time management

Book Summary of Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey

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Bailey’s Hyperfocus challenges the popular belief that time management is the key to productivity, proposing that attention management is more effective. The book outlines two attention management methods: hyperfocus for productivity and scatterfocus for creativity.

The guide includes a five-step process for hyperfocus, as well as the benefits of intentional mind-wandering. The article compares Bailey’s strategies to other experts’ recommendations and provides supplementary information.

Before You Hyperfocus: Understanding Where Your Attention Goes

To become more productive and creative, managing your attention is crucial. Chris Bailey, a productivity guru, asserts in his book Hyperfocus that many of us spend little time consciously focusing our attention. To understand your current state of attention, Bailey recommends creating an attention management matrix by sorting tasks into four quadrants.

  1. Quadrant 1 includes unnecessary tasks that are both unproductive and unenjoyable.
  2. Quadrant 2 consists of distracting tasks that are enjoyable but unproductive.
  3. Quadrant 3 includes necessary tasks that are productive but unenjoyable.
  4. Quadrant 4 is reserved for meaningful tasks that are both productive and enjoyable, and help fulfill your broader purpose in life.

The 5 Steps of Hyperfocus

Bailey suggests deliberately managing your attention through hyperfocus, which involves directing your attention to one task at a time. According to Bailey, this approach is effective because a task comfortably fits in your working memory, which has a limited capacity.

Attempting to focus on more than one task at a time can overcrowd your working memory and cause you to forget information. As such, it is best to focus on one complex task at a time to ensure you can complete it effectively.

Bailey’s method for hyperfocusing can be summarized in five steps:

  • Decide when to focus
  • Choose what to focus on
  • Manage distractions
  • Focus for a set time
  • Sustain your focus.

Step 0: Decide when to focus

For successful hyperfocus, plan when and for how long you’ll focus. Bailey suggests starting with a comfortable duration to make it a daily habit.

As you become accustomed, your focus time will increase. Schedule your focus sessions based on your schedule, energy levels, and tasks. Choose times when you have free time and high energy levels to make the most of your hyperfocus.

Step 1: Choose what to focus on

Picking the right task is crucial for effective hyperfocus, according to Bailey. Quality tasks lead to quality work and impact, so focusing on meaningful or high-impact tasks is recommended. Bailey suggests using the attention management matrix to identify these tasks, or setting three daily goals to prioritize important tasks. By focusing on high-priority tasks, you’ll know what to hyperfocus on and what to avoid.

Step 2: Limit and Manage distractions

To hyperfocus in Step 2a, limit distractions that divert attention from the chosen task. Bailey explains that distractions are hard to avoid, as we have a “novelty bias” that rewards us with dopamine when we give in to them.

To limit distractions, keep the original purpose in mind and return to the task when the distraction passes. For enjoyable distractions, it’s okay to indulge but remember the original goal.

Step 2b: Manage Distractions

To limit distractions during hyperfocus, Bailey recommends dealing with them before starting to focus. Distractions are more tempting when we’re resisting complex tasks, so make them less accessible and inconvenient to access, such as disconnecting from the internet.

Bailey also suggests evaluating the redundancy of our tools and considering whether we really need them, to reduce the likelihood of giving in to tempting distractions.

Step 3: Focus for a set time

To aid Step 3 of hyperfocus, Bailey recommends two routines: meditation and mindfulness. Meditation involves focusing on one thing and returning to it when your mind wanders, with focusing on your breathing being a popular choice.

Mindfulness is being aware of everything you experience in a given moment, which can be practiced during simple daily tasks such as washing dishes. These habits are beneficial for hyperfocus as they increase working memory capacity.

Step 4: Sustain your focus

To prevent your mind from wandering, Bailey recommends matching your tasks to your skill level and increasing the number of high-impact tasks you do.

If your tasks are too easy, you might become bored, and if they’re too difficult, you might become stressed. Both of these can lead to mind-wandering. By adjusting your tasks to your skill level, you can reduce mind-wandering and stay focused.

Understanding Intentional Mind-Wandering

Bailey suggests intentionally managing your attention in two ways: hyperfocusing and scatterfocus. Scatterfocus involves intentionally leaving room in your working memory for mind-wandering to rest and increase creativity.

Bailey offers two suggestions for how to let your mind wander on purpose. The first is to perform an enjoyable, easy work while having a pad of paper nearby to scribble down any brilliant thoughts that spring to mind. Secondly, schedule two 15-minute blocks each week to write down any useful thoughts that come to mind.

Tips for Intentional Mind-Wandering for Better Sleep

By taking a break from controlling your behavior, deliberate mind-wandering allows you to relax and recharge your brain. Bailey recommends regular mind-wandering sessions throughout the workday to maximize productivity, but the exact timing depends on individual factors such as workload and energy levels. Bailey offers the following two methods for determining your appropriate break time: Try different things and pay attention to when your energy levels drop. Resting every 90 minutes is recommended to take advantage of the natural energy cycle.

How to Intentionally Mind-Wander for More Creativity

Intentional mind-wandering boosts creativity by creating and connecting new “bits” of information in the brain. To intentionally mind-wander for creativity, you can increase the quality of information you encounter and allow your brain to subconsciously work on unsolved problems through the Zeigarnik effect.

Illustration of light bulb ideas

This effect allows your brain to connect different stimuli to your problem and potentially solve it. Intentional mind-wandering increases the likelihood of encountering the stimulus you need for a creative insight by maximizing the number of stimuli you encounter.

  • To enhance your creativity, Bailey advises purposefully letting your thoughts wander in crowded areas to enhance the amount of external stimulus.
  • Writing down a problem you’re stuck on and then doing a fun, easy task can manipulate the Zeigarnik effect and help your brain make useful connections to your problem.
  • Additionally, because of the comparable cerebral activity and information accumulation to deliberate mind-wandering, napping might inspire creative discoveries.
  • To use sleep for creativity, ask yourself important questions and review information before going to sleep to let your mind wander around these topics and potentially wake up with new insights.

Book Summary of Business Made Simple by Donald Miller

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Donald Miller believes that the reason you may not be making enough progress in your business career is that you’re not adding enough value to your company. Miller suggests 11 methods to become a good investment for your company, from acquiring value-adding personal attributes to successfully carrying out a strategy.

By following his advice, you can learn how to add value to your company no matter what your role. Creating a StoryBrand is a book by Miller, the owner of StoryBrand, a firm that assists businesses with story-based marketing message.

In this manual, we’ll add psychological knowledge and advise from other business experts to Miller’s suggestions.

Your Goal in Business: To Be a Good Investment for Your Company

Adding value to a company by generating profits is key to succeeding in business, according to Miller. This ability can lead to career advancement or entrepreneurial success, as leaders and investors prioritize it. For example, creating a successful marketing campaign that brings in new prospects and revenue is more likely to get you noticed and promoted compared to simply fulfilling job requirements.

11 Ways to Investing Well for Your Business

Miller provides 11 sequential steps to become a valuable investment for your company.

Trait 1:

Successful professionals recognize themselves as valuable economic assets to their companies, quantifying and explaining their value in terms of revenue generated or sales made. They aim to earn back at least five times their salary, resulting in a modest profit for the company.

Trait 2:

To succeed and be a valuable asset to your company, you must see yourself as an active agent in your life. Making excuses and playing the victim will hinder your growth and success. By pursuing new goals actively, you can learn and develop.

Trait 3:

Reacting calmly to problems is a valuable trait that can earn you respect and help you accomplish more. By handling problems gracefully, you can conserve mental energy for yourself and others.

Trait 4:

Being open to feedback is a key trait for success. Seeking regular feedback from mentors and friends can help you improve and excel, even if it’s initially challenging to hear.

Trait 5:

Successfully managing conflict is crucial for progress. To navigate conflict productively, Miller recommends accepting it as a part of moving forward, avoiding intense negative emotions, showing respect for the person involved, and prioritizing resolution over being right.

Trait 6:

As a manager, prioritizing respect over being liked is crucial for the success of your team and company. You can earn trust by setting clear goals, clarifying individual responsibilities, and rewarding achievements.

Trait 7:

Being action-oriented is key to completing projects. Merely intending or planning to do something isn’t enough; you must follow through with action.

Trait 8:

Trusting in your knowledge and taking action leads to faster progress than procrastinating or avoiding difficult decisions.

Trait 9:

Maintaining a positive outlook on the outcome of your actions leads to taking more risks, resulting in greater long-term rewards.

Trait 10:

Believing in your ability to improve means failures are viewed as growth opportunities. You can take on greater challenges and rise to meet them, leading to growth, improved skills, more responsibility, and higher pay.

Step 2: Become an Effective Leader by Creating a Company Story

Miller’s second step for becoming a valuable asset involves creating a company story to become a successful leader. A company story explains the reason for the company’s existence and why people should engage with it.

Without a clear story or mission that includes every employee, the company will lack direction and fail. To create a company story, start by writing a mission statement that inspires action, using a template such as “We will accomplish [goal] by [date/year] because of [why achieving the goal is important].”

Then, define the traits employees must possess to fulfill the mission and determine three repeatable actions they should take daily to achieve it.

Step 3: Enhance Productivity by Focusing Only on Critical Tasks

Miller’s third step towards becoming a valuable company investment is to manage time effectively by prioritizing tasks that offer the highest return on energy investment. Miller recommends creating two task lists: one with three crucial tasks to complete each day and another with less important tasks to delegate or eliminate. It’s important to complete the top three tasks first, even if only partially done, to increase productivity.

Step 4: Visualize Your Business as an Aircraft to Become an Experienced Marketer

Step four in Miller’s guide to becoming a valuable employee involves learning to strategize effectively. He suggests visualizing the company as an airplane with five parts – body (overhead), wings (products/services), right engine (marketing), left engine (sales), and fuel (capital and cash flow). Balancing these divisions is essential for maximizing success.

For instance, if the body of the plane becomes heavier, the marketing and sales engines must be powerful enough to keep it aloft. Miller advises keeping overhead low, ensuring profitable and popular products, testing marketing with a website, building a sales funnel, and monitoring cash flow to stay airborne.

Step 5: Base Your Messaging on a Story the Customer Can Star In

Step 5 in adding value to your organization is crafting effective marketing messaging. Miller recommends creating a story where the customer is the hero with a goal that your product helps them achieve. The hero faces an obstacle, which is the problem your product solves. You position yourself as the guide who can help the hero overcome the obstacle with a plan and challenge the hero to take action. Lastly, you explain the benefits the hero gains by taking action and the consequences of not taking action.

Step 6: Create A Three-Step Sales Funnel That Fosters Customer Trust in The Sixth Step.

To become a valuable team member, it’s important to learn marketing mechanics. Miller emphasizes the significance of a robust sales funnel in marketing strategy.

A sales funnel helps to improve sales by leading buyers through the three stages of inquiry, comprehension, and purchase. To spark curiosity in potential customers, create a concise sentence that outlines a problem, your product as the solution, and the result of using your product to solve the problem.

Step 7: Communicate in a Story Format so Others Listen

To add value to your company, you must excel in basic communication, particularly presentations, according to Miller. In sales presentations, follow the story structure and focus on the problem you’ll solve, your solution, and how it will change the customer’s life.

Connect every subpoint to your main point, and limit the number of subpoints to three or four. For a unique and memorable presentation, consider weaving in other stories and keeping it short. Gallo suggests a maximum of 18 minutes, as anything longer will cause the audience to tune out, regardless of the presentation’s quality.

Step 8: Making the Sale Involving Qualifying Leads, Sharing A Narrative, And Sending Proposals

To add value through sales, Miller recommends qualifying leads to avoid wasting time and money. Ask if they have a problem your product solves, if it’s within their budget, and if they have the authority to buy.

Miller also suggests pitching in a story format, highlighting the customer’s problem and proposing a solution with references to past success. Lastly, provide a document or video summarizing your pitch for prospects to reference.

Step 9: Negotiate Effectively by Determining the Other Party’s Negotiating Style

Step 9 is about developing negotiation skills to add value to your company. According to Miller, there are two types of negotiation: cooperative and adversarial. In a cooperative negotiation, both parties aim for a win-win outcome, while in an adversarial negotiation, one or both parties want to win at the other’s expense.

To negotiate successfully, identify the type of negotiation and adjust your approach accordingly. Find out what factors influence the other party’s decision-making process and appeal to their emotional needs. For instance, when selling a used car, highlight its sleek leather interior to appeal to the buyer’s desire for a stylish ride. Finally, to end a negotiation, pretend to be dissatisfied with the outcome, which signals to the other party that they’ve won.

Step 10: Successfully Manage Groups With Metrics

To effectively manage people, Miller advises relying on input and output metrics. Input metrics measure the work put in to produce an output, while output metrics measure the actual output produced. For example, posting three times a week on social media (input) could lead to 300 new followers (output).

Step 11: Execute Well Using a Plan

To execute a project successfully, Miller recommends three steps: hold a launch meeting to determine the project’s success criteria, participants, resources, and timeline; check in with the team weekly to ensure everyone knows their next step; and publicly track input metrics to encourage the team’s progress.

In “A World Without Email,” Cal Newport suggests using task boards to manage communication and check-ins effectively. Task boards are physical or digital boards with columns representing project stages and cards representing tasks. Newport also advises delegating the scheduling of large meetings to an administrator or scheduling service.

Book Summary of Deep Work by Cal Newport

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Deep work is defined by Cal Newport as intense, concentrated work that challenges your cognitive abilities, while shallow work refers to menial tasks like email responses and unproductive meetings that lack value and can be completed by anyone.

The economy has shifted towards information-based work, which requires skills like problem-solving and programming that demand deep work. Cal Newport argues that the ability to do deep work is crucial for thriving in the modern economy, but technology such as phones and apps are hindering our ability to concentrate. Despite the importance of deep work, it has become more difficult to achieve. This guide is divided into two parts: the benefits of deep work and the practices to create an environment that fosters deep work.

Idea #1: Deep Work Is Important

According to Cal Newport, deep work is crucial for success in the information economy because it enables you to do two things:

  1. Learn and master new skills: To stay relevant in the rapidly changing economy, you must continue to learn challenging new skills, which requires focus. To master a skill, you need an attainable goal, a learning method that aligns with your style, and a mentor to coach you.
  2. Apply the skills effectively: The quality of your work depends on the time spent and intensity of focus, but it must also be useful and effective. Peter Drucker explains how to determine if your work is effective in improving your performance or just increasing output for its own sake.

Idea #2: Deep Work Is Difficult

Cal Newport identifies three major obstacles that make deep work challenging in modern workplaces:

  1. Open floor plans, which were designed to increase collaboration, actually create constant distractions and make it difficult to concentrate.
  2. Instant communication tools like Slack and texting interrupt our work on-demand and turn us into human network routers.
  3. Social media provides endless, novel content that doesn’t contribute to our major goals and is addictive due to variable rewards. In the guide’s second part, we’ll explore strategies to overcome these obstacles and create an environment conducive to deep work.

Idea #3: Deep Work Is Fulfilling

Shallow work gives an illusion of productivity and importance, like answering emails and keeping up with Slack conversations. But Newport argues that deep work is what leads to true fulfillment and progress, as it enables tackling complex problems that yield the greatest rewards. This aligns with psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s idea of “flow,” where deep focus on a challenging task leads to a sense of purpose and contentment.

Practice #1: Plan Out Time for Deep Work

Newport suggests creating a structured approach to deep work to make it a habit and part of your daily routine. Simply trying to do deep work on demand is ineffective, and instead requires discipline and a practiced ritual. The first step is to set aside dedicated time for deep work.

The Four Types of Deep Work Scheduling

By making deep work a habit, you won’t need to rely on willpower to resist distractions. Newport advises setting aside dedicated time for deep work, and experimenting with different schedules to find what works best. He offers four different types of deep work schedules to consider, each with varying time commitments and effectiveness.

Schedule Type 1: Seclusion

To maximize deep work, eliminate shallow tasks and prioritize deep work instead. Some authors achieve this by disconnecting from email and social media, relying solely on postal mail or editors for correspondence. This allows for uninterrupted deep work, but may not be practical for most careers.

Schedule Type 2: Periodic

Set aside regular and extended periods of time each week, month, or year dedicated to deep work. The book emphasizes the need for at least one full day to achieve maximum intensity. For instance, you can reserve a three-day block each week for deep work while using the other two days for shallow work. This schedule allows for more realistic integration of deep work into your routine while still achieving the highest level of focus. However, it may not be feasible for those who need to perform daily tasks.

Schedule Type 3: Daily

Allocate a fixed time slot every day to prioritize deep work over shallow tasks, such as dedicating the morning hours solely to deep work. This approach is practical and helps form a habit, but it may not allow for maximum focus like the other scheduling methods.

Schedule Type 4: Ad Hoc

This is the most flexible schedule, where you do deep work whenever you have the opportunity. For instance, you may carve out a few hours to work while on a trip with your family. However, because it lacks regularity, it’s less effective in forming a habit and requires the ability to switch to deep work quickly.

How Much Deep Work Should You Try to Fit Into Your Day?

Newport warns that there is a cap on how much deep work can be achieved in a day. According to Ericsson’s book, Peak, novices can only manage an hour of intense concentration, while experts with extensive experience can stretch it to four hours, but seldom more.

Plan Out Your Days

Newport recommends various methods to ensure that you allocate sufficient time for deep work and avoid the temptation of shallow work during those periods.

Technique #1: Schedule Internet Time

To maximize deep work time, schedule Internet use in advance and avoid it outside of those times. Keep a notepad nearby to jot down ideas and next scheduled use. Plan work to minimize internet use and move on to other tasks if internet access is needed. Don’t stop this practice at home to maintain the training done at work.

Technique #2: Plan Out Every Minute of Your Day, and Quantify Depth

  • Newport advises planning your day in advance to minimize task switching. He suggests breaking down tasks into half-hour blocks and scheduling buffer time to handle unexpected tasks.
  • Newport suggests estimating the “deep work” complexity of each task by considering how long it would take to train a smart college grad to do the task. The more time it takes, the deeper the work. Then, review your schedule and replace shallow tasks with deeper work if necessary.
  • Newport advises reflecting on your schedule at the end of each day to set more accurate goals and expectations in the future.

Technique #3: Set Ambitious Deadlines

Set challenging deadlines to enhance concentration. Estimate how long a task would normally take, then shorten the time drastically and set it as your deadline, according to Newport.

Practice #2: Build Your Deep Work Environment

Newport suggests creating an environment conducive to deep work by minimizing distractions.

Step 1: Create a Deep-Work-Only Environment 

Create a space solely for deep work, advises Newport. This designated space should be used only for deep work, such as a conference room, a library, or a home office. This compartmentalization will reinforce the habit of deep work.

Step 2: Get Rid of Distractions

Newport emphasizes the importance of eliminating distractions to increase the amount of time spent in deep work.

Floorplans

Newport suggests that the “hub and spoke” office floor plan is optimal for deep work. Central hubs facilitate collaborative work, while spokes provide private spaces for focused work.

Social Media

Newport warns that social media can create an illusion of productivity, but in reality, it yields small benefits. To take control of your technology use, he recommends evaluating each tool’s benefits and costs by following these steps. This will help you identify which tools are worth your time and which are not.

  1. Identify your key goals: Make a list of your most important professional and personal goals and the specific activities that help you achieve them.
  2. Evaluate your tech tools: Assess the meaningful contribution of each major tool, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, to your important goals.
  3. Experiment with quitting: If you’re unsure about a tool’s importance, try quitting it for 30 days and assess the impact on your life.

Emails

Newport suggests ways to minimize unproductive time spent on emails, which he sees as a significant time-waster for both senders and receivers.

1) Newport advises ensuring emails contain all necessary information, including the current state, ultimate goal, and effective next steps, to avoid unproductive back-and-forth emails. He emphasizes the importance of closing mental loops to prevent mental residue accumulation. An example of a bad email reply would be vague, while a better reply would include specific available times and instructions for scheduling a meeting.

2) Establish and share your email policy. Clarify how you will handle incoming emails, including which types you may reject. Newport recommends crafting a direct message, such as “Contact me via email only for speaking engagements, collaborations, or introductions that align with my interests. Note that I may not respond if it does not suit my schedule and interests.”

Practice #3: Train Your Focus

Newport suggests techniques to improve focus during deep work. One of these is allowing yourself to experience boredom during low-stimuli moments, instead of constantly reaching for your phone. This trains your brain to tolerate boredom and strengthens your “focus muscles.” For instance, resist the urge to check your phone while waiting outside a bar and take in your surroundings instead.

Newport advises creating a specific metric to define the success of your deep work practices. This keeps you focused on the task at hand, rather than worrying about how you should be using your time or if your results are sufficient. For instance, setting a goal to write 500 words every 30 minutes can provide a simple and measurable target.

Practice #4: Make the Most of Your Focused Time

Newport suggests ways to maximize your deep work sessions.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution

Newport presents four principles from the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution to help optimize time and focus during deep work sessions.

Newport shares four principles from the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution that can optimize deep work sessions. These principles help focus on the most important tasks and track progress in real-time.

  1. Prioritize the important tasks. Determine the tasks that will have the most significant impact and focus on them. By saying yes to the important tasks, trivial distractions will automatically be pushed aside.
  2. Use leading metrics. Real-time leading metrics like the number of pages written or new ideas generated are more effective than lagging metrics like end-of-year published papers.
  3. Keep metrics visible. Keep a physical display in the workspace, like a small whiteboard, to track leading metrics. This will help stay motivated and celebrate successes more frequently.
  4. Foster accountability. Regularly reviewing your deep work performance can help you stay on track and identify areas for improvement. Newport recommends setting aside time for a weekly review to evaluate your progress and plan for the week ahead. Use this time to analyze what worked well and what didn’t, and make adjustments to your schedule if needed.

Learn to Say No to Shallow Work

Newport advises knowledge workers to avoid shallow work, such as meetings and committees, by giving a vague response that doesn’t allow the requester to find a loophole. For instance, one could say, “I can’t make it due to schedule conflicts” or “Thank you for inviting me, but I won’t be able to make it.”

Ritualize Your Workday Shutdown

Newport advises creating a shutdown ritual to mentally disconnect from work and relax. The ritual should help you review your work, check for anything you may have missed, and plan for the next day. Examples include checking emails for any urgent items, updating your to-do list, reviewing upcoming deadlines on your calendar, and verbally marking the end of the workday with a phrase like “All done.”

Book Summary of Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte

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In today’s world, we’re constantly bombarded with important information that our brains struggle to process and remember. This can lead to feelings of frustration and overwhelm, as we feel like we’re not reaching our full potential. The book Creating a Second Brain by Tiago Forte provides an answer to this issue.

Forte is a productivity and personal knowledge management specialist, and his book describes a process for gathering, arranging, and using useful information. By creating an external storage system of knowledge, or a “Second Brain,” you can easily recall important information, make connections between ideas, and complete projects to the best of your ability. The book also includes insights from other productivity experts, such as Peter Drucker and David Allen.

Your Brain’s Not Equipped to Effectively Manage Today’s Information

According to Forte, having an external storage system (ESS) is crucial for modern humans, as knowledge and the ability to do knowledge work are highly valued in today’s society. Knowledge work entails memorizing pertinent details, drawing connections, and employing these insights to produce new concepts and address issues.

To be effective at knowledge work, one needs to be both creative and productive. Creativity is about connecting ideas and information, while productivity is about making the best use of time and creativity to achieve goals. The more creative connections one can make and the faster they can execute them, the better they will be at knowledge work.

Forte acknowledges that our brain’s capacity to manage information is limited, which hinders our ability to do knowledge work effectively. While technology has provided us with access to an overwhelming amount of information, our brains have not evolved at the same pace to process and recall this information efficiently.

This creates a challenge to remember important information when we need it, which affects our ability to do knowledge work. However, a digital external storage system can address this problem by allowing us to organize and store important information in a way that is easy to recall. This will boost our creativity (ability to connect ideas) and productivity (ability to recall information quickly), which will, in turn, enhance our knowledge and ability to do knowledge work effectively.

How Will an ESS Increase Performance?

Forte identifies three ways in which using an ESS enhances creativity and productivity for productive knowledge work. 

  • Firstly, an ESS enables recording of ideas and information in a concrete, easily accessible format. This is more effective than relying on abstract information that’s hard to recall, improving productivity.
  • Secondly, reviewing all past ideas and information through an ESS can help make unique connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, leading to new levels of creativity.
  • Thirdly, the ideas and information saved in an ESS can inspire or be reused in future projects, saving time and increasing creativity and productivity. The next sections will cover how to organize and use your ESS to maximize creativity, productivity, and accomplish knowledge work goals.

How To Organize Your Storage System

According to Forte, organizing your external storage system is crucial in boosting creativity and productivity. By creating folders and sub-folders, it becomes easier to locate and utilize saved information. Forte’s organization system comprises six main areas, with four of them being part of the PARA system.

The Six Main Areas of the ESS

Forte advises creating an inbox as the first section in your storage system for saving information and notes. Sorting the information can be time-consuming, so it’s better to save it in the inbox first and sort it later.

This approach saves time and helps to ensure that the information is put in the right location. Forte emphasizes that it’s best to reflect on the information before sorting it to make the best decision on how it can be used. Sorting techniques will be discussed later in the guide.

Forte suggests organizing your external storage system into several sections to increase productivity and creativity. 

The first section is an inbox where you save information and notes before sorting them into specific folders. The management folder includes a to-do list and tracks progress towards active goals and projects. The current goals folder contains sub-folders for each goal or project.

The ongoing engagements folder includes sub-folders for commitments that require continuous maintenance. The topics-of-interest folder contains sub-folders for concepts you’re interested in learning about but haven’t turned into a project or engagement. The hold folder stores old or irrelevant material.

How to Effectively Use Your External Storage System

Forte suggests that organizing your ESS is only half the battle; you must also learn how to use it effectively. He believes that utilizing your ESS is similar to the creative process, which involves two modes: expansion and contraction. You must jot down your thoughts and gather pertinent data, then organize it into the appropriate folders. This is followed by the contraction process of refining notes and creating something new from them. Forte’s CODE system outlines the four steps of recording, condensing, organizing, and expressing to effectively utilize your ESS.

Next, we’ll break down each step of utilizing your ESS and its impact on the creative process.

Expansion Step #1: Record

To begin using your ESS, first choose a platform to store all your information. Make sure to transfer all saved information from other platforms to your ESS inbox folder. Record only important and resonating information that’s actionable or inspires you. Avoid clutter by being selective with what you save. Save only what’s necessary and include brief notes to remind yourself of why it’s important.

Expansion Step #2: Sort

Forte suggests scheduling a regular time to sort your saved information from your inbox into folders and sub-folders. First, check if the information fits into any of your current goals or ongoing engagements sub-folders. If not, consider your areas of interest sub-folders. If no appropriate sub-folder exists, put it in your hold folder.

Contraction Step #1: Refine

Forte suggests refining your notes to their essential information to increase creativity and productivity. This should be done separately from recording and sorting, right before creating something. To refine your notes effectively, use the “Progressive Summarization” process. Start by bolding the main points of the saved information, and then highlight or underline the most important points. For unique or valuable notes, include a brief summary in as few words as possible.

Contraction Step #2: Create

Forte’s final step of using your ESS is to use your organized and refined information to create something new, whether it’s a personal or professional project. To complete a project, Forte recommends three strategies.

Strategy #1: Discard Useless Information and Create Task Bundles

When your current goals subfolder has enough info, sort and outline the tasks you need to complete your project. First, go through the info and move anything you won’t use to your hold folder. Identify each small task and create a subfolder for each task within your project subfolder.

These are called “task bundles.” Order them chronologically and sort relevant info into each task bundle. This will make your work less overwhelming and more manageable. You can also save and reuse task bundles for future projects to save time.

Strategy #2: Plan Your Next Session

To maximize productivity, Forte suggests that at the end of each work session, you should record the status of your project, potential future barriers, and important details. This allows you to pick up where you left off and continue your train of thought.

In addition, Forte advises prioritizing completion over perfection to avoid getting caught up in small details and losing momentum. By scaling down the project’s scope, you can ensure that it gets done and revisit it later to add more components if necessary. Cal Newport takes Forte’s recommendation further by recommending a “workday shutdown ritual” that includes checking email for urgent items, reviewing deadlines, and using a signal phrase to end the day.

Book Summary of The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

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Many desire to be millionaires to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle, but Tim Ferriss suggests in The 4-Hour Workweek that you don’t need a million dollars to achieve that. Ferriss’s steps for creating a “millionaire lifestyle” will be discussed, along with the effectiveness of some recommendations and counterarguments to others.

Ferriss identifies two ways non-millionaires try to live like retired millionaires: postponers work for decades before retiring, but may not have the health or means to enjoy it; lifelong retirees alternate between short work periods and long retirements. 

The 4-Hour Workweek offers a different approach: build a business that generates enough income to sustain your lifestyle, while freeing up your time.

Ferriss outlines a four-step process to achieve a millionaire lifestyle, which he calls DEAL: Define, Eliminate, Automate, Liberate. Each step will be explored in this guide. First, determine what you want to do with your newfound time. Second, streamline your schedule by getting rid of time-consuming activities. Third, create your own business, which can eventually provide passive income. Finally, retire and start living like a millionaire.

Step 1: Decide What You Want to Do

Ferriss’s initial phase involves discovering your dream activities if work was not a time constraint, and conquering any fears that hinder you from pursuing them.

Envision Your New Lifestyle

To start, imagine your ideal lifestyle with Ferriss’s dreamlining technique. List five specific items for each category of things you want to have, do, and be, and choose your top four dreams. Determine the monthly income needed to achieve those four dreams and add a 30% buffer for unexpected expenses. Focusing on a limited number of clear and specific goals, as explained in Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, is more effective than having too many vague goals.

For each dream, create three action items: one for today, one for tomorrow, and one for the day after. Start with the first actionable for each dream immediately. According to Mark Manson in The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, taking even small steps towards a goal can create a positive feedback loop of motivation and action, which can help overcome procrastination.

Mitigating Fear

Identify what fears may prevent you from achieving your dream lifestyle. According to Ferriss, people often choose to stay unhappy in a familiar situation because of fear of the unknown. To confront your fears, ask yourself: 

  1. What’s the worst possible outcome? 
  2. How can you fix it if it happens? 
  3. What’s the most likely outcome? 
  4. And what’s your escape plan if needed?

Step 2: Streamline Your Life

Ferriss’s next step to achieving lifelong retirement is to eliminate time-consuming activities and commitments. Cut down on time spent on emails, calls, and meetings, and remove unimportant commitments from your schedule. 

Do Only What’s Important

Ferriss suggests that instead of managing time, we should focus on doing only things that matter and eliminate tasks that don’t. He recommends applying the 80/20 rule and Parkinson’s Law to save time.

The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts, so prioritize that 20% to maximize your outcomes. Parkinson’s Law suggests that a task will take as much time as you give it, so give yourself short deadlines to increase efficiency. By applying both laws, you can do the most important tasks and free up time for more profitable activities.

Minimize Unnecessary Time-Consumers

Ferriss suggests avoiding time-wasting activities such as busywork, routine work, and work requiring input from others. To limit busywork, he recommends restricting access to yourself through email, phone, and in-person meetings. For emails, set up an auto-reply with limited access and check them only twice a day.

For phones, set up two numbers, one for urgent matters and the other for non-urgent, and check voicemails only twice a day. For in-person meetings, avoid those without a clear agenda or end time, suggest emails as an alternative, or excuse yourself early. Avoid informal chats by using a “do not disturb” sign or wearing headphones.

Routine Work

Ferriss advises tackling routine tasks by scheduling them all at once instead of doing them as they come up. This helps save time and reduces the risk of interruptions.

For instance, instead of going to the store every few days, buy a week’s worth of supplies in one go. This approach is similar to Peter Drucker’s idea of dividing your time into blocks and devoting each block to a specific task. By setting aside time and focusing your efforts, you can handle tasks more effectively and reliably.

Work That Requires Someone Else’s Input

To save time and minimize interruptions, Ferriss recommends establishing clear rules that empower others to act without your input as much as possible, such as creating blanket rules for routine tasks. Additionally, he suggests transitioning to remote work to save time and increase productivity. If remote work isn’t an option, Ferriss recommends finding a less time-consuming job.

Step 3: Create and Automate Your Own Business

Ferriss’s third step to living a retired millionaire lifestyle is to create a self-sustaining business that generates income with little input from you.

Find Your Niche

To earn income without working, Ferriss suggests starting a “muse” business. This type of business aims to generate steady income with minimal effort, rather than to improve the world or make a lot of money to sell the company later on. Ferriss outlines three essential steps to creating an automated business, advising not to start manufacturing until all three steps are completed.

Step 1: Choose a small niche market with demand for your product and little competition, and where you can advertise effectively. Avoid crowded markets where you’ll have to compete with big companies.

Blue Ocean Strategy recommends finding a “blue ocean” with little competition where you can innovate and create demand. Many companies mistakenly enter “red oceans” with fierce competition, thinking they have to follow the demand instead of creating it with a unique product or service.

Step 2: Create a product that serves your niche market, such as an information product like a book or online course that you can easily create yourself. You don’t have to be an expert, just know more than your customers.

These products are ideal for a muse business because they’re cheap to make, sell at high markups, and are hard to copy. For example, you could create a martial arts-themed workout video that’s easy to distribute online or on DVD once you’ve filmed it.

Step 3: Test your product ideas by studying your competition and finding ways to differentiate your product. Create an ad that highlights those differences and reach out to your target market to gauge interest. Determine if your product will be profitable by comparing advertising costs to potential income.

If the numbers don’t work out, revise your product or advertising and try again. For example, you could create a martial arts workout DVD that includes specific exercises for increasing the power of your side kick, and conduct market research using tools like SurveyMonkey to determine interest.

Automate Your Business

Ferriss suggests automating your business in three phases based on sales. 

  • In Phase 1, where you’ve shipped 0-50 products, your business is too new to automate. You’ll be personally involved in every aspect of the business. Use customer feedback to refine your website and advertising, and get a merchant account at a small bank. 
  • In Phase 2, you’re shipping a few products per week, and you can bring on a local fulfillment company that meets specific criteria.
  • In Phase 3, with over 20 weekly shipments, Ferriss suggests automating your business to the point where you can step back almost entirely. Your goal is to reduce your involvement to just a few hours per week, while generating enough profit to support your lifestyle without a day job.

To fully automate your business, follow two steps: 

1) sign up with a large fulfillment company, credit card processor, and call center, and 

2) decrease interactions with customers and focus on a small but loyal customer base. It’s important to choose companies that work well together to avoid communication issues. 

While outsourcing can save you time, it may not be realistic to fully disengage from your business. To maximize profit, focus on deepening your relationship with existing customers who frequently order and don’t require a lot of attention.

Step 4: Start Living Your New Life

Ferriss’s last step to achieve the retired millionaire lifestyle is to make your dreams a reality. You’ll quit your day job, experience retirement, and embrace your new lifestyle.

Retire and Live the Millionaire Life

Ferriss advises taking a “mini-retirement” to disconnect from your old lifestyle and settle into the new one. Spend time in a different country to avoid getting drawn back into your old routine. Learn that it’s okay not to be busy all the time, make anonymous donations, learn a new skill, take up a new hobby, or volunteer to stave off boredom and find fulfillment. When you return, review your list of dreams and timelines, and update it as needed.

Book Summary of Getting Things Done by David Allen

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Struggling to keep up with your to-do list? The Getting Things Done (GTD) program can help you accomplish more in less time. By storing tasks and reminders in an external system, you can free up mental energy to focus on the task at hand. The GTD system allows you to capture everything on lists, files, and your calendar, enabling you to stay in control of your workload and be present in the moment. Don’t let your brainpower go to waste trying to remember everything – use the GTD system to optimize your productivity.

The GTD system involves five steps:

  1. Capture everything that’s on your mind
  2. Clarify each item and decide what to do about it
  3. Organize your decisions and actions
  4. Reflect on your options and choose what to tackle next
  5. Engage with the task and get it done

Initially, you may have a large mental backlog to process, but once you’ve captured everything, it becomes easier. Moving forward, you’ll regularly go through the five steps to manage new items and plan your day.

Step 1: Capture

The first step in the GTD system is to capture everything on your mind – ideas, reminders, and information – and get them out of your head. This includes both short-term and long-term goals, anything you want to change or improve. By making a habit of capturing everything, you can ensure nothing slips through the cracks and build trust with others and yourself. Go through every nook and cranny for notes and reminders, and put everything in your in-tray without stopping to work on anything else. After capturing everything, take time to assess each item.

Step 2: Clarify

In the GTD system, the next stage is to identify the immediate next action towards each item’s planned goal and define the desired outcome for each item. The concrete thing you may take to advance the project is the “next action”. For example, if the item is “schedule meeting,” decide on the next action, such as checking availability or booking a conference room. This decision-making process enhances productivity and allows you to tackle tasks before they become overwhelming. Clarifying next actions turns larger tasks into manageable actions that you can easily complete and feel a sense of accomplishment.

  1. To organize each item, you’ll either:
  2. Trash it if it’s not needed and won’t be in the future.
  3. Keep it for future reference.
  4. Do it immediately if it takes less than two minutes.
  5. Label it as a project and put it in a “Pending” pile if it requires more than one step and can be completed within a year.
  6. Consider delegating it if it will take longer than two minutes and someone else could handle it better.
  7. Save it for later and label it “Someday/Maybe” or schedule a reminder to reconsider it in the future.
  8. Label it “Next Action” and add it to the “Pending” pile if it requires more than two minutes and can’t be delegated.

This flowchart summarizes steps 1 to 3:

  • Incoming Stuff
  • Determine what it is
  • Trash, project list, or project support materials
  • Is it actionable?
  • Yes: determine next action
  • Can it be done in 2 minutes? Yes: do it
  • No: delegate it, defer it, wait for someone else to do it, put it on the calendar, or add it to next actions list.

Step 3: Organize

After clarifying the next step for each item, it’s time to organize them into files, lists, and calendar items. Don’t worry about the many types of lists and files suggested by the author, instead focus on the big picture of putting each item in its ideal place. You may still come across items you don’t need, so trash them. Create reference files for non-actionable items, organizing them by subject-specific or general-reference. A simple and easily navigable filing system will motivate you to keep up with filing and make it easy to retrieve documents when needed.

Organize the Pending pile by categorizing each item into one of the following:

  1. Projects list – for projects in the planning process
  2. Project Support Materials file – for project plans, research, and other documents
  3. Waiting For list – for tasks waiting on someone else or delegated items
  4. Someday/Maybe list – for ideas to pursue in the future
  5. Tickler file – for information or reminders needed in the future
  6. Calendar – for time-sensitive items such as appointments or deadlines
  7. Next Actions list – for actionable tasks that take longer than two minutes and can’t be delegated. Consider categorizing this list by task type or location. Remember to review the Someday/Maybe list regularly.

Step 4: Reflect

Regularly check your lists and files to prioritize tasks. Review your calendar daily and Next Actions list frequently to balance your schedule. The Weekly Review is critical to keep your system up-to-date. Review your Projects, Project Plans, Next Actions, Waiting For, Someday/Maybe lists, and Tickler File. Clarify and update items, clean up and clear things out as needed, and capture anything you haven’t yet. Use this time to consider big-picture ideas and projects and ensure your day-to-day tasks align with your goals and values.

Step 5: Engage

The GTD system aims to help you prioritize tasks and make informed choices about what to do when. Confidence in what you’re not doing is as important as confidence in what you are doing. To decide which task to work on from your Next Actions list, use one of the following three models:

The Four-Criteria Model helps you choose which task to work on by considering four criteria: context, time available, energy available, and priority. 

By organizing your subsequent activities into context-specific lists and selecting tasks that match the time and energy you have available, you may reduce your alternatives. Finally, prioritize based on your intuition and judgment, using the next two models to help align your choices with your goals and values.

The Threefold Model: Types of Work

To make an informed decision about a task, you must understand which of the three categories it falls into: predefined work, work that shows up, and defining work. Predefined work is what you’ve deemed important and put on your Next Actions list and calendar. Work that shows up is unanticipated tasks that require immediate attention. Defining work is maintaining the GTD system, and you must prioritize time to do this regularly.

The Six-Level Model: Determine Priorities

To prioritize effectively, you must consider how your options fit into the bigger picture of your life. There are six horizons of perspective to determine your priorities:

  1. The Ground: current action on your Next Actions list
  2. Horizon 1: current projects with short-term timelines
  3. Horizon 2: areas of focus and responsibilities
  4. Horizon 3: goals for the next one to two years
  5. Horizon 4: vision for the next three to five years
  6. Horizon 5: purpose and principles, the big-picture context of your life.

Use the Natural Planning Method to Plan Projects

Always identify a next action for each project to make consistent progress. Use the Natural Planning Method to determine next actions for big projects, just as you would for planning a birthday dinner. Follow these steps: define purpose and principles, envision the outcome, brainstorm, organize, and determine next actions. Implementing and mastering GTD is a lifelong process that helps manage daily tasks while keeping larger goals in mind. Learn the guidelines and techniques, make them habits, and take charge of everyday activities. Then, take a bigger-picture approach to manage and organize life, initiate projects to improve areas of life, and ultimately create the desired lifestyle.

Book Summary of The Power of Discipline by Daniel Walter

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It might be difficult to be productive when you’d rather do anything else. Our natural tendency is to favor immediate satisfaction above effort and long-term objectives. In contrast, Daniel Walter contends in The Power of Discipline that developing healthy habits will help you become more disciplined over time.

Walter, a Canadian author and cognitive neuroscience Yale graduate, specializes on enhancing focus, routines, and memory. This manual will discuss developing productive habits, biological hurdles to self-discipline, and its difficulties. To assist readers attain their maximum potential, we’ll also rely on other works like Awaken the Giant Within and The Power of Habit.

What Is Self-Discipline and Why Do We Struggle With It?

The capacity to make wise decisions, withstand pressure, and act in your best interests is known as self-discipline. Daniel Walter emphasizes the significance of setting objectives, forming positive habits, and working consistently hard in order to achieve success.

Self-discipline is a talent that requires experience and work to develop since people have a tendency to choose quick satisfaction above hard labor. In addition, Walter lists four innate characteristics that undermine self-control: the need for consistency, exaggerating one’s own talent, procrastination, and unreasonable expectations. To develop self-discipline and accomplish your goals, it is essential to recognize these inclinations and work to overcome them.

Tendency #1: Craving Consistency

Walter identifies the first biological tendency that hinders self-discipline as our resistance to change and preference for consistency in our lifestyles, jobs, and environments.

This tendency prevents us from taking uncomfortable steps that can trigger improvement and success. Experts like Brianna Wiest attribute this phenomenon to the brain’s hardwiring for homeostasis, which sends us urges to resist change and maintain consistency to avoid emotional changes that alter bodily chemistry.

Humans Fear Loss and Failure and Desire Comfort

Humans resist change and crave consistency due to three reasons: fear of loss, fear of failure/regret, and comfort in the familiar. To overcome this tendency, Walter suggests performing a thought analysis exercise when making important decisions.

This involves listing the pros and cons of each option and determining which choice will be most advantageous for personal improvement and goal attainment.

We Crave Consistency Because of Our Pain vs Pleasure Response

Walter and Robbins both explore why humans resist change and favor consistency, but they have different approaches to overcoming these urges. Walter identifies three underlying reasons why we resist change, while Robbins argues that all unproductive behaviors and decisions stem from our biological urge to avoid pain and seek pleasure.

Robbins explains that neuro-associations control our pain and pleasure responses, and he identifies three factors that determine whether we’ll form a pain or pleasure association with an experience. These factors may explain why we resist change and favor consistency. Walter suggests performing a thought exercise to overcome these urges, while Robbins recommends reconditioning our neuro-associations.

Tendency #2: Over-Estimating Personal Abilities

The Dunning-Kruger effect can impact self-discipline by causing people to overestimate their ability and neglect practicing it. To avoid this tendency, seeking feedback from proficient individuals is recommended. Procrastination weakens self-discipline as it becomes habitual, and there are two main forms: delaying hard work for instant gratification and spending more time planning than doing work.

To resist procrastination, start tasks as soon as possible and stop planning when 70% sure of success. It is important to accurately judge one’s own abilities and improve self-awareness to enhance self-discipline skills.

Procrastination Isn’t Always Bad

In “A Mind For Numbers,” Oakley discusses two types of procrastination. She argues that deferring tasks to plan them is useful, while consciously delaying work for more immediately enjoyable activities is unproductive and termed as habitual procrastination.

To overcome procrastination, both Oakley and Walter recommend starting tasks as soon as possible. However, Oakley suggests completing the toughest tasks first to avoid burnout and using planning time effectively. She does not support Walter’s idea of starting work at 70% certainty.

Tendency #4: Setting Unrealistic Expectations

Walter highlights the common mistake of underestimating the time and effort required to reach our goals, leading to failure and discouragement. Giving up too easily weakens our ability to self-discipline, as it reinforces the habit of instant gratification.

To overcome this, it’s important to set realistic expectations, analyze our goals and actions, and avoid self-sabotaging behaviors. For instance, someone who wants to learn how to knit must practice consistently for the required time frame to achieve their goal. By doing so, they can preserve their self-discipline and avoid giving up.

The Impacts of the Planning Fallacy and How to Resolve Them

Experts attribute unrealistic expectations to the planning fallacy, a cognitive bias where people underestimate the time needed to complete tasks due to poor planning and overly optimistic performance expectations. This bias stems from optimism bias, motivated reasoning, and taking the inside view.

Setting unrealistic expectations can lead to a lack of self-discipline and trigger negative thoughts, self-judgment, depression, and burnout. To avoid this, Walter recommends analyzing behaviors and prioritizing tasks, managing time and resources, and considering potential obstacles. Experts suggest seeking advice, defining priorities, blocking time off in your calendar, and brainstorming potential obstacles to ensure a realistic perspective on goals.

Improve Self-Discipline With Good Habits

To enhance self-discipline, Walter suggests replacing bad habits with good ones that support discipline. Habits are actions we do automatically, and forming habits that are detrimental to our interests reduces our ability to adopt positive habits.

However, Gary Keller cautions that building new habits can quickly deplete our limited supply of self-discipline or willpower. To overcome bad habits, Walter recommends cultivating good habits such as:

Habit #1: Create Morning and Evening Routines

Walter suggests that establishing a consistent morning and evening routine helps to promote productive behaviors and make better choices, reducing unproductive temptations that can harm self-discipline. By making these routines a habit, you can resist behaviors like sleeping in, eating poorly, or staying up too late.

A morning routine should include a plan for waking up, eating breakfast, and leaving for work, while an evening routine should start an hour before bedtime, with activities such as brushing teeth, washing face, setting out clothes for the next day, journaling, and then getting into bed.

Habit #2: Create Plans to Achieve Your Goals

Walter suggests that big goals can be overwhelming and lead to inaction, which weakens self-discipline. To avoid this, clearly define your goals and create a plan of action that breaks them down into daily tasks and sub-goals. By doing so, you can hold yourself accountable and increase your chances of success.

To create an effective plan, identify your end goal and then break it down into tasks like applying for residency, finding an apartment, and researching costs. Finally, create a daily schedule to accomplish a task or subgoal every day.

Habit #3: Gain Control Over Your Impulses

Walter says that acting on impulses without thinking is a bad habit that harms self-discipline. It leads to giving up and instant gratification, which can be harmful in the long run. To counteract this habit, he suggests two strategies: the 40% rule and the 10-minute rule.

The 40% rule advises to push through the discomfort and complete the remaining 60% of the work, whereas the 10-minute rule suggests waiting for ten minutes before acting on an unproductive impulse to assess if it’s the best decision.

Applications of the Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that can also help with avoiding instant gratification. It involves setting a timer for a period of time, such as 10 minutes, and using that time to be productive. This can help you avoid giving in to temptations and stay on track with your goals.

By engaging in productive behaviors during these short bursts, you may be more likely to continue being productive and less likely to give in to instant gratification. This technique can be useful in various contexts, such as when you feel the urge to binge eat and can spend 10 minutes doing yoga instead.

Habit #4: Become Familiar With Discomfort

Walter advises that self-discipline often requires doing things we don’t want to do, like work instead of partying. However, practicing self-discipline can help us resist unproductive behaviors and persevere through tough times. To become familiar with discomfort, Walter suggests stepping out of our comfort zone intentionally.

For example, if you’re uncomfortable on stage, try karaoke with friends to build resilience. Experts note that this approach can also boost confidence and creativity, but caution against overwhelming yourself too quickly. Instead, start with small steps and consider going with a friend to ease into discomfort.

Habit #5: Practice Mindfulness and Meditation

Walter suggests that mindfulness, or focusing on the present and controlling thoughts and emotions, is crucial for self-discipline. Negative thoughts and emotions can make it harder to practice self-discipline, but if you focus on the present and control your thoughts and emotions, they won’t influence your ability to self-discipline.

One way to develop mindfulness is through meditation, which improves focus, decision-making, and delaying instant gratification. Mindfulness and meditation are highly effective for increasing self-discipline, indirectly improving sleep quality and alleviating stress. A beginner-friendly meditation technique is “noting,” which involves recording thoughts, feelings, and urges to overcome impulses.

Habit #6: Fully Commit to Your Goals

Walter says that to improve self-discipline, you must fully commit to your goals and put in 100% effort. Half-hearted efforts hinder self-discipline, and true success requires a strong belief in your ability to achieve your goals.

To overcome subconscious intentions that prevent full commitment, identify limiting thoughts and habits and replace them with positive ones. Brian Moran, author of The 12 Week Year, also agrees that weak commitments stem from subconscious intentions and must be addressed to achieve goals.

Increase Commitment by Pacing Yourself and Creating a Routine

Walter’s recommendations for maintaining commitment and momentum towards your goal are two-fold. First, avoid taking on too much too soon, as it can lead to loss of motivation and weaken self-discipline. Second, establish a goal-focused routine and maintain it even after you achieve success, as consistency is key.

For instance, if you want to gain supporters for your new innovation, posting on social media randomly won’t help. Instead, set a routine of posting twice a day, and even after achieving success, continue to post twice daily to maintain and strengthen your community.

Habit #7: Create Positive Associations

Walter warns that relying solely on self-discipline can lead to burnout if you dislike the work. To sustain self-discipline, he suggests creating positive associations with the work by incorporating enjoyable activities into a ritual before, during, and after work. Repeating this routine can create positive mental associations, making it easier to self-discipline. For example, open curtains before work, light a candle during, and reward yourself with a nice dinner after.

Change Your Neuro-Associations to Boost Self-Discipline

Tony Robbins, in his book “Awaken the Giant Within,” emphasizes the importance of rewiring negative associations, or what he calls “negative neuro-associations,” to practice self-discipline effectively. Negative associations with necessary activities like work can hinder productivity.

While Walter focuses on building positive associations to replace negative ones, Robbins suggests taking additional steps to completely undo old negative associations and replace them with new positive ones.

To change negative associations with a behavior, Tony Robbins suggests taking these steps:

  1. Identify the behavior you want to change and what’s blocking you.
  2. Create a sense of urgency to change by realizing how the negative association is holding you back.
  3. Disrupt the negative pattern of thinking by doing something unexpected when the negative association arises.
  4. Create a positive pattern to replace the old one and reinforce it by making it a routine.