1: We stare at the screen.

“Slowly and painstakingly formulating half a sentence, reading it over, deeming it to be inadequate, deleting it, staring at the screen some more, then trying again,” Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations for Mortals.

The writing coach Stephen Lloyd Webber once noted that it’s ironic that we call this activity “writing,” since much of our time is spent not writing, not deleting what we’ve … continue reading

1: The goal? To be more productive and less stressed.

Google productivity expert  Laura Mae Martin believes there is one simple thing we must do.

Make a list of every open loop we currently have in our brains.  

Personal. Professional. Projects. Deadlines. Ideas. To-Dos of all types and flavors.

“If we do only one thing from this entire chapter, it should be this,” Laura writes in her book Uptime: A … continue reading

1: There were two teams of lumberjacks.  

“Some were told to work smart and fast, but no pressure, do your best,” writes Steven Kotler in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.

“Others were given quotas. This much wood for a good week of work, this much wood for a great week,” he writes. 

“It’s important to note that there was zero financial reward given for meeting these … continue reading

1: Lumberjacks.  

The researchers divided this ferociously independent group into teams. “Some teams were told to work smart and fast, but no pressure, do your best,” writes Steven Kotler in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.

“Others were given quotas. This much wood for a good week of work, this much wood for a great week,” he writes. “It’s important to note that there was zero financial … continue reading