It is that time of the year again when we are looking at the goals for 2024.
I dabbled into several articles, including the research articles that are popping up about goal setting.
Here are the 3 researchers found about goal setting:
1. Your Goals Should Be A Bit Out of Reach but Not Impossible
Research reveals that the most rewarding goals are those that challenge us, just a tad out of our immediate grasp but still within the realm of possibility. It’s the sweet spot where growth and achievement intersect. Remember, the journey is as crucial as the destination.
2. The Work That Goes Into Achieving Your Goal Should Excite You, Not Just the Results
Goals should be more than just endpoints; they should be endeavors that excite us, not only for the outcomes, but for the journey itself. Finding joy and fulfillment in the process ensures sustained motivation and a richer sense of accomplishment.
3. Frustration and Anxiety as Progress Signals
Surprising, right? Research suggests that experiencing frustration and anxiety along the way isn’t a setback but a sign of progress. It means you’re pushing boundaries, stepping out of your comfort zone, and challenging yourself. Embrace these feelings—they’re indicators of growth.
4. Singular Focus, Have Only One Goal
The research speaks loud and clear—opt for the power of one. Concentrating on a single goal enhances clarity, focus, and consistency. It’s not about limiting, but about channeling your energy and efforts for maximum impact.
Setting goals isn’t just about reaching a destination; it’s about the transformative journey and the person you become along the way.
Keep aiming high, find joy in the pursuit, and remember that frustration and anxiety are the companions of progress.
Category: Productivity
An Open Letter To Writers
Dear Writers,
I hope this letter finds you well, or at least well-caffeinated and surrounded by a few crumpled-up drafts
that resemble more of a paper mosh pit than a literary masterpiece.
If not, I have a message for you.
Stop organizing and start writing!
I get it, I really do. Organizing can be a blast.
It gives you that delightful sensation of doing something useful while secretly avoiding the terrifying blank page.
It makes you feel like you’re the Marie Kondo of your own writing space.
But let’s be real here—if your writing desk is so clean you could perform surgery on it, you’re probably not writing enough.
So, how about we make a deal?
Let’s embrace the chaos, the spilled coffee, the tangled earphones, and the breadcrumbs scattered all over the keyboard.
Let’s write first and organize later (or never).
After all, the world needs our words more than our perfectly organized filing system.
Writing is a wild adventure.
It’s like trying to tame a herd of feral plot bunnies while riding a roller coaster with your muse screaming in your ear.
And guess what? That chaos is precisely what makes it beautiful.
It’s the messiness that gives birth to those unexpected ideas, quirky humor, and brilliant one-liners.
So, why on earth are we spending hours alphabetizing our collection of writing prompts?
Now, go forth, brave scribblers!
Unleash your creativity with the ferocity of a squirrel raiding a bird feeder.
Write with wild abandon, and remember that the messier your drafts, the more brilliantly unique your stories will be.
Yours in writerly solidarity,
NM
Making Time
Productivity is not about doing more in less time.
It is not about making to-do lists, prioritizing them, or even outsourcing.
It is about “making time” in your day for the things you care about.
What are your priorities?
– Spending time with your family?
– Learning a language?
– Starting a side business?
– Volunteering?
– Writing a book?
Whatever you want to do, “make time” for it.
Life is so busy and chaotic. That’s why we are constantly stressed and distracted. We have too many things on the go that are competing for every minute of our time.
We are in we-must-fill-every-minute-with-productivity-bandwagon.
Overflowing inboxes, stuffed calendars, endless to-do lists, apps, and other sources of never-ending content, most of our time is spent by default attending to these things.
Productivity isn’t the solution.
I have tried every productivity trick to do more.
The trouble is there are always more tasks waiting to be done.
The faster I ran on the hamster wheel the faster it spun.
So I got off the hamster wheel.
– I deleted apps.
– I banned devices.
– I scrapped to-do lists.
And I “made time” for the things I really wanted to do.
I am now less busy but feel more productive.
I am working only 4 hours a day now but achieving much more.
What things you are doing by default?
What do you need to “make time” for?
Do you want to be a productive writer?
Two years ago, when I became a full-time writer, I went full throttle on several creative projects.
• I joined multiple courses.
• I wrote prolifically to populate my website.
• I dusted a three-year-old manuscript and started working on it.
• I started writing an article a day on Medium.
• I commenced a weekly publication.
• And a weekly newsletter.
“I am not working,” I told myself. “I have no excuse to slack. My output should be double or triple as before.”
On the contrary, my productivity dropped.
And I experienced a full-scale burnout.
While working on a paid job, I never had to worry about my productivity. Even when I was working on tight deadlines.
Even though I was working over ten hours a day and still couldn’t finish the tasks I had assigned to myself.
I over-committed and became obsessed with productivity.
I was continually stressed, exhausted, and feeling non-creative.
I was finally free to pursue my dreams, and I was nose-diving into a disaster.
Looking back, I see the problem wasn’t with the amount of work; it was with my approach.
Somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking about productivity as the vehicle and made it the goal.
I’d lost sight of the purpose and meaning behind the work I was doing.
Every hour blocked off on my calendar, every task I added to my to-do list, and every project I started, tightened the grip on my heart and mind.
As I looked around myself, I found I wasn’t alone.
Every creator was going through the same.
Thankfully, I came out of this excruciating state.
I wrote my journey from a stressed and anxious for a relaxed productive writer in my new book “Become A Productive Writer. In the hope that it can help you to become relaxed and productive.
This story will blow your mind
At a truck suspension shop, they’d do a year-end tally to count all the different kinds of screws.
One
By
One
It would take daaaaays!
Can you imagine the time-sucking, soul-crushing agony?
A new employee joined the team.
He was assigned the task of counting the screws.
The problem was, he was too lazy. He couldn’t be bothered with counting the screws, one by one.
So he came up with an idea.
He weighed an individual screw.
Then weighed the bin full of screws.
Then divided the weight of the bin by the weight of just one screw.
BAM!
He got the total number of screws.
The job went from taking days… to be done in a couple of minutes.
The best way to do anything… is to be lazy.
Be lazy like the car mechanic.
Build a system!
How to conquer the email monster
Has your Inbox turned into a monster sucking the time out of your day?
Mine did. Until I slayed it, once and for all.
Like everybody else, I get lots of emails every day.
A vast majority of them I didn’t even read. But they kept clogging up my inbox. The ones I wanted to read got buried deeper and deeper.
I subscribe to a lot of newsletters but when I receive them I didn’t get time to read them.
Sometimes I would open it, read a bit, find it useful, and then close it to read it later when I have more time. That later never came.
Then last year I implemented a five-step strategy to bring my inbox to zero and keep it that way.
This is what I did.
1. I created a folder called Inbox 2 and moved all the existing emails there. The whole 9000 of them. I left them there. If I needed them they are there.
2. As new emails started arriving in the empty Inbox, I started unsubscribing the ones I wasn’t reading anymore.
3. I subscribed to a read-it-later app and forwarded the ones I wanted to read.
4. Emails that demanded action from me went to my task manager.
5. If there was something that required a calendar event, it went to my calendar.
Now I spend 7 – 10 minutes a day on my inbox.
I take action on the tasks in the time allocated for them, usually once or twice a week.
I read the ones I want to read during my reading time, usually at night or when I am waiting in queues or reception rooms.
Now emails don’t sit heavy on my head and I have free mental space to write.
What is your email management strategy?