This is How to Approach Productivity

There’s no pressure.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

“Assemble your life… action by action. And be satisfied if each one achieves its goal… No one can keep that from happening…Action by action.” — Marcus Aurelius

“Be satisfied with even the smallest progress.” — Marcus Aurelius

Focusing on the immensity of what you have to do is intimidating.

It makes procrastination easy.

Before you know it, the year is ending and you haven’t done anything you promised yourself to do.

That’s not good for your self-esteem, now is it?

Living in perpetual dread of working is one way to approach big projects.

And it doesn't take a genius to know this approach doesn't work.

Another way is to break down these tasks and attack the parts — one by one, like a sniper. You’d be astonished at what you can accomplish.

The daily cumulative achievements and exciting momentum in this slow but deliberate strategy to add up the work by focusing for a few hours is what cultivates confidence, skill, and awesome outcomes.

You also get the audacity to dream bigger as all you have to do is create a system helping you contribute to the daily progress of the goal you want to achieve without burning out.

You just have to show up and do your thing.

And before you know it, you have a full-blown body of work paying for years to come.

Don't get me wrong.

It's not bad to work like a mad man when you get a fit of manic energy and inspiration. Or when you have a fast-approaching deadline.

What this strategy proposes is having a minimum daily input toward your goals.

There’s no pressure to increase this input beyond what you’ve set, for sustainability by teasing yourself through pulling out of flow state just when work gets exciting is the essence of this strategy.

You’ll want to do more after some time. Drunk, tired, or travelling you’ll want to make some progress. Before sleep, you’ll be excited for tomorrow.

This excitement is not only about the results you can get and what you can do with them but also what more you can do through the curious exploration of your potential.

This way, even the process becomes fun. You get to trust it.

For example, you could aim to write 300 words daily. Over the week you’ll have written a 2000-word article, which can then turn into 4 articles a month. Over the year, you’ll have over 100,000 words to fill a whole book.

What’s even more interesting is that it only takes you less than 30 minutes a day to write those 300 words.

Now imagine doing that for years.

Investing in relationships, politics, coding, learning a new language, losing weight, studying for exams. Anything.

You’ll be unstoppable.

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Channel Intrinsic Motivation

“People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat.” — Marcus Aurelius

Knowing why you want to do something isn’t enough. You need energy to sustain this movement especially if your pursuit is part-time.

You’ll therefore want to be interested in what you want to pursue. Like pathologically obsessed.

Leaning into your natural inclinations is the mother of motivation.

However, sometimes you might not be interested in making progress on what’s important.

And to make it interesting, you want coat your ‘why’ in fear to help you secrete the adrenaline and dopamine necessary to help you push through fatigue.

For example,

You could think of the consequences of not being able to provide for your family if you don’t finish medical school.

Or you could use the fear of dying average to tap into boundless energy.

Whatever works.

What matters is that this fear hinges on the accurate appraisal of life on a cause and effect basis.

This way, you can’t afford to be complacent, cut corners, or give in to discomfort easily.

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On Playing Long-Term Games

“Progress is not achieved by luck or accident, but by working on yourself daily.” — Epictetus

We’re all guilty of short-term thinking.

Patience is expensive. We want what gratifies us immediately.

Born this way, the irrational parts of our brains make it hard for us to think on a strategic scale. However, through practice, you can learn to be more rational. To control your impatience, be deliberate with your time, and commit to a goal whose achievement can take years.

The point?

It's impossible to not be positive about ever being successful if you take this lengthy perspective as it focuses on skill acquisition whose polished quality earns worthwhile leverage.

Also, by giving yourself time to learn, practice and master the details of your craft, it allows you the grace to build up your resilience to endure the boredom, obstacles and monotony of training at your own pace.

Consistency becomes easier as the pressure to perform is negligent.

You also get to pivot at will to add ancillary skills that’ll elevate your workmanship to a loftier stage.

Most of the mistakes you fear you'll never overcome at the moment will come to be your greatest strengths, your competitive edge, because you’ll be aware of your weaknesses and deliberate in overcoming them — more than anyone else as it’s hard for them to be careful when rushing.

You won't believe that you almost cried over not being good at something. That you almost gave up because your subscriber count was stagnant at fifty for seven weeks despite posting bangers consistently.

None of the dreary emotions you feel will matter if you give yourself time to figure it all out.

You’ll even be more open to figuring things out because you have the time.

And in the end, you'll be happy you persisted through the doubts because you created the best quality of what mattered to you: a craft and lifestyle that gives you immense meaning and joy.

It's good to be careful, however, that this mindset isn't an excuse to slack.

It’s but a belief fortifier that with time and practice, you’ll get exceptional at your craft and profit from it.

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Expect It'll Be Hard — For Some Time

“It may seem difficult at first, but all things are difficult at first.” — Miyamoto Musashi

Commencing any new venture is a tough task for anyone.

There's no momentum of habit to lubricate the actions. It’s pure friction.

This creates a reluctance to do the work and be consistent, which if you haven't prepared for, you’re NGMI.

Wisdom is knowing there's a learning curve.

The best thing isn't to complain about the work to do and how hard it is, but to focus on how to respond to this challenge with what's fully under your control: aggression, determination, grace, high-mindedness, patience and endurance.

With time, the body and brain will get used to the amount of effort required to make your conscious desire a success.

And when you look at it this way, from the perspective of investing in what's under your full control, you’ll have landed on the most powerful mindset — ensuring you’ll always flourish.

You’d want that, right?

This is how it happens.

Let's say you aim to fast for 48 hours for health reasons. You'll be battling the natural physiological response of hunger, cravings from your favorite burger place, and dreams about food as you’re used to eating and are now running counter to this habit.

You’ll have thoughts to give up, take a small bite, and probably fear that the practice is unhealthy. But those thoughts aren't true upon careful deliberation. They're involuntary ideas and feelings about what's happening.

Be a little skeptical about them.

You can get carried away and act on what you feel or you can stand your ground and ignore them until they fade from your mind at their own time because their suggestions are contrary to your goals and are thus useless.

You can say to the tyrannical feelings as Epictetus did,

“You execute your necessary actions, and I will fulfill my own, which embodies living and dying like a man.”

You can let them be, without fighting or indulging them, while you’re focused on what you want and should do.

And so your ultimate question changes from,

Will I survive this journey and achieve what I want?

to

What lofty and rewarding goal can I aim for knowing I have all the internal resources I need to make it a success?

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Write a To-Do List

“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.” — Seneca

A to-do list gives you,

1. Conquest to look forward to,

2. Clarity of your daily objectives,

3. A sense of urgency after seeing all the work there is left to do,

4. An intimate and intentional use of your time,

5. A way to stay accountable at the end of the day,

6. A filter to prioritize the important.

Writing down your to-do list will become automatic after some time but that’s not the point.

You write down your tasks to get the comfort of having direction, a concavity to focus your energy and attention, and the immense pleasure of crossing out your day's tasks.

Contrast this ordered life with the depressive aimlessness of waking up at noon, having nothing to do, and nothing to look forward to in the future.

I’ve been there before and it sucks.

The measure of a great life is in the objective living to create and do something cool each day.

P.S

“If you seek tranquillity,” Marcus Aurelius said, “do less. Or (more accurately) do what's essential…which brings a double satisfaction, to do less, better.”

It's unwise to have many items on this list as it'll be overwhelming. Eventually, it’ll lose its purpose for you’ll be so disappointed in yourself for not doing everything you set out to do.

Remember. You’re focusing on the long-term. You’ll have time for those other interests when you’re done with your current obsession.

Stick with at least three to five strategic objectives. Some days even one is enough.

Other ancillary tasks like going to the gym, meditating, or practicing a language may already be automatic and thus not worth putting on the list.

Priority items first.

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Work on Long-Term Goals First

An easy task becomes difficult when you do it with reluctance.” — Terence, a Roman Playwright

It’s easy to lose sight of your long-term goals when you’re caught up in the daily stresses of tactical moves.

Sometimes it's not until months later that you realize you haven't made any progress on what you wanted over the long term.

You haven’t lost any weight.

You haven’t started the blog.

You haven’t enrolled into that coding course you wanted.

You then imagine, if you had dedicated a few minutes toward that strategic end, how much progress you would have made by now. You think of how your project would have already started bearing fruit, attracting more opportunities — compounding.

That’s regret creeping in.

It's for this reason that it's wise to lay the bricks on your Rome as soon as you wake up before emergencies, distractions and competing tactical interests of the day catch up with you.

You’ll be satisfied and proud for having done away with it — knowing it’ll all come to pay-off later.

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Finish Difficult Tasks First

“Excellence withers without an adversary.” — Seneca

It's wise to start on difficult projects as early in the day as possible, while courage, aggression, and energy are fresh and abundant.

You’ll also need the element of intensity, a keen determination to do high-quality work and to perform it as speedy as possible for going slow only lengthens the discomfort, and limits the time for other activities.

Get it over with and enjoy the rest of your day.

And if your day is full of difficult tasks, you might want to take an afternoon nap to replenish your energy for the next half of the day :).

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Until next time,

Antonius Veritas.

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Favorite lyric of the song I’m listening to:

I'm getting better, I'm at practice
I'm workin' everyday, craftin'