Self-Improvement - Page 3
A collection of posts on Self Improvement
This week in #bufferchat, our discussion topic was “developing habits” and we explored the first steps to forming new habits, how to maintain them, inspiring resources to help us, and everything in between! Catch our weekly Twitter chat , #bufferchat, at TWO times every Wednesday for valuable industry insights and networking with nearly 400 other smart marketers and community managers. Same topic, same place, ju
Check out our new podcast! Hey there, podcast fans! We recently launched a new podcast of our very own, Buffer CultureLab! We’d love for you to check it out and share any thoughts, feedback or ideas with us! You can listen on iTunes here or Google Play here. :) OK, now back to the post! We’ve talked a lot about podcasts at Buffer. We’ve shared some top marketing podcasts. We’ve talked about podcasting tools. We’ve even provided a blueprint for starting your own podcast. But one thing we have
“Everyone sits in the prison of his own ideas; he must burst it open.” — Albert Einstein Einstein was right about a lot of things, but in my mind this sentiment is one of his finest discoveries (OK, the general theory of relativity is pretty good, too). Creating—building something from nothing and sharing it with the world—requires a lot of bravery. In the end, it can feel a bit like breaking yourself free. I’ve chronicled both my own idea prison [https://buffer.com/resources/6-ways-brain-stops-m
A few years ago, my girlfriend proposed an interesting thought: How well do I really know my friends and family? My initial thought was that of course I knew these people. We all get along and things are great. I’m friendly, they’re friendly. What more is there? However, it wasn’t as simple as I thought. This simple question started a reflection over the past few years on how I really interact in my relationships. Was I really curious and deeply invested in the people who I call my family and
You’ll notice that I made the title of this post sound quite impressive (at least I hope I did!). But the great thing about this story is that anyone can have such an impressive outcome, and it’s not at all as daunting as it might sound. In fact, all these outcomes came from doing small things every day over a long period. I’m a big fan of working smarter, not harder and finding small ways to make my work more
This week during #bufferchat, we opened up and explored how we can better support ourselves, manage stress, increase happiness and more, through self-care. Read on to discover all of the wonderful tips and advice shared by the #bufferchat community! Catch ourweekly Twitter chat, #bufferchat, every week on Wednesdays, 9 am PT/Noon ET/5 pm UTC, for valuable industry insights and networking with nearly 400 other smart marketers and community managers. It’s
Who isn’t busy these days? Everyone always seems in a constant rush to their next appointment, even toddlers. And of course, on our way to those meetings we need to stay up-to-date on our email , share with the rest of the world through Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, while we also try to catch up on… oh, a new email just came in. So much to do, so little time.The 40-hour workweek is expanding, but our energy isn’t In the USA, working harder is t
I am quite possibly the world’s biggest fan of being comfortable. The word, to me, conjures up an image of a big comfy couch, a roaring fireplace, and maybe a sleepy puppy to curl up with. What could be better? So it has been a challenging, repeated lesson for me to learn that feeling uncomfortable is pretty much the only way to experience real personal growth. I didn’t want to believe this for much of my life, and I often still rail against it no
I was catching up with our team’s messages on Discourse recently when I came across a unique message thread. It wasn’t about trial numbers, FAQs or monthly recurring revenue . It was about empathy. Empathy feels so crucial to the Buffer culture, and yet the word doesn’t appear anywhere in our values right now. Maybe
At this exact moment, I have 16 tabs open in my browser. How about you? With the full power of the internet at our disposal, it can be pretty easy to waste precious moments navigating to the…let’s say, less-than-productive corners of the web. I’m as guilty of this as anyone—I’ve even shared extensively how often I get sucked into Facebook! So it’s great that there are quite a few folks out there focused on helping us keep track of what really matters as we surf the web. There’s a particularl
I’ll be the first to admit it: When I first got hooked on the idea of startups, the goal in my mind was monetary. I wanted to be “financially free” so that I could do all the things I wanted to do but was unable to do due to money. So my first startup was a “big idea.” It could change the world (or at least I thought so), and I would be rewarded enormously for what I would do — given time. After trying a few different ways in order to reach the success I had in mind, I realized that I was unh
I was talking with Leo the other day about plans to launch a new Buffer feature when he said something that totally rearranged my mind. He diplomatically opened the conversation with an “If we can…” type statement and I immediately keyed in on the uncertainty I heard in that “if”, asking about alternative dates and plans, the likelihood of this or that. Leo quickly corrected what I had heard: “It’s going to happen. There is no backup plan.” And immediately, my brain calmed. Shifted. Crystalli
In the world of weight training, it’s well known that having a partner can lead to seeing gains more quickly. And research has shown that those who switch from training alone to using a personal trainer see many improvements. Similarly, pair programming has been shown to improve quality of code, as well as keep both developers in “flow” state for a more sustained p
Making time to go offline is never easy. There’s almost never a “right time” to do it; you might lose opportunities or even business while disconnecting. And yet, if you don’t actively look for ways to disconnect, it’s not very likely to happen by itself. We have all accepted that eating well and exercising [https://
Try to think back to a time when you felt incredibly confident. You instinctively knew you could handle whatever came at you. You were on top of things, making all the right moves. You were in the zone. It’s an amazing feeling, and one that we’d probably all like to have more often. The book The Confidence Code gets right to the point of why this element is so crucial in our lives: “Scholars are co
I used to work a lot— 60, 80, or even 100 hours a week… I let my work be a big part of how I defined myself. I wore those insane hours like a badge of honor…I loved telling people how “busy” I was…and how much I “had to do”. Sound familiar? Looking back, I realize I used my work to try and fill a void in myself. The problem was that this void was like a black hole. No matter how many hours I worked [https://blog.bufferapp.com/optimal-work-time-how-long-should-we-work-every-day-the-science-of
The psyche of a writer bounces wildly, hourly, from confidence to self-doubt, certainty to fear, love to angst. Wild times like these call for reassurance. Here are some of the reminders I keep for myself, 36 quotes to remind myself that writing is completely worthwhile, entirely fulfilling, and all the best kinds of difficult. The more circumspectly you delay writing down an idea, the more maturely developed it will be on surrendering itself. – Walter Benjamin Annie Dillard has said that
I recently re-read two books that had a big impact on my upbringing: The Alchemist and The Little Prince. Those two novels capture a fascinating concept: Serendipity. I love how the characters embark on journeys where they learn a lot by trying to find their own path, through many chance encounters and learnings. Outside of the fantasy world and back in our own reality , I got to wondering what these concepts look like in my own life. We all want to maximize our productivity, and many of us t
I like to think of myself as a “doer”—someone who can make things happen by himself. On occasion, I neglect the role that help from others has played and over-estimate the things I’ve achieved himself. Often, when I catch myself thinking like that, I’m a bit disappointed and I wish I was instead more connected to reality and the people around me. The most recent time I pondered on that topic, I decided to go through my life and re-collect the many incredible offers of generosity I was able to
My first day at Google in 2011 felt a bit like joining Hogwarts: you’re excited and not entirely sure what you’ll be doing! I was happy to do anything and learn in the process! For the next two years, I was lucky enough to train Google employees on Gmail and to pitch Gmail to companies of all sizes. Although I’m no longer affiliated with Google—I now work here at Buffer and on Remotive.io —I still use these 7 Gmail tips that have a daily impact on my work to this day. Ta
How many photos of you are on your phone right now? These days, humans take almost 1 trillion photos a year . (To put that into context, that’s more photos every few minutes than in the entire 19th century.) And lots of these photos are selfies—self-portraits, usually taken with a smartphone. As of this writing,
One of Buffer’s values is working smarter, not harder, and the #bufferchat community gathered to offer tips and ideas on living smarter. How do you manage your energy throughout the day? What are your go-to productivity tips? Are there certain times of the day you produce your best work? Our community shared their thoughts with us! Catch the full recap here. What does “working smarter, not harder” mean to you? * “”Work smarter, not harder” for me means maximizing efficiency. W/ high levels
In the book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell provides a unique blueprint to understanding the success of such monolithic figures as the Beatles and Bill Gates. In one section, Gladwell illustrates the life of a Jewish immigrant family who came to New York after fleeing the Nazis in Europe. Despite such difficult circumstances, they found tremendous hope and meaning in starting a garment business together: “When Borgenicht came home at night to his children, he may have been tired, but he was his ow
Like millions before me I read How to Win Friends and Influence People and was blown away by the power of this book. I can’t believe that I hadn’t read it until recently and feel like I have wasted some precious opportunities to optimize certain situations in life. Some of the stories in the book were so incredible that they seemed almost too good to be true. I finished the book with two questions: * Will this work for me
