👋🏻 Hey friends, have you ever said, “I don’t have time”?
I am sure once in your life; you turned down something by saying this. This phrase is common in all people’s lives. But don’t we really have time for other things?
I will answer this question later, but as the title says, sometimes we have to take a direction at the right moment. This could be about everything: changing career path, applying for a new position, having a new hobby, setting up vacation/trip plans, etc.
⏰ But the real issue is: when is the right moment?
📌 Finding the right direction in life is an existential problem that all of us face at some time. Taking a step is always difficult, whether you’re fresh out of college and trying to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your 20s and beyond, or you’ve realised that the life you’re living no longer suits you.
🎙 Here are some tips that will help you to shape your decision 👇🏻
- Draw the line between thinking and over-thinking. 👉🏻 Everything happens just in a moment. Big decisions require more time to think, but over-thinking leads to stress, anxiety, self-doubt, and, more important, inaction. If you notice you think a lot on one topic, leave it as it is and focus on others. Ultimately, you will see the right moment to take action.
- Trust in your feelings. 👉🏻 The question of whether or not we should trust our instincts is a recurring one, yet we must learn to trust our guts at some point. When you realise changing something, ask yourself: “Is this a genuine concern, or am I using this as an excuse not to follow my passion because I feel scared (or uncomfortable)?”
- Notice what makes you happy. 👉🏻 Happiness is the most determinative factor of living peacefully. If you realise your current life direction does not meet your needs, start researching what does. It can be hard to change but start small, and you’ll find it more manageable. As you go through your daily life, analyse when you feel most alive, enthusiastic, and particularly when you feel that you add value.
- Discover your advantages. 👉🏻 There are many people sharing success stories, motivational quotes, positive experiences, etc. It can hurt and depress you sometimes, especially when comparing yourself with others. But we all have individual strengths which might be hard to identify. Our strengths and advantages come naturally to us, so everyone has a particular trait or skill.
🛠 “I don’t have time” or can’t manage the time?
🎙 People often face the untimely completion of planned activities, lack of efficiency and motivation, and inability to manage time properly. Sometimes, you determine the work to be done at the beginning of the day, but after a while, you become distracted and turn to other activities. Over the past years, I have read many books and articles about productivity and time management. There are specific tips that I genuinely use to help make my time management more efficient.
Here are some beneficial tips about time management and productivity:
📚 Book recommendation
💡 Speaking of time, I’ve recently read “Brief Answers to the Big Questions” by Stephen Hawking. This book inspired me to get back to my hobbies to research physics and astronomy.
ℹ️ This book answers some of the fundamental questions often asked by humanity. I always liked physics and astronomy, but the language of the book convinces you even if you don’t know much about the laws and norms. Because the author makes the most essential and complicated questions and their answers approachable. This book pushes its readers to cross the barrier of imagination and go beyond the bounds of common thought. On the other hand, not only how the author answered the questions but also how he put forwards some key questions for the readers to ponder upon that could change the way one perceives the world.
⏰ Regarding our topic, I picked one: “Can we predict the future?”
That’s one of the big questions he answered in his book. He explains the time period as follows: “If at one time we knew the positions and speeds of all particles in the universe, then we would be able to calculate their behaviour at any other time in the past or future.” According to mathematics and calculations, we can observe or predict future events but not in our universe or speeds.
So, do the laws governing the universe allow us to predict precisely what will happen to us in the future? – The short answer is no and yes. In principle, the laws allow us to predict the future. But in practice, the calculations are often too difficult.
With that being said, what is the most important lesson from the book? Answer: “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder what makes the universe exist. Be curious.”
📱 App of the week
📌 Recently, I found quite an exciting and fun application to manage my week or day. If you can’t find suitable platforms to manage your time efficiently, this app is designed specifically for you. Structured combines your calendars and tasks into a visual timeline. This is the most satisfying and outstanding feature of the app.
ℹ️ Once you enter the input to the app, it shows your day as a timeline. Just set a title, time, and duration, and you are ready to go! Additionally, you can adjust the icon and colour, add notes and subtasks, and even make the task repeat. The app integrates with many calendars (Google, Outlook, iCloud & more) and Apple Reminders. That way, you can plan your day around meetings. Also, you can customise the timeline based on your preferences by changing the colour and icon. The app also suggests the perfect icon for each task. Structured will always stay on top of your schedule and remind you when a task starts or ends. Plus, you will always see your upcoming tasks in the beautiful home screen widgets.
🎙 Unfortunately, the app is available for iOS devices right now, but they may bring it to other platforms in the future.
🪐 Useful website
We all write a lot of emails in a day, which takes a lot of time. I found a handy website to help us utilise our writing and make it compelling. Hemingway App highlights lengthy, complex sentences and common errors. By default, the app shows five different colours:
Yellow – you need to shorten or split the sentence or paragraph.
- Red – your sentence is so dense and complicated that your readers will get lost trying to follow its meandering, splitting logic.
- Purple – you can utilise a shorter word in place of a purple one.
- Green – the text shows how many sentences were written in passive voice.
- Blue – the text has adverbs and weakening phrases. You can get rid of them and pick words with force, perhaps.
It is available both on Mac and Windows; in addition, you can use a web app instead of downloading software. It’s free.
📢 Quote of the week
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. Albert Einstein
✍🏻 My latest blog post
🔍 Recently, I’ve talked about boosting your productivity and performance. Day by day, when you run a business or have a huge workload, you start to use several tools to utilise your productivity and enhance your workflow. No matter what type of job you have, you cannot get higher results and performance if you don’t automate your workflow or implement techniques that boost productivity.
This article talked about 12 valuable tools to manage and enhance your experience. Check this out: Best 12 tools to boost your productivity and performance
💡 My favourite things
📕 Article: Do you know that scientifically a day lasts 23 hours and 56 mins? Then why do we have 24 hours? The answer is simple: It takes 23 hours and 56 minutes for the Earth to orbit itself completely, but it takes 24 hours for the Sun to be at the same point a day later. That is, when the Earth completes a 360-degree tour, it can’t be at the same point as it turns around the Sun as well. If we adjusted the clocks according to the rotation of the Earth, the Sun would rise 4 minutes earlier each day. Thus, there would be a difference of 12 hours after six months. Check this article to read more about this fact.
🎶 Music: Recently, I discovered very energetic music it will change your mood completely – Glass Animals – I Don’t Wanna Talk
🎥 YouTube video: You might have noticed that you become less productive sometimes when the afternoon rolls around. From roughly 1 pm to 4 pm, to be more precise. During that time, you’re not as motivated to do the work, you have a more challenging time focusing, and even the work you do is of lower quality. And it has a name: the afternoon slump. This video talks about this phenomenon; if you want to learn more, check out this video: Why You’re Always Tired Between 1 pm – 4 pm (and what to do about it)
That’s all for this week, but much more will come later.
Have a great week!