Does this sound like a reasonable question: “Do you do things in order of importance?” I don’t think it is. I suggest the question gets things backward. Your priorities don’t determine what order you do things in. The order you do things in determines their priority. What you do first is your highest priority, given all your values and constraints, and if you tell yourself otherwise, you’re lying to yourself.[…] Keep reading →

You get chances to do cool things: classes to take, hobbies to try, relationships to develop, books to read, movies to watch, and so on. How do you decide which to do? Most people look at the new thing and ask if it’s worth doing. I recommend not asking that question. There are many things worth doing in the abstract. Too many. I recommend instead asking what you’d have to[…] Keep reading →

Think of your heroes and role models. How many of them reached their greatness by doing many things in many areas at once? All the ones I can think of reached greatness by excelling in one area. After greatness they may have branched into other areas, but they all focused with discipline at first. Most people I know spread themselves thin on many projects. They don’t say no to good[…] Keep reading →

Would you feel weird to eat the peel of an orange? I don’t know about you, but I would have thought people would consider me weird to peel an orange and then eat any of the peel. It turns out the peel has most of the fruit’s vitamin C, nearly all of its fiber, a decent amount of calcium, and almost no calories. It’s healthy and comes free with the[…] Keep reading →

You’re born liking fruit. Even if you liked candy more than fruit as a kid like I did, you still like it. If someone gives you a mango, you’d rather eat it than not. You aren’t born liking vegetables. At least I wasn’t. Until adulthood, if someone gave me a cauliflower, I’d rather not eat it, no matter how healthy they told me it was. The problem is that you[…] Keep reading →

A student in the online entrepreneurship course I’m creating asked about distractions. When he wants to work, he often gets distracted. I think me answer will help others so I’m sharing it here. Most life-long valuable things have long-term, non-urgent reward. Things that have immediate reward or urgency will distract. For example, if you want to do well at school, the reward for working on a project may come days[…] Keep reading →

If you want to learn, find an experience to teach you and make it happen, not just the answers written out. Let the experience create the answer for you. When I wanted to learn something, I used to get a book and read about it. We learn more through experience. I teach that way. I also realize I’ve adopted the habit of trying to do things to learn. If I[…] Keep reading →