Link Travelogue (Vol. 3)

Spring is in the air, and it seems as if the blogosphere has been a bit more quiet than normal. While the quantity of writing is down, the quality seems to be better. Enjoy the roundup!

• Why Your Loved Ones Want You To Fail – IttyBiz

Why do your loved ones want you to fail? Shouldn’t they be rooting for your success? Naomi gives a lot of reasons why they want you to fail, with some tips on what to do about it.

• Ten Top Tops to Overcome Obstacles to Success – My Super-Charged Life

In my experience, people who are unsuccessful tend to think that those who are successful have had it easier than they have. The fact is that the successful people have just learned to overcome obstacles. Jeff gives ten tips to overcome obstacles to success.

• What Do You Do if You’re Satisfied? – Bloggrrl

I’ve been reading Michelle’s blog for a long time, and there’s a new wind in the air over there. At one point in time, she was writing to quit a job she hated. She no longer hates that job – so the question is what to do now. Why I find this interesting is that people on change in the face of two things: 1) discomfort, and 2) the desire to become better. But, the desire to become better, for a lot of people, doesn’t have a lot of motivational force. Or maybe people who have the desire to become better are not comfortable being less than they could be, so it’s still discomfort doing the work. Definitely something to think about.

• Your Mid-Life Crisis: The Rules – Dumb Little Man

Lori, who, as far as I can tell, is neither dumb nor a man (I haven’t ruled out little, yet) gives rules for managing the ole’ Mid-Life Crisis. I think it’s good information for managing radical change and aging, in general.

• 70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide and System for Doing It – The Growing Life

I can’t write 90% of my posts now without thinking about Clay’s parody post. Parody is so effective when it’s so true. Thanks, Clay, for completely ruining my Friday Meditations, Planner Series, Virtue Series, and just about anything else I was going to write- oh, and ruining the chance to use a picture of me jumping…

• No One Is Good at Multitasking – Productivity Planner

Before my productivity engine came to a bloody, screeching halt, I used to believe that I needed to become better at multitasking. If I could do more tasks in the same amount of time, I thought, I could get more done in less time. Rubbish, lies, and deceptions. Chris’s post comes to the same conclusion, but his is backed by research.

• 16 Ways to Keep a Razor-Sharp Focus at Work – Zen Habits

Now you know that I think multitasking is bunk, and the opposite of multitasking is focusing on one task at a time. Glen’s great guest post on Zen Habits hits the spot on how to stay focused while you work.

• Offline Reading – Productivity 501

Part of my growing and learning process is to continually read offline material. Don’t get me wrong – I love a lot of the material written online, but Mark gives four downsides to online material that I find true. Of course, the hard part is finding time to get good reading time in for both mediums.

• How to Avoid Making Stupid Mistakes – Scott H Young

Part of life is knowing how to recover from stupid mistakes, but another, even more important part, is figuring out how to avoid them in the first place. Scott’s insightful post helps with the latter aspect. My favorite: “Metaphors are your intellectual weapons to prevent mistakes.” And I’ve made it known how I feel about metaphors.

• 5 Signs You’ve Married Your Problems (and how to divorce them) – Jonathan Mead

Having problems is bad enough. Being married to them is worse. Jonathan’s excellent post gives the five signs that you’ve married your problems – and ways to file for divorce. And these divorces won’t be so damned expensive.

• 10 Reasons to Use an Exercise Ball as Your Chair – GearFire

Our physical condition is an important aspect of our productivity, and I’m always looking for easy ways to exercise or condition my body, especially if I can do that while doing something else. I like sitting on my exercise ball instead of other chairs for many of the reasons Geoff lists. It’s a great way to exercise your core without actively thinking about it or trying to.

• Word Porn: Reader Challenge

Every Friday, Amy has a post on Word Pr0n, where she introduces cool words to use instead of our more mundane and hackneyed mutterings. I challenged her to find words to replace the overused “sweet” and “awesome.” She accepts the challenge and delivers with some august pickings with resplendent uses.

• Why Does the Thunder Hide The Rain – The Next 45 Years

I love personal development posts that come from deep within people. Alex’s post had me from hello with the quote from Socrates – but it went much further to talk about his relationship with his mother. Great honesty and sincerity in this one – thanks for sharing, Alex, and I hope you find peace through breaking the cycle.

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