Secrets of doing great intellectual work

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Why are we procrastinating?

  • Fear of failure
  • Too much work on the table / Don't know where to start
  • No creativity (or the belief that this is true)

How do you get work done?

  • Quiet environments
  • Prioritization
  • Checklists
  • Meditation
  • Setting deadlines
  • Take items off your list

Other Ideas

  • Schedule breaks ("Planned procrastination")
  • Try another task
  • "because": Use the word "because" in task lists to fool your brain into thinking it's important (cf book _Influence_)
  • Talking to other people: Everyone's got different experience. Broadens the range of your possible ideation paths.

Tickling Creativity

  • do something different and unrelated to your work (go to the museum)
  • A paper napkin can be a great place to start work. It doesn't constrain you into a certain form. The upside is, you can think on your way to the bar and the shot/drink/beer (is supposed to) help(s) tickling the creativity process.

Distractions

  • "Multitasking is the devil". Try to remove every possible distractions such as email, twitter, IM
  • Productivity writing tool to remove distraction on Mac: Ommwriter
  • Dehydration is a brain killer

Quality of work

  • Quality over quantity. Stop brainstorming at some point and try to put the brainstormed content into context.

Book Recommendations

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