Those elusive projects that always stay undone could benefit from a red, hot go, as Leo Babauta suggests, instead of slowly chipping away at it.
However, you need a plan. These steps cover everything from setting your time up to resolving the project at the end. Won’t you feel awesome once you get this one done?
4. Make a project modular. Similarly, sometimes there’s a project where it would be impossible to do all in one go. It might be too large, or sometimes you have to wait for certain things to happen before moving to the next phase of the project. In those cases, see how you can make the project modular, so that you can complete one module of the project all at once, and then worry about the rest of the project later.
One step that may be missing, in the beginning, is how to define whether a project would benefit from cranking out the work or maintaining a regular attack on completing it.
Do you think some projects are better left to be completed slowly?
It’s You! Able to Leap Tall Projects in a Single Bound - [WebWorkerDaily]
These are those things that you have to say but could hurt other people. Confrontation and honesty are sometimes taboo, so how do you get the truth out and keep the other person happy?
Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks [both Ph.D.] say that if you don’t want an argument, you can speak on unarguable terms.
If I say to you, “My stomach feels queasy,” you’d have a difficult time arguing with me. If I say to you, “You make me sick to my stomach,” you’d probably find plenty to argue with me about in that sentence. The difference is intention. If I say, “My stomach feels queasy,” my intention is to reveal my inner experience. If I say, “You make me sick to my stomach,” my intention is to blame you for my experience. In speaking difficult truths so that people thank you afterwards, the trick is to reveal your inner experience and stay out of blame.
Now in the scenario of a breakup, no matter how you put it, things can turn sour. However, if you aren’t interested in hearing the excuses and defenses, speaking with this alternative viewpoint in mind can make things easier.
Relationship Fix: How to Tell Difficult Truths So People Thank You - [GaiamCommunity]
Although your next job interview won’t have as many as 64 questions, your would-be employer will almost certainly ask at least one of these.
Tell me about yourself.
TRAPS: Beware, about 80% of all interviews begin with this “innocent” question. Many candidates, unprepared for the question, skewer themselves by rambling, recapping their life story, delving into ancient work history or personal matters.
BEST ANSWER: Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all-successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. In other words you must sell what the buyer is buying. This is the single most important strategy in job hunting.
Reading through this list it’s hard to come up with something CrackInterview have missed. Know of any new questions that may trip up applicants?
64 Interview Answers You Need To Know - [CrackInterview]
When I started doing my own research after completing my graduate coursework, I was advised by a mentor to have three descriptions of my work ready to recite at a moment’s notice: a three-minute overview, a 12-minute presentation, and a half-hour discussion. The three-minute version is what you tell someone when you’re sharing an elevator at an academic conference; the 12-minute version is suitable for giving a conference presentation; and the half-hour version is what you pull out when you’re sitting down for an interview with a potential funder or getting permission from a local community to do research there.
Businesspeople face similar kinds of situations, and are often told to have similarly-timed versions of their presentation at hand for different contexts — the “elevator pitch” of a few minutes, the short PowerPoint presentation, and the longer version for an interview with funders or others. But how do you talk about a project you’re passionate about in only a couple of minutes — without leaving out anything important? And if you can do that, how can you fill out a half-hour or more on the same material without running out of steam? Read the rest of this entry »
When it comes to success in today’s world, being the kind of person others like outranks all of the fashionable traits like competitiveness, willingness to work harder then anyone else, piling up qualifications, or blind obedience to the demands of the people at the top. Pleasant, likable people have the best chances of being hired, promoted, and rewarded. Customers are more willing to buy from those they feel good around—even if they aren’t offering the best deal. Bosses who are well-liked get better performance from their staff and face fewer people problems. Subordinates who get on well with everyone are trusted more and given better assignments.
In contrast, the kind of boss who provokes fear rather than warmth quickly creates an atmosphere that produces worse results, higher employee turnover, and more conflicts. Tough, abrasive companies trap themselves in a culture of stress and anxiety, if only because nobody is willing to cut anyone else some slack.
Communication depends on trust, and trust is quickly destroyed by those who give off negative vibes. If you deal with others by being more abrasive than the next guy, expect to get the same treatment in return. People who are disliked are the ones others either don’t communicate with, don’t include in discussions, starve of any information, or don’t bring into the loop at all. Read the rest of this entry »
Thomas Edison is widely known as the greatest inventor the world has ever known. Nikola Tesla is also known as a great inventor and many people say he was more brilliant than Edison was. In our last post, two weeks ago, we discussed Edison’s 5 million page note-taking system and received a reaction from some of Tesla’s fans.
Should we really care who was brighter? Or is it productivity that really counts? Who was the more productive of these two famous men?
Edison is famous for inventing the phonograph, incandescent light bulb, cement making technology, motion picture camera, DC motors and electric power generation systems, battery and several other things we use every day and don’t think much about. Tesla similarly invented radio, fluorescent light, AC motors and electric power generation systems. Both these men lived long lives, well into their 80s, at around the same time a century ago.
Read the rest of this entry »
Let me just say, spell-check is not your friend. While it is ostensibly a useful service intended to help improve the quality of your written work, it is in actuality the product of a plot between Bill Gates, Richard Stallman, and Kim Jong Il, who are working together to undermine America’s public image in preparation for a non-violent overthrow of our country and our way of life. Really! It’s the only possible explanation for why spell-checking a document allows so many embarrassing and often hilarious mistakes to remain in the final document – mistakes that generally make the writer look more stupid than s/he would if there had been an uncorrected typo or two.
Let me give you an example. Recently I graded a paper in which a student listed the kinds of jobs traditionally held by women. They meant to write “nursing, teaching, etcetera”, as far as I can guess; what they ended up with was “nursing, teaching, excreta.” Now, this might well sum up the social position of women in much of American history, but I don’t think it’s what the author meant to say.
Read the rest of this entry »
“You suck.”
Everyone encounters criticism, whether it is a boss pointing out falling performance, a bad review for your book, or even self-criticism after an embarrassing slip-up. Your ability to digest that criticism and make use of it says a lot about your character. Even better is to be the kind of person who can take a sharp, verbal critique, stand up and ask for more.
People are Too Nice
Most people won’t tell you what they think of you. And if they do want to slide you some honesty, it is usually wrapped in a sugar coating. Why then, with our compulsion to smooth the truth, does it hurt to be on the back end of an honest opinion? Read the rest of this entry »
Organized Home has a few great ways to get rid of clutter in your home or at work. For most of us, clutter is just the result of bad habits and indecision.
The first method described attempts to force decision making in a very simple way:
The Four-Box method forces a decision, item by item. To apply it, gather three boxes and a large trash can. Label the boxes, “Put Away”, “Give Away/Sell” and “Storage.” Items to be thrown away belong in the trash can.
What I like about having these ‘clutter destinations’ is that you can keep them in your work area and use as immediate inboxes. Instead of just the one IN box, you have the three [plus trash] where you place items that come in.
This is very similar to GTD’s system where you take items from your inbox and put them into reference, projects or someday/maybe items. However, the latter would be the equivalent of keeping clutter in your home.
Instead of just one inbox, for your growing clutter, you keep a series that force action immediately:
- Storage/Reference
- Work/Prokects
- Trash
etc.
Organized Home has 3 other strategies that should help.
Declutter 101: Strategies To Cut Clutter - [OrganizedHome]