Let’s say you want to become a published author. You have this clear objective you want to achieve, and decide on a game plan to get there. You read about the stories of other authors, you make a list of publishers to reach out to, you think about ways you could get an agent. You … Read More
We often assume that the reason why we struggle to achieve our goals is a lack of knowledge. So we buy self-help books and online courses, hoping that it will get us closer to our objective. But what we often don’t do is practice and focus on the process. As a result, we accumulate a … Read More
The shiny toy syndrome is characterised by wanting to own the latest toy and getting an intense but temporary sensation of happiness from the ownership, before moving onto something else. This desire to own and use the latest and supposedly greatest is often irrespective of the practical need for it. The shiny toy syndrome doesn’t … Read More
Most of us have goals we want to accomplish. Some are bigger, some are smaller. Sometimes it feels easy to get the work done, and sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated and we procrastinate. Fundamentally motivation is the desire to act and move towards a specific goal. It often explains why humans act—or don’t—in a … Read More
Everyone has heard about absenteeism, a pattern of absence from an obligation, usually at work, which is often a sign of low morale. Much has been written about the cost of absenteeism, with some journalists calling it The Bottom-Line Killer. For entrepreneurs who don’t have a boss tracking their work hours, absenteeism may simply mean … Read More
Have you ever felt like you were in a zen-like meditative state while working, mentally free to execute and apply your skills with no distracting thought whatsoever inside your mind? Feeling entirely absorbed in an activity? This is called being in the zone or getting in the flow. Those expressions are often used about athletes … Read More
While note-taking feels natural to students, this is something many people stop doing once they start working, either as an employee or for themselves. We may bookmark something to read it later, but the active process of taking notes when consuming content is not a common habit. “It doesn’t matter how you record your notes, … Read More
Procrastination makes it difficult and stressful to finish certain tasks or to meet deadlines, so why do we do this to ourselves? When we get stuck into an akratic loop, we know we “should” do something, but we resist doing it. The sister word “procrastination” itself comes from the latin “pro”, which means “forward”, and “crastinatus”, which means “till next day.”