Many of us enjoy making plans, such as spending hours creating a never-ending to-do list. Similar to registering for a gym membership but never visit since then, the common reaction to a redundant list or a big commitment is usually: Procrastinate on it till the last minute; Start from small and low-value tasks in order to feel they are still progressing. Maybe everyone procrastinates, and for the most of time, procrastination indeed damages our productivity and success. However, not every procrastination is deadly harmful. High performers differ themselves from low performers by choosing the right tasks to procrastinate on. They intentionally put off those not-so-important tasks and devote themselves first into dealing with the task with highest priority. This actually refers to a productivity approach called “Eat That Frog”. What does “Eat That Frog” mean? Don’t be scared away if you first heard of this strange term, because it’s not asking you to eat a real frog. Metaphorically, “Frog” here stands for the hardest and most important task that you’re most likely to leave to the last minute. “Eat That Frog” symbolizes doing that task first thing in the morning, right on the top of your schedule. Beginning the workday

What is white noise? Some may have found themselves working more productively sitting in a crowded cafe instead of at home or in an open-plan office, and others may have had the experience that they fell asleep more easily especially when it is a rainy night.  I believe you can somehow feel the relatability. Why would there be such situations, if it’s not just out of randomness?  This is because “White Noise” like these, raindrops and people chatting in the cafe, can actually help us in terms of focus, productivity and relaxation. Researchers at University of Illinois have found that participants who listened to 70 dB of noise performed better at work than other two groups (exposed to 50 and 85 dB noise levels respectively). Noise at 70 dB level is just similarly to the sound of a moving car 10 meters away.  Noise at this level was reported to be just soothing enough to calm our minds and keep ambient sounds away, with itself not being too overwhelming to distract us from our tasks. This is called “White Noise”. Similar to the definition of “White Light”, a mixture of all spectrums. “White Noise” is a mixture of all frequencies

An often heard theory of habit-building is the “21/90”. 21 days for a habit to form (0-1), and another 90 days for that habit to stick (1-100). Apart from these two key stages, the initial decision to commit to a new habit is also important.  Deciding to commit to a positive change A ritual of start Before jumping into a new habit, a good way to get yourself mentally ready is a ritual of start. Telling yourself and maybe also people around you that you’d like to make a certain change, is actually establishing an invisible “flag”. It’ll not only psychologically remind yourself, others can also serve the role as a supervisor if needed.  A reason behind the change It is essential while always neglectful to identify what drives you to actually want to make the change, because it is where your initial motivation comes from. It seems determined that your habit won’t last for long if the reason behind it is punishment. Therefore, please make sure your intrinsic motivation develops from what you love, not hate. A clear goal and steps to reach it  Once you’ve made the commitment, it’s time to set up a clear goal and detailed

Have you ever experienced a moment when you’re fully immersed in an activity, without noticing the flow of time, people around you, or even your  basic bodily needs, i.e. hunger? You might immediately recall a time when you enjoyed listening to your favorite music with your newly bought headphones on the subway, feeling seamlessly closer and closer to every bar of the beat, word of lyrics and note of chords. People’s talking started to fade away and you even missed the stop station unconsciously. This is the very moment of “being in the zone”, and is actually what Csikszentmihályi initially described as “a flow state”. What is a Flow State? Happening a lot to athletes and creative workers when they are racing, painting or practicing bullet dancing, the state of flow defines the situation when someone is completely absorbed in what he/she does, accompanied by a feeling of great enjoyment in the process. However, flow can not just happen in a physical activity or creative pursuit, but also in a simple day-to-day activity/task, like reading or cooking. How Is It Truly Like to Stay in a Flow State? According to Csikszentmihályi’s research, people who he interviewed experienced the following feelings

One person/ multiple careers. Slash career is more than just a fancy word. Understanding the meaning of Slash Slash When we think about slash, what may first come up with might be the punctuation — “/”. But if we use the word “slash” to describe a person, the meaning of it extends to people with multiple occupational identities — an UI designer/ blogger, consultant/ career coach, or editor/ teacher.  Slash Career This also brings up a popular phrase — “slash career”, which means people make multiple income streams simultaneously. Having a slash career was initially popular among those creative workers, such as illustrators, but this became more mainstream especially with millennials in other traditional fields as well.  Benefits of slash career Many people might be skeptical about having a slash career. On the one hand, performing different jobs is considered as a way to bring greater diversity and satisfaction in career life. On the other hand, it may also mean the lack of depth in one specific field and thus less chance to climb to the top. Personally, I think the benefits of having multiple careers outweigh its demerits because it helps achieve stronger fulfillment in both personal and professional

Understanding Mindfulness What is Mindfulness? Mindfulness simply means being in the present moment. It tells you to feel the flow of time by only paying attention to where you are, what you are doing, what is in your mind, and how you feel at this present moment. By channeling your concentration entirely towards your bodily sensations and inner experiences, it gets easier to calm yourself down and be closer to your inner selves. There are two key elements of mindfulness: awareness and acceptance. Awareness is to intentionally identify what is around you and what is inside you: i.e. wind blowing over your face, birds’ voices above the square, or random thoughts floating in your mind. Try to feel all of them with focused and alert consciousness. Acceptance is to let them be what they are, which means fully accepting everything you’ve noticed and felt at this moment without any judgements or avoidance.  A mindful living can then be considered as a moment-to-moment state of mind that helps gain control back over life and achieve greater happiness. It focuses your attention to the present, instead of looking backwards to the past or anticipating too much about the future. Mindfulness & Meditation

A couple of months ago, I saw a TV series called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, where a Japanese lady Konmari visited families to help them tidy their homes. The tiding process normally starts from clothes, books to sentimental items. A rule she’s given is only keeping what’s necessary and discarding those that don’t spark joy anymore. The basic concept embedded in the Konmari method is actually similar to minimalism. Minimalism is about living with less. This not only means getting rid of extra material possessions, like what they did in that TV series, but also includes reducing mental burdens, and decluttering other aspects of life, e.g. digital life. It’s a less-is-more mindset that gets you to reflect on the current state of your life and identify what is truly valuable. With a minimalist lifestyle, people can sort their life well to enjoy more peace and freedom. Getting rid of excessive material possessions Among all aspects of a minimal living, what we could easily start with is probably the personal belongings. I know this may still sound like a big project, but here’s what I did: Observing The first thing I did was to examine how much stuff I actually

 ticktick.com What is OKRs? Drown in the jargon river where so many abbreviations represent different business management methods, the OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) framework stands out due to its popularity among some household names, e.g.Google and Linkedin. Moving through Andy Grove, who first introduced Management by Objectives to Intel in the 1970s to now John Doerr, whose book – Measure What Matters – probes greater depth of OKRs in the workplace. How to embed the company’s purpose and values into everyday goal-setting and outcomes throughout the company’s workforce, is where OKRs come into play. The basic process of implementing the OKRs is: The company sets a goal (normally for the coming quarter), and lists some metrics that can be used to measure whether this goal is met. With the same practice, this process further goes to different teams and then down to individuals. Here’s an OKRs example displayed under Kanban View at TickTick: From the example above, we can clearly see Q3 OKRs are displayed and sub-divided in three levels: Company’s OKRs > Marketing Team’s OKRs > Jack’s OKRs in Marketing Team. *Key Result 1 of the company is the Objective of Marketing team, and KR1 of Marketing team is

You might instantly recall the Lego blocks that we used to build a house when we were kids. Similarly, if we split 24 hours/1440 minutes of a day into blocks, how we spend the time is how we pile up these blocks in order the house to be built.   What is Time Blocking  Time Blocking is a time management method that helps us get more done in the finite time by cutting a day into many chunks and each chunk is dedicated to a certain task. Some of the world’s most productive people, from Elon Musk to Bill Gates to Cal Newport (Author of Deep Work) have combined their to-do lists with this important method: Time Blocking. A Russian entomologist Alexander Aleksandrovich Lyubishchev, kept recording the expenditure of his time, for 56 years in a row, in order to stay in control of his time. This comes with higher necessity in today’s society since 24-hour-a-day remains unchanged, while daily information explodes in the modern workplace. How Time Blocking works From the face value, this technique seems just a walk in the park. In what way can it really benefit us? * It reduces context switching and mental energy loss