“Anything you do to optimize your work, cut some corners, or squeeze more ‘efficiency’ out of it (and out of your life) will eventually make you dislike it.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb – Skin in the Game
I used to think that life was something to optimize. The more I read about productivity, the more I realize that it’s not about learning complex principles and rules to do more things. The main pillar of productivity should be to find something you consider important. Once you do, the rest takes care of itself. In Keep Going, Austin Kleon wrote “Worry less about getting things done. Worry more about things worth doing.” Your job is to find something where you experience discomfort if you don’t do it, not if you do. In Excellent Advice for Living, Kevin Kelly says, “Productivity is often a distraction. Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible. Instead, aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.”
So how do you find the activities that you enjoy doing the most? The easiest way to do this is by paying attention to your energy and how certain tasks make you feel. Entrepreneur Derek Sivers said “Whatever excites you go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.” Once you spot those activities, you focus only on them. “Shorten Your to-do list by asking yourself ‘What is the worst thing that will happen if this does not get done?’ Eliminate all but disasters” Kevin Kelly once wrote.
Lastly, don’t be hard on yourself when things outside your control get in the way. How you deal when things don’t go according to plan is more important than how you deal with them when they do. On this topic, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.”