At the very beginning of this year I heard Ryan Holiday tell James Altucher on a podcast interview that he keeps a one-sentence journal. Since it was the beginning of the year, I thought I would give it a try. I added it to my Morning Preview checklist and starting writing one sentence in an…
Meaning and Motivation
Ascetic Motivation
I read in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs that the legendary founder of Apple believed strongly in the benefits of an ascetic way of life. It was something he picked up on during his studies of Buddhism. Living simply and denying physical pleasures kept him motivated to work harder. He wasn’t complacent and he…
The Smallest Possible Task
The second to last item on my Daily Review checklist was to “organize your desk,” which includes the very large stack of papers in my Inbox. My Inbox, inspired of course by David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, is where all of my incoming papers go so that I can process them and decide what…
There is Always a Faster Way
Struggle. Struggle. Struggle. Ready to give up. Then . . . discover a faster way. Accomplish the task with much less effort. I was in a hurry yesterday. I needed to get to Chicago to catch a flight to Los Angeles. I wanted to replace the car seat in our van with a bigger seat…
Don’t Think, Just Do
“And then whenever I stop and think—why did I want to do something?—how did I work out how to do it?—I get a very strong desire just to stop thinking about it.” Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy We worry and ask ourselves “why?” a lot. As a Christian, of course, I do…
