New Year’s Resolutions : Productivity501
1. Resolutions should be daily or weekly tasks.
Setting a resolution of “getting in shape” is setting yourself up for disappointment. A resolution of “go to the gym at least twice per week” is better. A resolution of “do 15 pushups each day” is another good one. Focus your resolution on the specific actions you will take–not on what you hope to achieve.
2. Set small, specific tasks as resolutions
Resolutions need to be something where it is easy to tell if you achieve it or not. “Get smarter every day” is a bad resolution. How would you know if you have achieved it or not? “Read one astrophysics article each day” is a much better resolution (if you know enough about astrophysics that the entire thing doesn’t go over your head).
Your focus should be to keep the resolution–not achieve something nearly impossible It is better to set a low resolution and achieve it than set a high one and fizzle out after a few months. You don’t want to “aim high”. You want to make a commitment that you know you can keep. Successfully keeping a resolution is a much better spring board than shooting for the moon and failing–no matter how close you came.
3. Use “getting started” resolutions
Setting a small resolution that puts you in a good position to achieve more is a very good practice. For example, “Exercise for 2 hours at the gym 3 days per week” is something you probably aren’t going to be able to actually do. However, something like “get on the elliptical machine at the gym three days per week” is easier to achieve and positions you to do much more. If you don’t want to be there after 15 minutes, you leave. But most of the time, you’ll probably stay and do a full workout because the hard part is getting there in the first place.
4. Add up the time of all your resolutions
Don’t resolve to do so much that it adds another 20 hours to your week. Be realistic. You can probably handle an additional 20 minutes of daily activities, but if you go beyond this, make sure you specify what is going to get cut out.
6. Make it easy to succeed
If you resolve to eat no more than one piece of candy per week, don’t keep a bunch of Snickers in your house. If you resolve to spend at least 10 minutes each day on your exercise bike, move the TV in front of the bike and remove all the other chairs. Set yourself up for success by creating an environment that makes it easier to follow your resolution than to fail.
7. Tie activities together
Resolve to only perform something you regularly do and enjoy while doing the task you want to resolve to do. On the exercising example, perhaps you would resolve to only watch TV if you are exercising. Another variation is to tie a particular existing action with a new resolution. If you are trying to keep in better contact with your family, perhaps you would resolve to call one family member during your Thursday evening commute each week. If you are wanting to work on saving money, you could resolve that for every dollar you spend on a particular non-essential activity, you’ll put a dollar into savings.
8. Set a time limit
Most new year’s resolutions are done with the idea that you are promising to do something for the next 365 days. Don’t be afraid to give yourself a shorter time frame. It isn’t bad to resolve to go for a walk 3 days each week for the next two months, achieve the goal, and then re-evaluate.
Resolutions can be a powerful way to influence your behavior. Just be sure to keep your focus on keeping your resolution and set your goals as something you can achieve. If in a month you are saying “well that was never realistic in the first place,” you didn’t set yourself up to succeed. Once you succeed, you can aim higher next time.
If Windows, Linux and OSX Opened Cafes... - OS X News Story
If Windows, Linux and OSX Opened Cafes...
The New York Times reported today that Apple has opened its first Apple Store in Paris, underneath the Louvre no less, and just two weeks after Microsoft opened up a Windows 7 cafe in Paris in another location. The idea of these two companies competing in a retail environment, and especially a Windows-themed cafe, got me thinking about what would happen if three cafes opened each run in the same style of the operating system it was named for. I figure it might look something like this:
Windows Cafe
The Windows Cafe is in a bland store front. The furniture consists of straight wooden chairs with tables with sharp angles. Unfortunately, every so often when you sit in a chair it crashes the to the floor, but you get used to this and figure it's just part of the experience of going to the Windows Cafe. (To be fair they have been testing chairs from a new manufacturer and they are reportedly less prone to breaking in this fashion.) Pictures of a smiling Bill Gates and Windows logos adorn the walls. The coffee tastes fine most of the time, but a surprising number of patrons get sick there, so that it's become standard practice to use hand sanitizer before you go in to protect yourself. The coffee is expensive, and refills are definitely not free, but it's a known quantity, and many people are comfortable going there.
Linux Cafe
The Linux Cafe is a funky place in an artsy neighborhood with eclectic furniture donated by the patrons. It doesn't match, but it's comfortable and the walls are covered with donated pictures and paintings by local artists. The coffee is free, served in black cups (or you can just bring your own), but you need to make it yourself. If you can't do it yourself, the cafe has consultants available to help you for a fee. It's great for people who know about coffee brewing, but many people are intimidated by the idea of making their own coffee and stay away, even though very few people ever get sick who go there.
Apple Cafe
The Apple Cafe is a modern, state-of-the-art facility. The tables are stainless steel and the chairs are ultra-contemporary. Shrines to Apple CEO Steve Jobs are dotted around the wide space. The cups are cool and come in a variety of bright colors. The coffee is well made by a highly trained staff, and even though it costs a lot more, people line up around the block for a chance to drink it. Just don't ask the staff about their coffee-making techniques because they are extremely tight lipped about this. People occasionally get sick there, but it's rare enough for the cafe to brag about its safety record.
So there you have it. Three cafes with three distinct personalities just like the operating systems they represent
Photo by Marfis75 on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons License.
Ideas for an AI Project - Computer Science
- And thusly, it was demonstrated the utter futility in trying to offer up suggestions for projects.
No matter what is suggested, there's always some weasel response like "too hard, haven't covered it, it's next week, can you explain more yada yada yada".
It's your course, you figure it out.
If nothing on any of the courses you've been on so far has piquing your interest, then you're on the wrong program bub.
Decide for yourself whether you want to be a creator of a new world, or just another seat warmer in a cube farm.
Pass this test, and you're on the road to the former. Fail it, and well you can guess the rest.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
