“Untouchable Days have become my secret weapon to getting back on track. They’re how I complete my most creative and rewarding work. To share a rough comparison, on a day when I write between meetings, I’ll produce maybe 500 words a day. On an Untouchable Day, it’s not unusual for me to write 5,000 words. On these days, I’m 10 times more productive.”
“A huge source of burnout is the feeling that we’re not accomplishing the things that we want to accomplish — we’re pushing and pushing and pushing, but somehow getting less done. To correct for this, try evaluating your activity based on impact, rather than effort for effort’s sake.”
“Becoming acutely lonely, the experiment found, was as stressful as experiencing a physical attack. It’s worth repeating. Being deeply lonely seemed to cause as much stress as being punched by a stranger.”
“With a clean slate in front of me, I reevaluate. I decide whether I still want all these elements in my life. If so, I think about why and I recommit with clearer purpose. If not, I decide when and how to make my resignation permanent.”
“Progress gets harder to measure the closer you get to the middle of a project. In that nebulous middle zone, the finish line is still too far away to see.”
“You probably didn’t realize this, but we have been sitting incorrectly the majority of our lives. And it’s making our bodies stressed.”
“What makes us feel liberated is not total freedom, but rather living in a set of limitations that we have created and prescribed for ourselves.”
“Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.” — Helen Keller
Start your day with a pledge to become the person you want to be.
“When it comes to careers, society is like your great uncle who traps you at holidays and goes on a 15-minute mostly incoherent unsolicited advice monologue, and you tune out almost the whole time because it’s super clear he has very little idea what he’s talking about and that everything he says is like 45 years outdated.”