Here I share some quotes and notes I found useful.
What is productivity?
Productivity is a method for managing your time and your other resources. In other words, it’s managing yourself so you can achieve the most results in the least amount of time. The way I measure that is not by the number of lines of code but rather by how quickly you achieve your end result.
This makes much sense.
Notes I took
Before
Define your goal, outcome
Write it down
Be specific
Regularly dump your Open Loops(Give yourself 15 mins, write down all the TODOs or anything that bothers you at that time. Then review it either tell yourself you’re gonna do it or just let it go)
During
Avoid Distractions
The 50/10 Rule(50 mins of focus, 10 mins break)
Work with your energy, honor your energy, track your energy.
After
Get rest
Get exercise
Celebrate
Off topic
Find another boss
In the “After - Get rest” part Lars told us the tip to deal with your boss:
Now I deserve to take some time off. If your boss doesn’t agree, you should have a conversation with your boss about that. If he still doesn’t agree, find another boss.
Maybe it’s the easiest and most efficient way :)
Emotional Design
In the video it mentioned about the book “Emotional Design”, I didn’t remember when and where I heard this book before, I was very interested in this book long ago. (Maybe it was in the book Drive?). So after I ran into it this time, I 1-clicked on Amazon without hesitation ^^
I’m using the SourceCodePro-Light font and Nil Color theme for SublimeText. They’re perfect couples. Key point here is use that Light version instead of regular one.
The more I look at it, the more I like it. Look how beautiful the single quotation is!
If you’re using SublimeText and also a fan of iA Writer , you may want to check this plugin called MarkdownEditing. It provides a iA Writer-like interface to your SublimeText.
How does it look like?
A picture is worth a thousand words:
Install
Use cmd+shift+P then Package Control: Install Package, type MarkdownEditing to install it, then any markdown file will get associated.
Other Features
Besides iA Writer-like UI it also has many other features like:
Asterisks, underscores and parenthesis are auto paired and will wrap selected text
⌘⌥V will paste the contents of the clipboard as an inline link on selected text
⌘⌥K inserts a standard inline link, ⌘⇧K inserts an inline image
⌘⌥B and ⌘⌥I are bound to bold and italics (Markdown).
In order to sync SublimeText2 settings with Dropbox, you need to symlink these folders of SublimeText to your dropbox.
Packages
Installed Packages
Pristine Packages
On your main machine
cd to your dropbox folder where your want to symlink to.
cd ~/Dropbox/99_Sync/SublimeText
ln-s"/Users/your_user_name/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 2/Packages/" Packages
ln-s"/Users/your_user_name/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 2/Installed Packages/"'Installed Packages'ln-s"/Users/your_user_name/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 2/Pristine Packages/"'Pristine Packages'
Yesterday was my one year anniversary at Cookpad, and I came up with an idea to send a couple of mails to my friends inside and outside the company, who have helped me to join it, just want to say thanks to them in person.
I wrote in the order of the people I’ve met. First starts with my headhunter who introduced cookpad to me, then my first and second interviewer, etc. I didn’t write to everyone I’ve met in the company, that will be too overwhelming and lose the point.
It ended up with 13 mails, since yesterday was Saturday and I sent to our company email address, I didn’t expect any replies until next business day. But surprisingly someone already replied and seems like they love this idea, and many positive feedbacks!
WOW your friends
Since one of my purpose is to WOW(a verb I learned from the book: Delivering Happiness) those my friends so to be honest, if everything works fine, and it should, I wouldn’t be surprised by these positive feedbacks. But still, after reading their sweet words, it made me feel very very happy.I’m so glad that I made it. In my daily life I never feel lack of ideas to WOW someone but I never really execute in actions.
When I was reading the book, one story is about how Tony enjoyed organising a party and make a WOW experience to his friends. At that time I didn’t quite understand why he thought that way, but now I think I get it. It’s really a very amazing experience. It also reminded me that back in the days when I setup or prepared a surprise for my girlfriend, no need to go expensive or fancy, just something that a little bit weird and out of the box, then I will see the most beautiful smile in the world. This is a mindset and life style which I’ve decided to follow up. To make this world a better place, first step is to ensure you make your family and friends around you happier, right?
So this is my way to say thank you to my friends, some of the mails maybe even contain less than 10 phrases but it’s important to do it, and say it loud.
Reconnecting, A Really Unrelated Story
Oh, one more thing need to be mentioned. Yesterday I also got a message from my Senpai(先輩, Japanese, like one’s mentor) which I lost his contact 3 years ago. Every time when I reconnect with someone through Internet, I really appreciate what a good job it has done to make our life better. He was my first Senpai when I graduated and step into the whole adult society, even at that time he seemed really strict to me, it turns out it was worthwhile and I’d learned a lot from him. Not like how to write down each code, but in a much higher “Macro” point of view how to work, how to think. Sometimes I’m very surprised by this Japanese Senpai and kōhai connection. This is really a word you have to self experience in Japanese society.
The applicant is willing to think and act outside the box.
Give me an example from your previous job(s) where you had to think and act outside the box.
What was the best mistake you made on the job? Why was it the best?
Tell me about a time you recognised a problem/area to improve that was outside of your job duties and solved without being asked to. What was it, how did you do it？
The applicant is more creative than the average person.
Would you say you are more or less creative than the average person? Can you give me an example?
If it was your first day on the job at Zappos and your task was to make the interview/recruiting process more fun, what would you do for those eight hours?
The applicant is willing to take risk in trying to solve a problem.
What’s an example of a risk you took in a previous job? What was the outcome?
When was the last time you brke the rules/policy to get the job done?
Here is the video of Amazon Kindle Press Conference, hold on September 6, 2012. This article does not intend to cover all the hardware details but just something worth for me to write down.
Why video?
I really don’t like just check the new hardware’s specs and see the numbers bumped up from this level to that level. I’d always like to watch the press videos, to enjoy the process, to feel the revolutionary stories behind this. Of course part of it kind of depends on how the CEO did the presentation.
With Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) you can self-publish your books on the Amazon Kindle Store. It’s free, fast, and easy. Books self-published through KDP can participate in the 70% royalty program and are available for purchase on Kindle devices and Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, and Android-based devices. With KDP, you can self-publish books in many languages and specify pricing in US Dollars, Pounds Sterling, and Euros.
I really think it’s a good job, good job Amazon. There is a also a video clip interviewing the authors who have published and succeeded through KDP. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, also mentioned some numbers about this business, apparently it’s going well and actually helping people. To be honest, suddenly it occurs to me that maybe one day I can publish my own book, if it’s really just a matter of whether I can finish it, and no need to consider about the publisher.
Audio books
I bought Steven Job’s biography audio book last year, which is the first time I ever tried an audio book. Despite my English skill it was still a pretty good experience. I really encourage you to try at least once. If you keep saying, “Oh no I can never understand those English” and stop trying or improving yourself, you can never get that place. Just my opinion.
Narration
I never cared about who was narrating the book to me, until I heard this:
They’re getting people like Susan Sarandon, Colin Firth Anne Hathaway to narrate these books.
So what’s the big deal? I think it’s better to know it’s not someone who is cold heart just do his/her jobs to READ the book, but it’s someone you know like big movie stars, narrating the story, vividly. I want to know the details behind the scenes if I’m really into something. So it’s different for me.
Whispersync for Voice
Listen to your audio book on the way home, when you get home, pick up the “book” and start reading. Keep the place between the two media formats. I love this idea, and it becomes true.
Reading time
I almost forgot about this. Now kindle can show you how many times do you need to finish the current chapter, or the entire book. And it’s based on your speed. Isn’t that amazing!?
When We Make Money?
In the end, Jeff also mentioned about alignment of amazon.
We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices.
I appreciate this. I’m sure we all know that it is the place where you are supposed to say something beautiful to the public. But I still love it, and I bought it.
It let me look back the “common” flow of my daily work. There was a time when we were told like this: “We need to make xxx money by the end of xxx, so we have to release the product before xxx! So do it and do it harder!”. Ok I may extragerate too much but you got the point. I admit it’s neccessary to have a business plan, including numbers, to run a business. But it would be thankful if we and our managers and BOSS stop talking about how many money we’re gonna make or should make, and think about how much it’s gonna be helpful and valuable to our users. You don’t need to say it loud every single day, but at least consider about this in your heart.
I want to make money when people use my products, although I’m just an employee now.
