Five Questions for Coming to Grips with Your Life

Source: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman Where in your life or your work are you currently pursuing comfort, when what’s called for is a little discomfort? Are you holding yourself to, and judging yourself by, standards of productivity or performance that are impossible to meet? In what ways have you yet to accept the fact that you are who you are, not the person you think you ought to be?...

November 13, 2024 · 1 min · joshuapsteele

Ten Tools for Embracing Finitude

Source: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman Adopt a “fixed volume” approach to productivity Keep two todo lists, one unbounded and one limited to a certain number of items (max 10); you can’t add a task to the second list until you’ve completed a task Might also need an “On Hold” or “Waiting For” todo list Set predetermined boundaries for your daily work Focus on only one big project at a time Decide in advance what to “fail” at (“strategic underachievement”) Focus on what you’ve already completed, not just on what’s left to complete Consolidate your caring (pick your battles!...

November 13, 2024 · 1 min · joshuapsteele

Know Thyself: Unveiling Your Unique Strengths and Personality Traits

In the quest for personal and professional growth, understanding our unique strengths and personality traits can be incredibly enlightening. Today, I want to share my insights from various personality paradigms and how they shape my approach to work and life. CliftonStrengths: Harnessing Core Talents The CliftonStrengths assessment has been instrumental in identifying my core talents. Here are my top five strengths: Input: I have an insatiable curiosity and a constant desire to collect information....

July 3, 2024 · 4 min · joshuapsteele

Life Lessons: 32 Things I've Learned So Far

Here are 32 things I’ve learned from life, so far. You are not your thoughts. There is a “you” behind and above your inner voice/monologue/dialogue. Pay attention to what you pay attention to. Think about what you think about. We always only have the present moment. Focusing too much on the future leads to anxiety. Focusing too much on the past leads to depression. Wherever you are, be fully there, now!...

October 17, 2023 · 4 min · joshuapsteele

Master the Art of Interpersonal Relationships with "How to Win Friends and Influence People"

Dale Carnegie’s timeless classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People, has been a bestseller for decades, offering insights and advice on improving interpersonal relationships. The book’s practical principles have helped millions of readers excel in their personal and professional lives. In this blog post, I’ll summarize the key points from Carnegie’s work and provide you with a solid foundation to start mastering your own relationships. If you find these ideas helpful and compelling, I highly recommend reading the entire book!...

March 23, 2023 · 4 min · joshuapsteele

Most Useful Websites: My Favorite Online Resources

General / Thinking Untools: https://untools.co/ James Clear: https://jamesclear.com/ Farnam Street: https://fs.blog/ Your Logical Fallacy Is: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ Your Bias Is: https://yourbias.is/ Fitness / Health Darebee: https://darebee.com/ Reading / Writing QuillBot: https://quillbot.com/ 12ft Ladder: https://12ft.io/ Open Library: https://openlibrary.org/ Design PDF24 Tools: https://tools.pdf24.org/en/ Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/ The Noun Project: https://thenounproject.com/ Software Development Stack Overflow: https://stackoverflow.com/ O’Reilly: https://learning.oreilly.com/ roadmap.sh: https://roadmap.sh/ cheat.sh: https://cheat.sh/ DevHints.io: https://devhints.io/ Learn X in Y minutes: https://learnxinyminutes.com/ Baeldung (for Java/Spring): https://www.baeldung.com/ What would you add to this list?...

November 8, 2022 · 1 min · joshuapsteele

It’s time for another social media fast!

After listening to the Blinkist summary of Cal Newport’s Deep Work (I’ve read the book, this was just for a refresher), I’m convinced that it’s time for another 30-day fast from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I think I’ll still keep my micro.blog up and running, but between running Anglican Compass and sprinting for some last-ditch clarity on my increasingly frustrating dissertation, I need all the extra bandwidth I can get!...

August 19, 2020 · 1 min · joshuapsteele

They Say, I Say Writing Templates

SOURCE: They Say / I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, 4th edition (affiliate link). Perhaps the most helpful and practical book on academic writing! Disagreeing Without Being Disagreeable While I understand the impulse to A, my own view is B. While I agree with X that Y, I cannot accept her overall conclusion that Z. While X argues Y, and I argue Z, in a way we’re both right....

June 30, 2020 · 10 min · joshuapsteele

Balderdash! 12 Suggestions for Overcoming Writer’s Block (From Andrew T. Le Peau’s “Write Better”)

Writer’s block sucks. I’m currently facing it with regard to my dissertation and I’ve decided to hit pause on research and writing until I regain access to my library carrell at Wheaton. Thankfully, I’ve come across some helpful advice on overcoming writer’s block in Andrew T. Le Peau’s Writer Better: A Lifelong Editor on Craft, Art, and Spirituality (affiliate link). The book is filled with helpful and practical advice on writing, rewriting, publishing, etc....

May 19, 2020 · 2 min · joshuapsteele

Helpful Writing Templates

The following templates come from They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. Introducing What They Say A number of $$$ have recently suggested that $$$. It has become common today to dismiss $$$. In their recent work, Y and Z have offered harsh critiques of Dr. X for $$$. Introducing Standard Views American today tend to believe that $$$ Conventional wisdom has it that $$$ Common sense seems to dictate that $$$ The standard way of thinking about topic X has it that $$$ It is often said that $$$ My whole life I have heard it said that $$$ You would think that $$$ Many people assumed that $$$ Making What They Say Something You Say...

August 23, 2019 · 9 min · joshuapsteele