“Find joy in everything you choose to do. It’s your responsibility to love it, or change it.” — Chuck Palahniuk
Ask somebody if they’d like to do work they love every day, they will say yes.
Ask those same people if they currently do work they love every day, most will say no.
They assume the only way to do work you love is to find somebody to pay you to do it.
But that’s not true.
Nothing stops you from doing work you love for at least 10 minutes a day.
And if you’re not doing that, you can’t ever expect anybody else to pay you to do it.
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. FIVE WAYS TO MAKE YOUR DAY 5X BETTER RIGHT NOW
“A day you do a thing you’ve avoided will always be better than a day you don’t.”
Your day’s about to get better.
At least it will if you read this post I wrote featuring five ways to make your day 5x better right now.
My suggestions include to do one impactful thing you can complete today, one thing you regret not doing yesterday, and one thing to pleasantly surprise somebody else.
2. WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE TOO MUCH TO DO
“Pick one thing, and give it your focus. Yes, there are a lot of other things you can focus on. Yes, they’re stressing you out and making it hard to focus. But think about it this way: if you allow it all to be in your head all the time, that will always be your mode of being.”
If you feel overwhelmed by everything you have to do, this can help.
Leo Babauta breaks down what to do when you have too much to do and suggests you follow a simple four-step process including to triage, focus on one thing, schedule time to simplify, and practice mindful focus.
If you struggle with focus, you may also want to check out my list of 8 ways to improve your focus.
3. THIS SHOULD BE POSTED ON THE WALL OF EVERY BUSINESS
“Never try to be cool. Only try to be good.”
david hieatt is the co-founder of Hiut Denim and The DO Lectures.
He recently shared his list of 27 things the last 10 years taught him that hangs on the wall of his old factory.
It’s an inspiring list that includes gems like, “If we can’t do the basics amazingly well, nothing else will matter,” and “We all work for this company but make sure this company works for you.”
4. HOW TO WRITE IN A WAY THAT MAKES PEOPLE FEEL SMART
“Good communicators make themselves look smart. Great communicators make their audiences feel smart.”
Does your writing make people feel smart or dumb after they read it?
Shane Snow explains how to write in a way that makes people feel smart and points out the most successful writing typically is written at a lower reading level than you might expect (which makes it easy to understand), but presents material in ways that make readers feel smarter after consuming it.
5. HOW TO FACT CHECK AN ARTICLE IN 30 SECONDS
“Think of it as information hygiene, the metaphorical handwashing you engage in to prevent the spread of misinformation.”
It’s easy to blame Facebook and Russians for the misinformation that plagues the world right now, but it’s time the public who shares this stuff also accept some blame.
Mike Caulfield has put together this simple breakdown of how to fact check an article in 30 seconds and if more people did so, we’d be a lot better off.
6. YOU’LL MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES UNTIL YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THEM
“Admitting mistakes, first to ourselves, and then to others, allows us to channel our energies into self-improvement rather than waste them on covering up our human frailties.”
The more likely you are to admit your mistakes, the less likely you are to repeat them.
Thomas Oppong examines why you’re prone to repeat mistakes you don’t acknowledge and suggests ways to overcome confirmation bias and grow from your mistakes.
7. 10 DAILY MINDSETS AND HABITS TO HELP YOU WRITE A BOOK
“Nearly all writing is influenced by other people’s work. Finding your unmistakable voice is often the results of borrowing ingredients from other people and coming up with your recipes.”
In the past five years, Srinivas Rao has published four books and countless articles and blog posts.
In this post he shares the 10 daily mindsets and habits that helped him accomplish that including how he organizes ideas, handles getting stuck, and establishes an environment conducive to success.
8. TO PRODUCE GREAT WORK, YOU MUST CONSUME GREAT WORK
“The consumers’ philosophy is simple: if you want to increase the quality of your work — your output — you must increase the level of your inputs.”
This may technically be a short book, but it’s really more of an experience.
Consumers is a book/website created by Harry Dry to explain where great ideas come from.
I’m not going to tell you anything else about it because it’s worth discovering for yourself.
9. 22 WEIRD BUT PROFOUND LIFE LESSONS
“Don’t let a quick decision ruin everything you’ve built for yourself. Keep saying no to things that don’t serve you.”
It feels like just about every week I feature another person’s life lessons, but what can I say? There’s a lot of people sharing a lot of wisdom out there these days.
This week, Tim Denning offers up 22 weird but profound life lessons including that one sentence text messages can be surprisingly meaningful, keeping old clothes around the house will remind you of your former self, and showing one person one thing makes you a coach.
10. HOW CANCELLING EVERYONE’S STUDENT DEBT COULD HELP THE ECONOMY
“If the government were to forgive all the student debt it owns (which makes up more than 90 percent of all outstanding student debt), and bought out all private holders of such debt, a surge in consumer demand — and thus, employment and economic growth — would ensue.”
Here’s something interesting to think about that won’t ever happen.
New York magazine shares the results of a new study which suggests cancelling everyone’s student debt would help the overall economy.
The research suggests canceling all student debt would increase GDP by between $86 billion and $108 billion per year, over the next decade, add between 1.2 and 1.5 million jobs to the economy, and reduce the unemployment rate by between 0.22 and 0.36 percent.
WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF
I discovered some of this week’s ideas from the newsletters of Storythings, Hackerpreneur, Postanly, Creative Mornings, and Austin Kleon — they’re all awesome and worth your time.
This week’s header photo comes from James Pond.