Mistakes or fear?

One of my favorite quotes goes as follows:

A few mistakes made by a person working productively cost far less than a person paralyzed by laziness or fear.

The quote originates from a place that one might not have imagined. Some would probably expect some management guru, but the originator is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, who as his job titles have ruler of Dubai and vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.
I think it's an excellent quote - as laziness and fear are so powerful opponents, it's crucial to fight them with all possible means. And one of the essentials is that we are all being made aware that what the quote says.
With this background, it is completely irrelevant whether it's a manager, an emir or ourselves expressing a willingness to accept mistakes, rather than what we are able to come up with when we fear making them.
(Translated from Fejl eller frygt?, originally published May 15, 2017)

Early bird...? ...or?

There are people who suggest that if you want to get more done, you should simply leave bed an hour earlier - in that way, you would worst case get 365 additional hours a year.
However, I am convinced that it is not a universal - for early birds is certainly excellent, for they can just go an hour earlier to bed at night, at which time they are not as effective. But for the night owls, I doubt that there will be any outcome - except perhaps the negative one that they will get one less hour of productive time at the end of the day.
So although I'm an early bird (at least in the morning), I am not blind to the fact that the advice is given by early birds to early birds without taking night owl habits much into account.
If I were to give the advice, I think that I would state it as

Expand your productive time by one waking hour instead of sleeping. 

Early birds can get up even earlier, Night owls go to bed later, and either can where necessary gain back the sleep on the time of day, where they are less productive.
But in any case it's a bad idea to unconditionally accept advice that lumps all recipients together in one barrel.
(Translated from Tidligt op og...? eller?, originally published March 30th, 2017)