A good quote that sums up my position on the book Make Time:
“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise, instead, seek what they sought.” - Matsuo Basho
The book is great and I agree with most of it, but it’s too light on the core point - each person needs to self experiment and practice regular deep reflection to really understand what works.
Highlight
- Give equal thought to what’s getting dropped to give time and importance to the top thing
- Spinning plates analogy is good, bounce between high level life priorities so none fall (too badly) long-term
Laser Focus
- Centered app or other timer
- Short but frequent breaks (5min breaks every 30min)
- Set a visible reward for larger projects (e.g. box of chocolate, new macbook pro)
- Set your urges as a short-term reward (e.g. if I focus in now, I’ll get some tea and a snack on my break)
Energize
- Walk in the forest with the dog
- Coffee nap
- Healthy snacks all day
- One coffee per day, after being awake for at least one hour
- Daily mindfulness to set the tone for the day
- Threedom or other comedy podcast in driving/alone time
- Incremental improvement in a video game (moderate game time)
- Do the dishes quickly and efficiently
- Take out the garbage
- Refill all our water vessels (two filter pitchers, two coffee machines, three humidifiers, etc.)
- Break down boxes for recycling
- Avoid
- Habit disruptors (e.g. no amazon for the month, no phone for a week, etc.)
- Pick off the next thing from the learning list
- Making the bed in the morning
- Reading good fiction before bed
- Sharing my experiences, philosophy, and learning with people
Anti-energize (things to avoid)
- Unhealthy or too many snacks
- Too much context switching
- Soda
- Too much coffee
- Losing myself in TV
- Screen time in the bedroom
- Trying to do a retro/reflect/gratitude journal (these just never worked for me)
Over the years I’ve re-wired my defaults for interaction with the internet to the point I don’t feel the need to even mention social media or other apps/websites here. They just aren’t a problem for me. Same goes for email, slack, and other communication. I’ve set a boundary and I’m happy with it.