Time to Live Your Full Potential - 20 Time Tested Principles for Getting More Out of Life

Set high standards, create your own deadlines, and force yourself to stretch; pressure makes diamonds. Maximize Your Energy First energy, then action. Focus on the Solution As a rule, invest 10 percent of your time identifying a problem and 90 percent of your time figuring out the best solution. Learn the Art of Creative Procrastination As a general rule, what is put off is eventually forgotten. Deal with Distractions in Advance When you have to concentrate, go where you can minimize distractions.

Unplug and turn off the phone, email, and Instant Messengers. Communicate your intention to focus, in advance, to people that usually disturb you. Studies show that stopping and starting a task requires several minutes of refocusing. That is wasted effort and unnecessary frustration. Develop the Habit of Completion Getting clear on your commitment and finishing what you start allows you to develop the habit of completion. As you begin new projects in the future, you will have more faith in your ability to complete the job.

Invest today in tasks and projects that have the greatest potential to add to your power tomorrow. Maximize Your Resources Think in terms of efficiency and leverage. You cannot wait for the stars to align before you begin your important work. If the work is worthy of you, begin it immediately. Even if you take just one useful idea and use it, you are far better off than someone who knows 10 useful ideas and uses none. Know what you want, establish a clear outcome. Create a plan and take action! Be willing to refine and re-plan your approach. Repeat formula until desired outcome is realized.

Take some time now to think about how you can apply some of these principles in your own life. What area in your life that you most want to control? What outcome do you have for this area that if realized would have the greatest impact on your life? When and where can you start taking action!? The concept of using your time wisely is so important, after you have gone through the ORANGE formula a few times, this article is worth re-reading again and again.

James Rick aka Mr. For more information, please visit, www. You may use these HTML tags and attributes: Posted by beth in New Products. Here a quote from one study:. The science for the red shift as a solution to all of the above negative effects is much more iffy. In fact, Night Shift is a pretty silly feature. The studies say blue light is bad. But at the time the Night Shift feature was built, nobody had done proper testing of red light. It turns out red light is also bad. The Medical ID feature makes key medical information available to strangers when your phone is locked.

If you are incapacitated during a medical emergency, a stranger can go to your power-off screen long press right button and volume up on modern iPhones. I see Medical ID as having three practical benefits to you, in order of likelihood. This is going to get weird and darkly introspective. You know what I mean about getting frustrated when Siri or Alexa makes a mistake. Alexa, especially, likes to butt in and is just begging to be told to shut up. Her sources were multiple backchannel discussions from people who work on these AI products.

People, not just men, say the rudest, cruelest things to female AIs, much ruder and cruder than they do to male AIs. And what if those AI patterns transfer over to my human interactions? I just know that this dynamic is worth examining in yourself.

Was this too weird of a tangent? This is honestly the type of shit I think about all day. There are three strategies for choosing a new name:. Positive self-talk is actually surprisingly effective. I always thought it was too woo-woo, but then I tested it out with some people at work. The point here is that getting less targeted ads is good. You want to spend money on your own terms. When you want to spend money, you want to use your phone for research and then make a purchase based on that research.

You do not want the other way around, where your phone is telling you or brainwashing you what to buy. You are the boss. If you check your phone on the way into your gym, walk to your locker, put your phone in your locker, change into your workout clothes, lock your locker and walk away, your phone has probably already locked itself.

Plus, most of you actually take your phone out to the gym with you! So the strategy here is to save yourself the few seconds it takes to unlock your phone by extending the auto-lock time. My take on the value of saving time here is that those few seconds of waiting for a phone to wake up is when you are at risk for getting distracted. So, worst case this setting saves you a few minutes of time research says you check your phone 25 times per day. But best case, it saves you from 30 minutes of goofing off. Sometimes you need to share your hotspot password with a close friend or loved one.

This is also a more general trick for creating quality passwords that are easy for you to say or remember. Sharing a three-word phrase is so much easier than a string of random letters and numbers. The debate about the security of this strategy for passwords ranges from very positive to just slightly positive. I spent a summer driving all over the United States, totaling 9, miles while working from a campervan.

I know a thing or two about internet access from weird spots. In almost all places, using my phone as a hotspot beat out trying to find local wifi. My phone was faster and more convenient. This setting is about making your hotspot even easier to use, especially when you are connecting new devices to it or sharing it with traveling companions.

That can actually be a real productivity win. The main reason to have always-on access to the control center is so that you can toggle wifi on and off. Direct, manual toggling of the source of your internet is an important way to control the speed of your app experiences. Sometimes one of those is much stronger than the other. When you are using your phone as a tool, then fast internet is a direct link to productivity.

This setting used to clog up your bandwidth and kill your phone battery. So turn it on. No special discussion here other than referencing saving your cognitive budget. The problem is the mental version of muscle memory. You can turn on Siri by long pressing the button on the right of your iPhone.

Now do something to make calling people easier. Set a nickname for a loved one, like your mom.

How to Configure Your iPhone to Work for You, Not Against You

What we just did here is a tactic called deliberate practice. When most people read about an iPhone trick, they will try to store the trick away in their memory, hoping that they will remember that trick down the road. I want you to consider a much more effective approach.

If you ever think you want to use a new trick or behavior later on, try practicing it first. The practice makes later recall so much more likely. This is really a life philosophy to build in practice time for all of your life and work skills. This is the same article I recommended in the Meditation step. There are basically two keyboard shortcuts that everyone should have.

One is for your email address and the other is for your home address.

This is a pure and simple productivity hack. There are at least at least five places where your phone will pull your home address. If you went through the Google Maps section, then you added a home address there. If you went through the Text Replacement section, then you set a shortcut for your address. There are still three more places to set:. Yes, you should have backups even though practically every app you install stores your data in the cloud.

But backups do make it much easier to set up a new phone when you upgrade or lose it. There should be options there to manage your iCloud storage and which apps get backed up. You should back up most of them given how cheap storage is. I used to resist paying for backups, but the math on the time savings alone is great. Below are the principles that come up over and over again in this article. However, many of these principles come through my work at Coach. We started as a gamified habit tracker, and through that experience, we helped a few million people form a few tens of millions of new habits.

The Very, Very Complete Guide to Productivity, Focus, and Your Own Longevity

The vast majority of those people were motivated by productivity or health. And then, also through Coach. Abdicating your life to be a servant of your phone is a shitty approach. Moreover, a lot of research points out that your phone is not a very good boss. There are a handful of exercises in this article that have very small surface-level productivity gains.

Does it really matter if you save one second every time you open your phone? In my experience training people to break procrastination or enter flow states, those pauses are prime times for you to get distracted. In those cases, a two second pause can turn into a 30 minute break. If any programmers are reading this, what is the honest answer to how long it takes to run your automated tests? Is it the literal time that the tests run, or the time of the break you take while the tests are running? From my piece on Superhuman Cognitive Stamina:.

Many people look at this as the Steve Jobs turtleneck story. What did he wear to work every day? So while you were spending your cognitive budget getting dressed, he was saving his up for when he got to work. This NYT piece is the right primer on the research that says willpower is limited. I believe willpower is limited, but trainable.

When you spend time in the productivity world, you start to realize how much time people spend playing around with productivity systems. However, the other reason people spend so much time changing tools and systems is that rigid tools and systems break. So, where possible, try to use a messy system. Those will tend to be less fragile. In this article, the most common messy systems were backed by a strong search feature.

A strong habit is a case where you can do something automatically and effortlessly. Many productivity reviews say the opposite. They say you should definitely try the newest and latest thing. If you have a habit based around an old tool, then you should be unapologetic about sticking with that tool. If any programmers are reading this, a good tool to examine would be your text editor. I alternate between Sublime and Vim.

Cal comes from the perspective of deep work often being your most productive and valuable work. Deep work is when people report the deepest levels of satisfaction. Both of them recognize how difficult it is to do deep work or deep learning. A lot of the advice in this article is meant to make it just a little bit easier for you to focus, to get into flow, and to achieve deep thinking and deep accomplishments.

The main strategies are to eliminate interruptions, replace shallow behaviors with deeper ones reading vs.

By default, your phone is set up to create anxiety. I referenced a study about how mild anxiety leads to increased mortality twice in this article. So instead, eliminate the anxiety. I gave a few examples of how your phone can change your diet and activity patterns in order to help you live longer.

The bare-bones budget for the advice in this article is as follows:. The mid-level budget for the advice in this article adds:. The max-level budget for the advice in this article is. No notifications for messaging, email, Slack. My most notable deviation for notifications is for Coach. Hide messaging slot machines I do see text messages on my home screen from a small handful of people, namely my family and my dog walker. I look at everything else during scheduled inbox time.

Disable App Review Requests Done. Turn on Do Not Disturb Done, but just for leisure and sleep time, i. Be strategic about your wallpaper I went with the built in black-with-rainbow. Turn off Raise to Wake Done. Add the Screen Time widget Done. Add Content Restrictions Just sfgate. Optional Use Restrictions to turn off Safari I did this once in the past.

I would do this again temporarily to break any new web browsing habits. Organize your Apps and Folders alphabetically. This is how I did it. Choose Google Calendar Yes. I only have a Home set, since I work from home. Install the Gboard keyboard for faster typing Yes, with black background and Apple keyboard removed. Switch to Google Photos Done. Use Evernote for all note taking, to-do lists, everything Yes. The Case for Calm as your go-to meditation app Done. Install the right goal tracker for you Yes, Coach. Use Numerical as your default calculator Yes. Put the Camera app in your toolbar Yes.

Use this Doppler Radar app Yes. Use this Pomodoro app Yes. Subscribe to these podcasts Subscribed. Install the Kindle app but never read it in bed Yes. I charge my phone in the kitchen and use my Kindle Paperwhite in bed. Use Safari this way Yes. The option to automatically turn on readability-mode for certain sites is one of my favorite features. Organize your home screen for deep learning over shallow learning Yes. So my phone has the more accurate count. Love the Zero app and I generally try not to eat before Schedule Night Shift Yes, mine is set for 8pm. Turn off advertising tracking Yes.

Set auto-lock to the maximum time 5 minutes. Turn on control center everywhere Yes. Turn on Background App Refresh Yes. Develop verbal memory for talking to Siri Yes, for all the ones in the list plus calling and face-timing people. Set up these text replacement shortcuts I use three: Set your address Yes, in all five places. Backup this way Yes, I use iCloud, with multiple redundancies since my photos get backed up to other places and all of my important individual services are backed by cloud storage.

Do you have anything to add or correct in this article? Sign in Get started. Read the steps underneath the headline. This is for true productivity nerds, i. Optimize First for Single Tasking 1. Turn OFF almost all notifications 2. Hide social media slot machines 3. Hide messaging slot machines 4. Disable app review requests 5. Turn on Do Not Disturb 6. Be strategic about your wallpaper 7. Turn off Raise to Wake 8. Add the Screen Time widget 9. Add Content Restrictions Optional Use Restrictions to turn off Safari Choose Google Calendar Replace Apple Maps with Google Maps Install the GBoard keyboard for faster typing Use Evernote for all note taking, to-do lists, everything The Case for Calm as your go-to meditation app Install the right goal tracker for you Store all your passwords in a password manager, probably LastPass Use Numerical as your default calculator Put the Camera app in your toolbar Use this Doppler Radar app Use this Pomodoro app Subscribe to these podcasts Install the Kindle app but never read it in bed Use Safari this way Organize your home screen for deep learning over shallow learning Use These Apps and Configurations for Longevity Track steps this way Schedule Night Shift Change Siri to a man Turn off advertising tracking Set auto-lock to the maximum time Set your personal hotspot password to a three word phrase Turn on control center everywhere Turn on Background App Refresh Delete Garage Band Develop verbal memory for talking to Siri Set up these text replacement shortcuts Set your address Backup this way Appendix A: Case Study Appendix D: For a while, I titled my folder Worthless.

That was overly judgmental. This setup goes a little bit deeper, though: You decide when you check these. Live a life without interruptions! I call my folder Messages. The default iPhone folder name suggestion is Productivity. Follow the same trick from 2, hide all but one of the apps on the second screen of the folder. Religious Americans are reported to have more robust immune systems, lower blood pressure, and better recovery times from operations, although these claims have been disputed.

But on a Mac, Do Not Disturb is always scheduled, so turning it on all day requires hacking the schedule to be something like 9am to 9am. Many of you though will prefer to just have it on for a set time, say 6pm to 9am. Allow calls from your favorites. Now your Favorites list actually takes on more meaning: Do not select this. We absolutely do not want to train telemarketers to think this will work. Be strategic about your wallpaper The absolute best wallpaper is an all black background. The all-black option is right there at the end. There are other options: The best conversation starter is a pet.

If necessary, go get a pet. Always adopt from a pound , rather than from a breeder. Take a photo of your pet. Pick Still saves battery life and Set Both. If you find inspirational images inspiring: Confirm that this is you by looking at your walls. Go browse for killer inspiration fewer words is better: Save the image to your phone. If you take this approach, consider two things: Try just using this for your Lock screen rather than your Home screen.

Text often works better on your Lock screen than it does behind the apps on your Home screen. Try creating a new wallpaper every few weeks that has the same affirmation, but a different background. Passionate, Aggressive, Important Green: Natural, Stable, Prosperous Blue: Serene, Trustworthy, Inviting Black: Powerful, Sophisticated, Edgy White: To install the Screen Time widget: Swipe to the Today Screen by swiping right from your home screen. At the bottom of the Today screen, select Edit.

This will bring up a list of apps that have widgets. Tap the green plus button for Screen Time to enable the widget, and then tap and hold on the three-horizontal-lines button to reorder the widget to be near the top. Organize your apps and folders alphabetically There are four ways to organize your apps: On your home screen, organize all of your apps by name, with numbers like 1Password coming before letters.

In your folders, organize the apps hidden behind the first screen alphabetically as well. On your second screen, organize your folders alphabetically. Probably, they should mostly be inside folders. Put them in folders! I put all these Apple apps into a folder on my third screen, mostly as a precaution in case I need them one day. In practice, I mostly just use Wallet and get to that through the right-hand button shortcut double press. Get a Google account you probably already have one.

Download the Gmail app. And make sure notifications are turned off also Step 3. Apple has only recently started letting you delete built-in apps. Take advantage of it! Go to Gmail from your computer and disable your inbox tabs. Install the Google Calendar app. Never allow badging anywhere. Then enter the Google Calendar settings. You can change the start of the week from Sunday to Monday or in a few locales, Saturday.

But whatever, lots of people have strong opinions on this. Then, go into Default event duration and set the default to 30 minutes. Last, add the Google Calendar widget to the top of your Today screen: Install the Google Maps app. Add Home and Work addresses to My Places in the app. This will involve connecting to a Google account. If you have trouble and are using a custom Google domain, then you may need to enable some permissions from the site admin panel. In that case, these are the instructions that helped me.

Install the Gboard app. Then delete the default one. I also set my keyboard to black before knowing that I could delete the default Apple Keyboard. That helped me know visually which keyboard was active. You can also set your keyboard theme by opening the Gboard app and heading to themes. For photos, take the following steps. Place Google Photos app on your home screen. This continues our tools-over-drugs theme.

Copy your photos over according to these instructions. You can try turning off iCloud storage for photos: Most people will need to pay for Cloud photo storage this is true for iCloud also. Use Evernote for all note taking, to-do lists, everything If you already love your note taking app and to-do list app, then fine, stick with those. Install the Evernote app. Place it on your home screen. The case for Calm as your go to meditation app I learned to meditate from Headspace.

Install the Calm app. Calm is good enough and important enough to pay for. Find your way to the Open Ended Meditation in the Meditation section. Select one with a bell playing every few minutes my setting is for 5 minutes. Also find your way to the Breathe option in the More section. This can be a very effective way to reset your body. I also prefer not having any background noise from my meditation app. Use Numerical as your default calculator After accuracy, the must-have feature for calculators is a history. Install the lovely Numerical app. Put it on your home screen. This continues the your-phone-is-a-tool-not-a-boss trend for your home screen.

Move the camera app to the toolbar. This means that the app will remember the last mode you were in, i. Also in Camera settings, if you have enough storage, max out the resolution on Record Video and Record Slo-mo. Install the BeFocused Pro app and put it on your home screen. These two hosts buy a self-improvement book and then test the advice for an entire month. This speaks to my heart: Rhonda Patrick pushes my understanding of the science of health, with the goal of improving your energy, focus, health and longevity. Happier with Gretchen Rubin. I find her approach so much more realistic and human than most other productivity and habit experts.

Unmistakeable Creative with Srinivas Rao. Most of his interviews have a productivity or personal development angle. I often pull ideas from his podcast. Of course you should listen. I thought episode 2 was life-changing and have been hooked ever since. The lady-witch advisors, the Bene Gesserit, are what happens when you have fine-tuned mastery over habit. The Gom Jabbar test of humanity?

An animal gives in to the illusion of pain; a human can see through that illusion. The Butlerian Jihad where humanity overthrew and then banned all artificial intelligence? Also, two behavior design notes: Install the Zero app. When you stop eating today, open the app and start your fast. Schedule Night Shift starting four hours before your normal bed time. Move the warmth slider all the way to the right More Warm. Here a quote from one study: We found that the use of these devices before bedtime prolongs the time it takes to fall asleep, delays the circadian clock, suppresses levels of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin, reduces the amount and delays the timing of REM sleep, and reduces alertness the following morning.

Your medications and medical conditions would be public to anyone who picks up your phone. If that worries you, put a note instead: Then I tweeted about it. The more people who sign up for Organ Donation, the more likely your own life is going to be saved. So the selfish step here is to use your own organ donation status to encourage other people to become organ donors. A kind stranger finds your lost phone and calls your emergency contact.

Are you ready to make life simple again?

You have a life-threatening situation, and the doctors call your emergency contact. You influence someone else to become an Organ Donor and then they end up donating an organ to you. The literal likelihood of this is very, very low. In the few weeks we had been dating, he had never spoken to me this way. He sounded entitled and difficult, like someone who enjoyed commanding for the sake of commanding. He would ask her to do things he could easily do himself, almost as if to prove that he could.

There are three strategies for choosing a new name: Entertain the people around you. I got this idea from an old Hippie Cafe in San Francisco that named everything after an affirmation. Turn on Limit Ad Tracking. Max out auto-lock to 5 minutes. Set your personal hotspot password to a three-word phrase Sometimes you need to share your hotspot password with a close friend or loved one.

Set the password to something like appleduckmovie. Enable Access Within Apps. You might want to add some more options.

Marc & Angel: Getting Back to Happy

I put my alarm and timer here since I use both and want shortcuts. There will be a delete option there. Set alarm for tomorrow at 8am. Turn off alarm Remind me to check the oven in 35 minutes. Remove reminder to check the oven How old is Malcom Gladwell? Set up these Text Replacement shortcuts There are basically two keyboard shortcuts that everyone should have. I used the shortcut: There are still three more places to set: Also, Siri pulls your home address for your personal entry in your contacts.

Principles Below are the principles that come up over and over again in this article. Shave seconds to break procrastination There are a handful of exercises in this article that have very small surface-level productivity gains. Conserve cognitive budget From my piece on Superhuman Cognitive Stamina: