What Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast (Laura Vanderkam)

 

This is a quick one hour audio book read by the author. She says: 

• The hopeful hours before breakfast are far to precious to waste.
• Small rituals can accomplish great things.
• A habit has the force of the water drop that hollows the stone. A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the laborers of a spasmatic Hercules. 
• When you make over your mornings, you can make over your life.
• Self-discipline is a muscle and it depletes over time - this is why you should do the most. important things in the morning. It is usually the time when you have fewer interruptions. 
• evenings are when diets are broken, crimes are committed, commitments are broken.
• the best things for mornings rituals are the things that result in long term benefits.
• Pick one new habit and work on it until you have made it part of your life. As you go, track your progress.
• The reason we stay in bed in the morning is we think of all the things we need to do instead of the things you look forward to. Plan to do things you look forward to.
• Tune up as necessary. Life changes and routines should change along with life's changes.

What most successful people use morning time for:

• nurturing their careers: strategizing and focused work
• nurturing their relationships: giving their families and friends their best
• nurturing themselves: exercise and spiritual and creative practices
• choose things you actually enjoy (no self-flagging!)

Other interesting facts she shares:

People more likely to achieve tenure, working on writing on a daily business.

The networking breakfast concept is incredibly underrated.

If you want to get more out of your time, track your time.

Goodreads summary:

Mornings are a madcap time for many of us. We wake up in a haze--often after hitting snooze a few times. Then we rush around to get ready and out the door so we can officially start the day. Before we know it, hours have slipped by without us accomplishing anything beyond downing a cup of coffee, dashing off a few emails, and dishing with our coworkers around the water cooler. By the time the workday wraps up, we're so exhausted and defeated that any motivation to accomplish something in the evening has vanished.

But according to time management expert Laura Vanderkam, mornings hold the key to taking control of our schedules. If we use them wisely, we can build habits that will allow us to lead happier, more productive lives.

Drawing on real-life anecdotes and scientific research that shows why the early hours of the day are so important, Vanderkam reveals how successful people use mornings to help them accomplish things that are often impossible to take care of later in the day. While many of us are still in bed, these folks are scoring daily victories to improve their health, careers, and personal lives without sacrificing their sanity. For instance, former PepsiCo chairman and CEO Steve Reinemund would rise at 5:00 a.m., run four miles, pray, and eat breakfast with his family before heading to work to run a Fortune 500 company.

"What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast" is a fun, practical guide that will inspire you to rethink your morning routine and jump-start your life before the day has even begun.

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Laura Vanderkam)

 

I really enjoyed this book and I buy into her theories. Some of the reviews I read were quite critical and not complimentary. When I read a book like this, I tend to take what might work for me and don't worry about the rest - and I think she means that as she writes it. It has a ton of ideas. Take what works for you and leave the rest. You can fit in what really matters to you. For example, I want to be an exerciser - but even in summer break I can't seem to fit it in. Clearly, that's a matter of priorities. She says that if the average person started exercising every time he was tempted to turn on the tube, he could be doing triathlons competitively within a few years (chapter 8: A Full Life).

What works for me:

• She says that most of us are not as busy as we think. I believe that is true. There is always room to assess how we're spending out time. She really advocates for tracking your time. I would like to do that - but I would like an easy system - preferably on my phone. Is there an app?
• After you have tracked your time, start totaling the categories and do a personal self-evaluation about how you're spending your time
• She encourages you to make a list of 1000 dreams (chapter 2). Pick the activities that really matter to you and schedule them in first. 
• 100 things you'd like to do during your life time (pick your categories and list 10 things)
• 10 places you want to visit
• 10 books you want to rest
• 10 restaurants you want to try
• 10 skills you want to learn
• 10 financial goals you have for yourself
• 10 books (articles) you want to publish
• etc!
• Figure out what your core competencies are (what matters most and what you are actually good at doing) and outsource the rest, if you can
• Create a block schedule where you plan to fit in the things that are most important to you (in other words, the big rocks first theory)
• Give yourself time to do the things you love. You'll be happier.

I read this on my kobo. When I was finished, it told me how long I took to read it that I spent an average of 11 minutes per reading session - which surprised me. My goal is to spend 30 minutes reading every morning....and frankly, I thought I was doing that - but apparently I read this more in smaller spurts than that.

Goodreads says:

There are 168 hours in a week. This is your guide to getting the most out of them.

It's an unquestioned truth of modern life: we are starved for time. We tell ourselves we'd like to read more, get to the gym regularly, try new hobbies, and accomplish all kinds of goals. But then we give up because there just aren't enough hours to do it all. Or if we don't make excuses, we make sacrifices- taking time out from other things in order to fit it all in.

There has to be a better way...and Laura Vanderkam has found one. After interviewing dozens of successful, happy people, she realized that they allocate their time differently than most of us. Instead of letting the daily grind crowd out the important stuff, they start by making sure there's time for the important stuff. When plans go wrong and they run out of time, only their lesser priorities suffer.

Vanderkam shows that with a little examination and prioritizing, you'll find it is possible to sleep eight hours a night, exercise five days a week, take piano lessons, and write a novel without giving up quality time for work, family, and other things that really matter.

Mind Over Grind (Guy Winch)

 

This was good. After watching a couple of his TED talks, I liked him even more. He has some good tips in this book. I think he should do teachers next. So much of teacher's work, to me, is much more complicated than he got into here. Or maybe I'm just too self-absorbed. I don't know. A couple of his tips that I could really implement right away are changing my clothes when I get home to get a real sense of 'work is finished' and leaving work sooner.

Goodreads says:

Clinical psychologist, TED Speaker, and author of Emotional First Aid offers a guide to combating the many stresses modern work imposes, based on recent research and the stories of patients Winch has helped to thrive after burnout.

Whether we like it or not, work is central to our lives. Most of us define ourselves by our work; it gives us a purpose, it enables us to maintain our lives, our homes, our nourishment, our recreational pursuits, and it puts us often among like-minded people who share and appreciate our skills and achievements. No wonder we feel it is so important. But the dark side is that it intrudes on our lives and unconsciously takes over our thoughts, our priorities, and even our coping mechanisms. Especially in recent years, the separation between work and home is blurrier than ever, and we struggle to maintain healthy boundaries, to restore ourselves and recover our attention and energy, to give due focus to our loved ones, and to nourish other essential aspects of our self.

In Mind Over Grind, Guy Winch explains how our enmeshment with work reinforces these unconscious tendencies and reveals to the damage they do to our careers and personal lives, as well as to our emotional health. He argues that attaining a work-life balance involves changing not just what you do in your free time but how you think. And he offers clear, cogent strategies we can use to regain control, change the way we think, bring intentionality back to our lives, and restore the balance we crave.

Mabel Wants A Friend (Ariel Bernstein)

 

Friends are a blessing...and sometimes that means self-sacrifice.

Goodreads says:

From the acclaimed duo Ariel Bernstein and Mark Rosenthal comes a new humorous and earnest story about a young fox who learns that making a new friend takes more than just wanting one. Meet Mabel. She always gets what she wants. No matter what it takes. Meet Chester. He’s Mabel’s new friend, but…he doesn’t always agree with Mabel’s methods. After a disagreement, Mabel decides she’s better off alone. But when Mabel starts to miss Chester, she realizes that to get what she wants most of all, she’ll have to learn what it means to be a good frien

Discipline is Destiny (Ryan Holiday)

 

I read another of his books called The Obstacle Is the Way and I said that was one of the best books I've read. So is this one!! This kind of thing is totally my jam. I love the inspiring stories. This is the kind of book you could read a chapter of every day all year long to make your life better. It's also one that would be great for finding inspiring stories to share when you have to speak to a crowd. 

I got it from the library but I plan to buy it. 

Goodreads says:

In his New York Times bestselling book Courage is Calling, author Ryan Holiday made the Stoic case for a bold and brave life. In this much-anticipated second book of his Stoic Virtue series, Holiday celebrates the awesome power of self-discipline and those who have seized it.

To master anything, one must first master themselves–one’s emotions, one’s thoughts, one’s actions. Eisenhower famously said that freedom is really the opportunity to practice self-discipline. Cicero called the virtue of temperance the polish of life. Without boundaries and restraint, we risk not only failing to meet our full potential and jeopardizing what we have achieved, but we ensure misery and shame. In a world of temptation and excess, this ancient idea is more urgent than ever.

In Discipline is Destiny, Holiday draws on the stories of historical figures we can emulate as pillars of self-discipline, including Lou Gehrig, Queen Elizabeth II, boxer Floyd Patterson, Marcus Aurelius and writer Toni Morrison, as well as the cautionary tales of Napoleon, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Babe Ruth. Through these engaging examples, Holiday teaches readers the power of self-discipline and balance, and cautions against the perils of extravagance and hedonism.

At the heart of Stoicism are four simple virtues: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Everything else, the Stoics believed, flows from them. Discipline is Destiny will guide readers down the path to self-mastery, upon which all the other virtues depend. Discipline is predictive. You cannot succeed without it. And if you lose it, you cannot help but bring yourself failure and unhappiness.

How To Keep House While Drowning (KC David, LPC)

 

I learned about this book from someone i follow on instagram. Can I be honest? I was a little put off by all the lack of upper case letters on the cover....but after reading it I think maybe that was strategic. I don't really have a hard time with keeping house and being organized so I wasn't sure this book would be for me - but the more I read the more I appreciated her thinking. Self-compassion is key and so many of the approaches she talks about would work in many other aspects of my life like teaching school, being a Relief Society president and more. 

Notes:

Setting priorities
She explains a really helpful tool for prioritizing: the 9 square. 

p. 12 Pick an rea of your life: school, activism, parenting, et cetera. Write a list of things you think are important for yourself. First, think of hte items that have the highest impact. Next list the items that have a medium impact. Next, divide them into those things that take low effort, medium effort or a high amount of effort and place the items in corresponding squares on the chart.
Once the chart is filled out, you can it to determine what to focus on When things in your life are ideal, you may strive to d o all he squares. Come under some stress and the black square is de-prioritized without guilt. Come under a bit more stres or for a prolonger period and the dark blue squares are de-prioritized in order to focus on the light blue squares. 

Sometimes, priorities that do the most good with the least amount of energy is what you should focus on. 
This tool will give you permission not to feel guilty about what you don't do. 

Handling criticism:

 p. 115 Even as we become comfortable giving ourselves kindnessa nd compassion in the midst of struggle, we often still have to contend with friends or family members who are at different parts of the journey of moral neutrality. How do we respond when someone criticizes the state of our home or tries to "help" us by giving advice that really doesn't fit?

My favorite phrase for well-meaning family is, "I know you want to see me in a fictioning environment and I want you to know that I want that for myself also. I am on my own journey to find aht works for me and what I need most from you is a nonjudgmental support. One thing that could really help me right now is ________."

And give them a tangible task that they can do! "Take these bags of clothes to the donation bin," "Sit with my while I clean my room," "Help me call a cleaning service or make a doctor's appointment." Sometimes all our loved ones need is to be redicrected to a way they can actually help. If after you give them ways to help they decline, it's okay to say, "Then teh most helpful thing you can do for me is not make comments about my space."

If you have a particularly rude or pushy person in your life, you can use my favorite boudary phrase, which s "thank you for your concern, but I am not taking any feedback on that issue right now."

Or my personal favorite "The key for me being able to given to run a functioning home was when I stopped talking to myself the way you are talking to me right now."

On weight:
your weight is morally neutral (capitals left off on purpose because the author did that...even though it pains me)

p. 139 One night I was lying in bed and cuddling my eighteen-month-old. She was asleep in my arms with her angelic face resting in the crook of my elbow. We were lying next to my husband, a man whom I love deeply and who loes me. On the floor on a little pallet was my three-year-old, a spitfire little sprite who brightens my world. I realized that I only ever wanted to be skinny because i wanted to be loved and happy. But I already have that. Skinny hasn't seemed very important to me since then.

Goodreads says:

How to Keep House While Drowning will introduce you to six life-changing principles that will revolutionize the way you approach home care—without endless to-do lists. Presented in 31 daily thoughts, this compassionate guide will help you begin to get free of the shame and anxiety you feel over home care.

Inside you will learn:
· How to shift your perspective of care tasks from moral to functional;
· How to stop negative self-talk and shame around care tasks;
· How to give yourself permission to rest, even when things aren’t finished;
· How to motivate yourself to care for your space.

The Willpower Instinct (Kelly McGonigal)

 

I really like Kelly McGonigal's book, The Upside of Stress so I was happy to find this one. I listened to the audio book, which tends to make me not so good at taking notes. I was sorry the author didn't read the audio book. I liked her other book so much, to hear a male voice reading this one was a surprise. 

The author suggests ending rigid dieting. She says that the more you tell yourself to not eat something or not think about something, the more our brain seems to want to eat it or do it. She suggests surfing the urge, neither pushing it away or acting on it. When impulses and cravings come to mind, imagine it as a wave and breathe through those feelings. The inner acceptance seems to bring more control according to many studies. 

This book was pretty much in agreement with other books I have read on this topic like The Motivation Myth and Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. 

Goodreads says:

The first book to explain the new science of self-control and how it can be harnessed to improve our health, happiness, and productivity.

After years of watching her students struggling with their choices, health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., realized that much of what people believe about willpower is actually sabotaging their success. Committed to sharing what the scientific community already knew about self-control, McGonigal created a course called "The Science of Willpower" for Stanford University's Continuing Studies Program. The course was an instant hit and spawned the hugely successful Psychology Today blog with the same name.

Informed by the latest research and combining cutting-edge insights from psychology, economics, neuroscience, and medicine, McGonigal's book explains exactly what willpower is, how it works, and why it matters. Readers will learn:

Willpower is a mind-body response, not a virtue. It is a biological function that can be improved through mindfulness, exercise, nutrition, and sleep. People who have better control of their attention, emotions, and actions are healthier, happier, have more satisfying relationships, and make more money. Willpower is not an unlimited resource. Too much self-control can actually be bad for your health. Temptation and stress hijack the brain's systems of self-control, and that the brain can be trained for greater willpower.

In the groundbreaking tradition of Getting Things Done, The Willpower Instinct combines life-changing prescriptive advice and complementary exercises to help readers with goals ranging from a healthier life to more patient parenting, from greater productivity at work to finally finishing the basement.

The Motivation Myth (Jeff Haden)

 

I read another book on motivation and this one has the same thinking....people are only motivated when they DO something. It isn't inherent and it isn't like you're either motivated or you're not. You make your own motivation.

Successful people are successful because they do things differently from other people. 

- Jerry Seinfeld

He talked about how Jerry Seinfeld has a motto of "how to go the true extra mile, Seinfeld style". ie Work harder than everyone else, do things differently than others, start a streak and never break it

Like most bottom lines, this one is clean and simple.

Don't tell me your goals. Don't tell me your dreams.

Tell me your plan.

p. 255 He talks about a CEO, Dave Kerpen (Likeable Local) and how he handwrites three thank you notes every day. That would up my daily gratitude focused work! 

This book was a recommendation in another book I read - and it was well worth the time. There were a lot of great tips that I will implement.  One of his favorite successful people seems to be Jery Seinfeld. I'm okay with that!  I loved hearing his suggestions for success.

The best chapter was chapter 5...where he lays out steps for success:

• plan for super productive days...he called them Monster Energy Extreme Productivity Days
• Step 1 Let everyone know you won't be available
• Step 2 Decide how long you will work
• Step 3 Totally commit to how long you decided to work
• Step 4: Start your EPD at an unusual time (the idea is to break free of your usual routine)
• Step 5: Delay and space out your rewards
• Step 6: Refuel before you think you need to refuel
• Step 7: Take productive breaks, not relaxation breaks
• Step 8: Take your breaks at a counterintuitive moment
• Step 9: Don't stop until you're done - even if finishing takes longer than expected
• How to have your most productive week ever
• Step 1: Every Sunday, map out your week
• Step 2: Actively block out task time
• Step 3: Follow a realistic to-do list
• Step 4: Default to thirty-minute meetings
• Step 5: Stop multitasking
• Step 6: Obsess about leveraging "edge" time (ie when you're driving, read while in lines, etc)
• Step 7: Track your time
• Step 8: Be thoughtful about lunch. Some ideas: network, build bridges with people/departments. Don't eat with the same people every day. Go for a walk during part of your lunch
• Step 9: Protect your family time
• Step 10: Start every day right (exercise, study, eat a good breakfast, etc.)
• How to have the most productive mind-set ever
• Step 1: Stop making excuses for doing less
• Step 2: Stop letting disapproval, or even scorn, stand in your way (people will notice...don't worry about what they say)
• Step 3: Stop letting fear hold you back
• Step 4: Stop waiting for inspiration
• Step 5: Stop turning down the help you need
• Step 6: Stop stopping
• How to have the willpower...without needing willpower
• Step 1: Eliminate as many choices as possible (eat the same thing for breakfast or lunch, have routines...follow them)
• Step 2: Make decisions tonight so you won't need to make them tomorrow
• Step 3: Do the hardest thing you need to do first
• Step 4: Refuel often
• Step 5: Create reminders of your long-term goals
• Step 6: Remove temptation altogether

Learn to ignore the things you have no control over

Goodreads says:

From Inc.com's most popular columnist, a counterintuitive--but highly practical--guide to finding and maintaining the motivation to achieve great things.

It's comforting to imagine that superstars in their fields were just born better equipped than the rest of us. When a co-worker loses 20 pounds, or a friend runs a marathon while completing a huge project at work, we assume they have more grit, more willpower, more innate talent, and above all, more motivation to see their goals through.

But that's not at actually true, as popular Inc.com columnist Jeff Haden proves. "Motivation" as we know it is a myth. Motivation isn't the special sauce that we require at the beginning of any major change. In fact, motivation is a result of process, not a cause. Understanding this will change the way you approach any obstacle or big goal.

Haden shows us how to reframe our thinking about the relationship of motivation to success. He meets us at our level--at the beginning of any big goal we have for our lives, a little anxious and unsure about our way forward, a little burned by self-help books and strategies that have failed us in the past-and offers practical advice that anyone can use to stop stalling and start working on those dreams.

Haden takes the mystery out of accomplishment, proving that success isn't about spiritual awakening or a lightning bolt of inspiration --as Tony Robbins and adherents of The Secret believe--but instead, about clear and repeatable processes. Using his own advice, Haden has consistently drawn 2 million readers a month to his posts, completed a 107-mile long mountain bike race, and lost 10 pounds in a month.

Success isn't for the uniquely-qualified; it's possible for any person who understands the true nature of motivation. Jeff Haden can help you transcend average and make lasting positive change in your life.

Willpower: Rediscovering The Greatest Human Strength (Roy F Baumeister and John Tierney)

I loved this book. This book really explains why diets typically don't work. It also explains why the things n life have to be lined up just right before one can successfully lose weight. It also applies to many other things in life. I loved the focus on how learning new skills and doing things well leads to self-esteem. The importance of taking good care of yourself (have enough to eat, get enough sleep, feel safe, etc.) are key to willpower. 

Goodreads says:

One of the world's most esteemed and influential psychologists, Roy F. Baumeister, teams with New York Times science writer John Tierney to reveal the secrets of self-control and how to master it. In Willpower, the pioneering researcher Roy F. Baumeister collaborates with renowned New York Times science writer John Tierney to revolutionize our understanding of the most coveted human virtue: self-control.

In what became one of the most cited papers in social science literature, Baumeister discovered that willpower actually operates like a muscle: it can be strengthened with practice and fatigued by overuse. Willpower is fueled by glucose, and it can be bolstered simply by replenishing the brain's store of fuel. That's why eating and sleeping- and especially failing to do either of those-have such dramatic effects on self-control (and why dieters have such a hard time resisting temptation).

Baumeister's latest research shows that we typically spend four hours every day resisting temptation. No wonder people around the world rank a lack of self-control as their biggest weakness. Willpower looks to the lives of entrepreneurs, parents, entertainers, and artists-including David Blaine, Eric Clapton, and others-who have flourished by improving their self-control.

The lessons from their stories and psychologists' experiments can help anyone. You learn not only how to build willpower but also how to conserve it for crucial moments by setting the right goals and using the best new techniques for monitoring your progress. Once you master these techniques and establish the right habits, willpower gets easier: you'll need less conscious mental energy to avoid temptation. That's neither magic nor empty self-help sloganeering, but rather a solid path to a better life.

Combining the best of modern social science with practical wisdom, Baumeister and Tierney here share the definitive compendium of modern lessons in willpower. As our society has moved away from the virtues of thrift and self-denial, it often feels helpless because we face more temptations than ever. But we also have more knowledge and better tools for taking control of our lives. However we define happiness-a close- knit family, a satisfying career, financial security-we won't reach it without mastering self-control.

The Miracle Morning (Hal Elrod)

 

I really loved this book. It validates my tendancy to be an early riser and he gives some great tips on how to spend that time as well as why to get up and practice positive habits each morning. I love the positivity he exudes as well. He's honest about struggles. 10/10 recommend! 

This guy has a ton of resources and says he's always willing to have people contact him and share struggles as well as successes.

Things to check out:

• www.tmmbook.com
• Hal Elrod podcasts
• www.yourpalhal.com
• Facebook group www.myTMMcommunity.com

Goodreads says:

Start waking up to your full potential every single day with the updated and expanded edition of the groundbreaking book with more than 2 million copies sold.

Getting everything you want out of life isn’t about doing more. It’s about becoming more. Hal Elrod and The Miracle Morning have helped millions of people become the person they need to be to create the life they’ve always wanted. Now, it’s your turn.

Hal’s revolutionary S.A.V.E.R.S. method is a simple, effective step-by-step process to transform your life in as little as six minutes per day:

•Silence: Reduce stress and improve mental clarity by beginning each day with peaceful, purposeful quiet
•Affirmations: Reprogram your mind to overcome any fears or beliefs that are limiting your potential or causing you to suffer
•Visualization:Experience the power of mentally rehearsing yourself showing up at your best each day
•Exercise: Boost your mental and physical energy in as little as 60 seconds
•Reading: Acquire knowledge and expand your abilities by learning from experts
•Scribing: Keep a journal to deepen gratitude, gain insights, track progress, and increase your productivity by getting clear on your top priorities

This updated and expanded edition has more than 40 pages of new content, including:

•The Miracle Evening: Optimize your bedtime and sleep to wake up every day feeling refreshed and energized for your Miracle Morning
•The Miracle Life: Begin your path to inner freedom so you can truly be happy and learn to love the life you have while you create the life you want

Molly's Tuxedo (Vicki Johnson)

 

This book doesn't mention being anything about LGBTQ kids, but the main character is a great role model for kids who just want to be themselves. I understand not feeling comfortable in scratchy stiff outfits! It's not about dresses....dresses are great. It's about being comfortable. At first she is questioned (girls don't wear tuxedos) but it doesn't last long....and the better we get at that, the better world it'll be, I think.

Goodreads says:

*2024 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction For Children Recommended Book* Molly has big plans to wear a dashing tuxedo for her school picture day—but Mom’s picked out a dress. With her friends’ support, Molly proves the way to look your best is to be yourself.

Forged By Reading (Beers and Probst)

 

I am a big fan of these two authors and have read a number of their books. This one spoke to my heart. The bottom line is that reading is what makes our world a better place and it should do something TO us. What happens in your head? What happens in your heart? And what will you do after reading what you've read?  (This is part of their BHH approach - only now they've added a D at the end for what are you going to DO) It's all about the power of a literate life. They're singing my song! 

Goodreads says:

Bestselling authors Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst expand the vision of what it means to be an independent reader in our schools and in our nation by challenging our concepts of literacy. In an educational climate dictated by standards, tests, and mandates, Beers and Probst offer a needed vision of the interrelated nature of literacy and democracy, while they inspire us to do the hard work. Divided into three parts―Change, Power, and Hope―each section of the book helps us reenvision a world where all experience the power of a literate life.

Hidden Potential (Adam Grant)

 

How  did I not know about this guy? This book was great! He also has a podcast and has done a number of Ted Talks. This book was really fun and inspiring to read....really connected to the Carol Dweck idea of possibility thinking. I'm singing up for his podcast and will also put this on my list of books to re-read regularly.

p. 10   Amazing: 

In the late 1980s, around the same time that the Raging Rooks were learning chess in Harlem, the state of Tennessee launched a bold experiment. At 79 schools - many of which were low income - they randomly assigned over 11,000 students to different classrooms in kindergarten through third grade. The original goal was to test whether smaller classes were better for learning. But an economist named Raj Chetty realized that since both students and teachers were randomly assigned to classrooms, he could go back to the data to analyze whether other features of classrooms made a difference. 

Chetty is one of the world's most influential economists. He's the winner of the MacArthur genius grant. And his research suggests that excellence depends less on our natural talents than we might expect. 

The Tennessee experiment contained a starling result. Chetty was able to predict the success that students achieved as adults simply by looking at who taught their kindergarten class. By age 25, students who happened to have had more experienced kindergarten teachers were earning significantly more money than their peers. 

Chetty and his colleagues calculated that moving from an inexperienced kindergarten teacher to an experienced one would add over $1000 to each student's annual income in their twenties. For a class of 20 students, an above-average kindergarten teacher could be worth additional lifetime income of $321,000.

Kindergarten matters in many ways, but I never would have expected teachers to leave such a visible mark on their students' salaries two decades later. Most adults hardly even remember being five years old. Why did kindergarten teachers end up casting such a long shadow?

The intuitive answer is that effective teachers help students develop cognitive skills. Early education builds a solid foundation for understanding numbers and words. Sure enough, students with more experienced teachers scored higher on math and reading tests at the end of kindergarten. But over the next few years, their peers caught up. 

To figure out what students were carrying with them from kindergarten into adulthood, Chetty's team turned to another possible explanation. In fourth and eighth grade, the students were rated by their teachers on some other qualities. Here's a sample:

• Proactive: how often did they take initiative to ask questions, volunteer answers, seek information from books and engage the teacher to learn outside class?
• Prosocial: How well did they get along and collaborate with peers?
  
• Disciplined: How effectively did they pay attention - and resist the impulse to disrupt the class?
  
• Determined: How consistently did they take on challenging problems, do more than the assigned work, and persist in the face of obstacles?

When students were taught by more experienced kindergarten teachers, their fourth-grade teachers rated them higher on all four of these attributes. So did their eighth-grade teachers. The capacities to be proactive, prosocial, disciplined, and determined stay with the students longer - and ultimately proved more powerful - than early math and reading skills. When Chetty and his colleagues predicted adult incomes from fourth-grade scores, the ratings on these behaviors matter 2.4 times as much as math and reading performance on standardized tests.

Think about how surprising that is. If you want to forecast the earning potential of fourth graders, you should pay less attention to their objective math and verbal scores than to their teachers' subjective views of their behavior patterns. And although many people see those behaviors as innate, they were taught in kindergarten. Regardless of where students started, there was something about learning these behaviors that set the students up for success decades later. 

p.29 On writing:

If writing isn't your preferred mode of learning, the greatest discomfort of putting your thoughts on a page is probably writer's block. As Steve Martin joked, "Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol." There's a reason we don't talk about dancer's block or carpenter's block. Writer's block is actually a thinking block: you're stuck because you haven't figured out what to say. Some novelists get in the groove by typing sentences from fiction they've loved. I get my ideas churning by answering a few emails: it's like a warm-up to give me momentum. If writing becomes a regular routine, eventually words start to flow as fluidly on the page as they do out of your mouth. Psychologists have found that when people were randomly assigned to scheduled daily writing sessions, their output quadrupled - and even scheduling 15 minutes a day was enough to make progress. And now we have artificial intelligence (AI) chat bots to help. In preliminary experiments, randomly assigning professionals to use tools like ChatGPT and Bing boosts both the quality and quantity of their writing - especially for poor writers-by shifting effort from rough drafting to idea generating and editing. For the record, I didn't write a word of this book using AI. Though that's probably what an AI would tell you. 

re: taking breaks

p. 102 Taking breaks has at least three benefits. First, time away from practice helps to sustain harmonious passion. Research indicates that even micro-breaks of five to ten minutes are enough to reduce fatigue and raise energy. It's not just about preventing burnout: research reveals that when we work nights and weekends, our interest and enjoyment in our tasks drop...

Second, breaks unlock fresh ideas. 

Third, breaks deepen learning....it's well established that we can avoid that forgetting curve with spaced repetition - interspersing breaks into practice. 

p. 103 Relaxing is not a waste of time - it's an investment in well-being. Breaks are not a distraction - they're a chance to reset attention and incubate ideas. Play is not a frivolous activity - it's a source of joy and a path to mastery.

p. 104 Worthwhile practice is where progress is made. It's about quality, not quantity. You need to feel there's a shift - something is different when you walk out of the room.

re; deliberate play

The real outcome is her enjoyment. Without enjoyment, potential stays hidden.

On reading:
p. 172

If we want our kids to enjoy reading, we need to make books part of their lives. That involves talking about books during meals and car rides, visiting libraries or bookstores, giving books as gifts, and letting them see us read. Children pay attention to our attention: Where we focus tells them what we prize. 

p. 174

One of the great failings of English and literature classes is forcing students to slog through the "classics" rather than giving them the opportunity to choose books that pique their interest. Research reveals that when students get to pick their own books and read in class, they become more passionate about reading. It's a virtuous cycle: the more they read for fun, the better they get and the more they like it. And they more they like it, the more they learn-and the better they perform on exams. A teacher's task is not to ensure that students have read the literary canons. It is the kindle excitement about reading. 

...to make it engaging and interactive, whenever students were passionate about a book, the floor was theirs to tell their classmates about it. 

Goodreads says:

“This brilliant book will shatter your assumptions about what it takes to improve and succeed. I wish I could go back in time and gift it to my younger self. It would’ve helped me find a more joyful path to progress.”
—Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam singles tennis champion

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again illuminates how we can elevate ourselves and others to unexpected heights.

We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distance we ourselves can travel. We underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and how good we can become. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.

Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess—it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.

Many writers have chronicled the habits of superstars who accomplish great things. This book reveals how anyone can rise to achieve greater things. The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you’ve reached, but how far you’ve climbed to get there.

The Explosive Child (Ross W Greene)

 

I really liked this book. It approaches children respectfully and is collaborative. I think the title is unfortunate. I think all kids would benefit from these strategies - not just the explosive ones. It would work for the ones who don't like to talk or have cut themselves off from adults as well as many other kids.

Goodreads says:

An experienced therapist offers groundbreaking--and compassionate--techniques for helping "chronically inflexible" children, who suffer from excessively immoderate tempers, showing how brain-based deficits contribute to these problems and offering positive and constructive ways to calm things down. 

Even Superheroes Have Bad Days (Shelley Baker)

 

Sometimes we feel justified in losing our cool or lashing out at people. Imagine what superheroes could do if they felt that way?! Great lesson in self-discipline and super cute too. 

Goodreads says:

When Superheroes don’t get their way,
when they’re sad, when they’re mad, when they’ve had a bad day . . .
. . . they COULD super-tantrum, they COULD but they DON'T,
because REAL Superheroes just WOULDN'T—they WON'T!


All kids have trouble getting a grip on their emotions, sometimes—even young superheroes! But what do they do when they’re having a bad day? Colorful action-packed illustrations and a dynamite rhyming text reveal the many ways superheroes (and ordinary children, too) can resist the super-temptation to cause a scene when they’re sad, mad, frustrated, lonely, or afraid. From burning off steam on a bike or a hike, to helping others, this energetic picture book has plenty of fun ideas to help kids cope when they’re feeling overwhelmed.