Category: Productivity

I have just come back from a four-day trip to Melbourne. Prior to the trip, I spent days doing things for the blog to run smoothly. Before I left, I spent the morning packing my laptop and the whole kit and caboodle to be fully productive during the short break.

I did nothing of the sort.

Instead, I caught up with friends, ate lavish meals and talked non-stop.

The occasion was a friend’s 70th birthday. All of our friends were there and we had a ball celebrating life. Even rain and terrible winds didn’t stop us from merrymaking.

On Saturday morning, we went for a walk to the Organ Pipes (a million-year-old rock formation on the north-west of Melbourne formed by cooling and cracking volcanic lava).

On Sunday we did absolutely nothing other than eating, talking and viewing holiday photographs.

After months of being a prisoner of self-imposed routine as a blogger, I had so much fun that the rebel in me said, “That’s it. No more schedules. Just do what you feel like. Be spontaneous rather than regimented.”

Believe me when I say I was tempted.

Lying in the bed in the half-asleep-half-awake state I was ready to throw out of the window, the routines and rituals, which took me months to establish and cement when the first routine kicked in.

For the past few weeks, I have been following a morning routine which has made my mornings extra special. As per this routine, the first thing I do as soon as I wake up is – meditation.

So I decided to ponder on it during the meditation.

Routine or spontaneity, that is the question.

Routines are excellent if you want to do something on a consistent basis, one of the best ways to manage day-to-day stress. A daily routine creates comfort and provides a mindless and stress-free way to conquer daily tasks with as little energy and effort as possible. A routine allows you to: accomplish more, have better mental health, help better manage time, break bad habits, choose how your day progresses and stop procrastination.

Spontaneity, on the other hand, is like romance, unpredictable but exciting. It adds pizzaz to life, making it interesting. It helps you think outside the box, find new connections and unique solutions.

There seem to be people who enjoy and thrive on routines and others who prefer to be spontaneous. I am like a pendulum who swings from one end to another.

I like routines and I am quite disciplined to follow them but the lure of spontaneity is too much for me to resist. After some time every routine becomes too monotonous for me and I become restless. I feel like an animal trapped in a cage and want to break free. On these days, no amount of security created by routine soothes my spirit; an escape is the only thing that will work.

That may be the case with all creative souls. After all, they say:

So the answer that revealed itself during the meditation was – build spontaneity in your routine, and when the spontaneity calls don’t worry about breaking the routines. Because it means I am on the verge of a breakthrough.

Did you notice the change on my site display? It is in response to one such call of spontaneity.

I will leave that story for another day.

Let’s face it. There aren’t enough hours in a day to do everything we want. ‘Failing to plan is the sure recipe to fail’, but what if after all the planning and good intentions you still can’t accomplish what you set out to do in a day.

I have been struggling each week to write three posts, the first draft of a new non-fiction book, editing the second draft of the novel, doing a drawing course, reading at least one book a week and doing daily research and interviews for the book and blog. I am not going to waste your time by listing the housework, which I am sure you all do as well.

Ever since I have quit my job and started working for myself I thought I will have plenty of time to do scheduled activities but also the impromptu activities such as meeting a friend for a coffee, start a singing group, sorting out millions of family photos and of course read newspaper in the morning with a cup of tea.

Boy, was I wrong!

I am working more than ten hours a day, there is no clear end to my working day, sometimes it goes literally till mid-night. I have tried all kinds of planning tools but none so far has given me the kind of control I am looking for.

The issue is not that overcommitting but less productivity. Working from home has its challenges. There are more distractions and lots of interruptions. I realized I don’t get a solid seven or eight hours as I used in an office environment.

After months of trials, I have come to realize I have only three blocks of time available throughout the day. In the morning before breakfast, in the afternoon after lunch and at night after dinner. My challenge is to use these blocks in the most effective way.

This is when by pure accident, I came across the 90-minute block schedule.

90-minute block schedule became popular in middle and high schools in the 1990s as an alternative to the traditional schedule, where four core blocks of 90 minutes replace the traditional six to eight classes of 45 to 50 minutes each day. The success of this idea in schools is attributed to the less wasted time between classes, the opportunity to dive more deeply into content and using multiple learning methods in addition to traditional teaching by ‘lecture.’

But a 90-minute block schedule is also used as a productivity tool by professionals and entrepreneurs.

Jonathan Vieker writes in his post Time Blocking: A Brilliant Time Management Tool:

In researching and writing about time management for the last couple of years, I’ve explored multiple approaches, but I’ve gradually come to advocate one approach above all others. It’s called time blocking, and it’s no exaggeration to say that it can change your working life. In the two years I’ve been using time blocking, I estimate that my productivity has roughly doubled. That’s the kind of efficiency gain you don’t find every day!

Recently time blocking was made famous by the author Cal Newport in his book Deep Work, in which he suggests to pre-schedule completely distraction-free blocks of time to do deep work. He shares his time-blocking technique in his blog Deep Habits: The Importance of Planning Every Minute of Your Work Day. He says “it generates a massive amount of productivity, and even if you’re blocking most of your day for reactive work, the fact that you are controlling your schedule will allow you to dedicate some small blocks (perhaps at the schedule periphery) to deeper pursuits.”

Here is a quick animated summary of Cal Newport’s book Deep Work.

I have now adopted Newport’s technique and blocked the 90-minute block for writing, editing, researching, and reading.

It is the best way to beat Parkinson’s Law, which says that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” By limiting my sessions to 90 minutes I am making sure that I finish the task in that time span.

Steve Pavlina argues that a typical American office worker only does about 90 minutes of real work per workday. The rest of each workday is largely spent on distractions like reading the news, web surfing, socializing with coworkers, snacking, taking coffee breaks, shuffling papers around, processing irrelevant emails, needless delay tactics, playing games, and daydreaming.

He suggests that a knowledge worker can do a whole day’s work in a 90-minute period of peak productivity. He makes the following suggestions to maximize time-block productivity.

1. Pick one theme – Instead of doing a bunch of random actions, pick one clear theme for the block.

2. Define the finish line – See your focus block as a fast dash to the finish line. But where is the finish line? What does it look like? Having a clear goal that’s only 90 minutes away will help you focus. Don’t worry if you don’t cross the finish line each time; it’s there to help you focus, so aim for it, but accept that sometimes you’ll miss.

3. List the action steps – List the specific actions you’ll take during this block. For some blocks, this is really helpful. For others, it may not be necessary if the steps are already clear.

4. Ensure zero interruptions – Do whatever it takes to ensure that you will not be interrupted under any circumstances during your focus block.

5. Work fast – Think fast. Move fast. Work fast. Imagine that you’re in a race, and you have to maintain a strong pace for the full 90 minutes. After that, you can rest. With practice, this gets easier.

6. Allow no distractions – During your focus block, you must do your pre-defined work and nothing else. Keep your cell phone off. Turn off any notifications. Don’t check the internet. Do not check email during this time. Do not take a coffee break or snack break. Use the bathroom during this time only if you must.

Do a Full Day’s Work in 90 Minutes by Steve Pavlina

In Steve Pavlina’s view, the way to do the less important tasks is to group them together and do them as one block. It prevents frequently switching gears and gives you structure and helps you stick to a schedule.

Kevin Kruse, author of 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, recommends time blocks instead of to-do lists “because of the discipline and order it applies to your tasks.”

Organizing your schedule instead of making a to-do list takes productivity one step further. Because you’re dedicating specific windows of time to your work, everything finds its place. Tasks aren’t floating around in your mind. There’s a time set aside to get it all done.

Kevin Kruse

“Time blocking will force you to confront reality, avoid over-committing, and help you leverage the power of deadlines,” says Kruse ” and it might even help you sleep better at night.”

Was today’s post helpful? Have you used the time-block technique to structure your day? Share your experience through the comments section.

The term “work-life balance” is so common that it has lost its meaning. 

Ask a bunch of people what work-life balance is for them, and they all will come with a different meaning. 

Balance means a state of equilibrium, a condition where everything is still and in equal proportion. 

Have you ever had a day when either your work or your life was still? Do you spend your time in equal proportion on work and life?

This suggestion of work-life balance is based on the assumption that work is bad, and life is good; spend more time on life and less time on work, and you will have a happy life. 

That is a wrong assumption.

Let me make a case for work.

Work is a major part of our lives. It defines us. It provides intellectual stimulation, helps us learn, expresses ourselves, pays for our bills, and helps us socialize and collaborate with other people. 

When done for thirty to forty years of our lives, it becomes a habit. 

Work is essential for a fulfilling life. Without it, life is purposeless, uninspiring, and dull.

But then we are expected to be at work 24/7. 

There are no defined working hours. 

Technological advancement means even when we are not physically at work, work can reach us. 

If you can’t get out of range, you are not really away from work. It is very easy for your work to claim demands on your time, particularly your free time. 

The demand for our time has been increasing with other technological advances such as social media.

Humans are not evolving at the pace of technological advances. 

Evolution works at a very slow pace. Big changes take hundreds of generations. 

Humans were designed for low attention spans so that we can scan our environment and keep ourselves safe. 

We were also designed to rest and take it easy to conserve our energy. But we are expected to be productive for several hours of the day. 

Evolution or rather lack of evolution is the reason why we are struggling to fit the huge demands of work into our lives. We are trying to get ourselves to do something very hard for us.

It changes the scale of our troubles. Although so often it seems incredibly personal that one fails to combine work harmoniously with family life or with exercise or with maintaining old friendships, the charge should not really be laid primarily against oneself. The fault lies with something much larger than our own individual failings (real though those are). It lies with where we are in history, with the nature of the economy and in the slow pace of evolution.

The Book of Life

Then there is this argument:

Our brain is funny. Its primary function is to keep us safe from danger. It has us believe that in order to insulate us from such, we must work harder, meaner, and longer to stay ahead of potential competitors who can rip the rug out from under us at any moment. But the reality is, when we are well rested and reflective rather than reactive, we put ourselves in a better place; a place that is well insulated from the ultimate danger of meaningless or, even worse, toxic, self-destructive work.”

Charles F. Glassman, Brain Drain The Breakthrough That Will Change Your Life

Poet and Philosopher David Whyte call “work/life balance” a “phrase that often becomes a lash with which we punish ourselves.” 

In his new book The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self, and Relationship, he offers an emboldening way out of this cultural trap.

The current understanding of work-life balance is too simplistic. People find it hard to balance work with family, family with self, because it might not be a question of balance. Some other dynamic is in play, something to do with a very human attempt at happiness that does not quantify different parts of life and then set them against one another. We are collectively exhausted because of our inability to hold competing parts of ourselves together in a more integrated way.

[…]

Work, like marriage, is a place you can lose yourself more easily perhaps than finding yourself. It is a place full of powerful undercurrents, a place to find our selves, but also, a place to drown, losing all sense of our own voice, our own contribution and conversation.

[…]

Good work like a good marriage needs a dedication to something larger than our own detailed, everyday needs; good work asks for promises to something intuited or imagined that is larger than our present understanding of it. We may not have an arranged ceremony at the altar to ritualize our dedication to work, but many of us can remember a specific moment when we realized we were made for a certain work, a certain career or a certain future: a moment when we held our hand in a fist and made unspoken vows to what we had just glimpsed.

David Whyte in The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship

The truth is there will always be unbalanced in work and life. 

There will be times (days or months or years) when work will be your number one priority, and there will be a time when life will take precedence over your work. 

Your ability to identify those times and maturity to be flexible will determine the “balance” in your life. Your time and energy shift based on the rotating demands of each area of your life.

“There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.” — Alain de Botton.

When we start losing ourselves in work, when we see ourselves as an extension of work and have no identity left outside of work, we have a problem. 

Too many people fell prey to ‘work is life’ syndrome and pay a heavy price when work is no longer there.

Yesterday I introduced Roman philosopher Seneca’s essay On the Shortness of Life, and David Eagleman’s book Sum. It was a tongue-in-cheek introduction to a very serious question, where does our time goes. Seneca’s two thousand years ago assessment is still correct, we waste most of it.

Today I am going to take it one step further and explore how not to waste time.

Seneca says in a letter to his friend Lucilius:

Continue to act thus, my dear Lucilius – set yourself free for you own sake; gather and save your time, which till lately has been forced from your, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands. Make yourself believe the truth of my words – that certain moments are torn from us, that some are gently removed and that other glide beyond our reach. The most disgraceful kind of loss, however, is that due to carelessness.

The Tao of Seneca – Practical Letters from a Stoic Master

How much of time is actually filched away from us? After all we don’t have all of 24 hours of a day at our disposal. Most of it is already allocated to so called ‘essential’ activities of survival. We only have a small portion of time which we can truly call ours. Lets figure out how much exactly.

By a simple math, on an average we spend 8 hours sleeping; 8 hours working; 1 hour commuting; 2 hour cooking, eating and washing dishes; 1 hour on personal hygiene; 1 hour on household chores; 1 hour on shopping, socialising etc. that leaves just meager two hours to ourselves.

Just two hours! That’s all.

If we squander even that, no wonder our life is wasted.

What can be achieved in two hours?

Should we even bother?

Now, there is no need to be disheartened so quickly. Let do the calculation again, but this time for a week rather than a day.

On weekly basis we spend 56 hours sleeping; 40 hours working; 7 hours commuting; 14 hours cooking, eating and washing dishes; 7 hours on personal hygiene; 7 hour on household chores; 7 hour on shopping, socialising etc. That leaves just twenty two hours to ourselves in a week. That means 1,144 hours in a year, 11,440 hours in a decade.

Now we are talking. That is something.

Now don’t rush on to say that there are other things to do on the weekend which are as necessary the other activities. To keep the maths simple I have not included the public holidays and annual leave etc. which give you extra time to compensate that.

So you practically have 1,144 hours in a year that you can call your own. Are you using them well?

Seneca warns:

The most disgraceful kind of loss, however, is that due to carelessness.

What time we waste by being careless?

Watching TV and being on social media may be.

The research says an average person watches TV for 3 to 4 hours a day and checks the smart phone at least 52 times a day. Even if we say 2 minutes for each check that means 1 hours 44 minutes on smart phone each day. Let do a simple maths again, just 3 hours of TV and 1 hour of smart phone add up to 1,460 hours of screen time, chewing away all of your free time.

Seneca goes on saying:

Furthermore, if you will pay close heed to the problem, you will find that the largest portion of our life passes while we are doing ill, a goodly share while we are doing nothing, and the whole while we are doing that which is not the purpose.

The Tao of Seneca – Letters from Seneca

By ‘doing ill’ Seneca means drinking or any kind of addiction whether it is substance, addiction, materialistic or social addiction, after all gossiping is an addiction too and biggest time killer. Obsessions come in this category too, whether being it is being obsessive about cleaning or perfection or anything in between chews up time.

Procrastination stands for ‘doing nothing’ and we are all guilty of that. We spend more hours thinking about doing the things we want to do rather than actually doing them. And most of worthy things are hard to do anyway so we postpone them for a right moment or right mindset or even for right cosmic alignment.

Therefore, Lucilius, do as you write me that you are doing: hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of today’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow’s. While we are postponing, life speeds by.

The Tao of Seneca – Letters from Seneca

‘Doing which is not the purpose’ are the activities that do not contribute to a particular purpose. We can call them ‘purposeless busyness’. Like organizing files on our computers, going through thousands of photos again and again trying to delete some and then keeping them all, checking online and physical stores looking for bargains to save hard earned money. There is good intention behind all these activities but they don’t contribute to any higher purpose.

Having a higher purpose and then doing activities that fulfill that purpose is the whole essence of using your time effectively.

Seneca writes:

Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession. What fools these mortals be! They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replace, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of the precious commodity – time! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay.

The Tao of Seneca – Letter from Seneca

To well-spend your most valuable commodity, you need to figure out what is the purpose of your life. What do you want to achieve? What difference you want to make in this world? What do you want to leave behind? How do you want to leave this world a bit better than your found it?

Answer to these questions will determine how you will spend 1,144 hours of this year so that they do not go wasted.

How to find out that purpose? I will try to tackle this question in tomorrow’s post.

I will leave you today with this beautiful quote from Coach Bobbi.

In his famous book the 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris shares this theory that if you read 3 books on a topic from different authors, you’ll become more knowledgeable about it than 99% of people you know.

It’s a bold claim but it makes sense.

Tim’s not saying you’ll become an expert surgeon by reading 3 books on surgery. But you will gain more theoretical knowledge of surgery than most people (other than professional surgeons of course).

Sia Mohajer explains this concept very well in his post Three Book Rule to Become an Expert.

Three books rule might be the permission slip you were looking for to learn a new skill, to start a new career or to simply gain new knowledge.

The bottom line of the rule is that most people’s knowledge about any topic is very limited. If you have read three books (by different authors to cover more ground and to get different points of view), and have understood and internalized that knowledge, you already know more than 99% of people. In their eyes, you are an expert.