Top 48 Hacks to Master Your Readings

Reading skill is absolutely important in the information age. These days we need to be able to absorb new information as fast and as efficient as possible. Since most of the information is presented in the form of text, reading skill is a must.  It is a substantial part of what I believe is the most important skill: the ability to choose what to learn and to learn them quickly.
With all the readings in front of you, how do you get the most out of them? How do you master your readings? Here are top 48 hacks you can use:

General preparation

1. Enrich your environment
   Your environment is essential for effective reading.
   From the book Mastering the Information Age:
   The environment in which you work or study is a critical part of being a Master (of information age).
   You can easily enrich your environment to facilitate learning, creative thinking, and optimum performance.
   Enrich your environment to make it ideal for reading.
   Resource(s):
   10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace
2. Have a good light source Needless to say, good light source helps you read your readings easily and conveniently. It is also important for the health of your vision.
3. Get the best chair Good chair is especially important for long reading sessions. It helps you focus longer on your reading by minimizing physical fatigue.
   Resource(s):
   What’s the best chair for reading?
4. Schedule your reading time Schedule a time which allows you to read without interruption. Ideally, you should provide enough time to get into the flow. Scheduling will also help you develop the habit of reading.
5. Build your vocabulary You’d be able to comprehend your reading faster if you already know the vocabulary. Invest time to build your vocabulary and you will tackle broader types of readings faster.

Health

6. Have proper diet and exercise Good physical condition gives you the required energy level for effective reading.
   From the book Mastering the Information Age:
   Your physical condition is vital to peak mental performance and optimum functioning of your brain. Having a high-level of energy helps you concentrate and get the most of your readings.
   To get good physical condition, you should have proper diet and exercise.
   Resource(s):
   Nutrition Data
   8 tips for eating well
   Top 42 Exercise Hacks 
7. Get plenty of vitamin AVitamin A is important for visual process. It improves your vision especially in dim light. You can get vitamin A from carrot, sweet potatoes, dairy products, and eggs, among others. Get plenty of it, but be careful not to get too much.
   Resource(s):
   Vitamin A
   Vitamin A – Medical Encyclopedia
   Vitamin A – Food Standards Agency

Before you read

8. Know what the main goal of reading isIn my opinion, the main goal of reading non-fiction is to get actionable ideas. Knowing this goal helps you recognize the gems from the rest.
9. Be sure that what you read is worth your time Your time is precious, so eliminate unnecessary readings as much as possible. Before investing more time to read something, survey the reading to make sure that it is really worth your time.
10. Motivate yourself What’s in the reading for you? How can the reading impact and change your life? Being aware of how useful a reading is will make you motivated to get the most out of it. This in turn will improve your comprehension.
11. Eliminate distraction Eliminating distraction is a condition to get into flow. If you are reading offline materials, turn off the computer or blank the screen. If you are reading online materials, tools like Dropcloth, Clutter Cloak, or Backdrop can help you eliminate distraction by darken the unnecessary parts of the screen.
12. Prevent interruption Preventing interruption is also a condition to get into flow. Turn off your cell phone, turn off automatic email notification, and anything else that may interrupt you. If possible, also tell the people around you not to interrupt you.
13. Listen to music
    Music could reduce stress and therefore increase concentration and help you get into the flow state. It also helps you block out outside noise. Instrumental music might be more appropriate since you won’t be distracted by the lyric.
    Be careful, though: this is not everyone. Some people can concentrate better in silence. So do it only if it helps you.
14. Make positive affirmation Limiting belief is one of the greatest obstacle in becoming an effective reader. You should be confident in your ability to read fast with high level of comprehension. Affirm it to yourself over and over again.
15. Have specific purpose Having a clear purpose helps you differentiate which parts of the readings are important and which are not. How can you know what are important if you don’t even know what you want?
16. Write your purpose If you think it helps you, write down the purpose. It helps you internalize it. Writing the purpose may especially be useful for readings with longer time commitment like books.
17. Preview your reading It is essential to always preview your readings before you read in more detail. Read the table of contents, introduction, chapter titles, subtitles, pictures, and texts which stand-out visually. Previewing your reading makes you familiar with it. It helps you put the ideas you get into the appropriate contexts.
18. Find the key chapters Previewing a book helps you identify the key chapters of the book. These are the chapters that could help you achieve your purpose faster.
19. Set a time limit How much time are you going to allocate to finish your readings? Setting a time limit helps you concentrate and be ruthless with the unimportant parts of the reading; you will focus more on the important parts. This is actually Parkinson’s law at work.

As you read

20. Use the Pareto principle The Pareto principle says that 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes. Applied to reading, the Pareto principle says that 80% of the value you get comes from 20% of the content. The challenge then is identifying that 20% part. Finding key chapters (hack #18) is one application of this principle, but you can apply this principle further to identify key sections and paragraphs.
    That’s why having a purpose in reading is very important. Your purpose helps you find that essential 20% part.
    Resource(s):
    A Quick and Dirty Reading Strategy When Time is Short
21. Go through the reading several timesGoing through your reading several times makes you more familiar with the reading. It’s like building a skeleton of the reading and adding more and more to it as you go through each pass. The great thing is, since you already have the skeleton, you will always understand the context of your reading.
22. Question as you read Questions direct your mind to actively find the answers. By reading actively you will comprehend more. Besides, it helps you get exactly what you need.
23. Visualize what you read Visualization activates your right brain. Many writers begin their writing by having a mental image of what they are going to write. They then use the words in the text to transfer the mental image to you, the reader. Your job then is to recreate the mental image. Visualization is a good way to develop such mental image. When you get the mental image, you already capture the essence of the reading.
24. Adjust your reading speed accordingly While reading, you should differentiate between the important and not important parts (see hack #20). Your reading speed should then be flexible according to the importance of each part. You should read faster through the unimportant parts and slower through the important parts.
25. Recognize and read the key words
    Key words are the important words that have the highest chance of taking you to the answers you need. Questions help you recognize what the key words are. You can then read the parts of the text which contain those key words more carefully. Chance is, the answers you are looking for are there.
26. Use your finger as pointer Your eye movement is vital to your reading speed. If you want to increase your reading speed, you should decrease the readjustment time needed by your eyes to move to new positions. One way to train your eye movement is using your index finger as pointer.
    Resource(s):
    Double Your Reading Rate 
27. Take breaks every now and then
    Taking breaks refreshes your eyes. Besides, it also allows your brain to process and absorb the material.

Eliminating bad habits

28. Eliminate word-for-word reading Reading word-for-word slows down your reading speed while not improving your comprehension. In reading, the important thing is getting the ideas you need. You get them not by reading word-for-word but by understanding the structure of the reading and read only the parts that satisfy your needs. What important is not word per minute, but idea per minute.
29. Eliminate subvocalization
    Subvocalization reduces your reading speed because your mind can actually read faster than the speed you subvocalize. Read only using your eyes and your mind. What you read should come through your eyes and goes directly into your mind.
    Resource(s):
    How to eliminate subvocalization in order to increase reading speed
30. Eliminate regression Sometimes, as you read, you may think that you miss one or two words from the sentence you have just read. Or maybe you think you don’t get it. So you go back and reread that sentence. This is called regression. Regression reduces your reading speed because you will be much faster if you just keep moving forward. Don’t worry about missing a word or an idea; as you continue reading, you will eventually get the idea you need.
31. Don’t believe that reading is linear You do not need to read a book in sequence from the first to the last page. What important is fulfilling your purpose, not finishing the book the way the author arranges it. Most of the time, you can fulfill your purpose without reading linearly. Finding key chapters (hack #18), setting time limit (hack #19), and using Pareto principle (hack #20) help you avoid linear reading to fulfill your purpose in less time.

Marking

32. Mark important parts Marking your reading makes you an active reader instead of a passive one. It makes you think actively about which parts of the reading are important enough to mark. In addition, thanks to your marks, you will be able to quickly recapture the essence of the reading months or even years later.
    Resource(s):
    Twelve Ways To Mark Up A Book
33. Write down your thoughts
    Besides marking the important parts of the text, write down your thoughts for parts of the text. It’s better if you write your thoughts directly in your reading because you can easily find them later.
34. Develop conversation The bottom line of marking your reading (including writing down your thoughts) is developing conversation with the authors. You should not be a passive readers which agree with whatever the authors wrote. Actively engage in a conversation with them.
    Resource(s):
    How to Mark a Book

Note taking

35. Create mind maps Creating mind maps helps you make visual representations of your readings. Since our mind often grasps ideas better when they are presented visually, creating mind maps is a great way to capture the essence of your readings.
    Resource(s):
    How to Mind Map
    How to do a Mind Map
    List of mind mapping software 
36. Create outlinesYou can “map” your readings by creating outlines. Outlines help you quickly see the big picture of the readings with increasing level of details. I use Microsoft OneNote for this purpose, but you can also use a word processor.
    Resource(s):
    Using OneNote for Idea Management
37. Create a book summary
    You can combine your notes from hack #35 and #36 to create a book summary. Put it in a place you can easily access. I have summaries of all the books I read recently which help me quickly refresh the ideas I got.
38. Make an idea warehouse
    The goal of reading is to get actionable ideas (hack #8). You can write all the actionable ideas you get to make it easier to put them into practice. You can also group them by topics to make them easier to refer to.

After you read

39. Make “next action” list
    To get the most out of your readings, you must put them into practice. So after getting some actionable ideas, you should make a “next action” list to apply them. You can later merge this list with your master “next action” list
    Resource(s):
    How to Get the Most Out of Your Books
40. Review your notes and marks regularlyIt’s amazing to see how fast we forget what we’ve read. Therefore, make a plan to regularly review your notes and marks. If you create book summaries, you can start by reading those summaries.

Tools to help you

41. Use RSVP readers
    RSVP readers can help you speed read your readings. Such tools display one word at a time at the speed you set, so you can be sure that you are reading at that level of speed. It also helps you eliminate bad habits like subvocalization (hack #29) and regression (hack #30).
    Resource(s):
    Spreeder
    ZAP Reader
    RSVP Reader Software Comparison
42. Use summarizers
    Summarizers help you summarize a long reading into a shorter one. Such tools try to figure out where the main ideas of the reading are and eliminate the less important parts. It could help you grasp the ideas of the reading in less time. 
    Resource(s):
    Automatic Text Summarizer
    Open Text Summarizer
43. Listen to your reading
    If your reading is in digital form, maybe you don’t even need to read it. You can use text-to-speech applications to listen to your reading.
    Resource(s):
    TTSReader

Reading on computer

44. Increase the monitor refresh rateIncreasing the monitor refresh rate reduces screen flickering so you can read longer without making your eyes tired.
    Resource(s):
    Change Refresh Rate of Your Monitor : Avoid flickers and headaches
45. Turn on ClearType
    On Windows machines, turning on ClearType will improve the appearance of text which help you read better.
    Resource(s):
    Turn on Windows XP ClearType : Improve Font Display and Readability
    

Miscellanous

46. Make reading goals and measure your progress For example, you may set that your goal is reading one book per week. You can then measure your progress by writing the title of the book, the start date and the end date. This way you will know whether or not you achieve your goal. Having a clear reading goal motivates you to become a better reader, just like having a clear financial goal motivates you to better manage your money.
47. Measure your reading speed You should measure what you want to improve, and the same thing applies to your reading speed. Measuring your reading speed allows you to see where your current position is and how your progress is over time.
    Resource(s):
    Speed reading test
    Speed reading test online
48. Read book summaries
    Besides using summarizers (tips #42), you can also use book summaries created by others to shorten the time you need to grasp the ideas of a book. You can read the summaries from websites such as LitSum, or you can read books which contain summaries of other books. One such book is The Marketing Gurus which contains summaries of 17 marketing books.

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What is the Key to Success?

Success is everybody’s dream. But what is the key to success? How can you be successful? In my post about defining successful people, I wrote that we should measure success based on how much we give rather than how much we receive. Fortunately, it also works nicely the other way around since those who give more almost always will also receive more.
Based on that, you can see that the more value you give to others, the more successful you will be. So how do you pave your way to success? How do you become more successful? The answer is amazingly simple. Here it is:
The key to success is making yourself as useful as possible to others.

That’s it. Making yourself as useful as possible to others.
If you focus on applying this, others will realize the value they get from you and they will attract more people to come to you. These new people will also realize the value they get from you and they will attract even more people to come to you. The virtuous cycle begins and you are now on your way to success.
With this principle in mind, you should aim at increasing your usefulness to others. How do you do that? Here are some ideas:

1. Be observant of needsTo be useful to others, you should always be aware of even the slightest clues of needs. The more sensitive you are to the needs of others, the more appreciative people will eventually become. The best scenario is being able to anticipate a need before the other people are even aware of it.
2. Find solutions to the needsNow that you are aware of needs, the next step is finding solutions to them. The solutions you offer should be as useful as possible. To be able to do so, there is no other way but to continuously build your own value. It is from the value you have that you could give value to others.
3. Be proactive to help
   Do not wait for the other person to ask for your help. Be proactive. Give your help even before they ask.
4. Be sincereWhat matters is not only the solution you offer, but also the way you deliver it. Being sincere means being glad to help others without expecting anything in return. Make it your joy to give something to others. People can somehow distinguish whether or not you are sincere.
5. Go the extra mileDoing the above four steps is good, but add this one if you can: give more than expected. First, give what is expected, and then add a little more. If you do the above four steps people will be appreciative, but if you add this one step they will be impressed.

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org

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Are You Living Someone Else’s Life?

hope not.
By the way, here is some background: I had a class in Entrepreneurship last night and we had a special guest. He is Ong Peng Tsin who has founded two companies, Interwoven and Encentuate, and is one the Singapore’s best technopreneurs. He talked a lot about his experience of being an entrepreneur, how he started the two companies and what kind of difficulties he faced.

What impress me most, however, is the way he thinks about life. He said that first of all, the most important thing we need to have is clarity about what we want to do with our life. How do you want to live your life? What goal do you want to achieve in life? 10 years from now, when you look back, what kind of life will you want to see? Even further, when you look back in your 70s or 80s, what kind of life would you like to see? Will that be a fulfilling life? Or will that be living someone else’s life without ever living yours?
Sadly, many people just live someone else’s life. It means that they live according to what other people say to them or expect of them. Year by year pass and they have no idea where they are going.
When we have clarity about our life, all decisions will be easier to make. We won’t live according to what the trends are or what everyone is doing. We will have firm foundation for every decision we make.
The earlier we get this clarity the better. Why? Because we can never get back the years which have passed. They are gone forever!
Learning about this, I start thinking about my life. I once thought that I may want to pursue an MBA. But will that really do good for me or I just follow the trend? I also thought that after graduating I want to work for a big company. But is that what my life should be? Well, I should rethink about them carefully.
Boy, I’m just afraid that 10 years from now I will look back and see that I have wasted years of my life living someone else’s life.


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Why I Blog

The Why I Blog meme is spreading through the blogosphere, and I’m now part of the fun. Many thanks to Gleb Reys from Personal Development Ideas for tagging me. Gleb tagged me in his post Why I Blog which is the result of being tagged by Edward Mills from Evolving Times.
Asking “why” is among my favorite methods of personal reflection. Often we are so used to do something until we forget why we do that in the first place! Have you ever had such experience? I have, and that’s why I think it is important to take a break and ask why we do something.

Now, it’s the time for me to reflect why I blog. And here they are:

1. It helps me fulfill my life purposeThis is the primary reason I blog. Above everything else, I blog because I believe it helps me fulfill my life purpose. I have never shared it with you, but my life purpose is “helping as many people as possible to live the fullest of life”. That’s where my heart is.
   Of course, it doesn’t mean that I have lived my life to the fullest. Instead, I see it more like a journey where I can walk and grow together with others (that is you, dear reader) to the fullest of life.
   Blog is not the only way to fulfill that purpose, but I think it is one of the best ways for me. I like writing and I like computing, so blogging is a logical next step for me. Though I’m still learning to be a good blogger who can give values to others, I really enjoy the process.
   Several weeks back I wrote 5 Reasons Why Doing What You Love Can Optimize Your Life. I can attest to you that I really do what I love with blogging .
2. It helps me grow
   Personal growth is among the biggest benefit I get from blogging. My personal growth is very different before and after I blog. Why? Because blogging forces me to always explore new things and develop new ideas. Before I blog, I never really thought about developing myself. Many ideas just disappeared, but now the situation is different.
3. It helps me meet interesting peopleIt is another big benefit I get from blogging. Through blogging I get to know many interesting people, either they are readers or anothers bloggers. I like meeting them because I can learn a lot from them. It’s amazing to see how much we can learn from other people. Most importantly, I love to build relationships with them.
4. It helps me get financial freedom
   Last but not least, I hope blogging can help me achieve financial freedom. My goal here is not to be rich, but to be able to spend my whole time doing what I love (see reason #1) without ever worrying about money.

That’s it. I’m glad to be able to share them with you. Now I’d like to asks these great people to share with us why they blog:

• Craig Harper from CraigHarper.com.au
• Alvin Soon from Life Coaches Blog
• Sham from Enhance Life
• Curt Rosengren from The Occupational Adventure
• Ashish Mohta from TechSpot

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Exploring The Meaning of Life

There is a very interesting article in Wikipedia about the meaning of life. It’s such a fundamental topic, so it’s interesting to see what people say about it. The article is quite long and takes some time to read, but considering the depth of topic it actually saves us a lot of time (such topic may require a thick book to cover).
The meaning of life is probably the most important question in someone’s life. Is there anyone who never think about it? I don’t think so. Our souls are always searching for meaning.

While there are a lot of things in the article, the most interesting part for me is the collection of “to …” phrases in the beginning of the article. These are the phrases used by billions of people to complete the sentence “the meaning of life is …“.
Here are some of them which I find interesting:

• to live every day like it is your last and to do your best at everything that comes before you
  Steve Jobs talked about it in his commencement address. This is the way he lives and it helps him focus on the most important issues in life. When we think that this is our last day, many things which we used to worry about lose its significance. Fear of failure for example, will no longer be meaningful. We are left only with things which are truly important.
• to leave a legacy, such as a work of art or a book
  Many people have this as their life purpose, they want to leave something for future generations. I like it. I personally believe that one reason we live is to contribute to others.
• to explore, to expand beyond our frontiers
  This is interesting. Seeing life as an exploration allows us to discover new things we never thought possible before. This way we can contribute in unique and fresh ways.
• to give and receive love
  Love makes life beautiful. There are times when I forgot the wonder of love because I was busy with something else. But no other things are actually as important as love. When I rediscover the magic of love, other things become much less significant.
• to leave the world in a better condition than when you came into it
  We live to make a difference. Do we make lasting impact to others? Do we make a difference in people’s life? It doesn’t have to be something complex. Even a smile can brighten someone else’s day.

I believe we can learn a lot from these phrases.
What about you? Which meanings do you find useful? Or maybe you have your own? Feel free to share them in the comments.


http://www.lifeoptimizer.org

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5 Reasons Why Relationships Should be Your Top Priority

If you are like me, there may be many things you want to achieve in life. You may want to accomplish A and B, achieve C and D, and so on. Yet, you should never forget what your top priority is.
From what I learn, I realize that my top priority should be relationships. I believe they should also be your top priority. Nothing else matters more. Here are why:

1. Relationships fulfill your most important need of all
   What is the most important thing people need? No, it’s not money. It’s not achievements nor recognition either. The most important thing people need is love. We all need to love and be loved. Unfortunately, sometimes we are so obsessed with other things that we forget how beautiful it is to love and be loved. Don’t let this happen to you. Love others and be loved. Feel how wonderful it is. Get a taste of love. And how do you do that? Through relationships. This is the only way. There is no other way you can love and be loved but through relationships.
2. Relationships are the place where your greatest joy comes from
   One inseparable part of relationships is giving. In fact, I believe that there is no genuine relationship without giving. Whether it is giving your time, attention, money, or just a smile, genuine relationship is all about giving. And believe it or not, there is great joy in giving. We often think only about ourselves that we forget the joy of giving. Life is wonderful when we are thinking about others and not just ourselves.
3. Only through relationships can you give lasting impact to others
   Which advice will you listen more, the one from someone you don’t really know, or the one from someone you love? Of course the latter. We appreciate the people we love more than anyone else. Their words sink deep into our heart, not just our mind. That’s why the most effective way to give lasting impact to others is by building relationships with them. Be their friend and care about them, and I’m sure they will listen to you and respect your opinions.
4. Through relationships you have the people to support you in times of trouble
   When we face difficult times, we need other people to support us. No one can take care of everything by himself. When the world looks dark and the problem looks big, nothing is more valuable than the support of people we love. They encourage us to go through, they accompany us in the time of trouble, and they are willing to share the burden with us. The journey will become much easier.
5. Eventually, relationships are the only things that matter
   When people are dying they do not think about their achievements and awards. They don’t care whether they are rich or famous. All those things become meaningless when people are face-to-face with death. All they want is having the people they love around them. They want the warm of love to be with them in their last moments. Nothing else matters. They realize that, eventually, relationships are the only things that matter. We should not wait until that moment come. We’d better realize it now.

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Creative Thinking Cool Tool: JDarkRoom

Many people do their creative thinking using tools such as mind maps. That’s a good thing, and I also like mind maps (though I use OneNote’s outlines more often than mind maps). However, recently I find another tool which is also helpful for creative thinking: JDarkRoom.

Actually JDarkRoom is just a simple text editor. What special about it is its interface. When you run it, JDarkRoom will change your entire screen into a blank screen. You will only see its blinking green cursor and a mouse cursor (if you don’t hide it). Other than these, there is absolutely nothing on the screen. When you type, the text will be displayed in green color with black background. It’s like you are sent back to the good old days of DOS!
I find it very useful. The fact that there’s nothing else displayed on the screen allows me to focus entirely on the task in front of me. No disruption, no eye candy, nothing. Just me and the task. Just me… and the task. Such situation gives me a peace of mind, a “mind like water”. It is a good condition for me to enter the “flow” state, a condition where I lose track of time and have my creative juice flows freely.
I also like the black background. Unlike most word processors’ interface which is dominated by bright colors, the black background is less irritating to the eyes. I can stare at the monitor for long time without making my eyes tired. This ability to look at the monitor for long time is another good condition for me to get into the “flow”.
It is such a simple tool, but I find it helpful to boost my creativity. I’m sure you will also find it so.



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Grow Yourself by Meeting People and Reading Books

“Five years from now, you’re the same person except for the people you’ve met and the books you’ve read.” John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach

I really like this quote. It reminds me that to grow we need to:

1. Meet the right people, and
2. Read the right books

Meet the right people
Meeting the right people is important because you will become more and more like the people around you. The people you meet will influent you, whether it is good or bad. That’s why it is important to carefully choose the people you meet, especially if they are to be your close friends.
Try to surround yourself with positive people. If you want to be a winner, then meet winners. If you want to be successful, then meet successful people. Whenever possible, try to find someone with higher capacity than you. Someone with more experience, more wisdom and more knowledge. These are the people from whom you can learn most. I am always excited whenever I meet someone I can learn from.
Interestingly, everybody has his or her own unique strengths, so chance is someone you meet will have higher capacity than you in certain fields. It means that you can learn from many, many people.
Read the right books
For me, it is the surprising part of the quote. I know reading books is important, but I never thought that it is that important. But after thinking about it for a while, I know that it’s absolutely true.
Reading books is important because in many ways it is the same as meeting people. When you meet someone, you will know and be influenced by her thoughts. In the same way, when you read a book you will know and be influenced by the author’s thoughts. It’s just as if you meet the author and she shares her wisdom and knowledge with you. A valuable experience, right?
What unique about books is you can easily absorb the thoughts of the best people in the world. It may not be easy to meet them personally, but through their books you can deeply know their thoughts. Through their books they speak hours and hours to you. Wow!
Realizing this, I now appreciate reading books even more than before. How else can I deeply know the thoughts of the best people in the world? How else can I learn from their experiences? Through books I can learn from people with much higher capacity than me. They have gone through years in their life to accumulate the wisdom they write in their books, and I can just directly absorb it! What a privilege.
Of course, it is important to read the right books. Just as meeting the right people is important, so is reading the right books. The thoughts in the books can deeply influence you, so you’d better pick only the best.

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Examine Your Life with a Simple Life Map

To get the most of your life, it is important to see how your life is doing. While you can do it at the micro level by looking at your single day or week, it is even more important to see it at the macro level. As I’ve written in Vision – The First Step of Life Optimization, all of us should have a vision, a life purpose, that will guide our whole life and provide measurement of our productivity. The macro level view will allow us to see how our life is doing to meet that vision. Have we done good enough? Or years just pass by without anything significant?

To answer these questions myself, I create “life map” which shows how my life is doing at years level. I just make a simple one. Maybe next time I will think about creating a more complex one, but for now I’m just interested in making a simple one. Anyway, simpler is better, right?
So here’s what I do: I write down several recent years in my life and simply divide each year into two parts, semester 1 and 2 (you can use any other kind of division if you like). Then I write the important events in each semester regarding my life, which are my “life milestones”.
Here is an example:
2005
Semester 1
Passing Microsoft Certified Professional exam.
Semester 2
Starting blog in personal development.
2006
Semester 1
Starting writing book on personal development.
Semester 2
Publishing my first book on personal development.
That’s just an example, not my real life map (I’ll be glad if I already have a book to publish :)). But I think the idea is clear: simply write the important events in your life. Of course, the definition of “important” here can be different for each person. So simply write the events which are important for you.
This life map enables you to get a bird-eye view of your life and how your life is doing. With this bird-eye view, you can see:

1. Whether or not you have wisely used your years
   I think this is probably the most useful thing I can get from the life map. Personally I can see that I have underutilized my recent years. People often talk about not wasting a day, but here we are talking about wasting years! How bad is that? Fortunately, this life map can give me clear warning so I can avoid repeating those mistakes in the future. The same thing applies to you. Using the life map you can clearly see whether you have wisely used your years or not.
2. Where you should go next
   Since you now get the big picture, it is easier to see where you should go next. You are looking at the whole path you have passed, so it is easier to guess where the next step should be. It will help you plan your current and coming years better.

It’s simple, right? It won’t take you much time to create such kind of map. Yet this simple practice of making a life map can prevent you from wasting not just days and weeks, but years.


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A Stone Age Called "the Internet Age"

I always think that our current civilization is advanced. I even leave a comment recently saying that I believe this time will have special spot in human history. Why? Because advances like the Internet has improved human civilization like never before.
That is before I come across the Kardashev scale though. I’ve now changed my mind. I think our civilization is actually very, very “primitive”.

What is Kardashev scale? Kardashev scale is a measurement of how technologically advanced a civilization is. It is measured based on the amount of energy which can be harnessed by the civilization. There are three categories in Kardashev scale:

• Type I: a civilization that is able to harness all of the power available in a single planet.
• Type II: a civilization that is able to harness all of the power available from a single star (which in our case is the sun).
• Type III: a civilization that is able to harness all of the power available from a single galaxy (which in our case is Milky Way with its 200 billion stars).

Our civilization hasn’t even reached Type I! Far from it. Thus our civilization is just called Type 0. Scientists predicted that we will achieve Type I by year 2200 and Type II by year 5200 (3000 years after type I!). What about Type III? Due to the limitation of speed of light, it might be even millions of years away.
This makes me think. I thought our civilization is very advanced. But I imagine that a Type I civilization will look back at our civilization the same way we now look at 1000-years-ago civilization. And I imagine that a Type II civilization will look back at our civilization the same way we now look back at the stone age! Our civilization with all its achievements is just a stone age for them! Here is a stone age called “the Internet age”.
Lesson for Personal Development
I think we often do the same thing with our personal development. We may think that we already know quite a lot, have a lot of experiences and so on. Or maybe we think that we have already reached 30%, 40% or 50% of our potential.
This is the problem: we look to short ahead! Go, climb a mountain, and see how vast the world is. Already reach 30% of your potential? Come on, maybe you have reached only 1%, or even less. Don’t look to short ahead.
This makes me excited. Why? Because I can be far, far more than what I currently imagine. I can be far beyond my limited imagination. There is no boundary on what I and you can achieve.
If you doubt it, just remember this: even our Internet age with all its achievements is actually nothing but a stone age.


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What is the Most Important Skill to Have?

I’m thinking about this question lately: what is the most important skill we need to have? What kind of skill do we need most in this kind of world? To answer it, I guess we need to see what the main characteristic of our world is.
What words will you use to describe this world? For me, there are two words which come to my mind: change and speed. The world is changing and it is changing at increasing speed.

Since we are now living in that kind of world, I once thought that the most important skill is the ability to learn quickly. Of course it contains truth: to be able to keep up with this world we need to learn quickly. This way we can quickly adapt to new changes whenever they occur.
But later I thought that the ability to learn quickly alone is not enough. The world is changing so fast that even those who can learn quickly may not be able to keep up. There’s one more thing required: the ability to choose what to learn. This way we won’t waste our time learning something which is not useful. We learn only those things which are the most effective for us. The number of new things to learn is huge that choosing which one to learn becomes increasingly difficult. Mastering the art of choosing what to learn is valuable because it will save our time – not to say our entire career.
So to summarize, I think this is the most important skill we need to have: the ability to choose what to learn and to learn them quickly. If we master this skill, we will be ready to face whatever new waves coming in our way.
If you have other thoughts about what you think is the most important skill, feel free to share them in the comments.



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If You Can Get Into the Essence of Productivity, Why Not Trim the Fat?

In my post about the two simple rules of productivity, I wrote that:

With these two rules in place, the purpose of the rest of your productivity system (such as calendar and to-do list) is actually nothing but to help you figure out what the most important task at any given time is.

There is actually a hidden implication of this statement. If you somehow can figure out what your most important task at any given time is, you don’t even need a productivity system. Why do you need a productivity system if you already have what the system tries to provide?
I think it explains why some people are known for their ‘unstructured’ productivity. Darren Rowse from Problogger for example, said that he is “incredibly spontaneous and often work out of this”. Even Bill Gates said that he is “not big on to-do list”. I also know some other people who simply follow their intuition in doing their work.
The lesson is, you should find the simplest possible productivity system that works for you. What is the simplest possible system you need to help you figure out what your most important task at any given time is? Or maybe you don’t even need a system?
Just don’t waste your time trying to implement a productivity system you do not need.


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Five Areas of Life You Should Balance To Live the Fullest of Life

The key to living your life to the fullest is balance. How can you live your life to the fullest if one or more areas of your life suffer? For example, maybe you are successful in your career. But will it matter if your family life is not happy? Or maybe you are a very knowledgeable person. But will it matter if your body is sick?
To live your life to the fullest, I believe there are five areas of life you need to develop in balance. Those five areas are spirituality, mind, body, relationship, and work. Here are the details:

1. SpiritualityThis area deals with your conscience, values, and principles. It also deals with your relationship with the infinite. Your spirituality is where your life purpose and meaning comes from. In my opinion, the fact that it gives meaning to your life makes it the most important of all five. But it doesn’t mean that you should focus on only developing your spirituality. Even if your spirituality is strong, you won’t live your life to the fullest if you do not develop the other four areas in balance.
2. Mind
   This area deals with your desire to learn. In this fast-changing world, your ability to absorb new skill and knowledge become increasingly important (in fact, I think this is the most important skill you should master). To have a strong desire to learn, be sure to develop your intellectual hunger.
3. BodyThis area deals with your physical health. Since your body is the mean through which you conduct your actions, it is important to keep your body in tip-top shape. Not only you should prevent yourself from being sick, you should also thrive to have the high-level of energy you need to accomplish your tasks with speed and enthusiasm.
4. RelationshipThis area deals with your relationships with your family, friends, and colleagues. As I wrote in 5 Reasons Why Relationships Should be Your Top Priority, relationships are what make your life beautiful. The greatest feeling of fulfillment doesn’t come from your achievements; it comes from your relationships.
5. Work
   This area deals with your career and achievements. This is the output of your life; your productivity is measured here. If you want to be a productive person, you should increase your output in this area.

These five areas serve as a framework for me to build my life on. What I want is strong and balanced growth in all these areas. To grow my life in all of them, I allocate my daily time around them. I have my blocks of time for spirituality, mind, body, relationship, and work. Whenever I feel that I under develop one area, I will put more effort to it.
I have used this framework for months and I do feel the benefit. Again, the key is balance.


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106 Tips to Become a Master Connector

To succeed, who you know is just as important as what you know. In fact, relationships should be your top priority. The book Never Eat Alone talks about how to apply the timeless principles of relationships in the 21st century. It contains a lot of practical tips on how you could thrive in today’s world through your relationships. It’s one of the best books I read recently.
To give you the only gems, I’ve summarized what I learn from the book into 106 tips. Put these tips into practice and you will be a master connector who live a successful and fulfilling life:

1. Make other people more successful Real networking is about finding ways to make other people more successful. It is sharing your knowledge and resources, time and energy, friends and associates, and empathy and compassion in a continual effort to provide value to others, while coincidentally increasing your own.
2. Work hard to give more than you get
   It’s the value you bring that makes people want to connect with you. All this takes work. It means you have to think hard not only about yourself but also about other people.
3. Don’t keep score Don’t think of relationships as finite. In fact, it’s the exercising of equity that builds equity. There is no score to keep when abundance leads to even more abundance.
4. Remember that the key to success is generosity The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.
5. Find your mission in life
   Intersection of your talents and desires is your “blue flame”. Which activities excite you the most, where you don’t even notice the hours that pass?
6. Be specific about what you want The more specific you are about what you want to do, the easier it becomes to develop a strategy to accomplish it.
7. Make setting goals a habit
   Something as simple as a clearly defined goal could distinguish you from all others. The kind of discipline that turns a dream into a mission, really just comes down to a process of setting goals.
8. Create a Relationship Action Plan There is a process involved in building a network. Your Relationship Action Plan consist of three sections:
   1. Your goals up to three years from now in three months increments.
   2. Names of people that could help you reach each goal.
   3. Strategies to reach the people you list in point 2.
   Once you have your plan, post it in a place where you will see it on regular basis.
9. Create a Personal “Board of Advisors”
   It helps to have enlightened counselors who will hold you accountable. They are your Personal “Board of Advisors”.
10. Build your network before you need it Reach out to others long before you need anything at all. The most important thing is to get to know those people as friends, not as potential customers.
11. Start connecting with the people you do know
    At the outset, concentrate on the people who are already part of your existing network.
12. Be bold
    Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Audacity was often the only thing that separated two equally talented men and their job titles.
13. Be willing to ask
    Nothing in your life could create opportunity like a willingness to ask, whatever the situation. Until you become as willing to ask for help as you are to give it, you are only working half the equation. Remember that the worst anyone can say is no.
14. Balance your fear Mustering the audacity to talk with people who don’t know you often simply comes down to balancing the fear you have of embarrassment against the fear of failure. It’s between choosing risk and striving for greatness, or risking nothing and being certain of mediocrity.
15. Treat people with respect Treat people with respect up and down the ladder.
16. Be transparent
    Openness has become a valuable and much-sought-after attribute.
17. Make friends Those who are best at it don’t network – they make friends. A widening circle of influence is an unintended result, not a calculated aim.
18. Do your homework
    Spectacular achievement is always preceded by spectacular preparation. Whom you meet, how you meet them, and what they think of you afterward should not be left to chance.
19. Be informed about whom you meet
    If you are informed enough to step comfortably into their world and talk knowledgeably, their appreciation will be tangible. The idea is to find a point of common ground that is deep and rich. Then you’ll have an opportunity to bond and impress.
20. Find out others’ interests Find a way to become part of those things that are of most interest to them, and you will have found a way to become part of their life.
21. Don’t eat alone
    Food has a unique ability to facilitate conversation. Eating with other people is an effective way to build relationships.
22. Organize and manage your information
    The successful organization and management of the information that makes connecting flourish is vital. If you’re organized, focused, and a stickler for taking names, there’s no one that’s out of reach.
23. Make lists
    Create lists in your own categories (such as potential customers, potential acquirers, etc) that correspond to your goals. When you make such lists, it’s important you name the actual decision makers, and not just an organization.
24. Know the most important players in your field To make your goals possible, map the most important players in your field. Write down a list of “influentials” in that field.
25. List the people you already know
    Take time to list the people you already know such as: relatives, current colleagues, people you went to school with, former teachers, former employers, and so on.
26. Be flexible in organizing your information
    The way you organize your lists can be fluid. You could have lists by geographical location, by industry, whether they’re acquaintance or friend, and so on.
27. Use other people’s lists to make your listsOne great resource for making lists is other people’s lists. Newspapers and magazines do rankings of this sort all the time.
28. Create “aspirational contacts” list Another category you might want to add is “aspirational contacts”. These are those extremely high-level people you want to know someday.
29. Just plunge right in to cold call
    When you are about to cold call, your fears will never be completely quieted. The trick is to just plunge right in. Envision yourself winning to win. You have to view getting to know new people as a challenge and an opportunity.
30. Be persistent Frequently, people won’t get back to you when you call or write them. You have to put your ego aside and persist in calling or writing. It is up to you to take the initiative. Sometimes, you have to be aggressive.
31. Make warm calls
    Use these four rules for warm calling:
    1. Convey credibility: mention a familiar person or institution.
    2. State your value proposition: what can you do for them?
    3. Impart urgency and convenience: in most instances, the sole objective of the cold call is to get an appointment.
    4. Be prepared to offer a compromise: go big at the outset, leaving room for compromise.
32. Make the gatekeeper an ally rather than an adversary
    Treat the gatekeepers with the dignity they deserve. Never, ever get on their bad side.
33. Never, ever disappearIn building a network, remember: Above all, never, ever disappear. Invisibility is a fate far worse than failure.
34. Work hard to remain visible and active Keep your social and conference and event calendar full. You must work hard to remain visible and active among your ever-budding network of friends and contacts.
35. Clone an event
    You have to work hard to be successful at reaching out to others, but it doesn’t mean you have to work long. Clone an event to save time. You clone an event by inviting all the people you want to meet to join you.
36. Have fun Building network should be fun, not time-consuming.
37. Share your passions Shared interests are the basic building blocks of any relationship. When you are truly passionate about something, it’s contagious.
38. Emphasize on the quality of time Friendship is created out of the quality of time spent between two people, not the quantity.
39. Follow up or fail
    When you meet someone with whom you want to establish a relationship, take the extra little step to ensure you won’t be lost in their mental attic. Follow-up is the key to success in any field.
40. Do your first follow up soon Give yourself between 12 and 24 hours after you meet someone to follow up. E-mail is a fine tool for dropping a quick note.
41. Don’t forget to do your second follow-up In a month’s time, drop the person another e-mail, just to keep in touch.
42. Spend your time at conferences to meet people An all-too-common misperception is conferences are places to find insight. Wrong. Conferences are good for mainly one thing: they provide a forum to meet like-minded people.
43. Be a conference commando
    Don’t just be an attendee; be a conference commando. A conference commando is prepared in advance with information on who they were to meet, how, and where.
44. Give speeches Giving speeches is one of the easiest and most effective ways to get yourself remembered.
45. Collect as many follow-ups as you canDon’t be the persons that shadow their best friends the entire conference. Collect as many follow-ups as you can.
46. Connect with super-connectors Some people know many, many more people than the rest of us. Such people should be the cornerstones to any flourishing network. Once you become friendly with a super-connector, you’re only two degrees away from thousands of different people.
47. Get as many acquaintances as you can Often the most important people in our network are those who are acquaintances. Why? Because our close friends seldom know information that we don’t already know. The more acquaintances you have, the more powerful you are.
48. Know people from many different worlds The key is not only that we know thousands of people but that we know thousands of people in many different worlds, and we know them well enough to give them a call.
49. Exchange your network with someone else’s The most efficient way to enlarge your circle of friends is to connect your circle with someone else’s.
50. Create your own host committees
    Politicians have what are called “host committees”: group of well-connected people in their respective worlds. If you want more access to a world, see if you can find a central figure within that world to act as your own one-person host committee.
51. Build your “verbal fluency” “Verbal fluency” – the ability to confidently make conversation with anyone in any situation – is a common trait among the most accomplished people. “Getting-along skills,” more than anything else, determined who got ahead.
52. Be yourself
    When it comes to making an impression, differentiation is the name of the game. One guaranteed way to stand out: be yourself. Charm is simply a matter of being yourself. Your uniqueness is your power.
53. Use the power of vulnerability Vulnerability is one of the most underappreciated assets in business today. The power of the vulnerability principle in the art of making small talk is surprising.
54. Talk from your heart When you realize the best icebreaker is a few words from the heart, the act of starting a conversation becomes far less daunting.
55. Learn the power of nonverbal cuesYou have about ten seconds before a person decides, subconsciously, whether they like you or not. In that short period of time you don’t exchange a lot of words; their judgment is mostly based on nonverbal communication.
56. Develop conversational currency
    Be prepared to have something to say. Keep up with current events. Cultivate some niche interest.
57. Learn to listen One should seek first to understand, then to be understood.
58. Always remember the other person’s nameNothing is sweeter to someone’s ears than their own name.
59. Be sincere
    The surest way to become special in others’ eyes is to make them feel special.
60. Try to find out what motivations drive the other person In your initial conversation with someone, try to find out what motivations drive that person. It often comes down to one of three things: making money, finding love, or changing the world.
61. Help someone accomplish his or her deepest desires
    Initial invitation is just to connect strongly enough with other people to help them address the issues that matter to them most.
62. Make yourself indispensable to othersReal power comes from being indispensable. Indispensability comes from being a switchboard, parceling out as much information, contacts, and goodwill to as many people – in as many different worlds – as possible.
63. Start thinking about how you’re going to make everyone around you successfulWhen someone mentions a problem, try to think of solutions. The solutions come from your experience and knowledge, and your tool kit of friends and associates.
64. Take the initiative to help Don’t wait to be asked to help. Just do it.
65. Be a knowledge broker Performing social arbitrage when your financial and relational resources are thin is actually not too big a hurdle. The solution is knowledge. The ability to distribute knowledge in a network is a fairly easy skill to learn.
66. Be interested to others’ success You can be more successful in two months by becoming really interested in other people’s success than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in your own success (Dale Carnegie).
67. Ping all the time 80 percent of building and maintaining relationships is just staying in touch (or “pinging”). Pinging takes effort. You have to keep pinging and pinging and pinging and never stop. You have to feed the fire of your network or it will wither or die.
68. Repeat and repeat again Becoming front and center in someone’s mental Rolodex is contingent on one invaluable little concept: repetition.
69. Create a rating system
    One way to make maintaining easier is to create a rating system for the network that corresponds to how often you reach out. For example:
    1. A “1″ gets contacted at least each month.
    2. A “2″ gets a quarterly call or e-mail.
    3. A “3″ gets reached at least once a year.
70. Integrate pinging into your workflow The important thing is that you build the concept of pinging into your workflow.
71. Be personal Always try to make any message as personal as possible.
72. Don’t forget birthdays Birthdays should be one of your favorite pinging occasions.
73. Get anchor tenants for your dinner parties We all have developed relationships with older, wiser, more experienced people. They are “anchor tenants”. Get them to add a little electricity to your dinner party.
74. Be interesting Virtually everyone new you meet in a situation is asking themselves a variation on one question: “Would I want to spend an hour eating lunch with this person?”
75. Be a person of content Content involves a much more specialized form of knowledge. It’s your differentiation. It’s the message that will make your brand unique. Have a unique point of view.
76. Be relentless in learning and presenting your content What will set you apart from everybody else is the relentlessness you bring to learning and presenting and selling your content.
77. Acquire content from someone else’s
    On some occasions, you can acquire content by simply appropriating another person’s innovative ideas and become a leader in distributing and applying those ideas.
78. Develop your own content On other occasions, you have to develop the content from scratch. That means taking all the disparate dots of information and connecting them in a way others have not.
79. Get the attention Once a resonating pitch is perfected, getting attention is less of a problem. Simply give the press what they need: great stories.
80. Be an expert The easiest route to become content creators is by expertise.Do what experts do: teach, write, and speak about your expertise.
81. Teach what you want to learn There’s no better way to learn something, and become an expert at it, than to have to teach it.
82. Use stories to communicate your content Powerful content communicated in a compelling story can energize your network to help you achieve your mission. In your stories, use emotion to convince your doubters.
83. Have a personal brand
    A powerful brand – built not on a product but on a personal message – is a competitive advantage. Good personal brands do three things: they provide a credible, distinctive, and trustworthy identity.
84. Be distinct or extinct Your brand articulates what you have to offer, why you’re unique, and gives a distinct reason for others to connect with you.
85. Focus on adding value To become a brand, you’ve got to become relentlessly focused on what you do that adds value. That means going above and beyond what’s called for.
86. Develop your Personal Branding Message What do you want people to think when they hear or read your name? Your positioning message should include a list of words that you want people to use when referring to you.
87. Package the brand Looks count, so you’d better look polished and professional. And why not create a personal Web site?
88. Broadcast your brand
    If you don’t promote yourself, no one else will. Like it or not, your success is determined as much by how well others know your work as by the quality of your work.
89. Start building relationships with the media You have to start today building relationships with the media before you have a story you’d like them to write.
90. Trumpet the message, not the messengerAll your efforts at publicity need to feed into your mission, not your ego.
91. Do collaborative writing If you have any writing skills at all, you can get close to almost anyone by doing a piece on them, or with them. By writing collaboratively, you’re expanding your network exponentially with contacts that otherwise might have seemed out of reach.
92. Write articles Writing articles can be a great boost for your career. It provides instant credibility and visibility.
93. Be a good writer by keep writing To become a writer: “Write, then write some more. When you’re done – and here’s the kicker – keep writing.”
94. Go for the big names
    Are you only connecting with field mice? If you are, start turning your attention to reaching out to the sort of important people that can make a difference in your life and the lives of others.
95. Build trust to get close to power Trust is the essential element to get close to power; trust that you have no ulterior motives behind your approach; trust that you’ll deal with them as people and not as stars.
96. Join associations
    There is an association for everything. If you want to meet the movers and shakers directly, you have to become a joiner.
97. Build your own club Sometimes all clubs that seemed worth attending have their doors closed. There’s no reason not to build your own. Figure out what your unique selling proposition is, and start an organization. Invite those people you want to meet to join you.
98. Be humble
    Arrogance is a disease that can betray you into forgetting your real friends and why they’re so important. Be humble in your hike up the mountain. Help others up the mountain along with and before you.
99. Reach back to your past Reach back into your past regularly to touch base with the folks who have meant so much to you since you were a kid.
100. Find mentors
     Finding a talented, experienced mentor who is willing to invest the time and effort to develop you as a person and a professional is far more important than making career decisions based purely on salary or prestige.
101. Learn from many people There isn’t just one special person to be all things at all times. Mentors are all around you.
102. Build a successful mentoring relationship A successful mentoring relationship needs equal parts utility and emotion. Utility means promising something in return to your mentor. Emotion means your mentor becomes emotionally invested in your advancement.
103. Find mentees
     As much as you stretch yourself by reaching up, be sure you are stretching just as far to reach back and help others. You can learn so much from your mentees.
104. Hold your principles Connecting should advance, rather than compromise, your principles. Your determination to connect with others should never come at the expense of your values.
105. Don’t try to balance your professional and personal life Balance is a myth. Real connecting insists that you bring the same values to every relationship. As such, dividing your life between professional and personal spheres no longer made sense.
106. Build close relationships How many people can walk into your homes and just open up the fridge and help themselves? It is close relationships like these that keep you well-adjusted, happy, and successful.

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5 Things Smart Learners Do that Others Don’t

Being a learner is a must. But what kind of learner should we become? Fast learner? Being fast learner is good, but it’s not enough. Fast learners are just efficient (“do the things right”) but not effective (“do the right things”). What we need is becoming smart learners who are both efficient and effective.
I once wrote that the most important skill in this fast-changing world is “the ability to choose what to learn and to learn them quickly”. Smart learners master this skill well because they are able to both choose what to learn (which makes them effective) and to learn them quickly (which makes them efficient).

In this post I’d like to dig deeper to what smart learners do that others don’t. Smart learners:

1. Sample broadly and learn selectivelyTo be able to pick only the best stuff to learn, first of all smart learners figure out what all the available options are. They do so by sampling broadly. They look at a lot of different topics and get a glimpse of what those topics are about. After knowing what the available options are, they selectively choose a few topics to learn further.
2. Have a sense of current and future trendHow do they select the topics they are going to learn? This is where their anticipation engine comes into play. To be able to select the right topics to learn next, smart learners have a sense of current and future trends. They know how to anticipate the future. This ability helps them pick the right topics to learn.
3. Know when to stop
   In learning something, smart learners know when to stop. They will learn something only as long as the return they get is higher than the value of time they invest. They understand that diminishing returns applies.
4. Know how to use Pareto principlePareto principle says that 80% of the results comes from 20% of the causes. This principle has actually been used in step 1 when smart learners sample broadly but learn selectively. Smart learners also use this principle to figure out the 20% part of the material which will give 80% of the knowledge. They will then concentrate their effort on that 20% part. This way they can achieve their purpose in the shortest possible time.
5. Know how to use Parkinson’s law
   In The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris pointed out that Parkinson’s law can be used in conjunction with Pareto principle to increase our effectiveness. While using Pareto principle smart learners limit what they learn only to the most important things to save time, using Parkinson’s law they limit the time for learning to make sure that they learn only the most important things. They make sure that they allocate only enough time to grasp the most important parts of the topic without being distracted by the less important parts. One way to apply this is using timer to limit the learning time.

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Measure What You Want to Improve

There is an important principle I learned from Gleb Reys: That which is measured, improves. Like Gleb, I believe that this principle is important for our self-improvement. If you want to improve yourself in certain area, you should find ways to measure your progress in that area.
Here are two reasons why you should measure what you want to improve:

1. Your mind will be aware of every single opportunity to improveMeasurement makes your mind focused on your goal. Such focused mind is crucial for achieving real, significant, progress.
   For example, have you ever experienced that when you buy something new (like a car or cell phone) you suddenly see that many people also own the stuff you buy? It’s not that suddenly many people buy the same stuff you bought. It’s because your mind filter information based on whether or not it is important for you. Since you now own the stuff, the information which was filtered out is now considered important and passes the filter.
   Similarly, when you measure your progress in certain area, your mind will be focused on it. Clues which escaped your attention in the past will now be clear right in front of your eyes. You will be aware of even the most subtle clues of how you can improve yourself in that area.
2. You will be aware of where you currently are and how far you are from your goalYou will know your exact position, not based on your feeling or assumption, but based on hard facts. You can then take the necessary actions to improve yourself. Just like a business should based its actions on facts and not mere feeling and assumptions, you should also do the same. Remember, in this flat world you are also a business. Besides, how do you know that you actually move forward if you can’t even measure it?

Now that you’ve seen the importance of measuring what you want to improve, here are six steps you could do to use it for your personal growth:

1. Know the kind of progress you want to achieveFirst of all, you should know the kind of progress you want to achieve. Do you want to improve your health? Do you want to achieve financial freedom? Whatever it is, it should ideally be related to your life purpose.
2. Find the right metrics that clearly measure it
   You should find the right metrics to measure the progress you want. This is a tricky step. You should be sure that the metrics you choose really represent the progress you want to achieve.
   For example, how do you measure your progress toward financial freedom? Simply using your income is not the right metric; bigger income doesn’t necessarily mean you’re closer to financial freedom. A better metric would be your passive income, since it’s your passive income that determines whether or not you are closer to financial freedom.
3. Set goals based on the metricsAfter determining the metrics you want to use, you should set goals based on them. The goals should be specific. State clearly what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it. A sample goal might be “earning $1000 a month in passive income by the end of this year”.
4. Measure how you are doing
   After determining the metrics and the goals for those metrics, you should then measure periodically how you are doing.
5. Review your progressTo know how far you are from your goals, you should review your progress regularly. Compare your progress with your goals to see whether or not you are on track to achieve your goals. Do a reality check.
6. Take the necessary actions
   Your review should give you a glimpse of how good you are doing so far. You can then take the necessary actions to put yourself on track to achieve your goals. For example, you might decide to find a new source of passive income to achieve your goal of financial freedom.

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9 Lessons Richard Feynman Taught Us About Creativity

If there is a scientist who could teach us about creativity, it must be Richard Feynman. He was a Nobel Laureate who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. But aside from just a scientist, he was also a very creative person. He often found ideas in unusual ways. The idea which earned him the Nobel prize for example, originally came when he watched a plate wobbled in the cafetaria.
In addition, he was also known for his creativity in teaching physics. His famous work, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, makes him regarded as one of the greatest teachers in physics.
As I look into his book Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman and the video The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, I find 9 lessons Richard Feynman taught us about creativity:

1. Be curious about anything
Feynman was curious practically about anything. He was curious about how dreams work, how smart ants are, how to play Brazilian music, how to speak Japanese, how hypnosis works, and so on. He was simply unstoppable. This, of course, is in addition to his deep curiosity in physics itself.
2. Be bold to try something new
Once when he came to Japan for a conference, he was placed in a Western hotel. But, out of his curiosity of the Japanese culture, he boldly asked to be moved to a Japanese hotel. Aside from just staying in the hotel, he did as many things as possible according to the Japanese culture. He also boldly practiced his Japanese in all occasions to the amazement of his colleagues.
3. Be playful
Once Feynman was given offers by some universities. Each offer expected him to accomplish something important in physics. Regarding this he said:
“Physics disgusts me a little bit now, but I used to enjoy doing physics. Why did I enjoy it? I used to play with it. I used to do whatever I felt like doing–it didn’t have to do with whether it was important for the development of nuclear physics, but whether it was interesting and amusing for me to play with.”
So eventually he decided:
“I’m going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever.”
Within a week after this decision, he was in a cafetaria and watched a guy throwing a plate in the air. He watched the wobbling plate, and this gave him an idea which eventually earned him the Nobel prize.
4. The pleasure should be in finding things out
Talking about honors, Feynman said:
“I don’t need prize from others. I already get the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding things out, the observation of the people use it. Those are the real things. Honors are unreal for me. I don’t believe in honors. Honors bother me.”
Your pleasure should be in finding things out, not in honors.
5. Be brutally honest
Feynman was brutally honest about what he thought. He openly expressed what he thought without being intimidated by situations or other people’s reputation. As a result, other scientists – even the senior ones – respected him. This attitude also made everyone get to the right solutions sooner.
This was clearly shown when one day at Los Alamos, the famous physicist Niels Bohr asked him to have discussion with only him and his son. Amazed by the fact that the “great Bohr” asked him to discuss, he asked Bohr’s son for explanation:
Then the son told me what happened. The last time he was there, Bohr said to his son, “Remember the name of that little fellow in the back over there? He’s the only guy who’s not afraid of me, and will say when I’ve got a crazy idea. So next time when we want to discuss ideas, we’re not going to be able to do it with these guys who say everything is yes, yes, Dr. Bohr. Get that guy and we’ll talk with him first.”
I was always dumb in that way. I never knew who I was talking to. I was always worried about the physics. If the idea looked lousy, I said it looked lousy. If it looked good, I said it looked good. Simple proposition.
6. Get so deep that you forget about anything else
When he was a graduate student at Princeton, he got outstanding audience for his first seminar. The audience includes famous physicist Wolfgang Pauli, great mathematician John von Neumann, and a giant no less than … Albert Einstein. He openly admitted that knowing such audience would attend his first talk really made him pale. But, when he started delivering his talk, he forgot about all his nervousness and seamlessly delivered the talk. He wrote:
I remember very clearly seeing my hands shaking as they were pulling out my notes from a brown envelope.
But then a miracle occurred, as it has occurred again and again in my life, and it’s very lucky for me: the moment I start to think about the physics, and have to concentrate on what I’m explaining, nothing else occupies my mind–I’m completely immune to being nervous. So after I started to go, I just didn’t know who was in the room. I was only explaining this idea, that’s all.”
When he got into something, he got so deep into it that he forgot about anything else.
7. Provide solid length of time
You need to provide solid, uninterrupted length of time to do creative works. Feynman said:
“While working on physics, it’s very important to be in solid length of time. It needs a lot of concentrating. It’s like building house of cards. It’s a tower, and it’s easy to slip. Once there is interruption, the house of cards fall and you must start all over again. And you may build different house of cards than the first.”
8. Aim for simplicity
Real creativity won’t make things more complex. Instead, it will simplify them. Feynman found it true in physics. He said, “The deeper the law we found in physics, the simpler it becomes.” It should also be the true in other areas. There is beauty in simplicity.
9. Really know what you do
There is a sad phenomenon: many people claim that they know something while they actually don’t:
“Nowadays there are many myths and pseudo-science, where people claims to be “experts” on something without doing the necessary steps. I can’t believe they know it because they haven’t done all the works necessary, the checks necessary and the care necessary.”
It’s not easy to really know something. In fact, it might be much more difficult than you think:
“I know how hard it is to get to really know something; how careful you have to be about checking the experiments; how easy it is to make mistakes and fool yourself. I know what it means to know something.”

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Quote of the Day: A Practical Way to Put Your Principles into Practice

To personally grow, there is essentially a two-step process you should follow:
1. Know the right principles to follow 2. Put those principles into practice
Knowing the right principles is the easy part. You can do so by reading books and blogs, or conversing with others. The hard part is putting those principles into practice. Many people stop at the first step and do not do – or only occasionally do – the second step.
There is one way you can do to make it easier to put your principles into practice, and that is by creating your personal quote of the day.

Here are the steps to do that:

1. Create your personal list of quotesWhenever I get ideas and insights, either from my readings or from my own thoughts and experiences, I always write them in my journal. I’ve had this habit for years and as a result, I have quite a lot of materials in the journal. Since I usually write the ideas and insights I get in short statements, the journal actually serves as my personal list of quotes.
   I’d suggest following similar process to create your personal list of quotes. The important thing to remember is the quotes in the list should be meaningful to you. They should be something that really inspire you. It won’t be effective if you just collect random quotes from many people. How can you put those quotes into practice if they aren’t even meaningful to you?
2. Create a candidate list of quotes
   Out of your personal list of quotes, choose some quotes which resonate most with you at the time. These are the quotes you think are the most important to put into practice. They will become your candidates for quote of the day and I suggest putting them in a separate candidate list. I usually choose these candidates in my weekly review when I review my personal list of quotes.
   If your personal list of quotes is still relatively short, you may skip this step and directly use your personal list of quotes for step 3.
3. Select your quote of the dayFrom your candidate list (or your personal list of quotes, if it’s still relatively short), in the morning choose one quote as your quote of the day. The quote you choose should be the one you think is the most important to put into practice today.
4. Think of practical ways to apply the quoteNow that you have chosen your quote of the day, you should think of ways to practically apply it during the day. If it is necessary, you can also put them into your to-do list.
5. Do the things to apply the quote
   This is the main purpose of choosing quote of the day. Your goal is application. It’s useless if you choose quote of the day just to reflect on it without taking any real action.

Make this a habit, and after several months you will realize that you have put many of your principles into practice. Do this for years, and your personal growth will be significant.

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