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Scott Young's top ten productivity articles
Ok, I used to be (more) normal, ie more skeptic on the "whole dream big, think positive" trend. Well, I'm living in Austria and people really dislike changes so "productivity" is a big nono. But being bored at work and simply being curious had me looking at some blogs. The one who stuck after 6 months - Scott H Young. Why? Because his advice is not too radical for my taste buds. Advice which advantages I could actually measure. and I like to measure things - I'm an economist. So following are the top four of his articles (and I read all 608 articles of his) which helped me the most:
#4: Habitual master series- 30 days trials of getting into the habit. I have been trying it but somewhere around the 20th day I leave a day out. Now, once or twice I will miss it (or three weeks while being on a conference). But I can feel the difference if I don't follow my two most important morning routines which I established through the 30 DT = morning workout & breakfast. So I soon back to my "good" habits. In general I can only agree with the premise that habits can be changed and should be changed. It not difficult and even the laziest person can do it. the 30 Day Trial is exactly the easiest method I know in changing your day-to-day habits.
#3: 80/20 rule- and while a rule of the thumb is not empirical evidence it is still always good to keep it in mind. He gives some great examples of where 80/20 is applicable.
#2: Make your time top-heavy approach was for me a of-course-I-know-but-I-don't-do-it topic. Somehow the article just explained it to me in such simple terms, that none of my previous excuses had a chance. Now what I'm doing? I'm eating the biggest frog first (btw? who did I just quote? HCSUAP YDNAR).
#1: Energy Management- which makes much more sense to me then time management. Not that I don't believe in some organization & time is indeed money, but energy is the driver for me. If I feel tired and depressed, I won't run a marathon, no matter how much time I have. Scott pointed me in the right direction with this article and if you only remember one thing from this post: energy is your currency, and now go and read Scott's blog. He was the one who actually started me on all the weird ideas I have. Now, I have one greater goal after another.
Thanks.
Ok, I used to be (more) normal, ie more skeptic on the "whole dream big, think positive" trend. Well, I'm living in Austria and people really dislike changes so "productivity" is a big nono. But being bored at work and simply being curious had me looking at some blogs. The one who stuck after 6 months - Scott H Young. Why? Because his advice is not too radical for my taste buds. Advice which advantages I could actually measure. and I like to measure things - I'm an economist. So following are the top four of his articles (and I read all 608 articles of his) which helped me the most:
#4: Habitual master series- 30 days trials of getting into the habit. I have been trying it but somewhere around the 20th day I leave a day out. Now, once or twice I will miss it (or three weeks while being on a conference). But I can feel the difference if I don't follow my two most important morning routines which I established through the 30 DT = morning workout & breakfast. So I soon back to my "good" habits. In general I can only agree with the premise that habits can be changed and should be changed. It not difficult and even the laziest person can do it. the 30 Day Trial is exactly the easiest method I know in changing your day-to-day habits.
#3: 80/20 rule- and while a rule of the thumb is not empirical evidence it is still always good to keep it in mind. He gives some great examples of where 80/20 is applicable.
#2: Make your time top-heavy approach was for me a of-course-I-know-but-I-don't-do-it topic. Somehow the article just explained it to me in such simple terms, that none of my previous excuses had a chance. Now what I'm doing? I'm eating the biggest frog first (btw? who did I just quote? HCSUAP YDNAR).
#1: Energy Management- which makes much more sense to me then time management. Not that I don't believe in some organization & time is indeed money, but energy is the driver for me. If I feel tired and depressed, I won't run a marathon, no matter how much time I have. Scott pointed me in the right direction with this article and if you only remember one thing from this post: energy is your currency, and now go and read Scott's blog. He was the one who actually started me on all the weird ideas I have. Now, I have one greater goal after another.
Thanks.