Smart-Work, Deep-Work, Focusing on Work, Attitude towards work

Teamwork is about dependency. Instead of looking for skills, you hire for values from the beginning. What do you think about your team's values?

The first is positive regard, or the belief that colleagues are professionals who act in the team's best interest. When people take this view of one another, they assume that problems result from misunderstandings. That makes it easier to solve them without getting into political blame games.

Positive regard fosters a culture where ideas can be openly and robustly discussed. After all, it's clear that people are attacking an idea, not the person who proposed it.

Then there's kindness. Teams that hire for kindness will emphasise social and professional support structures that help colleagues master those challenges.

Delegating lots of essential tasks signals high trust. That boosts motivation and keeps teams learning and growing. A team that's only allowed to work on the simple stuff is a team that's going to struggle with motivation. It also erodes the desire to learn and grow. Add all that together, and underperformance will be baked in. And then, of course, if the team is underperforming, the leader isn't going to delegate work. So, the cycle repeats itself. And that's why delegating matters. Without it, it's tough to establish the bonds of trust that sustain high-performing teams.

You are delegating yourself out of A job. But it's a role you shouldn't be playing anyway. Professionals don't need overpaid supervisors. They need leaders. And that's the job you're freeing yourself to do when you delegate effectively.

It's about intrinsic motivation 3.0

Preoccupied solely with our survival is motivation 1.0. Being driven by reward and punishment is motivation 2.0. Making people curious, creative, and innovative is motivation 3.0. Creative workers are most productive when intrinsically motivated; high productivity benefits the whole company.

Mastery: If you want to promote intrinsic motivation, ensure people have the freedom to strive for perfection.

50% of employees in the US report feeling uncommitted to their jobs.

Their drive for perfection is suffocated, and so is their commitment. Painters work happily on their paintings for hours on end. They are truly creative. Creative people with a drive for perfection often work in a flow state, which means they pursue a task with the highest degree of concentration and passion, forget the world around them, and lose themselves entirely in their work.

You can find these flow states not only in artists but in all kinds of professions. Basketball players love the game and welcome the competition. Computer scientists want to create increasingly intelligent programs and thrive on developing new advanced code. Photographers want to take better pictures and relish finding something new with each click of their shutter. And what they all have in common is motivation 3.0. They have an inner urge to achieve perfection.

This allows them to improve in an area that's important to them and to bring passion and commitment to pursuing their goal. When they're in the flow, they work on tasks that are neither simple nor difficult. Suppose a manager gives her employees a task and encourages them to improve constantly. In that case, this can generate a flow experience in the employees, who will come to work daily with increased dedication and passion.

Autonomy. My Task. My Time. My Team. To promote intrinsic motivation, allow people to make relevant decisions independently. Give them the autonomy to work from where they want to as long as they finish the work on time.

Purpose. If you want to promote intrinsic motivation, stand up for meaningful work. Striving to change something in oneself and society is a healthy and satisfying impetus. To have a larger goal in mind is more motivating and activating than money ever could be. Instead of striving for the highest possible profit, people who pursue meaning in their lives want to give something to others. People who pursue meaning in their lives want to give something back to society, giving them personal strength.

The neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett has shown that brain function depends on a body's well-being. Build on your physical self-discipline to temper the mind. When you practice self-discipline in your body, you empower your mind to work at its full potential. If you're physically depleted, your brain can't do its job of regulating your body. So, once you've gotten your body under control, it's time to work on the next step.

Moderate your mind. This involves cultivating balance in how you feel, think, and respond amid the chaos and confusion otherwise known as life. There's a brief moment between each stimulus and your response. You can either use it to think, gather yourself, and wait for more information, or you can succumb to destructive patterns like getting offended, jumping to conclusions, and assigning blame. Bad situations won't get better through bad reactions toward them. They'll get worse. So hone that tiny moment of patience before you respond. Ask yourself if what you're experiencing is true, whether it's as annoying or upsetting as it feels. Don't let fear, anger, or prejudice override your mind.

Disciplining your mind is training yourself to focus. It takes extreme self-control to focus in a world constantly bombarded by distractions. So, selfish as it may sound, practice ignoring things. See what committing to following your inspiration or solving that complex problem feels like. Don't even try to reach perfection. Instead of trying to be perfect, aim to do your best. And when you fall short, which you inevitably will, on your diet, running plan, and morning routine, don't give up. We make standards so we can aspire toward them, not so we can use them as excuses to quit. Remember, failure isn't forever. And it's a chance to grow. If you believe you can grow, you will. If you don't, well, then you're also right. You won't.

Many have traditionally centred our sense of purpose, identity, and meaning in life around our 9-to-5 jobs. However, throughout human history, our identity has been based on family, community, religion, and tribal matters.

AI and automation have already started to displace jobs in the digital economy. According to MIT economist Andrew McAfee, automated services will eventually replace many currently available jobs. This shift may lead to significant existential anxiety for those facing unemployment. Technology and employment are quickly and constantly changing, and society needs to recognize education as a lifelong endeavour. With technology driving the world forward, people will spend their time learning new skills and helping others pursue their interests.

Harvard economist Lawrence Katz believes the new economy could have a category for those who find meaning in life through self-expression. This meaning is at the heart of many concerns about unemployment. Art also benefits society and could be considered a worthwhile pursuit.

Countries will have to consider the possible benefits of providing people with a bare minimum income, more flexible requirements around professional licensing, and new ways to tax the wealthiest citizens to fund the programs we'll need to transition into the new economy.

Creating a joyful and productive office environment involves surrounding yourself with items that bring happiness and organizing your space for simplicity and order. Tidying up your physical surroundings can significantly boost your mood, decision-making, and ability to take action towards your goals. To manage paper clutter, categorize documents into three groups: items requiring action, those needed temporarily, and those essential for long-term reference. Similarly, your digital space, like your email inbox, should also be organized to improve productivity and focus.

This process of "tidying" extends beyond just physical and digital clutter; it’s a way to enhance your decision-making, health, and alignment with your personal and professional goals. Clarifying your objectives and reflecting on what you truly want from your work is essential.

Focusing intensely on each task, whether big or small, allows you to enjoy it more and perform at your best. You can experience peak performance and find greater meaning when fully engaged in your work. Cultivating gratitude, even for challenging experiences, can contribute to long-term joy. Reflecting on difficult moments, such as dealing with demanding tasks or managers, helps clarify your values and what you want from your career, ultimately leading to a more fulfilling professional life.

Multitasking and distraction hinder productivity, as focusing on multiple tasks reduces performance. Sophie Leroy's research shows that switching between tasks leaves attention anchored to the first task, impairing focus on the second.

There are different strategies for achieving deep work, all of which require intention. The first is the monastic approach. This strategy works by eliminating all sources of distraction and secluding yourself like a monk. The second is called the bimodal approach, which involves setting a clearly defined period of seclusion for work and leaving the rest of your time free for everything else. The third is the rhythmic approach of doing deep work for blocks of 90 minutes and using a calendar to track your accomplishments. And finally, the journalistic strategy is to take any unexpected free time in your daily routine to do deep work.

Our attention is money for Silicon Valley. Reclaim it. Reduce social media use and be selective about technology to improve focus. Scheduling work and leisure, leaving work behind when possible, and engaging in offline activities like reading, exercising, or spending time with loved ones help restore energy and productivity.

Mentally strong people replace self-pity with gratitude. If you're stuck in a mindset of bad things always happening to you, stop for a second. Sit down and write a list of the good things that have happened to you.

Mentally strong people hold on to their power and forgive others. Instead of complaining about others, remain respectful and set clear and healthy boundaries.

Mentally strong people are always willing to embrace change.

Mentally strong people are strategic in their approach to change. They understand that all-or-nothing change can be overwhelming. So, they set small, realistic goals and take concrete actions daily to achieve incremental change, demonstrating their wisdom and prudence.

Mentally strong people don't get distracted by things outside their control and focus on what's in their sphere of influence.

Mentally strong people Focus on other people's needs as well as theirs. If you are a people-pleaser and have difficulty saying no, you will quickly get stressed and damage your relationships. If someone asks you for a favour, wait before you say yes or no. They're grownups and learn how to cope with negative emotions like you did.

Mentally strong people are fearless of taking calculated risks. Most people are naturally averse to risk-taking, often entertaining worst-case scenarios in their heads and approaching life decisions with an all-or-nothing attitude. Mentally strong people don't become overly dramatic.

They understand that there's a middle way. They ask themselves, "What is the worst thing that can happen?" Also, "What is the best thing that can happen?" They find a way to adjust the risks involved appropriately.

Mentally strong people stop dwelling on their past. They come to terms with it by accepting it and then moving forward. They shift their thoughts onto something new and do this with intention. They develop three levels of mental strength: thoughts, behaviour, and emotions.

Mentally strong people refrain from repeating the same mistakes through discipline. Here are three simple methods for becoming more disciplined. First, focus on your goal by picturing how great it will feel once you've reached it. Carry this list with you at all times, and when you feel like you're about to repeat a mistake, take it out and read it to yourself. And third, make it harder to make mistakes.

Mentally strong, people don't envy others' success. Life's not a rat race in which you perpetually have to outperform everybody around you. Instead of competing, think more about collaborating.

Mentally strong people don't give up easily and are self-compassionate about failure. Each time Edison failed, he considered himself one step closer to succeeding. Get rid of unhealthy beliefs about success and failure. Most often, you are your harshest critic. But being too hard on yourself can result in resignation, falsely believing you're not good enough. If you just put in enough hours, you'll most likely overtake anyone who doesn't.

Mentally strong people are comfortable alone and use meditation to be more resilient. Schedule a date with yourself. Once you've carved out your alone time, find something you enjoy doing yourself. Meditation and mindfulness are the best-known methods to quiet your mind and find peace.

Mentally strong people think about giving rather than taking. They don't have an entitlement mentality. They receive critical feedback with humility, don't assume they know everything better, and become open to learning more from those around them.

Mentally strong people know that achievement takes time and that progress is only sometimes apparent. They don't expect quick and painless success, abstain from instant gratification, and practice perseverance.

True fulfilment comes from who you become, not just by what you achieve. Many people focus solely on tangible successes—what they have or accomplish—but this can lead to a disconnect between their actions and personal growth, often causing dissatisfaction and strained relationships. In contrast, a "Becoming" mindset emphasizes developing inner qualities like wisdom, honesty, courage, and justice. This focus on personal growth enhances your ability to impact others positively. It contributes to a more profound, meaningful sense of success. Ultimately, success is measured by how you develop your skills to serve others and make a difference in the world, not by wealth or accolades.

Individuals of character who significantly influenced others through their actions and interactions continually strived to evolve as people, leading to better leadership, stronger relationships, greater personal fulfilment, and even financial success. Character is built daily through actions that reflect your values. Regular self-reflection on how you can improve and positively impact your roles as a family member, community leader, or business mentor helps you stay aligned with your principles and ensures you grow in ways that contribute to your well-being and those around you.

Virtues such as wisdom, courage, and honesty are not just lofty ideals; they are practical tools that help us become our best selves and contribute to the greater good. The journey toward a virtuous life begins with a clear goal: the desire to live and create with excellence. The ancient wisdom of the seven divine virtues—prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, faith, hope, and love—provides a blueprint for this pursuit. These virtues are moral guidelines and the essence of a fulfilling life, inspiring and driving positive change. Embracing virtues as the foundation of character is essential. Virtues are choices, not fleeting feelings. We cultivate them through daily actions, such as kindness and generosity, which help build a robust and virtuous character capable of meeting the needs of both individuals and communities.

Developing a moral mindset involves avoiding being influenced by others' opinions and making decisions based on enduring truths. By applying the wisdom of those who have succeeded in business, finance, and relationships, we can address modern challenges using timeless strategies.

The Socratic method forms the basis for many practices championing deep reflection and discernment. Tools such as the Five Whys, First Principles Thinking, and Iceberg Thinking can all help facilitate this rigorous analysis. The Five Whys technique involves peeling back the layers of a problem by successively asking why to reach its core. Similarly, First Principles Thinking encourages you to strip away assumptions to reveal a situation's foundational truths and base decisions on core realities rather than expectations or superficial factors.

Applying these methods across various domains illustrates their versatility and impact. In healthcare, principles like treating the root cause of ailments, not just symptoms, or considering food and movement as medicine guide more effective and holistic approaches to wellness. In the career context, principles such as aiming for excellence, virtuous leadership, and continuous innovation form the bedrock of meaningful and successful professional endeavours. In marriage and family, presence, communication, and mutual respect are vital for fostering nurturing, loving, resilient relationships. Committing to principled thinking can transform your life from the inside out.

Embracing growth over fear is a transformative mind shift that propels us beyond our comfort zones into expanded potential. Continuously optimize your skills through repeated practice and a deliberate daily effort. Excellence in any field requires a commitment to constant improvement, setting the bar high and striving to exceed it, which prepares you to tackle more demanding challenges and keep moving ahead. By prioritizing growth over fear, you shift from a mindset of avoiding failure at all costs to one where challenges are embraced as essential elements of success. This approach enhances self-confidence and resilience and leads to a more meaningful and empowered existence.

Master your life by learning to master your mind. Practice these mind shifts, identify and replace harmful thoughts with ones that uplift and support your emotional and physical health and create opportunities for growth and positivity.

Real, lasting prosperity begins with a deep commitment to personal growth and self-mastery. True prosperity isn't just about achieving; it's about thriving. Mastering yourself means more than gaining knowledge. It means nurturing your health, which is central to succeeding in all aspects of life. Financial prosperity is meaningful when it involves good health, your most valuable asset.

One powerful way to ensure you end up in this future is to see food as medicine. Blueberries, apples, salmon, avocados, and eggs have all been proven to increase happiness.

Confront your fears, heal from past wounds, and free yourself from beliefs that held you back in the past. Move past limiting beliefs and avoid self-sabotage. Mindfulness isn't just a meditation practice but a way to access inner peace amidst the chaos of modern life outside your window.

Start to carve out even more time for devouring books and podcasts. Enroll in an online training program to improve your mindset and expand your knowledge. Eventually, you'll also seek mentors and role models who will help you strive even further in your self-development.

Balance out financial wealth with true fulfilment. Recognize that true wealth isn't about endless accumulation but finding contentment in having what you need for a fulfilling life. Take a moment to define what enough looks like for you: a target income that allows for comfort, the ability to pursue your passions, and to contribute to your community rather than simply endlessly upping your wealth to the detriment of your happiness. But it's not only about what you'll earn in the future; it's also about being grateful for what you already have. Take time daily to cherish the essentials, whether the roof over your head, the food on your table, or the people who support and love you.

Social connections aren't just excellent; they're central to cultivating a vibrant life. Building solid connections opens new ideas and possibilities you might have never discovered. It provides you access to a vast pool of knowledge, resources, and support that can help you overcome challenges and seize opportunities that aren't available to you as an individual. One way to achieve this is by forming a Mastermind Alliance, a group of two or more people you can meet regularly to share progress, encourage each other, and help develop solutions.

Focus on your family, craft, adventure, and service. Consider creating a stop-doing list. Now, think of it as the antidote to your to-do list. It may include stopping comparing your life to others on social media or halting unnecessary spending on things you don't need. You could even avoid saying yes to every invitation for fear of missing out or FOMO. By eliminating such distractions, you can begin to focus on what truly matters. Such an approach will lead you to master your craft and will allow you to find deep satisfaction in your work.

Your mind exists in three states: a conscious, a subconscious, and a superconscious mind. Your mind isn't you; your awareness is. The mind doesn't wander, but awareness does. Renounce multitasking to reclaim your awareness.

You've spent a lifetime practising distraction. Focus can help overcome worry, anxiety and stress. Focus activates the third state of mind, the superconscious. Your awareness must follow your superconscious mind, that core that knows what is good for you, the source of your intuition and creativity. With awareness, it can start moving as one and flow to healthy places to dwell in the mind. Remain focused on your goals without unnecessary stress, and be fully present in all you do.

Focus requires practice and progress tracking. To begin, start small. It'll take time to practice focus. So, keeping patience close at hand, begin by listing five things you do every day.

Remind yourself that you're okay right now, and let your focus stay in the present. Over time, you'll trust your ability to focus your awareness away from destructive thought patterns and back into the current moment. Similarly, when you worry, you'll notice that you are imagining the future, not focusing on the present. You're using past, often negative, experiences to predict possible futures and exhausting your mental energy.

Gently bringing your focus back to the present shuts down this process and returns your energy to the task, helping you respond wisely to what is happening now. With practice, this can yield incredible benefits, and you don't have to change your life to get them. Being aware of everything you do, such as in a conversation with your spouse, can prevent you from responding angrily during a misunderstanding and instead asking for clarification. Over time, this would strengthen your relationship. Devoting full attention to cleaning your teeth will also pay off at the dentist. Using what you already do to practice focusing your awareness over time can change how you experience much of your life.

The more your focus is present, the more connected you can be to yourself, your relationships, and your life's journey. This helps you use the most limited and valuable resource: the time of your life.

News is based on novelty rather than relevance to our lives. It distracts our attention from our health, families, friends, and neighbourhoods to scrutinise things we have no control over.

Scientists now know that the brain is continually reshaping. Reading lots of news rewires our brains negatively. Research by the University of Tokyo found that the more a person consumes multiple media types, the fewer brain cells in the anterior cingulate cortex. This part of the brain is responsible for attention span and moral deliberation. According to Nicholas Carr, a leading researcher on the effect of internet use on our brains, when we scroll through online news, our brains are being rewired to adapt to cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. So, the neuronal circuits necessary for deep thought and careful reading will dwindle.

The bad news is toxic to your body. Why do we gravitate toward lousy news? It's an evolutionary trait. The bad news is seen as more relevant than the good news. For millennia, we've needed to be aware of the danger to stay alive. Reading the news does not help you change the world for the better. Stay within your circle of competence and area of expertise, and don't get irritated by distracting news. Democracy will still work fine without rolling news.

John Sellars is a professor of philosophy at King’s College London. He explores the relevance of Stoic philosophy to modern life and its teachings on ethics. Stoicism is a set of lessons that revolve around one simple yet profound idea—that our happiness hinges more on our character than anything external. Stoicism teaches us to master our emotions, focusing on what can be controlled: our judgments and actions, not external outcomes.

Stoicism teaches that caring for our souls is crucial. Stoics believed real wealth comes from a virtuous character, not material possessions. Wealth is neutral; it's neither good nor bad and reflects the character of its holder. Epictetus warned against focusing too much on wealth and status at the expense of moral growth. He encouraged shifting our attention from external achievements to internal development.

Stoics introduced the concept of indifference – things like wealth, health and reputation that should not determine our core happiness or moral integrity. Stoics aim to live in harmony with nature and the external world. To cultivate a virtuous character, Stoicism promotes the development of the cardinal virtues – wisdom, justice, courage and moderation to impact their communities positively.

Focusing on what you can control brings peace of mind. 

Seeing something we perceive as desirable, like a dream career or luxury car, triggers a judgment that it's good, which fuels our pursuit. This process underscores the importance of being mindful of how swiftly and unconsciously we often make judgments. Epictetus, in short, encouraged us to reflect on our decisions. Marcus Aurelius, a later student of Stoic philosophy, practised this by reminding himself of the mundane reality behind seemingly desirable objects. This practice helps strip away the false value attributed to objects by our judgments, reinforcing that nothing external possesses inherent goodness. First, mastering our decisions allows us to control our desires and actions, placing true happiness firmly within our grasp.

Ultimately, basing our happiness on achieving specific outcomes sets us up for disappointment. However, if our goal is to do the best we can under the circumstances, nothing can impede our peace of mind.

Anger is a temporary madness, but it passes. At the core of Stoicism is the belief that emotions stem from our judgments and interpretations made by our minds. The emotional reaction is the consequence of the judgement. Stoics urge us to focus on the earlier stage of the judgement, take a moment to reflect on the situation, and not react impulsively to prevent ourselves from unnecessary emotional turmoil because this is where we have control.

Time is your most valuable possession. He suggested instead that learning to live well by taking time out for yourself was a lifelong task and that the wise have historically foregone the pursuit of pleasure and wealth to focus on this endeavour. Stop hustling, longing for the future, or dreading the present. Organising our days as if each were our last allows us to live fully, without fear or procrastination, making the most of our time. Contemplate the finite nature of your existence.

Self-improvement allows you to help others. Stoicism often focuses solely on the individual, emphasising self-improvement and personal well-being. Cultivate rationality and virtue, and view yourself as part of a global community responsible for contributing positively to the collective well-being.