Work Ethic 2.0: Attention Control The industrial revolution didn't arise out of nowhere, and it didn't arise everywhere. It was made possible by the emergence of a set of personal values that came to be known as the "work ethic." The idea behind this meme -- inconceivable 400 years ago -- is that hard work is good for its own sake. Hard work makes you a better person. With hard work, our parents told us, we could grow up to become anything. This industrial-age work ethic has its variants, including the "Protestant work ethic," the "American work ethic," and the "Asian work ethic" to name a few. When the "information age" started replacing the "industrial age," hard work seemed more important than ever. But since the turn of the new millennium, the nature of work has evolved to the point where hard work is becoming less important to a successful work ethic than another, more useful value: attention. The New Work Ethic But why is that truer now than ten or twenty years ago? Hard work is dead.
Discardia Beware the Auto-Loading To-Do List There are never enough hours in the day to do everything we dream of doing—and that's fine. The act of deciding what we will do is how we construct our selves. However, overflowing lists of things we might do, which we feel we ought to do, or which others would like us to do, can be so significant a source of stress and indecision as to eat up time we could spend on what we most want in our lives. I've spoken before about the vital importance of giving yourself permission not to do it all, for example in this talk which I gave at an OmniGroup event last year. Whether that trusted system is software or paper-based doesn't matter (though I personally find smart software to be less work to use and maintain), the essential part is that it is your system—and, critically, that nothing else is. Your physical inbox cannot be your trusted system for exactly the same reason. The essential qualities of a trusted system are: Here are great places to do some pruning:
You can do anything - but not everything. Micro Persuasion: Blog Search is Dead and Google Killed It The Clip Report: An eBook on the Future of Media In the early 1990s when I began my career in PR there were clip reports. These were physical books that contained press clips. It seems downright archaic now but that’s how I learned about the press - by cutting, pasting up and photocopying clippings. My fascination with the media never abated. Today my role is to form insights into how the entire overlapped media landscape - the pros, social channels, and corporate content - is rapidly evolving and to help Edelman clients turn these learnings into actionable strategies. Today I am re-launching my Tumblr site with a new name, a new focus and a new format. It all kicks off today with a 15-page installment of The Clip Report.
“We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.” - Thich Nhat Hanh By Leo Babauta I’m not a Zen monk, nor will I ever become one. However, I find great inspiration in the way they try to live their lives: the simplicity of their lives, the concentration and mindfulness of every activity, the calm and peace they find in their days. You probably don’t want to become a Zen monk either, but you can live your life in a more Zen-like manner by following a few simple rules. Why live more like a Zen monk? One of my favorite Zen monks, Thich Nhat Hanh, simplified the rules in just a few words: “Smile, breathe and go slowly.” However, for those who would like a little more detail, I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve discovered to work very well in my experiments with Zen-like living. “Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.” - Shunryu Suzuki Do one thing at a time. “Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water.
Resize Images online 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity | zen habits By Leo Babauta This is something I’ve been wanting to write for some time — a Handbook for Life. Now, is there any handbook that can be a guide to every single person? Of course not. This is just a list of tips that I think will help many people in life — some of them common-sense tips that we often forget about. Consider this guide a reminder. It’ll also become apparent from the links in this handbook that I’ve written about this stuff before. How to use this handbook This handbook is not meant to be a step-by-step guide, nor should you adopt all the tips below. Pick and choose the tips that will be most useful to you. 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity Try rising early.
9 Great Ways to Live a More Positive Life “Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A word of optimism and hope. And you can do it when things are tough.” - Richard M. DeVos Note: This guest post was written by personal development blogger Henrik Edberg. I like finding ways to improve my life and bring more positivity into it. 1. This is one of those very simple things you can do to bring more positivity in to your life. 2. If you don´t then you´ll just create a lot of unnecessary pain in your life. 3. You don´t have live your life in reaction. 4. Self-education can be a great help to live a more positive life. 5. Your emotions work backwards too. 6. Don´t let your thoughts drift into the past or future more than necessary. 7. This is great way to improve your performance and decrease anxiety in any upcoming situation. 8. Michael Jordan once said: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. 9. One common problem is to focus your thoughts on what you don´t want rather than what you want.
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