Category: Life Tips

He that is down needs fear no fall. He that is low, no pride.

He That Is Down Needs Fear No Fall - Hymnary

He that is down needs fear no fall;
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.

I am content with what I have,
Little be it or much;
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because thou savest such.

Fulness to such a burden is
That go on pilgrimage;
Here little, and hereafter bliss,
Is best from age to age.

The kids are having none of it. They can't be bought, they can't be taught your hate.

The Kids Are Having None Of It - Frazey Ford

Get out of the way
You've had your day
And it's no longer how we gon' play

The kids are having none of it
The kids are having none of it
They can't be bought, they can't be taught your hate

Always a mistake
To underestimate
Watch them now, they're stepping to the plate

The kids are having none of it
The kids are having none of it
They can't be bought, they can't be taught your hate

You tie their hands behind their back and expect them not to bite. Well yes it is what it is but what it is isn’t right.

What It Is - Mellah

Well yes it is what it is but what it is isn't right
When you're falling into the feeling losing the fight to feel bright
I'm tired of listening to the pillars and the preachers of night
Well yes it is what it is but what it is isn't right

You take it out on the weakest for no reason but spite
Preach you exultation just because your skin's white
You tie their hands behind their back and expect them not to fight
Well yes it is what it is but what it is isn't right

The less you give the more we'll take
The stronger the chain the more we'll shake
The less you give the more we'll take
The stronger the chain the more we'll shake

Add separators to your taskbar to keep them organized in groups, help you focus, and keep your mind clearer, possibly in groups of 6 apps together.

Three useful tricks for organizing your messy Windows taskbar - Lifehacker

If you've ever wanted to group your apps into separate spaces on your taskbar, you actually can - with a little help from this workaround we've talked about before. All you need to do is create a shortcut to a fake EXE file, give it a transparent icon, and add it to your taskbar. You can separate your office apps from your games, or even your slow-loading apps from your fast-loading apps - that way, if you accidentally click on the wrong button, you don't have to wait 60 seconds for the wrong app to load before you close it. Check out our original post for the full rundown on how this works.

Keep a dated list of tasks and projects you have completed, because looking back on your achievements provides a sense of accomplishment and motivation.

Clever uses for plain text files that can increase your productivity - Lifehacker

There's something to be said for seeing how much you've gotten done at the end of the day. You know how satisfying it is to cross out items on your to do list, and then look back at the list to see everything you completed? A "done" list, or "anti-to-do list" as Marc Andreessen calls it, works in a similar fashion: you simply take note of each thing you get done during the day. Start out with the date and just list your "done" items underneath. Not only will this help you review your productivity at the end of each day and make you feel better about what you got done, but it can be really useful to keep around as a work log. You might want to look back in weeks or months to come to see what you were working on or how long a project took to complete.

Remember that 80% of the result comes from 20% of your time, work, or activities, and that 80% could be good enough for many tasks by focusing on the essential 20% of your efforts and activities.

16 Things I wish they had taught me in school - Positivity Blog

This is one of the best ways to make better use of your time. The 80/20 rule - also known as The Pareto Principle - basically says that 80 percent of the value you will receive will come from 20 percent of your activities. So a lot of what you do is probably not as useful or even necessary to do as you may think. You can just drop - or vastly decrease the time you spend on - a whole bunch of things.

Simplify the amount of folders you use by organizing your documents into folders by type, and only creating albums, groupings, or project folders when necessary.

Geek To Live: Organizing my documents - Lifehacker

There are a million and one ways to arrange files and folders on disk. Some might argue that spending a moment even thinking about it in the age of desktop search is unnecessary. That may be true, but some semblance of order will clear your desktop and your mind and make you "ready for anything." Over the years I've come up with a six folder structure for "My Documents" which I create on every computer I use without fail. This scheme accommodates every file I might come across, keeps my desktop clear, smoothly fits in with an automated backup system and also makes command line file wrangling a breeze.

"It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential." - Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee’s top 7 fundamentals for getting your life in shape - Positivity Blog

If you want to improve your life then it’s tempting to want to add more. One problem with this may be that you don’t really have the time or energy to do more though. And so your efforts to improve become short-lived. Adding more and more just creates more stress and anxiety. Removing clutter and activities, tasks and thoughts that are not so important frees up time and energy for you to do more of what you really want to do. And as the clutter in your outer world decreases the clutter in your inner world also has a tendency to decrease. This has the added benefit of making it easier to actually enjoy whatever you are doing even more while you are doing it.

Are we friends? Do you care? Let it go, let it go, let it go.

Enlightened - Rotten Tomatoes

Are we connected?
What do you say about me?
Was I mean to you?
Were you to me?

What do you think of me? Deep down?
Am I ridiculous? Or sweet? Or decent?
Are we friends? Do you care?
Let it go, let it go, let it go.

Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one. And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come.

Peace Train - Cat Stevens

Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

Now I've been smiling lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
Come on now peace train

The lights are so nice and bright and let's dream, but some of us are stuck like stones in a slipstream.

Europe Is Lost - Kate Tempest

Europe is lost, America lost, London lost
Still we are clamouring victory
All that is meaningless rules
We have learned nothing from history

The people are dead in their lifetimes
Dazed in the shine of the streets
But look how the traffic's still moving
System's too slick to stop working

Business is good, and there's bands every night in the pubs
And there's two for one drinks in the clubs
And we scrubbed up well
Washed off the work and the stress
And now all we want's some excess
Better yet; a night to remember that we'll soon forget

All of the blood that was bled for these cities to grow
All of the bodies that fell
The roots that were dug from the earth
So these games could be played

Sleep like a gloved hand covers our eyes
The lights are so nice and bright and let's dream
But some of us are stuck like stones in a slipstream
What am I gonna do to wake up?

Give honest and sincere appreciation. - Dale Carnegie

How To Win Friends And Influence People - Goodreads

Lincoln once began a letter saying: "Everybody likes a compliment." William James said: "The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated." He didn't speak, mind you, of the "wish" or the "desire" or the "longing" to be appreciated. He said the "craving" to be appreciated...Let's try to figure out the other person's good points. Then forget flattery. Give honest, sincere appreciation. Be "hearty in your [compliments] and lavish in your praise." and people will cherish your words and treasure them and repeat them over a lifetime - repeat them years after you have forgotten them.

Consider using simple text files to help you get things done and keep track of your tasks, todo lists, projects, and goals, instead of using a complicated tasks app.

Amazing Mac apps for getting things done (plus a custom-rigged setup) - Zen Habits

While I love the apps mentioned above, I personally look for super simple. So I’ve settled on a setup taken from Gina and Adam’s articles on Lifehacker (read the tutorials: Geek to Live and Hack Attack). Text files: Basically, I organize my tasks in a series of text files. That’s because they’re super simple, easy to manipulate, and small. My four files:

• @today: my three MITs for today, along with calls, batch tasks, and an inbox for new things added to the list.
• @ideas: any ideas for projects, posts, or anything really.
• @errands: includes regular errands and my shopping list.
• @todo: my list of 3 projects I’m working on and any other todo items I’m not going to do today.

If they ask you to stand, well they just want you to kneel.

Come On Come On - Jet

Now I am a young man I see cracks in the steel
If they ask you to stand, well they just want you to kneel
If you don't know what you want then you just have to take it all

Hey man, you gotta understand
I got the world in my two hands
Hey man, never goin' back, never going back

Come on come on
I don't need anyone
To tell me what to believe

Come on come on
Shout it out everyone
You can't tell me what to believe

Find and meet up with people who are doing things that you are interested in doing.

Advice for people in their early 20s - Zen Habits

Find people online doing interesting things, meet up with them in real life. Find people who are passionate, who are building things, who are pushing themselves, who dream big, who are mindful and joyful and healthy and friendly and shy and gregarious and adventurous and curious. Befriend them. Be there for them. Be helpful. Make them laugh. These are your people.

Remember that you can positively influence other people's lives by telling them you believe in them, you think they are a good person, they possess good qualities, and you expect they will perform well because they have the ability to do so.

Pygmalion effect - Wikipedia

The Pygmalion effect is a psychological phenomenon in which high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area and low expectations lead to worse. It is named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion, the sculptor who fell so much in love with the perfectly beautiful statue he created that the statue came to life. According to the Pygmalion effect, the targets of the expectations internalize their positive labels, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly; a similar process works in the opposite direction in the case of low expectations. The idea behind the Pygmalion effect is that increasing the leader's expectation of the follower's performance will result in better follower performance. Within sociology, the effect is often cited with regard to education and social class.

Give people sincere praise about something they have done well or that you appreciate about them before giving them negative feedback or an idea for something they could change or do differently.

How to Give and Receive Feedback at Work: The Psychology of Criticism - Buffer

"Sandwich every bit of criticism between two heavy layers of praise." One well known strategy for feedback is the “criticism sandwich,” popularized by the above quote from cosmetics maven Mary Kay Ash. In the sandwich, you begin with praise, address the problem, and follow up with more praise. In fact, the more of the conversation you can frame positively, the more likely your recipient is to be in the right frame of mind to make the change you’re looking for.

Spend some time in solitude to think about and create ideas, make plans or goals, and solve your problems.

Nikola Tesla's Best Productivity Tricks - Lifehacker

Like many inventors and creative types, Nikola Tesla was an advocate for solitude when creating and working. Most famously, he's quoted as saying "The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born." The idea that you need to work in solitude to get things done is by no means new. We've talked before about how it can boost creativity, and how setting aside some alone time is a great way to recharge to boost productivity. In the end, it's all about productive introspection and using your alone time well.

Get started by doing something for just a minute or two, and then get up to applaud yourself for getting started.

Ways to do what you don’t want to do - Zen Habits

If you have to write something, just write a sentence. Then get up, get some water, stretch. Pat yourself on the back for getting started! Now do a little more: write a few more sentences. Get up, take a mental break (don’t go to another website), do a few pushups. Go back, do a bit more. Pretty soon, you’re in the flow of it.

Remember everyone is emotional and that people are all going through the ups and downs of life, so try to comfort or cheer up others who get angry or are in a bad mood.

The critical 7 rules to understand people - Scott H. Young

Perhaps this is an exaggeration. But the core of the message is that people tend to have stronger feelings about something than they let on. People who regularly have outbursts of anger, depression or flamboyant enthusiasm are generally frowned upon in most cultures. This especially applies to men (for women trying to figure us out). The application of this rule is to not assume everything is fine just because someone isn’t having a nervous breakdown. We all have our individual problems, angst and upsets that are normally contained.