Favourite Quotes Part 1 – To Live A Good Life

Favourite Quotes Part 1 – To Live A Good Life

Introduction I’ve loved quotes for a long time and have been collecting quotes that have made an impression on me for at least the last 5 years. I agree with Adam Grant when he said of quotes and aphorisms, “they’re memorable and They give meaning and direction. They spur new thoughts or new actions—or remind us to revisit old ones.” The quotes we love and remember are those that we feel speak directly to us, they transcend the individual context in…

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Finding a Daily Breathing Exercise

Finding a Daily Breathing Exercise

  Introduction I have been thinking consciously about my breathing, and how controlling / monitoring my breathing can improve my performance, on and off since my middle teen years. In my early to mid-teens I was a semi-competent cross-country runner and I knew how important getting – and staying – in a steady breathing routine was to keep a steady pace in races. In recent years, consciousness of my breath has primarily come from my daily meditation, as well as…

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Psychological Mental Models – How to Make Better Decisions

Psychological Mental Models – How to Make Better Decisions

Introduction to mental models I am standing on the shoulders of giants when writing this post, which is a similar pattern with many of my posts. Some of the most inspirational individuals I’ve listened to, read or heard about have given incredible insights which have been the basis of my thinking on this topic. The most important are: Daniel Kahnman & Amos Tversky, Charlie Munger, Shane Parish (CEO at Farnam Street), James Clear (author of ‘Atomic Habits’) & Gabriel Weinberg…

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Stay In, Work Out – Social Distancing Workout Routine

Stay In, Work Out – Social Distancing Workout Routine

Introduction The change in my workout regime and the catalyst of this post was the COVID-19 In March 2020 gyms across the UK closed, as well as restaurants, schools and basically all other ‘non-critical’ establishments apart from hospitals, supermarkets etc. The current social distancing measures in place inspired me to create a non-gym workout routine, which I honestly don’t think I would have done, or would be religiously following, had there not been a lockdown. The two key ingredients are:…

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8 Lessons From Walden Which Are Relevant Today (Including Book Notes)

8 Lessons From Walden Which Are Relevant Today (Including Book Notes)

Introduction There are few more famous American authors than Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau’s name doesn’t look out of place in lists which include the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and J.D. Salinger. Thoreau lived from July 1817 to May 1862, a very interesting period of American history, and has left lasting contributions on natural history, environmentalism and philosophical austerity. I had been wanting to read Thoreau’s most famous book ‘Walden’ and finally managed to do so on…

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Personal Finance Benefits of Marriage in the UK

Personal Finance Benefits of Marriage in the UK

Introduction Let me start this post with hopefully the most obvious statement I’ve written to date: nobody’s primary reason for getting married should be because for money, let alone purely for tax benefit reasons. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that in June 2017 I got engaged to the love of my life and we married in Summer 2018. Due to my interest in personal finance I was keen to know if getting married would…

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Why you should track your spending, regardless of your financial position

Why you should track your spending, regardless of your financial position

Introduction Some say it’s too boring, others it’s too tedious, and others still that it’s too intimidating but I believe that tracking your spending – all of it – is a fundamentally important thing for everyone to do, regardless of your income or age. The digitisation of money and the growth of e-commerce has made it easier and quicker for us to spend money without fully thinking it through or realising exactly what we’ve spent where, which is why tracking what…

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Book Review: Matthew Stewart – The Management Myth

Book Review: Matthew Stewart – The Management Myth

My Perspective  I have no doubt that part of the reason I loved this book so much is because I work in the consultancy industry – I should say technology consultancy and not management consultancy, or even more vilified, strategy consultancy – and therefore several examples included in this book were frustrations or comic situations I’ve experienced.  Even when I consider this fact I still feel this is an exceptional book, and in no small part informed my view on…

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Should I Start a Journaling Practice – Part 2

Should I Start a Journaling Practice – Part 2

This is part 2 of my post on journaling, if you haven’t already seen part 1, you can find it here, it’s the best place to start!  What I Tested & My Journal Habit  The more research I did on the benefits of starting a journal the harder I found it to not give it a go. Despite having a fairly good idea about which type of journal would work best for me I gave each of them a go,…

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Should I Start a Journaling Practice? – Part 1

Should I Start a Journaling Practice? – Part 1

Introduction Alongside meditation, journaling is one of the major trends within the arena of productivity and self-improvement which so many ‘successful’ people talk about being key to keeping them calm, collected and able to sustain such busy lives. Being a student of productivity, it’s something I’ve heard about on podcasts, and read about in books and articles over the past couple of years, but for many reasons I never seemed to be able to talk myself into actually trying it….

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