fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Benefits of Giving in a Selfish World
By: Aayu Kharbanda
Tags: Giving, Success, Self, Happiness, Life

Why should I give something where everyone else is focusing on getting as much as they can?

This article gives logical benefits to giving (Not Karma, Religious or Spiritual benefit)

Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash

What to give and to Whom?

One can give whatever is left after fulfilling the necessities of their own loved ones. This is a fact in the current world. Before the world, you have responsibilities towards yourself and your loved ones.

Please note — I used the word Necessities, Be Honest, and do count a desire as a necessity.

It is not practical to sacrifice all your desires and give up everything. Start with 10% giving.

Give it to someone who needs it more than you do.

Photo by Razvan Chisu on Unsplash

Benefits of Giving

It is completely rational to know what you will get in return before you give anything

1. Feel Resource

While everything around us makes us feel bad due to constant comparison. When we give something, we feel we have plenty of that source

For example:

· To feel rich — give money

· To feel knowledge — give knowledge

· To feel loved — give love

2. Improved resource allocation

The Moment you consider giving something, you find out so many things that are not adding much value to your life. You keep the useful things and give up what’s extra. Reducing the cluster of resources gives you peace of mind to utilize resources better.

3. Make the world a better place

If you give up, mobile upgrade for a year and fund the education of a child with that money. The child will be better educated and will contribute to society than your mobile phone could ever have.

Why do you care? — Because you want to live in a better world

4. Unexpected gifts

Let’s assume the world is not 100% selfish (which is true), then you would get unexpected rewards for your generosity. Since you have without expectations. This reward comes across as a pleasant unexpected gift.
The Best Way To Build Wealth Is…
By: Destiny S. Harris
Tags: Self Improvement, Giving, Life Lessons, Finance, Money

Money & Finance

The Best Way To Build Wealth Is…

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Gratitude & Generosity Always Win

I’ve noticed that the more grateful I am and the more generous I am, the more the universe returns to me. I can recall different periods of my life where I was on the receiving end because I had fewer resources available to me; I often felt distraught about it because I couldn’t repay people with the same generosity they offered me. A mentor of mine encouraged me to accept generosity with grace because life is cyclical. At a future point, I will become the giver, and I did. And to take it further, I genuinely enjoy giving more than receiving; it feels astoundingly better.

Find opportunities to give and be grateful in small, medium, and big ways daily. Living a generous life filled with gratitude will ensure you experience an intentional life, a magnificent life, an enriching life, and a full life.

It always feels better to give than to consume.

Always give within your means. But implement the habit of giving early. As you accumulate more money, it can become more challenging to give. Develop the habit of generosity early and now, so you maintain the habit as your net worth increases.

Generosity Affirmations

Generosity Is The Way 1

I desire to live a higher life, so I give.

I give to my family.

I give to people outside of my family.

I am generous to my friends.

I am generous to the homeless.

I choose to give to live a wealthy life.

Giving helps me live a higher life.

Giving more only makes my life better.

Being generous feels superb.

I can’t imagine not being generous.

I do not fear lack.

I give in abundance.

I give without limits.

Generosity Is The Way 2

I live to give.

I live to be generous.

I live to help others.

I live to elevate the lives of others.

As I give, I receive more.

As I encourage others, I am encouraged.

As I love others, I am loved.

I am kind to others.

So, others are kind to me.

I give without expectations.

I give out of love.

I give to improve the lives of others.

I am thankful I can give without limits.

Generosity Is The Way 3

I will never stop giving.

Giving and generosity are life habits.

As I give, the more wealth I attract.

I am grateful I am a giver.

I am grateful I can improve lives.

I am grateful for my wealth.

I am grateful I live in abundance.

I am grateful I am blessed.

I am grateful I can bless others.

I find creative ways to give to others.

I am in-tune with the needs of others.

I am in-tune with the needs of the world.

I am in-tune with how I can be generous.
Productivity Habits I Learned From Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
By: Keenan Eriksson
Tags: Focus, Efficiency, Productivity, Achievement, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

In It for the Long Haul

My project was to fully heal from chronic disease. The first thing I did was get in a mindset of the “long game.” I am a big believer that we overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in ten years. In my case, I knew it was common for sufferers of CFS to go decades before fully healing (if they ever did).

I immediately took on the expectation that my journey might be just as long. I accepted and integrated the fact this may be a decade-long project or more. Once I came to terms with that, I could face each day with resolve.

Compare this to before my health crash, and I had eight different life projects that I wanted to be done that same year. Good luck with that, dude.

Step 1 in maintaining productivity when you’re exhausted is to have a commitment to the big picture. It is to aim at a desired end that is clearly defined, but far out.

Knowing you must toil for years gets you to focus more on consistency and less on intensity. When your fuel tanks are empty and your mental reserves are spent, intensity doesn’t work. Resolve and consistency, do.

For my part, I knew I needed to start a business that I could do from home. I also knew which treatments would ultimately restore my ability to function. It took nearly two years before I saw my first paycheck as a writer. It also took a whole year for me to spend the $350 on a detox program that restored 70% of my health. If I had been obsessed with the short term, this timeline would have been maddening. Instead, I regained functionality with minimal doctor appointments and no pharmaceuticals, from a condition that can last decades, in two years.
Social media use is killing your career as a data scientist
By: Paul Hiemstra
Tags: Productivity, Focus, Deep Work

For me and my fellow PhDs, a common problem when working on new or hard projects was the apparent lack of progress in the first few weeks, followed by a few days of frenzied productivity. Reflecting on it later, the lack of concrete progress in those first few weeks was deceptive. When just starting on a new subject, it is still so large and unfamiliar that your brain has a hard time grasping it. Over time, better understanding of the subject acts similarly to a zip algorithm: it compresses the information. When the information is compressed sufficiently, it fits into your mindspace all at once. When you hit this threshold, the days of productivity kick-in and much of the tangible results are produced.

In my experience, the zip algorithm is fueled by one thing: long uninterrupted stretches of deep focused time aka Deep Work. However, these focused stretches of time are under constant assault by the deep integration of social media, instant communication and e-mail into our personal and professional life. Getting into and staying in deep work is very hard when you are constantly bombarded by distractions. Any distraction takes us out of deep work, and it can take up to 15 minutes to get back into deep work after the distraction.

But how do we free ourselves from the yoke of internet distractions? In his book “Deep Work” Cal Newport provides a lot of solid advice. For all nuances and depth, I would strongly recommend you read the book, but the following points really stood out to me:

Become proactive in scheduling stretches of uninterrupted deep focused time and eliminate all distractions during that time. Disable email, instant messaging and social media, move to a quiet location, let your co-workers know you are not available. Anything you need to do to really get into a deep and focused and distraction free state of mind.

Batch your interaction with e-mail, instant messaging and other forms of distraction. For example, use 30 minutes at the start and end of every day to respond to emails and disable it outside that batch of time. I would also highly recommend you turn off any notification sound or buzzing on your smartphone. Choose when you want to interact with these tools, not let the tools choose for you.

Become more comfortable with being bored. Instead of grabbing your smartphone whenever you have nothing to do, just allow yourself to be bored and present in the moment. By being present in the moment you train your mind to focus, contrasted with the distracted mindset you foster when constantly distracting yourself with the torrent of information available on social media and the like.

Who am I?

My name is Paul Hiemstra, and I work as a teacher and data scientist in the Netherlands. I am a mix between a scientist and a software engineer, and have a broad interest in everything related to data science. You can follow me here on medium, or on LinkedIn.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also enjoy some of my other articles:
The secret of concentration and success by Swami Vivekananda
By: Devansh Gulhane
Tags: Personal Development, Focus, Success, Life Lessons, Personal Growth

Photo by Georgina Steytler on Unsplash

Concentration is the essence of all Knowledge; nothing can be done without it. Ninety percent of thought force is wasted by the ordinary human being and therefore he is constantly committing blunders; the trained man or mind never makes a mistake.

Since my school days, I’ve been fascinated by Swami Vivekananda- his works, and his abilities.

His remarkable ability to grasp topics at a pace I have never seen, his thoughts on meditation.

Over the years, I have read a lot that is said by him and taken notes, here are a few of them.

Secret of Concentration

1. Take up one idea, make that one idea your life; think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced. Others are mere talking machines.

2. This is the difference between man and the animals — the man has the greater power of Concentration. The difference in their power of Concentration also constitutes the difference between man and man. Compare the lowest with the highest man. The difference is in the degree of Concentration.

3. Simply by the observance of strict Bramacharya all learning can be mastered in a very short time — one has an unfailing memory of what one hears or knows but once. It is owing to this want of continence that everything is on the brink of ruin in our country.

4. The very essence of education is the concentration of mind, not the collecting of facts. We should develop the power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument, we can collect facts at will.

5. The knowledge in the world is gained by Concentration of the powers of the mind. The strength and force of the blow come through concentration. There is no limit to the power of the human mind. The more concentrated he is, the more power is brought to bear on one point; that is the secret.

Success in life mostly depends on the power of Concentration. Clear thinking and intellectual understanding are very easy for a concentrated mind. Arjun could shoot at the target with his tremendous Power of Concentration.
Independent Sensory Deprivation as a Study Tool, could it help you?
By: Sam Pandey
Tags: Productivity, Focus, Studying, Study

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

We often hear the term “sensory deprivation,” in association with the sensory deprivation tank where the user basks in a floating abyss of darkness and silence in the hopes of reaching some sort of introspective nirvana.

As someone who has looked into sensory deprivation but has never floated as a human “rubber ducky,” I am nonetheless curious about the practice. Additionally, being someone who has been diagnosed with ADD and ADHD I really wanted to find a way to increase my capacity to study with a greater margin of success.

I am currently going to be heading back to school for pre-medicine and hopefully law and I am tasked with needing to brush up on my study skills in order to be successful. I have looked into different study practices such as the Pomodoro Technique which involves studying for 25 minutes and then taking a 10–15-minute break.

With no true method in sight, I started to hone in on what my key problems were when it came to studying. I landed on the fact that I get distracted extremely easily. Either from external or internal stimuli.

Internal stimuli being the fact that if you put me in an empty room I would get consumed by my spontaneous trains of thought that I would eventually lose focus. Even hearing or listening to classical music in an effort to study also distracted me as I tried to work through calculating molecular mass.

The effects have been non-linear and I have been unable to draw any type of conclusion from my efforts. So, I decided to go back to basics.

I went ahead and started wearing simple and cheap noise-canceling headphones to block out sounds. My train of thought was that if I could block out all types of sound then I could be able to focus the majority of my brain power on my studies.

The effects have been interesting in that I have been able to concentrate to a certain extent. So now I have decided to try and come up with some methods to actively measure my progress.
How to focus more on yourself?
By: Dr. Betina Chandolia
Tags: Focus, Concentration, Productivity, Mind, You

Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash

Often, we focus more on controlling others than ourselves. Sounds weird? Try thinking over it. Don’t you often try that your partner does the things the way you want or your parents to say things as you like or your children to behave as you want? But, it is well known fact that the best person who you can control is you yourself. Instead of expecting others to be the way you want, direct that towards yourself.

Its simple. You just need to focus more on yourself. Here’s how you can do it:

Meditation — It gives your mind the best training to focus. During mediation, you need to hub on a single point which in turn helps you improve your concentration. When you meditate, it improves your power of mind to centre on your current work. Exercise — It gives your body the physical strength. Give yourself at least 30 minutes to exercise daily. Walk or Jog for minimum 5 days a week. Exercise is the best booster for your health. It also aids in increasing your focus. Planning of what to do next — When you plan in advance for things that you have to do next, your brain automatically starts functioning accordingly. This will help you to give time to complete your work in time and also your mind will not wander elsewhere. So, when you start your day, plan for the complete day, what all things you have to do. Pen down your thoughts — Often we think of some plans in our mind but tend to forget it later. To avoid such state, keep a notepad near you and keep jotting down your thoughts. This will help you keep things under check. Utilise free time — When you are done with the work of your day, utilise the free time you have. The best way is to do things which you haven’t done from a long time and you wanted to complete them. For example: Arranging old stuff, who knows what things you might find. Restart your hobby — Its time to do the things which at once you loved the most. Sing, Dance, Paint, Collect stamps, Cook, whatever you like, start it again. It will help you to be more with yourself. Learning new things — Its the best way to engage your wandering mind. When you learn new things, your mind attentively directs its focus as it is new for it. You can start with learning new languages, learning to cook new recipes, learning to stitch and many more.

So, What are you going to start with? What’s next in your focus??
How to improving your focus when you distracted
By: Ibnu Riski
Tags: Focus, Writing, Readbooks, Meditation, Film

Photo by Chase Clark on Unsplash

Hello everyone!

come back with me again, in this part i will tell something for you about my experience for improving my focus, and this a good news because i think this is very simply and easy, okay let’s go!

1. Meditation

First is meditation, i think when you take your time perhaps 5–10 minutes per day can make you keep focus with what are you doing. Yap, there are so many distraction everywhere, for example when in the night i’m planning from 8.00 PM to 11.00 PM for do my thesis, but suddenly my friend coming at my home and bring me for join discussion about program in their school and you know is make me distracted and because that make me procrastinate my plan before. After that when my friend go out from my home at 1.00 AM, because i feel lazy for doing my thesis again. So, because that i just spend my time for going meditation in 15 minute and after that is really make me so stong in mind and more focus for doing whatever i want and need for example like writing this article.

2.Reading Book

I understand not everyone like for reading book although reading math or physics book, but in my experience i’m usually feel focus when reading book because i have the flow condition. If you right now doesn’t like reading book or article and feel hard for doing that, i think you can read something topics that you like about that.

3.Watch A Film

There are a lot genre about film that you can watch, and i think when you forget your life for temporary and focus 1–3 hour for watching film this can improve your focus.

4.Write a blog or article

Number four maybe you can consider to write your story in medium or your personal blog for let go your negative emotion and improve your writing skill. And the good news for you that have writing hobby you can also improve your critical thinking and make you more smarter than other who rarely writing in critical thinking aspect.

5.Don’t Multitask

Research at some university say that people have multitasking habit in the long-term can reduce brain performance and reduce human focus and concentration in the short-term. So, if you really do have have to multitask your can break-down your task in some time separately.

Okay maybe only that can i share for you about “how to improve your focus when you distracted. See you next article.

PS: this is my first article that i’m write i hope you can enjoy with my bad grammar wkwk because i still learn for improving my writing skill in english.
An Unexpected Benefit of Monotasking
By: Jake Kahana
Tags: Self Improvement, Focus, WFH, Monotasking, Deep Work

An Unexpected Benefit of Monotasking

In 2018, Microsoft did a study that showed the average focus time in the office is 8 seconds. For comparison, they’ve tracked a goldfish’s attention span at 9 seconds.

Obviously, some of that is being distracted by other people– an email or slack notification–but we also get in our own way. Apple confirmed that users on average unlock their phone 80 times a day. (It’s much higher than that since COVID, up to 150x). We’re constantly distracted and looking for something to occupy our brain and field of vision.

But these are just averages.

It’s possible to expand our attention span beyond 8 seconds and not check our phones every 3 minutes. It just takes discipline.

Here’s a place to start. First, we can put our phones out of reach and out of sight when we’re working. Next, let’s practice monotasking. Not opening up a new tab every 2 minutes or jumping to our inbox while a page loads slowly or we get bored. When something pops into your brain that will take you off track, simply write it down on a sheet of paper and tell your brain that you’ll get to it later. Right now, you’re monotasking.

One of the hardest places to monotask is on calls. Our days are filled with virtual calls and it’s so easy to be scrolling or texting just out of view. When I feel my brain wandering or itching to monotask, I try and practice active listening– to take in the converation and maybe even take notes.

But two things are happening while your brain is occupied with something else. First, you’re turning into a goldfish. (Your attention span is shortening). And second, the other person notices. We notice when someone is distracted, multitasking, typing or scrolling on a call.

Multitasking creates emotional distance. So not only are you hurting yourself by limiting your attention span as you respond to that email while on Zoom. But you’re also hurting your relationship with the person on the call.

Monotasking builds attention spans, of course. But one thing you might not have guessed is that it can build trust, as well.
How To Do Nothing
By: Gayle Allen
Tags: Economy, Focus, Attention, Meaning, Purpose

As we increasingly equate human worth with productivity, what does it mean to do nothing?

That’s the question Jenny Odell explores in her book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. In it, she deftly draws on the work of artists, laborers, and writers, past and present, to discuss how others have grappled with this question.

In attempting to clarify what she means by doing nothing, Jenny asks, “What’s the difference between being allowed to be open…observant…reflective versus…constantly express[ing]…one’s rage and anger…what if there’s a part of you that deserves to remain unspoken, unarticulated in the moment?”

In this conversation, Jenny offers ways to resist the attention economy, but she’s careful to avoid easy answers. Though she acknowledges how privilege gives some of us more options to resist than others, she emphasizes how all of us, privileged or not, operate within this productivity-obsessed system.

The fallout from our always-on culture is often exhaustion and anxiety, both of which Jenny sees in her students. She explains, “I can tell my students, ‘Oh, just get better at time management.’ That might help in some ways, but it’s not going to help the…problem of this culture of productivity that was never humane to begin with.”

Jenny Odell is an artist, writer, and educator who teaches at Stanford University. She has been an artist-in-residence at the San Francisco dump, Facebook, the Internet Archive, and the San Francisco Planning Department, and she has exhibited her art all over the world.

Simple Ways to Support the Podcast

Subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe Recommend the podcast to a friend or family member

The Host

You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.

Episode Links

Eyeo Festival 2017 — Jenny Odell

Gordon Hempton

Radical Technologies by Adam Greenfield

The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

Getting Back Together by Robert Houriet

Walden Two by B. F. Skinner

Thomas Merton

Pilvi Takala — The Trainee

Tehching Hsieh

Diogenes

Bartleby, the Scrivener

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

1934 West Coast Longshoreman’s Strike

Laborfest

David Hockney

4’33” by John Cage

Peter Stephen Berg, bioregionalist

Rebecca Solnit

Janet Delaney, photographer

iNaturalist app

If You Liked This Interview, You Might Also Enjoy:

Cal Newport on Digital Minimalism

Emily Esfahani Smith on Creating a Meaningful Life

Tim Wu on Reclaiming Our Attention

Matthew Crawford on Individuality in an Age of Distraction

Other Places to Find Curious Minds:

Spotify

iTunes

Tunein

Stitcher

Google Play

Overcast
Being present, being heard.
By: Peter Georgariou
Tags: Focus, Presence, Active Listening, Present, Compassion

“Attention without intention is wasted energy.”

-Chris Bailey

By drifting off into whatever mental rabbit hole arises, not only does our productivity plummet, (see Chris’ book for more details), but so does our quality of life. We become less creative and our lives become less meaningful. Plus the quality of our relationships erodes due to our inability to be fully there for the person in front of us.

Now imagine your staff, your clients, or your donors. They all know when you’re really there or mentally checked out going through the motions.

At a very base level, people just want to be heard. They want to feel that their opinion is valued and their concerns are being acknowledged. They want to be accepted and respected.

It is impossible to actively and compassionately hear someone if you aren’t fully present. So not only are distractions devaluing your life, it is destroying quality relationships and connections which in turn fosters disengagement & mistrust.

Being present is more difficult than ever and as a result, being heard is rarer than ever. Please be aware of how you are showing up for all the people in your life and the impact your presence can have on both your life and theirs.
Hustle
By: Favour Obuchi
Tags: Focus, Success, Goals, Hustle, God

HUSTLE

Hustle! a common word used in today's world, but why? The reason because every human wants and desires to make it, which is good stuff.

Hustlers' main purpose is to gain worldly success. The world craves your hustle, ability, and gift, as much as the earth needs the moon and stars as a source of light at night.

Never think of hustle so little or so great than others, every human gift and ability is great in its unique way. One only as to recognize how great good it is.

While hustling one must retain a goal and focus.

Every individual's goal varies, due to the varied wishes, plans, imagination, and dreams of each individual. They vary as every fingerprint varies.

As human hustlers, we have only one focus...

That focus is achieving heavenly success

That focus is God the only true love.

Hustling outside the focus, yes! might lead to the achievement of worldly success, yet it existed vanity. A mere washed out by all the stress hacked by worldly desire, what a drowsy mess!

Hustlers require to be on the path with focus and the goal to achieve the favorable success which

is a result of prayer and hard work.

Hustle for indeed, it is good to hustle.

Nevertheless, hustle well and right not so doing hustle will eventually lead to a confused life puzzle.

As a hustler never prioritize earthly or worldly goals over-focus...it ain't worth it...

For it is better to have yet achieved focus and lose earthly goal than to have achieved the earthly goal and lose focus.

Hustle well and never lose track of focus.

Obey God's commands and walk in his ways

if you do so, not only will you be hustlers of money but also hustlers of men.

To hustle isn't so easy and the path to success isn't that smooth and plain either, as such hustlers must be determined, committed, willing, wise, humble, and graced to pass through it to achieve a great victory.
Fill Our Hearts with You
By: Temiloluwa Iyanda
Tags: Prayer, Devotion, Christianity, Focus, Spirituality

Photo by Benjamin Voros on Unsplash

The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches

May they not choke out Your word from our hearts

Like Mary, help us keep the things You say in our hearts

Let them be tucked in us until it takes us over completely

Let Your word be the object of our pondering

Let it be the substance and essence of our being

Till we are impregnated with Your word

Till we bring forth child at Your word

Till we become the very people You’ve called us to be

Till we act out Your script, living every day in alignment

In accordance with what was written before the worlds were ever framed

Give us rest, let Your peace fill our souls

Give us wisdom also, let us discern times and seasons

Surround us with a shield forged from Your love

Surround us with comfort in people also

Let us see those we are sent to

And all of whom must bear witness to the seed within us

Yes, a seed of Your word, a seed of destiny

For we are pregnant and heavy laden, yet the time of our delivery seems far

Give us eyes that see, ears also that hear, and a heart that is occupied with conversations with the divine

Keep our eyes single, let our hearts pursue You alone

This is the pursuit that will bring us to other relevant things in Your book

Help us meditate on Your precepts, let our hearts be fertile grounds for Your word to take root, bringing forth fruits unto righteousness

Order our steps in Your word, give us ideas that will cause us to profit, grant us insight into the things You’ve ordained us for

Strengthen us in the path of our calling, show us what it is you really want us to do- both now and in the days ahead

A little here, a little there, but we know You won’t leave us clueless, dear Father

You satisfy the desire of every living thing; You open your hands and they are filled

Send us help from on high, surround us with Your favour as with a shield

Previous Post | All Articles | Images | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Notes from a studio — clear water
By: Simon Harmer
Tags: Focus, Water, Creativity

In recent years I have taken to listening to podcasts, vodcasts and audiobooks. It’s become something of an obsession (‘self-help’ my wife calls them), but I do feel it really helps. It helps me to learn, to listen and to focus on what is important.

I forget which podcast I heard this on (my best guess is either Desert Island Discs or Tim Ferris) but I love this advice. It was quoted as being something Ed Sheeran said, when asked about his prolific writing ability. He said something to this affect;

“If you go and stay in a cabin in the woods, when you arrive and you turn on the tap, the water runs brown and dirty. You wouldn’t simply turn the tap off, forget the holiday and walk away. You would turn the tap on full and let the water flow until the clear, crystal, delicious mountain water runs form the tap.”

What I love about this is what it means. He writes. If nothing is great, he doesn’t stop. He keeps going, he keeps the tap on until, eventually, the water comes clear — the words come to him, the songs form and he smashes out another huge hit.

The same is true for all creativity. Every day I force myself to draw, every single day. I am not trying to create a masterpiece, I am just ensuring I do something creative every day. This keeps the water flowing, even if not crystal clear. Here is a case in point — this morning I sat and drew my shoe. Not a great drawing by any stretch, in fact I’m a little embarrassed to even show it, but it makes a good point. If I kept going, kept drawing, I would eventually create something good, I’m sure of it.

A drawing of my shoe — the water needs to keep flowing!

And I don’t think it matters that I didn’t keep drawing. Sometimes it’s just an itch that needs to be scratched, it’s also something I love and you should aim to do the things you love every single day.

So, keep the water turned on, you’ll be amazed at what finally flows!
How to Avoid Distraction and Stay Focused
By: Kevin Purves
Tags: Distraction, Focus, Concentration, Business Strategy, Entrepreneurship

Traction is the ‘pulling action’ towards your goals.

Distraction is the resistance to your traction efforts.

Both of these are actions; it’s right there in their names (traction | distraction).

They are both active processes over which we consciously have total control. So, distraction is a function of what we do, not what happens to us.

It’s the acts that we take that define if we’re in a state of traction or distraction.

OK, agreed — but what do we do to prevent all these distractions from derailing us?

Well, we need to manage the four factors that influence our progress.

(see infographic above)

We have our opposing actions and efforts of traction and distraction. We also have internal and external triggers that fuel our interruption tendencies.

Check out the Build Your Dream Business Mastermind Program here. Just launched online for the first time ever. Ideal for anyone who wants to start their own business, but doesn’t know where to start.

So, simplistically speaking, you need to . . .

1- Make time for TRACTION

You must time-block sections of your daily schedule to focus exclusively on your primary task at hand. It can be for 30 minutes or 5 hours; the duration depends on what you want to achieve during that session.

One such mechanism you can apply to implement time management is the Pomodoro Effect.

If you need guidance on how best to manage your time scheduling, the process is discussed in detail in the BYDB mastermind program.

2- Master your INTERNAL TRIGGERS

Start by being aware of what prompts you to look for distractions. We all have a natural tendency to alleviate boredom, stress, fatigue and anxiety.

You need to acknowledge what triggers you, and actively confront it.

I find that often the most practical solution is to schedule timed breaks intermittently to inhibit these triggers.

3 — Manage your EXTERNAL TRIGGERS

Identify every potential influence that can trigger distractions, and eradicate them — even if it’s only for the set time that you’ve blocked off for your specific task.

This should include shutting down your social media, email software, and internet browser. (Unless you are working on the internet; in which case, you must close every tab that isn’t necessary for your task).

You also need to put your phone on silent to remove all notifications and calls. Ideally, you should rather put your phone in another room — it’s mere presence is a distraction.
Focus Your Windows to Block Distractions
By: Adam Tervort
Tags: Work, Focus

Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash

On my computer I love the option to have a window take up the entire screen. Not just to maximize it to cover the desktop, but filling the entire screen. As I write this I have only one window visible, no menu bar or icons in the dock. Do Not Disturb mode is enabled. Right now this computer is only capable of doing one thing.

Knowledge work, the kind of work many of us do all day, revolves around writing. For hundreds of years writing was a pretty simple task. Whether it was a letter, a recipe, or a novel, the person writing had a pen and some paper. The paper could be a loose sheet or part of a bound book. The pen could be a fountain pen or a quill or a ballpoint. The essential ingredients for this kind of work were simple.

Typewriters were a new tool in knowledge work, but the essential task was the same. One sheet of paper and one typewriter. The writer pressed on keys, letters and symbols were imprinted on the paper, and that was that. It wasn’t very efficient and if you made a mistake it meant some sort of manual correction, but pen and paper had the same challenge.

Computers and mobile devices changed this. Fixing mistakes was so easy! Press a key and delete the mistake. Sharing the work was much easier too. Email meant sending your work cost nothing and it arrived in an instant.

Technology made things better in so many ways, but it has also changed the equation. Rather than facilitating the basic tasks we do, it actively tries to take our attention away from that task. How many of your phone’s notifications do you really need to see right now? How often does a computer ping take you away from something you are doing in real life?

I don’t know that I have very many answers, but I know that when my focus is on only one thing at a time I get much more done.

It seems counter intuitive to work this way. Computers have trained us all to try and multi-task. They call out that this is the only way to do knowledge work. It must be right!

Remember that long before computers dinged for every email and pinged for every new YouTube video, people like you worked by single tasking. You don’t have to revert to pen and paper or a typewriter to get the benefits that kind of work brings.
Beauty is in the mind of the programmer
By: Bernie Robert
Tags: Focus, Poetry, Programming, Python, Obsessions

The programmer. Dedicated, smart, forgiving. Insightful, intelligent, persistent. Focused, clever, relentless. Obsessed. These words do not even come close to the marvel, the splendor, the miracle that is the programmer. Our programmer.

He is able, like a wizard, to create wonders from the arcane, eerie and cryptic world of zeros and ones. His words become software; he builds that which is greater than himself. He alone wields the power to define a nation, to pave the road for the young, to make the future. Sometimes, he did this with his friends, like-minded programmers who saw the light, like he did. Sometimes, he did this alone.

Back to the story, friends…

He wrote code; lines of code. And the lines of code became jumbles of code. And the jumbles of code were miraculously structured into pieces of software; he called them modules. And the modules became even more structured, forming the complex framework of a fully-fledged piece of software. And the software was shipped to each and every user on the waiting list. And the software changed the world.

The programmer became wealthy beyond his wildest dreams (that is; beyond the millions of lines of code he dreamed up only yesterday). He had to run a company, a software giant called XYZ Inc. He was forcibly pulled away from his one great love, and made CEO of the company the software created. This he did masterfully of course; the code gave him power to surpass himself. He pined for his love ceaselessly.

Unable to stand it any longer, the programmer took to hiding. The code had not left him. The code had promised to be with him. He wrote code in secret, fearful of the diagnoses that would come if he was discovered; “He is obsessed with code, that one”. Great was his joy when the familiar monospace prompt lit up his screen; “>>>”. He wrote for hours on end, like a madman. This was his destiny. Yes, it was.

The mysteries of the heavens were made known to him. In the repetitive lines of if-else, the constellations were revealed. He saw the truth, he saw light, he saw God.
Size Matters
By: Amos Bracewell
Tags: Self Improvement, Vision, Focus, Power, Dreams

There is an extremely large, smoothed out shelving of rocks, stretched out along a section of the beach where I’ve been staying the last few days.

Rounded by relentless water over time, their now smooth, almost polished complexion stands them out from among their scattered and jagged seaside relatives.

If those rocks could speak, I don’t believe they would admit that this was their plan all along; to endure patiently, the centuries of refining which yielded such exquisite form.

Hearing no admission from their sanded, smooth lips, I silently nod in affirmation as another lesson seeks landing clearance on the airstrip of wonder and curiosity that’s been clearing in me of debris, for some time now.

I have been measuring forward progress in far too small time increments.

My ruler is too small.

If creation teaches us anything about consistency over long stretches, it hammers home like the repeating waves, that life needs to be observed through much larger windows of view.

Decades, centuries and millennia are where real change is often seen in nature.

I was out this past weekend filming a forestry client, and was floored when we came across new growth that had suddenly sprung back up-after only two decades.

In certain very moist climates, where winter’s bite doesn’t halt growth cycles, some species of trees are mature, and arguably fully grown again after only a mere 25–30 years.

Compared to the millenia that we’ve been around for, that’s but a drop in the proverbial bucket.

I failed for so many years to hear what nature was trying to tell me.

I wouldn’t bend my ears to it’s voice, let alone consent to a landing field being cleared in my overgrown heart.

But after failures, flops and false starts, I’m listening now.

As I write this, the repetitive waves are sounding their smoothening surge, even more, over the rocks I already admire.

If I esteem those rocks now, what will come of another decade of this disciplined refining?

As I pan the seas of my own skyline, I toss out the tiny ruler which held me living only in days, weeks and months.

Instead I’m going to join the rocks, whose face and figure boldly proclaim that anything can be accomplished within the right measurement of time.

I’m fashioning a vision now for where I’ll be in 50 years.

I’m etching into my mind’s eye what time, waves and water could beautify upon the stones of my journey.

I’m not settling for small any longer.

Big, is where my dreams beckon to be carved from.

Big shall be where my vision and heart lie.
On Writing and Meditating
By: Scott Schindler
Tags: Meditation, Discipline, Focus, Writing

Why are writing and meditating so hard to do regularly? Over the last several years, I’ve tried to incorporate them into my daily routine, but I’ve struggled to maintain doing both consistently.

Many activities are hard to do regularly, like exercising, eating healthy and waking up early. However, writing and meditation are interesting to examine for one important reason — they are opposites. Writing is thinking. Meditating is not thinking.

Why is thinking so hard? Well, because humans are inherently lazy. Anytime we can offload having to think critically, we tend to do so. Hence why we love sports, video games, movies, tv shows, Instagram, chatting with friends and so forth.

Why is not thinking so hard? This one’s harder to explain. Since humans are lazy, wouldn’t that mean we would love to just not think about anything for a half hour or an hour a day? Well, no, but why? My best guess is that we are so inherently comfortable in a middle phase — between thinking and not thinking, that we do everything we can to stay there. It’s like being in a warm bed on a cold morning — all we want to do is stay there for as long we can. Sitting silent and noticing our thoughts is a scary and uncomfortable proposition because we are so used to being in the middle, more comfortable phase. In this phase, we are almost like drones just chugging along on without the will to think nor the mindfulness to sit still.

The solution? As with anything, there is no magic pill. We have to will ourselves to get out of the warm bed and do what we know will be good for us. Personally, it comes down to discipline and doing the things that make me uncomfortable because I’ll better off in the long run.
Sunday Morning Focused Reading
By: Bruno Miranda
Tags: Reading, Focus, Productivity, Articles, Automation

To get set up, you’ll need the tools below:

An Amazon Kindle (or use the iPad or iPhone Kindle app), I use the Kindle Voyage as it has page-turning buttons, backlight, and a sharp 300 PPI display. A free Instapaper.com account A free Raindrop.io account (technically you can skip this step if you want to use Instapaper.com as your bookmark service, I prefer Raindrop.io). A free Ifttt.com account

Start by configuring Instapaper to send a digest of saved URLs to your Kindle via email. You can grab your kindle email address from the preferences on Amazon.com.

You can choose to receive a digest daily as well if you prefer

Next set Raindrop.io as your bookmark service. Raindrop offers browser extensions for all platforms. The service is quite excellent, offering ways to tag and search your entire collection. Once bookmarks are in Raindrop, I then leverage Ifttt.com to sync the bookmarks onto Instapaper.

Setting this up in Ifttt.com is a breeze

That’s it! Every weekend I now get a digest of bookmarked articles delivered right to my Kindle. This set up will work for any URL; therefore, sources can vary greatly. As I read through the items on the Kindle, I can choose to archive each within the digest with one-click. Archiving articles means they will not be present in next week’s digest.

Hopefully, you'll find this as useful as I did. Reading on the Kindle allows me to focus, which is especially pertinent for longer-form content. There’s something enjoyable about grabbing a coffee and sitting down to read your curated collection of findings.

Happy reading. To learn about new articles, follow me on Twitter.
Spend Less Time Checking Mail and Yet Not Miss a Thing
Tags: Email Productivity, Email, Focus, Productivity, Habits For Success

Photo by Romain Vignes on Unsplash

I use either my Gmail or Facebook account to signup for new services. It saves me the bother of remembering user accounts. Over a period of time, mails from these services cluttered my mailbox. There was a time when I organised mails using filters, labels or even moved them into folders. But of late, I have not been as diligent. Instead, I comb through the unread mails ever so often. I hate to see an unread mail count. Moreover, I fear that an important mail lies buried, somewhere, in that unholy pile of unread mail.

So, it was with some anticipation, that I signed up for Hey mail.

Right off the bat, Hey mail is quiet, disconcertingly so!

Hey gives me control. That’s what I like most about it.

Senders I haven’t seen before, don’t make it into my mailbox; Unless I screen them in. They wait their turn in the lobby. Waiting for me to show up and usher them in to my work space.

Which, by the way, has only three bins or trays.

A tray called paper trail is the home for all kinds of receipts and statements.

The other tray is the feed, which is the home for all promotional content. True to its name, the feed renders its mail as an infinite wall of information — much like Facebook or Google news.

The superlative touch is that neither Feeds nor Paper Trails show an unread count.

Email receipts are on the rise, but rarely do I check them. I can afford to check feeds once a day. The wall display allows me to scan content without opening individual emails. So not showing counts actually makes great sense.

By the process of elimination, the remaining mails land up in the final tray — the imbox. By definition, these should be the important mails. The ones, I need to look at.

Since, I have signed up, the list of important mails has been embarrassingly tiny. And the time I spend on mail too.

Hey has other mechanisms to tame the attention seeking nature of mail software. For starters, notifications are off by default. The ability to switch on notifications for specific contacts is perfect. Similarly too, is the ability to mute active email threads, where I have lost interest.

The real deal with Hey is the ability to reclaim the lost time and focus.

And that may well justify its steep price tag of 99 USD yearly.