Adding structure to your life can help conserve your will power and alleviate decision fatigue.

… studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. They don’t schedule endless back-to-back meetings. They avoid temptations like all-you-can-eat buffets, and they establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices. Instead of deciding every morning whether or not to force themselves to exercise, they set up regular appointments to work out with a friend. Instead of counting on willpower to remain robust all day, they conserve it so that it’s available for emergencies and important decisions

I’ve watched the NFL Scouting Combine this past week and the mention of the Under Armor mouthpieces has me intrigued.

These mouthpieces purportedly increase strength and endurance, speed up reaction time, reduce stress, improve flexibility, promote better breathing, and quicken recovery after competition or training.

The commentators of the combine also mentioned these mouthpieces help with focus. So, I wonder if you have to be an athlete to reap the benefits? I’d like to get one to try. After all, it’s the little things that can help make a difference, and I am interested in self-improvement/hacking.

The secret to productivity: get up early.

Who knew that if you practiced “structured procrastination” you could be more productive? I won’t do the definition justice by trying to explain exactly what it means to structure procrastination, but the nugget I got from the article deals with how we think about procrastination.

Procrastinators often follow exactly the wrong tack. They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done. But this goes contrary to the basic nature of the procrastinator and destroys his most important source of motivation. The few tasks on his list will be by definition the most important, and the only way to avoid doing them will be to do nothing. This is a way to become a couch potato, not an effective human being.

This list of core human skills is more valuable than any class or seminar I’ve ever been a part of. Be sure to check out the list, but for my own good, I’ve posted them after the jump to keep those as my “digital dozen” for my continual effort of self-improvement (I’m trying to think of a better term for it since there’s more to it than just improvement; there’s also the ‘hacking’ and ‘small changes, big results’ aspects and theories I’m kicking around). I plan to reference this list quite often and use it as my 12-point plan.

Information-Assimilation – how to find, consume, and comprehend information and identify what’s most important in the face of a problem or challenge. A person who is highly skilled in Information-Assimilation is able to process information quickly and apply it to the situation at hand, with consistently high levels of comprehension and retention.

Writing – how to communicate thoughts and ideas in written form clearly and concisely. A person who is highly skilled in Writing is able to convey information to others briefly and simply, as well as use writing to persuade and influence.

Speaking – how to communicate thoughts and ideas to others clearly, concisely, and with confidence. A person who is highly skilled in Speaking is able to communicate individually or in front of a group of people in an engaging manner, with little visible evidence of tension or stress.

Mathematics – how to accurately use concepts from arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, and statistics to analyze and solve common problems. A person who is highly skilled in Mathematics is able to use numbers, ratios, and equations to gain insight into present circumstances and potential future scenarios.

Decision-Making – how to identify critical issues, prioritize, focus energy/effort, recognize fallacies, avoid common errors, and handle ambiguity. A person who is highly skilled in Decision-Making is able to weigh available information and come to a supportable conclusion, without falling prey to common reasoning mistakes and cognitive bias.

Rapport – how to interact with other people in a way that encourages them to like, trust, and respect you. A person who is highly skilled in Rapport is able to build productive, mutually-beneficial relationships with a wide variety of people in a way that influences their perceptions and opinions.

Conflict-Resolution – how to anticipate potential sources of conflict and resolve disagreements when they occur. A person who is highly skilled in Conflict-Resolution is able to anticipate potential sources of conflict and counteract unproductive emotions, both individually and in groups.

Scenario-Generation – how to create, clarify, evaluate, and communicate a possible future scenario that assists in decision-making, either for yourself or another person. A person who is highly skilled in Scenario Generation is able to envision possible future events, identify likely tradeoffs, and suggest multiple options that will result in the achievement of an objective.

Planning – how to identify the necessary next steps to achieve an objective, account for dependencies, and prepare for the unknown and inevitable change via the use of contingencies. A person who is highly skilled in Planning is able to examine available resources, anticipate potential issues and risks, and propose new / better paths as more information becomes known.

Self-Awareness – how to accurately perceive and influence your own internal states and emotions, including effective management of limited energy, willpower, and focus. A person who is highly skilled in Self-Awareness is able to recognize what physical and emotional state they’re currently experiencing, utilize or compensate for their current state, and intentionally elicit / reinforce preferred states.

Interrelation – how to recognize, understand, and make use of key features of systems and relationships, including cause-and-effect, second and third-order effects, constraints, and feedback loops. A person who is highly skilled in Interrelation is able to identify the most important factors in a system, explore how they affect each other, and improve systems without provoking undesired consequences.

Skill Acquisition – how to go about learning a desired skill in a way that results in competence by finding and utilizing available resources, deconstructing complex processes, and actively experimenting with potential approaches. A person who is highly skilled in Skill Acquisition is able to continually improve their skills in any field through deliberate practice, observation, and intentional experimentation.

I’ve mentioned the quantified self before and have spend some time trying to find the best way for me to record data. The best way for me is via my phone as I have it on me at all times. your.flowingdata has come up with a way for us to track those data bits via twitter. Looks perfect for me as I’m trying to identify behaviors and different routines in my life. Read Kevin Kelly’s post for a bit further background on The Quantified Self. Also, major bonus points if you then take your data and turn it into a Felton-style Annual Report.

We make tiny choices every day. Those choices become habits, and those habits develop into behaviors. your.flowingdata helps you record these choices.

Use your.flowingdata (YFD) to collect data about yourself and your surroundings via Twitter. Record what you eat, when you go to sleep, how much television you watch, or whatever else you want. What you track is completely up to you.

Some words are inherently funny. The reason does not matter. What matters is being able to identify opportunities where you can apply the principle, “Underpants Is 20% Funnier than Underwear” and swap out boring words with funny ones.

I’m a firm believer in this. Whenever possible, I do my best to use such words as underpants in conversation. If nothing more, it makes me laugh.

Stephen Bayley dives into the art of self-invention. A few choice excerpts I liked follow.

First impressions.

Psychologists know that first impressions are based on our spontaneous assessment of status, clothes, sex, age, size and posture, speech and facial expression.

On how you dress.

Dress is a very foolish thing; and yet it is a very foolish thing for a man not to be well-dressed.

–Lord Chesterfield

…

It matters because somebody who does not care about their appearance will care about little else.

On establishing yourself in prose.

I discovered very early on the power of the letter, a powerful tool in teenage courtship – more powerful still now that the majority of the post is garbage and any clown can generate something exquisite in Helvetica 14 point. The price of decent writing paper and a first-class stamp is one of the great bargains. A letter is an opportunity to write an advertisement for yourself.

Quotes like this aren’t necessarily steering me away from benzedrine.

And then, of course, there’s Jack Kerouac: he got hopped up on Benzedrine so that he could write On the Road in an epic twenty day writing session.

NPR ran a piece yesterday (audio link) that pointed me to this New Yorker article detailing the use of Adderall as a “performance enhancer”. It’s being used by college students, office workers, and poker players among others. Seems like people are constantly trying to “hack” their body to be more productive and successful.