Work Smarter

Configure your day

Match tasks to your energy levels:

• Peak (morning): Focus on analytic work that requires concentration and vigilance.
• Trough (early to mid-afternoon): Handle routine tasks that don’t require much brainpower.
• Recovery (late afternoon/evening): Engage in creative work when your mood is up but vigilance is lower.

Set priorities

• Identify your Most Important Task (MIT): Each day, determine your most important task and complete it before anything else.
• Create a To-Don’t List: List three things that waste your time and energy, and make sure to avoid them.
• Focus on Top Goals: Inspired by Warren Buffett, list your top 25 life goals, then eliminate goals 6 through 25 to concentrate on the most crucial ones.

Plan a project

• Premortem Technique: Imagine your project has failed and identify potential reasons for the failure. This helps anticipate and avoid problems.
• Team Collaboration: Gather your team to brainstorm possible issues, encouraging collective thinking and problem-solving.

Motivate yourself

• Progress Ritual: At the end of each day, write down three ways you made progress. This helps you recognize your achievements and stay motivated.
• Seinfeld Strategy: Mark an “X” on a calendar for each day you complete a task. The visual chain of Xs encourages you to maintain consistency and not break the chain.

Give and Get feedback

• Actionable Feedback: When giving feedback, make it specific and actionable. Instead of general comments, provide clear suggestions for improvement.
• Wise Feedback: Use the phrase “I’m giving you this feedback because I have high expectations for you and I know you can meet them” to make harsh feedback easier to accept.
• Ask for Advice, Not Feedback: When seeking feedback, ask for advice instead. People are more receptive to giving advice, and it tends to be more actionable and future-focused.

Think Sharper

Tough decision

-> distance yourself

• If I were replaced tomorrow, what would my successors do?
• What would I tell my best friend to do?

understand another’s perspective

• Persuading down:
  • Lower the power of myself -> increase the chance to take another’s perspectives
• Persuading up:
  • focus on interests -> What is in it for the boss?

best way to persuade others

• Be ambiverts
  • somewhat introvert and somewhat extrovert
  • know when to speak up and when to shut up
• Bring social proof with you
  • Show that others are already doing what you are suggesting. This helps influence decisions by demonstrating common behavior. i.e. what other competitors do?
• Make it easy to act
  • Have I made it easy for others to do what I want them to do?

Best way to come up with new ideas

• Generate
  • the only way to have good idea is to have a lot of ideas
  • Quantity more important than Quality
• Collect
  • Bring a note everywhere
• Socialize
  • get feedback from others
  • no one is gonna steal your idea

Best way to reframe your language

• From “should” to “could”: Asking “What could I do?” instead of “What should I do?” opens up more possibilities and options.
• From “can’t” to “don’t”: Saying “I don’t” instead of “I can’t” helps you rely on your identity and rules rather than willpower.
• From “have to” to “get to”: Changing “I have to” to “I get to” shifts tasks from obligations to opportunities, enhancing intrinsic motivation.

Live better

Restore your energy

• Something beats nothing: Even a short break is better than no break at all. For example, a 20-second break every 20 minutes can be beneficial.
• Moving beats stationary: Taking breaks that involve movement, like walking, is more restorative than sitting.
• Social beats solo: Breaks with others are more restorative than breaks alone, even for introverts.
• Outside beats inside: Being in nature, even in small doses like a walk down a city street, is more restorative than staying indoors.
• Fully detached beats semi-detached: Completely disconnecting from work and leaving your phone behind during breaks is crucial for effective restoration. For example, 15 minutes walking and talking to someone you like.

Deal with frustration

Life is full of setbacks and failures. We don’t have control over that, but we could control how we respond to them.

• Reframe frustration as a test: When you face a frustrating situation, take five minutes to think of it as a test of your creativity, resilience, and tenacity.
• Benefits of reframing: By viewing frustration as a test, your stress levels (cortisol) go down, and your problem-solving abilities improve.

Overcome regret

• Confront your regrets: Instead of ignoring or wallowing in regrets, face them directly.
• Three-step process: Use the inward, outward, forward approach:
  • Inward: Practice self-compassion and treat yourself with kindness.
  • Outward: Talk or write about your regrets to unburden yourself and make sense of them.
  • Forward: Learn from your regrets and apply those lessons in the future.

Connect with others

• Assume positive intent: Start interactions by believing others have good intentions. This approach leads to better work and personal relationships.
• “tell me more”: When in disagreements, use this phrase to understand the other person’s perspective and build a connection.
• When in doubt, reach out: If you’re unsure about reconnecting with someone, go ahead and do it. It’s usually less awkward than expected, and the other person will likely appreciate it.

Deepen your sense of meaning

• What’s Your Sentence?: Identify a single sentence that captures the essence of your purpose and what you aim to achieve in life.
• Mental Subtraction of Positive Events: Imagine your life without a significant positive event to deepen your sense of gratitude and meaning.

Bao-Jhih Shao

A software engineer writing something to keep the memory.

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