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Introduction

Have you ever imagined why your workdays spiral out of control? Do you plan your day sometimes and notice that you are distracted within just a few hours? Do you find yourself procrastinating or find it difficult to concentrate on your tasks? Does that sound like what usually happens to you?

Now, imagine yourself at the end of the day, breathing a sigh of relief, knowing that you've accomplished everything you need to. Again, how will you feel knowing that you are on top of all your activities while executing them effectively? Of course, you will probably sleep well at night with your mind at rest.

May I inform you that you can be more productive, and effective in executing whatever task you set out to do, rather than being tired behind your office desk with piles of unfinished projects? May I also inform you that there are several ways in which you can improve your productivity and effectiveness on tasks? Yes, it is possible, and that is the reason this book is compiled.

For two reasons, many people are not as productive as they wish, or think. The first reason is that the default setting or our mind is in a scattered state, and we are reactive about it, instead of being proactive. The second reason is that many bad habits interfere with our productivity. These two reasons are what keep drawing people back from their goals and prevent them from being productive.

Further, the importance of being productive can't be ignored, both in our personal and professional lives. If you run a business or are responsible for a team, you will want to ensure that everything goes according to plan without ignoring your productivity level. This is because your level of productivity is what will determine your level of success.

As we go through life, a lot of factors will inevitably want to contribute to why we can't be productive. However, if you are aware of how to tackle these factors, you can easily shield yourself from them, and become more effective and organized in your tasks.

Now the question: how can we become more productive and regain control? Please understand that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, as only a systematic approach will work. However, it starts with putting our minds in order and substituting some reactive habits with good ones.

Do you want to know how to put your scattered mind in order and be able to focus better? Do you want to learn how to substitute those habits that keep you from being productive for the ones that will increase your productivity? Then this book will be offering you approaches that are geared towards that effect. And if you think you were productive, but not anymore, this book is also for you.

Read on and take charge of your mind.

Chapter 1: Tips to Manage Your Scattered Brain

It is advised that you do away with anything that will take away your attention off this section of the book because of the few questions that would be asked. Try as much as possible to answer them sincerely, and as best as you can:

Do you have something you have to do, but it remains undone because there is no external push or deadline attached to it?
Do you get distracted easily because everything in the world seems fascinating to you?
Do you have a low motivation to begin something you would like to achieve?
Do you usually veer off a task when you are at it?
Do you think you want to do millions of things at once?

May I inform you that you are a scattered brain if your answers to these questions are “yes”? Permit me to welcome you to the club. Surprised? You are not the only person in this circle of the scattered brain. There are thousands, and if not millions of such people out there.

While it might seem like a negative thing, understand that there is nothing wrong with not getting anything done, or being distracted often. You can fall into a stressful trap of avoidance, or even trying to cover up for lost times or something worse when it becomes constant.

But to help you out of this situation, I will be offering some effective tips below to help you deal with your scattered brain. These tips have proven effective for hundreds of people, and I believe they will also help you. However, ensure that you work with as many as you possibly can.

Recognize What You Have to do and Prioritize

In a lot of productivity books and articles, this advice is emphasized. One cannot overstate the importance of this idea. It is simple, clear, and equally very effective in helping you deal with your scattered brain.

You will never get the satisfaction of doing anything if you don't know what you want and stuff is just flying around in your head. You, therefore, have to make a list of everything that is on your mind. Ensure that you prioritize them accordingly. By so doing, you are telling your brain to stop bothering about the little things, and things that can wait, and focus on the most important things.

Break it down, and make it simple

Choose one to start with and break it down to the simplest form of action once you have your list and you can then determine your top two to three tasks. You shouldn't take more than 15 to 30 minutes to complete each step. Break it down further if it takes longer.

Understand that if you have a smaller task, it would be easier to get it done, and the more you would want to stick with it. What you are doing is telling your brain to stay with it for 15 minutes.

Start the task and take it slowly

You might be tempted to speed things up just to save time, but don't. What it only does to your brain is to make it drift to what is next on your table, instead of focusing on what you are doing now. The brain is designed to only focus on one thought at a time. You, therefore, have to only focus on what you have in front of you. Do things deliberately and slowly. Once you complete your tasks, you will feel better.

Break is important

It is not advisable to work nonstop for hours. You will only burn out your energy, which will make you lack the motivation to continue again. Take a break and do something fun after completing a 15-30 minutes’ task. You can read books, articles, or whatever you feel like doing. You can move, stretch, walk, or do something you like doing. All that matters is that you don't take much time. 5-10 minutes is okay to do whatever you want to do; then go back to what you have to do.

Take a longer break, an hour or so, once you complete 4 tasks. You are guilt-free and you can do other things.

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Introduction

No matter how organized we may be, time tends to slip away from us because life moves very fast. It's no surprise that many of us are always interested in shortcuts because we don't have much time to spend on learning a new skill. With all being made so good, these shortcuts do exist and we can learn whatever we want to learn faster by taking advantage of a few actionable strategies. For you to use new information more effectively and get to easily remember something, one skill you must continue to develop is learning.

Though you may have done it all your life and it may not be something that's totally new to you, you can always enjoy the opportunity of being successful every time you learn something new if you follow a systemic series of steps. And, you do have the ability to learn anything faster if you've already learned things like sports, how to cook, a new language, how to drive a car, or any other relative thing.

When you look at some of the skills you’ve learned before, you'll find out that you're not new to learning faster and if you have done it in the past (even though you may not be conscious of how quickly you were able to pick up the skill), you can always learn to do it again. We can now have a firm grasp of how to hold on to information with the knowledge we derive from how our brain works and how we learn — all thanks to neuroscience. In fact, we can now speed up our learning process by making the most out of time. Yes, time is precious and learning does take time, but we must always strive to learn and grow since it's a huge part of life to learn new things.

Today, there are proven ways you can start learning faster. If you're someone who has the intention of becoming the smartest person in the room by getting to know how to retain more and learn faster, this book does help you explore tips on how to become a fast and smart learner with no stress attached.

Chapter 1: Skill, Learning, and Acquisition

Popular author and motivational psychologist, Heidi Grant Halvorson, once said that we must always be getting smarter because being smart is not enough, and one of the keys to success is to be able to learn new skills in this fast-moving, competitive world. Truthfully, in today’s business environment, mastering new skills is a necessity and the words "fast-moving" and "competitive", which describe the nature of the world we live in today, emphasize the little time we have to get things done lest we become stale and shoved far behind.

There are some general rules you can follow, irrespective of the fact that the skill you want to learn and the person who you are will determine your learning technique. Whether you desire to learn how to analyze data, use social media better, or improve at public speaking, you can accomplish your learning goals and gain new insight on how to approach learning new skills when you understand the importance of learning new skills and explore a few tips to learn better and faster.

Why you Should Learn a Skill

Successful people stick to their promise of learning. Rather than vegging out in front of the television, they dedicate their spare time in the pursuit of learning and they stay committed to that. Do you even know that those who are best at learning new skills are those who consistently succeed? If you doubt this, just think of some of the world's most successful people. Without mincing words, learning a new skill is an amazing way to leverage your spare time in the upcoming year. You can enhance your knowledge base, expand your professional networks, and beef up your opportunities for career advancement when you stay committed to learning something new.

Why is it Difficult to Learn a Skill?

One of the beautiful things about difficulties is that they do help us to improve our ability to remember, comprehend, and learn because they facilitate encoding and retrieval of processes and this validates why difficulties are noted to be desirable. Speaking of why people find it difficult to learn a new skill, at times, it's actually a normal thing. It’s not pretty much a big deal because whenever you're embarking on a new thing, it's like setting out for an adventure. Of course, there will be some changes and new connections between neurons because a specific part of your brain is about to get rewired.

Sounds funny or clumsy? Well, it isn't. The simple science is that, when you make things more difficult and challenge yourself, you open yourself up to a new change that may shake you a bit. However, do you ever wonder why some people learn something today and in the next few hours they're blank? Have you ever tried to master something and you feel you're doing great at it until you have to do that thing and you realize that you're blank?

Many of us have experienced this at a point in time and one of the reasons why this happens is because the learning conditions we used were too easy and the simple thing we need to do to overcome this for our subsequent learning is to work on improving our learning by practicing smarter. Identify what works for you and stick to it. You may want to use effective methods such as spaced repetition (increasing your interval between the repetitions when you're first learning something), variation and complexity (checking if your performance can be affected by varying the weather, the rules, the distractions, the environment, the exercises, or other elements — basically, purposely challenging yourself to see your stance), or retrieval.

Before you ask anybody for help, try your best to remember that thing.

How Long Does It Take to Learn a Skill?

Most of us are haunted by the possibility of not doing something better and this thought often prevents us from getting engaged in something new. We have no choice but to quit and find something else to do just to get rid of that feeling of angst. However, one thing we often miss out on is that we don't know that we can benefit from huge increases in a skill when we give in a little persistence while we're experiencing the usual challenges during the early hours of trying something new.

In a very short period, you can experience dramatic improvements if you persist and practice intelligently. Picking up new skills extremely quickly is quite easy for the brain for it's optimized for such a task. Take note that the 10,000 hours of mastering a skill is nothing but an illusion because it takes only 20 hours to move from “knowing nothing to being pretty good”.

Types of Skill

Hard skills (also known as technical skills) and soft skills are the two major types of skills. For optimal performance and advancements in most jobs, both skills are necessary and it's recommended that you possess the two. Speaking of hard skills, these are the skills you gain through any life experience via training or technical knowledge. For example:

- You may be able to speak a new language fluently if you studied a foreign language.

- You may know how to use Microsoft Excel if you've taken an accounting class.

- You may know how to use a point-of-sale system if you’ve worked in food service or retail.

Some of the most in-demand hard skills include:

- Programming languages like Ruby, Java, Python, and Perl
- Storage systems and management
- Marketing campaign management
- User interface design
- Mobile development
- Data mining
- Statistical analysis
- SEO/SEM marketing
- Network security
- Adobe software suite
- Database management
- Bilingual or multilingual

On the other hand, if you're still searching for work, you'll find soft skills to be very essential for your career because they're the traits and personal habits that frame your interaction and work-relation with others and how you work.