If you want a certain result, you have to be willing to do what it takes to get it.
Half-in won't work.
Half-in is a way to convince yourself you're trying, but in reality it's just the surest way to waste your time, effort, and resources.
All in or all out. Never half-in.
Now, on to this week's ideas...
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"The truth is whether social media has a positive or negative impact on your life is determined by how you use it."
There's a lot wrong with social media these days - it's addictive, causes anxiety, and exists on platforms that don't treat their users all that well.
But the less discussed problem with social media at the moment is the way people use it.
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"Somehow, while all our design processes celebrate iteration and celebrate throwing things away, our culture downplays iteration and quitting. We don't celebrate stopping things, changing our path, changing the destination. Just the opposite - we celebrate finishing things."
Quitting gets a bad rap. It's perceived as a failure, but in reality it's often a good thing.
This 25-minute video features a 2014 talk from Liz Danzico in which she explains the fringe benefits of quitting including a look at sunk costs vs. opportunity costs, the overlooked power of not finishing, and the importance of being willing to change your ideas.
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"54 percent of Chinese born after 1995 chose 'influencer' as their most desired occupation."
Here we go again. For the past couple years Tom Whitwell has compiled a list of interesting facts he's learned over the course of the year and I've shared them.
This year's list of 52 things he's learned in 2018 includes that fake acupuncture works as well as real acupuncture, using a middle initial makes people think you're clever, and only 100 of the 1,000 crosswalk buttons in New York City are functional.
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"Your habit has probably been to arrive in the office in the morning and check your email. This is akin to sending a message to the world asking for everyone else to set your priorities for the next few hours."
I'm not a big believer that inbox zero is a meaningful goal, but if you're the kind of person who fantasizes about what a clean inbox might look like, this one's for you.
The steps include ignoring cc emails from co-workers, checking email only twice a day, and unsubscribing from all the junk that clutters your inbox.
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"We have this sense that there is an objective best, and in virtually no area of life is that true. It's not even that, 'Well, there's the best for me, and then there's the best for you.' It isn't even clear that there is a best for me. There's a whole set of things that are probably more or less equivalent."
You know all that time you spend searching for the best decision, product, or option? It's probably a waste.
Because psychologist Barry Schwartz suggests there's no such thing as the best and points out our quest for the best is really rooted in a desire to differentiate ourselves and avoid regret.
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"The least successful people I know run in conflicting directions, drawn to distractions, say yes to almost everything, and are chained to emotional obstacles. The most successful people I know have a narrow focus, protect against time-wasters, say no to almost everything, and have let go of old limiting beliefs."
What if the secret to improving your life or work isn't to add things to it, but to remove things from it?
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"The when matters. It's got to be presented as something that is time sensitive, that has a massive level of immediacy to it, that's what is going to get you that response and that uptick in sharing and watching and liking and reading, because people want to be a part of a developing narrative."
As the stories format on platforms like Instagram have become increasingly popular, it's brought with it a whole new set of skills for people to master on social media.
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"Sometimes all it takes is for leaders and frontline workers to get out from beyond their desks and see things from a new perspective."
It turns out one of the best ways to improve the work process for surgeons was to study what happens at the airport.
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"Every item on your to-do list can be thought of as having a return on investment — whether that be in emotional or financial capital."
Maybe what you need to become more productive isn't a better to do list, but rather a list of things you're NOT going to spend time doing.
Robert Glazer shares his five steps to create a "stop doing" list including to have a firm grasp on your core values, resist energy drains, and determine the return on investment from each item on your to do list.
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"You have to be OK with just being OK. Most people aren't. That's why they quit. Or never start."
It's easy to forget people who do great things did a whole lot of mediocre things before they got to the great stuff.
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