Everything I've discovered to make living day to day more effective
Have a Mantra - Every morning, orient yourself in the world.
Start every day by writing your long term goals, followed by ambitious short term goals, and finally your daily routine needed to achieve those short term goals.
You need to stay connected to your future self - it is not another person. It is not a stranger. You must consciously stay connected to them, and we do this by reciting and envisioning our long term path each and every day. We bring the vagueries of a long term, abstract goal into the present moment.
Self-denial
Self-discipline, self-control, self-mastery. It all comes down to self-denial.
Everything you do for short term gratification is to relieve tension.
Focus on what is goal achieving, not what is tension relieving.
Observe your urges. Realize that they are thoughts being thrown up from your unconscious into your conscious. This is because they have become habitual. You need to learn to use your prefrontal cortex to override your lizard brain.
Embrace discomfort. We are wired to seek the path of least resistance. To relieve tension. When you start embracing discomfort regularly (cold showers/calorie restriction etc), it becomes easier. Your self-esteem increases when you practice self-denial.
The Process. Focus on what you need to do in this MOMENT to move forward.
You don't need to achieve your long term goal today. You only need to get over the next hurdle.
Success is actually a short race—a sprint fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick in and take over.
Decide where you want to be in a year, then month. What habits do I need to form to get there? Use self-denial just long enough for habit to kick in and take over. Urges get weaker over time. Each one resisted makes the next one easier to resist.
Imagine who you could be and then aim single-mindedly at that.
Make a plan.
It's from the uphill climb that we derive our value. Almost anything that fills you with enthusiasm in life is the result of an uphill climb toward a goal. You want a goal that you can never attain you the goal always recedes as you move towards it. As you pursue that goal, your life gets richer.
Identify your Most Important Thing
What is the bottleneck holding you back currently. Prioritize.
Focus on the goal that matters most if necessary, and forget the others.
Read the most important book in your field. Don't skirt around the edges.
You always want to be doing the highest value task possible to move forward.
Same idea as the Pareto principle, or the law of the vital few.
20% of the inputs produce 80% of the output.
Which 20% of blocks (concepts, facts, procedures) should I focus on for 80% or more of the outcome I want?
Ritualize the Morning. You're most alert and driven first thing in the morning. Don't spend your most valuable effective hours on mindless tasks. Schedule your difficult work in the morning. Eat your frog.
Use momentum. Get the day off to a good start. I'm the sort of person where, if I'm on a diet and eat a chocolate bar at 4pm, I think: Fuck it.. Day ruined. I'll eat whatever I like for the rest of the day and start again tomorrow. I'm aware this is incredibly faulty thinking, and you should recognise this for what it is and stamp it out. However, I also find the reverse. If I start the day with exercise, and then read a book, I'm more likely to continue in that vein and not want to put a foot wrong. Use momentum in your favour.
Set your own milestones. When you complete a marathon, it's not as if someone is drip feeding you dopamine. It's all INTERNAL. YOU choose the milestones.
That can be the next lamppost; the next mile; whatever. It's all arbitrary, it's all internal, and you get to decide it. You get to self-generate your own drive and rewards.
Set the next milestone just outside the distance you're comfortable with and allow yourself a moment to register the victory when you achieve it. This is the Zone of Proximal Development
Be aggressive. Life doesn't move at your pace. People will be quick to tell you that you're not 'balanced' enough. That you need more down-time etc. Mediocre people like to hold those with ambition back. Set aggressive goals for yourself. Do MORE than you think possible.
Create order in your immediate environment. Design the optimal environment.
Practice minimalism. A clear mind is much more able to remain disciplined.
People don't see God because they don't look low enough. Start small. Wash a cup and put it away... Make your bed. Micro-improvements in your immediate environment very rapidly spiral into success in other areas of life.
The dopamine system is highly subjective. Learn to access the rewards from effort.
Attach your thoughts to the rewards that will come with fasting, for example. The dopamine system responds. You need to teach yourself to get a sort of perverse pleasure from discomfort and hard work.
Future rewards seem smaller in size. It's as if we were looking at a picture of a distant mountain and assuming that it is actually small. We do not seem to have perspective for size when time is involved.
Thoughts are like stray cats: The ones you pay attention to, and feed, are the ones that come around most often. Pay attention, and conscious thought, to the behaviors and habits that you want to become a stable part of your personality. Dismiss others.
Don't dwell. Zap negative thoughts as they arise. Don't entertain and indulge them.
The Process: How can I get through this MOMENT.
Live in the present - strenuous exercise/unplugging/meditate
Just getting started may happen many times in a day. You may find that you have to 'just get started' many times throughout the day, even on the same task. This is common. Just like with meditation, we gently bring our focus back to our focal point.
Feeling good now comes at a cost. Almost every short term high will come with a lower low.
10-10-10 Rule. Stay connected to your future self. Imagine how this action will make you feel in 10 minutes - 10 hours - 10 days.
Parkinson's Law. Work expands or contracts so as to fill the time available for its completion.
If you have 2 weeks to do something, it will take you 2 weeks.
When we are working on something ourselves and are responsible for achieving it, we may end up spending more time than necessary on it.
Challenge yourself with your time.
Bike shedding. Triviality. Be careful you don't spend disproportionate amounts of time in insignificant things because they're less cognitively demanding.
That which matter most must never be at the mercy of that which matters least.
Master the best of what others have figured out Deliberate practice, at the edge of your comfort zone.
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