Today is my birthday. Last year on this day, I made a semi-unplanned declaration to myself: This year I will give myself the gift of sobriety. I didn’t expect it to last. I didn’t really even believe that I was doing it. I have tried to give up alcohol dozens of times in the past, only to continue drinking later that day or the next. At most I would go about a week due to being at a...
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change..." So the famous Serenity Prayer begins. Most of us acknowledge the wisdom of accepting the things that are out of our control, that life throws us curve balls and we must learn to accept them. However, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche takes this a step further (as do other stoic philosophers), and claims that we would do our...
You don’t have to hire an expensive firm to have a Public Relations (PR) strategy as a startup. The beauty of today’s internet is that anybody has the power to reach tens of thousands, even millions, with a properly timed tweet, hacker news mention, or mention on an influential blog. You don’t have to make it onto a cover story in Inc. or Entrepreneur in order to achieve your PR goals, in fact...
Startups spend a great deal of time and money getting people to visit their marketing site (aka, their website). A startup’s marketing site typically exists to establish brand awareness, promote a sense of reliability, generate leads, and sell products or services.
Have you ever found it easier to eat a healthy breakfast, while succumbing to temptation when it comes to evening snacks? Perhaps you find yourself more creative and productive in the morning hours, while the late afternoon is often punctuated by what many call a “slump”. Whether your morning starts at 9:00am or 5:00am, the odds are that you find your best decision-making abilities and creativity...
One of the best parts of being an entrepreneur is the ability to work on exactly what you want to work on. The flip side to this privilege is that if you chose to work on the wrong thing, or otherwise poorly manage your time, you miss out on achieving your greatest potential. We all have the potential for great success, so how do we leverage time management strategies to take us to the next level?
Many times the last thing we feel that we can make time for is exercise. Already we are stretched in a number of directions, who can take an hour out of each day to throw in another that, at first glance, doesn’t even improve the bottom line? The irony of exercise for entrepreneurs is that, even though it takes time out of your day, in the end you actually get more done in the remaining time that...
Because the brain is so complex, we often have a hard time juggling so many thoughts throughout our day, and end up overwhelmed, lacking clarity, or simply unable to process the jumble of inputs, floating thoughts and ideas. Fortunately, we can use tools to help our thoughts sort themselves out, one of the most effective being a journal.
I feel that the quest to be productive will last my whole lifetime. Every time I think that I have it figured out and put a system in place, the smallest change usually sends the system crumbling. However, I’ve recently settled on a few tools that are starting to stand the test of time, and I thought I’d take a moment to share them with you.
I have a pretty busy life. With 4 children under 5 years old, and a wife who works in the evenings, when I’m not working at my day job, I’m changing diapers, fixing dinner, or cleaning up before my wife gets home, and I head to bed after a little bit of time together to discuss our day. I’ve tried staying up late to get more done, and when I was in my 20s, that was a pretty valid option. However...
HI, I'M RYAN. I believe the best way to learn and remember is by writing things down and sharing them with others. This blog exists to help me synthesize and process my journey towards self-improvement.