vault backup: 2026-01-05 13:03:55

03_Resources/Productivity/Busy is a choice productive is a skill.md

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+https://seths.blog/2019/11/busy-is-a-choice-productive-is-a-skill/
+
+Productivity, on the other hand, has little to do with busy. 
+Productivity requires bringing soft skills (real skills) to the table in service of the generous work you seek to do. 
+Productivity is learned. And productivity takes guts.

03_Resources/Productivity/Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset.md

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+http://dantawfik.com/craftsmanship-the-alternative-to-the-four-hour-work-week-mindset-1
+
+What is missed in all of this is the mindset of craftsmanship; that one’s expertise and deliberate focus on one’s craft is actually the primary driver for success and not some crapshoot of a series of hacks.
+
+What happens on the periphery — whether it be the towel slapping we see on Twitter from tech celebrities or headline gossip out of TechCrunch — is not actually meaningful as a foundation of a business or a profession. Neither are the number of coffee meetings you have scheduled or the amount of networking meetings you attend. These things are tertiary at best, and at worst, just plain old distractions.
+
+To be successful over the course of a career requires the application and accumulation of expertise. This assumes that for any given undertaking you either provide expertise or you are just a bystander. It’s the experts that are the drivers—an expertise that is gained from a curiosity, and a mindset of treating one’s craft very seriously.
+
+You have to take an interest in these domains because there is no one else to fill these roles in your early stage company
+
+You’re not simply working on the idea in front of you, you’re building the knowledge to succeed at your next projects as well.
+
+Startup graveyards are full of visionaries without expertise or the proper skills to execute, for no other reason than ideas are not self executing, but are rather made into being by intense engagement by skilled operators.
+
+If you are to optimize for anything, optimize for the long term. Use the challenges of your business today to build mastery in your craft. There is no guarantee that any one venture will succeed, but that mastery will bend luck in your favor over the long course of your career.
+

03_Resources/Productivity/How to Be a Productive Powerhouse Using Time Blocking.md

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+Tags: [[Article]] [[Productivity]] - [[Scheduling]] [[Time Blocking]]
+Author: [[Charlie Gilkey]] 
+From: https://www.productiveflourishing.com/time-blocking/ 
+
+## Highlights:
+
+Rather than thinking about time in an open, unstructured way, I approach time blocking by figuring out a coherent daily structure with four different kinds of blocks based upon the type of activity done in those blocks.
+
+Focus blocks are 90–120 minute blocks of time where you’re especially creative, inspired, and able to do high-level work that requires focus. Admin blocks are 30–60 minute lower-energy blocks of time where you’re not in the zone to do the work that requires heavy lifting, but there are still other types of work you can do effectively. Social blocks are 90–120 minute blocks of time where you’re primed and energetically in the right space to meet with other people. Recovery blocks are variable-length blocks of time that you use for exercise, meditation, and self-care.
+
+most people have a hard time creating and using more than three per day because of distractions, interruptions, daily routines, and a lack of intention
+
+Focus blocks fuel your highest-value deep work. No focus blocks, no finished deep work. It’s really that simple
+
+rather than thinking in terms of hours required to get something done, you can just count the focus blocks you have available. Anything over ten hours starts to become hard for us to deal with because it gets amorphous and hard to visualize, but five blocks is easier to understand because we can think about the chunks of the projects we can do in that amount of time.
+
+it’s the same amount of energy in a different configuration, but the configuration makes all the difference
+
+You may also need to use focus blocks for projects and work that look like admin but actually require a good bit of strategizing, thinking, problem-solving, or wordsmithing to get right
+
+Pushing too many focus blocks leads to creative burnout. It’s quite common for people to have a four- or five-block day, only to drag for the next few days and wonder what’s wrong.
+
+Consistent progress is better than fits and starts.
+
+The number of focus blocks you have available is the limiting factor to how quickly and steadily you’ll be able to make progress on your high-value creative projects
+
+anything that supports the deep work but isn’t the deep work itself
+
+Admin blocks give you time to reflect upon your work, and they create space and context for things to gel. Knowing that there will be admin blocks allows you to stress less about all the admin work that does need to be attended to. There’s a time and a space for everything. Well-positioned admin blocks make it easier to catch the frogs because that task is confined to smaller periods of the day.
+
+Focus blocks are focused on creating something, whereas social blocks are focused on connecting with someone.
+
+Productivity is about more than getting stuff done — it’s about using your resources in ways that bring about the most value in your life.
+
+I usually will speak of social blocks as social/service blocks to remind people that real-time service hours are social blocks.
+
+
+they make for great bookends to other blocks because most of us honor commitments to other people more than we honor commitments to ourselves
+
+Focus, admin, and social blocks are energy output blocks,
+
+we actually need to be more intentional about them than about any of the other blocks precisely because we’re over-focused on output.
+
+What’s more important than the type of activity is what the activity does for you. A major upshot to acknowledging and using recovery blocks is that it allows you to find dead zones in your day that can be repurposed for recovery
+
+As a general rule, plan on a recovery block for every two focus or social blocks.
+
+recovery blocks can also be a good follow-on to a focus block since focus blocks are often the most taxing of the blocks.
+
+Don’t go longer than two Focus and/or Social blocks back to back without a Recovery block. You need to recharge, and the work and the people you’re meeting with will benefit more. Put your Focus blocks where you have the best creative energy. If you’ve filled out the Productivity Heatmap, red and orange times are where your Focus Blocks should go. Put your Social blocks where you’re most fit for human consumption. Note that you can be red/orange in the morning for solo work but not for meeting with folks. Avoid putting an Admin Block first thing in the morning, but if you must, be intentional about processing it, looking only for items that are relevant for the day. Recovery Blocks are the wildcard — I highly suggest a morning routine that includes some combination of movement, eating, meditation/prayer, and planning/intention-setting. Night owls still benefit by starting with self-care. As best you can, be consistent with the times you’re putting your blocks in. For instance, if your best creative time is from 9 a.m.–12 p.m., try to have two creative blocks per morning every workday. If you’re most fit for human consumption in the afternoon, try to schedule your meetings for the afternoon. This will help you get into good grooves, improve your habit-building, and give you some powerful defaults that limit decision-fatigue. Chores and commutes are closest to Admin blocks, so you can give them time as such. That said, feel free to create Commute or Chores blocks if that makes the most sense for you.
+
+In general, people struggle the most with finding/creating Focus blocks, with the real root cause being that it’s harder to claim time for ourselves than to give it to others.

03_Resources/Productivity/Productivity.md

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+### Notes
+```dataview
+table file.ctime as Date from "300-resources/Productivity"
+sort file.name
+```

03_Resources/Productivity/The language of SMART goals 5 ways to fix your bad goal-setting habits.md

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+https://blog.rescuetime.com/smart-goals-examples/
+
+
+SMART goals framework dictates that your goals should be: 
+- ==Specific: You know exactly what needs to get done. There’s no ambiguity or vagueness in how and when your goal will happen==
+- ==Measurable: You have a meaningful and motivating way to track progress and measure your results. You’ll know if you’ve hit your goal 80%, 100% or missed the mark entirely.==
+- ==Achievable: You’re not shooting for the moon (unless you think you can realistically hit i==
+- ==Relevant: You’re working towards something that is worthwhile, timely, and deeply connected to your own skills and long-term goals. You’ll be motivated to work towards this goal.==
+- ==Time-bound: There are clear start and end dates you’re working towards. (It’s important to note that SMART goals are most useful for more short-term goals—one month to one year).==
+
+On the surface, SMART goals are great at ensuring you don’t fall into bad goal-setting red flags. For example:  Hastily choosing a number or metric to go after without thinking it through. For example, saying you want to increase sales by 40% without having a reason why that’s the metric and goal to go after. Glossing over how other teams will be involved. For example, saying that you’ll build a new feature without involving your product team. Missing a crucial step along the way. For example, agreeing on a clear first step and final result but not knowing how you’re going to get from A to B.
+
+1. Replace “should” with “will” In her book The Crossroads of Should and Must, artist Elle Luna describes the word should as a non-commitment. “Should” is a non-starter for your goals. Instead, be specific and use action words like “will”.  For example, “By the end of the week, I should will finish and send the final website design to my client.” 
+
+2. Change “soon” to a specific timeline Despite time-bound being a large part of the SMART goal system, many people are afraid to commit to an actual specific date. But your goals lose power if they don’t have an end date.  For example, “I will send 10 cold emails to prospective clients soon by 4pm on Wednesday.”
+
+3. Switch “need to” to “want to” Saying you “need” to do something frames your goal in a negative way. Instead, saying you “want” to do it is a much more positive way to stay motivated. (This is mostly when talking about personal goals. In the workplace, there are many situations where you “need” to do something).  For example, “I need to want to wake up at 6:30 am each morning so that I can go to the gym before work.” 
+
+4. Replace “quit” with “stop” While your goal might be to change a behavior, saying you want to “quit” has all sorts of negative connotations that can get in your way. No one wants to feel like a quitter (even if they want to quit something). Instead, say you’ll “stop” doing it.  For example, “For the next 3 weeks, I will quit stop eating lunch at my desk and take a proper break.”
+
+5. Change “Never” to a specific action Few things turn us off from doing a task like feeling overwhelmed and pressured. When you say you’ll “never” do something again, you’re putting an inordinate amount of pressure on yourself and will be more likely to give up or procrastinate.  Instead, set in place a replacement action for the thing you want to “never” do again.  For example, “I will never be late add a 15-minute buffer in between my meeting slots each day so I won’t be late for the Monday morning stand up meeting again.”
+
+1. Spending more time on meaningful work
+
+SMART goal: “Every day this week, I will work on our new marketing site redesign from 8:30 – 10:30 am without interruption.”  Why this works: Not only does this goal set a clear timeline and expectations, it does so in a positive way that is realistic and easy to stay motivated towards. Each day, you know what you’re doing, when you’re going to do it, and why it matters.
+
+SMART goal: “I will schedule 2 hours on Thursday afternoon to personally email 10 people I’m already connected with on LinkedIn and ask them if they have 15 minutes to talk about their career path and how I should move forward.”  Why this works: This SMART goal answers all of the key questions—what you’re going to do, when, the process you’re going to use, and what you expect out of it. Additionally, it does so in a positive and motivating way, turning a big, audacious goal into something manageable.
+
+SMART goal: “Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6:30–8:30 pm, I will work towards the Responsive Web Design certificate course on freeCodeCamp.”  Why this works: This SMART goal leaves nothing unclear. You know the skill you want to learn, how you’re going to learn it, and when and where that will happen.
+
+SMART goal: “I will set a RescueTime Alert to notify me when I’ve spent more than 20 minutes on work tasks outside of the workday to help build a habit of leaving work at work.”  Why this works: Clarity is key. This SMART goal includes the specific process you’re going to take as well as the reasoning behind why you picked this goal in the first place.