Happy Saturday, friend!

We’re back again with another edition of Productivity + Habits + Fun

😃 Fun Fact of the Week

Nutmeg is a hallucinogen.

And it’s all due to something called “myristicin.”

Here’s an article from ABC News.

tl;dr: do not try it.

🐦 Tweet of the Week

For me, a good habit is one that takes you towards a desired goal.

What’s your idea of a “good” habit?

💪 Featured Productivity Tip

Parkinson's Law: Work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion.

Example: You need approximately 2 hours to finish a paper you’re working on. You give yourself a deadline for 2 weeks from now. Somehow, the task becomes more complex over the 2 weeks, you spend more than the original 2 hours needed to complete it, and you still do it at the last minute.

Solution: Time blocking and scheduling.

In the example above, the best course of action is to pull up your calendar and schedule the 2 hours you need to complete this paper.

To make it easier, give yourself a list to follow:

1. Complete last section

2. Read paper and make bullet points for the summary

3. Write the summary

4. Proofread

5. Submit

Bonus tip: If you’re really on top of your game…

You can do the writing and proofreading during that 2 week gap between the present and the deadline, but wait to submit it.

Halfway to the deadline, you can schedule another 30 minutes to proofread again with fresh eyes.

It could impact the quality of the paper more than you imagine.

And you’ll have shown yourself how responsible and disciplined you can be.

💎 Diamonds Are Forever

22 countries mine for rough (aka natural or uncut) diamonds.

👑 The World’s Most Famous Diamonds

This is one example from the source article.

Click the photo above to see the whole list.

🤔 Decision-making Idea

Defensive Attribution: the tendency to blame a victim an attempt to minimize our negative perceptions about the possibility of that threat happening to us.

In other words, we fear bad circumstances happening to us by chance, so we try to downplay it to feel better.

The key is how we identify to the victim in a given circumstance.

Example: You hear about a surfer getting attacked by a Great White. To distance yourself from that possible threat, you blame the surfer. “Who would make such a poor decision?”

In that example, to feel safer about the possibility of your own shark attack, you blame the surfer to distance yourself from the situation.

The next time you find yourself blaming the victim of a situation, take some time to consider the whole picture.

🧠 Quote of the Week

What I think:

Change is one of the great guarantees of life.

This quote reminds me of one of my personal mantras: Action creates clarity.

It’s so easy to get caught-up in research mode - we feel so productive when we’re reading a book, listening to a podcast, or watching a YouTube video.

There is certainly value in doing these things.

But it’s so much more valuable to have an ongoing project as a frame while doing research.

You discover sticking points through action, and these sticking points help you focus your research in a more meaningful way.

Are you delaying action in favor of a hollow productivity?

Thank you so much for spending some of you precious time with me. 🙂

I’m always looking to improve, so hit “reply” and let me know what you think!

Have an awesome week.

Sincerely,

Steven Sanders

PS - I hope to see you on Twitter and Instagram!