Here’s the thing with focused people: They are not perfectly focused and organized all the time.
Nobody is like that.
But, what focused people do have are the systems, tools, the approaches to stay on track most of the time. And they know how to get back on track after a bad week or a cheat day.
After you take time to rest and recharge then you should actually be rested and recharged. Things that drain you of your energy are, therefore, not restful. True rest requires effort.
(Cheatsheet.)
An excellent comparison by Ben Hardy on the differences in our actions when we see things as costs compared to investments.
When I first came across this video, I was instantly able to apply it to two difficult decisions I was faced with: one for my neighborhood HOA and another for my business.
In those situations, when I was able to look at taking actions as investments in my desired outcomes, then the path forward became much more obvious.
Crema is different than any other “ship to your door” coffee roaster out there that I know of. You choose any coffees that you want from their slew of roasters. Your bag is then roasted-to-order and shipped to you in the mail. I also love that you can set your delivery timeframe down to as short as 3 days. My two favorite roasters on Crema are Onyx and Ruby.
(If you use this link that I have as a Crema customer myself, you’ll save $5 each of your first 4 orders.)
A small decision is something trivial:
Many of these small decisions can be automated and routinized by deciding in advance… thus, effectively removing them as unique decisions you have to make every single day.
By automating your small decisions and eliminating them from your life, you can save your much-needed energy in order to allow for a greater capacity to focus on the bigger decisions of your day-to-day life and the more challenging problems you are trying to solve.
Years ago, in an interview with Vanity Fair, President Obama shared why he would only wear gray or blue suits:
You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make. You need to focus your decision-making energy.
You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.
Back in December, several people got Covid at my boys’ school, and so everyone ended up with a 4-week-long holiday break over December and January. And so, with our boys home for a month solid, we spent a lot of time playing games over the holidays. We are a gaming family anyway, but we definitely got into some new ones.
Here are some of our favorites right now:
Root: This is the top game at our house right now (thanks, Mike!). It feels like Settlers of Catan meets Risk. This is definitely more advanced and in-depth — thus my younger two boys (5 and 8) struggle and I usually have to help them with their turns, but they love the gameplay anyway. My 10 yo is great at it and quickly picked up the mechanics and strategy.
Skyjoe: Perfect for casual game night with anyone at just about any age.
Bang: This has been our family favorite for a several years now. There are several expansion packs as well, and about once every six months we will get a new expansion.
Bananagrams: We will often sneak in a round of Bananagrams before bedtime, or during lunch.
Crew: If you like card games such as hearts, spades, etc. Then you’ll enjoy this.
(Bonus) Dominion: This is a deck-building card game that my family got into back before we all started having kids. We got so many of the expansion decks that I had to build my own custom card box. Anyway… we haven’t played it in ages, but listing out all these other games reminded me how much fun Dominion is.
Love this Twitter thread from Marie about how she has been using Notion to journal for the past 1,000+ days.
(See also how Chloe has begun using Notion to track her habits.)
It seems to be that right around the holidays and the new year (November through January), we feel especially burned out, overloaded, and anxious.
Why? Well, here is a look at three things that can contribute to our general lack of margin. (This is part of the training inside Focus Academy.)
There is an idea about habits and routines that you always want a non-zero day.
A non-zero day means a day where you do something — just so long as you don’t do nothing: Do at least one push-up, floss at least one tooth, write for at least 1 minute, etc.
The value of a non-zero day is that it keeps your momentum always moving forward. As anyone who knows about building habits, long-term consistency is everything.
A few days ago, the thought occurred to me about having more than just a non-zero day — but rather, a Non-Zero Life.
A Non-Zero Life means building simple-but-healthy habits you can do every day that impact every area of your life: Your career, your health, your relationships, your money, your inner-personal life…
Don’t let one of these areas slip away.
This is kinda what the idea behind Hal Elrod’s book, Miracle Morning, is about. A Miracle Morning is when you do a little bit of everything all before 8am.
I also love Sarah Peck’s idea of having a daily recipe that consists of the few things that, if done, make for a good day.
One reason I like the idea behind a Non-Zero Life is that it keeps you from coasting in any area.
Coasting means you are not taking action. And, thus, you are, by nature: (a) going downhill; (b) living off the momentum of your past effort; or (c) being pulled / pushed along by someone else.
Last week I began reading Annie Duke’s fantastic book, Thinking in Bets.
First takeaway so far is this:
Do not equate the quality of a decision with the result of that decision.
For example: If you decided to drive home drunk and you happen to make it home safely, nobody would say that the “positive outcome” means you made a “good decision” in that scenario.
Yet, we so often apply “hindsight bias” to our decisions: We look back at the decisions which resulted in a poor outcome as being bad decisions and the decisions with a positive outcome as being good decisions.
And so, start to separate the quality of your decisions with the results of those decisions. Then, learn how to get better at making good decisions more often.
Sometimes, if you insist on using “The Best”, it can actually hold you back and slow you down.
For example…
Last fall my company switched project management tools.
We were Basecamp for years, and we switched to Notion.
Notion is on the complete other side of the spectrum compared to Basecamp.
It was not a simple move. And, of course, it took us some time to decide on Notion.
While trying to decide on which PM tool we’d would switch to, I spent a lot of time testing and tinkering with some of the other options (such as Asana, Jira, Monday, Trello, Todoist, et al.)
How did I decide?
The thing that helped the most with our decision to use Notion was when I could see how other people were using it.
Once I saw it in action through case studies and workflow videos of other users, that’s when I knew it would work for us.
(This is also how I was able to discover that Trello and Monday would NOT work for us.)
. . . . .
These days, I no longer try to find “The Best App No Matter What”.
Instead, I look for “The Best App to Help Me Get the Right Things Done”.
For example: Apple Notes. (Sigh.)
Is Apple Notes the best basic note taking app? No way. In fact, I’m really not a fan of Apple Notes.
BUT…
When it comes to collaborating with my friends and family, it’s hard to beat Apple Notes.
And so, for that reason, I’m in.
. . . . .
I’ve spent the past decade researching and using “the best apps”, and then finding the best workflows and use-cases for those apps that I can. And I would love to help you save some and frustration in getting the right apps that work for you.
This Thursday (May 20th) I’ll be going through every critical app I use, how I use it, and why I use it.
At this LIVE workshop, the emphasis will be on my productivity apps and workflows for ideas, tasks, and time.
1. Ideas: Apps and workflows for creating and shipping work day in and day out
2. Tasks: Apps and workflows for handling the incoming tasks and the never-ending lists.
3. Time: Apps and workflows for scheduling time and staying focused.
……
This is one of our premium workshops (about 2 hours) where we’ll be going very in depth. And you’ll be able to ask questions to me or Mike about any of this stuff.
**Register Here** (plus check out all details)
In Ray Dalio’s book, Principles, he lists a 5-step process for how to make progress on your goals:
In short, you must constantly measure your current outcomes against your desired outcomes and then take action.
You need to know what it is that you want, you need to know what is true right now, and then you need to decide what you are going to do about it.
Side note. Ray’s process of ownership, diagnosis, and action is almost identical to something my wife and I have been working on with our three younger boys. We are trying to teach them to take ownership of their own problems, consider cause and effect for various outcomes and solutions, and then make a choice and act.
Tomorrow — Tuesday, 10 November — I am hosting a free webinar for how to plan your year.
More than 900 folks are registered to join us. Which makes this one of the biggest webinars we’ve done so far in 2020.
If you haven’t already, you should RSVP to join us, because I can already tell this is going to be a good one.
It feels like 2020 deposited a cloud of fog inside my brain.
For one, there is all the crud and trauma that we have all had to deal with in 2020 so far, we’re not even through November yet. And, like many of you, I’ve had my fair share of additional challenges to work through at home and at work.
And it has me longing for clarity. Because I’m not a fan of the fog, the overwhelm, and the lack of focus.
With clarity comes a freedom from busywork. It allows you to bring something into alignment and then actually direct your attention on it.
Moreover, clarity can help with stress, anxiety, and worry. Because you’re confident in the direction you’re going.
You know that feeling of overwhelm when you think of all the things you have to do, all the possible options, all the spinning plates, all the open loops…??
When you take a few moments to step back, look at the big picture, and get clear … well, it’s liberating.
Sometimes clarity can come in a few minutes. Sometimes it takes much longer, and it requires a process…
On Nov 10, I’m hosting a free webinar training on How to Plan Your Year.
(Yes, even if you hate planning, think goals are dumb, and would rather not be reminded that it’s almost 2021.)
Here’s what we’ll be covering at the workshop:
I’ll show you how to then turn your plans and goals into something you can make progress on every single day. Use this system to help you to get clear — and identify what change you want to see in the next year. You can also use this framework to stay productive on your monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
If you want to be there, use this link to RSVP so we can send you the details.