How to Turn Procrastination into Productivity
When I publish this, many people will respond, “I’ll read it… later,” or some variation of that. First, that’s a funny joke. I get it. Second, while I was writing this, I procrastinated pretty heavily. No surprise. And what’s even better, I employed almost all of the techniques below to…
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How to Read More — A Lot More
When you read a lot of books people inevitably assume you speed read. In fact, that’s probably the most common email I get. They want to know my trick for reading so fast. They see all the books I recommend every month in my reading newsletter and assume I must have some…
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Master Persuader vs. the POTUS
“When Trump asked his rally audience to raise their arms and promise to vote for him, critics compared it to the Nazi salute. On the level of reason and logic, this comparison is ridiculous. People also raise their hands to take the pledge to be citizens of this country. “But…
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How to Deal With Major Disruptions to Your Routine
We’ve all gone through times when major changes come along to disrupt our routines — the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, having to move, getting sick or injured, losing or changing jobs, and so on. It throws us out of whack. Our goals get disrupted,…
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Are You an Original? (3 Ways to Find Out)
“Now, some of you are not going to like the results of this study,” says Adam Grant. “We can predict your job performance and your commitment just by knowing what web browser you use. “There is good evidence that Firefox and Chrome users significantly outperform Internet Explorer and Safari users. They also…
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7 Things NOT to Do on a Perfect Day
“My nights during my last five years of my drinking always ended with the same ritual: I’d pour any beers left in the refrigerator down the sink,” said Stephen King, the author of my favorite book, The Stand. “If I didn’t, they’d talk to me as I lay in bed…
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The Golden Circle: How Great Leaders Inspire Action
Why is Apple so innovative? If you watched Apple’s launch event yesterday, you might be thinking, ‘What a dumb question.’ ‘Apple didn’t unveil anything innovative.’ But of course, you’d be wrong. The highlight of Apple’s launch event yesterday was not any of the products or lower price points ($399 iPhone,…
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How to Ask Powerful People for Favors (6 Steps)
Too many of us don’t know how to ask for what we want. Or worse, we try to disguise our ask by fake “helping others” before we ask (SEE: Seth Godin’s post onHacking Reciprocity). Today, we’re going to fix that. I’m giving you a simple 6-step plan to ask for…
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How to Add an Hour to a Day with Only One Small Change
I got my first office job in my early twenties. For four months between school years in college I held the sexy job title of “summer intern” at a big consulting company in a downtown highrise. Casey was my boss and the head of the project I was assigned to…
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How to Get Boys to Read — An Unconventional Approach
The New York Times published a story this morning about how bestselling author, James Patterson, will start publishing smaller books, starting in June. Why smaller books? Patterson wants to sell books (under $5) to people who have abandoned reading for television, video games, movies, and social media, says The NYTimes.…
READ MORENike Lost $14 Billion to a “Puppy Dog?”
It’s all in the news — How Nike flubbed re-signing the NBA’s reigning MVP champ. FYI Daily Brief readers: Steph’s name is pronounced Steph – en; NOT Steph – on… Just ask Nike 😉 So what happened? Through a series of unfortunate events — mispronouncing Stephen Curry’s name during a…
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The Content Delusion (Or, Why You Still Need to Hustle)
There’s this unfortunate delusion that’s been sold in the world of entrepreneurship, especially in the online space… The road to growth is paved with content. Write, film, record, and produce killer content. Put it out there, and the world will rush to your doorstep. You don’t have to put your…
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