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Using AI To Improve Productivity

improve productivity
be more productive

You’ve no doubt already heard a great deal about artificial intelligence (AI), some of it positive, but much of it designed to stoke fear. Sure, we should be concerned about AI being misused, and growing into something we don’t fully understand, and can’t control, but that’s not something I’m going to cover in this short article. I’m going to focus on how to make use of AI in your business and make you more productive, particularly by using ChatGPI,  which at the time of posting this article, is free to use.

So, ChatGPT can be used to improve productivity and potentially increase income. Here are some recommendations on how to leverage ChatGPT for this purpose:

Improve time management and planning: ChatGPT can assist you in optimizing your time and creating effective schedules. You can ask for advice on time management techniques, productivity tools, or strategies to prioritize tasks. ChatGPT can provide suggestions tailored to your specific needs and help you make the most of your available time.

Decision making: When faced with important decisions related to your work or business, you can use ChatGPT as a tool to brainstorm ideas, evaluate options, and explore different perspectives. Describe your situation or provide relevant details, and ChatGPT can offer insights, pros and cons, or alternative approaches to consider. However, remember to critically evaluate the responses and use your own judgment.

Skill development: ChatGPT can be a valuable resource for learning and acquiring new skills. You can seek recommendations for online courses, books, or tutorials in areas that can enhance your professional expertise or improve your business operations. ChatGPT can provide suggestions based on your interests, goals, and the specific skills you wish to develop.

Problem-solving: If you encounter challenges or obstacles in your work or business, ChatGPT can help you brainstorm solutions or provide different perspectives on how to overcome them. Explain the problem you’re facing and ask for advice or potential strategies. While ChatGPT can offer suggestions, remember to exercise critical thinking and adapt the recommendations to your unique situation.

Industry insights and trends: Stay up to date with the latest industry insights and trends by asking ChatGPT about relevant news, market research, or emerging technologies in your field. Understanding the current landscape can help you make informed decisions, identify opportunities, and stay ahead of the curve.

Networking and collaboration: ChatGPT can suggest networking strategies, platforms, or industry events that can expand your professional connections. You can also seek advice on collaboration opportunities or finding potential partners or clients. Remember to combine ChatGPT’s suggestions with your own research and judgment.

Personal finance and investment: If you have questions about personal finance, investment strategies, or managing your income, ChatGPT can offer general information and principles to consider. However, keep in mind that ChatGPT does not have real-time financial data and its responses may not be tailored to your specific financial situation. Consult with financial professionals for personalized advice.

Remember that while ChatGPT can provide useful insights and suggestions, it is always important to exercise critical thinking, validate information independently, and make informed decisions based on your unique circumstances. ChatGPT should be seen as a tool to augment your own judgment and expertise, rather than a substitute for it.

Tools And Obstacles On Your Journey From A to B

Get restuls: Productivity - focus on being productive instead of busy
Get restuls: Productivity – focus on being productive instead of busy

In a journey where you’re moving from A (your current state) to B (your desired goal), there are several tools and obstacles that you may encounter along the way. Here are some examples:

Tools:

Planning and Goal Setting: Establishing a clear plan and setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals can provide you with direction and guidance throughout your journey. Planning helps you outline the steps you need to take and identify the resources required to reach your goal.

Self-Discipline and Motivation: Self-discipline is essential to stay focused and committed to your journey. Motivation serves as the driving force that keeps you moving forward, even when faced with challenges. Cultivating habits and practices that enhance self-discipline and maintaining a strong sense of motivation can propel you toward your goal.

Continuous Learning: Embrace a mindset of continuous learning and personal growth. Seek out opportunities to acquire new knowledge, skills, and perspectives related to your journey. Learning from both successes and failures can equip you with valuable insights and help you adapt along the way.

Support Networks: Surround yourself with a supportive network of friends, mentors, or accountability partners. These individuals can provide guidance, encouragement, and assistance when needed. Sharing your journey with others can also provide motivation and perspective.

Obstacles:

Challenges and Setbacks: Challenges are a natural part of any journey. You may encounter obstacles, setbacks, or unexpected circumstances that make progress difficult. It’s important to anticipate and prepare for these challenges, develop resilience, and be flexible in adapting your approach when necessary.

Self-Doubt and Fear: Inner barriers such as self-doubt, fear of failure, or fear of stepping out of your comfort zone can hinder progress. Recognize these emotions and actively work on building self-confidence and challenging limiting beliefs. Cultivating a positive mindset can help you navigate through these obstacles.

Time Constraints: Limited time can be a significant obstacle when pursuing a goal. Balancing competing priorities and managing time effectively is crucial. Break down your journey into manageable tasks and allocate time accordingly. Prioritize activities that contribute directly to your goal and eliminate or delegate tasks that are less essential.

Lack of Resources: Insufficient resources, whether financial, informational, or logistical, can pose challenges. Identify the resources required to support your journey and explore creative solutions to overcome limitations. Seek out available resources, leverage technology or community support, and consider alternative approaches to achieve your goal.

External Factors: External circumstances beyond your control, such as economic conditions, societal factors, or environmental changes, can impact your journey. While you may not have control over these factors, maintaining adaptability, resilience, and a proactive mindset can help you navigate and overcome external obstacles.

It’s important to approach your journey with a mindset of perseverance, adaptability, and self-reflection. Embrace the tools available to you, proactively address obstacles, and remain committed to your goal. Remember that the journey itself can be transformative, and each step brings you closer to your desired destination

Why You Believe The Things You Believe

Get Results: all decision making is based on beliefs
Get Results: all decision making is based on beliefs

Have you ever considered why you believe the things you believe, what shapes your views, and the things you like or dislike?

Our personality traits are a big influence on our beliefs and preferences. Personality traits are enduring patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that shape how individuals perceive and interact with the world. These traits can affect our cognitive and emotional processes, leading us to gravitate toward certain beliefs over others.

For example, individuals with a high degree of openness to experience tend to be curious, imaginative, and open-minded. They may be more receptive to unconventional or alternative beliefs, embracing new ideas and perspectives. On the other hand, individuals with a high degree of conscientiousness tend to be organized, disciplined, and value order. They may lean towards more conservative or traditional beliefs, seeking stability and structure.

Moreover, other personality traits such as extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism can also play a role in shaping our beliefs. Extroverted individuals may be more inclined to adopt socially endorsed beliefs and enjoy engaging in discussions and interactions with others. Agreeable individuals, value harmony and cooperation and may be more receptive to beliefs that promote empathy and kindness. Neuroticism, which involves the tendency to experience negative emotions, could influence the types of beliefs that offer comfort or security in the face of uncertainty or anxiety.

While personality traits can contribute to our belief preferences, it’s important to note that they are not the sole determinant. Factors such as upbringing, culture, education, and personal experiences also play significant roles in shaping our beliefs. Human beings are complex, and beliefs are influenced by a multitude of interacting factors.

Goal Setting To Set Up A More Fulfilling Life

Get Results: which way goal setting
Get Results: which way goal setting

In life, it’s crucial to set goals that strike a delicate balance.

They shouldn’t be too effortless to achieve, for that would deprive us of the sense of accomplishment and growth.

Conversely, goals shouldn’t be overwhelmingly difficult either, as the temptation to give up would loom large.

The key lies in selecting the level of improvement that suits us best. It’s about finding the sweet spot, where our aspirations lie just beyond our current capabilities, pushing us to expand our boundaries.

Rather than striving for perfection, we should acknowledge our flaws and commit to overcoming them. This mindset can fuel a lifelong game of personal development.

Embracing the inevitable suffering of life is essential in transcending it. By taking responsibility and uncovering a purpose, we navigate the world with intention. Our potential should not be overshadowed by our current state; instead, we should focus on constant renewal and growth.

Letting go of the old and making room for the new becomes a fundamental practice.

Rejecting despotic tendencies and nihilism, we should strive to aim for love and truth, steering our actions towards an ideal that guides us in shaping a fulfilling life.

The Journey of Change and Transformation to Get Results

get results: closer to goal
get results: closer to your goal

These 12 points should be considered when embarking on any journey of change or transformation for the individual.

  1. Start as early as possible. Your future ideal is looking back at your present decisions and actions judgingly.
  2. Plan the best journey you can (given the knowledge you have).
  3. At least consider/research alternatives -to assess which is the best route. If you just set off prematurely you might be going in completely the opposite direction to what you should be going, and will require you to backtrack later, wasting lots of time and effort. Remember, the shortest route between two points is a straight line. Don’t panic if you have set off prematurely, learn from it and get back on track.
  4. You don’t need to know everything when you start out, the journey is partly (even mainly) about growing into the type of person who can complete it, through acquired knowledge learned from the journey itself.
  5. The journey may have lots of distractions, or temptations, always keep one eye on the destination. When making decisions between choices, make sure moving closer to the destination is the deciding factor.
  6. Expect obstacles, they will teach you something about your journey. Consider them a missing part of your plan. Learn from them, they may crop up again further down the road, and you’ll know what to do next time. Some obstacles may even be fun to problem solve.
  7.  Enjoy the journey whenever you can. It’s the thing that is going to take up most of your time. You’re less likely to pursue a goal that requires a dull, uncomfortable, or unenjoyable journey. Sometimes you have no choice, but when you do, pick wisely.
  8. The worry of fear is often an exaggerated version of the thing itself. The mind plays tricks to instinctively keep us safe. Think it through, what is the worst that could happen, and is that outcome really that bad?
  9. Listen to that off-putting part of you thoroughly before going any further, negotiate a satisfying resolution (in good faith), so it doesn’t keep popping up, and using up your energy and resolution. All parts of you should be 100% committed to the journey, so setbacks don’t end things later (wasting more of your time).
  10. Have 3 or 4 good arguments for undertaking the journey to begin with, so that counterarguments don’t get the upper hand. If 40% of you is against the journey, then the remaining 60% is having to pull against this anchor, requiring more expenditure of energy. If 60% is against your journey/ goal/ destination, you’re not going to even try. Do you really want to get to the destination enough? Do you have a big enough reason or enough reasons?
  11. Is completion of the journey a matter of life or death, very important, not really important at all? Get this straight in your mind. ‘Life and death’ is a big enough reason on its own, and you better get on with it. With ‘very low importance’, obviously not so much, but why not give it a go anyway, it might be fun and a great learning opportunity, since you have nothing to lose either way. Value being a lifelong learner.
  12. Once you reach your destination, you’ve got your next journey to navigate. Life is made up of many journeys and these will make up the dash between your birthday and the date of death on your gravestone (final destination of this life at least). We have one life (that we know about for sure), so make the most of it, while you can. But remember, it’s not just about hedonistic pleasure, it’s about making things better for others as well.

Learn the Lessons From Different Points Of View

Get Results: self awareness helps you learn
Get Results: self awareness helps you learn

Have you ever wondered why people have such different points of view, particularly with regard to political opinions?

It’s really not the case that “the other side” lacks intelligence, has no morals, or are just loonies.

It really comes down to personality traits – the temperamental inclinations we are born with.

Pre-cognitive screening means the world  actually presents itself differently to us, and not that we see the same thing and ignore some aspects and accept others. We don’t see the same things to begin with.

We can only pay attention to a limited set of things at any moment, in terms of their utility to us, and most things go unnoticed. My temperament dictates what I pay attention to, which is likely to be different to what you pay attention to. Sure there’ll be some overlap at times, but often we are seeing very different realities.

There will be some situations and problems which I will be better suited to deal with because of my temperament, and there will be other situations and problems, where you’re temperament will be better.

We each are a broader resource for the other.

We are more effective working together, to solve problems, than each of us are alone.

The battle between the political left and right is a necessary aspect of society because the two opposing forces push and pull against each other, and will probably give us a better version of society than a society under complete influence of one side or the other.

So, it can feel like a lot of effort to deal with the idiosyncrasies of people we don’t naturally agree with, but actually, they may be able to teach us something that doesn’t come easily to us.

It may be better to listen to people with different points of view and ideas, to see what you can learn from them, rather than dismiss them as foolish or idiotic, because you may well be the foolish one.

Take Responsibility For The Story Of Your Life

Get results: take responsibility
Get results: take responsibility

What’s the story of your life to this point?

What’s the story going to be from this point onward?

The future doesn’t have to reflect the past unless you want it to.

The first chapter of your life might have been full of strife and struggle; the next can be about how you overcome such adversity, following the hero’s journey.

You get to write your own story. It could be one with many twists and turns, ups and downs. A three vs. zero defeat in the first half of a football match, sets up the opportunity for an amazing comeback in the second half.

You get to write the script from now on, It’s your right as well as your responsibility. Okay there’s going to be unexpected occurrences that come from left field, but you choose how you deal with them.

Arm yourself with the right tools:  good reasoning capabilities, critical thinking, emotional control, and the desire to listen to your conscience for guidance.

Aim for “love” and “truth” for yourself and others. Armed with these two, you cannot be defeated. No amount of hate or lies is ever enough to defeat you, an apparent defeat may appear to contradict, but conscience will always point out the right path.

Do you think you can twist reality, because that is what you’re trying to do with lies. You certainly can not. Your lie will not go unnoticed, your future ideal self is always judging your actions and your conscience is pricking you if you’re not on track to live up to you ideals.

Are you living up to your ideals? Your lies twist your perceptions of reality, they don’t twist actual reality. Overtime you lose trust in yourself, and only truth can straighten things out again.

Maintain an Open Mind to Keep Learning

Get Results: Knowledge requires accurate information
Get Results: Knowledge requires accurate information

 

Dismissing the opinions of people you don’t agree with is not very intelligent.

Positioning yourself to win an argument closes you off from learning new, possibly important, information.

Holding tightly on to a position means you’re overlooking alternative perspectives, which may significantly improve your knowledge.

Different perspectives can be right or wrong depending on context at different times. Dismissing one approach at the expense of another without full consideration is a lazy, unsophisticated way of thinking, and can be very dangerous.

Open your mind to hear all views, engage in discussion to thrash out ideas in full.

This is the sophisticated, grown up way of finding the best approaches and solutions.

If you can’t debate your point against an alternative, maybe you’ve not fully fleshed it out yet, or maybe it’s just a bad idea.

Better for it to fail early while it’s still just an idea, rather than failing later with real-world consequences, for you and possibly other people.

You Have A Superpower: The ability To Change The Future

Get Results: make your journey as engaging as your goal
Get Results: make your journey as engaging as your goal

You have a superpower, the ability to change the future.

Changing thoughts, changes actions, your thoughts don’t define you, they are like clouds, you are the sky. Make thoughts serve you, rather than use you.

Actions you do repeatedly become habits, replace your bad habits with productive habits, small daily changes compound over time, years later providing exponential returns.

First set your sights on the highest possible good, for the betterment of you and yours today and into the future, as well as for the betterment of your society, you can have no better goal than that.

Orient yourself towards the good, towards love, be the hero of your own journey, of your own story, strive to make yourself the ideal you aspire to be.

Then focus on the daily habits that move you towards that ideal, day by day, action by action, connect your actions today to your ideal future self, like lining up dominos, each toppling the next, building momentum, with increasing inertia, makes it easier over time.

Sacrifice part of the present for the future, otherwise you’ll be sacrificing the future for the present.

Negotiate with yourself and make it work, you’re not your own servant, be kind to yourself.

Make the day ahead the best it can be while being as productive as possible, it’s a marathon not a sprint, and consistency is key.

The journey of a thousand steps, starts with just one, then one more … .

Use regret of unfulfilled potential drive you forward, while a worthwhile goal pulls you towards it.

Master the ability to get results, again and again.

Be The Hero of Your Own Story

Get Results: love the journey
Get Results: love the journey

Better results come out of better actions, which come out of better thoughts, so mindset makes all the difference. You become the consequence of your thinking.

Fix your goal on who you want to be in 5 years, then craft a path towards that destination.

Make the journey as meaningful as you can, because it is the journey that will consume your time and attention, and these two resources can’t be repeated or replaced, they are consumed and finite.

You are the hero of your own journey, a transformation from who you are into who you aspire to be, not just for you and yours today, but for you and yours into the future.

The secret is in doing it for the betterment of society. While society can be corrupt and tyrannical, it is also a safe space to grow in. Outside of its protective embrace is the dragon of chaos.

Each individual who values rights must also accept responsibilities to move their society closer to God and away from the Devil. You have the power in your Being, and you have work to do.

Don’t fall by the wayside, don’t be a contributor to evil, don’t shun your responsibly, don’t settle for being king of the lost.

You may not be religious, but the divine is part of what you are.

Carry the love in your heart into future generations. They will be tomorrows custodians of this great planet we call home. Don’t short-change your children, and your children’s children. You owe them the chance to live their own hero’s journey, to pass love forward, to make the world a better place to live and thrive.

You have your challenge, stand up and accept the meaning that comes from this great responsibility.