“How much of human life is lost in waiting.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Question: Do you know how much time the average adult spends waiting every day?
Answer: A quick Google search (what I would say in contemporary times now qualifies as “research”) reveals the answer as 45 to 62 minutes waiting everyday.
But you know what? The “average” doesn’t matter. What does matter is how much time you spend waiting – and the only way to get that answer is to employ the powerful tool of a time log.
That’s small potatoes though compared to what we’re going to talk about today. So grab your swimming cap and hold your nose – because we’re going in deep.
“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.”
– Bobby Unser
As some of you know, I just got back from Blogworld where I met a *ton* of people. Even though I had a blast, the reason I was able to make so many connections so quickly is because I prepared a little before I went.
Here’s the deal – I wrote out a bunch of the tips for what I did to prepare and I’ve included them below. So if you’re looking for 7 tips to make sure you can get the most out of the next conference, mixer or networking event you attend, scroll down to read them
However, I have something really special I learned that I don’t think anyone else has written about, and that’s the meat of what I want to share with you today.
Did you know that some research studies have shown you can forget up to 90% of what you’ve learned in less than a week? Other studies show we retain half of what we’ve learned for 30 days, and there are any number of statistics in between
What’s most important though, is this: over time, we all slowly forget what we’ve learned. I discussed this recently in an article about the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve.
One effective strategy for improving retention is note taking – not just because you’ll have a written record to refer to in the future, but also because the actual act of taking notes can help cement concepts in your mind.
What are some of the best strategies for note taking? You’ll learn about and compare three powerful ones in this article.
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
– Confucius
If I gave you a list of nonsense 3 letter words right now, how long do you think you would remember them?
How long could you remember at least half of them?
In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus did this exact experiment – and his results are widely accepted as a general theory for how we learn and retain information. Graphing his results, he developed a formula for how long items remain in our memory. Some people may remember better than others, but the general trend for how long we retain information is the same.
The resulting graph is called Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve. The bads news is, it’s steeper than you may think. The good news is, there are strategies you can use to improve your memory retention.
“Traditional productivity is expressed through Gantt diagrams. Milestones, deadlines and resource allocation. Natural productivity is expressed as a spiral. You approach your goal in smaller and smaller circles, taking into account all the new information that you obtain after you finished some parts of it. And at the same time, by incorporating this new knowledge, [...]
“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them.
Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams.”
– Og Mandino
It has taken me a long time to learn how to effectively set realistic goals. As I made mistakes and figured out what worked for me, I thought I was unusual – I thought everyone easily set goals except for me. Over the years as I’ve worked with and mentored people, however, I’ve learned my situation was not that unusual – in fact, it’s far more common than we think.
We’ve all been told that we should set goals, and we assume that we can – but most of us have never been taught how to set goals effectively so they are realistic and achievable.
One of the most sobering goal setting statistics I learned in my research on setting New Year’s resolutions was that 25% of resolutions were broken in the first week. And the odds didn’t get much better for the first couple months – among gym goers, 80% drop out within eight weeks.
I think a large part of this is due to not having realistic goals – without something to shoot towards, it’s easy to get discouraged and give up. It’s hard enough to make changes in our life and accomplish what we desire – if your goal is unrealistic, or not well defined, then you’re starting out with an immediate handicap.
So, what can you do to keep your goals on track? Here are seven keys for setting realistic goals.
