Power Reading

I found this helpful-  3 Strategies To Read What's Relevant by Kirby Ingles:

Have you ever felt frustrated when reading a book, because you intend to finish it and cross it off your to-do-list, but the author is dragging out the material?

Do you ever feel like the author is trespassing on your time, because you feel bound to complete their book, but it’s daunting.

How many books have you stopped reading because you lost the desire or motivation to press on?

ere are three strategies, pre-reading, scanning, and skimming, that can solve your problem.

Pre-Reading Can Be Your Secret Weapon

Pre-reading resembles reviewing an itinerary or an agenda. Pre-reading gives you better results because you are preparing your mind for the material. When you pre-read you can easily see where the author is going from beginning to end.

Begin by reading the title and subtitle. Sometimes, but not every time, it’s a great idea to review the publication date and author’s bio. If expertise and time matter, this can be pertinent information. This may be a make or break deal, if you are researching something. This can save you valuable time and credibility.

Then, review the table of contents the author has provided you and outline there. Sometimes they include subheadings to chapters, which provides additional insight.

Next, begin by flipping through the pages reading the headings and subheadings of each chapter. Think about these headings and subheadings as cues or reminders of what’s surfacing. I call these power statements and they keep you zeroed in on the theme or main idea.

Pre-reading is the first strategy you should go to. Although you completed all these steps and you’re beginning a fresh chapter, you should also entertain the headings and subheadings of the previous chapter and the next chapter. It has likely been a few days or weeks since you pre-read the book and this gives your brain a little bit of a jolt. Again, you are gearing up for a better understanding of the material.

After I’ve read a book, I post-read. Finally, turning back through and reviewing all the chapter titles, headings and subheadings, is a good way to commit the material to memory.

There is creative reading as well as creative writing. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Scanning Can Save You Time

Scanning is the most widely used technique that I use. I use this strategy when seeking new information by rummaging through content, looking out for cues or phrases. You will use this when you have a good handle on a topic and you’re checking for additional information or new insights. Maybe you are not interested in the author’s ideas, but a specific point for research.

During my graduate level pursuit in counseling, I have read up on Freud a lot, but I already know a good share about Freud. When Freud emerges in the material I scan over it. Only slowing down to read new, relevant information I haven’t read before.
You should ask yourself the question, “How does this enhance the conversation?” as you are scanning information in the book you are reading.

In the last three textbooks I’ve bought, Freud is mentioned in each one and is usually reintroduced like I haven’t heard of him before. I don’t blame the author, because they are clueless of the level of knowledge the reader has. This is where scanning is key. Bypass the irrelevant information you already have a good handle on and only read the chapters or paragraphs that heighten your preexisting knowledge.

I’ve read a lot of self-help and personal-growth books. Many of them feed off the same ideas and concepts, therefore I don’t read the entire book. By rereading you’re not acquiring any new or relevant information, but rather you should be attempting to increase knowledge. How do you figure that out? By reading the first and last chapters. Once you’ve done this, you can strategically scan the book by using the information you gained from pre-reading to attack certain areas of the book. If you didn’t find anything enlightening about the book after reading the first and last chapters, then it’s probably not a great idea to delve deeply into it.

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. – Rene Descartes

Skimming Can Help You Standout

Skimming is a valuable tool and can be performed when you have limited time to consume information. The purpose of skimming is to understand the content conceptually. You really do not require a deep understanding of the material, but you just need the nitty-gritty upfront. You are skipping over stories, charts, explanations and majority of the conversation the author is trying to have with you, because all you have enough time for is the overarching concept.

You can skim when you’re standing in line at the pharmacy, riding on the subway, or just before a meeting. You may already be skimming newspapers and magazines each day, watching for current events and small pieces of data to use in your daily conversations. You might skim to refresh before a test or call up the ideas in your mind that you studied for several weeks.

When you skim you should only read the introductory and closing sentences of each paragraph. While doing this you can also read keywords, anything highlighted, and information in italics or bold, because authors usually do this to convey an importance to understanding the concept.

In conclusion, these strategies are productive, time-management strategies used for a specific purpose as shown above. I still hope you continue reading books front to back, but know that using these strategies along the way will help you read more books. The practices in this post have helped me read 18 books already in 2015, which is one more than all the books I read last year.

100 Useful Websites

Interesting list at Life Hack - The 100 Most Useful Websites on the Internet.

Unwanted Solutions

Important Decisions

The Perfect Day

Some good ideas on prioritizing and scheduling in How to Have the Perfect Day by Bruce Harpham at Life Hack

How can we make our work days more effective? The specific details will like vary depending on your industry and responsibilities, but there are still universal hacks we can all apply.

The infographic below suggests a number of excellent ways to perfect your work day. Let’s explore a few of the important ideas. Sleep sets the foundation, so make sure that you get 7-9 hours per night. When you cut sleep time, everything in life and work becomes more difficult.

Next, exercise before work because daily exercise improves your performance at work. Take small breaks throughout the day – no matter what work you do, breaks are important (for more tips like this, read: 21 Counter-Intuitive Break Ideas to Boost Your Productivity at Work).

Early in the day, choose one difficult task to get done – completing the hardest work done early makes the rest of the day will be easier to handle. And to finish the day on a strong note, record daily wins.

After all, the perfect work day has at least one win – an accomplishment that you are proud of. Take a few minutes to write down your wins in a journal at the end of the day (or in Evernote).

What if you want to improve your work day even more? Simply add two more habits to your routine: generate ideas and adopt a robust problem solving strategy. Developing new ideas at work makes you stand out from others who simply go through the motions, so take the time to generate new ideas on a regular basis.

Next, solve problems effectively by applying a problem solving strategy to all those surprise requests you keep receiving from your boss and other people.
It is easy to be overwhelmed by the all the suggestions. Do yourself a favor and start small – pick just one idea and put that into action.

Becoming A Better Communicator

Found this good piece on becoming a better business communicator at Life Hack:  Not A Communicative Person At Work? You Will be After Reading This by Karima Mariama-Arthur. She says:

Are you an effective communicator at work? If not, there’s no shame in admitting this, especially since there’s a lot that you can do about it. Even if you are simply hesistant about speaking up, you can actually add value by learning to become a more effective, engaged, and confident communicator using a few tried and true tips.

Consider the following five ways to hone your communication skills at work:

1. Become a better listener

When people think about becoming a better communicator, listening is usually not the first thing that comes to mind. However, before you can raise your communication IQ, you must first learn to become a better listener. By listening in earnest to what others think, feel, and expect, you can learn to craft your message more effectively. Too often people dimiss this idea and simply focus on crafting responses to what others are saying, rather than listening with the intent to learn and connect more deeply.

2. Focus on connecting with others

We’re humans and by definition, “we’re meant to connect,” says Lucidity CEO and communication expert Michele Gilliam Morrissey. We need human interaction and for reasons that range from biology to sociology, connecting with others is what the survival of our species requires. Social media and technology may have revolutionized the way that we communicate and of course we may even enjoy them. However, they cannot replace the warm, intimate, and interactive conversations that have fueled our need to be connected.

By focusing on connecting and developing rapport with others, you lay the foundation for trust, which allows you to communicate more effectively and capture the undivided attention of your audience.

3. Don’t be defensive

All great minds don’t necessarily think alike. And when they don’t, sometimes conflict can ensue. However, you can make the choice in advance not to become defensive and graciously allow others to express differing opinions without getting upset or lashing out. Also, because maintaining an open, positive, and collegial work environment is critical to supporting the lines of communication, being defensive is actually one of the least effective kinds of postures to assume. It also puts everyone else on edge, which is counterproductive.

4. Begin with the end in mind

Every opportunity to communciate, is an opportunity to become more effective and achieve specific goals. Get clear on which goal you are trying to accomplish before you begin. It’s easy to get sidetracked once an conversational exchange begins, but if you know which points you need to cover – even if you have to write them down – then you will be far more successful than if you haphazardly muddle your way through the conversation.

Additionally, if you begin to run short on time, you have the option of tabling your point(s) until the next available opportunity without sacrificing the meat of the discussion. You will also feel like you are making progress because you are keenly focused on achieving specific outcomes.

5. Step outside your comfort zone

Becoming a more effective communicator may require you to step outside of your comfort zone to become better. Maybe you are used to keeping quiet during critical discussions at work for fear that your ideas may be rejected. But why not begin to speak up and become part of needed solutions, instead of leaving them for others to solve?
Maybe you could benefit from communication training, but fear getting constructive feedback from others. If so, why not encourage yourself to be vulnerable and challenge yourself to grow for the greater good? Your ability to communicate will certainly improve and over time, the process won’t feel so uncomfortable, which is its own reward.....

Read the rest at the link

Build A New Habit

I'm spending some time meditating on these ideas - How to Build a New Habit: This is Your Strategy Guide by James Clear

According to researchers at Duke University, habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviors on any given day.

Understanding how to build new habits (and how your current ones work) is essential for making progress in your health, your happiness, and your life in general.

But there can be a lot of information out there and most of it isn’t very simple to digest. To solve this problem and break things down in a very simple manner, I have created this strategy guide for building new habits that actually stick.

Even more detailed information is available in my free guide, Transform Your Habits, but the basic principles mentioned in this article will be more than enough to get you going.

1. Start with an incredibly small habit.

Make it so easy you can’t say no. —Leo Babauta

When most people struggle to stick with a new habit, they say something like, “I just need more motivation.” Or, “I wish I had as much willpower as you do.”

This is the wrong approach. Research shows that willpower is like a muscle. It gets fatigued as you use it throughout the day. Another way to think of this is that your motivation ebbs and flows. It rises and falls. Stanford professor BJ Fogg calls this the “motivation wave.”

Solve this problem by picking a new habit that is easy enough that you don’t need motivation to do it. Rather than starting with 50 pushups per day, start with 5 pushups per day. Rather than trying to meditate for 10 minutes per day, start by meditating for one minute per day. Make it easy enough that you can get it done without motivation.
Further reading: Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals

2. Increase your habit in very small ways.

Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
—Jim Rohn

One percent improvements add up surprisingly fast. So do one percent declines.
Rather than trying to do something amazing from the beginning, start small and gradually improve. Along the way, your willpower and motivation will increase, which will make it easier to stick to your habit for good.

Further reading: This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent and Here’s What Happened

3. As you build up, break habits into chunks.

If you continue adding one percent each day, then you’ll find yourself increasing very quickly within two or three months. It is important to keep each habit reasonable, so that you can maintain momentum and make the behavior as easy as possible to accomplish.

Building up to 20 minutes of meditation? Split it into two segments of 10 minutes at first.
Trying to do 50 pushups per day? Five sets of 10 might be much easier as you make your way there.

Further reading: I’m Using These 3 Simple Steps to Actually Stick with Good Habits

4. When you slip, get back on track quickly.

The best way to improve your self-control is to see how and why you lose control.
—Kelly McGonigal

Top performers make mistakes, commit errors, and get off track just like everyone else. The difference is that they get back on track as quickly as possible....

More ideas at the link. Read it all there.