What Makes the Difference Between Winners and Losers?

It’s an important question. What makes some people get ahead in life while some others not? While other factors such as luck also play role, I believe the single most important element that makes the difference between them is consistency of doing small things everyday.
Let’s take an example in the case of writers. Writer A consistently writes 2 hours everyday, while writer B writes 2 hours only every other day due to his inconsistency. In one week, writer A will have spent 14 hours in writing while writer B will have spent only 7 hours. That is 7 hours difference in only one week. Let’s see how the numbers (in hours) evolve over longer period of time:

Time	1 Week	1 Month	1 Year	5 Years	10 Years
Writer A	14	56	728	3640	7280
Writer B	7	28	364	1820	3640
Difference	7	28	364	1820	3640

Can you see the difference? Though both writers start at the same time, in only one year A will already be ahead of B by 364 hours. The distance between them gets further and further as time passes. After 10 years, A can no longer see B on the horizon since B will already be left behind by 3640 hours! Imagine what A could have achieved that B couldn’t because A has an extra 3640 hours. That’s a big, big difference. And remember, such huge difference comes only from A being consistent while B is not.
That’s why daily habits are very important. What you do daily might seem small, but overtime it will make huge difference. Do you know how success is built? Here it is:
Success is built inch-by-inch, everyday.
Other people might despise what you do daily since it seems small. Anyway, it’s only one inch, what’s so important about it? People like to see something big, they don’t like to see such small thing. But there’s something they forget: that one inch you build daily will become a “hill” in one year, and a “mountain” in ten years.
 
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Productivity Search Engine – Productivity Resources at Your Fingertips

Following the development in personal productivity field could be cumbersome. There are simply too many good resources out there than what I could possibly follow through my feed reader. So what can I do?
One solution I can think of is creating a “knowledge base” of personal productivity resources. The “knowledge base” should contain information from multiple sources in one place which can easily be searched to find exactly what I need.
That’s why I create the Productivity Search Engine (PSE). It’s a Google Custom Search Engine which is designed to search 50+ productivity blogs at once. These blogs are select blogs taken from Zen Habit’s Top 50 Productivity Blogs with some additions from me.
Unlike the normal Google Web Search, this search engine limits the results only from those 50+ productivity blogs. Since newest ideas and trends often come from blogs instead of other kind of web sites (due to blogs’ very democratic nature), I believe PSE could give you better results on productivity topics.
If you are a blogger interested in productivity topics, the benefit of using PSE is even more obvious: you can quickly figure out what other bloggers have said about certain productivity topics. This will make you look even more knowledgeable in front of your readers :). And you can do that in very short time.
Please check it out. It’s very useful for me (I use it extensively to do research for this blog) and I hope it’s also useful for you.

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Internet Diet Anyone?

I’m in the midst of a bandwidth crisis these days. As I wrote before, my current Internet connection has a quota of 1,000 MB per month. Up till now I’ve used 880 MB with still one week to go. Needless to say, such situation puts me in unintentional Internet diet.
Despite the incovenience, I can see the positive side of it. There are at least two benefits for me:

1. I use my online time to do only the importantThe unimportant stuff is automatically eliminated; there is no bandwidth for it. This is the direct effect of Parkinson’s law, though the limited resource in this case is bandwidth instead of time.
2. I reduce noise in my life
   Internet diet automatically means that less information is entering my life and thus less noise.

Of course, there are still other benefits which I wrote in 5 Reasons Why Less Internet is Good for Me (and You), but these two  currently resonate the most with me. I especially feel the benefit of reduced noise. Reduced noise means higher clarity, and I love it. Combining ”doing only the important” and “higher clarity” means increased effectiveness for me.
Now, just in case you are interested to start your own Internet diet, here are two ways to do it:

1. Limit your online timeYou can allocate certain amount of time to go online, after which you should end your Internet session and go offline. One tool that can help you is Cool Timer. Set a duration in Cool Timer and let it counts the time down for you.
2. Limit your bandwidth usageAlternatively, you can limit your bandwidth usage. One tool that can help you is NetMeter. Go to its Options menu, open the Graph tab, and check Show UL/DL totals. Your total bandwidth usage will be shown all time. You can reset it daily if you want to.

Choose the one that works for you. In my case, the first option might not work well since I often need to do web research which takes time. It is the second option which I currently use (though unintentionally).


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How to Get the Most Out of Your Books

Reading a (nonfiction) book is one thing, but getting the most out of it is another thing. Too many people only reach the surface of the book and never really get into the treasure that is hidden below it. Or maybe they get a portion of the treasure, but they lose the chance to get the whole treasure.
How do you know that you get the most out of a book? You get the most out of a book when it significantly improves your life to the greatest possible extent. Because of that, an important goal of reading books is getting actionable ideas. To get the most out of the books, you should then put those actionable ideas into action.
Here are some steps you can do to get the most out of your books:

1. Preview the book you want to read
   Before spending too much time on a book, you should know whether the book is worth reading. Preview the book by reading its cover, introduction, table of contents, and skimming through the chapters.
   Besides helping you decide whether a book is worth reading, previewing also helps you be familiar with the structure of the book. It helps you understand the big picture of the book so that whatever you read later can be put in the right context.
2. Decide your purpose and the depth of your reading
   If you think the book is worth reading, you should then decide your purpose of reading the book. Your purpose states the kind of actionable ideas you expect from the book. Is there a problem you expect to be solved? Is there an area in your life you expect to be improved?
   Next, you should decide how deep your reading will be. It deals with the amount of time you are willing to spend on the book. The more actionable ideas you think it has, the deeper your reading should be.
3. For each chapter you read:
   1. Preview the chapter
      Go through the titles, subtitles, and pictures in the chapter. Just like previewing the book, previewing the chapter builds your familiarity with it and helps you put the details you get later in the right context.
   2. Quick read the chapter
      Next, you can quick read the chapter. This step fills in the details of the context you build in the previous step while giving you a glimpse of which might be the important ideas.
   3. Reread to highlight important ideas in the chapter
      This time you reread the chapter to decide which are the important ideas of the chapter. I’d suggest highlighting the important ideas you find. I personally use two kinds of highlights, one for important ideas and another one for very important ideas.
4. Create the book map
   After reading the whole book, I’d suggest creating a book summary of your own. Creating a book summary helps you internalize the ideas you get.
   The first part of such summary is a book map. A book map maps the structure of the entire book. Normally you can just use the table of contents as the book map, but don’t use a very detailed table of contents. The purpose of a book map is to quickly give you a glimpse of the structure of the book. Too much details may distract you from the big picture.
5. Write the ideas you get from each chapter
   Next you can write the ideas you get from each chapter by simply looking at your highlights in that chapter. Remember, your goal is to get actionable ideas, so you should focus on them. Writing the ideas you get helps you further internalize those ideas.
6. Write the main ideas you get from the entire book
   A good books often contains a lot of actionable ideas, so the list of ideas in step 5 may be too long to act upon effectively. You should then have a separate list for the main ideas from the entire book. This list helps you focus on the most important ideas so that it will be easier for you to apply them.
   If you use two kinds of highlight I mention in step 3.3, you can get the main ideas of the book by simply looking at your ‘very important’ highlights.
7. Create next action list
   Application is what puts you ahead of 90% or more other people who just read the book but do not apply what they learn. In fact, application is key. Actionable ideas are useless if you do not put them into action.
   To help you apply what you learn, decide what actions you will do to apply it. Look at your list of main ideas (step 6) to decide what the most important actions are.
8. Integrate the next action list into you master next action list
   After creating your next action list of the book, you can then integrate it into your master next action list. If you use GTD, I’m sure you have a master next action list. By putting the actions for the book there, the application of the book is now integrated into your daily workflow.

Don’t forget to be flexible. You do not need to apply all these steps to every book you read. For not-so-important books you can eliminate some steps. The more important a book is, the more steps you should use. ‘Important’ books are those which have bigger potential of changing your life.
Using these steps, you dot not just read the book; you mine it.


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4 Ways Timer Can Help You Boost Your Productivity

Timer could be one of the most effective weapons in your productivity arsenal. Adam Pash from Lifehacker for example, always has a timer handy to help him get things done. And he indeed accomplishes a lot of things (how many of you can write as many popular software and articles as him?).
So, to help you recognize the importance of timer, here are four ways timer can help you boost your productivity:

1. It sets a minimum limit of time to get you start working
   If you find it difficult to start working on something, timer can help you focus on doing it for at least a minimum amount of time. Since you tell your mind that you are going to work on it for just a certain amount of time, it will be much easier for your mind to focus.
2. It sets a maximum limit of time to not overspend your time
   On the other side, if you tend to spend too much time on a task, timer helps you limit the amount of time you spend on that task. This way you can be sure that you will have enough time to get other things done.
3. It gives you a sense of urgency that increases your intensity
   Using timer imposes deadline on what you do, and as a result your intensity in working will increase. Your mind will be focused on getting the task done in that limited amount of time. As a result, you will trim the fat and do only the essentials to get the task done. This actually is Parkinson’s law at work.
4. It allows you to “budget” your time which ensures that each task gets its time
   By using a timer you can allocate the amount of time you will spend on your tasks. You can then budget your time to be sure that you use your time in the best possible way to get all tasks done. It works in the same way as budgeting your financial resource helps you ensure that all your financial needs are met in the best possible way.

So, looking at those 4 ways, whenever you need any of these:

1. get yourself start working,
2. prevent your time from being overspent,
3. increase your working intensity, or
4. ensure that each task of yours gets its time,

just remember that timer can come to the rescue. Give it a shot.
Tips:
CoolTimer is simple timer software you can use for free.


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How to Figure Out the Most Important Book to Read Next

Just like you should start your day by doing the most important task, you should start your reading by reading the most important book. Take the book which is not just interesting, but also has the biggest potential impact on your life. Take the book which has the biggest potential return for your investment of time.
So how do you figure out the most important book to read next? Here are some steps:

1. Find information about available books First of all, you should know what books are available. There are many ways to find a book to read. You might read book review in the newspaper, see a book mentioned in a web site, or get a book recommendation from a friend. You can also check the best seller list at Amazon and New York Times, or the new release list at Amazon. For old books, you can check Gutenberg’s Top 100 or Recent eBooks list. Whenever you find a book that might be interesting, find more information about it to help you decide whether or not you want to read it.
2. Maintain a Someday list
   When you decide that you want to read a book, put it into your Someday list. As its name shows, the Someday list contains the titles you’d like to read someday. In my case, this list is actually part of the Someday/Maybe list in my GTD system. You could have as many titles as you want in the list. Just don’t forget to review the list regularly.
3. Maintain a Candidate list When you review your Someday list, you might find that some of the books are more important than the others. You can then put those books into another list which I call Candidate list.
   This list contains the titles you seriously consider to read next. To make it easier for you to compare the titles, I’d suggest keeping the Candidate list short to less than 10 titles. Just like Someday list, you should also review your Candidate list regularly.
4. Pick a book from the Candidate list Since there are less titles in the Candidate list, it should be easier for you to compare the relative importance of those titles. You can then decide which one is the most important book to read next.

Using these steps, it’s very likely that the book you eventually pick is indeed the most important book. Of course, you need to remain flexible. Sometimes, a book can quickly rise from the Someday and Candidate list to become the most important book. On the other hand, you might also find that some books are no longer of interest that you delete them from the lists.
The goal here is using your reading time in the best possible way. You should avoid impulse reading as you should avoid impulse buying. Just like a shopping list helps you prevent impulse buying, your Someday and Candidate lists help you prevent impulse reading.


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How to Develop Your Ideas Exponentially

Believe it or not, ideas develop exponentially. The more ideas you have, the more ideas you will generate, both in term of quantity and quality. In human history, we have a phenomenon called technological acceleration. Do you know that the technological advancements in the last century is more than those in the thousand years of previous history combined? That happens because innovations and ideas develop exponentially. Now I will show you why.

If I have two ideas – A and B – I can only derive one new idea from those which is AB. If I have three ideas – A, B, and C – I can derive four new ideas which are AB, AC, BC, and ABC. If I have four ideas – A, B, C, and D – I can then derive eleven new ideas which are AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, CD, ABC, ABD, ACD, BCD, and ABCD.
To give you clearer picture of the exponential effect, here are the numbers above and some more:

• 2 ideas generate 1 new ideas.
• 3 ideas generate 4 new ideas.
• 4 ideas generate 11 new ideas.
• 5 ideas generate 26 new ideas.
• 6 ideas generate 57 new ideas.
• 7 ideas generate 120 new ideas.

This numbers help explain technological acceleration. Innovations in the last century is more than all those in the previous history combined because the recent civilization has more “raw ideas” and “raw innovations” to begin with.
The same thing applies to your personal life. The more ideas you have, the more new ideas you will get. The virtuous cycle begins, and your ideas will develop exponentially.
How can you start this virtuous cycle and develop your ideas exponentially? Here is a key characteristic of ideas:

Ideas are cross-pollinating The example above gives us good illustration. A and B are two different ideas, but if we cross pollinate them by interconnecting them, we will get a new idea which is AB. So:
The key to develop new ideas is getting different ideas and then interconnecting them.
Here are some simple steps you can do:

1. Develop multiple passions This step gives you the different ideas you need. I’ve written that the way to live a rich life is by developing portfolio of passions. Don’t narrow yourself to only one passion. Expand yourself and develop your multiple passions. If you are too focused to only one area, it is unlikely that you will develop fresh ideas for that area. Remember that ideas are cross-pollinating. You need ideas from different fields which can enrich one another. Plant and grow different flowers in your garden of life, and they will cross-pollinate.
2. Be observant
   Now that you are developing multiple passions to get different ideas, you need to be observant to catch those ideas. Instead of passively waiting for ideas to come and catch your attention, you should actively search them in your daily life. Be hungry to catch the hidden ideas in your daily experiences. Never let the ideas in your surroundings go unnoticed, even if they try to hide from you.
3. Always write down you the ideas you get Once you catch an idea, never let it go. Capture them permanently by writing them down. You should do it as soon as possible because some ideas can easily disappear within one minute or less. For this reason I always bring a piece of paper and a pen wherever I go (see 4 Simple Ways to Never Lose Your Ideas). When I get an idea, I will quickly write them down in the paper. I don’t want to risk losing that idea.
4. Review your ideas regularly
   This is just as important as writing the ideas. What’s the use of writing the ideas if you never review them? This simple step greatly helps you interconnect your ideas. Reviewing your ideas makes them stick in your memory and makes them ready to be cross-pollinated with other ideas.
   Later when you read something or encounter something in your  daily life, you may suddenly remember, “Wait. I can apply this to that, right?” And there a new idea is born.

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