interested in doing that much work to track your files, I suggest at the very least that you do the following:

  • Separate work from hobby files
  • keep your pictures sorted in different folders with an entirely separate system
  • name things so that future you will understand what the file is without opening it

More, Please!

For file backup advice check the following out:

http://lifehacker.com/five-best-online-backup-services-1006345049

This was the first article I read about file organization, after I finally got fed up with trying to figure out the optimal way on my own. Sadly, there isn’t any one best way to organize your files, but this article was a good start for me.

http://lifehacker.com/5878795/ditch-hard-drive-clutter-with-an-organized-automated-home-folder

Single Tasking (Death to Multitasking)

You walk into your worst class ever, or a weekly project meeting that never seems to accomplish much. At this point you know the drill: sit down, listen for 4.5 minutes, zone out, scribble a picture in the margins of your notebook, look around at the other people clearly in denial about their need to sleep… and decide to pull out your phone.

You can easily write a few emails, or maybe start typing up your groccery list. It’s fine because you can just look up from time to time and get the notes you need without issue!

This is what you likely know to be multitasking, and it sounds awesome because it really would save you time and energy to be able to handle a few important things at once. It’s just not really a habit that plays out as you hope it does when you actually try it.

Alright. Why Does This Matter?

Why we should all ditch multitasking and work on single tasks and focus:

  • Multitasking in reality is just quick bursts of single tasking.
    • Consider a computer and a smartphone: A PC can have several programs running at once each in a visible window. A smartphone opens and forces full attention and control to ONLY ONE APP at a time. We operate like smartphones, not computers.
    • if you tackle 5 tasks at once, you are actually doing them sequentially in small time chunks.
    • The issue with switching between several tasks quickly is that you often end up losing your train of thought and spending time trying to find where you left off, which adds up quickly to a lot of wasted time.
  • finishing one task first can give you a mental boost because you have actually accomplished something.
    • The good feeling you get simply by finishing up a single task can really help your momentum and keep you motivated to start and finish another (and another, and another…).
  • It’s less stressful.
    • Being able to dedicate your entire mental capacity to a single task is actually significantly easier than dividing your attention among several tasks.
    • Consider that if you work on 2 tasks, you dedicate a bit of attention to the first, a bit to the 2nd, and even some to the task of determining when to switch between the two. So, doing 2 tasks simultaneously splits your attention into at least 3 parts, whereas doing a single task can more likely keep your attention focused on 1 thing only.   ###Cool. So What do I do?

You need to build up your ability to focus on a single task. This takes time and practice, and really it’s not likely that you’ll ever be perfect at it (that’s ok though, it’s still valuable) but you certainly will get the same amount or more work done than before and you’ll feel less stressed out too.

The quickest way to cut down on multitasking tendencies:

  • maximize the windows of your programs on your computer and hide your taskbar
    • the idea is just to hide the digital distractions that are constantly present when you’re working
  • put your phone on silent. Even better is to use Airplane mode
    • your smartphone is full of distractions, it’s best to put it out of sight and out of mind when you really need to focus on your work
  • go somewhere with no distractions or where it’s socially unacceptable to indulge in distractions
    • a library is the perfect candidate: you have to stay quiet, you can’t get up and do chores, there’s not much to look at, and other people around you are working hard and you can’t be rude by distracting them

More, Please!

This article poses an interesting idea about distraction and its real source:

http://99u.com/articles/51300/why-are-we-so-distracted-all-the-time

Building Your Focus

Learn to focus. That is all.

Alright. Why Does This Matter?

You have limited mental resources every day and too many tasks to complete within 24 hours. This means that you need to spend your energy wisely and carefully on the tasks that truly matter most to your goals (or are closest to being due…). Without an ability to focus, you will be stressing yourself out every day just trying to get anything done. It’s an indispensable skill.

Cool. So What do I do?

In academics and learning in general, focus is a critical skill to have. It’s something that grows with practice. Here are some good tips to build up your focus ability:

  • Read. A lot and often.
    • Steer clear of internet list articles. They often contain false or exaggerated information, or useless factoids. The majority of the stuff your friends post on Facebook, Twitter, etc. is not worth your time to read.
  • Write. A lot and often.
    • Some ideas for writing: Thought book, Dream journal, summaries of the books you read
    • Try to write with a pen and paper. Using your hands slows you down and forces you to think more thoroughly through the words you commit to paper.
  • Remove yourself from distractions.
    • Head to the library for more intense work or study sessions
    • Somewhere like Starbucks or major traffic areas on campus or in the office are good for less mentally intense tasks, like organizing your files, writing emails, or taking care of small life admin. related activities.
  • Work with timers.
    • This bleeds into the territory of the Pomodoro technique which divides your time into 25 minute work sessions with a 5 minute break (the 30 minutes = 1 ‘pomodoro’)
    • If you split up your time into ‘focus chunks’ with a timer and an audible reminder to take short breaks, you can quite effectively focus on singular tasks.
  • Set simple working rules for yourself. These are little mental agreements with yourself about your actions and behaviours that are allowed or disallowed during work time. Here are some suggestions:
    • no more than 4 tabs open in your internet browser
    • Phone on silent for the morning
    • no email before lunch
    • no social media during lectures or meetings
    • 3 programs open at once max (might not always be practical.. but it might help)
    • write for 15 minutes every morning
    • etc.

More, Please!

The Pomodoro Technique:

http://pomodorotechnique.com/

Rescue Time is an excellent app that tracks where you spend your time online. It might prove to you just how much time you spend procrastinating, or encourage you if you already work hard!

https://www.rescuetime.com/

A decent article containing suggestions for how to improve your ability to focus:

http://lifehacker.com/5596964/how-to-rebuild-your-attention-span-and-focus

The Focus Baseline

To effectively complete work, do assignments, and study, it’s critical to develop your ability to focus.

Focus is paying particular attention to a single task or object. If you have good focus, you are able to perform a singular task for an extended period of time.

If you’ve not given it any though before, here is a baseline I think everyone should have:

The focus baseline:

  • You should be able to read for 1 hour without interruption or switching to another task.
    • Reading is quite simple when you are enjoying what you are reading, but I maintain that you should be able to read ANY material for a 1 hour chunk of time.
    • To be clear: reading a stream of articles does not count. The frequent switching of topics doesn’t say much for your ability to focus.
  • To expand into the realm of writing: You should be able to write about a single topic for 30 minutes without a break.
  • You should be able to focus on one assignment for 20 minutes minimum with a 5 minute break. (This is the basis of the pomodoro technique). Any shorter and your effectiveness is severely limited.

Consider this baseline for yourself. Can you even imagine completing this successfully? You don’t have to LIKE doing it, but I feel that it is a very necessary and beneficial skill to have.

Saving Time and Ideas

Often I will be working on a task and be briefly inspired or reminded somehow of an idea or other task that I must soon complete. This can very quickly lead to split focus, lack of attention on the current task, and ultimately may result in getting less done. Here’s a quick tip to help combat this issue:

  • have with you during sit down tasks (such as study, writing, or research) a pen and small notebook
    • anytime a stray idea or thought pops into your head, take a brief moment to jot it down in your notebook
    • use only a few words, just to capture the essence of the thought and not waste time
    • remind yourself that what you are writing IS NOT the task currently being performed
    • tell yourself that whatever you are writing down can be dealt with later (as in, after you are done this first task).
    • This is key: it makes sense to first finish the task you are in the middle of as you have already decided to make that a priority. Keep it that way.
  • Review your notebook once you’re done your work. You can pick from the notebook the next thing that requires direct attention either by doing that task, deferring it to another time, or simply crossing it off as insignificant

I’ve been employing this method for a long time now and I find it extremely useful. I’ve grown less picky about the recording medium over time as well. If I have an idea and my phone is right there, I will type in in Evernote if I don’t have a pen on me.

The method of capture isn’t so critical, the mental attitude about continuing on your current task is what matters here.

Avoiding Distractions

Distractions are plentiful and unlikely to go away any time soon. It’s best to be prepared to face distractions when you’re trying to get things done, so here are a few quick tips for you:

  • Turn your phone to airplane mode to prevent web surfing or distracting notifications
  • seed your task list with one or two necessary yet simple and quick tasks. This can help you start up and keep decent momentum going through your work.
  • If you must listen to music, find something that you will not sing along to and can easily tune out. Ambient noise apps or websites might even help you out more by drowning out distracting sounds yet not providing catchy vocals to sing to.
    • Silence can be a powerful tool as well. I typically start my work with some upbeat electronic music and just let my playlist run through the same 100 songs I’ve been listening to for years. Once I get annoyed by the music, I turn it off and let the silence keep me focused.
  • Change locations once one place becomes too distracting for you. Be careful with this one, though. If you switch places too often, you’ll spend far too much time walking from place to place. I always set a minimum amount of time spent or tasks completed in a location before I permit myself to relocate.
  • Wake up early. If you’re up on time, you’ll be awake before all of the day’s distractions. Your friends are likely still asleep, there won’t be new articles on your favourite sites, no one will have posted anything new, and it’s so beautifully quiet.
  • Keep your Wi-Fi off. You can still use your laptop for your work, but whenever you’re doing work out of the house you keep yourself disconnected.
  • Keep your electronics at home. This may simply be too impractical for most days, but if you really need to focus on a particular task that does not require a computer, it might be worth leaving your electronics alone and doing things the old fashioned way.

Using Priority to Spend Your Time Wisely

Everyone is faced with decisions of what they should do first with their time. What goals do you want to achieve FIRST over other goals? What can wait?

The concept of priority can help to answer these questions.

Priority is a ranking system of what is most important. If you assign your tasks levels of priority, the task of number 1 priority is the one thing you have to do first. Items with low priority or no priority can be deferred to another time.

Understanding the concept of priority:

  • Priority is important because it helps you start on your task list.
    • Setting priority of a task can put your mind at ease because it takes away the effort of deciding what to do with your time. The answer is simple: do the tasks that have the highest priority first.
    • Task lists can help you notice what needs to be done, but it is difficult to decide which tasks to do first. This is where priority comes in
  • It is important to use a very limited and specific definition to determine priority. If you’re using too broad a criteria,
    • The easiest way to define priority tasks: urgency. That is, a task with the nearest deadline has the highest priority.
    • Urgency makes sense to use when determining priority because failing to complete a task on time usually has harsh consequences, which serve as a good motivation to get things done.
  • The BEST way to define priority:
    • consider your goals and values for your life (5 years in the future, about)
    • use them to set an objective for the year
    • use that objective to define what you should work on for a month
    • then a week
    • then a day, all the way down to your next task.
    • This take a lot of time reflecting on what you want to do with your life, and you regularly have to review your monthly and weekly goals, but it really makes your work feel worthwhile.

If you’re still not able to set priority effectively, that’s ok, it takes some practice and patience. You can ask yourself some of these questions to try figure it out too:

  • Is this task due tomorrow? Is it very important to my (grades, goals, etc.)?
  • Will this task help my in my progress towards a project I’m working on? Is that project important right now?
  • Will I feel EXTREMELY RELIEVED when this task is done? (If YES, you should do it!)

Some Study Tips

Here are a few quick study tips:

  • Study with a SMALL group of people that you know work well
    • Don’t study with people that are just going to distract and talk to you the whole time.
    • You can benefit and focus well around other people that are also focused. I enjoy working with people that I know have to be working hard. For example, if you know someone has a major assignment due the next day, they will be a good candidate for hard work.
    • working around people who have their own (different) work to do is really encouraging. You’ll also feel guilty and work harder because everyone else seems to be so focused.
  • Work in a cool environment.
    • Layer up so that you can control your body temperature and comfort. Warmth can make you feel tired, so try to stay cool.
  • Drink plenty of water while you study.
    • You can get up and refill a water bottle and / or go to the bathroom at regular intervals to stretch and move around.
    • Use these times to quickly stretch out and relax so that you can stay comfortable
  • Test Yourself Regularly
    • attempt problems without looking at examples for help
    • use flashcards or a similar method for things you need to memorize
    • build your own practice problems and then answer them without looking at your notes
    • Testing yourself regularly forces you to actually discover what you know and what you don’t. Reading your notes and following examples without challenging yourself is a great way to feel as if you are retaining information without actually doing so  

Context Studying

  • Study in a similar environment to that of an exam room.
    • some ambient fan noise
    • face the front of the room
    • find rooms with fluorescent lighting
  • Use physical markers as ‘memory locations’
    • For example, if I need to know that a formula is Ax2B, first associate A with the left Top corner of a room and B with the Right bottom corner (2 eye movements away)
  • Use body movements to trigger specific memories.
    • Think along the lines of counting out lists on your fingers

Midterm / Exam Time Priorities:

  • Keep yourself in good health.
  • Sleep properly. Go to bed early, wake up on time. This means NO ALL NIGHTERS, and a consistent sleep pattern.
  • Eat enough food. Don’t let it become distracting by either not eating enough and being hungry OR by using it as an excuse to procrastinate
  • Don’t quit the gym. If you haven’t started, make sure to take breaks that involve walking around (outside is the best!)
  • Plan according to your current level of understanding
  • Evaluate the toughest course you’ll have to study for, and allocate plenty of time for that course.
  • Focus your efforts on any hints that profs have given (most profs give TONS of hints as to what content will be on tests).
  • Look at old midterms and finals (especially ones from the same professor) Study

Remember that when it comes to studying, it is all about quality, not quantity. Spending 2 hours of focused and well planned studying is far more valuable than 8 hours of goofing around on the internet or with your friends.

Be honest with yourself about what you do and do not understand. Don’t waste time reaffirming information you already know.

Make Every Day Useful

What if you wake up one morning and just can’t be bothered to make the day a good, productive, and fun one? I have a few suggestions:

  • Take a walk.
    • Getting some fresh air does wonders to your mind and body.
    • Walking allows your mind to wander and really process your day’s priorities.
  • Eat well for breakfast.
    • Don’t eat in front of your computer or TV.
    • When you’re in a sour mood, it can be very easy to justify watching ‘just one more episode’ and continue that justification until your day is wasted.
  • Write down your emotional and mental state.
    • You can toss the paper after if you’re uncomfortable with the writing, but formalizing your thoughts often lends new perspective on the issues in your head.
    • Physically set what you wrote aside until a future time when you’re more emotionally prepared to deal with it.
  • Force yourself to write notes about everything that you read or watch
    • Stopping to think and write forces you to slow down and consume less information
    • The mental resistance caused by having to formulate the note might be boring enough that you stop reading articles or watching videos
    • Writing notes about the information you are consuming helps you to truly think about it and build up the memory in your brain
  • Take smarter breaks.
    • Going to grab a drink of water is an excellent way to take a break compared to mindless internet surfing.
    • Taking a 10 minute walk clears your head and allows your thoughts to wander. Getting that out of your system might help you focus better when you return to your work.
  • Force the issue.
    • Go to campus or work with the bare minimum: just a notebook and textbook.
    • set your phone to airplane mode to very conveniently ignore all notifications.
    • Install ‘cold turkey’ or similar site / program blocking apps on all of your devices.

Why Does Any of This Matter?

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve either skipped to this section, skimmed the first bit, or actually read through my tips. No matter how you got here, it’s all good because it doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve read those tips if you don’t understand why such advice is useful in the first place. I can’t tell you what or how to think, but I can make a strong point about the value of scholarship in your life. If you keep reading, that’s exactly what I try to do.

Why should you even care about scholarship?

Mandatory and structured education has not been around forever, and its invention has led to many great new innovations.

While such innovations are without a doubt beneficial, education for the sake of innovation is not the only reason why we should all strive to be scholarly. Scholastic excellence should be pursued for the sake of knowledge, self-betterment, and moral imperative.

Knowledge is available to those who will spend the time and effort procuring it. Learning is the obvious and straight path to gaining knowledge: attend classes at an institution to gain information from people who have studied the same knowledge before; gather insights from practitioners know more than you do about a specific subset of human knowledge. Knowledge has many practical purposes so naturally, having more knowledge allows you to make wise and quick decisions with a sense of finality and confidence. Being knowledgeable in any one area holds immense value that you can use to your benefit for the rest of your life.

Self-betterment is something that can occur as you live your life day by day. Learning is a key area of our lives today, and working towards useful attitudes and habits in our learning will naturally lead to self-improvement. More importantly, as you gain knowledge, you will invariably gain information about yourself and what makes you operate day to day on both technical and emotional levels; such information is invaluable and can be used to help you live a satisfying, meaningful, and personally significant life. I cannot prove these claims except in knowing that they have been true in my life so far. Take it as you will, but I can tell you it’s worth a shot.

Finally, scholarly pursuits have an intrinsic moral calling. We are granted access to knowledge and a solid education simply because our society requires a base level of education in all of us to function effectively. We are fortunate to have such a high standard of learning. Since we have such educational privileges, it is our responsibility to utilize the gifts of knowledge and education to make wise decisions for ourselves and those that don’t have the same access to knowledge.

By learning and becoming more scholarly, you continue to build yourself up to a position in which you can make lasting and beneficial changes in society and the world outside of our own spheres. Education grows our sphere of influence and provides us with power and ability; while we learn, we must remember to use knowledge, ability, and social power wisely and responsibly to improve the lives of people around us.

Of course, on a less serious note, learning is just plain fun!

Learning To Learn

No matter what specific area of study you chose to pursue, in college, university, or during your own time, you will have to use the mental skill of learning to complete courses.

Learning is something we all do every day, and it comes naturally as a function of being alive and conscious. It’s a bit like breathing. In fact, it is even more like breathing when you consider the fact that breathing, like learning, happens without your conscious decision or input BUT, can also be controlled and guided with careful decisions for specific purposes.

That is, Learning:

  1. Happens whether we like it or not. This occurs largely through our experiences.
  2. Can be actively directed and practised.

The beauty of considering learning in this way is that we can assume a mentality of training and practice to improve our skills in the area of learning.

Coming Up

Here’s a list of the topics I’ve written a bit about. They all stand separately, so feel free to read the ones that appeal to you most.

  • Passive Vs. Active Entertainment
  • How to Use Advice
  • Core Values
  • On Making Decisions
  • External Motivation
  • Attitude
  • What Is Critical Thinking?
  • Focus
  • Your Ideas Are Good (Until Proven Otherwise)
  • Appreciating Your Life

Passive Vs Active Entertainment

What do you Do?

This is a good question. I love asking it to myself regularly because when I answer honestly, I can see very quickly whether or not I’m spending my time wisely.

I think it’s important that everyone be able to answer this question. For many, the first answer that comes to mind is whatever they do for a living, or whatever they happen to be studying in school. It’s not a bad answer, but it isn’t complete. Recognize that what you do is so much more than just your job. What do you do when you’re NOT in the mood to watch TV, but don’t have work to do? Those answers are the ones worth telling.

And that’s the stuff that is valuable.

Please work hard to make your answer more than:

  • I do [insert job description here]
  • I drink on weekends
  • I watch Netflix

Yes, those things are certainly fun, and I don’t suggest you ever give up fun entirely. But it is such a shame to not have multiple interesting answers to this question. Everyone watches Netflix. That’s boring. Be productive. Do something that adds value.

Productivity is critical for scholastic success, but it is unsustainable to maintain a lifestyle that focuses only on school work. From time to time breaks will be necessary, and are in fact encouraged. Frequently taking smart breaks can benefit your brain and keep your ideas fresh, sharp, and free flowing.

Consider that even the breaks you take can contribute directly towards your interests and build upon your skill set.

Aim for active entertainment. Active entertainment is something that fits any of the following points:

  • gives you an opportunity to learn something new
  • allows you to physically move your body
  • exercises your thinking ability
  • encourages creativity

Some examples of Active entertainment:

  • running
  • long walk
  • journalling
  • painting
  • building a model
  • reading
  • writing
  • photography
  • cooking
  • practising bird calls
  • playing music
  • cross stitching
  • ghost busting… I think you get the idea.

Avoid passive entertainment as much as possible. Passive entertainment is largely a waste of time, making you feel lazy, uncomfortable, and dissatisfied with how you spent your time. Forms of entertainment that are fed directly to you with very little effort required on your end are passive forms of entertainment. Some examples:

  • Netflix binge watching (TV and movies)
  • gossip
  • browsing Reddit, 9gag, Imgur, etc. (I reserve those sites for a good poop session and that’s it)
  • excessive napping (20 minute naps are prime! More than this and you might need to improve your sleep habits)
  • online shopping
  • reading flame wars on the internet

Passive entertainment is utilitarian though, and DOES have some uses:

  • Use it when you are in desperate need of a mental break (we all need those from time to time!)
  • builds up inspirational source material, just don’t rely solely on this type of random inspiration, it doesn’t come often enough
    • examples: TV, Netflix, Youtube, Most sites on the internet, daydreaming

Just remember that you should strive to have more active entertainment than passive entertainment simply because it’s a more valuable way to spend your time. You may be more physically exhausted, but you will find that your mind is clear and your attitude is positive when you forgo the binge watching, mindless browsing, and lazy napping for an activity that lets you add beauty or value to your world.

Turn Passive Entertainment into Active Entertainment

Passive forms of entertainment have their place and their value. I don’t think it is realistic or healthy to expect yourself to be producing something 100% of the time, but I do think that most people stray too far into the passive end of existence for too much of their lives. When you spend all of your time reacting, you have no time or energy left to act deliberately; you become slave to your entertainment and become incapable of creating anything of lasting value. It’s extreme, but it is true. If you want to start turning your passive entertainment into active entertainment, that’s great! Here are a few points you should really keep in mind:

  • Start slowly. The first thing you should do is change your mindset. Just start paying more attention to when you flick on the TV, when you stray off to distracting sites, or when you feel like you’ve wasted time. Don’t judge yourself for these, just start to pay more attention to how much time you actually spend on passive entertainment.
  • Start watching more educational videos instead of regular TV shows. If you’re going to watch something, it should be something with at least a little substance.
  • eventually start taking and reviewing notes
    • Carry a notebook around or a note app and get into the habit of writing in it whenever an idea pops into your head (during TV watching and daydreaming especially)
  • Force yourself to convert small chunks of passive time into active time. Standing around waiting for someone? Pull out a book. Plans changed at the last minute and now you’ve got a free evening? Pull up a tutorial website and teach yourself something!
  • combine activities
    • Treadmill and TV
    • Walking and writing
    • video games and social interaction
    • ????? Get Creative!

The Entertainment Spectrum

I’ve come up with a simple concept to consider whenever you are looking for a fun activity to fill some free time, or to do during small breaks.

The activities are left largely up to you to figure out, but consider the following Entertainment Spectrum. The goal is to be as close to the active side of the spectrum as possible a majority of the time.

PASSIVE

  • sleeping (not strictly entertainment… but to each their own I guess)
  • watching TV
  • Netflix or similar streaming services
  • browsing time wasting sites (Reddit, imgur, Buzzfeed, cracked, Youtube, etc.)
  • listening to music
  • watching ‘educational’ videos
  • watching educational videos
  • watching educational videos and taking notes
  • research for an assignment, work project, personal project
  • Notes review
  • reading
  • writing
  • assignments
  • drawing
  • Design for personal projects
  • DIY Projects
  • Practice with an instrument
  • Yoga
  • Parkour
  • Cycling
  • Running
  • Sports

ACTIVE

The key to using this spectrum is to evaluate your activities and judge where they fall.

For example, sports are very physically active while sitting down and writing is mentally active. Both are excellent ways to spend your time!

Consider extremes on the spectrum. Writing or drawing don’t differ much, but watching TV or reading a book engage your mind in drastically different ways.

Core Values

Having a small core of key values is beneficial for you in all circumstances. They are critical ideas that you can hold in mind whenever you have a decision to make. You can use your values as measures and place weights on your choices to determine the most favourable option.

Keeping your core values in mind at all times gives your thinking and your actions a distinct focus and purpose. If you have no core values, or they are poorly defined, your actions become more instinctual and have less impact. It becomes very easy to go with the flow and end up somewhere you may find out later wasn’t where you wanted to be.

Core values give your actions a starting point and a firm basis for decisions.

Five Core values is an excellent amount to hold close, as you can fairly easily commit a list of 5 values to memory and can choose values that are broad enough to cover all aspects of your character.

Over time you will gain new experiences and change your way of thinking about various aspects of your life and so it will be necessary to alter the core values from time to time. I tend to think about these things in my life monthly (because I’m slightly overcritical), but I would recommend revisiting your core values at least every 6 months, just to stay on top of it.

It can be quite difficult to really narrow down your values to only five, especially when you consider all of the things that you are already excellent at and the things you wish to become, so I’ve provided my core values and the logic I used to determine them below as a guide for your own value selection process.

My Current Core Values

1. Learning

Everyone learns. It happens every day no matter what, but without careful and concerted effort, learning becomes less and less powerful. Learning declines in value when it is no longer a primary focus in your life and actions. Learning allows you to be inventive. It allows you to understand the functions of nature and other people’s inventions. It provides you with a base of knowledge to make informed and intelligent decisions. It provides you with understanding of human nature. The value of learning is beyond measure. Learning includes:

  • attentiveness
  • curiosity
  • wonder
  • awe
  • Inquisitiveness

2. Creativity

Creativity is a core value because it is such a highly enjoyable character trait. As is true with all character aspects, creativity can be fostered and strengthened as well, so it is good to give creativity proper mental effort by placing it high in the core values list. Creativity allows for new ideas to spring to mind by combining knowledge in unique and interesting ways. Creativity also provides a very powerful avenue for communicating those aspects of life that are impossible or very difficult to explain to others in everyday communication. Creativity connects you with other people and most importantly connects you more fully to yourself and your character. Creativity includes:

  • critical thinking
  • a sense of humor
  • mindfulness
  • awareness
  • attentiveness
  • patience
  • dedication
  • love
  • emotional intelligence
  • confidence
  • appreciation for beauty
  • subtlety

3. Hard Work

In order for anything to be accomplished, work must be put in. Hard work cannot be undervalued because in the end after all ideas, planning, excitement, and discussion are complete, real action must take place to generate a result and to create value. Hard work is the value that transforms all other values and gives them substance. To work hard is to appreciate difficulty and thrive in adverse or unknown conditions. To work hard is to do the best job that you can, where ‘best’ is defined based on your current understandings and moral compass averaged against the values of those people you are working with and working for. Finally, working hard means doing a job thoroughly and doing it right without complaint. If there is something to complain about, there is opportunity to change either the situation or your attitude. Hard work encompasses:

  • grit
  • determination
  • motivation
  • physical strength
  • mental strength
  • dedication

4. Health

The need for healthy living is not a hard thing to argue. A healthy body creates a healthy mind, provides you with energy, and allows you to pursue whatever interests you wish without having to worry (as much) about physical limitations. The reason it becomes a core value here is because healthy choices are so easy to forgo in favour of immediate satisfaction. Making health a core value puts it in the forefront of thought and affords healthy decisions the proper conscious effort they need. Values that fall under the health core value:

  • fitness
  • mindful eating
  • mental health habits
  • proper sleep
  • relationships

5. Self-Reliance

This core value arises out of the need to show respect towards other people. This can be done in part by not overburdening anyone with your own struggles and needs. It is also a fundamental aspect of life. Everyone experiences the world and their lives differently and cannot experience life from another person’s perspective aside from imagining it and empathizing with another person. As such, it becomes critical to rely on your own rationale and emotional stability to provide comfort when you need it, discipline when you should have some, and praise when it is due. Some values encompassed by self-reliance are:

  • self control
  • self respect
  • self evaluation
  • confidence
  • humility
  • mental toughness

Prioritization of Core Values

Determining which values take priority over your other values is necessary for when you need to choose between options that conflict between 2 of your core values. A simple example may be if I cannot understand a difficult concept (learning), I might keep powering through other examples (self-reliance) or ask for assistance, which would in my mind at the time count against self-reliance (albeit only mildly). Priority ranking between learning and self-reliance would make this choice simple.

Above I presented my core values in order of how I prioritize. Below I’ve written out briefly the logic I have used to determine the priority of my values.

  • You spend the bulk of your young life learning, and it is absolutely necessary for growing up and functioning in your family, then at school, and then in the workplace and beyond. You cannot live without learning.
  • Creativity can come from learning directly by critically thinking about the knowledge you accrue and using it to generate novel ideas, solutions, and thoughts.
  • Learning and creativity are necessary, but require vast amounts of hard work, determination, and discipline, and so hard work is next in priority so that learning and creativity can provide focus to the hard work.
  • No one is a mind without a body, and the health of one affects the other. To be able to continue hard work, a strong and healthy body (and thus mind) is critical.
  • Only you can move yourself both mentally and physically to maintain health, hard work, creative thinking, and a love of learning. At the same time, you don’t have to and should not go through life alone, thus making Self-reliance the lowest priority core value.

Using these core values, I am able to regularly review my actions in a day and determine if I have made good choices. If I feel bad about a day, I can evaluate my activity with the core 5 values to establish a plan for better use of my time and energy in the future. As well, following my values makes many decisions far easier and quicker since I have essentially made the decision earlier by prioritizing the value that best corresponds with a particular choice.

I urge everyone to spend some time in thought over what they value. Write down whatever core values you feel are necessary to follow, and remember to keep them fresh in your mind.

How to Use Advice

The irony of this section is not lost on me, I am providing advice for how to take advice and the best I can do is provide the following disclaimer:

I am not an expert in any way. The advice I provide and the insight I share is based on personal thoughts and reflections on my own experiences. The advice that follows is just a suggestion and should certainly be taken with at least one grain of salt.

Really, all I ask of you is to give what I suggest some thought. Don’t dismiss anything outright but rather consider it for at least a moment. Just as the first thing you want to say to someone is likely not the best thing to say, it may also be the case that your first reaction to someone’s advice (in this case, mine) may not be the most appropriate reaction.

But I digress…

Advice is something that everyone is capable of providing. Many are eager to do so when given the opportunity. We are inundated with advice from internet articles, TV shows, parents, friends, and social networks and this onslaught of advice can be too much to make any sense of. Don’t fret! There’s a solution, and it comes in the form of a procedure.

1. Collect Advice

The amount of advice you collect depends on how critical the situation is. If it’s advice about what breakfast to eat, you don’t really need too many sources to move on and make a decision but if it’s a major life choice you’re facing, it’s wise to spend a lot of time thinking about the choice, enumerating various options, and collecting advice from people with different perspectives. Researching choices related to products or services is effective online, but more personal issues are much better to hash out with friends and family.

2. Assess The Sources

Decide how much you trust the source of the advice. It might help to quantify the amount of trust on a scale (1 to 10 is a common and effective choice). However, this step can often be completed just as well in a more natural way. Learn to trust your gut feeling on sources of advice and information. This is a simple process when you are deliberately asking for advice. It’s quite likely that you’ll ask advice from people you trust and whose opinions and insights you value, so the decision to trust those sources has already been made. Internet sources should generally have lower trust levels, especially when the source provides advice about very personal life decisions. Be careful with what you read online.

People who have experienced your situation before are relatively trustworthy sources of advice simply because they have an ability to empathize with your scenario and can more readily understand the nuances of a situation that may otherwise go unnoticed.

3. Observe commonalities in the Advice Provided

Common themes or suggestions in advice highlight solutions that multiple people have had success with previously. Of course, it is up to you to determine if the situation you are considering is similar enough to say that the advice fits. If you are looking for a successful outcome, it is wise to take actions that have proven successful in the past.

4. Clarify Advice With Sources

If it’s an internet source, re-read the post or article if you are considering action based on its recommendations. You’ll be able to catch any misunderstandings you’ve had previously and might avoid a mistake. If you’ve received advice from friends and family, or from an experienced mentor, it may be beneficial to have one last discussion with them so that you can iron out the finer details of the advice. Ask any questions that may have come up while you’ve been thinking about the advice provided, or just ask for some support and encouragement. Be prepared for tough love. There are certainly times where you will get good advice that you don’t want to hear or act on. Make sure you have trusted sources (people with more experience than you) so that you know you can trust the tough kind of advice.

5. Measure the Advice against Your Values

This is the most important step. I’ve mentioned my values, and I think that everyone can benefit greatly from similarly pondering and writing out their own core values. Doing so provides a solid base of ideas on which tough decisions can be made and your daily life can be built around. Use your values to determine if the advice you are receiving will sit well with you on a moral level. Are you fundamentally accepting of the advice or does it leave you feeling uneasy? Perhaps the uneasiness comes from uncertainty or perhaps it is because it goes against one of your core values. If it’s the latter, you should keep looking for more advice. If it’s simple uneasiness from uncertainty, remember that some risk will be inevitable. There is no way to perfectly predict the future. Just be certain that you’ve done your diligent amount of considering the options before moving on, and then be confident in your choice.

6. Take Action

Do what was suggested to you. Act efficiently on the advice and don’t hesitate. At this point you should know that a desirable outcome is likely, that your sources are sufficiently knowledgeable and trustworthy in this circumstance, and that the actions and outcomes you wish to observe align with your core values. You really won’t have anything to worry about.

Making Decisions

Everyone makes decisions. They range in importance, but the fact is that they are unavoidable if you want to participate in your community, society at large, and life in general. The steps outlined below are followed explicitly for larger decisions that take deliberation and time to reach reasonable conclusions, but they also apply on a more instinctive basis for less important choices. That is to say, I am basically following these steps on a subconscious level for every decision, no matter how mundane.

1. Set a Deadline

Make sure you know when you need to come up with a deliberation. If the choice you are working with is a significant one, the deadline should be set sufficiently far into the future to allow for enough processing time, but not too far in the future that you decide to put off the next steps in actually making the decision.

2. Gather as Much Information as Possible

Now that you know you have until your deadline to make the decision, you are temporarily relieved of the responsibility of making the choice. Your only concern now should be researching and thinking about the possible options available.

I maintain that more information about possible options is always better. This will undoubtedly lead to ‘analysis paralysis’ if you forget that you don’t actually have to make a decision at this point. You are just enumerating the possibilities as well as assessing their feasibility and desirability. This is the stage in the process requiring objectivity. Different options pertaining to the decision you are trying to reach must be evaluated based on the facts surrounding them, not the feelings associated (the emotional aspect of decisions is certainly necessary, but that comes later).

3. Decide

Once the deadline hits, information gathering MUST CEASE. If you don’t stop gathering information, you will stress out and be unable to make a decision. Continuing to worry about the information of all the options after you’ve made a decision will be detrimental to your satisfaction and can hold you back from further progress. At the point of deciding it will be necessary to consider emotional factors that were previously unimportant to your analysis. If two options are objectively acceptable choices, you should consult your emotional reaction to each idea. The choice that would contribute more to emotional well-being (happiness, stability, comfort level, potential for character growth, etc.) is very likely the better option.

4. Accept your Choice and Move on

It is rare that decisions are permanently detrimental. If you’ve made a poor choice you should remember that you were working with time constraints and incomplete information (as is true of EVERY decision anyone has ever made). It is unrealistic to expect perfection in decisions. It is quite reasonable however, to choose after the fact to work with the decision you did make in order to maximize the utility of the outcome. It may not be a perfect decision, but it certainly allowed you to advance to a point in your life that provides you with other decisions to make. Just keep making decisions as best as possible in the hopes that you can steer the outcomes in a desirable direction.

Attitude

New apps, downloads, spreadsheets, etc. all have their uses, and can bolster your studies dramatically when used intelligently. But they will not learn for you, nor will they guarantee success or enjoyment.

When it comes to learning, one of the most important things anyone can do is cultivate an effective attitude. What does an effective attitude look like? What will such behaviour do for you and how can you cultivate a useful attitude towards learning?

What does an effective attitude look like?

To address the first of these questions, I would like you to think of someone you know and admire for their work ethic and intelligence. Consider how they speak about performing laborious tasks, how they go about finishing up anything that is on their to-do lists, and their general disposition and thoughts about their own actions. So often, these people find simple pleasure in engaging in any amount of work that they feel is required of them. These people have a sense of duty to every task they have committed themselves to, even when the task is mundane, or daunting, or seemingly impossible. I have seen time and time again that people with a firm attitude will approach such things as exciting challenges to take on and surpass.

What will an attitude of determination and duty do for you?

The second question is now a little simpler to answer. Considering the person (or people) you thought of earlier, you can easily see some of the benefits that a positive scholarly attitude holds for you. With a proper attitude, the work required to reach a goal will get done no matter what. Willingness to complete difficult work will grow over time and become easier to conjure up when necessary.

But aside from a willingness and determination to complete what must be done, there are other benefits that do not show themselves so clearly. With a positive attitude toward learning, peace of mind will follow. Assignments, reading, writing, and brainstorming all become an exciting part of the process of learning. These things are no longer obstacles getting in the way of your free time, they are often how you spend your free time. Confidence will surely increase as well, since you will come to know that learning is an iterative process chock-full of failure, misunderstanding, and finally breakthrough (and then back to failure with a new concept); it becomes an exciting cycle that you learn to work with and truly enjoy.

how can you cultivate a useful attitude towards learning?

What and why questions are very easy to answer, because they don’t require much explanation. Now it is necessary not only to point at excellent people who have cultivated effective learning attitudes but to explain how this can be done, because that’s the important part. Read on to the following section, because while the proper attitude adjustments aren’t fundamentally complicated or difficult, I want to spend a good amount of time clearly explaining what can be done incrementally in your learning career (and life) to provide you with the ability to improve and bolster your learning attitude. This is not a quick-fix solution that you can implement during a cramming session, this is a lifestyle change and will require long-term application and commitment. Read on to see how you can begin.

1. Get Over Yourself

I’ll start with the harshest facts. Studying, assignments, and most other little tasks surrounding learning are difficult and often not enjoyable. Naturally, when faced with irritating or challenging tasks, most people tend to complain about them. I completely understand and sympathize with these feelings. Doing any amount of work is difficult and requires motivation, energy, and tough critical thinking and can be extremely tiring. Studying can even be daunting when you feel that the subject matter is dense beyond your capabilities of understanding. But when it comes to complaining, there really is no benefit or excuse to do it. Consider how fortunate it is that you are in a position in which you actually can complain about education and availability of information. We all live in unprecedented times with amazing technology, opportunity, and even extravagance. Yes, studying is difficult, but a life without effort I don’t think is worth living, and most things worth having take work. Lots of work.

Recognize that other people are also doing the same assignments, learning the same material, and getting confused in similar ways as you. If you are studying something solo, you must also realize that someone in the past has had to learn the content in order to put together a course so that you can also learn it. You are not experiencing this learning alone, and other people have successfully made it through the tough work to reap the rewards of greater knowledge.

Think also about how amazing it really is that you are in a position to learn from other people. We have advanced so far in a society that it is entirely possible to learn vast amounts of information at home using the internet. Or think of more traditional learning methods: one person with detailed knowledge of a subject agrees to stand and share this information for hours in the year to large groups of people who wish to gain the knowledge. This is a noble thing that teachers do, and it is extremely beneficial for the crowds, no matter what pains we must go through to boost our understanding. In short: the learning infrastructure humans have created is astounding and very beneficial to be a part of. It’s just so cool! Please don’t squander your opportunities.

2. Just Start

Attitude is everything. It fluctuates daily though, so be prepared to have both wild successes and deep regressions into helpless attitudes. This is natural and totally acceptable. It is also beatable. Whether in a good or bad mood, you can quickly change your attitude on a small scale by just forcing yourself to start a task. Promise yourself to just begin one thing, for 10 minutes. Take a break, then do another 10 minutes. Soon enough, I think you will find that the breaks every 10 minutes are less and less necessary, your attitude is improving along with your mood, and you are one step closer to completing the task that put you in a sour mood to begin with. You cannot lose by starting.

It is so simple, right? Well, of course it is simple to say and to plan to ‘just start’ but of course that doesn’t come easy in the moments before you have to start. That’s why it is best to just make simple and small promises to yourself. Start, but start small.

Don’t forget that positivity does not equate to happiness either. A bad mood does not mean you are an unhappy person and it doesn’t mean that your work has to suffer. Moods and emotions are fickle, motivation is too, just get to work.

3. Make Your Attitude a Lifestyle

Changing your attitude towards anything does not occur instantly. Perhaps the decision to change your attitude can be instantaneous, prompted perhaps by a sudden realization, or by a comment someone else made, or even by observing people with really good and really bad attitudes. No matter how the decision was brought about, the actions required to make your choice a reality are what take time, effort, and constant practice.

Changes to your patterns of thinking are the primary requirement when changing your attitude about work and learning. You will have to start viewing projects, research, assignments, and any other undesirable aspects of your studies as enjoyable. Find the cool little tricks, facts, or stories behind discoveries or implementations of what you are learning. It is really quite amazing to see the ingenuity and perseverance of those that came before us. Realize too the fact that you are gaining all kinds of knowledge that you now can build upon further, use to your own ends, and create new ideas. It truly is an amazing process, and learning is a great skill we all have and can continue to develop.

If garnering enjoyment from your work is not possible, you should find a way to recognize that what is required of you is at least beneficial. If you do not enjoy the exact content you need to learn, consider spending extra time trying to apply the concepts to areas that you are extremely interested in. This exercise, when done consistently, becomes a lot of fun (I promise that much), can be quite funny (if you don’t limit the scope of your thinking), and is perfect practice for critical thinking, idea generation, and more thorough understanding of how concepts link together.

Don’t limit yourself by thinking that anything is too difficult for you to understand. There are topics that you do not and cannot understand upon first studying it. In fact, there are entire areas of human knowledge that most people never know. This does not mean that you can never know the subjects you are studying. All it means is that it will take several attempts, and perhaps more effort than other courses or subjects require of you. Luckily, the education system is set up knowing this fact. You progress through grades year by year learning more and more material that builds upon knowledge gained and skills sharpened in previous terms of study. You just have to remember this fact about yourself when you study, do not get frustrated when something doesn’t make sense. Instead, feel a compulsion to try it again and again until you can finally say that you understand the concept. Then take that understanding further by applying the concepts to new subjects. Learn, study, discover, repeat.

What Is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is a big part of many jobs today. It’s a high value trait that the smartest people practice and the best companies look for.

But what the hell is it!?

Well, heading to Google, the definition that pops up is…. vague:

“the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.”

What is ‘objective analysis’ and what kind of judgments are we looking to form here? Let’s try to figure this out.

An unclear, abstract concept wouldn’t be such a big deal if it weren’t for the fact that critical thinking seems to crop up everywhere. It’s encouraged by teachers from kindergarten onward. It shows up on marking schemes everywhere. It’s a required asset listed for a majority of job postings and shows up on pretty much all of the success oriented list articles (34.765 Tips on How to Become the Best Person You Wish you Were but AREN’T but SHOULD BE).

Why should we look for traits in people when we don’t have a clear picture of what that trait is?

I think the best way to understand what critical thinking is is not to try define the term directly, but to break it down into habits that critical thinkers tend to exhibit.

Think about Thinking

This practice is also known as meta-cognition, which you may notice sounds awesome (it is). It’s the act of spending mental energy focusing on how your mind works in order to understand it. When you practice meta-cognition, you ask yourself questions like “When do I actually focus on a single task?” or “What mood am I in whenever I come up with great ideas?” to try and discover how your own brain functions. It can get confusing at times and if you’re not careful you can end up thinking yourself in circles (thinking about meta-cognition is a surefire way to get stuck in a loop) but sitting down and thinking about your own thinking is a valuable practice.

When you dedicate time to understanding your own mind, you can learn over time exactly what external factors contribute to your various mental states. Once you recognize some factors, you can start to manipulate your environment to maximize your brain’s mental capacities for whatever you want to do. For example, if you know that you are creative at a fairly consistent time of day, you can try to schedule tasks that require creative solutions around those times. If you think about your mind and how it becomes distracted, you can set up your work space to minimize your distractions.

Meta-cognition is also very helpful when trying to use advice. The human brain is a wonderful machine, but not everyone’s works in exactly the same way. This means that advice and tips that you hear from other people will be valuable only if you take it and modify it to fit your own mind’s patterns. Thinking about your thinking reveals how you can more effectively implement advice and tips from others into your own life.

Follow a Method for Thinking

Thinking is a tool. It’s a very complex tool, but a tool nonetheless and tools have specific methods that must be followed in order for them to properly do their job. Think of a hammer: in order to hit a nail into wood, you have to grip the handle and swing the head down onto the nail; holding the head and hitting the nail with the handle is… less effective, to say the least.

In order for thinking to be useful, it must be directed and methodical. People who exercise critical thinking have spent time discovering for themselves a method that they can follow that will consistently yield solutions. The method doesn’t have to be complicated either; I often spend time thinking by setting a short timer and writing down my thoughts or doodling. During this time, I typically go through several thinking stages:

  • state the problem or goal for this thinking
  • figure out why the problem I’m thinking about is important
  • What is my gut reaction?
  • What is a key aspect to this issue that I can start considering in more detail?

Less directed thinking occurs throughout the day as well, but that more likely falls into the category of daydreaming rather than critical thinking.

The point is not what the method is, just that a method works for the thinker and is consistently followed.

Ask Lots of Questions

In order to think effectively, source material is necessary because a large portion of thinking involves an understanding and reworking of information. Since information is required for critical thinking, it is imperative that many questions be asked in order to increase the amount of information available. Questions can be posed to:

  • other people who may have more insight into the issue
  • the ‘database’ that is comprised of past personal notes, books, and the internet
  • oneself (meta-cognition again!)

Critical thinkers ask a lot of questions, but they also ensure that the questions have value. When asking a question, it is important to already have an assumption of what the answer might be. This way, you can check the assumption against facts and train your ability to quickly assess situations.

When you make an assumption, ask a question, and prove or disprove that assumption, you gain knowledge and over time can convert those bits of knowledge into a powerful intuition. It takes a lot of time, patience, and care to make assumptions and be comfortable with accepting when you are wrong, but the effort is well worth the ability to assess quickly, discern details, and understand the larger picture in almost any situation.

Provide Many Different Possible Explanations

For a majority of problems, there are at least a few different solutions. Situations arise for many different reasons, and it is always important to remember that there is usually more than one plausible explanation for any given situation. It is impossible to know the variables of the future, and not all information from the past is available, so it becomes necessary to work with past experience and current inputs to make educated guesses as to what may occur. The best way to provide viable solutions despite uncertainty is to provide multiple possible solutions based on as many different explanations as possible.

Being able to come up with several possibilities while thinking about problems and solutions is immensely valuable because it maximizes the control you will have in the future. As time presses on, some ideas will be proven false while others will show more and more promise. But if only one understanding was built early on, the ability to change course later becomes much more difficult, if not impossible.

Look at Past Cases

New problems have solutions that are often a combination of old ideas with new external information; the solutions to common problems are essentially the same, just some of the parameters are changing. Past cases provide valuable context to decisions that other people have made and allow you to assess how well those old solutions will fit with the current situation.

What is even more valuable is the ability to take past cases that seem to be only slightly connected to your current situation and try to adapt them to your situation by extracting relevant information only. This is not easy to do, but with careful consideration of multiple past cases, it might become more apparent.

Studying past cases that relate to your tasks can reveal patterns. If two cases implemented the same solution and achieved the same result, it may be time to consider using that solution in your context. If a decision was made that resulted in failure, you have someone else’s past experience to guide you away from some ideas that didn’t work. Additionally, since hindsight is 20/20, you may be able to see exactly why something failed and change the solution just enough so that it works for your situation.

Once again, this isn’t easy, but the effort is well worth the return.

Abandoning the Term ‘Critical Thinking’

So, after breaking down critical thinking into several components to try and understand its definition better, I think the term is less valuable than people think. Maybe we shouldn’t make a distinction between critical thinking and thinking in general.

The confusion around critical thinking is prohibitive to people actually building the skills necessary to excel at what they do. Really, all thinking is critical. Consider a violinist playing at a concert. If she performs well, people provide an appropriate response (applause, probably). This performance may have been outstanding, but it is not critical playing, it’s just playing. She’s been playing before to practice, and she’ll play again after to continue improving her ability. The fact that she’s performing doesn’t change the actions she’s taking to produce the notes. Thinking occurs in a similar fashion. It’s a skill to develop constantly, not one that shows up only when you need to perform or come up with solutions.

Think to improve your ability to think, it’s always critical.

Build Discipline and Focus

We all love motivation. It is a mental state that provides us with energy and enough positive feeling to work on tasks that we need to complete. Yet motivation is fickle and very often strikes at the wrong times. It happens to me often where I will feel very motivated to complete a particular task while I am walking home, but as soon as I arrive, I no longer feel compelled to take action. I am sure I’m not the only one to experience this phenomenon.

What’s happening when this occurs is that you are attuned to the feeling of motivation which satisfies the anxiety or excitement you had to work on the task. You feel so good that you’re motivated that the desire to actually work on the task subsides. Why work on it when you already feel great about having been motivated?

Well that clearly doesn’t help anyone out. Instead it is important to foster discipline and focus so that you don’t have to rely on motivation (since it is so unreliable anyway).

So how can this be done? How can discipline and focus be built up and used as powerful tools for getting what you want and what you need completed?

Get Disciplined

Discipline takes mental strength and just like physical strength it is built up over time with repetition. Practice may not make perfect, but it certainly makes discipline. Here are a few practical points to consider for building your discipline.

Commit to A Schedule

It works with classes and jobs, so applying it to a task list or other projects should work as well. When you sit down and plan your days and weeks, you are making firm decisions about when you will commit to work. Scheduling tasks you want to do next to tasks with strict deadlines can provide enough pressure to work on both. A schedule also over time takes away the effort required to start. Eventually, you will be able to jump right into regularly planned tasks without the need to do any conscious thought about starting; you will just know that it is time to work.

Set Tight Time Constraints

This tactic may be necessary when you really don’t want to do anything. If you give yourself 1 hour to complete a task that without any pressure might take you 3, it is very likely that you will work through the entire hour and complete (or nearly complete) what you needed. This method artificially creates pressure similar to the pressure that motivates so many people when deadlines are approaching. All you are doing is setting a strict deadline and enforcing it to yourself.

Of course, for this to work you must be honest with yourself. If you find this particularly difficult, the best thing for it is practice. Start by imposing strict deadlines on your hobbies (this works particularly well for creative pursuits such as writing and drawing) and eventually move on from there to assignments for school, or regularly assigned work at your job.

If you still struggle in keeping your own tight deadlines, you may be able to set up bargains with yourself. Basically you generate an if-then statement with the following format:

IF [task] is completed in [short time frame] THEN [reward].

Choose your reward wisely as you don’t want your good use of discipline to also foster bad habits (don’t always use cookies as reward food).

Forget How you Feel

Don’t listen to your emotions when you need to get work done because your emotions will fluctuate throughout the day and even throughout any task you work on. If you really don’t want to start something, get over it. It’s harsh, but it works.

Think back to a time when you had to complete something truly undesirable. While you were working it is very likely that you were not really feeling good or bad. Any time you took a break it may have been the case that you started hating the task again, but when you’re in the thick of it, you don’t have time or energy to worry about how you feel anyway. Peter Drucker (the founder of modern management) says it best:

Never mind your happiness. Do your duty. - Peter Drucker

Don’t dismiss emotions; you can feel them all after you are done your work, but you can’t trust them to help you along the way.

Stay Focused

Focus is having the mental fortitude to block out all stimuli (physical and mental) that are not relevant to the task that is being worked on. Focus is an indispensable tool that allows for effective use of time and will also leave you with a sense of satisfaction.

Everyone has the ability to focus, but the duration of focus periods varies drastically from person to person. Many people have trouble focusing for long periods of time which is very frustrating when work needs doing. Every time focus is broken and re-initiated it takes a little more conscious effort. Through building your focus you can reduce the amount of conscious effort needed to pull yourself back into working on the task so that more energy can be used directly on the task. This state of mind is sometimes referred to as flow and it is fantastic.

First things first, it is wise to test your own ability to focus.

Test your Focus

In order to judge if you are improving on your focus it is necessary to have a baseline of acceptable focus ability. I wrote down a while ago the baseline of focus that I set for myself. It is a level of focus that is already quite functional as it lets me get the majority of my tasks completed in a timely fashion and it was close to exactly how long I could focus at the time.

The focus baseline:
  • The minimum level of focus necessary to perform adequately in school and work is being able to read for 1 hour.
    • you should be reading a BOOK, not an internet article or stream of articles as every new article ‘resets’ your focus.
    • you should be able to do this whether or not the reading is compelling or dull.
  • You should be able to write about a single topic for 30 minutes without a break.
  • Physical tasks requiring great concentration and attention should be focused on for 30 minutes

Consider this baseline for yourself. Can you even imagine completing this successfully? You don’t have to LIKE doing it, but I maintain that this baseline focus is a very necessary and beneficial skill to have.

Focus Training

So we have a baseline, now we need a method to get you there and then to improve beyond that. I build my focus using timers and breaks.

  1. Set a timer
    • You can change the duration to fit your current focus ability
    • If a task is complete before the timer runs out, start the next one
  2. Work on your task
    • Have only a single task in mind to complete in the allotted time
    • DO NOT MULTITASK. It doesn’t work.
  3. After the timer goes off, take a 5 minute break
    • Make sure the break is unrelated to the task, to actually give your mind a rest

Discipline and Focus Together

When working on your discipline and focus, be stern yet forgiving with yourself. As is true with most things worthwhile, discipline and focus don’t come easy and they don’t come quickly. Practice and patience will be necessary.

However, it is well worth the struggle. Discipline can get you started on anything you need or want to complete and focus can keep you going. The combination of these two skills will provide you with a framework to tackle any work you may end up in, any hobbies you want to excel at, and any commitments you have made to other people.

Focus and Discipline will get you far.

Your Ideas Are Good, until they are Proven to be Bad

Justice is predicated on the ideal that people are innocent until they are proven guilty. Without commenting on how well this idea works in practice, the logic behind such a stance makes sense. Considering someone guilty and then working to provide facts that prove innocence does zero favours to people stuck on the receiving end of accusation. It is optimistic to assume that people are innocent, and it is realistic to put effort into proving guilt. The benefit of proving someone to be guilty is to allow for proper corrective measures to b e taken. The other way around (guilty first, proven innocent) can very easily lead to improper accusation, lazy sentencing, and unfairly administered punishment.

Now, to lighten up the topic, let’s consider the nature of ideas.

I have plenty; I’m going to assume that you have plenty as well (it’s very natural for all of us to come up with ideas). Thinking about how I used to approach ideas, I recognized that most of my ideas I assumed were bad right off the bat. That seems a lot like injustice to me. Perhaps we all need to give ourselves and our ideas the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are good.

If we start off with an idea and label it bad before we can even write it down, we don’t give a fighting chance to something that could perhaps become an excellent idea. We need to give ourselves and our ideas a chance: assume they are good, and then work to show that they are not. Keep trying to prove that an idea is bad and you will either eventually be correct, or you will have already done a lot of work to prove that the idea has a chance to succeed.

At worst, you prove that your idea sucks. This is actually not a bad thing. Now, having assumed the idea was good and then working to prove otherwise, you can rest assured that no nagging doubts will pop into your head in the future. You won’t sit and wonder ‘what if…’ because you will have already found out that the what if would lead to failure.

As you work to prove that an idea is bad, remember that it may be as simple as thinking of better ideas to solve the same problem, but other times more work may be necessary. Some ideas will rely on so many variables, or be so unclear in their potential that the only way to know if it is good or bad is to act on the idea. Execute a plan and see what happens. If the result is good, the idea was good and if results were less than stellar, you’ve got your answer there too. Still, the effort is worth it.

Your ideas are good, give them a chance but always be trying to prove that they might fail. If they do, move on. If they don’t you’re winning!

Appreciating Your Life

To appreciate life is common advice. It’s so common we tell it to ourselves regularly via quotes, pictures of nature, and in quick status updates. All of this is of course fine. The advice is simple and effective; life is what we’re in, and to enjoy it and appreciate your own life just makes practical sense for mental, emotional, and even physical well being. But like so much advice, it’s really not that helpful. No one really tells us HOW to enjoy life and there’s a lot of confusion on the issue. Money seems to be a path many people take. Starting a family is another.

Drugs. Alcohol.

Writing. Painting. Music.

Entrepreneurship.

Being just the BEST at your job.

There are as many ways to appreciate life as there are people to appreciate it.

None of these things alone work. To appreciate life is not as simple as achieving anything. It’s not like you’ll reach a point, or succeed at a goal and suddenly have appreciation for life. It’s also not something that is constant. You appreciate life one day, and struggle to find any enjoyment, happiness, or calm the next. Appreciating life is like appreciating puns, sometimes they’re great, and other times they’re told by your dad and inappropriate times (**eyes roll**).

Eye rolls at bad puns aside, it’s important to always take advice with a grain of salt and a hefty dose of critical thinking. So how can you actually start to appreciate life, knowing that achievements don’t guarantee appreciation? Well, I’ve got a few steps you can try out and modify as you see fit to best suit your own needs.

1. Recognize the difference between Happiness and appreciation

Happiness is an emotion. Appreciation is an active mental process that dictates how you interpret your situations, thoughts, and emotions. You can be happy and appreciate life but you can also be exhausted, frustrated, fed-up, angry, sad, or any combination of ‘negative’ emotions and still appreciate your life. As a practical analogy, consider the dentist. I know I hate going to the dentist, and the experience is always unpleasant, but I know that the visit has great benefit. The benefits don’t mean I like the dental

2. Don’t Compare your Life to Anyone Else’s

Don’t compare your life and actions to people more successful than you. You’ll never find out how to live your own life if you’re constantly trying to live someone else’s. What one person does might not work for you.

Yet you should certainly take lessons from other people and fit them into your experience. This is essentially what learning is. It’s the most powerful tool we can use to advance our own purposes. But don’t do exactly what someone else does. They had a different starting point than you do, so you can’t end up in the same place they did by following an identical path.

Don’t compare your life to someone who has it worse than you either. People sometimes like to point out how our lives are so much better than the lives of other people. This is factually accurate, but making those comparisons is not healthy for anyone. These kinds of comparisons lead to unhealthy guilt. Guilt doesn’t foster appreciation, it plants seeds of resentment. You’ll start to assign blame to people for the disparity in fairness either by putting yourself down or by feeding hatred of those people you are comparing yourself against. Don’t be sorry that you were born into a certain life. Instead, recognize your good fortune and notice that it comes with a responsibility to do more with the tools you’ve been given.

You don’t have to be sorry. You have to be responsible.

3. Think about Death

Death is great. Well, perhaps not great, but it is certainly not as bad as we are lead to believe. What may seem to be a curse is actually a blessing in disguise. Death really is the ultimate motivator. Being honest with myself, I think that if I were granted immortality, I might never accomplish anything. I would enjoy life’s pleasures to excess, become bored and depressed, and probably sleep for centuries. I would put off work indefinitely because I could do it tomorrow, or next year, or next century. But of course the time where my work was important and relevant would have long passed. Death puts a hard stop on our actions. We cannot put things off.

“I’ll do it when I’m dead” is not an option.

Let’s get to work!

4. Perform an Active Appreciation Exercise

Actively appreciating your life is something you should do from time to time. It’s really quite simple too. As you go about your business (you can try this anytime, anywhere) mentally pay attention to as many details as you can and ask yourself a few questions:

  • how does my body feel? It’s sometimes also effective to mentally describe your body motions. For example, if I’m riding my motorcycle, I occasionally mentally direct my body by thinking “Right hand, twist the throttle while neck turns to the left and then to the right. Look at the sky in the distance…”
  • What external factors are at play to make this very moment occur as it is? (There are TONS of factors. It boggles the mind!) I like to think about the infrastructure and innovation required to allow me to flick on a light with a switch on the wall. Amazing!
  • What emotions am I feeling? Label and think about your emotions to better understand when they show up. While doing this, don’t actively try to stifle them, just pay attention to them. If you’re angry, be angry but think about what caused it. If you are calm, contented, and joyful, also pay attention to why you feel that way.

Thinking about these questions always gets me into a meditative state which brings along a nice sense of calm. I also tend to focus on my breathing if I’m having trouble focusing.

5. Become Comfortable with Temporary

You won’t always be happy. You won’t always feel like appreciating life, or doing an active appreciation exercise. You’re not always hungry and you’re not always full of energy. These are just facts. They are neither good nor bad, they simply are part of the nature of our lives.

Impermanence is a permanent fact, and to be upset with that is dooming yourself to a constant struggle with your own emotions.

When you are happy, enjoy your happiness

When you’re in existential turmoil, let it be so.

Remember the last time you were happy? Or the last time you felt sick because of what you heard on the news? Those feelings didn’t last. Of course in those moments they were real and powerful, and you have to recognize the strong effect they will certainly have on you, but if you have a healthy understanding of the temporary nature of all of your emotions, actions, and situations, you can more calmly approach everything you do.

And with the calm comes appreciation.

With appreciation comes understanding.

Understanding brings value.

Value drives.

Drive gives life.

Keep living. Keep appreciating.

That’s (Nearly) All, Folks!

I’ve just about exhausted my supply of wisdom and advice at this point. It’s nothing new or extravagant, but it’s practical. To cap things off, I’ll end with a few lists.

I’ve got recommendations for:

  • Apps
  • Blogs to read
  • Books to Read
  • Values To Draw from for developing your own Core Values

And that’ll be it!

I hope you’ve found some useful information within the book, and I hope that I’ve sparked some thoughts in your mind.

Keep learning, keep thinking critically, stay focused, and work hard.

I trust that you’ll be able to build a love of learning and a meaningful life if you just keep going day by day with discipline, a proper attitude, and careful consideration for your goals and the livelihood of the people in your life.

You can do something.

Please, work hard to try.

Awesome Apps

There are apps for days and days that do many different things. I don’t see a need for most of them, but a few stand out as exceptionally useful apps. Here’s a list of the apps I use.

Evernote

Many people write about the usefulness of Evernote, and for good reason. I use it to store everything I write. I can access it on any device I use, and it reliably syncs my data, searches through my stuff quickly and effectively, and can be used for free. So, I suggest signing up and giving it a try if you’re looking for a place to store all of your work, random thoughts, interesting article and links, or whatever else you can think of.

Google Drive, Dropbox

These are the 2 cloud file syncing services I use. Both can be installed to your desktop so that they act as regular folders in your computer’s file structure. I save all of my work-in-progress documents to either service (I use Google Drive more regularly) so that I don’t have to remember to move files from my desktop to my laptop at all.

Google Play Books

I use Google Play Books because it is well integrated with the rest of my Google services, and it’s already on my phone. Really though, any popular and well supported e-reader app does the trick. I love this app because I love reading. It’s so much easier to carry your phone than even 1 book. I almost always have my phone, and so when a free minute pops up, I can read anywhere!

Spotify

Free music. It’s great.

GingkoApp.com

This webapp is a very unique way to write. It’s got a cool card hierarchy that I’ve not seen anywhere else before. It lets you get ideas written down and lets you worry about re-ordering sections whenever you want. It’s difficult to explain properly, so I do suggest you try it out yourself if you enjoy writing but hate using most writing programs.

IFTTT

This free service lets you connect all kinds of online accounts and apps and lets you automate many different behaviours. For example, I have connected my Twitter and Instagram accounts so that whenever I post to Instagram, IFTTT automatically posts a Tweet with the picture and description to my Twitter.

Trello

This is a beautiful app. I use it as my project management and to do list tracker. You can create boards that contain lists of cards, which can be picked up and moved around to organize them as you see fit. Definitely give this a try if you’re bad at using typical to do lists, or want something a little more intricate than a pen and paper to do list.

Useful Blogs

I read plenty of books, but I find myself often reading articles on the internet as well. I think this is fine as long as I am careful not to waste too much time reading useless stuff. My personal rule is that I need to take notes on whatever I am reading. This rule forces me to really consider whether or not the article is worth reading through all the way. If it’s a useless article, I won’t bother reading it because I don’t want to have to write it all down.

After forcing myself to follow this rule for some time, I started to find it much easier to avoid entire blogs outright and stick to reading a few articles from a small list of blogs instead.

Blogs I visit Regularly

Lifehacker.com

This blog is often a source of neat little tricks to consider in your daily life. Advice often applies to folks in school, but can easily extend beyond into everyday life.

99u.com

This is a wonderful blog that serves up inspirational videos and articles centred around empowering creative people to push ideas forward.

TED.com

This site hardly needs an introduction. Excellent videos about unique ideas are posted here regularly. If you need a short break yet still want mental stimulation, this is the place to look.

RyanHoliday.net

Ryan does not update his blog often, but when he does there are usually some nice tidbits of practical wisdom. His opinions can be a bit sharp, but he presents his content well and exhibits a clear mind geared toward action. Perhaps my favourite part of his website is his reading list. Ryan reads a lot and often and has excellent book recommendations.

Instructables.com

If you like DIY projects this site’s full of them. Even if you’re not great at building stuff yourself, this site is a nice place to seek out unique approaches at design. Very inspirational.

Behance.com

This is THE place to search for digital art inspiration. Excellent artists post their finished pieces as well as works in progress, and it’s all there to look at.

Abduzeedo.com

This site curates cool art pieces. Another source of inspiration. They regularly post typography examples and sweet looking architecture examples, which I really like to look at.

Cracked.com

Proceed with caution. This is a humour site and the articles can be crude. They can also be distracting, so I suggest checking up here only on weekends, when you’ve got a bit of spare time. Despite the heavy-handed nature of the humour, the articles are easy to read and very often share unique or controversial information that can in fact be quite eye-opening and informative.

Zapier.com/blog

They post about once per week, and every article I’ve seen so far has been quality. The information they write about always pertains in some way to their business (Zapier is a webapp that connects a myriad of other webapps together to extend their usefulness), but it is genuinely useful. For example, I learned about Leanpub.com from one of Zapier’s posts, which really made publishing this ebook a breeze!

AsianEfficiency.com

This is a useful website for anyone who likes trying out different productivity methods. I learned about different journal methods and set up some templates of my own using the information available on their site.

Rustyv.com

This is my blog. I post articles pertaining to engineering, thoughts on work and life productivity, and regularly post design and product ideas that I have. You are welcome to check it out and tell others about it if you like it. (If you do, thank you. I do appreciate it!)

Books I Strongly Suggest You Read

Books are great. Many contain great wisdom and simple lessons that you can take with you and use to make your life and the lives of others better. Even the ones that don’t can have a high entertainment value. Even still, books are worth reading just to improve your own ability to communicate and think. By reading the words and ideas of others, we can all gain a better understanding of our own thoughts and how they compare to the opinions and points of view that are held by people we may not even know.

I read quite a bit myself, and the time investment is totally worth it. I really encourage you to read anything at all, but if you are looking for a more useful direction, I have provided a list of excellent books to read below.

How to Fly A Horse by Kevin Ashton

This book is written for those people who consider themselves to be creative. I think it’s wise words would be even more beneficial to those people who DO NOT consider themselves creative. The fundamental message: we are all creative and creation is a grand result of ordinary, human actions.

Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Viktor was a Holocaust survivor. In the first half of his phenomenal book he describes his experiences in camp, and the honest telling of the story really hits you. Through his experiences, he formed theories on life and humanity’s functions within an uncertain world. The second half of his book explains his ideas, which are reminiscent of Stoic philosophies. This book really challenges your thinking, saddens you with honesty, and enlightens you with hope and resolve.

The ONE Thing by Gary Keller

You can probably categorize this as a ‘self help’ style book loosely wrapped in a business friendly cover. It’s not the most provocative read ever, but the idea that we should spend our time on pursuing only one thing that truly matters towards our goals makes sense and serves as an excellent guide when making tough choices in life.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

This book is a must read if you’re interested in improving yourself. Charles approaches habit changes from a practical angle and clearly delineates the steps you need to take to swap negative habits out for beneficial ones.

Curious by Ian Leslie

Ian Leslie proposes the idea that curiosity is a fundamental cognitive function that sets humankind apart from other organisms. He excitedly discusses how important it is to foster curiosity in young children and outlines the implications of continuing to develop the skills of curiosity as humans grow. Touching on the importance of learning and traditional education, Ian Leslie paints a unique picture about curiosity that encourages us all to keep asking questions.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (all 5 of the books)

This is a hilarious Science fiction series. It’s just so excellently British. I love these books.

1984 by George Orwell

A complete 180 in terms of how I feel about this book from the Hitchhiker’s Series. This book was very depressing and thoroughly frightening for me to read. However, it’s a book that presents a caution to us all and really gets you thinking about the nature of surveillance, order, control, protection, and government.

Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky

A well written and practical approach to actually making our ideas turn into realities. Scott Belsky is the co-founder and CEO of Behance, a fantastic platform for Creative people to share their work online, and so his action-oriented approach clearly holds water in the creative industry. Creative or not, this book is worth reading.

The Martian by Andy Weir

This book is wildly popular right now, and for good reason. It’s good. It is a Geek’s dream and anyone who loves fantasizing about space and NASA and Mars and the moon should read this book. Caution: there is math.

The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday

This is a very well written introduction to Stoic Philosophy. Ryan clearly presents the fundamental idea behind Stoicism: that whatever happens is beyond our control, how we react and chose to use what happens is what we can control.

The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer

This book was a bit of a departure from what I typically read, but I was glad I read it. Amanda Palmer is a unique individual who based her entire career on asking other people for help. She writes about her experiences and what she has learned from them in a very realistic tone and is earnest in her message. We can all learn to ask more often because people are so willing to help.

Incognito by David Eagleman

An excellent introduction of Neuroscience and the leading information surrounding our own brains and how they function. David presents some very convincing arguments (and supportive science) that challenges the classic ideas behind our consciousness and free will. It really made me think.

The Antidote: Happiness for People who can’t stand positive thinking by Oliver Burkeman

I love this book because I’ve never been comfortable with positivity as a solution for common mental woes. Oliver suggests that happiness is not what we should be pursuing and that in fact negativity and negative emotions have value in our lives as well. This was a refreshing counter to a culture that seems to shrink away from sadness a little too quickly.

Mindset by Carol Dweck

This book is meant for anyone who doesn’t think they were born ‘math people’ or as ‘creative types’. Carol’s point throughout the book is that we have a choice that we can make to assume a fixed mindset or a mindset that embraces the fact that with practice, mental change is possible. You can train cognitive skills and become more creative and better at math. You can change your mindset and begin to change your abilities.

Values

I have mentioned before the importance of knowing your own values. Having a set of values allows you to make decisions about how you spend your time and where you place your focus and energy. If you don’t have a clear idea of what your values are yet, don’t worry, it takes careful thought and time to arrive at a satisfactory set of values for yourself. Below is a list of values to consider. It’s not exhaustive, but it should serve to give you a clear idea of quality values.

Remember: your values are YOUR choice and no one else’s. No value is right or wrong, and none are better than others; they are just different and will inform your life in different ways.

  • hard work
  • creativity
  • learning
  • money
  • friendship
  • independence
  • personal security
  • family
  • fairness
  • justice
  • wisdom
  • health
  • mental acuity
  • practicality
  • realism
  • optimism
  • emotional control
  • self reliance
  • sociability
  • thoughtfulness
  • confidence
  • expressiveness
  • clarity in communication
  • serenity
  • calmness
  • beauty
  • respect
  • superiority
  • competition
  • collaboration

I’ve Said What I Have to Say

Thank you for reading this book. My hope is that it helped a bit, or made you think about your life and your work a little more than you might have otherwise. If it’s been a waste of your time, I truly apologize, but I can’t give that back to you, unfortunately. I guess you can take this as an opportunity to go forward being careful and selective about how you spend your time (we should all try to live that way, I think).

Perhaps none of these ideas are particulary new or exciting for you and that’s ok too. It’s certainly nothing new that I’m sharing in here. But perhaps it might be new information for someone you know. If you have a sibling or friend who is heading off to school or a new job, or looking to change up their actions somewhat, pass this on to them. The idea is to share adviec and information around so that we can all benefit as much as possible from each other’s experiences.

Have a good one and keep working hard.