Daily mindset work under Monthly Method where you look for the thoughts that make you act on your tasks from the positive emotional state
It’s confession time. It took me 8 years to finally create an analog Scrum board for myself. I’ve been using Agile for my personal goals for years. However, building an analog Scrum board took forever. Why did it take me so long? My main excuse for not using an analog Scrum board was that I …
You set a goal. Plan out desired actions. But when it’s time to do the work, you don’t want to do it. You feel resistance. And you start talking yourself out of it. Sounds familiar? Meet The Boogeyman Technique that will help you stick with the desired behavior and ultimately achieve your goals. Traditional advice …
How to stick to your goals: The Boogeyman Technique Read More »
Confession time. Over the past 3 years, I came to the conclusion that habit-building as a goal is, for most people, a counter-productive activity. I know… a scandalous opinion in the personal productivity world. It will take some time to lay out all my arguments against habits as goals. But let me start with the …
Sturgeon’s Law states that 90% of everything is crap. It applies to books, restaurants, TV shows, movies, tweets, YouTube videos, and everything else humans produce. I spent some time thinking if it was true in my life. And… I tend to agree. When was the last time you encountered something outstanding? Something that was so …
Step off the hamster wheel with Agile and Sturgeon’s Law Read More »
Let’s dust off what’s left of high school math, shall we? Logarithms. Remember such a thing? A logarithm is the power to which a number must be raised in order to get some other number. Source: University of Minnesota Log10 (1) = 0 Log10 (10) = 1 Log10 (100) = 2 Log10 (1000) = 3 etc. …
My friend works with billionaires. He says their net worth can usually be traced down to a few decisions they made over their lifetime. It’s never about hard work and long hours. It’s about making good strategic decisions. Intrigued by my friend’s conclusion, my husband and I discussed our own net worth. Even though we are …
If you live in North America, the moment you announce to your friends you are pregnant, they start asking when you are going to host a baby shower. But if you didn’t grow up in North America, the whole idea of a baby shower seems strange. What is the baby shower for? The baby is …
Years ago I read Tao Te Ching for the first time. What a treat! Since then, it became my personal bible. I read it cover to cover at least once a year. And every time I find something new, profound and surprisingly helpful. It helped me to navigate my first people management role. It helped …
The phrase that’s been on my mind for the past 7 years Read More »
It’s that time of year when a lot of us are thinking about new year’s resolutions. I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to think about next year. But there are some common problems that I see with the traditional way of setting new year’s goals. I decided to dedicate the rest of December to addressing …
Applying Agile to New Year’s Resolutions – Part 1 Read More »
For this sprint, I am working on something hard and time-consuming. I have just one goal for this sprint – to create a free workshop that I will host in the near future. The workshop is about three steps that you can do in order to launch your project in three months or less. I’m …
A lot of my clients are working on launching a creative side project. I had clients launch podcasts, YouTube channels, blogs, etc. And they often ask me for advice on how to consistently come up with creative ideas. Creative ideas require you to stop consuming. Creativity is when you create something. This is the opposite of consuming. …
Let’s talk about external accountability and how it can help in achieving your goals. External accountability is the secret sauce behind so many services. Personal trainer and coaches When you hire a personal trainer, it’s not necessarily their knowledge that gives your results. The main reason why personal trainers can be so effectives is that they …
I finished my master’s degree a few years ago. It was a two-year program. I was able to finish it in 5 semesters instead of six. I later learned that a lot of my classmates had to stay longer than six semesters. That made me think about some of the strategies that helped me finish …
Strategies I used to finish master’s degree early Read More »
When the idea of time blocking is brought to mind, one cannot help but think of time boxes that must be strictly followed. What if we instead used the idea of flexible time blocking? Well, you might raise your eyebrows, but hear me on this one. Strict time blocking for busy seasons of life In my …
A New Way to Look at Time Blocking: Flexible Time Blocking Read More »
In continuation of the topic of agile concepts, I would like to delve deeper into an interesting idea that will be helpful in the workplace and our personal lives: Sprint Capacity. We will go through how it works in agile teams. Also, we will tackle how it can be implemented in our personal productivity. How …
I want to share a mind trick that I use myself when I’m starting new habits. This mind trick helps me to come back and do this activity again, therefore increasing the chances of it actually sticking and becoming a habit. Everything is hard before it is easy A few years ago I heard this …
Mind trick for starting new habits and building consistency Read More »
Building a productive habit can sometimes be a struggle. One of my previous clients asked me recently — “How many sprints does it usually take to build a habit?” I usually divide my habits into two groups. The first one involves those habits that you do on a daily basis, and the other group is …
Let’s talk about winter and how you can use this otherwise miserable time to your advantage. Let’s take a new look at winter – it is the best time to build productive habits. Regardless of where you are in the world, you certainly have a strong opinion of how brutal winter can be. Love it …
This is the method that I use when I’m in a dark time of my life. When there is burnout. When the mood is simply not there. When a regular to-do list doesn’t work me. This tool is great for when you don’t have any motivation. You’re so tired even to be thinking about complicated …
I’ve received a question from one of my podcast listeners, “What is your opinion about motivation? Is it helpful or is it just temporary?” I think it’s definitely helpful. It is temporary but my overall opinion is that the importance of motivation is highly overrated. I think motivation is a trend that is popular right …