The 15-Minute Routine Anthony Trollope Used to Write 40+ Books Beginning with his first novel in 1847, Anthony Trollope wrote at an incredible pace. Over the next 38 years, he published 47 novels, 18 works of non-fiction, 12 short stories, 2 plays, and an assortment of articles and letters. Trollope achieved his incredible productivity by writing in 15-minute intervals for three hours per day. His strategy is explained in Mason Currey’s book, Daily Rituals (audiobook): “It had at this time become my custom,—and is still my custom, though of late I have become a little lenient of myself—to write with my watch before me, and to require of myself 250 words every quarter of an hour…This division of time allowed me to produce over ten pages of an ordinary novel volume a day, and if kept up through ten months, would have given as its results three novels of three volumes each in the year…” —Anthony Trollope Trollope’s approach may seem simple on the surface, but there is more going on here than it may appear at first glance. The Problem With Big Projects
Seven Speaking Tips That Beat "Pretend Your Audience Is Naked Aggh. Everyone showed up clothed! Once upon a time, I suffered from glossophobia. This affliction touches billions. I conquered it by discovering what makes people smile, nod, and listen carefully, because nothing calms you down faster than an interested audience. This is what I've learned. Children plea for them at night, and adults crave them, too. They want to be respected. This principle also underlies another rule of effective speaking: Dress like your audience, but just a little bit better." {*style:<i>Don't try to impress them. </i>*} If you truly want to help your listeners--by informing or motivating them, or improving their lives--they will care and listen. This recalls a favorite tip: We mistrust people who won't look us in the eyes--even if our eyes are among over 200 sets in a room. If you look each person in the eye for a few seconds, you make each person feel important--a feeling that every person craves. For this reason, minimize visual aids. . .
ChangeCycle.com The Change Cycle™ Model Change has always been a necessary aspect of life and work, and our world is changing more rapidly than ever. It is likely that you will have to cope with a variety of changes in the near future. Your success and fulfillment - your emotional, mental, spiritual and physical well-being - depend on how well you adapt to change. People react, respond and adjust to change in a sequence of six predictable stages. Stage 1 – Loss to Safety In Stage 1 you admit to yourself that regardless of whether or not you perceive the change to be good or 'bad" there will be a sense of loss of what "was." Stage 2 – Doubt to Reality In this stage, you doubt the facts, doubt your doubts and struggle to find information about the change that you believe is valid. Stage 3 – Discomfort to Motivation You will recognize Stage 3 by the discomfort it brings. Stage 4 – Discovery to Perspective Stage 4 represents the "light at the end of the tunnel."
How to Change Your Beliefs and Stick to Your Goals for Good In one of my very first articles, I discussed a concept called identity-based habits. The basic idea is that the beliefs you have about yourself can drive your long-term behavior. Maybe you can trick yourself into going to the gym or eating healthy once or twice, but if you don’t shift your underlying identity, then it’s hard to stick with long-term changes. Most people start by focusing on performance and appearance-based goals like “I want to lose 20 pounds” or “I want to write a best-selling book.” But these are surface level changes. The root of behavior change and building better habits is your identity. This brings us to an interesting question. How to Change Your Beliefs The only way I know to shift the beliefs that you have about yourself and to build a stronger identity is to cast a vote for that identity with many, tiny actions. Think of it this way… Let’s say you want to become the type of person who never misses a workout. Of course, it works the opposite way as well. Read Next
Are You Living in a Simulation? Many works of science fiction as well as some forecasts by serious technologists and futurologists predict that enormous amounts of computing power will be available in the future. Let us suppose for a moment that these predictions are correct. One thing that later generations might do with their super-powerful computers is run detailed simulations of their forebears or of people like their forebears. Because their computers would be so powerful, they could run a great many such simulations. Apart form the interest this thesis may hold for those who are engaged in futuristic speculation, there are also more purely theoretical rewards. The structure of the paper is as follows. A common assumption in the philosophy of mind is that of substrate-independence. Arguments for this thesis have been given in the literature, and although it is not entirely uncontroversial, we shall here take it as a given. Memory seems to be a no more stringent constraint than processing power. Writing and thus: .
Your Music, Your Personality Just as a glimpse inside a bedroom or office provides clues about someone's character, so too can a peek at his music collection. The question "What kind of music do you like?" is so revealing, it is the number one topic of conversation among young adults who are getting to know each other, according to psychologists Jason Rentfrow of the University of Cambridge in the U.K., and Sam Gosling at the University of Texas at Austin. Knowing whether a person prefers John Coltrane to Mariah Carey, or Puccini to Prince allows for remarkably accurate personality predictions, their research has found. What do your tunes say about you? Get Into Their Groove Strangers can accurately assess another person's level of creativity, open-mindedness and extroversion after listening to his or her top 10 favorite songs. Smart Sounds Fans of jazz, classical and other "complex" music typically have above-average IQ scores. Easy Listeners Drama Queens Parental Advisory Boom Town Brain Invasion Peak Performance
The 2 Types of Growth: Which One of These Growth Curves Are You Following? We often assume that life works in a linear fashion. People will say, “You get out of life what you put into it.” The basic idea is that for each unit of effort you put into a given task, you get some unit of return. There is just one problem. Instead, most areas of life follow two different types of growth. Which one of these growth curves are you following? Type 1: Logarithmic Growth The first type of growth is logarithmic. Logarithmic growth increases quickly in the beginning, but the gains decrease and become more difficult as time goes on. There are many examples of logarithmic growth in daily life. Fitness and Strength Training: The “beginner gains” come quickly at first, but then it becomes more difficult to get stronger each week.Literacy: Children and young students make massive leaps as they learn how to read. There are thousands of other examples. Type 2: Exponential Growth The second type of growth is exponential. The Challenges of Each Growth Curve How to Accelerate Your Progress
How online job searches worsen the job crisis (Moneywatch) If tens of thousands of people applied for one job, what are the odds that not a one would be qualified for the position? That's not a theoretical question. Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, recently noted such a case after a company's resume-screening system concluded that none of the 29,000 applicants for an engineering job had the right qualifications. Sadly, this does not surprise me one bit. While online job applications seemingly make life easier for all parties. Except that the system is a black hole. When you're lucky enough to have dotted every 'i' and crossed every 't', do you ever hear from the company? I got an email recently from a public relations firm touting the benefits of a new online application and resume tracking system. Unfortunately, the PR person's response regarding the software in question was what I expected. That online form? Better how? Image courtesy Flickr user Gennaro Visciano
Mistakes Introverts Make We are all so very wonderful and yet--I'm sorry, but it must be said--we are not perfect. This blog has focused mostly on staking out turf in our culture for introverts , but now it's time to consider some things related to our introversion that might be interfering with our relationships and accomplishments. Many or most of us have probably made some of these mistakes at one time or another. I certainly have. Sure, some people need more social interaction than others, but we all need some. Yes, we hate the phone, and it's OK to ask that people respect and honor this. OK, if someone obstinately refuses any other form of communication and insists on frequent time-sucking phone calls, then you get some leeway to make your point. As much as we prefer deep conversation, plunging straight into your worldview over the onion dip at a party can be off-putting to others. Ah, the dreaded babble. If you suddenly realize you've careened into a long monologue, take a breath and look around.