Yesterday, I wrote about discovering your persistence levels. Commitment, I argued, isn’t the same as motivation. While motivation is the push to seek rewards and results, persistence is the ability to continue even when those rewards and results don’t appear. Persistence is important along with motivation because most goals have vacuums. Vacuums where you get […]
How to Measure Your Degree of Persistence
Recently, Cal Newport over at Study Hacks, wrote an interesting article where he claims that getting started is overrated. He argues that too many people get started without commitment. As a result, they waste valuable time and energy on pursuits that they will give up after a few months of haphazard effort. Action without persistence […]
The Beginner’s Guide to the 30 Day Trial: Part 2
Last week, I wrote about the 30 Day Trial technique for changing habits. Since I’ve written about the technique indirectly through many articles on the website, I wanted to offer a beginners guide for people starting out with the tool. This article continues where last week left off, with a few more suggestions. Tip #6 […]
Set a Higher Baseline
For the last several months, I’ve written four articles a week for this website, plus Friday Links. That’s my baseline. Although occasionally I’ll do more, I take every step possible to ensure I don’t do less. Having this baseline means I occasionally miss the super-productive weeks where I could have written seven or eight articles. […]
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.