All posts by date
The 2-minute productivity rule
š Productivity
March 10, 2019
Thereās a good book calledĀ Getting Things Done – The Art of Stress-free ProductivityĀ by David Allen. Itās widely seen as the bible on productivity. Thereās a simple concept in it called the 2-minute rule. It goes something like: If a task will take less than 2 minutes,Ā do it right now. If it will take longer, write […]
Parkinson’s Law
š Productivity
March 3, 2019
This week, I met up with a chap called Chris. Heās of the Acute Medicine Consultants at my hospital. Some friends and I are working with him on aĀ Quality Improvement ProjectĀ to improve the way junior doctors at my hospital respond to cardiac arrests. We shared our thoughts about how to analyse the data, and discussed […]
Keystone Habits
š Productivity
February 17, 2019
InĀ Atomic HabitsĀ James Clear writes about Keystone Habits – small choices that lead to a cascade of other actions. For example, when he and his wife get home from work, they either (a) immediately change into their gym kit, or (b) sit on the sofa. Their evening changes based on this decision. If they change into […]
How removing options makes me more productive
š Journal
February 10, 2019
I woke up this morning at 6:15 and, as usual, I was pretty groggy and tired. At that point, as usual, the Resistance started whispering to me – āYou went to the gym yesterday; you should take a rest day and sleep for another hourā, āyou were feeling tired at work yesterday; you should get […]
When my to-do list piles up, I use this productivity trick
š Productivity
February 3, 2019
At the start of this week, I found myself feeling a little overwhelmed. Iād been on holiday over the Christmas period, and on returning to the UK I had two back-to-back weeks of 13-hour shifts at the hospital. In that time, various things had piled up in my email inbox and my to-do list. To […]
How I make money in the stock market
š° Money
January 27, 2019
A chap called Jack Bogle died last week, at the age of 89. You may not have heard of him. He founded a company called Vanguard and introduced the world to āindex fundsā. An index fund is the best way to invest in the stock market. Essentially, when you put, letās say Ā£1,000 into an […]
The Ā£5 item that made my student life much happier
š Journal
January 20, 2019
One of the best purchases I made at the start of my university days was a doorstopper. Whenever I was in my room during waking hours, Iād leave the door propped open and occasionally, when people would walk past on their way down the hallway, theyād pop in for a chat. Because of this liberal […]
How to be Excellent
š Journal
January 13, 2019
On the flight home from Sudan this week, I read an absolutely wonderful paper from 1989 calledĀ The Mundanity of Excellence – An ethnographic report on stratification and Olympic swimmers. The author breaks down (in a very readable but rigorous fashion) the differences in daily habits, practices and mindsets between swimmers in different fields of competition […]
A rule to follow in new situations
š Journal
January 6, 2019
Iām writing this post from a small town in Sudan where some other doctors and I are helping out with a medical mission running pop-up clinics in local villages (PS: check out the pics onĀ Instagram). When Iām in new situations like this, my default state is to stay in my own head and feel hesitant […]
A simple trick to making New Year’s Resolutions stick
š Journal
December 23, 2018
Youāve probably heard about how most people donāt end up sticking to their New Yearās Resolutions. They buy gym memberships in January, go a handful of times and then stop bothering. Or they decide to eat more healthily, that lasts about a week, and then they revert back to their default state. A few years […]