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In one year, everything was different—my entire life had changed. My new energy-creating entrepreneurial endeavors were thriving, and I had the freedom to go for multiple daily walks, find time for a robust health routine, and focus on the projects and people that brought me joy.
Never let the quest for more distract you from the beauty of enough.
“Treat your body like a house you have to live in for another seventy years.” He added, “If something has a minor issue, repair it. Minor issues become major issues over time. This applies equally to love, friendships, health, and home.”
Regret from inaction is always more painful than regret from action”).
trapped in a perpetual loop of busyness, running faster and faster but never making progress, with little control over how time is spent and whom it is spent with.
you have a life devoid of Mental Wealth, you live a life of stasis, self-limiting beliefs, stagnation, low-purpose activities, and perpetual stress.
You may have a season of professional growth, a season of divorce, a season of readjustment after a family tragedy, a season of inner health, or a season of new love.
Just as they set goals for what they wanted to happen, they needed to set anti-goals: things they wanted to avoid.
systems.” Systems are the daily actions that create forward progress. Leverage amplifies the output of a single unit of input. Combining the two ideas, high-leverage systems are the daily actions that create amplified, asymmetric forward progress.
This book rejects that old school of thought and offers a new one: If you have the appropriate goals, anti-goals, and high-leverage systems, your focus on each type of wealth can exist on a dimmer switch rather than an on/off switch.
At the end of each month, ask yourself three tactical questions: What really matters right now in my life, and are my goals still aligned with this? Assess the quality of your goals and ensure that they still serve as true north. Are my current high-leverage systems aligned with my goals? Assess the quality of your high-leverage systems and whether they create the appropriate momentum. Am I in danger of running afoul of my anti-goals? Assess the quality of your environment and decisions to evaluate any changes
The monthly ritual takes thirty minutes and creates an opportunity for regular reflection and minor course corrections that are essential on your journey. At the end of each quarter, add these four questions to your regular ritual: What is creating energy right now? Review your calendars from the prior quarter. What activities, people, or projects consistently created energy in your life? Did you spend ample time on these energy creators, or did they get neglected? Recalibrate to spend more time on these in the quarter ahead. What is draining energy right now? Review your calendars from the
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really hope you’ve worked on yourself and grown up. You have a lot you hide from the world. You’re insecure. You compare yourself to everyone but yourself. You’re so afraid to fail that you always seem to choose the safe path. You’ve got work to do—don’t run away from it.
Writer and philosopher Sam Harris once said, “No matter how many times you do something, there will come a day when you do it for the last time.”[3] There will be a last time your kids want you to read them a bedtime story, a last time you’ll go for a long walk with your sibling, a last time you’ll hug your parents at a family gathering, a last time your friend will call you for support.
‘It’s later than you think.’ ”
The young student was Isaac Newton, and 1666 became known as his annus mirabilis (Latin for “miracle year”), a nod to the breadth and depth of his output over such a short period. In a single year, he had produced the output of several incredible lifetimes. Attention is defined as the state or act of applying the mind to something. This application of mental energy is how we create progress. Your choice of how and when to deploy your limited attention determines the quality of your outcomes.
The same insight applies to your attention: Focused, concentrated attention is significantly more powerful than scattered, unconcentrated attention. Outcomes follow attention.
Spending too much of my time on low-value, energy-draining activities
What are your common energy-creating (green) activities? What are your common neutral (yellow) activities? What are your common energy-draining (red) activities?
Buffett shook his head and replied that everything Flint hadn’t circled should become his Avoid at All Costs List. These items should get no attention until success was achieved with the top five.
The point: The most important items had been highlighted; everything else was simply a distraction threatening to derail Flint’s progress.
“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”
Urgent: A task that requires prompt attention Important: A task that advances your long-term values or goals
We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a day, so be intentionally conservative in the number of items you list. As a rule of thumb, it should be three unless there is a very specific reason for it to be more.
The fanciest productivity systems often require a lot of thinking and maintenance. If you’re spending time thinking about your productivity system, you’re focusing on movement over progress. The simple index card strategy harnesses the core principles of focus and momentum to allow you to get more of what matters done. Always remember: Simple is beautiful.
Open time frames lead to a lot of movement and very little progress—the rocking-horse phenomenon of busywork culture. We tend to be more efficient and productive when constraints come into play. We also tend to focus on the important when pressed for time.
Establish time blocks that are shorter than you’re comfortable with for low-importance but necessary tasks. Use this artificial pressure to avoid procrastination and free up time for important, high-value tasks. Batch-process email in one to three short, time-constrained windows. If you allow yourself to check your email throughout the day, you’ll be plagued by attention residue and never get through your work. Condense the processing into short windows to become more efficient and avoid the negative cognitive impact of task-switching. Shorten standard meetings to twenty-five minutes. The
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leverage Parkinson’s law in the structure of my calendar to concentrate in short sprints of energy on my priority projects.
The better way, to paraphrase entrepreneur Naval Ravikant, is to work like a lion: Sprint, rest, repeat.
To the procrastinator, large, long-term projects are a big, scary black box. Your imagination fills that box with endless complexity and horrors. The whole is too intimidating, so you push it out to your future self. Deconstruct the big and scary project into small and individually manageable tasks. In the example of the senior thesis, the tasks might be:
The plan for each micro task should be Specific: Exactly what you’ll do Time-bound: When you’ll do it When setting time bounds, lean toward being less ambitious on the micro scale. Give yourself easy wins early on with achievable time bounds. Create a project document: Write down the specific tasks under each major deconstructed pillar of the project. Write down your timeline for each task.
Use stakes to gamify big projects. It can be very effective.
Plan a sync session: Similar to the social-pressure stake above, meet a friend for the initial movement. Reward initial movement: Attach a small reward to completing the initial movement (for example, a walk outside). Use the lion technique: Commit to a single short (thirty-minute) sprint followed by luxurious rest.
The hardest part is getting started. Give yourself a quick win. Big wins are simply the result of consistent small wins.
Putting It All Together The three steps of the anti-procrastination system: Deconstruction: Deconstruct the big, scary project into small, manageable tasks. Plan and stake creation: Create a project document with specific, time-bound tasks. Create stakes to gamify their completion. Action: A body in motion tends to stay in motion. Create s...
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The Four Types of Professional Time There are four types of professional time: Management Creation Consumption Ideation
Typical activities of Management Time include: Meetings Calls Presentations Email processing Team and people management
Creation is where new progress is found. Thriving organizations have a focus on Creation Time and ensure that Management Time doesn’t infringe on
Typical activities of Consumption Time include: Reading Listening Studying To paraphrase Atomic Habits author James Clear, everything you create is downstream from something you consume.[12] Consumption Time focuses on quality upstream to ensure quality downstream.
Typical activities of Ideation Time include: Brainstorming Journaling Walking Self-reflecting
Starting on a Monday, at the end of each weekday, color-code the events from that day according to this key: Red: Management Green: Creation Blue: Consumption Yellow: Ideation At the end of the week, look at the overall mix of colors on the calendar. Focus on identifying the trends. What color dominates the calendar? Are there distinct windows for Creation Time? Are the colors organized or randomly scattered?
Leverage Parkinson’s law and work toward a batched schedule: Create discrete blocks of time each day when you will handle major Management Time activities. Have one to three email-processing blocks per day. Have one to three call and meeting blocks per day.
To start, schedule one short block per week for Consumption and one short block per week for Ideation. Stay true to the purpose of the block. Own that before increasing the presence of these types of time in your schedule.
Review your calendar from the previous year. What were the Energy Creators in your personal and professional life? What activities outside of work felt life-giving and joyful? Who made you feel energized? What new learning or mental pursuits sparked your interest to go deeper? What rituals created more peace, calm, and mental clarity? What physical pursuits did you enjoy? What professional or financial pursuits felt effortless (or even fun)?
Use the Energy Calendar technique for one week to develop an awareness of your current time usage and identify trends in activities that are creating or draining your energy. On a sheet of paper, write your energy-creating activities on the left side and your energy-draining activities on the right side. Below your energy-creating list, write down ways that you can spend more time on these activities in the future. Below your energy-draining list, write down ways that you can spend less time on these activities in the future.
What are you doing to cherish the people who hold those special seats in your world? How are you letting those people know what they mean to you? Are you prioritizing time with them or letting it float by and disappear?
Find your Front-Row People. Cherish them. Be one to someone else.
Entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant once said, “A fit body, a calm mind, and a house full of love. These things cannot be bought—they must be earned.” The most universally treasured, valuable, and durable things in life cannot be acquired with money. The things that earn the deep respect and admiration of your peers are not for sale.
If you’re trying to make conversation with people who intimidate you, ask what they’re currently working on that they’re most excited about. Ask follow-ups and listen intently.
