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Leaving your options open sets you back
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Leaving our options open
We have a limited amount of willpower, and if we leave our options open, we have to use our willpower constantly. We are much better off removing choices and creating routines that preserve our willpower.
The key to committing to a goal is to understand that taking options away from yourself actually opens up more possibilities for yourself.
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More options create anxiety
The extreme adaptability that served us so well in evolution is, today, a source of anxiety: at any given point we could choose one of a million options for our life. But the overwhelming number of options only makes us stressed, depressed and anxious, to the point we choose nothing and simply gaze at possibilities.
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Noncommitment and multitasking
Multitasking is basically the act of refusing to prioritize one thing over everything else. It’s non-commitment on a micro-scale.
And when we refuse to commit to a goal, we are ensuring that we do not reach any goal.
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Greater Focus
Be in the Now, realizing that the only available and real moment is the present moment is the best way to live. Apart from the Now, the rest is just unrealized fiction and bad memories no ...
A Long Walk For Focus
Walking is the best way to focus on the now, and is a blessing for the whole day if done in the morning. Life is already too short, and a nice walk prolongs time and gives it space.
Walking provides us with fresh air, exercise and peacefulness.
The Trick Of Deciding
The ‘decision hack’ to increase productivity is to not have too many distractions and options to choose from.
If we have a lot of actions and decisions to make in a long to-do list, every item suffers. The trick is to say yes to a few high priority items and say no to the rest.
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Decision fatigue
As you make more decisions (especially difficult ones), and as you consider more options, you start to get mentally tired making your subsequent decisions worse and more difficult.
Fewer options and decision making
We assume more options will make us happier, but that's not true.
By strategically decreasing the number of decisions we need to make we're making sure we actually choose something, and we can save our decisiveness for when it really counts.
Rules
A rule is a predetermined response to a given situation, a set action for how you’ll handle a common situation so that you don’t waste any time trying to decide between two or more small and unimportant options.
Examples: "I Never answer calls from unrecognized numbers" or "I don’t check email before 10 am, after 7 pm, or on Saturday."
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Being purposeful with your day
Time management is about taking control of the time you do have available and using it optimally for productivity while creating balance.
How to plan your day
Much advice about time management is about creating a to-do list, reminding you what you want to do. However, it's more important to use a schedule, which tells you when you're going to do it.
- Create "bookends" for each day. Consider your morning and evening routines, then "block" in time for your most important tasks. For example, a 2-hour writing-block every morning after breakfast.
- Set aside time for your most important projects. The object is to be purposeful about what and when you're going to do something.
- Schedule in breaks. A schedule has to be realistic. That means including time for breaks, food, exercise, social time, and other "non-school" tasks that keep you happy.
Be aware of how you’re spending your time
To build a better time management system, you need to know what you currently spend your time on. You need to know where you're losing time to the wrong things.
To track your time, spend a few days writing a "time log" to track how you spend your day.