Overview
I recently read a book by Stephen Covey called 7 habits of highly effective people. In this post, I’ll list the different things I learned form the book.
Content
Habit 1: Be Proactive
There are many things in life that you can’t control. Focus on the things you can control.
Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind
Whenever you want to achieve something. Think of the end result and try to work it out backwards. If I want to learn how to learn a new language, how many words do I need to learn? How many of those words should I learn per year, per month or per week?
Habit 3: Put first things first
We all say that we want to be in good shape, be healthy and focus on our relationships, but we end up focusing on the wrong things. Instead of going to the gym or reading, we watch TV or a movie. This won’t get us the results we want.
Habit 4: Think win-win
I remember helping a friend interview for one of the big 5 software companies. She got the job and when I needed help, she helped me practice and get ready too. This is a great situation to be in. Others might not have helped her for the fear of getting replaced by her, creating a rival or simply out of jealousy. That’s nonsense.
Habit 5: Seek first to understand then to be understood
Instead of doing work and thinking that people will go on my blog simply because I spent hours and hours writing posts, I try to think how I can create value for readers and why they would spent time reading a post of mine instead of doing something else.
Habit 6: Synergize
Both me and a designer friend want to build an app, but we want to work alone. I might build a very functional app that looks ugly while he might build a beautiful app that does nothing. By working together, we can build something that neither of us could have created alone. It doesn’t work with everyone, but it’s good to work with others if the opportunity presents itself.
Habit 7: Sharpen the saw
We always look for tips and tricks to get ahead, but sometimes we just need to sit down and do work. A pianist doesn’t think about getting tips and tricks in order to become amazing. He/She spends hours every day perfecting her skills. We can’t cut down a tree with a rusty saw, but sharpening the saw takes time. We still need to sharpen the saw.