【推荐3】Ever look at your to-do list and want to run and hide? Me too. But life is more than working hard to finish tasks, collapsing into bed, judging the past 24 hours and our success by how much we've managed to tick off.

So here’s how to get stuff done and enjoy yourself at the same time.

1.Rename it My friend Jim Kwik says, “Call your ‘got-to-do’ list your ‘get- to-do’ list.” It’s a tiny change but a major shift. Think about it. You get to walk your dog, choose wonderful dinner ingredients and go to a job each day that affords you the life you have.

2.Add some action Instead of writing plain reminders down as memory urges, like “Dentist” and “Report,” add some verbs and result-based benefits, like “Book dentist and get teeth sparkly white!” or “Complete report and let out your breath.” Imagine the good feeling attached to each agenda item and let it fuel you.

3. Trust there’s time Have you ever noticed when you’re in a rush, you make mistakes? Like when you’re late for work: You can’t find your jeans, you hurt your toe on the bed by accident and you misplace your phone as you head down the elevator. When we operate from a place of calm, stuff happens faster. We find what we need. We don’t burn the toast. It can be as simple as sitting up in bed, taking ten deep breaths when you wake up and setting a simple intention for the day (not reaching straight for Instagram and email).

4.Ask yourself this How are you spending your days, your life? Are you having enough fun? Can your got-to-do list be a get-to-do list with some good moods dancing on the page and an air of “I got time!” attached to it? Yes, it probably can. Now, what’s first?

【推荐1】I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent.

I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows(誓言) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.

So here’s what I wanted to tell you today: get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure. It is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing, and that you have no business taking it for granted.

It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all.

I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.

【推荐3】When I arrived in London, I couldn't speak a word of English. Not even "hello". I was 18. I'd been working for my dad's restaurant in Milan and I wanted a new experience. My friend from home lived in London and he used to tell me how incredible it was. I was really bored, so I took my luggage and left.

I was so lost when I arrived at Stansted. To me, English sounded like Chinese. I only arrived with a few hundred pounds. I lived with my friend in East London for a while. I couldn't find a job for a month. Finally I found a waiter role in a restaurant. At the time, I had nothing else going on in my life. I used to get up, go to work, and sleep. It was no difference every day. Then one day on my lunch break, I saw a Gymbox. When I took a look in, there was an amazing Muay Thai (泰拳) class. I used to do boxing when I was 15 but I wasn't that serious about it. There and then I joined the gym and signed up for the Thai boxing team.

I fell in love with it. I never missed a session (一场) . I started training a lot and the head coach said to me one day, "Do you want to fight?" I knew that's what I wanted to do. He put me in competitions and I won my first nine amateur games. After watching me progress, he offered to help me fight professionally. However, at one point I had a motorcycle crash and was out for 18 months. This year I've fought in Milan and London. I'd say I'm about 12 fights away from becoming a winner

Sometimes I can't believe how far I've come from that day I arrived in England. I think everything that's happened has been because I'm committed. But anyone could do it. If you put in 100%, you'll get there. I'm just happy because I did a positive thing with my life. It feels good.

【推荐1】If you were born in the 2000s, you are called the oh-ohs. The 21st century would make you young, creative, connected, global, and no doubt smart. Maybe good-looking, too. Right? But what do other people think about your generation?

Some adults worry that you’re more interested in the screen in front of you than the world around you. They think of you as the “face-down generation” because you use your phone so much and they wonder how you will deal with school, friends, and family. Are today’s teenagers too busy texting and taking selfies (自拍照) to become successful in real life?

Other adults worry that today’s youth are spoilt and don’t want to face the challenges of adult life. Many children born in the 1990s and 2000s were raised by “helicopter parents” who were always there to help them with a busy schedule filled with homework and after-school activities such as dancing, drawing and sports. With parents who do everything for them, today’s youth seem to prefer to live like teenagers even when they are in their 20s or 30s.

Does the “face-down generation” need a heads-up? Well, probably not. The fact is that many of today’s teenagers are better educated and more creative than past generations. They seem to be willing to become leaders. More young people than ever volunteer to help their communities. There are also outstanding people such as Gu Ailing, the teenager who won two gold medals and one silver medal at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

So if you’re one of the oh-ohs, there’s reason to be hopeful about the future. Things are looking up for the “face-down generation”. Chances are that you will do GR8 (great) and LOL (laugh out loud).

【推荐2】A new survey by Harvard University finds more than two-thirds of young Americans disapprove of President Trump’s use of Twitter. The implication is that Millennials prefer news from the White House to be filtered through other source, not a president’s social media platform.

Most Americans rely on social media to check daily headlines. Yet as distrust has risen toward all media, people may be starting to beef up their media literacy. Such a trend is badly needed. During the 2016 presidential campaign, nearly a quarter of web content shared by Twitter users in the politically critical state of Michigan was fake news, according to the University of Oxford. And a survey conducted for BuzzFeed News found 44 percent of Facebook users rarely or never trust news from the media giant.

Young people who are digital natives are indeed becoming more skillful at separating fact from fiction in cyberspace. A Knight Foundation focus-group survey of young people between ages 14 and 24 found they use “distributed trust” to verify stories. They cross-check sources and prefer news from different perspectives---especially those that are open about any bias(偏向). “Many young people assume a great deal of personal responsibility for educating themselves and actively seeking out opposing viewpoints,” the survey concluded.

Such active research can have another effect. A 2014 survey conducted in Australia, Britain, and the United States by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that young people’s reliance on social media led to greater political engagement.

Social media allows users to experience news events more intimately(密切地) and immediately while also permitting them to re-share news as a projection of their values and interests. This forces users to be more conscious of their role in passing along information. A survey by Barna research group found the top reason given by Americans for the fake news phenomenon is “reader error,” more so than made-up stories or factual mistakes in reporting. About a third say the problem of fake news lies in “misinterpretation or exaggeration of actual news” via social media. In other words, the choice to share news on social media may be the heart of the issue. “This indicates there is a real personal responsibility in counteracting(抵制) this problem,” says Roxanne Stone, editor in chief at Barna Group.

So when young people are critical of an over-tweeting president, they reveal a mental discipline in thinking skills---and in their choices on when to share on social media.

【推荐3】Every kid wishes to be an adult. But now as grown-ups, some adults find they cannot leave childhood behind. They become "kidults" (kid+adult). Being a kidult has become a lifestyle-choice among young people across Asia.

Some kidults collect toys they once played with. Hello Kitty, Garfield, and Snoopy have many adult fans around the world. It is not unusual to see a 20-something woman with a big, Garfield-shaped cushion on her sofa or a Hello Kitty mobile phone accessory.

Other kidults still enjoy children's stories and fairy tales. For example, Bloomsbury even published the Harry Potter novels with an adult cover. That way, no one else on the subway will know that an adult is actually reading a children's book!

"Kidults can be like vitamins to society. Adults who value their childhood and hold on to pure, child-like emotion may be needed in such a rough and dry society," said Lee Sojung, professor of Foreign Studies at Hankuk University. He added that kidult culture may fill the generation gap between adults and kids. It could give children and their parents books, movies, and cartoon shows to enjoy together. He may be right.

Tim Green-halgh, a professor, explained that some kidults just refuse to grow up. They cling to (舍不得放弃) childhood because life in a busy and stressful city frightens them. Kidults would like to forget their age and openly show their fear of society and adulthood.

"So, they can escape from increasingly complex and stressful lives that are hard to deal with." Greenhalgh said.

【推荐1】Should we allow modern buildings to be built next to all the buildings in the historic area of the city? In order to answer this question, we must first examine whether people really want to preserve the historic feel of an area. Not all historical buildings are attractive. However, there may be other reasons for example, economic (经济的) reasons why they should be preserved. So, let us assume that historical buildings are both attractive and important to the majority of people. What should you do then if a new building is needed?

In my view, new architectural styles can exist perfectly well alongside an older style. Indeed, there are many examples in my own hometown of Tours where modern designs have been placed very successfully next to old buildings. As long as the building in question is pleasing and does not dominate (影响) its surroundings too much, it often improves the attractiveness of the area.

It is true that there are examples of new buildings which have spoiled (破坏) the area they have in. But the same can be said of some old buildings too. Yet people still speak against new buildings in historic areas. I think this is simply because people are naturally conservative (保守的) and do not like change.

Although we have to respect people’s feelings as fellow users of the buildings, I believe that it is the duty of the architect and planner to move things forward. If you always reproduced what was there before, we would all still be living in caves. Thus, I would argue against copying previous architectural styles and choose something fresh and different, even though that might be the more risky choice.

【推荐3】One day I stopped to think about growing apples. I was eating a delicious, juicy apple and took a big bite. As a result, I got an apple seed into my mouth. I spat it out into my hand, with the intention of throwing it away. But instead I looked at the apple seed. I realized I was holding an apple tree in the palm of my hand. A little seed with the potential to become a beautiful big tree-a tree that could grow thousands of apples in its lifetime. Why then the world wasn't filled with apple trees? It is a rule of nature that only a few of these seeds grow.

And it came to my mind that it's also quite often so with people's dreams. Wonderful ideas come to our minds but they die too soon-we don't tend to the little saplings, we don't protect them as we should. And then one day we wonder what happened to our dreams-why did they never come true?

The seeds of your dreams did not automatically grow, like planting an apple tree. It might take many tries: like a hundred job applications to get that good job. You might send your manuscript out two hundred times before it was accepted.

Some people think their best time in life is when they are young. I refuse to believe that. There are plenty of examples out there that prove you can achieve amazing things even in your mature years. I love the little story of a woman who decided she wanted to go and study when she was in her forties. Her husband asked her.”Do you realize that if you start your studies now, you will be fifty when you graduate?" To which this admirable lady replied:“Darling-l shall be fifty in any case".

So go ahead and follow your dreams. No matter what they are, no matter what your age, and no matter what others think of it. It's your life after all.