This article is for a certain part of the population, and after a few paragraphs, you will know if it is you (or someone you know).
Historically, I have had huge troubles to make my daily work normal: homework, trivial matters, work projects, home maintenance, assigned reading, paperwork, personal goals, and putting the clock back in place after time changes.
No one found all of these things easy or problematic. The demands of life are beyond what any of us can offer. Each of us has to find a balance where we can tolerate ourselves, let some things fall off and do most of the important things.
However, since childhood, I was well aware that when it comes to the ability to meet these needs, the population exists on the bell curve, and I am at its left tail. I always marvel at the work done by normal, well-adjusting people. The speed at which they dispatch actionable things—a form to fill out, an item to return—and how simple the question of doing so.
I don’t know how it feels to do things, but to me it feels like I’m standing on a rocking spot with weight on my limbs and six different radio stations playing in my brain.
This is not a complaint, but an observation. Only my own choice can compete with this issue. This is a fusion of random and self-induced conditions: temperament, natural and knowledgeable work ethics, emergency chains of habits and coping mechanisms, neurosis, and repeated failures of will and courage.
These are all very human things that no one completely escapes. But, as I said, every set of talents and talents has a bell-shaped curve, and you can’t live for decades without finding you sitting in the most relevant place.
Some of you are my neighbors on this plane. Your to-do list has been on it for many years. You will send a lot of emails regularly, including “Sorry, slow response.” You need three weeks to do what some people do on a weekend.
You know the pain and humiliation that disappoints yourself and others again and again. You live to some extent not starting to live, at least the life you should live. And you are always getting older.
Good news
You may have discovered that, like I ended up doing, your productivity challenge doesn’t mean you cannot Get the job done. They do mean you are different from where you assumed from the school, employer and peers. You have to pick the battle more carefully and adopt unconventional strategies that most people don’t need.
The biggest benefit of facing serious productivity challenges is that most of your potential is not developed. If you do find ways to bypass the worst points, you have huge and quick room for improvement that most people don’t have.
It’s hard to measure “productivity” accurately, but the level of improvement I’m talking about is not in the range of 30% or 50%, but more like 3 times. I’ll explain why below, but I do think it’s a reasonable goal of shooting and hitting someone challenged by productivity Short semester.
The 3x improvement may sound crazy, especially for someone in the middle of the curve (i.e., normal), his time is relatively effective and feels maximized. But for the person I’m talking about, a disastrous person who may only get 90 minutes of actual, intentional work at the moment, it’s a complete three times Personal productivity, and even more, is certainly feasible. There is at least that much space in the cake.
Such a leap may still not make you a superstar – if Normie of average ability produces 10 units of productivity in a day, the initial triple might take you from 2.5 to 7.5, but that still changes life and opens the door for stable long-term improvements.
I should note here that some people’s productivity challenges are not problems with inefficiency, temperament or mismatch strategies, but rather harm, degenerative conditions and other strict constraints. I’m not talking about this group. I’m talking about thousands of us millions of us, through the whole process, to get it deep into adulthood, Know that we have more capabilitiesbut cannot replicate the standards and methods practiced by those around us.
Why some of us fall behind
If it sounds like you, a relatively fast, 3x leap may be feasible. I believe the problem for most of us is that as we grow, no one explicitly teaches us productivity. We expect to figure this out just by imitating the people around us.
For most people, this does apply to the middle of the bell curve. But if imitating the standard method doesn’t work for you due to eccentricity of temperament, cognition or other factors, then guess what – ordinary life will be very hard until you find a way to do it.
So, no one with any of the same problems can understand or explain why you are struggling. The normal process of penetration learning is good enough for them. They can’t see the water they swim.
That’s why the traditional productivity advice you certainly want to do is unlikely to fill the gap. Popular productivity materials are overwhelmingly targeting the middle of the curve, and it is a high score hustle guide to push the maximum of human polymers, or only as a second person, theoretical issues can be understood – challenged by high clinicians. Both forms of recommendation are complex and long and require some competence to remain consistent Doing – You don’t have it to be precise – in order to implement them. They don’t understand.
Get out of the pit
This high investment alternative is to try a variety of simple, unconventional strategies, most of which can be learned in 15 or 20 minutes and applied immediately. If a person does not meet you where you are, you can put it down and try another one and get nothing. When one of them clicks, things may change quickly.
I wrote some articles about these actions at a fierce speed – right now list, block method, atomic accountability, cracked eggs, velvet ropes, and clouds and bricks, to name just a few.
The advantage of this approach is that it actually suits outliers and weirdness. Certain strategies will perfectly insert gaps into your unique and quirky brain and make Direct and lasting The difference is sometimes dramatic.
For example, if you find the right-now list (for example, learnable in 10 minutes) a reliable way to start half of the task you usually postpone, your productivity aperture will expand there and then forever. You’ll do more On that day, Every day.
This new move may allow another hour or two a day to do it, intentionally, which may already be close to 2 times the productivity for those struggling.
Inappropriate places
Earlier this year How to do things. My goal is to find and collect these scattered, overlooked weirdos and get as much productivity as possible this year.
On the new website, there is a free resource for anyone who subscribes to the email list, called 3 secret weapons to challenge productivity. It will teach you three of the best tactics in about half an hour: now list, red carpet and block timer.
This blog post comes from How to Do Things is another example of the kind of simple, independent strategy I’m talking about.
Hope you enjoyed this new site. Even your non-spiritual may get something out of it. If you know one of the people I’m writing about, send them there.
***
Desert photos are from Zouhair Mazjoub. Freepik egg chair, smartphone and Christmas lights photos. David Cain’s drawings.
