Unlike typical 2x2 decision grids, this 3x3 matrix by John Cutler has nuanced categories that reflect the real-world complexities of decision-making. The X-axis is labeled "Can" and the Y-axis is labeled "Should" and it contains 8 "boxes" of potential opportunities. The idea is to think about things you should be doing and plot them on this grid. It's especially helpful for figuring out tasks that are important but tricky and avoiding things that are easy but don't really get you closer to your goals. — MF
This is a useful guide to emailing like a “boss” that I found on Reddit. It lists the most positive and effective way to rewrite your messages based on the intention. Here are some examples I want to adopt: If your intention is to say “You’re welcome,” instead of saying “No problem/No worries” say, “Always happy to help.” If you want to know if the recipient understands something, instead of asking “Does that make sense?” say “Let me know if you have any questions.” When you want to convey that you know what your doing, instead of saying “I think maybe we should …” say “It would be best if we …”. — CD
Last year, Paul Graham, a renowned programmer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist known for co-founding Y Combinator, wrote an essay titled "How to Do Great Work." He covered a wide range of topics, from choosing what to work on to cultivating originality. This week, I came across Peter Schroeder's terrific visual representation that maps out the main ideas from Graham's essay. It's useful even if you don't read the essay. — MF
This graphic illustrates 15 popular time management tactics. The methods I use the are the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working in 25-minute cycles with breaks in between, and Time Blocking/Task Batching. This is my first time hearing of the “Pickle Jar Method,” but it does seem like I could cross a lot of things of my list working this way: 1. Do major tasks first. 2. Slot in minor tasks around the major ones. 3. Continuously assess and reprioritize tasks. — CD
The purpose of this website is to increase your mental focus by looking at the dot for 1 minute while breathing. It’s inspired by Dr. Andrew Huberman’s claim that “staring at something for a short time has been proven to improve and boost mental focus on subsequent tasks.” I feel like it “pumps” me up to focus, so I guess it works for me. Along with this recommendation, I also want to share a reminder to practice good eye hygiene when working at your desk. I frequently look out the window, widen my gaze, unfocus my eyes, and close them for short periods of time. Here’s more info on digital eye strain. — CD
It’s hard to take breaks even though I work from home. I appreciated reading these "5 Simple Guidelines For Better Breaks" and the reminder that 1. Something beats nothing. 2. Moving beats stationary. 3. Social beats solo. 4. Outside beats inside. and 5. Fully detached beats semi-detached. I need to remember to stop multitasking during breaks. — CD
Here’s a link to a free printable calendar that will display all the days of 2024 on a single page. I used it to mark my travel and important dates and it helped me visualize my year in a new way. — CD
This article suggests three questions to help you get unstuck and start making progress when you're feeling frustrated or procrastinating.
What haven't I done yet? Why? — This question helps you identify unfinished tasks and understand the reasons behind your procrastination.
What's stopping me from doing this? — This question assists in identifying obstacles and excuses, allowing you to address them and move forward.
What is making me frustrated or discontent? — This question encourages reflection on your sources of stress so that you can address those issues head on.
Procrastination often feels like an invisible hurdle I can’t jump over, but once I get clarity on what my obstacles are, the path becomes clear to me and I can get it done. — CD
Recast is a smartphone app that converts any online article into a brief podcast-style audio summary with high quality AI voices. The free version lets you listen to a large selection of pre-processed articles. For $10 a month, you can select articles you want to summarize. I’m sticking with the free version for now. — MF
This Two-Minute Burnout Checkup helped me understand the primary factors of chronic stress and burnout. I can sense physically when I am nearing burnout, but before this I didn't understand that it's more than just feeling exhausted. This checkup evaluates six sources of chronic stress, including workload, values, reward, control, fairness, and community. You rate your level of stress from 0-10 for each one and add up all the numbers to get a score out of 60. I think this would be very helpful if I'm consistent in tracking my score everyday. Here’s a link to the survey. — CD
The Right Now List is a ridiculously simple approach to tricking your inner procrastinator. David Cain recommends grabbing a sticky note and writing down 2-3 things that you need to do right now to get started on your project. These tasks need to be absurdly easy for this to work. For example: 1) Open Microsoft Word 2) Find the document I was working on yesterday 3) Scroll down to where I left off. The trivialness of these tiny tasks is what prevents your inner procrastinator from objecting. It gets your foot in the door and before you know it, you’re making headway. — CD
You can enter a few keywords into Namelix and get dozens of business name ideas and logo ideas. It’s fun to see what it comes up with, even if you don’t plan on starting a business. — MF
50hacks.co is a crowdsourced lists of the best productivity hacks written and upvoted by users. No account is necessary to contribute, just scroll to the bottom and click on “+ Add Hack.” I just upvoted this one:
Send yourself an email at the end of the day on Friday with a short list of priorities to get started on come Monday morning. Don’t overthink it - just the top half a dozen things on your mind.
—CD
Leo Babauta of Zen Habits wrote a wonderfully succinct post on How to Make the Most of Your 24 Hours. There are 4 things he mentions: intentionality, only 3 important tasks, gratitude and the most important being creating multiple moments of transcendence throughout your day. The days I remember the most are not the days I cross everything off my list. It’s the days when I slow down and deepen the moments and spaces in between tasks. — CD
I am a big fan of YouTuber Ali Abdaal. In this video about Resumes he condenses a whole book of information presenting the best advice for applying for a job into 30 minutes. It’s the same advice I gave to my kids when they started working. Whether you are looking for a job, or hiring someone, this is worth your time. Forward it to a young person. — KK
Investor Sahil Bloom posted a Twitter thread of frameworks that “provide clarity in complex situations.” Here’s an example: “Crazy Idea Framework — If someone proposes a crazy idea, ask: (1) Are they a domain expert? (2) Do I know them to be reasonable? If yes on both (1) and (2), you should take the idea seriously, as it may be an asymmetric bet on the future.” — MF
David Allen’s Getting Things Done changed my life when I read it almost 20 years ago. It describes how to create a process you can trust to capture everything you need to do, and then create physical actions to complete those tasks. The benefit is that you can stop using your brain for remembering what to do and instead use it to focus on what to do next. The book is worth reading, but everything you need to know about practicing GTD can be found on this webpage, GTD in 15 Minutes - A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Things Done. For me, it was a valuable refresher. — MF
How to say no is a collection of email templates that you can use to decline social events, meetings, dates, phone chats and other work-related requests you might get. Some of these are examples given by notable productivity experts like James Clear and Tim Ferris. You can even download these canned templates and install them into your gmail. — CD
When writing out my daily to-do list I often remember this advice tweeted by Writer Jenée Desmond-Harris: “I started dividing my to-do list into 1) things I have to do, 2) things I want to do, and 3) things other people want me to do. Life changing! I often don’t get to 3 and I finally realized omg, is this what it means to have boundaries?!” — CD
I do Zoom meetings with people all over the world, and I use Every Time Zone to find times that are convenient for all participants. It’s free, it’s browser-based, and it remembers my settings. I keep it in my menu bar. — MF