
Five tips on making every day count, by Richard Branson - hjkm
https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/five-tips-making-every-day-count
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panic
To save you a click, here are the five tips:

5\. Do something fun as you start your day

4\. Just do it!

3\. Set goals and challenge yourself (and write them down)

2\. Have a break

1\. Do some good

~~~
ryandrake
Yup, if advice were edible, this stuff is the empty calorie junk food. I’m
surprised I didnt see “no pain no gain” in there too.

~~~
cloakandswagger
This reads like a throwaway article from LiveStrong or eHow.

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yters
Maybe successful people are good at keeping things simple?

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hjkm
I feel as the the most successful people I know 1. have routines and keep to
them (whereas most people don't) and 2. keep their routines very simple.

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klausjensen
Pretty damn good advice.

With regards to exercise and breaks (two of the items in here), I think it is
pretty much proven to be beneficial for productivity as well, but just to add
my anecdotal success...:

I used to hit the gym at around 18-19 in the evening. I would often be tired
and the gym would be crowded.

Then I switched to going around 13-14, breaking up my day. I found it gave me
tremendous energy coming back from the gym to the office - and I would often
have new ideas on how to solve, whatever I was working on.

So if you have this kind of freedom in planning your workday, I encourage you
to try it out - exercise in the middle of the day.

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ryandrake
Assuming you’re employed, how do you go to the gym in the middle of the day?
By the time you’ve commuted there, changed clothes, worked out, showered,
dried off, changed again, and commuted back, you’re well over any lunch break
time allotment I’ve ever seen.

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ElatedOwl
For me personally, I get an hour unpaid lunch. I skip the shower. 4 days of
the week I lift (one main lift with 2+ minute rest, 4-5 accessories with 1:30
rest) and one day I have enough time to run 3 miles (a little faster than a 9
minute mile).

On days I run I wash my face and put on a fresh pair of underwear/socks. Maybe
I'm gross but I think the shower is honestly unnecessary.

~~~
dorfsmay
It really depends on your genes. Some of us sweat a lot as soon as we do any
kind of exercises, enough that changing clothes wouldn't be enough.

Using water as cold as you'll tolerate helps keep the shower very short
though!

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woliveirajr
> You don’t have time for it, you make time for it

I think this applies to many things, not just for fitness. Our time is
limited, depending on how much money you have and where you live you even
spend more (or less) time in some things.

But in the end, there's some time that we choose on how to spend.

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mcguire
From the article on failure yesterday:

"There are many different ways to think of failure, most of which seem
designed to soften the sting of it. In Courage to Soar, Ms. Biles unpacks her
own thoughts on the matter. This memoir, "written" by a 19 year-old and
published three months into her explosive post-Olympic popularity, is a pretty
blatant cash-grab. Still, the book's purpose, beyond racking up sales, seems
to be to inspire younger readers, young girls in particular. But why do we
look for advice from the most talented in society? What do they know of our
struggles to rise up, dripping and stinking, from the swamp of mediocrity?
Here, for example, is Ms. Biles describing how, after some initial struggles,
she finally managed to nail a tricky skill – a release move on the uneven bars
called a Tkatchev in which you let go of the bar on the upswing and fly
backward, usually straddled, over the bar before catching it. "And then, just
before practice ended, I said to myself, I'm going to do it this time. And you
know what? I actually did!" Must be nice."

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darepublic
To literally follow in Branson's footsteps implement the tips thusly:

Kitesurf, Be confident, Jot notes on a notepad whilst flying first class Relax
Cut a cheque to charity

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Adamantcheese
I don't think any of the tips actually go towards "making the day count"
except for #4, and even then it's such generic and bland advice that it
doesn't serve any purpose. This doesn't seem like it was written by Richard
himself, it comes off as detached and some sort of appeal to make him seem
relatable in this day and age. Especially considering the amount of pieces on
"his" blog.

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hjkm
This is slightly off topic, but I always thought that, if I were loaded, one
thing I would do more of would be kitesurfing. Which makes me feel very lucky
today (I am NOT loaded), as I already kitesurf.

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akerro
0\. Have $5.1 billion so you can do all the above

~~~
vidarh
The irony of a comment like this on an article that only suggests things that
are basically free.

He didn't suggest you jet off in your private plane for a quick refreshing
week on your private island. He suggested you take breaks, start your day
doing something you enjoy, exercise a bit, write down your goals, and work
hard. I fail to see where money comes into it.

~~~
cryptoz
Money plays a big role in these. It's clear from each point, especially start
your day with something fun. That is an incredibly hard thing to do for a lot
of Americans, especially those who are poor. When you wake up poor for years
and years on end, the ability to just "will yourself" into doing something
"fun" in the morning to start your day, when all your mind can do is wonder if
you'll have enough money for food later, or who will make fun of you on your
commute, or any number of stresses, is nearly impossible.

Money plays a huge role in a person's ability to find a peace and calm moment
in their day. And it doesn't help when some rich jerk walks in and says
"what's the problem, too hard to wake up feeling happy and able to do
something fun? ha, never had that problem! good day!". Ick.

Money plays a huge role in all of this. Yes, writing down your goals is
basically free. Taking breaks isn't. Taking breaks can often include a risk of
someone yelling at you, or you missing an important phone call that would have
been really useful to get, etc.

Money is really important. Yeah, you don't need $5B to do this, but the point
is that the advice is tone-deaf considering it comes from someone who does not
have the common worries or problems of the common person.

Edit: The article is extra tone-deaf because it indeed does suggest you "jet
off in your private plane for a quick refreshing week on your private island"
like you quipped. The pictures he included in the article make it clear what
his idea of a break is.

~~~
vidarh
Exceedingly few people are in a position where they can't do any of these.
I've lived on little money, and wondered how to make it stretch to get enough
food, and none of these were "nearly impossible". It changes some of what you
can do to meet them, it does not make it nearly impossible.

It may be _psychologically_ hard. If you're tired and worn out, yes, you'll
find it hard to buy that you should make space to rest or exercise or have
fun, but that's exactly when you need it the most, and when it will benefit
you the most.

Not taking breaks and setting aside time like this is more costly than taking
them. Yes, it may be logistically hard to do it in ways that prevent a boss
from yelling at you - I've had times when I resorted to going to the toilets
to get a few minutes breathing space. But if it isn't possible? That's a
strong signal you _need_ to find something else (and yes, I know it is hard
for many, but it is rarely impossible).

A lot of these are traps in that it's very easy to get into a cycle where you
think you don't have time. But if you think you don't have time for exercise,
for example, you'll soon find yourself with even less time as your energy
levels drop and your performance tanks.

~~~
cryptoz
> Exceedingly few people are in a position where they can't do any of these.

That's not really what I said, though. I said that having money plays a big
role in someone's ability to simply do these 5 things. It matters - having
money or not makes a difference. I was responding to, "I fail to see where
money comes into it" by explaining how, for hundreds of millions of people in
the USA who are not well-off, _money does come into it_. It it out-of-touch
with America and the world to say it doesn't.

> It may be _psychologically_ hard.

It may also be _physically_ hard. You are discounting the struggles of so many
Americans by dismissing that these things can be hard for people. They are
good advice, but it does't make it easy, especially "easy to do when you have
no money".

> Not taking breaks and setting aside time like this is more costly than
> taking them.

Absolutely agreed. It is a privilege of the rich to optimize for the long term
and to ignore short-term problems. Not taking breaks isn't something a lot of
people do by choice - they are forced into it by circumstance and have a hard
time getting out of it.

~~~
vidarh
I'm not discounting that it may be hard, but I still think you're overplaying
what kind of difference it makes to your ability to do these types of things.
I'm sure there are some people somewhere that works every waking moment, but
I've yet to meet any. Including people with very little money and who work
ridiculous hours.

What I _have_ seen are lots of people who argue they have no time because they
are tired and prioritize choices that are mentally easier and get stuck in a
vicious circle that way. It may sounds like this advice is not meant for them,
but I'd argue the opposite: It's exactly when you're in those kind of
circumstances you _need_ to learn to make time for these things. Learning how
to make time to rest and reflect is one of the most essential skills you can
learn if you want to find ways of improving your life.

And that applies just as much to poor people as to people with lots of money
but stressful jobs - very few people think they have plenty of spare time.

If this was _easy_ it'd be pointless advice - we'd all be doing it.

> Absolutely agreed. It is a privilege of the rich to optimize for the long
> term and to ignore short-term problems. Not taking breaks isn't something a
> lot of people do by choice - they are forced into it by circumstance and
> have a hard time getting out of it.

I disagree. There will always be corner cases, but I've been in plenty of
situations where it was tempting to think I don't have time for breaks. But
the moment you start thinking you don't have time for breaks it's doubly
important to take them, because it implies you're too caught up in what you're
doing to realize how you're affecting your own productivity. You'll do a
shitty job not just in the long term but in the short term too.

A lot of people _think_ they are forced into not taking breaks, but my
experience is that most people who think they can't, very much can. You'll
find even highly paid people in senior jobs insist they can't take breaks, and
then spend hours acting like zombies instead, rather than take a break and
keep their productivity up. Yes, there are the odd corner case with bad bosses
that'll count every second you're not doing your job, but there are most
certainly not hundreds of millions of people in those kind of circumstances in
the US.

