Productivity is necessary, but don’t forget why you are being productive.
Why are you trying so hard? To live well? You can do that right now.
Don’t let the "to do" block you from "being" and "becoming."
Category: Growth
- Theme: Growth
Productivity can displace the goal
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1–2 minutes - Theme: Growth
To be more productive, stop
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1–2 minutesAlways stop in the middle of a project and go for a walk, don’t power through and reward yourself when you are done.
This does 2 things:
1. it allows your subconscious to work on the problem.
2. you get some perspective.Never fear: You will wish to continue the project when you get back. This is known as the Ovsiankina Effect.
- Theme: Growth
Writing is learning
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1–2 minutesWriting well means you learn from the writing. Which is why it takes so long, is so taxing, and you end the day exhausted from the good pursuit of growth.
What is amazing is that writing well (with a critical eye) means you learn about yourself, and the thing you write about. No teacher: just writing it down generates insight.
- Theme: Growth
Learning takes play
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1–2 minutesLearning something new seems to require time, time to play and make mistakes, which is called experimentation and testing.
- Theme: Growth
Have patience when learning
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1–2 minutesWhen learning something new, have patience with the teacher. And have patience with yourself. Just have patience.
Let it unfold over time, don’t judge prematurely. You don’t have to prove anything. - Theme: Growth
Life is challenge
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1–2 minutesYou can have a good day, even when it begins poorly; more profoundly, maybe the only way to have a good day is to face a challenge first.
Our life is challenge, it is problem solving; without it we would have no purpose. So, approach it well.
- Theme: Growth
Over consuming knowledge hurts productivity
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1–2 minutesVoraciously filling your brain produces little, and actually blocks productivity and conversion to reality.
Solution: non-identify. Pull back and ask yourself what you will be happy you did tomorrow.
- Theme: Growth
Conveying Knowledge is for Yourself
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1–2 minutesKnowledge conveyance is masturbatory: you are mostly proving to yourself you know something.
Even for teachers: knowledge is not learning or insight. Knowledge is readily accessible. How much of what we do is to convince ourselves or to gain affirmation?
- Theme: Growth
Disrupt your Routine
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1–2 minutesDisrupting your day can lead to more important discoveries than maintaining your routine.
Don’t become a slave to your routine or sense of productivity: they are there to manage stress, but they are not life.