Lessons on hiring I have learnt from my personal experiences

Forming a great team is crucial. I learnt that bitterly. It is impossible to do things by myself. I’m limited by my personal capacity. Outsourcing stable processes is so important for scaling your project.

I often judge people based on intuition. That’s a huge mistake. Rather than judge people, match people’s skills to job tasks you need. Putting the right skills/talent to the right job instantly increases the performance by multiple folds.

I don’t think there are exceptional talents that excel in everything that they do. I believe that most people are great in a few areas. Some are good at writing and researching, some are good at checking and detecting errors. Some are good at giving ideas whereas some others are great at keeping time and being punctual.

The CV is rather useless in terms of providing great insights on the potential colleague. At best, it tells you a list of jobs he/she worked on. We need to fit different characters to different jobs. If you want to restructure the firm, you need a new leader. The existing leader can never restructure the firm himself – he is embedded in the system. It’s very hard for him to tear apart the relationships he built. It’s much cheaper to change a leader.

I think the first step to hiring is deciding on the firm structure. Do you want a team that is punctual on submissions? Do you prefer a team that is managed strictly on project management tools? I prefer these management methods! The opposite is to get a team less structured – less emphasis on abiding by specific timeline and deliverables. The next step is to hire the right type of characters.

Experience can sometimes be overrated. An intelligent worker will learn from mentorship and from doing and reading. Hiring a cheaper intelligent worker is better than hiring purely for experience in the long term. Because intelligence is hard to detect, sometimes experience adds value.

Interaction with the potential colleague is almost always the best way to assessing them. I would take out intuition from decision making process. I would allow this potential colleague to meet with the existing team. If he is able to interact well with them, that’s a plus. Next, I would ask behavioral questions. Amazon is good with these types of interviews. I have personally been interviewed by Amazon – they ask 5 to 8 behavioral questions. Probe them with other questions when the candidate is sharing his experiences.

Hiring is a 50-50% exercise. Even though you can do your best to assess the colleague, it turns out that 50% of the time you will be wrong. You should react by letting the person go respectfully. In bigger firms, there may be other positions for the person to rotate to. For small teams, it is important to recruit slow and let off misfits fast.

Applying Kanban on personal work and life

The Kanban method has greatly improved my productivity

Kanban is a very famous framework which is used by software teams that practice agile software development. Kanban methodology is more than 50 years old.

In the late 1940s Kanban was developed by Toyota Production System (TPS) to streamline production. The company began optimizing its engineering processes in the same way as the supermarkets were using to stock their shelves. Supermarkets stock products which are enough in order to meet consumer demand, which advances the flow between the supermarket and the consumer. As inventory levels match consumption patterns, the supermarket gains significant efficiency in inventory management by decreasing the amount of excess stock it must hold at any given team. At the same time, the supermarket is able to ensure that a specific product that a customer may need is at stock at any given time.

Toyota used the same system to the floors of its factory, aiming to improve the huge inventory levels with the actual consumption of materials. In order to be able to know capacity levels in real-time on the factory floor (as well as to the suppliers), workers would pass a card, or "kanban", between teams. For example, when some materials that were being used on the production line finished, a “kanban” was forwarded to the warehouse of the company, which included the necessary material, the amount needed etc. Then the warehouse would have new materials, they would send them to the factory floor, and after that they would send their “kanban” to the supplier. The supplier would also have the specific material available, so as it can be sent over to the warehouse. The signaling technology of this process has been improved since then, but the "just in time" (JIT) manufacturing process still exists.

The system worked extremely well, allowing Toyota to reduce production costs while maintaining a high level of quality. Later, Kanban became a staple at all business schools.

We can apply Kanban principles on personal life

First, you need to visualize all your projects and processes on a board. You can do it electronically or on a physical board. I recommend using a PM tool like Asana or Trello. This helps you simultaneously monitor everything you need to do and easily ascertain your next task. Instead of juggling several tasks, you are now clear on the next bottleneck. This is similar to Scrum Sprint development theory.

Second, you need to keep your WIP to a minimum. Don’t put too many things in WIP. It will stress you up. The whole point of Kanban is to increase productivity by tackling what is necessary, one thing at a point of time.

Keep 3 categories of tasks:

1. WIP (Doing it),

2. KIV (Wait to do),

3. Done. Visualize how each task move from one category to another.

Limit your to do list to only things that are important

Decide aggressively which tasks should be in KIV for whatever reasons and focus on moving WIP to done. Drop, delegate and dismiss things that are not important.

Kanban helps you by tracking your activities and mastering your time. Kanban is always giving you feedback about your decisions and work, you’ll know well in advance if something needs changing.

Loss aversion can impact your retirement planning

A big number of investors deal with deep fear of risk and little loss tolerance

Investors tend to become too emotional. Emotions affect investments badly. Assume stock price moved down by 2% in a day. The drop of 2% might cause anxiety in investors who have disproportionate fear of losses. They might suffer from sleeplessness or simply sell the stock in the same day regardless of their intended portfolio time horizon.

Behavioural finance involves considering investors’ long-term preferences for risk and return. Investors may be affected by emotional responses and behavioural distortions. Someone who is highly risk averse can consider forgoing a bit percentage of market returns to buy insurance. For example, he can own a portfolio of 60% bonds and 40% equities just to make sure his portfolio is not as volatile as others who could be holding onto 70% equities. Of course, the investor who holds lesser equities will quite likely have lesser portfolio value in the long term (20 to 30 years).

The industry’s traditional approach has essentially been to deliver “optimal” portfolios which are built on taking for granted that the investor will be constantly and totally rational. This approach imposes a huge emotional and practical obstacle on investors. They are required to tolerate the ups and downs of the investing cycle and see through the longer term horizon. Some investors simply cannot put up with that.

By ignoring the significant role of emotions during the investment journey, investors turn out to be uncomfortable with traditional portfolio solutions 

This can lead to poor decision making and lower performance. When investors strive for rational perfection in their portfolios, they become more likely to make emotionally driven decisions.

They may pay too much attention to the short term, forgetting the longer term horizon.

Investors may overreact to market movements in the short term

Investors may invest in “familiar” assets, firms in their region. They feel safer holding shares of companies that they are familiar with and believe they can manage these risks better.

They may buy when everything is bullish. Emotionally, they feel comfortable following the herd. 

They may also sell when everyone is bearish, in times of extreme fear.

Some risk adverse investors may hold their money in cash, incurring high opportunity costs.

On average, all these behaviours drag down our long-term returns.

By simply taking less risk you can buy easily and naturally emotional insurance, but at what cost? 

However this also reduces long-term returns, often in a dramatic way. When they get to choose many will prefer not to invest at all, rather than investing on a mathematically perfect portfolio, just because the first choice makes them feel more comfortable. They leave their wealth sitting in cash.

An investor with large amounts of wealth in cash is, in fact, purchasing emotional comfort at a very high premium. By not investing, a moderate-risk investor in a globally diversified portfolio is missing out on long-term annualised returns above what you’d get from holding cash (averaged over many years) of about 4–5% per year—a huge amount to forgo because investing feels too uncomfortable!

Unlike the traditional industry, I don’t believe this purchase of emotional comfort is irrational. Emotional comfort is important and necessary, but it’s very expensive. Although there are occasions of people who may need more emotional comfort compared to others, what is clear is that no one has to pay 5% of their wealth every year to get a little rest.

Invest in low-cost passive funds to ensure emotional comfort and wealth

For all those reasons described above people should invest on cost-effective passive funds, that can provide them both with emotional comfort and wealth at the same time. The links below illustrate the reasons why somebody should invest in passive funds and how he/she can do it efficiently:

1. Passive funds are a better choice than active funds, since more than 84% of U.S. active funds underperformed the S&P 500 over the year. From a long-term view, over the past ten years, more than 98% of active funds failed to beat their benchmarks.

2. Investing like an idiot, but earning like a Pro. Investing in low fees index funds is the only way to retire in peace. After years of research it has been reported that low fees are "the most proven predictor of future fund returns". In other words, the cheaper the costs, the better the fund is likely to perform and the more money you're likely to make.

3. Stop getting cheated - Trading Courses. Passively managed funds have the lowest costs and now, the highest returns over time.

Useful rules for getting the most out of reading

Reading is the fastest way to soak in knowledge and others’ life experiences. Imagine a billionaire who has achieved almost everything. He puts away his business concerns to read a book, hoping to tell his stories, successes and failures. Would you not read it? It takes 1 week to absorb the wisdom he shared in the book. Then there are scientists and economists who publish their findings and applications in different sectors of lives. Should you not right them?

Here are a few rules you can follow to help you maximize the benefits of reading:

1 Curate your sources of reading. Most sources are rubbish. Scan their headlines. That’s sufficient. Don’t spend your time reading CNBC, CNN or even BBC most of the time. Go straight to deeper commentaries on FT, Economist or sector specific journals. Read a lot from top writers on Medium. You will be surprised how many CEOs and successful business people blog on Medium.

2 Use social media for news breakouts, not for learning. Twitter will teach you close to nothing. But Twitter will be the fastest channel to tell you the latest news. I think Facebook is relatively useless. Why would you want to know what happened to your friends? I like Quora. It’s the best way to waste away your time. At least you learn something new/exotic from another part of the world.

3 Books are the most curate form of reading. Read a lot of book reviews. Don’t read to enjoy the writing style. Read to learn. Book reviews will tell you the main points of the book (80%) in under 5% of the time to read the entire book. I read at least 5 book reviews on Blinkist a week. For those titles that seem to deserve a little more time (like Think Fast and Slow), I read the entire book.

4 Journals are also great. I read CFA journals. That’s why I keep up with financial news. CNBC tells me too much for nothing. I used to like Readers’ Digest. But it is now a horrible service apart from the jokes.

In summary, read books, read journals. Record your learnings on Evernote. Reread what you have learnt. And have an amazing life.

一个不吸引人的好建议：别太心软

我希望我是一个高效的黑客，那样一定非常棒。我希望我有上千个系统和程序以及处理杂务的手下，这样我的工作效率可以提高一倍。有时我甚至想，如果我只是试着不在没用的博客和电子书上浪费时间，应该就能成功做到。

过去，我在这方面留下的更多的是失败的教训。我用过番茄工作法，三天之后就不起什么作用了，我再也无法忍受这种状态下一塌糊涂的产物，于是对这所谓技巧产生了极大的抗拒。子弹日志很不错，我也用过一段时间。但是我选择了一本跟我的护照大小形状颜色都一样的笔记本，甚至还脑残地把它放在了书架上护照旁边（别问我为什么）。结果就拿错了，一连好几天都随身带着护照而不是笔记本。于是养成的习惯就被毁了，我也完蛋了。

我做过许多课程，完成过许多计划。但是我每天早上都会重复一个过程，那就是：起床，同厌恶感斗争，同手机的诱惑较量，有力气就去慢跑，同另一半吃早饭喝咖啡。

我深知根本不可能活成无情绪的机械。我最多只能做到相对来说高效一点，朝着终点线奔跑，同事项清单上没有完成的任务较劲。我对自己严厉冷酷甚至残忍，对任务清单也是，而这非常有用。

如果你正视你自己，你大概也会说出同样的话。

下面是我关于高效工作的一个建议。我曾经告诉过很多人，绝大多数都人觉得这个没有用。有个人写邮件给我寻求建议，然后觉得我的这个回应简直是毫无意义，他就直接叫我"混蛋"。但是我根本不在意，现在依然坚持我的观点。

当有些事情无可避免会发生的时候，当你正在处理事业赖以为生的任务的时候，当你有责任在身并且命悬一线的时候，请记住：

别太心软。对自己别太心软，对爱的人别太心软，对眼前的任务别太心软。

不论你有多么漂亮的原则，要想干出成果都必须要处理好你生活中的这三个方面。

首先是你自己。

混蛋如你并不想把手头的事情做完，重要的不重要的事情你全都抛诸脑后。你一边喝着威士忌一边看海绵宝宝，最后还在沙发上睡着了，也不愿意瞟一眼你的工作。（这个说的怎么那么像我。）

根本不在状态的时候所有事情都会是一团糟。为了能管好自己，你必须逼着你自己去良性发狠。我用亲身经历举个例子。我厌倦了眼下这一大堆工作，我一点也不想干，我想玩古墓丽影。我只好对自己下了狠心。我把唯一的一个手柄打包寄给我自己。四天之后才收到。这段时间玩不了古墓丽影，生活简直糟糕透顶，但是我把所有的事情都做完了。

想想都知道如果你只是普通员工，时不时消极怠工的话，老板只会炒了你。别太心软，良性自虐会教会你守规矩。

第二个是你爱的人。

你爱的朋友亲人很有可能不支持，不尊重你的梦想，有时候甚至连你的时间精力都不以为意。这种情况很难搞，结果可大可小。在你忙碌于事业时，你的朋友因为你没有去他的生日晚宴而冲你发脾气还好，你的亲戚们因为你过年没有回老家就都不愿意跟你说话，这就不太好了。从避免消极影响的角度来看，远离心理上和实际上对你没有帮助的人是一个解决办法。但是有时候也不太现实，有些人总是不可避免要打交道。

第一步，你先告诉所有你在意的人，你爱他们，他们很重要，而你有自己非常想做的事情。接下来这一步最重要。你给他们两个选择，接受你的也接受你的事业，或者拒绝接受，把他们的需要凌驾于你的需要之上。选择前者的人真的很在意很关心你，选择后者的人你最好远离。

对身边的人别太心软，"鱼和熊掌不可得兼" 不能只是说说而已，别妄想做个兼顾一切的老好人。

第三个是你的任务。

并不是所有事情都是必要的。很多人计划着这个星期要重回健身房，要打电话给所有的客户，要启动兼职项目，要学烤曲奇，要上吉他课，要做冥想等等。我敢打赌所有计划事项的完成率不到20%，永远也达不到100%。

我们总安排给自己太多的事情，很可能是因为一个庞大的待办事项清单和成就感联系在了一起。发现自己无法完成之后我们向现实妥协，承认自己实在是无能为力。

然后我们就学会了专注于关键的一两件事情？大多数时候并没有。我们很有可能就直接放弃设定计划，短暂性讨厌自己以后生活回到了原来的样子，并没有什么变化。

曲奇和瑜伽显然没有你的兼职项目来得更重要。我并不是说让你放弃这些活动，我的意思是没有必要把这个放在你的任务清单里面，因为放进去了并不能让你变得更高效，倒不如残忍一点把大量的任务删掉，这样才能认清自己真正需要做的那四五个，才能分清主次。做完了清单上所有事情，你还有空余时间的话，那你很幸运，没有的话，那就是命运。

"高效"是很多人都在消费的一个概念。企业家，作家，创意人员都希望过上与浪费时间和失误犯错绝缘的不切实际的生活。在我眼中，"高效"就是做完该做的事情。"别太心软"指的是昨晚所有要做的事情。也就是说，要设立边界，合理安排任务，不要让任何事情任何人打乱你的计划。艰难的工作从来都不是有趣或者能带来很多联想的。

我不能心软，因为我知道如果我松懈，我的生活就会失去方向，有可能吊儿郎当，对垃圾食品和游戏上瘾。但是我下了狠心，设定好了条条框框，让我自己不至于失去控制。

所以，不要再在一堆效率方法建议里纠缠了。如果一些方法好用，非常好，如果不好用，也挺好的。别被他们束缚住了手脚，别想着兼顾一切，别太心软。

Math helps you build logic in decision making

An awareness of numbers is an important tool in our everyday lives. Whether it’s putting the news and statistics we hear into perspective, math is essential to helping us navigate real-life situations. 

It’s quite common to hear that math was someone’s worst subject, or shrugging and saying that he’s simply not a numbers person.
That’s nothing to boast about. 

If you cannot deal with math, you cannot react appropriately and make accurate judgments in circumstances involving numbers and probability. 

In many instances, their numerical intuition is prejudiced by their own experience.
For instance, the probability of being eaten by an shark is quite low. An innumerate person might read a news story about such an event and develop an irrational fear of alligators. He is not able to deal with any statistical evidence demonstrating that road kills far more than sharks. 

Pseudoscience preys on people’s innumeracy.

Productivity Tips at work

My past experience in entrepreneurship and as a business analyst in a Fintech start up taught me to make as little decision in life as possible. I get into the same routine, make as little decision as I can. I use the time to think about business solutions for my current businesses.

The best tip I have read is to remove all distractions for a short period of time as you work. Nothing is too urgent. Know that you cannot multi-task. No one can. Switching between tasks is wastes your time and attention.

Use your brain for processing information. Do not remember tasks. Don't put information and details in your memory as much as possible. Automate as many things as you can. I prefer to use project management tools like Asana and Wrike to put a record of my tasks for the week.

One hour of focused work is more productive than 3 hours of interrupted work. Put on headphones to work. Yes, people might think you are rude, but you get to achieve a lot more when you are uninterrupted.

掌控生活的五个高效原则

1. 多听少说

人们渴望表达，同时有人倾听。当你是倾听者的角色时，尽量不要表达异议，因为没有人会喜欢被质疑。适当的时候，你可以表达你不太肯定的观点，然后询问他的意见。这是一种鼓励说者表达的方法，也充分尊重了对方展露出来的在自己熟悉领域的主人翁心态。

2. 永远不要和带攻击性的人讨论

如果一个人言谈中透露出强烈的攻击性，那么比起谈话内容，他会对你言谈中的瑕疵漏洞更感兴趣。他会一直搜寻并且仅仅抓住你的任何一个微小漏洞，整个交谈过程也就变成了提出离场然后维护立场的过程，你也可能会更加谨慎避免出现纰漏，因此反而忽略了谈话内容。这种讨论毫无建设性可言。

3.短信比邮件更高效，一封高效的邮件胜过一场会议。

会议总是长得让人头疼，而且与会者一般都不按照会议程序走。如果你真的想开会，那就安排好议程并且一直遵守。不要等那些迟到三十分钟的人，一到时间就马上结束。尊重自己，别人才会明白你的时间宝贵。工作团队内部的邮件往来和短信很相似，简单说清楚是排在第一位的。而语言简洁，遣词准确的邮件在提高交流效率方面的作用是惊人的，往往可以为整个团队节省下原本开会的时间。

4.时间比金钱更重要。

很多人都觉得《一周工作四小时》这本书不过是个噱头而已，但其实是有不少可取之处的。比如，能外包的服务就尽量外包，这样轻松很多。

5.话前三思

这应该很平常，但是真的没有几个人做得到，这也是需要实践和练习的。开口之前最少思考两遍可以有效防止事情变得糟糕。练习多几次，你就不用担心跟不上大家交谈的进度了。

小提示：Elements of Style这本书可以帮助你写出更好更简洁的文字，避免写出浪费时间又让人反感的长难句。

The folly of the retail investment community in Singapore

I haven't been writing about investments because I genuinely believe the public needs to be taught a lesson for listening to sub standard advice.

They believe that 0.5% processing fees, 1% sales charges are acceptable as long as the sales person is hot. The general public does not know simple mathematics and bloggers and advisers similar do not know simple mathematics. The first step is to learn geometric progression — go back to primary school, please.

Rule 1: Fees should be kept minimal. Free is better than 0.1%. 0.1% is better than 0.5% and in turn, 0.5% is better than 1%. In this light, buying from exchanges make more sense than from anyone else. Period.

Rule 2: Run away from ongoing charges. Sales platforms like charge you a fee on AUM (asset under management) is simply disgusting. They will all be disrupted by Fintech soon. The only persons that deserve a fee is the manager.

Rule 3: Diversify. Diversification is scientific. Read this set of slides. Buy into an index fund. A non-traded index fund is better than an ETF. A physical ETF is better than a synthetic ETF.

Rule 4: Re-balance annually. Not anymore or less. Stop reading substandard blogs and start taking the CFA curriculum if you are genuinely interested in finance. You won't get a job in the financial industry because you passed all 3 levels, but at least you won't get cheated.

The MAS money sense website has one of the best and most updated information on investments. Please read it.

My personal advice:

A. Spend money on Uber. Save time. Don't spend money on expensive investment intermediaries

B. Spend money outsourcing work. Don't do administrative work yourself and waste all the time and effort learning nothing. Rest more often. Think deeper. Read FT.com, take the CFA curriculum.

C. Enjoy life. Eat better. Do not take anything to sales platforms. At best, pay a small commission to the exchange and an electronic broker.

Honor

The daily choices you make as a citizen is not just about what’s legal and what’s illegal, what’s perceived to be correct and what is perceived to be wrong. It is also about the type of society you want to build for your children – the next generation.

When you decide not to speak up against injustice, you choose to voice out against justice. When choose not to stand up against bullies, you choose to support violence. Should you remain silent when a pregnant woman is not given a seat, you choose to forgo your choice to exercise your rights.

People exercising their rights to speak up. People do complain. They quarrel when they face injustice. The key is exercising your right to speak up when others face injustice, when the weak needs help, when the poor goes hungry. What good is it if a man reacts only to injustice when they are the victim. We cannot leave the advocacy for justice and equality with others. We own this responsibility ourselves.

The difference between a strong and a weak man is his will to recover from failure. The weak avoids failure like a plague and takes the least path of resistance. While this is tactically wise, he does not train for “fitness” to overcome a disaster. A strong man casts himself against difficult odds, speaks the truth, guards his honor, admits his wrongdoings and defend the weak. Many of these men will perish in the cause of their persistence in life. But collectively, they build a different world.

We praise the existence of a few champions that made in life. We applaud their successes. But we fail to recognize the pioneers that failed before them – that created the different paths to failure. It is precisely these failures that helped the champion find its way. It is honorable to be a pathfinder, more honorable than those who pick the path of least resistance.

Give good advice away. For it is only good if you pass it on. It is not of any use if you keep it to yourself. Spare condemnation. Raise people up. When you met a bully, do not stoop so low. Rise higher in spirits.

效率的极简主义原则

有时候，你发现总有那么些日子，你一整天都忙得团团转，但是什么关键的事情都没有干成。那些日子里，你忙于查看邮件，参加会议，回应同事的问题，还有其他看起来就很琐碎的细枝末节。

每一天，你都会疲于各种例行任务。仔细回想一下，你有多少次想也没想就从床上弹起来，穿好衣服，浏览一下邮件，参加每周例会。

这些时候，我们关闭了自己，开启自动循例模式。我们几乎不会停下手中的工作想一想，我们的日常安排是不是足够合理。很有可能你没有意识到，你的日常任务已经浪费了你的大量时间。

我们来做一个情景假设，有一个同事走到你的办公桌旁边，邀请你和他一起去吃午饭。于是，正在打报告的你就停下来了。你马上意识到你现在必须作出决定。要么你就拒绝他的邀请继续工作，要么你就休息一下吃个饭。

此时为了更明智地考虑你的选择，你最好作出对你和你的工作最有利的决定。当你在任务中间及时意识到这些点的时候，你就可以减少冲动决策，更加高效地利用时间。

管理脑力有技巧，效率更上一层楼

一次只有一项任务的情况几乎不会出现。我们为了让所有事情都完美地结束，被迫同时应付他们。你应该对你的邮件分类吗？还有你需要准备一下今天的会议吗？谨慎决策可以帮你节省脑力。

不幸的是，多方兼顾这一行为会造成精神疲劳，减少可用的精神能量。这种情景一般发生在我们过度使用执行功能的时候，执行功能是大脑帮助我们应付，管理和约束的部分。

在你为接下来的会议做准备的时候，如果你关掉了邮件提示音，你就已经省下了不断提醒自己把注意力拉回到准备工作上的麻烦，而且你还有精力去处理有意义的工作。

加利福尼亚大学2012年的一项研究表明，当我们处理任务，比如创造性问题解决的时候，如果我们时不时让大脑胡思乱想一下，我们的表现将会有所提高。所以我们怎么能让思绪就这么飘走又不至于迷糊睡过去呢？

你可以很有创意地让大脑“神游”，在已经全神贯注于一个特定的工作上一段时间之后，做一些不相关的，大脑负担也比较小的活动，比如收拾桌子，做午饭。你也可以让大脑被动地“分神”，先让自己意识模糊，同时要明白你现在心烦意乱，如果要重新回到工作里，你必须集中注意力。这两种方法都可以让大脑休息一下，更有效地处理问题。

微调声音，灯光和物件，打造高效的工作空间

间歇性话语指的是你时不时会听到的只言片语——基本上是办公室里的闲聊。有好几个研究都表明，间歇性话语对集中注意力，阅读和开展工作的能力有消极影响。

所以，当你想高效完成工作，关上办公室的门，或者预留意见会议室或许是一个有效的方法，这样你可以避免周围的闲聊让你分心。

另外，特定的灯光也会提高你的效率。蓝色光和明亮的白光都会对集中注意力有积极影响，也可以帮助你应对精神疲劳。

英国的一项研究把两个几近相同的办公环境放在白光和蓝白光这不同的灯光之下。在蓝白光下工作的人在专注和工作表现上都有明显的改善。

但是，如果你没有办法改变你工作环境中的灯光，你可以通过整理你的桌面，让工作环境有明显的变化。那些便条，零散的纸张和免费样本都在用力挤占你的注意力，从而让你不能足够专心去处理最重要的那些工作。

让人难以伸展的座位也制约了你的工作效率。如果你有足够的空间可以偶尔站起来，来回踱步，你会惊讶地发现，你的专注力变得更加敏锐，重新回到工作的时候，你也有了一个比之前更加有效率的思维模式。

极简主义者的饮食指导 (3)

现代食品生产者们在研究人类渴望的学科上下了数十年的苦功，设计出了零食和其他产品，他们可以劫持你的大脑，让你对不仅营养低劣，而且实际上有害的食物产生兴趣。于是就需要我们回到自己身体自然的平衡状态，对盘中餐做出更明智的选择会让你更健康也更快乐。

食物对你的精神状态和免疫系统健康有深刻影响

某些食物可以让你增添压力感，对你的身体状况有消极影响。除非你改变你对于食物的偏好和欲望，否则节食不会起任何作用。如果你发现一段时间的节食让你重现燃起了对垃圾食品的渴望，这并不一定是因为你缺乏意志力，有可能只是因为某些食物严重干扰了你的大脑！

人类进化出了对三种基本口味的偏好：甜的，高脂的和咸的。甜的食物补充能量，高脂食物补充卡路里，咸的食物保持身体的水分。

事实就是，人类天生喜欢这三种味道。食品生产者深深了解这一点，并且运用在了创造市场优势中。

加工食品，比如你最喜欢的快餐店里的汉堡和薯条，巧克力棒，冷冻快餐，都会对人有超常刺激，意思就是说，比起非加工食品，这些食物要么就是更甜，要么就是更咸，要么就是更高脂（有可能三者都有）。过剩的刺激会让我们对这类食物产生依赖。

举个例子，你吃巧克力棒的时候，你的大脑会释放多巴胺。多巴胺是一种能让人感受到愉悦的神经传递素。你吃越多巧克力，你的身体就会更加渴望多巴胺的产生，这个反馈回路驱使你接下来吃更多的巧克力。

然而，某些食物不仅仅会扰乱你的大脑，让你以为再吃一个芝士堡也没什么大不了的。他们还影响了你的免疫系统，埋下炎症的隐患。

发炎通常是身体对于受伤和疾病的正常反应，但是慢性发炎不一样。慢性发炎出现，就意味着你的免疫系统已经被弄得昏头转向，你的身体开始和自己反抗排斥，因为它分不清自身和外来侵略者，比如病毒。

如今，很多的加工食品都包含有干扰免疫系统进程的化学成分。这些化学成分加重了你身体的负担，造成慢性发炎，甚至更严重的疾病。

你的盘中餐扰乱激素水平，迷惑大脑，威胁身体健康

食物实际上是可以影响激素发挥作用的。激素原本应该保持你体内系统的平衡，可是某些事物却会让身体脱离原先平衡的状态和轨道。

胰岛素控制身体的血糖水平，是和食物相关的最重要的激素之一。长期的高血糖水平不仅有害，而且有可能会引发糖尿病。胰岛素有责任阻止这样的事情发生，它应该指导你的身体把多余的糖以糖原的形式储存起来，当身体需要的时候再用。

如果你摄入了过多的糖，体内的糖原储存量又已经足够的时候，身体就会把剩下的糖转化成甘油三酸酯或者脂肪。与此同时，一种叫瘦素的激素也会失衡。瘦素负责在你有饱腹感的时候指挥大脑停止进食。如果你摄入了过多的糖，大脑就失去了正确识别你的瘦素水平的能力。有可能你的身体出现了瘦素抵抗的现象，你会过度进食，因为你感觉不到饱。

另外，如果你的大脑对瘦素水平的监测出现了失误，可能会误认为你太瘦了，进而命令身体生成脂肪。

细胞被从太多从糖分而来的能量喂饱其实是有害的，所以细胞会开始胰岛素抵抗进程来保护自己。大脑对此的回应便是释放更多的胰岛素。过多的胰岛素让你感到眩晕，就像你没有吃东西一样的感觉，于是你的身体就会以为你需要更多的能量！

你吃的东西还会影响你的肠胃健康。肠道占据了免疫系统的80%，食物在肠道里分解成各种影响成分。

肠道以屏障的角色来保护你的身体，它会在让你吃下去的东西里面的有害成分进入你的身体，伤害你的免疫系统之前及时阻截。一旦有害物质进入了你的身体，免疫系统要解决起来就会更困难。

蔬果应该在你的饮食中占据主要地位。蔬菜富含营养物质和健康的碳水化合物，而且还有消炎作用。

如果你不喜欢蔬菜，很有可能只是因为你没有吃过做得好吃的蔬菜，又或者你太习惯于多糖多油的加工食品。底线就是：你是成年人了！要吃蔬菜！

虽然水果富含维生素，但是不如蔬菜有营养。水果同时也富含果糖，如果你吃得太多也会有害。果糖新陈代谢的过程和酒精类似，也有可能会引发一般的炎症甚至肝脏损伤。

然而，大部分摄入过多果糖的人其实是吃了太多的富含高果糖玉米糖浆的食品，而不是吃了太多的新鲜水果。所以，不要在你的食谱上省去水果！

改善吃饭的方式可以改善健康状况。关掉电视，看着你的碟子！

绝大多数人吃东西的时候都不会考虑食物进入身体的方式，在电视机前吃，一边忙碌一边吃，都没有关系。如果这也是你的情况，那么是时候改变了！

健康吃法从倾听你的身体开始。你的身体告诉你，你需要什么。如果你听从它，你甚至不再需要点算卡路里！试一下下面的建议。

在放松状态下用餐，如果能在餐桌上就最好了。把你的电视和智能手机关掉，细嚼慢咽。当你在吞咽的时候，你身体的激素是没有使时间完全消化你已经吃下去的食物的。 拒绝小吃。两餐之间必须要四到五小时的间隔，这样做是为了保持体内瘦素水平的平衡，让身体正确地感知你是不是吃饱了。

中午过后不要喝含咖啡因的饮料。咖啡因会压抑你的食欲，还会帮助你保持清醒。
你可以在调整你的饮食习惯之前大快朵颐一次，但是你不能一直这样。慢慢地你会觉得这并不困难。

也不要减少食物的总量。不是简单地吃得少就会瘦下来。健康的减重需要时间。只要你的身体适应了你新的饮食习惯，体重会慢慢减下来的。

想要工作更高效，关注重点很重要

在当下，我们每个人都比过去任何时代都消费得更多，也创造得更多。每一天，我们都被大量的信息围攻，成百上千的邮件和电话驱赶着我们去完成各种事情。

有许多人事必躬亲，忙碌到精疲力竭，从来不对重要和次要的事情进行区分和取舍。我们为了每天能够尽可能处理更多的事情甚至总结出了高效技巧。但是处理更多的事情并不一定意味着解决好。大部分时候，那些终日劳顿的人其实是把精力花费在了零零碎碎的不重要的或者非必须的事情上面。为了不让这种情况出现，我们必须给自己设定边界，促使我们专注于真正必要的事情上。

专心做重要的事情，我们可以用最少的精力获得最大的价值。

懂得适当限制自己的人会明白在生活中的方方面面都应该把精力集中在真正重要的事情上。有意识地减少每天需要应付的事务，真正重要的事情会被处理得非常完善。因为我们如果每次只处理最重要的一项事务，比起同时处理二十项事务，事情虽然少，但是完成得更快更好。

谨慎地给自己设限，让我们在处理真正有意义的事情上更加高效。

专心做要紧之事前，本末主次先理清

当你想专注于最重要的事情，你必须先弄明白对你而言真正重要的是什么。你一旦清楚什么是你不可或缺的，随即你就可以把你生活中不必要的事情都抛诸脑后了。

那你怎么分辨哪些才是真正重要的？你要认真判断这些事情会对你的生活产生什么样的影响，和你的长期目标是否匹配。这个时候不断地给自己提问，比如下面这些问题，可以帮助你理清思路：

我的价值观和目标是什么？

我看重什么？我喜欢什么？

哪件事情会对我的生活产生最大的影响？

从长远来说，哪件事情的影响最大？

我真正需要什么？哪些只是我的欲望？

为了彻底弄清楚这些问题，你要习惯性从自己的角度跳出来，从旁观者的角度去观察自己的人生。

生活的方方面面都是如此。你也可以这样问自己：

我的主要目标是什么？

哪些义务和责任是非常必要的？

我的那些计划和我的长远目标相符？

我究竟需要多少邮件？

我真正需要哪些财产？

如果你了解了自己的轻重缓急，你就能对你所有的任务，计划和其他的义务责任有多重要做出评判。把时间花在寻找这些重要问题的答案上是很值得的。

实践你的本末次序：做明确的决策

生活缺少约束就如同购物不顾额度。着眼于真正重要的事情是因为我们能力有限。适当限制自己是为了把精力集中在必要的事情上。换言之，我们不要把时间和精力浪费在不值得的东西上。

这里的重点不是在束缚自己，而是谨慎地为自己设定边界，解放自己的时间和精力去做重要的事情，摆脱琐事的纠缠。放弃无价值的计划，我们就能把时间花在我们喜欢的计划上。

举个例子，如果你的家庭在你心里是绝对优先的，那么你就不应该把你的空闲时间送给需要帮忙的泛泛之交，而应该多陪伴你的孩子。也就是说，我们要让身边的人明白理解我们的时间有限，我们的主次是很明确的。这样，身边的人才会同样珍视我们的时间和精力，才不会因为不重要的事情打搅我们。

会说“不”的人其实没有他们想象的那么得罪人。恰恰相反，他们常常一下子就赢得了周围人的尊重：周围的人随即明白无法事事期待他们的帮助，也无法让他们为了自己的微不足道的事情而从他们的要紧事情中抽身出来。

因此，我们要学会划分优先顺序，学会拒绝，还要让别人也清楚我们的边界在哪里。

欲改变生活，先改变习惯

如果你想让自身有长远的改变，你必须先形成并延续新的习惯。

每次只专心培养一个习惯的效果是最好的。这个新的习惯要是每天都得到你的实践的话，会变成你的第二天性。

为了确保你的动力不会消逝，你可以把你的计划告诉别人。情况理想的话，你也可以和同样想要培养习惯的人合作，在这个过程中相互鼓励。

一旦你有一个团体，也就是有观众的话，他们会敦促你对你的行为负责，这样你的新习惯就更不容易夭折或者自生自灭。如果你每天都坚持写进度报告，你能够形成新习惯的可能性会逐渐提高。

在做这些的同时，你还要给自己定下适当的目标。但是这些目标不能过于简单容易，不能很轻易就会实现。这样可以避免失败的一大源头——动机降低。

对人生产生的积极影响的习惯包括以下几种：

一天只查看邮件两次。

每天早上处理一天中最重要的三项任务。

每天做五到十分钟运动。

每天都摄入水果。

缓慢但坚定地形成你的习惯

我们中的大部分人都不会选择从小处着手，而是急功近利，希望第二天所有事情都会完全转变。结果就是，很多人在在失败的沮丧中放弃了。这就是为什么我们为某些长远的改变而制定的计划频频流产的原因了。

但是情况完全可以是另一番模样。坚持是创造习惯的关键。而你最有可能达到坚持不懈状态的方法是从细微处着手，慢慢向目标靠近。

当你想要养成一个新的习惯时，你从越细微的地方开始，你的胜算也就越大。这是因为，如上文所说，急剧的大改变通常会失败，而失败会消磨你的意志，让你直接放弃计划。

只有在新习惯上不断坚持才能让最成功的改变发生。为了确保你的初心永不干涸，你要一直保持小步慢走。

比如说你想要培养起每天锻炼身体的习惯，把每天锻炼五分钟作为开始完全没有问题：毕竟对你来说真的很少。用这个方法，整个过程就会在一个又一个小小的成功的时刻中悄悄进行着。

习惯是改变的核心。坚持是成就新的习惯的秘密武器。

一次只盯着一个目的看：按照目标，子目标，计划和任务的层级来思考

制定目标很容易，实现目标却困难了不只是一点半点。我们需要精力，焦点和动力——这些都非常有限。

这就是为什么当我们专心于一个特定的目标的时候我们更容易成功。假如你有一个可以在半年到一年内达到的目标，无疑你会朝着这一个目标火力全开。

为了离首要目标更近一步，你可以把它分成几个更小一些的，一段时间内，例如一个星期，能够实现的子目标。你每周实现一个子目标，也就意味着你每周就向首要目标迈进了一步。

接下来要做的就是为每一项工作制定一个计划。你要明确每个计划结束的时候，你想要达到一个什么样的程度和状态。为了达到这样的程度和状态，你应该设计一系列能够尽快上手的明确的任务。如果可以的话，最好是三十分钟内就可以完成的任务。

为了保证你可以完成所有的计划，你最好不要一次启动太多个计划。每次选择不超过三个计划，而且在上一个计划完成之前不要开始下一个。

这些计划与你的首要目标相关程度越大越好。

保持专注——活在当下并且对每项任务全神贯注

全神贯注是你最重要的工具。

当任务正在进行中的时候，你要对重要的，基本的事情保持关注。想要一天有一个高效率的开始，那么就首先处理最重要的任务，然后是第二重要的，以此类推。

你应该对当下正在进行的任务全神贯注。多任务和随时出现的干扰都会降低你的效率。

如果你感觉自己实在忍不住要分心了，那就暂停一会儿，深呼吸，再把你的注意力重新拉回到眼前的工作中。

出于应对偶尔迸发的思维或者其他可能影响工作进度的干扰的目的，你可以把一本笔记本或者一张纸一直放在手边。无论你的脑海中忽然浮现出了什么，你就马上把它写下来，然后迅速把注意力再次集中到你应该做的事情上。

为了每一个任务都得到你全部的关注，学会活在当下，聚焦于现在而不是不停的思考过去与未来就非常重要。这让我们生活得更快乐，也让我们得以保持沉浸在工作当中。

在我们的日常生活中，我们也要学会关注当下。当我们吃饭的时候，我们就好好吃饭不做其他的事情。当我们锻炼身体的时候，我们就专心锻炼身体不做其他的事情。我们必须习惯集中注意力做一件事情。这种专注就像沉思冥想一样，帮我们活在当下，享受当下。

用最重要的事情来开启你的每一天

我们不是完成计划——我们是完成任务。为了完成得更高效，我们每次只着眼于一个任务。一心多用没有效果。

为了拒绝拖延和一心多用，你可以把任务分割得非常小，小到你可以很快就解决，比如半小时。庞大的任务通常都无法完成，是因为拦在眼前的障碍实在是太大了。任务越小，我们就越有可能完成。

还有一个很有用的方法就是选出三个MIT（Most Important Task，最重要的任务），你必须在早上面对其他事情和任务之前就处理好这三个MIT。每天首先处理最重要的任务，你就确保了不论那天接下来发生了什么，你都离到达目标更靠近了一步。

MIT应该和你的目标关系越大越好，这可以促成目标的实现。你最好认真谨慎地提前选择好你每天的MIT，每天早上就可以直接开始。

缩短处理邮件的时间，提升效率

你可能和很多人一样，在看邮件和写邮件上花费大量的时间。然而，邮件对你向着目标前进的过程没有丝毫帮助，甚至没有联系。

也就是说，尝试着去缩短处理邮件的时间非常必要。

首先把收件箱的数量减少到一个，然后你就可以更快地浏览你的邮件了，另外，不管你什么时候打开收件箱，都要一次把它全部看完。

下面是一些减少查邮件的时间的技巧：

严格限制次数，例如每天只查两次邮件。

不要在你工作得正起劲的时候看邮件，而应该在午饭时间或者从工作中脱身了的时候看。

关掉所有邮件提示，只有在你想看邮件的时候才看，而不是发件人要你看。

减少进入的邮件，无关的邮件比如图片转发，每日趣闻马上删除。

设立一个筛选程序为特定的发件人分组。

把无关紧要的东西都归类到一个文件夹，方便你在以后某个时候，比如一星期结束的时候查看。

把你的收件箱用作为一个待办事项清单是非常实用的一个技巧。每当你看完一封邮件的时候，就把它清出你的收件箱。如果里面有需要完成的任务，那就马上去完成，或者在另外的待办事项清单里面做好标记。

写短邮件也同样重要。通常来说，三句话就已经足够表达你的意思了，邮件写得短，你花在上面的时间也会大大缩短。