Personal Productivity Tips - How to Have the Growth Mindset

Managing Our Emotions

All of us have said things that we regretted later on in our moment of emotional outbursts. We say nasty things that we don’t really mean. Sometimes the damage is reversible. Other times, the bridge is burned and friendships are lost forever.

Renowned psychologist, Dr Rob Yeung in his book ‘Confidence – The Power to Take Control and Live the Life You Want’ suggested the FAÇADe technique to manage our emotions (such as anger, lack of confidence, shame) better. He suggested that when we are stuck in our emotional ‘hole’, pick up a pen and paper and go through the FACADe technique below;

Feelings – After we have calmed down, list the emotions that we are experiencing at the moment such as anger, anxiety, shame, despair, etc. Give each feeling a score from 0 to 10 depending on how strong we feel it.

Actions - Write down how our behavior changed because of the feelings that we feel. For example, when we feel angry, we may want to confront the person and give him a piece of our mind or when we feel despair, we want to go and finish that extra-large ice-cream in the refrigerator.

Circumstances – Describe the situations or circumstances that trigger our feelings. It could be something that we remember from the past, things that are happening now or our anticipation of the future. It could also be an event or someone. Write down anything that make us upset.

ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) – Next, write down the thoughts and beliefs that popped into our mind when we feel the emotions. What are the dialogues that we say to ourselves at that moment? Do we say, “I am hopeless”, “They must think that I am a loser”, “What an idiot!”, etc?

Defects – Lastly, search for the flaws or defects in our thoughts. Re-look at the ANTs above and rate how far we actually believe them to be true. Use the 0-10 scale. Think of constructive and compassionate thoughts to challenge the ANTs. If our ANTs says that we are not good in public speaking, we can challenge it by saying “All good public speakers start as bad public speakers first”.

I must admit that it took me a while to get used to this FACADe technique. However, after a few sessions, it becomes easier and has helped me to reframe and relook at my emotions from a different angle. So, the next time you are in your emotional ‘hole’, use this technique and you will be surprised at the results.

Personal Productivity Tips - The Growth Mindset

How to Read More Books in Less Time

Have you ever wished that you could read a book faster and still be able to absorb the important points? Wouldn’t it be great if you could double or triple your reading speed and finish four books in a month instead of two?

A renowned success guru, Brian Tracy in his book, ‘Time Power’ suggested the OPIR method to help us read faster and still retain the important points. OPIR stands for Overview, Preview, In-view and Review. Let us look at it in detail.

Overview – Firstly, read the front and back covers. Then, look at the flaps inside each cover and browse the table of contents. Look for subjects and headings that are of special interest to you. Highlight them to mark out anything that stands out. Next, turn the pages quickly, about 30 to 40 pages per minute. This is to get the feeling of how the book is structured. Read a paragraph here and there.

Preview – Go back to the first page and turn the pages again one at a time. Stop and read an occasional sentence or paragraph. Read the first sentence or paragraph of each chapter. At the end of each chapter, read any questions or summaries if available. Then, use a highlighter to mark out sections of the book that you want to spend more time on. Limit this phase to ten minutes.

In-view – Next, return to the sections that you are interested in and browse the relevant material. Put your hand or fingers down the page to keep your eyes on the lines. If you find anything that is particularly interesting, slow down and use a highlighter to mark the passages. Make notes in the margins, turn down the page corners or color the edges that you might want to access quickly later on.

Review – Lastly, review what you have read. Return to the pages you have marked previously. Read the notes that you have written on the margins and the ones that you have highlighted. You can create a learning record by transferring what you have written on the book onto separate sheets of paper that you can file later on.

This OPIR method can help you to complete a 300 page book between one to two hours. The good news is, the more you use this method, the faster and better your will become. Then, you should be able to read more books in a month, retain most of what you have read and increase your knowledge at the same time.