377 (Updated!): The Slow Productivity Approach that will Elevate the Quality of Your Entire Life, as taught by Cal Newport
The Simple Sophisticate | Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
by Shannon Ables
1w ago
Author and professor of computer science at Georgetown University Cal Newport's latest book Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment without Burnout details exactly how and where in our daily lives and throughout the year we can apply the Slow Productivity approach and why it works. In today's episode I will be sharing with you 10 takeaways that caught my eye as areas of interest that I thought would interest TSLL readers/podcast listeners, and if what you discover here speaks to you, I encourage you to pick up the book as far more detail and information is shared. Throughout the disc ..read more
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376: Wise Investments: Understand the Difference between a Good Value and a Good Deal
The Simple Sophisticate | Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
by Shannon Ables
3w ago
The savviness of wise money management encompasses many factors, but one is an approach often overlooked or dismissed: Understanding the difference between a Good Value versus a Good Deal. Here in the states tax season is upon us, and so many of us may have money on the mind even more than we usually do; however, I often find myself at the beginning of the new year assessing my monthly budget, determining where I am gaining value or unnecessarily causing more tasks and draining money. Ultimately, whenever I sit down to assess my money, my goal is to do so less often, knowing I have invested we ..read more
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374: What I Have Learned in French Class, So Far - part sept (7)
The Simple Sophisticate | Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
by Shannon Ables
1M ago
Bonjour à tous ! Just last week, I concluded FR 105 with Washington DC's Alliance de Français, a Zoom/online course that met twice a week, two hours each time since just after Thanksgiving. You may remember that Part Six of this series was shared during TSLL's Annual French Week which shared what I had learned through FR 104 and 103, and now it is time to share some progress! Thankfully, there has been progress and while I chose to take Everyday Situational French this fall due to my travel schedule, this once-a-week meeting provided me the opportunity to keep the French language on the tip of ..read more
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373: How to Nourish Your Creative Being: Cultivate An Artistic Hearth & Home
The Simple Sophisticate | Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
by Shannon Ables
2M ago
"Part of art making is living your life in such a way that your work gets done, over and over—and that means, among other things, finding a host of practices that are just plain useful . . . a life lived within productive patterns. The life of a productive artist becomes filled with useful conventions and practical methods. And in truly happy moments those artistic gestures move beyond simple procedure, and acquire an inherent aesthetic all their own. They are your artistic hearth and home." —David Bayles & Ted Orland, authors of Art & Fear In unforced or unexpected moments, ideas, sol ..read more
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372: Simple Rituals to Enhance the Everyday and the 5 Characteristics of Simply Luxurious Rituals
The Simple Sophisticate | Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
by Shannon Ables
3M ago
We explore the topic of rituals frequently here on TSLL (explore all of the posts and episodes shared thus far here), and initially it may seem redundant to do so again in today's episode/post, but as I have experienced in my own life, my appreciation for the benefits and happiness deepens and therefore I understand even more fully the power of carefully choosing rituals to tailor to the lifestyle we love living. It is in the tailoring that our daily lives and future outcomes we hope will materialize have the opportunity to enrich our experience and bear the fruit we have envisioned. As the sa ..read more
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371: Savoring A Quiet Christmas — Simple, Yet Significant
The Simple Sophisticate | Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
by Shannon Ables
3M ago
Whether or not snow has fallen come December, the warmth and cheer of good tidings appearing about town, the neighbors, in the shops and arriving in the mail by way of the annual Christmas cards sent from friends and family living near and far always wraps me in a figurative hug. This year, similar to last year, I will be spending Christmas at home in Bend, Oregon, and it is exactly where I want to be. And leading up to the festive day has been and will continue to be sprinkled with intentional activities, pastimes and nibbles that create a festive, cozy atmosphere I feel most fortunate to be ..read more
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370: Savoring the Many Benefits of Being Single at Heart, my talk with author Dr. Bella DePaulo
The Simple Sophisticate | Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
by Shannon Ables
4M ago
"My mission in putting the single at heart on the map is to rewrite what it means to be single. Single life, to those of us who are single at heart, is a joyful place, a place to learn and grow. It is a big-hearted, expansive, meaningful life full of possibilities . . . intimacy, to us, is personal; in that domain as in all others, we follow our hearts rather than the cultural rulebooks. We chart our own life courses, with meaningfulness, psychological richness, and authenticity as our guide." —Dr. Bella DePaulo, author of Single at Heart: The Power, Freedom, and Heart-Filling Joy of Single Li ..read more
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368: What is a Simple Sophisticate? The 14 Characteristics
The Simple Sophisticate | Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
by Shannon Ables
5M ago
A quiet confidence, an ease of being. A deep joy of living each day. To consciously find ourselves in any of the three states of being above, it will have taken much intentionality, effort, patience and compassion. As well as strength, courage, kindness and trust. And these are all actions given to ourselves, let alone to the people and environments we engage with along the way to reach each or all of the aforementioned states. However, as Steve Jobs succinctly shares above, once you arrive at the simplicity, you have gone through much complex exploration, and it is because you have gone throu ..read more
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367: How to Create Décor that Welcomes & Comforts: How to Embrace the Ethos of Slow Decorating
The Simple Sophisticate | Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
by Shannon Ables
5M ago
"The fastest way to a good life, is to slow down." —World Institute of Slowness in Norway Walking into a beautifully decorated home, an abode that welcomes you, gives you a hug and invites you to stay without saying a word takes time to curate. And even those homes that someone else has curated and we feel this way when we walk across the threshold into their home, it is their home, and not our own, filled with choices, items and details that they will appreciate more deeply than we ever could, even if we can understand why they appreciate it. All of which is to say, curating a home for oursel ..read more
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364: Energy Management for Quality Everydays: 6 Daily Habits to Include
The Simple Sophisticate | Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
by Shannon Ables
7M ago
Prevention versus correction. For a few decades now, or perhaps more than a few, stress management has been the term of phrase often used as we find a culture, and more specifically, ourselves nearing or reaching burn-out whether in our jobs or life in general, and while bringing healing and remedy to something in our lives that needs our attention for improvement is certainly valuable and a necessary skill to learn should we find ourselves in this state of fatigue and chronic stress, preventing such a state from ever being reached is a far more beneficial approach, and gives us much more enjo ..read more
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