I am suggesting that you put aside the question of whether your job is your true passion, and instead turn your focus toward becoming so good they can’t ignore you. That is, regardless of what you do...
How you'll support your work. Your ritual needs to ensure your brain gets the support it needs to keep operating at a high level of depth.
Here’s what I respect: creating something meaningful and then presenting it to the world,
Hearing a succession of mediocre singers does not add up to a single outstanding performance. In other words, talent is not a commodity you can buy in bulk and combine to reach the needed levels: Ther...
Harris argues, perhaps counterintuitively, that the ability to be alone . . . is anything but a rejection of close bonds, and can instead affirm them. Calmly experiencing separation, he argues, builds...
For those familiar with the rigors of such activities, the limit expands to something like four hours, but rarely more.
For a mission-driven project to succeed, it should be remarkable in two different ways. First, it must compel people who encounter it to remark about it to others. Second, it must be launched in a ven...
E-mail inboxes, in theory, can distract you only when you choose to open them, whereas instant messenger systems are meant to be always active—magnifying the impact of interruption
Drukheid als Alibi voor Productiviteit: Bij afwezigheid van duidelijke maatstaven voor de productiviteit en de waarde in hun werk keren veel kenniswerkers terug naar een industrieel ijkpunt voor produ...
Deliberate practice is often the opposite of enjoyable.
David Brooks summarizes this reality more bluntly: [Great creative minds] think like artists but work like accountants.
Control that’s acquired without career capital is not sustainable.
Consider consultant Clay Herbert, who is an expert in running crowd-funding campaigns for technology start-ups: a specialty that attracts a lot of correspondents hoping to glean some helpful advice. A...
By focusing intensely on a specific skill, you’re forcing the specific relevant circuit to fire, again and again, in isolation. This repetitive use of a specific circuit triggers cells called oligoden...
But this doesn’t matter, as the specifics of the work are irrelevant. The meaning uncovered by such efforts is due to the skill and appreciation inherent in craftsmanship—not the outcomes of their wor...
Busyness as a Proxy for Productivity
Busyness as Proxy for Productivity: In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of...
Both intuition and a growing body of research underscore the reality that sharing a workspace with a large number of coworkers is incredibly distracting—creating an environment that thwarts attempts t...
Bill Gates, for example, was famous during his time as Microsoft CEO for taking Think Weeks during which he would leave behind his normal work and family obligations to retreat to a cabin with a stack...
Basic economic theory tells us that if you want something that’s both rare and valuable, you need something rare and valuable to offer in return—this is Supply and Demand 101.