Hello my friends,
Inflation isn’t the biggest threat to the economy.
Procrastination is.
Early on in the transition to work from home, and once the novelty of wearing sweatpants all day wore off, I struggled to find focus and flow.
Business media blames the phenomenon of procrastination on ‘working from home’ but I think it only laid bare the fact that most of your time at work, regardless of whether it’s in the office or otherwise, is spent outwith high value deep work.
Coffee chats, internal presentations and the meeting after the meeting are surface level distractions.
Looking for a solution, ironically, I found it at a time waster’s favorite destination - YouTube.
An aspiring cardiac surgeon called Jimmy, who goes by StudyMD, uploads videos of himself studying accompanied by various aesthetically pleasing desk setups, lo-fi ambient background music and a Pomodoro timer.
(Some of his videos have 1m+ views. Monetizing studying to become a doctor has to be one of the most genius moves ever.)
But how does this help overcome procrastination?
The breakthrough for me is the Pomodoro Technique he uses.
Pomodoro is a time management system developed in the late 1980s that splits the day up into smaller more mentally manageable segments.
It encourages your to work with the time you have rather than against it.
I’ve talked before about the ”work like a lion, not a grazing cow” concept and this method is the closest I’ve come to it while staying within the limits of standard corporate culture (vs. a startup).
Here’s how it works:
My preference is a 45/15 minute work to rest ratio. Why 45 minutes? It’s enough time to get into a task but not too long that quality suffers.
If you can, switch all notifications off - e-mail, instant messaging and phone on silent.
Start a 45 minute countdown.
You now have 45 minutes of uninterrupted time to go deep on a task.
When the time is up use the 15 minutes to refuel, stand up, walk around. Just no work.
Once the rest period is over, start the next 45.
Usually, I get about 4 or 5 cycles in per day before I need to attend to an overflowing inbox or answer missed calls.
While you can simply use the timer on your phone, I’ve found I’m 10x more effective when I use the StudyMD follow along videos.
Observing someone fully focused on work creates social accountability that is hard to replicate outside of the physical office.
It’s been transformational for me.
Give it a go and let me know if it works for you ↓
Product
The importance of planning far ahead when starting an apparel brand. When we only hear the success stories we can’t learn from the failures.
“Survivorship bias skews the reality of starting a successful business.
Aspiring entrepreneurs are better served by looking at the stories and lessons of unsuccessful businesses.
Brink Insider is challenging that by highlighting the stories of unsuccessful businesses and sharing those lessons with aspiring entrepreneurs.”
A product strategy doesn’t need to be complicated. Regardless of which industry you’re in this framework will help you:
Understand the problem
Identify your unique value
Outline how you will execute
When the world switched to work from home, separating work and life became impossible. Creating rituals and routines can help create boundaries and improve productivity.
People
The perfect office doesn’t exi… Perhaps this is why the Finnish people are the happiest in the world.
See the true cost of all the “alignment meetings” and “touch bases”. The pandemic increased the average employee’s time spent in meetings to 21.5 hours per week.
Having strong beliefs, weakly held, and using mental models to maintain good judgment. Don’t be afraid to mix and match.
Methods
Expanding on Nassim Taleb’s concept of Antifragility, Psychologist Tal Ben-Shahar encourages us to pursue happiness, but not directly. Antifragile and the rest of Nassim Taleb’s books are compulsory reading in my humble opinion.
Are we too busy to enjoy life? Progress shouldn’t be measured by the quantity of work but by the quality of output. Don’t confuse lack of time for lack of focus.
What are the most valuable things that everyone should know? A meaningful list from Jordan B. Peterson that includes:
Tell the truth
Pay attention
Make at least one thing better every single place you go.
Out of Office
The latest iOS update has added an extra button to your iPhone.
Here’s how to activate it.
Make sure you have software version 15.3.1
Go to - Settings
Accessibility
Touch
Back Tap
Double Tap
Now you can set a system function that activates when you double tap the back of your phone.
I have assigned it to open the camera, but you can use it to launch apps, scroll a page and other useful shortcuts.
It even works through a case.
Vault
🎙 CMMWLTH Podcasts of 2022 curated by you.
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