Work is anything you want or need to be different than it already is

Aristocrats do not strive. They have already arrived

Trying too hard sabotages speed. Trying becoming striving and striving undoes itself

A tense muscle is a slow one

Flow is when the mind is clear and constructive things are happening

Swing

Anything that causes you to overreact can control you and often does. Ex. responding innoproprietly to your email, your thoughts on what to do, your boss, will lead you to less effective results than you would like

Water is what it is and does what it does. It doesn't overreact or under react. It can overwhelm but is not overwhelmed. It can be still, but it is not impatient. It can be forced to change course, but it is not frustrated

Clear the mind to be open and responsive is the key

Operate with a mind like water

Manage your actions

Clarify upfront actions and next steps

If it is on your mind, your mind isn’t clear

Clarify what your commitment is and what you need to do to make progress toward fulfilling it

Have a clear definition of the problem and the outcome desired

Think enough to solidify the opportunity and the action required to deal with it

Most thinking is of a problem not about it and a solution.

Think about an outcome and an action

Once you decide on the actions you need to take, you must keep reminders in a system you review regularly

Problem most distracting and on my mind: Pull to refresh. What needs to happen to make the problem as done: pull to refresh on mobile works perfectly. Write down the very next action you need to take to make progress: figure out how the other components work.

Knowledge work has to be thought about. The task is not given. It has to be determined

Most of the time the reason things are on your mind is because you want it to be different than it already is

It is a waste of time and energy to think about something that you make no progress on

Be careful of making a todo list of “stuff” things that are unclear

Get in the habit of keeping nothing on your mind. Manage your actions. What you do with your time, information, body, and focus, are the real options to allocate your limited resources

Manage and figure out the next action for all projects

Projects seem overwhelming because you can’t do a project, you can only do actions to help make progress on the project

Lack of clarity and definition of what a project really is, and the associated next actions steps required.

Define what done means outcome and what doing means action