Graduate programs
If you’re studying at uni and yet to enter the workforce, you may think your next step is a graduate program or an internship. But you have another option (several, in fact). Graduate programs and internships are effective entry points to a chosen profession because they’re structured to account for a graduate’s relative inexperience. However, […]
All you can eat
You’ve all heard that it’s good to eat your veggies. But one benefit you may not have appreciated is their caloric density. In a previous post, I gave examples of how much you needed to exercise to burn off a single muffin that has 300 calories. Now here’s a list of vegetables with their quantities […]
Parkinson’s Law
In 1955, Cyril Northcote Parkinson penned an essay in The Economist that began with the sentence: “It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” This essay fundamentally influenced the way people think about resource management, and the dynamic has since become known as Parkinson’s Law. […]
Past Ben and Future Ben
To grow, you need to be aware of yourself and your actions. But being just one person, how do you gain this self-awareness? Well a neat solution is considering yourself as three people – your past self, your present self, and your future self. At any given time, your present self is dealing with the […]
Shared calendars
Your time management is only as good as the system you maintain. The tool I’ve found easiest to maintain is a digital calendar, as it’s amazing how quickly it can synch to all your engagements and stay on top of life. However, when Bec and I became a couple, our time management tools stayed separate […]
Your system will break
For a system to not break, you need to account for everything. But you cannot account for everything. There is always something that you won’t expect which may suddenly emerge and throw things off. This means that your current system or routine will break, however well you think it’s been working for you. And that’s […]
Self-enforcing guardrails
It’s more important to focus on what you want to achieve rather than how you will achieve it. Because as soon as you become clear on what you want, hard realities will emerge that will act as guardrails on your journey. Let’s play this out with an example. What would you like to change in […]
Conviction
As soon as we do or say something, we become averse to its opposite. Even the smallest act or statement to the world can set a very strong anchor. When we are proven wrong, we don’t like to admit it. When we make a large purchase that we don’t really love, we feel compelled to […]
Limited downside, unlimited upside
You should do pretty well in life if at every juncture you’re choosing a path which has limited downside and unlimited upside. Limited downside means that the costs from a particular action are contained. Unlimited upside means the outcome could be so successful you have trouble comprehending it. This may sound logical, but you’ll be […]
No news is good news
News rarely puts me in a good mood. Come to think of it, I couldn’t tell you the last time I read a headline or an article and felt inspired, happy or empowered. And yet it was something I would consume every day. I came to understand that news consumption had become my most unproductive […]