The Only Productivity Trick You Need

This is all you need for success in anything.

This Lifehack article talks about the only 2 tricks you need for maximum productivity. And what it proposes is something that I believe is akin to all successful endeavours. Essentially what it comes down to is planning and evaluation. Everything we want to achieve requires a plan to get there. And we require constant evaluation to make sure that we iterate our approach in order to reach our goals as efficiently as possible.

After every single time you finish any kind of task, you should be looking back to see what you did well and what didn't go so well. Write this down somewhere and file it. The next time you start any kind of task, go back and look at your library of prior tasks and type out the things you should do and the things you should avoid with this new task. This is necessary and must be detailed because almost everybody will say to themselves: "I'll start and finish earlier this time!" but the thought never lasts and it is also not specific enough.

During the planning phase for each task, prior evaluations and experience must always be consulted. Indeed, this is the only way to improvement.

Thinking About Trends

What are the odds?

Since 2008, a share of RIM (the creators of the BlackBerry phones) dropped from a high of over $140 to what is now less than $20. Every single one of these years, I have heard people say to me that I should buy RIM now because there was no way it was going to get lower. They said it when it was at $100, $80, $50, etc. The question you should ask in these circumstances is:

Is it more likely that:

A) You have guessed exactly when the trend is going to end;

B) Or that the trend should continue like it has in the past?

Similarly, education has been evolving and changing all throughout history. Why would we settle with what we have right now? Why are we satisfied with what we do day by day? I propose that, in all aspects of our lives, we should continue to evolve and learn just as human kind has in the past. Follow the trend of improvement.

As an aside, this article from Quora has some insight on why RIM's stock price collapsed so fast.