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Tips for Better Time Management

[T]ime management isn’t primarily about using minutes well, it’s about using yourself well. And using yourself well means spending most of your time in your sweet spot, which is at the intersection of your strengths, weaknesses, differences, and passions.

Peter Bregman found that many people “agree or strongly agree that they don’t spend enough time at work in their sweet spot, doing work they’re really good at and enjoy the most.”

Focusing at work isn’t just about concentrating on the tasks at hand, but also about focusing your talents. Stay in your sweet spot longer.

What Is The Ultimate Life Hack?

Giving and receiving undivided attention, even briefly, is the least that one individual can do for another — and sometimes the most. And yet, attending to others doesn’t just help them — it helps us, by evoking responses that help the listener feel cared for, useful, and connected to the larger world.

Kare Anderson, “What Captures Your Attention Controls Your Life”, HBR

We’ve said before that the ultimate true lifehack is to figure out what to pay attention to. Anderson explains the positive impacts of being conscious how we devote our attention on not just ourselves but those around us.

Paying attention to others is the path not just toward being a better leader but leading a better life.

The Power of Daydreaming

We always assume that you get more done when you’re consciously paying attention to a problem. That’s what it means, after all, to be ‘working on something.’ But this is often a mistake. If you’re trying to solve a complex problem, then you need to give yourself a real break, to let the mind incubate the problem all by itself. We shouldn’t be so afraid to actually take some time off.

Jonathan Schooler explains his forthcoming paper on the power of daydreaming in Jonah Lehrer’s blog post, “The Virtues of Daydreaming”. According to Schooler and Benjamin Baird’s research, questions need time to marinate and incubate in your brain in order for you to come up with better and more creative solutions.

Like doodling, daydreaming is put down as a waste of time, when in fact you’re getting stuff done. Your unconscious is still hard at work while you can let your mind wander and take a break without the guilt trip!

Creative daydreaming

Image: Hikingartist.com

3 Keys to Flow from a Professional Poker Player

James Chin is a professional poker player living in Las Vegas, Nevada.  He has a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas.  

As a professional poker player, creating and maintaining flow is of great importance. It’s often the difference between a winning hand and losing your shirt.

What is flow?  To me, it’s the feeling of being perfectly adapted to my environment.  My working environment is the poker table.  Here’s how I do it.

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