Skip to content

Category: Being Productive

Optimization Happens Last

Published on February 14, 2022

Optimization is the last step of any process.

Be it building a house, starting a business, creating a new habit etc.—the fine tuning should never happen first.

  • When it comes to building a house, who cares about auto-timed lighting as a means to optimizing the house’s energy efficiency—if there are no walls.
  • When it comes to starting a business, who cares about the color of the checkout button as a means to optimizing clicks—if there is no marketing plan in place to drive visitors to the business’ website.
  • When it comes to creating a new exercising habit, who cares about the exact rest time allowed in-between sets as a means to optimizing workout pace—if you don’t even have the habit of showing up to the gym.

In today’s world, optimization is an obsession.

Many of us are constantly on the hunt for (and are being bombarded with) optimization “hacks,” fine-tuning tricks, and hot trends that can produce any kind of measurable result.

But, without the foundation set—without the “big” things already in place—it’s ultimately just wasted time.

It’s like trying to optimize a lump of coal. You can try to clean, cut, and polish it all you want—it’ll still end up mostly as it started—coal.

If, however, you subjected that lump of coal to enough time under pressure, it’ll eventually transform into a diamond.

And diamond is what gets optimized.

Sacrificing Sleep To Gain Time

Published on January 4, 2022

Sacrificing sleep to “gain” time usually ends up in more time lost than is ever gained.

Sure, you might bank an extra hour when you get 7 hours of sleep instead of 8, but what isn’t considered as readily is the time lost when trying to make up for the side-effects of sleep deprivation.

When you add up all of the time spent taking excessive (caffeine) breaks, complaining about being tired (both to others and in your own head), and trying to chop down the tree of your work with a dull axe—the mismatch can be quite eye-opening.

When asked what time she wakes up every morning, founder of The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) and absolute legend in the writing world, Maria Popova said “Exactly 8 hours after I went to bed.”

She went on to explain that the sloth and mental cloudiness that comes from suboptimal sleep simply can’t be made up during the day in caffeine or whatever else. The bottom line for her is that she always produces higher quality work in a more efficient time when she gets proper rest.

…It’s the adding of time to sleep that can actually result in more time saved in the end.

While this isn’t exactly breaking news, here’s my reality: I’ve been trying to bank an extra hour or two by sleeping for 6 or 7 hours instead of 8 for years. And to no avail.

My body almost always forces me to stay in bed for 8. It’s stubborn as hell. Or maybe, I’m the one who is stubborn as hell and am finally starting to hear my body.

Lost At Sea

Published on January 3, 2022

If your ability to create (or do) is dependent on your need for inspiration, you’ll never fulfill your potential—especially not in today’s world.

Here’s why: distraction is the enemy of inspiration.

And if I had to pick just one word to describe the modern age we’re living in, I’d probably choose: “Distracted.”

Prior to the information explosion that came with the internet, modern gadgets, and social media—”waiting around” for inspiration was actually probably a great strategy.

Because here’s what I know about inspiration: it comes when I’m undistracted. It’s when I’m showering, staring at blank screens, meditating, walking my dog, driving, and/or sitting bored.

And “waiting around” prior to the information age probably consisted mostly of the things on that list. Today, however, “waiting around” consists mostly of… consuming distractions.

It never ceases to amaze me how quick I am to pull out my phone when I sit down in a public place alone—like when I’m waiting for my dinner party to arrive or when I’m waiting at the doctor’s office. The urge is almost unbearable.

And not just for me, but for the other phone-scrollers in the room. Or so it feels.

We’re addicted.

And because we’re addicted to distraction, we’re equally in conflict with inspiration.

This isn’t to say that we won’t get inspiration from the ocean of information that we consume—because we certainly may.

It is to say, however, that it isn’t being properly utilized. We need to do a better job of coming out of the ocean to regroup, reorganize, and reflect upon our findings.

Otherwise, we’ll continue flapping around, following treasure signs, and getting more and more lost at sea.

What Hustle Culture Doesn’t Say

Published on December 15, 2021

Sometimes the most productive thing we can do is nothing at all.

Hustle culture tells us otherwise.

Hustle culture says:

  • Beat the rest by outworking the rest.
  • Give 110% all of the time—no days off.
  • There will be plenty of time to sleep when you die.

But, what hustle culture fails to tell us is:

  • Burnout is real.
  • If we don’t take optional rests, we’ll experience forced shutdowns.
  • 100% can only ever come after a full charge. What might feel like your 100% might actually only be your 48% max because your battery is drained.
  • Consistency is more important than intensity. And trying to consistently give more than your 100% max effort on a daily basis is about as asinine as trying to sprint a marathon.
  • Sleep now or die sooner.

Turn down the volume on hustle culture. Turn up the volume on the whispers of your body.

If there’s anything you should prioritize in the new year that will best help you reach your goals, it should be more blocks of nothing.

Space where you can deliberately recharge, check in with your body, and adjust your pace.

Not more ways you can work at a suboptimal levels for the sake of getting diminishing returns only to end up rebounding back to where you originally started.

No. This year, don’t add more hustle to your resolutions—add un-hustle.

On To The Next

Published on November 19, 2021

When you’re done with an application on your computer, you close it.

If you keep that program open as you open other ones, you’ll slowly start seeing a progressive lag in performance.

Especially if you leave a big program like Photoshop open.

The same is true for your mind.

Close applications before you move on to the next.

Smarts And Systems

Published on November 16, 2021

The people who work at Lexus aren’t more tired at the end of the day than those who work at Ford.

And neither are the people who work at Rolex versus the people who work at Fossil.

Creating a higher quality product isn’t about effort.

It’s the people who learn how to work smarter, not harder, that find ways to get ahead.

It’s the people who learn how to create the right systems, not try to do things with no system, that are able to facilitate faster growth.

Focusing merely on effort (of yourself and your team) is almost guaranteed to ensure that your quality problem will persist.

Focus on smarts and systems instead.

Unplugged or Plugged In?

Published on August 23, 2021

When your device is unplugged, the battery will drain. Plug it in and it’ll charge.

The opposite seems to be true for the mind.

When your mind is unplugged—from devices, work, drama—the battery recharges.

Plug it in to one of those things, however, and the battery will drain.

If you find your mind in a nonfunctional state, maybe it’s not because you’ve been plugged in too long—but, because you haven’t been unplugged enough.