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Let’s start by defining what energy is at the core with something I learned from an incredible, life transformational program I attended this past January: ULTIMATUM. The seminar is led by the wizardly Donny Epstein, a man who Tony Robbins has accredited for having created some of the most powerful, revolutionary methodologies for personal transformation. At the seminar, Donny said, “Energy is the context to all content.” What does that mean? It means that every single thought, feeling, action, concept, idea, creation, emotion, and decision we make is influenced by the amount of energy available to us. Energy is the unit for all creation and life. We need physical energy so that our body can function properly. We need emotional energy for rapid changes in behavior. In fact, emotion is a code-word for energy in motion. We need mental energy to create and formulate higher order thoughts, concepts and a vision for our life. We need the energetic of Soul for the knowing and expressio...

Turn on interior lights when you are away in the evenings. Make sure that your main entrances, porches and front walkways are well-lit. Criminals generally chose homes that are in dark or poorly lit areas; it is because there they can easily do their work without being noticed. Same rule apply for parking. Park your car in a well lit area and no one will ever dare to touch it.  Also, criminals are less likely to attempt to break in if they think that people are around. That's why you should leave some lights or the TV on. If you're staying in a hotel room, try placing the "do not disturb" sign on door so it looks like you’re in there, even when you're not.  Be aware of your surroundings while using ATM. If the machine is poorly lit, or is in a hidden area, use another location. And never count your cash while standing at the ATM.  Always keep the grass and bushes trimmed that are right in front of your windows and doors. They can prov...

I've been working from home, and leading teams remotely for many years.  Here are some of the things I've learned during that time.  I hope you can find some benefit from it... 1. Start your day off right. Get up, have breakfast, take a shower, put on something other than pajamas, etc. – you get the idea. Remember, how you treat yourself on the outside reflects what you are thinking on the inside. Be good to yourself and it will show in your communications. Remember, when you work from home you only have your voice and tone, so everything you say and do will be scrutinized. 2. Create a dedicated work space with a door you can shut. You need a place where you do work that you can leave at the end of the day. To work from home successfully, you need to maintain a strong mental focus on what you do. You don’t want to have your work everywhere around your house, and you definitely want a door you can shut when needed.  It’s also a good idea to conduct a ...

The two types of courses are knowledge courses and Math related courses. For courses that are heavy on memorizing knowledge: Use the memory palace or Method of Loci, to commit new information to memory faster and reduce the repetition needed to remember it. To understand concepts faster, try to relate it to everyday things and try to teach it. To review everything you learn and only study what you have forgotten, use flashcard apps that have the forgetting curve algorithm built in, like Anki. 1) The memory palace method , of Method of Loci, is a fantastic way to store hundreds of pieces of information. Joshua Foer's book Moonwalking with Einstein is a good book to read on how to utilize a memory palace. The general principle is to have a layout of place you know well (like your home) and put information in different places. The reason why it works so well is that our brain is built to remember spatial memory (memory for orientation and environment). For ex...

If the goal is not just the understanding and use of the information, and you need to remember it and to be able to recall it after, there are some ways to improve the process of learning, which can help you spend the time more efficient. Short basic info: The brain creates connections between neurons, but they are short-term until person gets some sleep. After the sleep they become stable, and after some time after learning they start fading. They become easier to access every time person repeats this info, or tells about it, or even thinks about the information and manipulates it in mind. Emotions make the connections stronger as well. Brain uses up to 1/4 of glucose in a blood, that's why good nutrition is also important. So, the main rules are: 1. Build a model of information. You need it to keep the hierarchical relations clear, and for better understanding of causal connections. So, if you forget some specific fact, you are able to guess it and to recall it faster, havin...

1) Excel at being Lazy.   A good developer knows exactly how to use his/her tools to maximize the amount of time spent creating a solution.  If you can counjour up a magic key press that loads in your project, cleans the build then rebuilds your solution in half the time, then it's worth your while to do it. You might only save 3 key presses, but at 10ms each that's 30ms extra thinking time to be ready for the build being finished. The best solutions, produce the maximum amount of output for the least amount of input, but without sacrificing quality (In other words, don't cut corners in the process) 2) Automate everything you can. If you can put it in a shell script, then do so, tools like grunt, gulp and plethora of others go a long way to helping with this, but don't stop there.  Why not for example get your git hooks to automatically run a grunt task when you check something in? 3) Step away from your code for at least 5 minutes every hour and a ha...

One of the best ways to use your time wisely is to have a plan of action. We  used to call it an OpPlan for Operations Plan. If you know what you’ll  be working on tomorrow, you’ll develop the mindset of productivity to  get er done. It also keeps you from thinking about work during your  “off” time. Here are some great tips to do at the end of your work day. Set aside  a few minutes when you’re done with work to make sure these things are  in order. When you get up the next day, ready to work, you’ll already be  ahead by having this lined out. 1. Put away and tidy all of your work materials so they are ready for the next day. No one wants to walk into a cluttered office to work. This steals  your work time because you need to get it organized before you can even  concentrate on work. Take care of this at the “end” of the work day so  it’s all set up when you return to your desk the next morning. 2. Look over the next day...