Tree Top Residence is a residential project designed by Belzberg Architects in 2015. It is located in Los Angeles, California, USA. Tree Top Residence by Belzberg Architects: “The Tree Top Residence celebrates the site’s complex landscape, merging with it seamlessly and emerging from it atop the canopy of trees that surround it. Built along a natural ridgeline, the long and narrow plan of the three-story house mimics and inverts the..
The 5 Best Productivity Books to Read
I have read many productivity books over the years. These are books that aim to improve your personal productivity. They aim to help you get more done in less time.
Among them, I have some favorites. There are many other books on productivity, of course, but these are the ones that you should read if you want to read just a few of them.
Without further ado, here the five best productivity books to read.
1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (book) (summary)
Years after it was first published in 1989, this book is still on Amazon’s best sellers list. That’s amazing because there are hundreds of thousands of books out there. But there is a good reason for that: this book works.
As the title says, the book covers the habits of highly effective people. Among them, the one that is particularly relevant for personal productivity is the third habit: Put First Things First. It uses a matrix (also known as the Eisenhower matrix) that divides your time into four quadrants: important and urgent, important and not urgent, not important and urgent, and not important and not urgent.
The matrix is a simple but useful tool for managing your time. It helps you see how you have spent your time. It also helps you plan your activities.
2. Getting Things Done (book) (summary)
Getting Things Done is also a book that’s still popular years after it was first published. The subtitle of the book describes the topic well: the art of stress-free productivity.
The book shows you how to be productive without being stressed. That requires you to have a productivity system where you can put everything in so that you don’t need to remember it. That clears your mind and helps you avoid stress.
I have been applying this principle for years. While I don’t follow the book’s method exactly, I have found this and other principles in the book useful.
3. The Now Habit (book) (summary)
Do you want to overcome procrastination? If you do, then this is the book that you need to read. It contains some effective methods to overcome procrastination and help you achieve your goals.
For instance, it shows you how to change your self-talk from negative to positive to overcome resistance. It also shows you how to use the concept of persistent starting to achieve big goals.
4. The Power of Full Engagement (book) (summary)
When it comes to personal productivity, energy management is actually more important than time management. If your energy level is high, you can get a lot of things done in a short amount of time. But if your energy level is low, you could spend a lot of time on something and still get almost nothing done.
The Power of Full Engagement is the best book I have read on energy management. It explains how to manage your energy in four dimensions: body, emotions, mind, and spirit.
5. The 4-Hour Workweek (book) (summary)
This book isn’t strictly a productivity book, but it contains useful tips to increase your productivity. One example is the Parkinson’s law which says that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Accordingly, you should set yourself a short deadline in order to be efficient.
Another helpful tip is what’s called “the art of non-finishing.” It says that you shouldn’t feel obliged to finish something if it doesn’t give you enough value for your time. For instance, you don’t have to finish a book if you think you can get more value by reading something else.
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I have found these books useful, and I believe they can help you form a solid foundation for productivity.
Do you have other productivity books that you’d like to recommend? Feel free to share them in the comments.
EID Wins Competition for Stacked Block Mixed-Use Development in Chongqing
Courtesy of EID Architecture
China-based firm EID Architecture has been selected as the winner of a design competition for a mixed-use development, entitled Longfor Phase IV, in Chongqing, China. Designed as an exploration of vertical urbanism on a high-density scope, the project is composed of a “single tower and associated podium integrated as an assembled massing of stacked box-like volumes.”
Courtesy of EID Architecture
At 150 meters tall, the building will offer office space in its upper levels, and retail on its lower levels.
An “urban void” is created in the center of the project, where on lower levels, an open space acts as a “gravitational core,” around which the rest of the building organizes itself, “stimulating movement and activity through the vertical space that energizes and defines the associated programmatical components and offers a visual and spatial connection to the multi-level exterior terrain at ground level.”
Courtesy of EID Architecture
On a design level, the project draws inspiration from the nearby countryside—with its natural karst formations— as well as from the surrounding city, where vernacular dwellings cascade down steep inclines in the city’s fabric.
Courtesy of EID Architecture
“The outcome is a design that is both contextual and iconic, contextually integrated whilst unique in appearance that allows for a visual and spatial porosity and connectivity across all levels with a naturally balanced composition of stacked box-like volumes interlocked with a tower component, creating a design of understated monumentality and a harmonious contextually responsive composition,” said the architects in a press release.
Courtesy of EID Architecture
Courtesy of EID Architecture
In order to connect the East and West sides, the project will feature a terraced grand stair, which will additionally create ground level entrances at multiple levels.
Furthermore, the building will include garden terraces and a green wall within its lobby, in an effort to connect the space with the natural environment around it.
Courtesy of EID Architecture
Courtesy of EID Architecture
Longfor Phase IV is currently heading into the schematic design phase, and is expected to be completed in 2019.
The project was recently awarded an AIA HK merit award for unbuilt project.
News via EID Architecture.
Courtesy of EID Architecture
Moshe Safdie: Architects “Have a Deep Social Responsibility”
In the latest edition of Section D, Monocle 24’s weekly review of design, architecture and craft, the team speak to Moshe Safdie – the Israeli-Canadian architect whose “signature geometric style of lavish curves and green space has made the self-styled Modernist an influential voice” in the profession. The conversation, broadcast from Safdie’s Marina Bay Sands complex in Singapore, reflects on his life and work – including Montréal’s Habitat 67.
Habitat 67 / Moshe Safdie
Habitat 67 / Moshe Safdie
Find out more about Monocle 24’s Section D here.
Loft in a Historic Tenement / CUNS
© Hanna Długosz
- Architects: CUNS
- Location: Słowackiego, Poznań, Poland
- Architects In Charge: Michalina Majcherkiewicz Chmielowska, Jędrzej Sobkiewicz
- Area: 130.0 m2
- Project Year: 2013
- Photographs: Hanna Długosz
© Hanna Długosz
From the architect. We would like to present you the reconstruction project of the loft’s space into the private accommodation in an apartment building. The building was built in the late nineteenth century.
Floor Plan
Both district and the building itself are located in the preservation maintenance zone. The tenement is located in the compact residential of the street, it has 4 floors, a cellar and an attic.
© Hanna Długosz
Such space requires an individual approach as well as the application of unusual solutions, we did not change the cubature, gross covered area, its height, length, width and the number of the stores, however we have created a new history of the place!
Section
Section
We tried to keep the effect of the maximally open space and the exposure of the important elements for us. Among them you can find the roof construction and the original height of the rooms.
© Hanna Długosz
Very clearly exposed wooden roof construction gives the interior the flavor and in our opinion – it highlights its uniqueness. By creating a new function of the loft, we felt as if it was our operating pattern; the look of the interior is dedicated by the roof construction.
© Hanna Długosz
Multiple number of windows in the whole loft allows the sun a better exposure of all the rooms. Moreover, the big white planes of the walls and ceilings do brighten the space. Lighted by the skylight, the open kitchen interior is a link between the private sphere of the owners and the living and the guest room. The large kitchen with a huge cooking island is an excellent place for cooking and spending relaxing time in the hammock.
As well as the tenements, we also love the natural materials. Here, except for the pine wood, the brick played the major role. We used it on the knee walls, and on the whole length of the tenement’s wall, By doing it – we have emphasized the length of the apartment.
© Hanna Długosz
The living room is a separate big part of the whole open daily space. This is place with the TV and comfortable, variable seats, located around. It is a perfect space to relax with friends
The bathroom, dedicated mainly to the guests, but used as a toilet on a daily basis, has a basin, lavatory and the shower. Another bathroom was designed in the bedroom. The idea of an open bathtub next to the bed is the removal of all the barriers between these spaces. The bathtub is located in the bay window, with an easy access to the wardrobe located in this room. Next to it, we have additionally designed a separate box with the toilet and the shower.
© Hanna Długosz
The attic’s floor is a mix of the pine wood and the very dark gres tiles with an interesting and irregular surface. We kept the interiors in the earthy tones, that together with the timeless whiteness present themselves the prettiest.
Product Description. We wanted to keep the original character of the tenement that’s why one of the most important materials we used are definitely the original sliced bricks and also wooden floors (pine).
The Courage To Say No
The courage to say no comes from an understanding of your own boundaries and the fact that saying no actually saves you from personal or professional harm. It is better to say no than to say yes and be crushed under the stress of possibly producing a poor product or disappointing the requestor.
When we say ‘yes’ instead of ‘no,’ it’s because we’re afraid of disappointing someone, or we think it will affect how we are looked at as an employee or friend. A YES in that situation isn’t a sincere ‘yes.’ It’s not an honest ‘yes.’ It’s a YES out of fear. So a NO that is coming from healthy boundaries is better in the short and long run than a yes that is fear driven. It takes courage to say NO.
We can keep from saying yes when we mean no. Take a breath. Give yourself a minute to think and say to the person, “I need to think about that for a moment,” or “I need to see whether it’s possible. I need to check my calendar.” Being an automatic YES without any intervening thought trains everyone in your circle to request things of you because you always say YES. Be honest with yourself in order for the requester to lessen requests over time.
I learned how to say NO when I got breast cancer. Being a “do-er” and a people pleaser for 55 years had me at an automatic “YES”.
Once I was in Chemo and Radiation, I had to say NO because I didn’t have the energy. It came as a surprise to me that the people closest to me, whether personally or professionally, didn’t have an issue with me saying ‘no.’ I was so in my head about disappointing others than I was really in fear of what NO would mean in terms of my relationships.
When to Say No
In our culture, it is the norm to give an immediate answer to a request. Because of that, we sometimes don’t think or take into consideration our own needs and boundaries. Having a sentence or a particular body language that allows you to think before you speak is probably the most important first step in the process. Having had that time to think, your explanation will come from a point of sincerity which always lands much better in the requestor’s mind and heart.
A few good sentences to use if the unexpected request needs you to quickly answer are: 1) “I’m sorry, I’ll have to check a few things before I can give you an answer,” or 2) “I’m not sure if a can do that. Can I get back to you?
Both of these allow you to defer a definitive ‘no’ while you prepare your reason. Respect dictates you get back to the person who asked, but at least you will have an answer with which you feel comfortable.
How to say no
The depth and kind of relationship you have with the requestor affects the way in which you say no. At work, take into consideration whether the person is above you, equal to, or below you in the work hierarchy. In a personal situation, take into consideration whether they are family, friend, or acquaintance. In a social situation, think of how will it affect building a relationship or expanding your network.
When people request something of you, if the ‘no’ comes off as a personal rejection, the requestor feels disrespected, angry or hurt. So it is how you couch the ‘no’ that counts. Give yourself a moment to strategize your response. Here is a three-part strategy to use.
1) Thank them for asking you: “I’m flattered, I’m glad you thought of me.”
2) Choose a ‘no appropriate to the situation and relationship
3) Give them an option if you can
What you are trying to do is let the requestor know that you’re flattered but at this point, you cannot do what they are asking and you are giving them an option.
At Work
“Thanks for asking me, but I have so much on my plate, I cannot take on anything else at this time”
“I’m flattered by your request, but I have projects with imminent deadlines I need to attend to.”
“Thanks for the offer, but as I am busy, perhaps John could help you, as he has the skills you need.”
“I’m flattered that you thought of me for this _____. However, my plate is full and cannot take on anything else unless you want to change the priorities of my current projects.”
“I appreciate being asked, but given my current workload, the quality of our product would suffer if I took this on right now.”
“I appreciate your confidence in my abilities. However, as you know my current workload makes taking this on not feasible, especially if you need a quick turn around.”
Personal
In your personal life, the framing of the reason for the ‘No’ has to do with boundaries, honesty, respect and possible alternatives.
“Thanks for the offer, but as I am busy, perhaps John could help you.”
“What an interesting request, but I would not be comfortable doing this.”
“This sound interesting. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to be of help.”
“I would love to accept, but I made plans for that date/time three weeks ago.”
“It’s an awesome opportunity, but I won’t have the bandwidth to do it for quite a while.”
Being comfortable in this area is a matter of practice. There are a number of strategies you can use to become comfortable.
1. Start by saying NO in your daily life in the smaller less significant situations to
gain the muscle of saying no.
2. Observe how people you respect say no. Model what you say using their style.
3. Practice saying no to people you feel comfortable with.
4. Every time you say ‘no’ successfully, celebrate the win.
Is honesty always the best policy?
Sometimes when the relationship is much more important than the specific situation at hand, it may be much more advisable to tell a “white” lie. A white lie told to protect someone’s feelings tends to be good for the relationship.
For example, your Aunt Chloe is a non-stop talker and she has asked you to go on a cruise with her. Although you never get seasick, your response “Aunt Chloe, thanks for the invitation to go on a cruise with you, but I get seasick so easily and nothing helps. Perhaps Aunt Jo would be a good choice,” saves your relationship and your sanity. There is no need to hurt or strain an important relationship as a result of how you say no.
There have been times where I have been invited to an afternoon social outing where I won’t know 90% of the people there. Although the person requesting would like for me to be there, I know that spending three hours in an uncomfortable situation will not fulfill her needs or mine. Even though I have no plans, a simple “Thanks for thinking of me, but I have plans that make it impossible to join you.”
See Also: Is Honesty Really the Best Policy?
Is there a Gender Difference?
Perhaps men are more direct, and women more sensitive in how they say no, but the reality is that men and woman find it equally distressing having to say ‘no’ when they know that they may be disappointing someone.
Lastly, it is well within your right to just say ‘No’ with no reason why. A simple, “I’m sorry, but I can’t.” may be preferable, especially in situations where the request is time sensitive.
See Also: Saying No As Much As Yes To Enjoy Life More
The post The Courage To Say No appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
Sergey Makhno Architects Designs a Minimalist Apartment in Kiev
Minimalist Design in Kiev is a private home located in Kiev, Ukraine. It was designed by Sergey Makhno Architects. Minimalist Design in Kiev by Sergey Makhno Architects: “”The things must be disciplined,” – says our minimalist apartment in Skyline. The interior is practical and functional. No eclectic spirit of “flea market” and unnecessary structures eating up your space. Сombining a living room with a kitchen, we filled the apartment with..
💙 sea on 500px by Alexey Melsitov, Riga, Latvia☀ NIKON……
6 Easy Habits To Make Your Life Simpler And More Enriching
In our quest for finding effective self help remedies, we come across thousands of articles depicting simple and easy solutions for daily care, but I feel there aren’t enough that extract the emotional explanation of why we do these things. I’ve written this article here to help consider more deeply a few comfort activities that we like to do, but explaining why they are so fundamental to our self help and growth. Behind the simple titles here we have strong reasoning and evaluation. I hope you enjoy reading the behind the scenes depth of what could be some very simple habits to make your life feel simpler and more enriching.
1. Pack your lunch for tomorrow
The title is misleading because what I am trying to say is representing many things in daily life. Packing your lunch for tomorrow represents a lifestyle – the lifestyle to think ahead, to enjoy planning, to be prepared – fail to plan, plan to fail. It’s a great way to start a planning lifestyle – after all, who doesn’t like food? Start by packing your lunch for today. If you can get up a couple minutes early to get your lunch ready (and avert eating at the food court), then you’re on the right track. Then, cook ahead. Make meals for two days, buy some cheap tupperware, and pack your lunch for the next day, and the one after.
Habits like this configure your brain to usurp our early reptilian brain and let us abstract towards forward thinking patterns. When you think about tomorrow and plan your lunch you are considering your eating habits, your diet, your health; you are anticipating the weather tomorrow, your plans, etc. Everything becomes a bit more streamlined and give you the upper advantage socially and emotionally. Look forward to tomorrow – pack a lunch.
2. Turn off your wifi for one hour every day
Thank God for the internet, for it gives us so much; it makes news readily available, financial information, brings us closer to our family by letting us communicate with them at any time, assists world health services…the list is endless really! We are gifted to be living in such a technologically advanced time of the world, and it’s important not to take that for granted. After all, only eighty some years ago we didn’t have air conditioning, good phones, available flight…etc!
But as much as we should embrace our gratuitous technology, we need to object to it every now and then. We need to unplug our brain from constantly waiting to hear a notification sound or feel a vibration in our pocket. We go through the day anticipating our next reply or email, and it puts stress on our mind; it doesn’t let us fully be ourselves.
Use an opportunity every day to turn it all off and just enjoy the stillness or motion of life. Start with 20 minutes or more and go up to how you feel. You don’t have to prove yourself to everybody – just try it and see how it feels.
3. Act on your feelings
Every time you do not follow your gut instinct, you are deterring yourself from your true path. You are making a decision that is guided by other opinions, articles, excuses or filler – and you know the feeling. You know the feeling of that moment after, when you think, oh, I should have done this instead, or, ah, I should have trusted myself. You are faced with a few more moments of all the following emotions of regret, denial or mistrust as you go through this new path, and learn to deal with the consequences.
Sometimes following your gut instinct, your emotions, is very difficult. There is no rule book to life and you never know if you are making the right decision, or the best decision for you or anyone else. You just have to practice and see. Never be afraid to trust yourself and accept the consequences. You should trust your opinion and be confident in it. It is your life. Enjoy your emotions.
4. What are you grateful for?
There’s a ton of articles anywhere online that talk about writing down what you are grateful for. If you haven’t started a gratitude list, it’s never too late to start. But it goes much more than that, I think.
You can write down everything but what you must do is truly feel it throughout the day. You can be grateful for a hundred things throughout every day, or more, and there is such rare time to think about it all. It should be no problem then, to spend a few seconds everyday to recount your gratitude and feel it. A few seconds at the mirror in the bathroom, a few seconds in the car. Make it a daily ritual throughout the day, and live through it.
5. Read a small book
The world of literature has adapted to our seemingly decreasing attention span. Writers are producing pieces that are easy to read and get the point across quickly. Put down the kindle or smartphone and feel the power of paper though your fingertips. If you can spend a few minutes each day reading some valuable anecdotes through a couple of pages, you will be better for it than not. Book stores are still open for a reason – literature is powerful and the history of it is immense. Pick through the local popular options in self help, comedy, or anything you like, and learn more about the world and how you see it.
6. Call your best friend
In a world thick of texting, the fantasy of rolling around in bed laughing on the phone with your best friend is something of an era past. It’s not though. Try to make a motion with your friends to pick a sporadic time to dedicate to calling each other and have a good laugh on the phone – surely it will feel like some kind of new experience! Remember when we used to stay up all night chatting with our friends in high school? Gossip like old times and don’t worry about talking for too long. It’s a soul enriching experience.
The post 6 Easy Habits To Make Your Life Simpler And More Enriching appeared first on Change your thoughts.
MPs set to debate motion accusing Blair of ‘misleading’ them over Iraq – Politics live
Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs
9.12am GMT
It was Tony Blair’s government that got rid of the principle of “double jeopardy” in English law (the principle that you cannot be put on trial for the same crime twice). So there is something appropriate about the fact that, although the Chilcot inquiry effectively cleared Blair of lying to MPs as he made the case for war, the Commons is going to debate a motion saying that Blair did mislead parliament and that this should be investigated.
The motion has been tabled by the SNP and this is what it says:
That this House recognises that the Chilcot Inquiry provided substantial evidence of misleading information being presented by the then Prime Minister and others on the development of the then Government’s policy towards the invasion of Iraq as shown most clearly in the contrast between private correspondence to the United States government and public statements to Parliament and to the people and also in the presentation of intelligence information; and calls on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, further to its current investigation into the lessons to be learned from the Chilcot Inquiry for the machinery of government, to conduct a further specific examination of this contrast in public and private policy and of the presentation of intelligence, and then to report to the House on what further action it considers necessary and appropriate to help prevent any repetition of this disastrous series of events.
At a time when Blair is planning his political comeback, it is high time that this parliament and its committees at long last brought this dark stain on UK foreign policy to a close by investigating how such grave misleading occurred and taking the appropriate action to avoid it happening again.
Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2gjio6C
Sig Nordal 