The Greatest Country in the World?

Is there a way to measure the greatest country in the world?

I suppose it depends on your definition, but I believe the best country is the one that produces the ultimate combination of happiness, health, and productivity/success.

Fortunately there are studies that rank countries across each of those areas, and the goal of this article is look across the individual rankings to arrive at the overall best of the best.

Happiness

The World Happiness Report is the ultimate authority on global happiness, ranking 156 countries by their happiness levels. Here are the Top 10 happiest countries in 2018, as determined by the latest study:

1. Finland
2. Norway
3. Denmark
4. Iceland
5. Switzerland
6. Netherlands
7. Canada
8. New Zealand
9. Sweden
10. Australia

In case you are wondering, the US came in at #18 in the latest Happiness rankings (one spot ahead of the UK).

Health

The Bloomberg Health Index ranks the healthiest countries in the world based on several factors including life expectancy, health risks, availability of clean water, malnutrition, and causes of death.

Here are the Top 10 healthiest countries in the world:

1. Italy
2. Iceland
3. Switzerland
4. Singapore
5. Australia
6. Spain
7. Japan
8. Sweden
9. Israel
10. Luxembourg

The US ranks as the #34 healthiest country, in large part due to its high levels of overweight and obese residents.

If you prefer to look at just life expectancy as the primary metric for health, here are the countries that come out on top:

1. Hong Kong (84.3 years)
2. Japan (83.8 years)
3. Italy (83.5 years)
4. Spain (83.4 years)
5. Switzerland (83.2 years)
6. Iceland (82.9 years)
7. France (82.7 years)
8. Singapore (82.6 years)
9. Sweden (82.6 years)
10. Australia (82.5 years)

The US ranks #37 in life expectancy with an average of 78.7 years.

Productivity/Success

On the productivity side, the World Competitiveness Ranking measures the world’s most competitive economies.

Here are the top countries from a business perspective in 2018:

1. United States
2. Hong Kong
3. Singapore
4. Netherlands
5. Switzerland
6. Denmark
7. UAE
8. Norway
9. Sweden
10. Canada

The World Economic Forum produces a similar report measuring each country’s competitiveness, productivity, and prosperity.

Here are the Top 10 from the latest report (2017):

1. Switzerland
2. United States
3. Singapore
4. Netherlands
5. Germany
6. Hong Kong
7. Sweden
8. UK
9. Japan
10. Finland

If you prefer to look at productivity and success from an innovation standpoint, here are the Top 10 countries, according to the 2018 Bloomberg Innovation Index (which scores countries using seven criteria, including research and development spending and concentration of high-tech public companies):

1. South Korea
2. Sweden
3. Singapore
4. Germany
5. Switzerland
6. Japan
7. Finland
8. Denmark
9. France
10. Israel

The US currently ranks #11 on the innovation index.

Any way you slice it, there are only two countries that rank among the Top 10 in each of the three categories (Happiness, Health, Productivity).

In fact, those two countries placed in the Top 10 in each of the six individual reports listed above.

Those two countries are Switzerland and Sweden.

In order to determine the ultimate winner, you need to look at where Switzerland and Sweden placed in each of the six individual rankings. Whichever country totaled the lowest overall score should be crowned the winner, as a result of ranking near the top of every list.

So which country is the best of the best — Switzerland or Sweden?

Here are the totals:

Switzerland: 24 (average rank of #4 on each individual list)

Sweden: 44 (average rank of #7 on each individual list)

So it really isn’t even close.

Photo by Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash

Switzerland ranked in the top 5 in every individual ranking listed above — the only country in the world to have that distinction.

Switzerland quite simply delivers the ultimate blend of happiness, health, productivity, and success.

Switzerland is the 2018 Greatest Country in the World.

How Does Switzerland Do It?

Switzerland has it all — wealth, beauty, culture, and stability.

One of the world’s wealthiest countries, Switzerland enjoys low unemployment and one of the highest gross domestic products per capita in the world.

The beautiful small country in Central Europe is made up of glacier-sculpted Alps, lakes, and valleys, and has enjoyed relative peace and tranquility since the mid 1800’s.

Well-known for its neutrality, Switzerland also prides itself on culture and diversity — German, French, Italian, and Romansh language all enjoy national status.

Additionally, Swiss citizens have won more Nobel Prizes and registered more patents per capita than most other nations.

And that’s just scratching the surface.

I suggest you add Switzerland to your travel list in order to truly find out what makes it the greatest country in the world.

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

What Is Success, Anyway?

We are often told that if we aren’t hustling and grinding, then we won’t make it.

That if we aren’t outworking others, we’ll be left behind.

But what is the end goal? What does success really mean?

My definition of success is doing work that I love and living a long, happy, and healthy life.

And here are the facts to achieve that type of success:

Money can buy happiness, but only to a point

One often-cited study revealed that money stops producing happiness after you make $75,000 per year. More recent research clarifies those findings to show that the happiness gains from income starts to fall off around $70,000, becomes very low by $160,000, and then hits zero around $200,000. You undoubtedly want a comfortable standard of living to minimize financial stress, but chasing huge income as a means to happiness is not a proven strategy.

Working very long hours is not a recipe for productivity or happiness

Research shows that productivity falls sharply after 50 hours per week, and drops off a cliff after 55 hours. In the world’s happiest countries (primarily Scandinavian countries such as Denmark and Sweden), people work hard but rarely put in more than 37 hours per week. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t innovating — Sweden alone has produced world-shaping companies such as IKEA, Skype, and Spotify.

You also need to take real time off. Six weeks of vacation time per year has been shown to be optimal for happiness (unfortunately Americans take an average of only 11 days).

Social relationships are the best predictor of overall health and happiness

A Harvard study, conducted over 80 years, has revealed that close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives. And those findings hold true even when factoring in genes, social class, and IQ. In fact, of the thousands of people included in the study, those who were the most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80. The study’s lead researcher concluded that “the key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships.” Social relationships are quite simply the most powerful tool you have to live a long and happy life.

Social interaction also boosts your mood on a day-to-day basis. The data shows that to have a great day, you should aim for six hours of social time. That might seem like a lot, but every hour of social time helps to reduce your chance of having a bad day. A little is good, a lot is better. Unfortunately, Americans socialize for an average of only 41 minutes per day. Maybe we should spend less time hustling, and more time socializing.

Happiness causes success, not the other way around

We often grind away in hopes of making it big, as a means to eventually become happy. But Shawn Achor, one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and success, says that we have the formula backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. If you want to achieve success, you need to look after your own happiness first.

Here are five easy everyday habits to boost your happiness:

1. Write down three new things each day that you are grateful for
2. Journal about a recent positive experience you’ve had for 2 minutes per day
3. Engage in 15–30 minutes of cardio exercise such as brisk walking or jogging
4. Meditate — Simply focus on your breath going in and out for 2 minutes per day
5. Start your day by writing a 2-minute positive email thanking a friend or colleague, or complimenting someone you admire

Achor says that doing those five things every day for 21 days straight will produce profound (and lasting) happiness benefits.

The number 2 most common regret of the dying is, “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”

A palliative nurse recorded the most common regrets of the dying and put her findings into a book called The Top Five Regrets of The Dying. The reality is that at the end of their life, nobody wishes they had worked more.

Don’t wait until you are on your deathbed to make that realization.

Use the time that you have now — while you are still in good health — to focus on the things that really matter (like quality relationships with friends and family).

We need to slow down and savor life

Our busy, always-on-the-go lifestyle is stressful. And stress leads to chronic inflammation, associated with every major age-related disease. While some stress is inevitable (and even beneficial), you must effectively manage it if you want to live well. Instead of always staying in overdrive, we need to consciously downshift, a common practice among the world’s longest-lived people.

Take a nap, enjoy a happy hour with friends, unplug after work hours, spend time outside, listen to live music, watch the sunset. Your time here is limited — make sure to slow down and enjoy it.

The happiest people discover their own nature and match their life to it

That is a direct quote from Ray Dalio, who is worth over $17 billion and one of the 100 wealthiest people in the world. But for him, the goal was never about making money. “Meaningful work and meaningful relationships were and still are my primary goals and everything I did was for them,” he says. “Making money was an incidental consequence of that.”

Ultimately, life and happiness boils down to finding the right fit for you. It is essential to know your own nature and operate consistently with it.

After all, the number one regret of the dying is “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” Money won’t mean much if you aren’t living a life that is in line with what you want. And making money in a way that conflicts with your personality or values will just make you feel trapped. To live a truly fulfilling and happy life, Dalio says what you really need is “the courage to be true to your truest self, no matter what other people want you to be.”

It is these lessons that are most important to truly live well. Don’t feel the pressure to always hustle, grind it out, and get ahead. It is far more important to savor life, spend quality time with others, and pursue your own unique path.

If you do that, you will achieve the right kind of success.

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

50 Top Business Books And How Long It Takes To Read Them

Reading is a common habit among ultra-successful people.

Many of today’s top business leaders and entrepreneurs — from Warren Buffett to Elon Musk to Bill Gates — credit reading a primary reason for their success.

And we know that that the wealthiest, most successful people tend to read non-fiction books (and in particular biographies and autobiographies of other successful people), opting to be educated over being entertained. They believe that books are a gateway to learning and knowledge.

Although not an absolute indicator of success, reading has been proven to strengthen the brain and sharpen your memory and thinking skills.

If you are looking to add more reading in your life, but also want to be mindful of the time commitment, this awesome visual from GetVoIP will help you strategically plan your book list. The visual highlights 50 top business books and how long it takes to read them.

You can start with books that take less than three hours like The Magic of Thinking Big and work your way up to a 14-hour read like the Steve Jobsbiography.

Here is the full list and the average time it takes to read each book:

Biographies

• The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (2:32 hours)
• The Wright Brothers by David McCullough (5:49 hours)
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly (6:15 hours)
• Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran (6:30 hours)
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance (7:45 hours)
• Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie (13:50 hours)
• Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson (14:19 hours)
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (14:34 hours)
• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder (16:55 hours)
• Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow (20:19 hours)

Leadership / Management

• The One-Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard (2:24 hours)
• Leading Change by John P. Kotter (4:13 hours)
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (4:14 hours)
• Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (4:52 hours)
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown (4:55 hours)
• The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer by Jeffrey K. Liker (6:42 hours)
• The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell (6:49 hours)
• Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink (7:09 hours)
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins (8:08 hours)
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (8:47 hours)

Productivity

• Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity by Tim Challies (1:39 hours)
• The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller (3:10 hours)
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H.Pink (3:27 hours)
• Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland (3:53 hours)
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson (4:53 hours)
• Rework by Jason Fried (5:51 hours)
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg (6:21 hours)
• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (6:49 hours)
• Mastery by Robert Greene (9:21 hours)
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (11:37 hours)

Growth

• The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz (2:25 hours)
• Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares (4:17 hours)
• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore (4:36 hours)
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (5:00 hours)
• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne (5:12 hours)
• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal (5:12 hours)
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert C. Cialdini (5:51 hours)
• Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull (7:27 hours)
• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (9:01 hours)
• Principles by Ray Dalio (9:18 hours)

Entrepreneurship

• Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson (4:09 hours)
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel (4:33 hours)
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz (4:36 hours)
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King (4:41 hours)
• Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh (4:48 hours)
• Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works by Ash Maurya (4:52 hours)
• The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries (5:03 hours)
• Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur (5:51 hours)
• Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston (9:55 hours)
• The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup by Noam Wasserman (9:55 hours)

There you have it — 14 days, 4 hours, and 44 minutes worth of reading. If you read even a fraction of these books, you’ll have a leg up on the competition.

Happy (and successful) reading!

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

This Is How Many Hours You Should Really Be Working

Have you ever wondered about the optimal number of hours to work per week?

Perhaps you are one of those people who brags about your 70-hour workweek, or maybe you are on the other end of the spectrum chasing the 4-hour workweek dream.

Who really has it right, anyway?

It turns out that the number of hours you work affects not only your productivity, but also your happiness and perception of how much time you have.

And we currently have some room for improvement.

A recent Gallup poll in the US revealed that one in five full-time employees work more than 60 hours a week and nearly half of US workers regularly clock at least 50 hours.

But those people are doing themselves (and their employers) a disservice.

Research shows that productivity falls sharply after 50 hours per week, and drops off a cliff after 55 hours. Additionally, not taking at least one full day off per week (e.g. Sunday) leads to lower hourly output overall.

From a productivity standpoint you shouldn’t go above 50 hours, but to cut down on stress you’d be wise to work even less.

It is no secret that we are busier and more connected than ever, often bouncing from one obligation to the next. This non-stop lifestyle has resulted in 48 percent of working adults feeling rushed for time, and 52 percent feeling significant stress as a result.

Time management expert Laura Vanderkam conducted a study to determine how the number of hours you work affects how much time you think you have.

Of the 900 people included in the study, the average person worked 8.3 hours per day. And the results showed that there was only a one hour difference between the people who felt like they had a lot of time and those who felt time-pressured. Those who felt like they had the least time overall worked 8.6 hours, whereas those who felt like they had the most time worked just one hour less (7.6 hours).

So to not feel starved for time, aim for a 7.6 hour work day. That would equate to a 38-hour workweek.

A 38-hour workweek is remarkably similar to the number of hours worked in Denmark, consistently one of the world’s happiest countries (Denmark has earned the top spot on the World Happiness Report in three of the past five years, and finished number two and three in the other years). People in Denmark work hard but rarely put in more than 37 hours a week, often leaving the office by 4 or 5pm. Other Scandinavian countries enjoy a similar work-life balance, and similar happiness rankings.

Happiness expert Dan Buettner takes it even a step further. Buettner has reviewed the research on more than 20 million people worldwide through the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, and has conducted extensive on-the-ground research in the world’s happiest countries. “When it comes to your work, try to work part-time, 30–35 hours a week,” he concludes.

Buettner also recommends taking six weeks of vacation per year, which is the optimal amount for happiness. If that isn’t possible, he says at the very least you should use all of your allotted vacation time and keep negotiating for more until you’re getting 6 weeks.

Unfortunately Americans are not taking half of their vacation days, and two-thirds of Americans report working even when they are on vacation. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the US is down at #18 in the World Happiness Report.

Maybe 30 work hours per week and six weeks of vacation is not practical for you. But that’s okay.

If you want to achieve the perfect blend of productivity, happiness, and time affluence, a more realistic goal is to work slightly below 40 hours per week.

The research shows that even shaving an hour or two off of the standard 40-hour workweek can have huge benefits, both at work and at home.

Less than 10% of workers are able to achieve that schedule. A good goal is to be one of those people.

Here’s to the 38-hour workweek!

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

Why You Should Have Friends

Social connection is the greatest predictor of happiness.

That is what happiness expert Shawn Achor has found after more than a dozen years studying the topic.

Social relationships are also vital to physical health. Human-behavior researcher and #1 New York Times best-selling author Tom Rath has found that social relationships help reduce stress and the risk of age-related memory loss. On the other hand, people with limited social interactions have almost twice the risk of dying from heart disease and are twice as likely to catch a cold.

Close relationships at work also lead to spikes in productivity. According to Rath, employees who have a best friend at work “are seven times as likely to be engaged in their jobs, are better at engaging customers, produce higher quality work, have higher wellbeing, and are less likely to get injured on the job.”

Therefore, focusing on your relationships proves to be good for your career as well. Achor’s research has revealed that happiness causes success, not the other way around.

Happiness. Health. Productivity. Success. All of this can be achieved through social relationships.

But how much social interaction we should aim for in order to see these benefits?

Credit: Arthur Poulin

According to Rath, the ideal amount is six hours of daily social interaction in order to have a great day. That might seem like a lot, but he also says that every hour of social time helps to reduce your chance of having a bad day. A little is good, a lot is better.

Perhaps this level of social connection is already a core part of your life if you are naturally outgoing and extroverted.

But what about if you are more of an introvert?

Achor recommends the simple act of sending a quick email every morning to thank or praise someone you know as a powerful way to boost your social connection and happiness. He says the effects of practicing this habit for 21 days in a row are profound.

Here are some more strategies to keep in mind as you get going, from Psychology Today’s 7 habits of socially connected people:

• Focus on quality relationships over quantity
• Prioritize face-to-face interactions over digital or phone
• Be willing to share personal information with others and make yourself a little vulnerable
• Ask questions and focus on listening to others
• Don’t let minor personal differences get in the way of building relationships
• March bravely into relationships without worrying about rejection

Relationships with other people are arguably the most important thing in our lives. And in addition to all of the benefits mentioned above, relationships are fun.

So give yourself permission to get out there and have some fun with someone else.

It just might be the best use of your time.

This is How to Exercise to Sharpen Your Mind

I am a huge believer in the power of exercise — for the body, and even more importantly for the mind.

As I have written about before, I never go into a big day without running first thing in the morning. I have found that morning exercise makes me mentally sharper throughout the day, and I am convinced that my morning running routine has changed my life and career more than any other habit.

After reading The Real Happy Pill: Power Up Your Brain by Moving Your Body, I know that science has undoubtedly proven the dramatic benefits of exercise on the brain.

In the book, author Anders Hansen, a physician and psychiatry specialist from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, cites the latest neuroscientific research to clearly show that exercise:

• Increases focus and concentration

• Boosts creativity

• Alleviates stress and anxiety

• Improves mood and happiness

• Strengthens memory

• Slows the brain’s aging process

The amazing thing is that the cognitive benefits of exercise can be felt with as little as a 30-minute walk per day. In fact, Hansen notes that walking is the best medicine for dementia and a daily walk could reduce the risk of dementia by 40%.

A daily walk is the minimum amount of physical activity needed to see good results, but in the book Hansen also lays out the most beneficial activity level for the brain overall (to experience the full range of benefits listed above).

He says the very best you can do for your brain is to run for 45 minutes, at least three times per week. It is essential to raise your heart rate during exercise sessions, and he advises to focus on aerobic training over weightlifting to achieve maximum results for the brain. He says it is very important to stick with your training routine — people who exercise regularly a few times a week for six months will experience the most positive changes.

While that gives a great general framework to build your exercise routine around, Hansen also provides some concrete exercise tips to produce each type of cognitive benefit, including:

Best Exercise Routine for Improved Mood and Happiness

• Go for a 30–40 minute run, three times per week

• Hit at least 70% of your max intensity — you can keep a consistent pace throughout, but make sure you break a sweat and feel winded at the end of the workout

• Biking, swimming, or any other type of cardio can substitute for running as long as the intensity level and workout duration stay the same

• It is essential to keep this up for at least three weeks to experience the full benefits

• If you suffer from depression, you must run (or similar exercise) three times per week, 45 minutes each time. It usually takes about six weeks to notice the changes

Best Exercise Routine for Stress and Anxiety Relief

• Choose cardio over weight training

• Exercise for 30–45 minutes, at least 2–3 times per week

• You must elevate your heart rate during training sessions

• Reach the point of fatigue/exhaustion once a week (e.g. via interval training)

Best Exercise Routine for Increased Concentration

• Go for a run instead of a walk, ideally for 30 minutes

• Your heart rate should hit 70–75% of its max capacity (130–140 beats per minute if you’re 40 years old, at least 125 bpm if you are 50)

• Exercise in the morning to experience the peak concentration benefits during your work day (the effect will drop off after a few hours, and most of us need to focus during the day vs. at night)

Best Exercise Routine for Enhanced Creativity

• Run for at least 20–30 minutes (or similar vigorous exercise). A walk is good as well, but will not be as effective as running

• The creativity boost will be felt for about two hours after exercise

• Do not go all out — creativity will actually go down in the hours after a very intense/strenuous workout

Best Exercise Routine for Improved Memory

• Alternate between cardio exercise and weight training (weight training does seem to improve associative memory, e.g. matching a name with a face)

• If you need to choose between cardio and weights, cardio should take the priority since it is more beneficial for memory

• Don’t exercise to exhaustion — a walk or a light jog is sufficient

• Memory improvement takes place over several months, so it is important to keep at it

Best Exercise Routine to Halt the Brain’s Aging Process

• Walk for 30 minutes every day, at least five days a week (or run/bike/swim for 20 minutes, three times a week, which produces similar results)

• A daily walk is far more important than a daily crossword puzzle

Best Exercise Routine for Children and Teenagers

• It is best for children to be active for at least 30 minutes, at least a few times per week. Keeping this up for 2–3 months leads to permanent benefits including better arithmetic ability, increased creativity, and improved executive functioning (planning, concentration, impulse control, etc.)

• Kids should do whatever they enjoy (running, playing, tennis, soccer, etc.), but it is essential that they elevate the heart rate during exercise, ideally getting up to around 150 bpm

All of this shows that you don’t need to be an ultra-marathoner or jump on to the latest fitness craze — in fact, it is best to stick with the exercise basics to reap the maximum mental benefits.

Ultimately, you should do what you enjoy since that will make it easier to stick with it over the long haul. That’s why taking up an activity like golf, where you can wear fun golf polos and enjoy the good weather, is great, even if it means you’re not always breaking a sweat. And doing something is far better than nothing. Hansen points out that the brain registers every step — so while 30 minutes of physical activity is better than five minutes, five minutes of moving still counts for the brain.

So do your brain a favor by moving your body.

As Hansen says, “Modern neuroscience has shown that maybe the most important thing we can do for our brain — and therefore ourselves — is to be physically active.”

And it takes less than an hour per day.

The Note-Taking Habits of Highly Successful People

Want to know one common habit among successful people? 

They get things out of their head and down on paper (or some other note-taking device). 

In fact, Richard Branson has been known to carry a notebook with him everywhere he goes, and credits writing things down as one of his most powerful success habits. 

The billionaire founder of Virgin Group is not alone – here are some other examples of highly successful people who swear by note-taking:

• Bill Gates is an avid note-taker, preferring to use old-fashioned pen and paper, despite being celebrated for his computer genius.
• Entrepreneur and author Tim Ferriss uses the Evernote app 10+ times per day for all of his note-taking, research, and brain decluttering (Adam Savage of Mythbusters is a huge fan of Evernote as well).  Ferriss previously detailed a highly-rigorous (and more old school) notetaking routine.
• Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is rarely spotted without her spiral-bound notebook.
• Two of J.K. Rowling’s most prized possessions are a pair of small notebooks, which contain her very first scribblings about Harry Potter.
• Taylor Swift immediately records a voice memo on her iphone whenever she has song ideas.

Note-taking (in various forms) is clearly as relevant today as it has been throughout history, when Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Pablo Picasso all relied on their pocket notebooks.  

Of course now there is no shortage of note-taking apps, from Evernote to OneNote to Google Keep, and beyond.  And there is a hot debate about whether note-taking digitally or by hand is superior - with pen and paper seeming to still have the edge for learning and information retention. 

This old-fashioned method has the support of productivity guru David Allen, author of the classic book Getting Things Done, who has said that “the easiest and most ubiquitous way to get stuff out of your head is pen and paper.” 

This tried-and-true system is still so popular because it “requires no power source, no boot-up time, no program-specific formatting, and no syncing to external drives and the cloud,” according to David Sax, author of The Revenge of Analog. 

I prefer the analog approach as well.  I carry a pen and notebook with me wherever I go, opting for physical over digital for my note-taking.  I find that this method helps me focus and absorb the most important information, even if I sacrifice some speed and efficiency along the way. 

Even when reading books, I choose to underline key passages by hand, and then transcribe my top takeaways into a real notebook after I am finished reading.  And I always keep a notebook by my bed to get things out of my head for a peaceful night’s sleep. 

Whatever method you choose, the critical part is that you free your mind from excess information. Behavioral science expert Caroline Webb, author of the excellent book How to Have a Good Day, implores us to “Write it down as soon as it comes to mind. Use your intelligence for getting things done, rather than trying to remember what you need to do.”  She says it doesn’t matter if you use real paper or an electronic version, as long as you get your thoughts, worries, and ideas out of your head as soon as possible.  This is absolutely true for me – if I don’t write it down, I don’t remember it. 

Going a step further, Branson says that the most important part of note-taking is having the discipline to “go through your ideas and turn them into actionable and measurable goals.”  

That is what today’s most successful people are doing, and why Branson asserts that notetaking should be an essential habit of every leader. 

Duly noted.

Why I Love Reading Real Books

I read a new book every 2 weeks or so, which adds up to about 25 books per year.

As a rule, I always read at least few pages every day. Often it is a lot more than that. I squeeze reading in whenever I can — primarily weeknights before bed and then throughout the weekend.

Of course this pales in comparison to some notable voracious readers, such as Bill Gates (50+ books per year) and Warren Buffett (500+ pages per day).

I read books primarily to learn, grow, and feed my curiosities. This means that I mostly read non-fiction books about my passions of personal development, healthy lifestyle, and business/marketing.

While I certainly learn every day on the job, books are a gateway to deeper knowledge within my profession and a way to dive into areas unrelated to my day job.

My personality is best-suited to deep exploration of a limited number of subjects, rather than casually flipping from topic to topic. Therefore I greatly prefer reading full books over magazines, online articles, or any other type of micro-content. I highly respect the amount of time and expertise it has taken an author to research and craft a 200+ page book, and I relish the process of immersing myself in that one area for an extended period of time.

Since knowledge is my primary reason for reading books, I always read with a pen in hand so I can underline key passages as I go. Then, after finishing each book, I go back through the underlined sections and manually write out a ‘one-pager’ of my key takeaways in a notebook. I have been doing this for the past five years, which means I now have well over 100 one-page summaries of the books I’ve read. This makes it easy and convenient to go back and reference the points that resonated with me most.

I always feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment after finishing the three-step process of reading, underlining, and transcribing these one-pagers. It is at that point that I feel truly ‘done’ with a book and ready to move on to the next one.

This amount of effort might seem crazy to some people, especially since I am not being paid and nobody is asking me to do it. But reading books in this focused manner gives me so much joy precisely because it is what I want to be doing. Even after a long work day, I find it energizing to take on this additional learning during my ‘down’ time, because it is how I choose to spend the time.

I have found that there are typically one or two brilliant nuggets from each book that stand out from the rest, and those key insights often serve as the basis for my articles. Reading therefore not only fulfills my interests, but also serves as a springboard for sharing what I learn. I figure if these insights help me, they likely will help others as well, especially for people who do not have the time to read as many books as I do.

I always read real, physical books — I don’t own a Kindle, Nook, or any other type of e-reader. I spend most of my work day in front of a computer screen, so I choose to be digital-free during my reading time. Holding and reading a book relaxes and invigorates me — and it is one of the few activities that can cause me to totally lose track of time.

Some of my best days have been spent reading and writing, oftentimes in a book store or coffee shop (and disconnected from the internet and social media). While I certainly appreciate the convenience and cost-savings of Amazon, nothing beats the physical browsing and shopping experience of a real book store (and I’m clearly not alone, as evidenced by Amazon now opening physical locations).

I also make sure to read books to my children every night, in hopes of turning them into lifelong readers.

In case you are wondering, here are some of my favorite books:

Personal Development, Productivity, Healthy Lifestyle

• The 4-Hour Workweek and Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
• Are You Fully Charged? By Tom Rath
• Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind Edited by Jocelyn K. Glei
• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
• Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
• The Blue Zones Solution by Dan Buettner
• Spark by John J. Ratey, MD

Business and Marketing

• Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• #AskGaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk
• Start With Why by Simon Sinek
• Stand Out by Dorie Clark

If you are looking for additional reading inspiration, here are the Top 10 Business Books of 2016 as well as a few other top lists for 2017:

• Inc: 20 Life-Changing Books You Must Add to Your List for 2017
• Forbes: 10 Best Books for Entrepreneurs in 2017
• Fortune: 10 Business Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read in 2017
• TIME: Best Non-Fiction Books of 2017 So Far
• Stanford: 12 Business Books to Read in 2017
• Observer: 5 Books Bill Gates Says Will Make You a Better Person
• HuffPost: 33 Titles to Add to Your Shelf in 2017

Happy reading!

This is the Best Advice Tim Ferriss Has Ever Received

I had the opportunity to interview Tim Ferriss last week.

During the course of our conversation, he told me about the best advice he has ever received — advice he got as a teenager that has guided his life and career to this day:

“You are the average of the five people you associate with most.”

Since those teenage years, Ferriss has heeded this advice and gone on to amass four #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling books (including The 4-Hour Workweek and his most recent, Tools of Titans), over 150 million downloads of his podcast The Tim Ferriss Show, as well as highly-successful early-stage investments in companies like Uber, Facebook, and Alibaba.

Tim explained to me that carefully selecting his inner circle — both personally and professionally — has been essential to his success. “Choosing very carefully the people I surround myself with, or the people I work collaboratively with on projects, has been extremely critical,” says Ferriss.

It should therefore come as no surprise that Tim has partnered with Vince Vaughn for his latest venture — a new TV series called Fear{less} with Tim Ferriss, produced by Vaughn’s Wild West Productions.

The series will feature Tim in front of a live audience, interviewing world-class performers and business leaders (such as illusionist David Blaine and ESPN Founder Bill Rasmussen) about how they have overcome fears and crafted unique paths to success.

Tim Ferriss and David Blaine / AT&T AUDIENCE Network

As interesting as this new series sounds, I was equally curious to understand what specifically led to Ferriss taking on a large new commitment. As fans of Ferriss know, he fiercely protects his time and says no to the vast majority of opportunities that come his way (and advises his readers and listeners to do the same). It turns out this opportunity was different — in large part because of who was involved, and how they engaged with him.

Ferriss was approached by Vaughn (a fan of Tim’s podcast) and AT&T exec Chris Long (the series airs on AT&T’s Audience Network) — both of whom had seen Tim’s TED talk on overcoming fear. Vaughn and Long explained that they were very familiar with Tim’s work, detailed what specifically they liked about it, and then asked him what he would like to do in television.

This means they came in prepared and framed up an opportunity in a way that would be relevant and beneficial for Tim. “It was a collaboration right from the outset, including someone I have been a fan of for a very long time,” says Ferriss.

At this stage in his career, not only does Tim carefully scrutinize who he works with, but he also prioritizes genuine, mutually beneficial collaborations. In this case, of course Ferriss is offering his time, talent, and name recognition, but he is also receiving significant value in return. He told me the entire series was filmed in a span of only two weeks, perfectly suiting Tim’s schedule (he famously likes to ‘batch’ activities), and enabled him to grow professionally by applying his podcast interviewing skills to a new visual medium, and in front of a live audience.

Trying new things in this manner also perfectly fits with how Tim defines himself. “I very genuinely view myself as a professional Dilettante of sorts,” he explains. He has literally built his identity around being a professional amateur and human guinea pig.

So what does this mean for the rest of us?

Of course we can’t all rub shoulders with Vince Vaughn and David Blaine, or fully dictate the terms of our work and lives.

But we can apply some of the same success principles as Ferriss. For example:

• Surround yourself and collaborate with the right people who truly value you
• Ensure each new commitment helps you grow personally or professionally
• Select new opportunities that align with your self-identity or personal mission
• Be mindful of your time commitment (and schedule disruption) for new ventures

Of course Tim is fortunate to now be in a position to take on only the most ideal projects. But it is clear that following this approach is what helped get him here in the first place.

Above all, remember that you are the average of the five people that you associate with most.

Make sure to choose those relationships wisely.

...

“Fear{less} With Tim Ferriss” premieres May 30 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on AT&T AUDIENCE Network available on DIRECTV, DIRECTV NOW and U-verse. Learn more at Tim.blog/fearless.

The Easiest Way to Make a Great First Impression

I tend to be fairly introverted when meeting people for the first time, especially in large group settings.

I often get nervous or anxious when first arriving to a party or industry event, particularly when I don’t know many people who will be there. It all seems a bit overwhelming and I typically think more about myself and if people will like me instead of actually enjoying the experience.

I usually warm up and relax after a little while, but I have always dreaded those first few moments. And the discomfort of the introduction phase has led me to avoid certain social situations altogether. Therefore, I have been on the lookout for ways to be more confident and at ease when meeting new people. And I know that this is critical because people decide whether they like someone within the first few seconds of meeting them.

Until recently, I haven’t had a go-to system when meeting people for the first time. But I have now learned that there are a few incredibly easy things to do to ensure a great first impression. It all comes down to three things, according to human behavior expert Vanessa Van Edwards: your hands, your posture, and your eye contact. In Van Edwards’ excellent book Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People, she details the three most important things you can do to make a powerful first impression.

Show Your Hands

“The absolute easiest thing you can do to improve your first impression is to keep your hands visible”, says Van Edwards. This means keeping your hands out of your pockets and in plain sight whenever you meet a new person. The simple sight of your hands puts people at ease and makes you seem more trustworthy, well-intentioned, and likeable. Van Edwards notes that job candidates who use more hand gestures in their interviews are more likely to get hired, and the most popular TED talkers use more than double the amount of hand gestures compared with the least popular TED speakers.

You also want to go in for the perfect handshake when meeting someone new. Van Edwards says the skin-to-skin touch of a handshake produces the trust-inducing hormone oxytocin, so make sure to opt for the full shake instead of a more distant wave, high five, or fist bump. Never pass on the opportunity to shake someone’s hand and make sure it is effective by keeping your hand dry, vertical, and firm.

Credit: Vanessa Van Edwards

If you keep your hands visible and give a great handshake, you are well on your way to a memorable first impression.

Stand Like a Winner

People like to be associated with winners, and we are sized up right away (like it or not) to determine if we look more like a winner or a loser. In fact, it has been shown that having a high degree of confidence is more important than reputation, skill set, or history to earn the trust of potential clients.

Standing like a winner means projecting confidence when first meeting someone. Van Edwards says the perfect posture (what she calls Launch Stance) includes the following four elements:

• Keep your shoulders back and down
• Keep your chin, chest, and forehead straight in front of you or slightly up
• Keep space between your arms and torso
• Keep your hands visible

Credit: Maggie Kirkland/Honeysuckle Photography

If you maintain this broad-stance posture when meeting someone new, you will showcase confidence and a winning demeanor, helping you to make a great first impression.

Make Eye Contact

The third and final element of making a powerful first impression is using the right amount of eye contact. Similar to a good handshake, eye contact produces the trust-building chemical oxytocin. We like people who look at us more, and therefore it is important to resist the urge to shyly look away when we meet someone new. People (myself included) often worry about making too much eye contact, but that is unlikely to happen. Van Edwards says that we should hold eye contact for 60–70% of the time when having a conversation with someone. It is especially important to hold steady eye contact during the first few seconds of an interaction.

...

There you have it — implementing just these three easy steps significantly increases your chances of making a great first impression.

I certainly don’t expect to altogether eliminate my nerves or anxiety when entering a big social gathering or work event, but I am now able to change the way I approach these situations. By focusing on these three habits — visible hands, winning posture, and strong eye contact — I am now able to enter new situations with confidence and build trust right away.

These simple steps are helping me to make a memorable first impression, and I hope they do the same for you.

Make Mine O'Clock Part of Your Morning Routine

In order to be successful, it is essential to make progress against your top priorities before responding to other people’s requests.

This means starting each day in proactive mode — doing the work that is most important to you before turning your attention to the ‘urgent’ needs of others.

I recommend protecting the first hour of each work day — what I refer to as ‘Mine O’Clock’ — and attack it on your own terms.

Taking this hour, every morning, to make progress against your short- and long-term goals will add up to big wins over time.

On the flip side, if you don’t guard the first hour of your day — and instead spend it responding to email or rushing off to meetings — your most meaningful work will get crowded out. The day will quickly be eaten up, and your energy drained, before you even get started on our own projects.

Take the following steps to make Mine O’Clock part of your morning routine:

1. Block off the first hour of every work day

• Set a daily recurring appointment in Outlook (or other calendar you use) so this time is preserved and shows others you are booked
• Do not schedule meetings or calls during this hour
• Respectfully decline or ask to reschedule all meeting/call invites during this hour, unless mandatory. If there are meetings scheduled during this time that are required, consider starting your day an hour earlier in those instances

2. Establish your daily to-do list in advance

• Limit it to 3 (or fewer) critical items
• I recommend writing out your to-do list the night before

3. Begin the day with your single most important task

• Find a quiet place to work where you will not be interrupted
• Start your day working on your single most important item. Once complete, move on to other critical to-dos from there
• Avoid email and social media during this hour

It might seem selfish to devote the first hour of every day to your own priorities, but this routine will actually increase your productivity and impact for your company.

And it is highly likely that your boss and co-workers will respect (and perhaps follow) your routine, especially when they see your increased performance.

Oftentimes you’ll accomplish more in the first hour taking this approach than you otherwise would all day. Completing something significant first-thing gives you momentum and can set off a chain reaction of high output throughout the day.

Just imagine how much more effective we would all be if we completed our most important task of the day first thing in the morning.

There are 8+ hours in a typical workday. Protect the first one for your most meaningful work.

Are you ready to make Mine O’Clock part of your morning routine?

Follow This 4-Step Routine Every Friday

Don’t make the mistake of treating Friday like any other workday.

Having a specific and intentional routine on Friday will set you up for a relaxing weekend and a successful following week.

Follow this 4-step process every Friday to maximize your productivity and peace of mind:

1. Block off your calendar for all of Friday afternoon

This means not scheduling any meetings or calls after 12 noon on Friday (trust me, your co-workers will thank you for this), and declining all invites unless they are absolutely critical (e.g. mandated by your boss).

With some open space on your calendar, now you will be able to close out the week on your own terms.

2. Spend 2+ hours working on unfinished top-priority tasks

If there are still any major outstanding items on your weekly to-do list — specifically ones that will cause anxiety and stress over the weekend — now is the time to tackle them.

Find a quiet place to work where you won’t be interrupted, and spend a couple of focused hours on these top-priority tasks, completing them or getting them into a good place before the weekend.

Once progress has been made against these big items, you can turn your attention to the little ones.

3. Spend 1 hour cleaning out your inbox

Scroll through your entire inbox for emails or calls that slipped through the cracks during the week.

If sending a response or giving a quick call back will only take a few minutes, do it right away.

Consider whether some of these items really need to be done at all. If they aren’t that important — and you will never actually get around to doing them anyway — just delete now and save yourself the stress of seeing them again.

Do make a note of any items that are important and require more time to complete, and will need to wait until the following week. It can alleviate pressure (and is a nice courtesy) to take a moment to quickly respond, saying you’ll get back to them with a more in-depth answer next week. This leads right into the next step.

4. Write out your to-do list for the following week

With a clear understanding of where things are being left off with all big and little items, you can now prioritize what you will do the following week (and equally as important, what you will not do).

It is critical to take time on Friday to write out your to-do list for the next week. Your top priorities will be much fresher than trying to do this on Sunday night or Monday morning.

This will also give you the peace of mind to know that your top priorities have been captured on paper, and will enable you to hit the ground running the next week.

Limit your weekly to-do list to no more than 3–5 essential items.

And that completes the fourth step of the routine.

* I know I said this was a 4-step process, but there is a bonus step that might be most important of all.

5. Leave the office early

At this point in the day, you have made progress against your major projects, cleared out as many minor-but-necessary items as possible, and set yourself up for a successful week ahead.

With a highly-productive Friday afternoon in the books, it’s time to get out of the office early.

Even leaving at 4 or 4:30pm will make your weekend feel significantly longer.

You deserve it!

Top 10 Business Books of 2016

I love to read business books that help me learn and grow, but sometimes it is hard to know where to start — especially because there are 11,000 new business books published every year.

To help narrow down my reading list, I went in search of the best-of-the-best business books from the past year. I researched just about every top media outlet that has been publishing “best-of-2016” lists, including Fast Company, Inc., Forbes, Fortune, Financial Times, Success, and Amazon.

I then cross-referenced the lists to see which books showed up multiple times. It turns out that, among the seven lists I studied, only 10 books made the cut more than once.

That made an easy cutoff point for an overall Top 10 Business Books of 2016 list. A “list of lists,” if you will.

I figure that if more than one top business media outlet believes a book is among the very best from the past year, that book is certainly worth my time (and yours).

The order of the Top 10 below is based on the number of times that book showed up on the various media lists I examined. For example, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth, is ranked No. 1 because it landed on five of the seven top lists I read, two more than the next closest competitor (the number of top lists for each book is listed in parentheses after the author’s name below).

For tie-breakers, I referenced the book’s ranking from the lists I researched, as well as customer reviews and ratings on Amazon.com.

If you keep reading past the overall Top 10 below, you will see the full list from each of the media outlets I studied (as well as links to Amazon to purchase any of the books).

Happy (and successful) reading in 2017!

TOP 10 BUSINESS BOOKS OF 2016

1. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth (5)

2. Hustle: The Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum by Neil Patel, Patrick Vlaskovits, and Jonas Koffler (3)

3. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport (3)

4. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant (3)

5. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (2)

6. Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Dr. Robert Cialdini (2)

7. Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines by Thomas H. Davenport and Julia Kirby (2)

8. Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Startup Bubble by Dan Lyons (2)

9. Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg (2)

10. Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez (2)

And now here are the Best Business Books of 2016 as selected by the top media outlets I researched:

Fast Company Top 10

1. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

2. Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice by Clayton M. Christensen, Karen Dillon, David S. Duncan and Taddy Hall

3. Here’s the Plan: Your Practical, Tactical Guide to Advancing Your Career During Pregnancy and Parenthood by Allyson Downey

4. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

5. Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Startup Bubble by Dan Lyons

6. The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream by Amy Webb

7. Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future by Joi Ito and Jeff Howe

8. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

9. The New Alpha: Join the Rising Movement of Influencers and Changemakers Who Are Redefining Leadership by Danielle Harlan

10. The Content Trap: A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Change by Bharat Anand

Inc. Top 10

1. Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent by Sydney Finkelstein

2. Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines by Thomas H. Davenport and Julia Kirby

3. Hustle: The Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum by Neil Patel, Patrick Vlaskovits, and Jonas Koffler

4. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

5. Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change: Inspire the People and Succeed Where Others Fail by H. James Dallas

6. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp

7. If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? by Raj Raghunathan

8. Hell Week: Seven Days to Be Your Best Self by Erik Bertrand Larssen

9. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

10. The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Dave Kerpen

Forbes Top 10

1. Keep It Simple: Unclutter Your Mind to Uncomplicate Your Life by Joe Calloway

2. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger

3. Scrappy: A Little Book about Choosing to Play Big by Terri Sjodin

4. Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Dr. Robert Cialdini

5. Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It by Dorie Clark

6. Gift-ology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals and Strengthen Retention by John Ruhlin

7. Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observation Skills by Jim Gilmore

8. How to Wow: 68 Effortless Ways to Make Every Customer Experience Amazing by Adrian Swinscoe

9. Dealstorming: The Secret Weapon that Can Solve Your Toughest Sales Challenges by Tim Sanders

10. All About Them: Grow Your Business by Focusing on Others by Bruce Turkel

Fortune Top 10

1. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

2. Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

3. The Power of Broke by Daymond John

4. The Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakhiani

5. Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Startup Bubble by Dan Lyons

6. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant

7. Hustle: The Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum by Neil Patel, Patrick Vlaskovits, and Jonas Koffler

8. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

9. Building the Internet of Things by Maciej Kranz

10. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Financial Times Top 10

1. What Works: Gender Equality by Design by Iris Bohnet

2. Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Dr. Robert Cialdini

3. Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark

4. Brazillionaires: Wealth, Power, Decadence, and Hope in an American Country by Alex Cuadros

5. Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines by Thomas H. Davenport and Julia Kirby

6. The Innovation Illusion: How So Little Is Created by So Many Working So Hard by Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn Weigel

7. Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez

8. Dear Chairman: Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism by Jeff Gramm

9. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant

10. The 100-Year Life: Living and working in an age of longevity by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott

Success Top 5

1. A Paperboy’s Fable: The 11 Principles of Success by Deep Patel

2. Hustle: The Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum by Neil Patel, Patrick Vlaskovits, and Jonas Koffler

3. Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

4. Chief Marketing Officers at Work by Josh Steimle

5. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

Amazon Top 10

1. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

2. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

3. Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

4. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant

5. The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly

6. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

7. Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

8. Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez

9. #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness by Gary Vaynerchuk

10. Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Harford

Overall, there are almost 50 unique titles from the lists above — plenty of excellent business books to keep us occupied in the weeks and months ahead.

Hope you find some books that you love!

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his e-mail list at andrewmerle.com and follow him on Twitter.

How to Find Your True Calling

Many people are in search of their purpose, or true calling, in life. 

And this is certainly a worthy endeavor – research has shown that knowing your sense of purpose adds up to 7 years of extra life expectancy. 

But finding your purpose can be quite challenging since it can be an abstract and ambiguous phenomenon.

Therefore, the objective of this article is to make the process more concrete and actionable. 

I believe that true calling lies at the intersection of three important areas: your strengths, interests, and what benefits others. 

When these three forces are all at play, you are doing what you were born to do. 

Of course it is important to have a clear understanding about each of the three components, so let’s break them down. 

Strengths

We are all born with, or have developed, talents and strengths that distinguish us from others.  We simply do some things better than most other people do, and it is important to know what these things are and to lean in to them.  Research shows that applying our strengths is connected to greater work satisfaction, engagement, and productivity.  And using our strengths makes us happier and more successful, too.   

You probably have a sense of what you do well, but a great place to dive deeper and crystallize what you do best is by taking the StrengthsFinder assessment.  This costs $15 and requires about 30 minutes of your time - if you are serious about this self-discovery, it is a worthy investment.

Alternatively (or additionally), you can take the VIA Character Strengths survey (free with log-in) to discover your top strengths. 

Taking one or both of these tests, along with your gut feel, will yield an excellent understanding of your signature strengths and how to leverage them. 

It is through this process that I learned that some of my top strengths are my focus, determination, and analytical nature.     

Interests

This might seem like an obvious one, and certainly unique to every individual.  But even identifying personal interests can be tricky. 

We’re often told to pursue our passions, but many people do not have pre-existing burning passions.  The reality is that passion often doesn’t just exist – it needs to be developed.    

Therefore, a better approach is to start by thinking about anything that you are interested in or enjoy doing (even remotely).  Take the time to write these interest areas down, and then add to the list whenever something makes you happy, curious, or intrigued to learn more.  Over time trends will appear and you will have a good sense for what you truly enjoy doing. 

If you get stuck, start by designing what your perfect day would look like, from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep. 

Even thinking about how you choose to spend your free Saturday afternoons gives a good indication of your interests. 

I have discovered that I love reading and writing, especially about personal improvement and philosophies of life. 

What Benefits Others

Now that your top strengths and interests have been identified, you are already light years ahead of most people.  Uniting just those two forces, whether as a profession or hobby, can ignite your happiness and success.  But to truly find your calling and purpose in life, it is important to leverage those areas for the greater good.    

Hopefully you are one of the lucky ones already operating in your sweet spot.  But if not, often just combining your strengths and interests will naturally unearth a path to help others.  And perhaps by now you have already had some ‘a ha’ moments. 

You don’t need to only consider major global issues – your family, community, school, city, company (or other group or organization that is important to you) are also in need of your unique contributions.

Don’t forget that people are in need of entertainment, humor, relaxation, education, beauty, social gathering, and other simple joys.   

For example, if you’re a particularly patient person, and you enjoy spending time with children, you could focus your efforts on mentoring or coaching.  Or maybe you’re a doctor with a passion for travel, so you seek out opportunities to volunteer your medical services abroad.  Or perhaps you are great with numbers and interested in money markets, and therefore are well-suited to help people accumulate wealth and save for retirement.      

For me personally, I found that I was reading every book I could get my hands on related to happiness, health, productivity, and success.  I would underline key passages and then, after finishing the book, would transcribe my key takeaways into a one-pager.  I was initially doing this for my own use, but then realized that others could also benefit from my research and writing about these key insights for living well. 

I have now been writing about these topics for almost two years, and find it very meaningful to leverage my top talents (focus, analytical nature) and interests (reading and writing about personal improvement) to help other people lead happier, healthier, more productive lives. 

Go Find Your Calling

We all want to wake up in the morning with a clear sense of purpose that guides and gives meaning to our lives.    

But your calling won’t necessarily just “call” out to you.  You will likely need to search for it. 

By following the steps outlined above, you can find and nurture it. 

Your true calling will emerge as you combine your top strengths and interests with what benefits others. 

When you do that, you are doing what you were meant to do.  

Why 10pm is the Perfect Bedtime

10pm is the perfect bedtime. 

Going to sleep at 10pm enables you to get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep, and still wake up by 5 or 6am. 

That means you can get in at least a 30-minute workout in the morning – a common habit among the most successful and productive people – and still be at work by 8 or 9am. 

With exercise out of the way, and an energized mind, you are poised and ready to tackle your most important task of the day - all before lunch. 

And when you do that, you’re playing with the house’s money for the remainder of the day. 

You see, I believe a successful morning routine actually starts the night before. 

Most people have commitments in the morning, so sleeping in is not an option.  That means the only way to get a full night’s rest – setting you up for a highly-successful day – is to go to sleep earlier the night before. 

Turning in at 10pm isn’t a major compromise.  It still means that you can have a pleasant and productive evening (family time, dinner, work, TV, reading, glass of wine, etc.) without rushing to bed. 

Even if you don’t get home from work until 7pm, that still means you have 3 hours to make the most of the night before heading to sleep. 

I find that a bedtime much earlier than 10pm really cuts into the evening, and a bedtime much later than 10pm cuts into sleep time and the ability to be effective the next morning. 

Of course this is based on a fairly typical schedule that can apply to most people. 

I fully recognize that there are circumstances (an extra-long commute, getting the kids off to school, etc.) that might require a different routine.  Or perhaps you’re a night owl without any demands in the morning.   

But the principle holds true – find that perfect bedtime balance that allows you to enjoy the evening and still have a great next day.  I believe that a 10pm bedtime yields that perfect balance.  

How about you?  What time do you go to bed and what is the routine that works for you?     

How To Have More Time

If you’re like many people, you feel starved for time.

This is a result of being busier than ever, more technologically connected than ever, and often spending our days rushing from one activity or obligation to the next. It is all too common to feel overcommitted and overwhelmed as we try to fit it all in.

Although the world shows no signs of slowing down around us, fortunately there are proven ways to rescue back some of our precious time.

Here are some great ways to create breathing room in your day:

• Buy time. One way to have more time is to buy it, as pointed out by Professors Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton in their eye-opening book Happy Money. “By permitting ourselves to outsource our most dreaded tasks, from scrubbing toilets to cleaning gutters, money can transform the way we spend our time, freeing us to pursue our passions,” according to Dunn and Norton. Yes, buying time costs money, but it is a great use of it.
• Cut down on 2 notorious time-suckers — commuting and watching TV. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans spend more than 100 hours per year commuting to work, which is more than a typical worker’s annual vacation time. Additionally, Americans spend on average about two months per year watching television! Of course television can produce a lot of pleasure, but we probably don’t need 4 hours of it per day.
• Stick to routines and simplify decision-making. This is the approach Steve Jobs took by wearing the same thing every day (black turtlenecks and Levi’s 501 jeans) and why President Barack Obama stocks his closet with only gray or blue suits. President Obama has said, “I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”
• Block off time on your calendar. New York Times best-selling author Greg McKeown says that “The faster and busier things get, the more we need to build thinking time into our schedule. And the noisier things get, the more we need to build quiet reflection spaces in which we can truly focus.” So proactively block off time to get the things done that really matter. Bill Gates, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner are just a few examples of people who habitually put this into practice, even during the busiest of times.
• Say “no” more often. As New York Times best-selling author Tom Rath says, “The next time a new opportunity presents itself, think carefully before making an ongoing commitment. If it is something you feel you should take on, determine what other activity you might need to let go of. When you are struggling between two choices, remember there is always a third option: doing nothing. In many cases, declining both options is the best route.”
• Unplug. Check email and social media fewer times per day. You’ll be surprised by how much more time you have when you disconnect and pay less attention to your devices.

There is no doubt that we live busy lives with many things competing for our attention. But we can take control of our calendar by implementing just some of these ideas.

Now what will you do with all of the extra time?

The Secret to True Happiness and Making a Unique Impact on the World

What if I told you that there is one main secret to true happiness?

And that this secret also guarantees that you will make a truly unique impact on the world?

And live a fulfilling life without regret?

It turns out that this secret does exist.

It is actually incredibly simple.

And it is something that you have and nobody else does.

The secret is being yourself and totally owning it.

Or as Neil Pasricha, #1 bestselling author of The Happiness Equation, says, “Be you and be cool with it.”

As he describes, “There is nothing more satisfying than being loved for who you are and nothing more painful than being loved for who you’re not but pretending to be.”

How true.

This point is validated by the number one regret of the dying, which is “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

Of course a key word in that line is “courage.” While being yourself is a simple concept, it is challenging to implement.

But it is worth striving for. Every day.

And only you know exactly what that means for you.

As Pasricha says, “Settling in to your true, weird, authentic self isn’t easy, but it’s the most satisfying way to have everything.”

If you are already living a life true to yourself, continue down that path. It is the right one.

On the other hand, if you sense that you could lean in to being you even more, do it.

Whatever you love to do, resolve to do more of it.

Don’t have the same regrets when you look back on your life.

Be you and be cool with it.

It is the secret to happiness, fulfillment, and making a truly unique impact on the world.

As Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”

Why You Should Keep An Accomplishments List

Many of us rely on plans and to-do lists to prioritize our time and stay on track for the future, but what about after we complete those tasks and projects? Should we just check things off the list and move on?

It turns out there are numerous benefits to writing down and celebrating our past accomplishments on an ongoing basis.

Here are just a few reasons to keep an Accomplishments List:

• Looking back at our past achievements produces a satisfying happiness boost. Thinking about our wins makes us feel like a winner.
• Focusing on what we achieved and what went well can enhance our overall view and positively change the way we remember the past (even if we experienced challenges or failures in that same time period).
• Being reminded of past successes motivates us to work hard for more accomplishments in the future, thereby producing an ongoing cycle of success and achievement.
• Keeping an Accomplishments List keeps us focused on our actual productivity and what we get done — not just how busy we are.

A bonus is that if you work in an office with annual performance reviews, keeping a weekly Accomplishments List will yield a large pool of successes to choose from at review time to remind your manager just how great your year was! If you relied on memory alone, chances are that you and your boss would forget about many of the things you achieved weeks or months prior.

Wondering how to get started with an Accomplishments List, and how to make it part of your regular routine?

In the terrific new book, How To Have A Good Day, author Caroline Webb cites the example of an office worker who made it a habit to block out the 5:00-5:30 p.m. window every Friday to write down the single best thing she achieved that week. That is almost always a quiet time at work, and a great opportunity to reflect on the week that just went by. And while she blocked out a full half hour, she acknowledged that the practice really only takes 5 minutes.

As for me, I like to maintain an ongoing Accomplishments List that I keep in my email inbox. I add to it every time I complete a task or project that I am proud of, and then I email the updated version to myself so it stays toward the top of my inbox.

Keeping the list in a visible place keeps my past successes top of mind, which tends to improve my mood, and adding to the list feels fantastic. I keep the running tally throughout the year, and then file the list away and start a new one at the beginning of each calendar year. That helps me to mentally celebrate the past year, and then “turn the page” for the year ahead.

It really doesn’t matter how you do it — the key is to get your accomplishments out of your head and down on paper while they’re fresh. Keep the list going and make it a habit to look back and acknowledge what you’ve achieved.

Once you make this part of your routine, don’t be surprised if your Accomplishments List becomes just as valuable as your To-Do List!

Top 20 Habits for Happiness, Health, Productivity, and Success

I am fascinated with the habits that affect happiness, health, productivity, and success. I read everything I can get my hands on related to these topics and continuously experiment with new tactics to see what works in my own life. Based on my research, reading, learning from the experts, and personal experimentation, here are the 20 best habits that I have found for happiness, health, productivity, and success.

20. Be generous — Spending money on other people has been shown to lead to greater well-being and happiness than spending it on yourself.

19. Ask more questions — And actually listen to the answers. Creativity and leadership expert Paul Sloane, author of 17 books including The Innovative Leader, believes that asking questions is the single most important habit for innovative thinkers.

18. Make Your Bed — Gretchen Rubin, best-selling author and happiness researcher, says “When I was researching my book on happiness, this was the number one most impactful change that people brought up over and over.”Making your bed starts a chain reaction of other productive habits throughout the day.

17. Celebrate — Pause to enjoy your successes before moving on to the next thing. David Campbell, former senior fellow with the Center for Creative Leadership, said it best: “Celebrations are the punctuation marks that make sense of the passage of time; without them, there are no beginnings and no endings. Life becomes an endless series of Wednesdays.”

16. Smile — The simple act of smiling reduces stress and increases happiness, even if you’re faking or forcing the smile. Putting on a happy face actually makes you happier.

15. Buy experiences, not things — An extensive amount of research shows that experiences actually bring people more happiness than material goods.

14. Say no more often — Trying to do everything usually means not doing anything very well. Journalist and success researcher Shane Snow says that often “the thing holding us back from success is our inability to say no.”

13. Be on time — Being on time is one habit that accomplishes two very important things — it melts away stress and improves relationships at the same time. New York Times best-selling author Greg McKeown recommends adding a 50% buffer to the amount of time you estimate something will take in order to show up on time.

12. Choose a good attitude — Attitude is a decision that we make every day (and often throughout each day). Strengthen relationships and increase your chances of success by deciding to have a good one.

11. Block off time on your calendar to think — Take inspiration from Bill Gates, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos by building uninterrupted thinking time into your schedule.

10. Don’t check email first thing in the morning or last thing before bed — This approach is championed by Tim Ferriss who says that email first thing derails your priorities for the day and email right before sleeping gives you insomnia. Putting this into practice has been a life-changer for me.

9. Do one thing at a time — Do one thing at a time and pay attention while doing it. Giving our attention only to the task at hand enables us to accomplish more while feeling less anxious and less scatterbrained. On a related note, put your phone away when you are spending time with another person and give them your undivided attention.

8. Wake up early — Get a jump-start on the day and tackle your most important task first-thing. Take inspiration from early risers such as Richard Branson, Michelle Obama, Anna Wintour, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and more.

7. Limit your daily to-do list to your 3 most important items — And watch your productivity skyrocket. Chris Bailey, best-selling author of The Productivity Project, says this habit is one of the absolute best ways to positively impact your work and life on a daily basis.

6. Write down the 3 things you are most grateful for at the end of each day — Having an attitude of gratitude has been shown to improve mood and physical health. Lewis Howes, best-selling author of The School of Greatness,says “If you concentrate on what you have, you’ll always have more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you’ll never have enough.”

5. Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. — This is the philosophy endorsed by renowned author and food researcher Michael Pollan. Eat your way to health with these 50 foods, recommended by neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter.

4. Read — Reading is one habit ultra-successful people have in common. Business leaders such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk say reading has been critical to their success.

3. Get 8 hours of sleep per night — Anything less won’t cut it, says Dr. Mike Dow, best-selling author of The Brain-Fog Fix. The experts recommendestablishing and sticking to a consistent sleep schedule, going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day (including weekends).

2. Maintain close relationships — Social connection is the greatest predictor of happiness, according to Harvard researcher and happiness expert Shawn Achor who has studied the topic for more than a dozen years.

1. Exercise — “The single-most powerful tool you have to optimize your brain function,” says John J. Ratey MD in his best-selling book Spark. Exercising daily (even for as short as 30 minutes) has changed my life more than any other habit!

These 20 habits have stood out for me as the best of the best.

How about you? What habits do you have that should be on the list?

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Andrew Merle writes about good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success.  Follow him @andrewmerle on Twitter.

The Reading Habits of Ultra-Successful People

Want to know one habit ultra-successful people have in common?

They read. A lot.

In fact, when Warren Buffett was once asked about the key to success, he pointed to a stack of nearby books and said, “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

Buffett takes this habit to the extreme — he read between 600 and 1000 pages per day when he was beginning his investing career, and still devotes about 80% of each day to reading.

And he’s not alone. Here are just a few top business leaders and entrepreneurs who make reading a major part of their daily lifestyle:

• Bill Gates reads about 50 books per year, which breaks down to 1 per week
• Mark Cuban reads more than 3 hours every day
• Elon Musk is an avid reader and when asked how he learned to build rockets, he said “I read books.”
• Mark Zuckerberg resolved to read a book every 2 weeks throughout 2015
• Oprah Winfrey selects one of her favorite books every month for her Book Club members to read and discuss

And these aren’t just isolated examples. A study of 1200 wealthy people found that they all have reading as a pastime in common.

But successful people don’t just read anything. They are highly selective about what they read, opting to be educated over being entertained. They believe that books are a gateway to learning and knowledge.

In fact, there is a notable difference between the reading habits of the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy. According to Tom Corley, author of Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, rich people (annual income of $160,000 or more and a liquid net worth of $3.2 million-plus) read for self-improvement, education, and success. Whereas poor people (annual income of $35,000 or less and a liquid net worth of $5,000 or less) read primarily to be entertained.

Successful people tend to choose educational books and publications over novels, tabloids, and magazines. And in particular they obsess over biographies and autobiographies of other successful people for guidance and inspiration.

There are many examples of successful people dropping out of school or foregoing a formal education, but it is clear that they never stop learning. And reading is a key part of their success.

If reading as a pathway to success isn’t enough to get you motivated, consider these health benefits of reading: Reading has been shown to help prevent stress, depression, and dementia, while enhancing confidence, empathy, decision-making, and overall life satisfaction.

Whether reading is already a way of life for you, or you’re just getting started, here are some book lists to consider:

• 9 of Warren Buffett’s Favorite Books
• 17 of Bill Gates’ Favorite Books
• Books Extremely Successful People Read (From President Obama to Bill Clinton to Sheryl Sandberg)
• 20 Books that the World’s most successful people read and recommend
• 25 Must-Read Books for Success

And here are a few lists of 2016 must-reads:

• 10 Must-Read Business Books for 2016 (Inc.)
• 16 Must-Read Business Books for 2016 (Forbes)
• 9 Business Books to Read in 2016 (Stanford)

Happy (and successful) reading!