Archive for posts tagged ‘motivation’
Getting Organized
Kevin Day, February 9th, 2009I just stumbled on Randy Pausch’s Time Management lecture from November, 2007. He didn’t present anything overly unique, but his overall presentation style and credibility made me think twice about my own organization. He not only knew of a lot of small productivity tricks, but I got the impression that he stuck to them very well.
Some of the highlights:
- Plan
- Organize your paper files
- Have a to-do list ordered by importance
- Do the to-do items that are important, regardless of when they are due (don’t do the unimportant ones)
- Inbox zero
- Make a schedule that fits your naturally productive times
- Write thank-you cards
- Completely clean your desk except for the one thing you’re currently working on
- Track your time
- Kill your TV
I’m doing a couple of these I’m doing already, but there’s a lot more I can improve upon. I think just seeing him as an example of how successful one can be is enough inspiration to get more organized.
The Effect of Inspirational Quotes
Kevin Day, October 21st, 2008I’m sitting here reading my notes from a Toastmasters conference I went to on Saturday. It was a fun event with great speakers and informational sessions on how to improve my public speaking.
Tonight though, I’m less inspired by the great quotes from the speakers as I was when they delivered them. I guess that’s understandable, but it would be nice if I could also be inspired by a quote at 10:00 at night. I think I need inspiration the most when I’m not surrounded by other ambitious people and have to make the tough decisions myself.
Model for Success
Kevin Day, April 13th, 2008I stumbled on this motivational article and I like it’s perspective on success and failure.
This is the traditional way of relating success and failure:
SUCCESS <– YOU –> FAILURE
But this is the way it really works, and is how you should view success and failure:
YOU –> FAILURE –> SUCCESS
FTA:
What if, rather than seeing failure as something to be avoided, it became a “stepping stone” on the path to success? Put another way: Yes is the destination, but “no” is how you get there. To achieve significant success in today’s world, top performers do not see success and failure – yes and no – as opposites, rather opposite sides of the same coin that depend on each other.
