Jul 25, 2024

Spending time intentionally

Let go of the false definition of "productivity"

Let's just stop using the term "productivity" to mean "doing more in less time". Instead, we should use the word to mean "doing more intentionally".

And in that context, I have not been productive lately. While I use a somewhat productivity-rich system, it is not quite working. So I need to iterate, and come back with an even better system to spend my time intentionally. Because:

You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall down to the level of your system.
-James Clear, Atomic Habits.

And I have a few ideas in mind.

Identify #

I have to first identify what I spend my time on. This is so that I get a statistical data of "which task takes how much time". This will also help me timeblock more efficiently.

• Time Tracking
• Identifying the things I waste my time the most.
• What websites/apps do I use the most?
• What triggers that response? What kind of pattern does it make?

Prioritise #

This is very important. If I don't prioritise the important stuff, then I am gonna lose a lot of time.

“Curb your desire. Don’t set out your heart to so many things, and you will get what you need.”
-Epictetus

Prioritising makes sure that you're working on what matters.

• Progression Tasks > maintainance tasks. ^[1]
  Tasks like sleeping, eating, cleaning up are maintainance task and don't contribute to your progression. What does help you progress is writing a book, training for a hackathon, getting ready for that basketball tournament, and so on.
• Automate the maintainance tasks as much as you can. Save time.
  There are no shortcut for sleeping, eating and exercising though.
• Use Retrospective Time-Table instead of the Progressive one. ^[2]
• Keep a tracker for important metrics like health, studies, relationships, etc.
• "Hell yeah, or no."

Energise #

If you ain't got no energy, you can do no thang.

Makes sense. What could you do about it?

• Energy Tracking. When do you feel the most energetic?
• Pay attention to that Biological Prime Time. That's the time which you should dedicate to deep work ^[3]
• Meditation. This is very very important. You all know it is.

Improve #

• Habit Stacking to make things much easier.
  • Always pair a passive and active task, not passive-passive or active-active (they act like the like-poles of the magnet and repel). Or else, it won't be of any use.
• Make use of "Portable Tasks" ^[4]
  • These are the tasks that are low-effort, doesn't require much initialisation and can be done while travelling / commuting.
  • Like reading a book, listening to audiobooks, podcasts, etc.

Your (and my) objective should be to be more mindful and intentional. There is no such trick or technique to do that. There will be time when you're just as "unproductive" as the neighbourhood watchman, but that shouldn't stop you from tweaking your system and being a better person. Every time.

Footnotes