The World's Best Book Summaries
Why do we assume we’ll be more inclined to do something tomorrow that we didn’t want to do today? Why do we see our future selves as different people? Research shows that you see your future self as a completely different person. This makes you procrastinate on your goals because you assume that future-you will pick up the slack. Here are some tips on how to stop seeing your future self as another person.
Could your personal productivity use a boost? Would you like to learn how to get more done? In Smarter Faster Better, Charles Duhigg discusses six principles that he believes are crucial to improving personal productivity. He argues that it’s not about working longer hours or constantly pushing yourself to do more. Instead, it’s about making wise choices in certain areas of your life. Read more to discover ways to improve personal productivity.
Do you know how to innovate effectively? How can this skill lead to greater productivity and success? Productive people know how to innovate. In Smarter Faster Better, Charles Duhigg shares four principles that you can implement to create conditions for creativity and productive innovation to thrive. Read more to learn how to innovate, the Smarter Faster Better way.
Do you struggle to find that one perfect idea and hold yourself back from entertaining less-than-perfect ideas? What can you do to increase your chances of getting novel, original ideas? No matter what field of work you’re in, you’d likely benefit from being more creative and generating more good ideas. The most important rule of thumb to follow is to brainstorm lots of ideas. Here’s a spread of advice from Tim Ferriss on how to generate ideas, how to identify the best ones, and how to put them to action.
Do you feel excited when you set big goals for yourself? Do you share your goals with others to keep yourself accountable? Research shows that when you share your goals with others, your brain feels the pleasure of this accomplishment even as you speak the words—you don’t even have to put in the effort of following through. Counterintuitively, since you already felt the pleasure of going, it makes you lose motivation to actually go. This is why you should keep your goals to yourself until you accomplish them.
Do you struggle to stay on task? Do you know what reactive thinking is and how it affects your ability to focus? To be productive, you must minimize distractions. When you’re learning how to stay on task, it helps to consider the factors that can prevent you from doing so. The brain’s ability to focus effectively can be hampered by reactive thinking. Read more to understand how reactive thinking can harm your ability to stay on task.
Are you struggling to juggle all your projects and keep up with clients’ deadlines? How do you evaluate whether a programming project is worth your time? In programming, productivity and time management are some of the most important soft skills you can develop. In his book The Clean Coder, Robert C. Martin gives some valuable time-tested advice on how to make the best use of your time as a programmer. Here are three programming productivity techniques you need if you are a programmer.
What is the engineering design process? How can you apply it to your life? The engineering design process can help you formulate different approaches to everyday dilemmas. It prompts you to evaluate which approach is likely to see the greatest success. The process aids in creative problem solving and decision making. Read more to learn about the engineering design process and its practical applications.
Do you ever reward yourself with a snack when you’ve done well on your diet? Why do people tend to think that being “good” gives us moral permission to be “bad”? Moral licensing is when people tell themselves they deserve an indulgent treat because they’ve been good. However, much of the time the “reward” is actually counterintuitive to the person’s goal. Here is why moral licensing goes against self-control.
Is Tim Ferriss’s book Tools of Titans about? What do you think highly successful people—those who are at the top of their game—do differently? In Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss shares the habits and beliefs of 101 high-performing people, including tech investors, entrepreneurs, athletes, and entertainers. The premise of the book is that if you emulate the habits and beliefs of people who succeed the way you want to succeed, you too can be successful. In this brief overview of Tools of Titans, we’ve pulled out the main themes across all the people Ferriss interviewed.