Your toxic relationship with time
It's easy to overcomplicate stuff. Start simplifying.
Today’s brain bonanza:
A man who lives out of a 30 story building decides to jump out the window. He survives the fall with no injuries. How?
Answer at the end of the email.
Time to talk about time.
Most people I know have a toxic relationship with time. They either always complain they don’t have time or, funny enough, that they’re bored (meaning they have too much time on their hands).
There’s so many productivity tutorials out there. You barely have time to go through all of them. The one I consistently recommend is Tim Ferris, especially this recent episode with Dr. Andrew Huberman.
So what’s the lowest hanging fruit, the easiest way to become more effective with your time management? You guessed it, lateral thinking about it.
I know, I know, if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, but hear me out, I’ve honestly tried a lot of different approaches and I’m seeing the best results so far with this method.
Split your day in 30 minutes intervals.
Or 1 hour. Or 2 hours. Whatever works for you.
Stop thinking you’re supposed to do as much as possible to be productive. Rather than being a multitasking menace (emails, notifications, social media, texts, you name it), do less.
Doing less will help you get more done. It’s counter-intuitive, so that’s why I’m going on a stretch and calling it lateral thinking.
Instead of having an endless to do list, pick top 3 or 5 things you want to get done within the day.
If you manage to do all of them, DO NOT ADD MORE. Take the day off. Rest and recreation is just as important as hard work.
Rather than looking at yourself as a productivity machine, treat yourself like a simple minded monkey. Give yourself small tasks and reward yourself for completing them.
Sounds juvenile? Probably.
Does it work? Definitely.
Even if it’s about taking 30 minutes a day to write a newsletter you enjoy writing, prioritize it, take the 30 minutes (trust me, we can all make time for 30 minutes per day), then go on with your day.
Simple beats complicated 9 out of 10 times.
Answer: He lives in a 30 story building, but he jumped out of the ground floor window.