External Excellence #1

I've been reading a lot of fascinating and helpful articles around the web over the past several weeks, so I'm taking a time-out from my own writing to curate a few of them here. Most of these articles aren't new - so I'm late to the party - but they're certainly noteworthy and worth re-reading if you've already come across them.

Knowledge Workers are Bad at Working

Cal Newport talks about the idea of "deep work", and points out that a knowledge worker who lives in her email inbox isn't really achieving the level of productivity that she could.

The Side Project Challenge

I love side projects! This article is a great motivator towards developing and clarifying your goals for a side project. It also discusses all the awesome "side effects" that come along with taking up a self-initiated project. We're coming up on a brand new year - there's no better time to be thinking about starting a fresh project.

The Illustrated Guide to a PhD

This infographic is a really helpful way of thinking about our careers - even for those of us who aren't pursuing a doctorate. I love Matt Might's idea of learning our vocational boundaries, then pushing / breaking / expanding them.

That's it! I hope some of these are as helpful to you as they were to me.