The Subtle Art of Choosing Joy (and Getting More Done).
Why Loving Your Life Might Be the Most Practical Productivity Hack...
Productivity advice for the week:
Finding the Reason for Loving Your Life
If you want to, you can find a million reasons to hate life and be angry at the world. Or, if you want to, you could find a million reasons to love life and be happy. Choose wisely. - Cari Welsh
Last week I spoke on here about agency.
The concept of you happening to life instead of life happening to you.
I came across the above quote last week, and it has really reinforced my beliefs about this concept.
So much of life is how you perceive it.
Fuck me, that sounds really wishy-washy.
The point is events and actions in your life will change simply through perception.
The other day I was wearing a digital backpack in Milton Keynes train station for six hours…
(for money… to be clear)
And no, it wasn’t the most exhilarating experience, but I met some really cool people, have some awesome stories and made a bit of cash.
When I woke up on the day (and I will do this for the further three days I am doing this job), I said to myself, “Let’s go on an adventure, shall we?”
(Yes, I really said this to myself. Out loud. No, I am not crazy. Yes, I am weird.)
It completely changed my whole attitude.
I was genuinely excited to see what the day would bring me.
The chances of us existing, breathing and being alive are so slim there isn’t a number that would do it justice.
So why not choose to enjoy life?
Organisation advice for the week:
Best Mac/Windows App for Productivity/Organisation
Okay, something more practical after that preachy bullshit.
1: Alfred
Although Spotlight is improving with every Mac update (and I am sure Windows has a similar tool), it still has nothing on Alfred.
It is a search engine for your laptop.
If you want to search the internet, your documents or even search within an app (YouTube, for example), you can with the click of one button from your home screen.
It is a serious game changer for fast work.
2: One Sec
I will not stop banging on about this app until the day I die.
This is the single best app I have ever used.
I pay £10 a year for the premium, but there is also a free version.
I use it primarily on my phone, but there is a Windows/Mac extension.
It is an app/website blocker.
As I am writing this newsletter, it is 8:30 on a Saturday morning, and as I hit a block about ten minutes in, I went to look at Instagram on my Mac only to be greeted by this:
Elite distraction blocking.
I personally have all social media blocked until the afternoon, and then I have a 30-second wait time before accessing it each time.
If you find yourself getting easily distracted, this is absolutely incredible.
3: Unsplash
Ever get bored of your operating system’s wallpapers?
Unsplash is a free app (and website, which I also use for the covers of these newsletters) which gives you thousands of backgrounds for your computers.
Word of the week:
Asinine = Extremely stupid or foolish
Quote of the week:
Maturity is the ability to reject good alternatives in order to pursue even better ones. - Ray Dalio