Formatting documents, filling in spreadsheets, answering emails – we all face mundane tasks that bore us but need to be done. While delaying them for a bit is perhaps inevitable, we need to get them out of the way sooner or later, so we can focus our energy fully on purposeful and fun activities. But how do […]
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Here’s what overcoming severe procrastination is not about: Time management, better to-do lists, seeing a therapist, getting organized, setting goals, creating deadlines, ridding yourself of distractions, using rewards, or finding an accountability buddy. While useful, none of them will make a big difference unless you understand the one underlying principle every consistent improvement in any behavior […]
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We all use tools to get things done – we eat frogs, set Pomodoro timers, take naps, drink coffee, plan our days, block distracting websites, put our phones in airplane mode, listen to music, wear noise-canceling headphones, swallow caffeine pills. More and better tools mean greater productivity. “Getting things done the dysfunctional way” is another such […]
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Distractions kill productivity like nothing else. For starters, they are time wastes. Let’s say you check email 50x per day, scroll through your Instagram feed 10x, have a glance at your phone 80x, and watch YouTube videos 3x per day. Even if you give only ten seconds, on average, to every distraction, the time adds up […]
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How do I stick to my schedule when sudden and spontaneous requests catch me off guard, and I agree to them even though I don’t really want to? This is one of the most common questions I receive in regards to procrastination and productivity. You may be on your way home from grocery shopping and run […]
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If you’ve been following us for a while, you know we’re big on reading here at NJlifehacks. And big on journaling. And big on meditation. But who’s got time for that? How do we find the time to read 50+ books a year, meditate regularly, keep fit and healthy, and write in our morning and evening journals […]
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Holiday season is upon us and it’s time to consider what gifts to give to your loved-ones. While you may dread the process and want to get it over with quickly, keep in mind that the point of gifts is to strengthen relationships. Picking the right gift can increase feelings of appreciation and connection between people. It […]
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Expert performance guru Anders Ericsson has made a career studying star athletes, memory mavens, violin virtuosos, and chess champions. His work involves identifying people who can do something better than their peers and then figuring out why they are able to do that. In his decades of research, Ericsson has identified a core set of principles […]
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Is there any skill you would like to improve? Public speaking? Writing? Reading? Dancing? Singing? Cooking? Playing tennis? Meeting new people? Making better decisions? Well, you can. As our recent discussions on expert performance have shown, humans possess the capacity to improve their performance in any area of life if they train in the right way. The most advanced […]
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As discussed in our latest article, deliberate practice is the most effective method for developing and improving skills rapidly. Unfortunately, despite reading multiple books and scientific papers on the topic, I have found it difficult to fully grasp what deliberate practice looks like in the real world. In an attempt to better understand the nuances of […]
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