18 Minutes
Here’s what I do: After I’ve filled my calendar for the day, I review what’s left on the list. If there are new items I added that day or the previous two days, I leave them on to see if they make it onto my calendar tomorrow. But for everything else—anything that’s been on my calendar for three days—I do one of four things:
Peter Bregman • 18 Minutes
The problem with most time management systems is that they don’t help solve the problem: They’re focused on how to get it all done in less time. But that’s a mistake. Just like tasting from a buffet is a mistake. Because we can’t possibly get it all done and not end up frantic, depleted, and overwhelmed. The secret to surviving a buffet is to eat f
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For observant Jews, it’s a rest day. No work, no travel, no computers or phones or TV. The way I heard it once, the idea is that for six days we exert our energy to change the world. On the seventh day the objective is simply to notice and enjoy the world exactly as it is without changing a thing. Observant Jews spend Shabbat praying, eating, walki
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Your goal is to make it easier to do something you want done and harder not to.
Peter Bregman • 18 Minutes
Getting started was the hard part. Like getting into a cold pool: Once you’re in, it’s fine. It’s getting in that takes motivation. In fact, when you think about it, we need to be motivated for only a few short moments. Between those moments, momentum or habit or unconscious focus takes over. I write a weekly column. Does that take discipline? Sure
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Most of these are not clearly measurable. That’s okay. They’re not goals. Not everything has to be a goal. They’re areas of focus. They’re where you want to spend your time. If you want, you could create specific goals in each category.
Peter Bregman • 18 Minutes
Who am I if you take away my work? That’s a question to which we’d better have a solid answer. And yet many of us don’t. Fortunately, once we realize this we can do something about it. We can diversify. I don’t mean diversifying your money, though that’s a good idea, too. I mean diversifying your self. So that when one identity fails, the other one
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differences, and pursue your passions, you can be confident that you are spending your time in the right places, doing the right things, no matter the short-term result. That thinking will keep you grounded through your successes and your failures.
Peter Bregman • 18 Minutes
Trying to distinguish ourselves by being the same as others, only better, is hard to do and even harder to sustain. There are too many smart, hardworking people out there all trying to excel by being the best at what everyone else is doing. It’s simply easier to be different.
Peter Bregman • 18 Minutes
If you believe that your talents are inborn or fixed, then you will try to avoid failure at all costs because failure is proof of your limitation. People with a fixed mind-set like to solve the same problems over and over again. It reinforces their sense of competence.