The World's Best Book Summaries
Is your technology distracting you at work? How can you be mindful of technology? If you need to get work done, technology will only distract you. In his book Make Time, Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky suggest dozens of strategies to limit the ways that devices can distract you from your work. Read below for a few techniques that can help you be mindful of your technology usage.
How can you fulfill your purpose in life when you feel aimless? What first steps should you take to achieve your goals? Motivational speaker and author Simon Sinek believes every person has a true purpose waiting to be found. Sinek developed a simple yet effective method for fulfilling your purpose when you don’t know where to begin. Keep reading to learn how sharing your purpose and validating your goals can lead to fulfillment, according to Sinek.
Do you often suppress your feelings to avoid confrontation or disagreement? What are the psychological consequences of suppressing your feelings? Suppressing your feelings is a negative mental habit that can have a serious effect on your psychological well-being. Suppressed feelings continue to live on inside you, get stronger the more you try to deny them, and morph into irrational thought patterns and emotional reactions that stifle your capacity to feel positive emotions. Learn about the consequences of suppressing your feelings and some ways to release them.
How often—and for how long—should you meditate? What’s the best way to learn? Why should you seek to live in the present? Naval Ravikant believes that you should keep your mind conditioned to support your happiness. He asserts that, if your mind isn’t functioning well, you’ll have a harder time dealing with life circumstances. To that end, he discusses four ways to keep your mind at peak function: meditate, learn, maintain social contact, and live in the present. Keep reading for details on Ravikant’s advice on how to take care of your mind.
What can social scientists do to improve their work? How can they do a better job of connecting personal and social problems? In The Sociological Imagination, C. Wright Mills advocates for a different way of doing social science. Sociological imagination involves the development of one’s own methods, which Mills argues makes it easier to make a connection between personal and social problems. He believes that using sociological imagination can help social scientists more easily recognize their own bias, understand others’ perspectives, and maintain a broad scope. Keep reading to better understand the three benefits of sociological imagination.
Do you sometimes think something and wonder: “How on earth could I have thought that?” Where do thoughts come from? Is it possible to control your thoughts? As the popular adage goes, you shouldn’t believe everything you think. While you can’t totally control the stream of your consciousness, you can control how to react to the thoughts that come to your mind—whether to brush them off or to give them weight by entertaining them further. With this in mind, here’s how to control your thoughts.
Who’s Naval Ravikant? What wisdom does he have to share about building wealth and happiness in life? Many everyday people strive for wealth and happiness, but most of us struggle along the way and very few seem to achieve both. Still fewer share their insights about how to get there. Entrepreneur Naval Ravikant has become known for doing this online, via Twitter, podcasts, interviews, and blog posts. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is a collection of those insights on wealth and happiness compiled by business blogger Eric Jorgenson. Keep reading for an overview of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by
What are the simplest ways of understanding your purpose in life? How can understanding your purpose improve your life? Simon Sinek argues that finding your Why—or purpose—can help you make better choices in your work and your life that lead to greater fulfillment. That’s what he found in his own life after struggling with depression until he identified his purpose: “To inspire people to do what inspires them so that, together, we can change our world for the better.” Keep reading to learn more about Sinek’s simple exercise for understanding your purpose in life.
What does it mean to “be true to yourself”? What does staying true to yourself entail in practice? People inherit values and beliefs about the world from their family and society at large—this is a natural part of socialization. The problem is that some people never question these values, beliefs, and ideals, even if they are in stark opposition to what feels right to them. Though social conditioning is pervasive, you can overcome it, learn to think for yourself, and feel better about yourself and your experiences. With that in mind, here’s how to stay true to yourself.
Why do some people always seek validation from others? How can you build self-confidence and stop seeking validation? Author Glennon Doyle observes that the tendency to look to others for validation has diminished women’s ability to trust their own decisions. Learning to explore your intuition through quiet reflection can free you from seeking validation. Keep reading to learn Doyle’s advice for learning to trust your own decisions.