How to be productive

All you have to be capable of is showing up. Don’t worry about the results. Don’t worry about the end product. Just think about right now, where am I putting my effort? Am I going to show up? Am I going to try my best here? Because that’s all you have to do. Reset your standards for success and for failure. Because imperfection is not failure, okay? The only failure is just never starting on the thing and never doing it. If you do something but it’s just okay and it’s not great and it’s not perfect, that is still so much better than never starting on the thing. So you want to tell yourself it’s okay if it’s not perfect. In fact, we’re all imperfect. We’re humans. By definition, we are imperfect. We make mistakes. Things are never going to be fully perfect and that is okay. Let go of comparison. It is far too easy to let yourself fall into this internal trap of constantly comparing yourself to everyone around you even if that’s not at a conscious level like even if it’s only a subconscious thing it is far too easy to fall into that and you know as they say comparison is the death of happiness that is absolutely true in fact you’re never going to be performing at your best when you’re comparing yourself to others imagine you’re climbing up a mountain okay it is not going to be okay? You’re going to go up and you’re going to go down a little bit or flat and then you’re going to go up again. Maybe you got to wind back around a little bit. That’s okay and that is how it’s going to be. Like, people say progress is not linear and that is true in so many different areas. All you have to do is keep pushing forwards, keep pushing up, no matter where you’re at right now, okay? If you just lost multiple hours or multiple days to not working on the thing, that’s okay. That is just how it is. You can’t go back and change those hours into hours that you worked. You can’t go back. So, just start from where you’re at right now. Wherever you’re at right now is okay. You just got to keep pushing forward. Now, there are two diverging paths that you could take to doing this and both are are worth learning. The first one is going to be what most people tell you of, like, just train up your discipline and just become more disciplined over time. That is a viable approach, and I have a couple tricks for doing that, but I really want to focus on the second path, which is actually tricking yourself into being motivated, because that is something you can do. You can psychologically force your brain into being motivated if you can remember and reassociate the current moment with a time that you were motivated. And the way to do this is to think back to the last time you were like super, super motivated about something. And even better if this is like a personal project that you were motivated about, like something that you were super into that you just wanted to do it, right? What you want to do is recreate that atmosphere as much as you possibly can. So like same desktop wallpaper, if you were eating some like certain snack at the time, get that. A drink or whatever. If you’re using a certain pen, get that pen. Certain music you were listening to, certain clothes, okay? Get all of that and get your atmosphere as associated with that past time of motivation as much as you can and your brain will naturally reassociate that state. Like that is a thing that actually has worked for me many, many times and that’s sort of like the trick to getting yourself into a state of motivation to start working on the thing. Now, in terms of training your discipline, that’s something always worth doing. That can be a lot harder to do, but a little trick for you, okay? If you can train your discipline in a totally different area that will translate across the board so say you’re like going on a run and you’re just forcing yourself to be disciplined on that run and doing all the things that you need to do like you’re just forcing yourself okay i’m gonna go for this specific amount of time i’m gonna do this every day train up your discipline in that area that you feel capable of training your discipline and that will translate across the board. Like, if you practice being disciplined in other areas, that will translate towards things like work. Okay, so step one, how to actually make yourself start on the thing. Pull out a pen, pull out a piece of paper, and I’ll say this works for me probably nine times out of ten, okay? Pen, paper, all you have to commit to right now is writing random things on that piece of paper. Okay. The only rule is no phone, no PC, no distractions. All you’re going to do is just write things on this piece of paper and you can draw if you want to. It does not matter what you write. It does not need to be coherent. Just keep your pen on that paper and you’re going to do that until you’re bored. Okay. And maybe that takes two minutes, five minutes, however long. Once you are bored, you’re going to consider the ideal of this task that you’re avoiding and you don’t need to think about the specifics of the task. And in fact, tell yourself, I am not committing to doing this task. Like, I do not have to do this task right now. I absolutely don’t need to do it. Just consider the ideal of this task and think about why do I not want to do this task? Like, what is so hard about this task? What is so insurmountable that I can’t do this task at this moment? What is annoying me so much about this task that I don’t want to do it? And get that out onto the paper. It could be simple, it could be complex. Maybe it’s as simple as I’d rather be watching videos on my phone right now and I’m just distracted by that. I don’t want to work. Maybe it’s more complex, like this is a project that’s going to get evaluated and I’m really worried about getting it perfect. Maybe it’s something totally unrelated, like I had an argument with somebody this morning and that’s still replaying through my head because it’s unresolved and I can’t focus on anything besides that argument. Whatever it is, get it onto the paper. It does not need to be coherent. Your sentences can be totally fragmented. You don’t even have to worry about writing sentences. I mean, lord knows, you know, somebody were to read what I write doesn’t make any sense, okay? Just get words on the paper that are describing to you, why am I avoiding this task? What is it so hard about this task that I can’t manage to do it at this moment? And once you’ve done that, still not going to commit to doing the task. In fact, you never need to commit to doing this task. That’s the trick here. You’re never actually going to commit to doing the task, okay? Next up, just imagine what it would look like if you were to do the task at some point. And imagine in a physical sense, like, not the details of the task itself, just a physical imagination of, like, where am I at right now, okay? If you listen to music while you work, like, what music are you listening to? What is the atmosphere around you looking like? Maybe you’re, you know, working in, uh, on a laptop in a coffee shop. Maybe you have specific applications open. Just imagine, like, there’s literally a camera above you and you’re working. What does that look like? And you can draw it if you want to or just write out words. Doesn’t matter. Just get that atmosphere down and envision that atmosphere, okay? And the next thing you’re going to do, still not going to commit to working on the thing. Don’t worry about working on the thing. You’re just going to set up that atmosphere for yourself. So, say it’s that you need to have this book out that you’re going to have to read, just get the book out. Open it up to the page that you have to read. Or say you need to have applications open, open those applications. You don’t need to do any work in them, okay? Just close out any other distractions. If it’s on your PC and you had some like video or game open, just close that out, okay? But keep the application that you need to work in open. You do not have to do any work. All we’re gonna do now is just set a five minute timer, okay? You’re not gonna work. You don’t need to work. You do not need to work. You’re just gonna stare at that screen and don’t be distracted, okay? Don’t open anything else, okay? Don’t, you know, mess around. Say you’re in a word processor, don’t mess around with the fonts. Just stare at that screen. Those are your options, okay? You’re going to stare at the screen or you can work if you feel like working, but you don’t need to work, okay? Do not commit to working. You are not required to work. Just five minutes, stare at that screen. That’s what you’re allowed to do and you can let your thoughts wander if you want to, you know, think about some random thing. If you want to think about what it would be like to be outside right now, you can think about, you know, maybe you saw some TV show and you want to replay that in your head. That’s fine. That’s totally fine. Okay, five minute timer. Once that’s up, take a break. You can go get some water. You can go take a walk. Maybe you’re thinking about what it would be like to be outside. Go take a walk real quick. Come back, another five minute timer. You’re going to stare at the screen. Your only option is just thinking and blankly staring at that screen, or you can get started on the task if you want to. You’re not required to, though. You are allowed to keep avoiding this task. You can keep avoiding it as long as you would like and just repeat this until you are eventually so, so very bored that you just start working on the task. You don’t have to worry about excelling. You don’t have to worry about perfection. All you have to think about right now is I’m going to show up for myself and I’m going to show up for everyone else that I’m working with or for my family and my friends. I’m just going to show up. I’m just going to be present in this moment and I’m going to put my best foot forward because that’s all anybody is really going to ask of you. Anyone who cares about you, all they’re going to ask of you is that you try your best and that is all you need to do. If you keep trying your best, you will eventually get to the results that you want. But if you fixate on those results, you’re just going to be sitting there thinking about everything that you’re not achieving instead of what you can do in this very moment to go forwards.