Category: Productivity

It is 7:00 AM. I am all set to write today’s article. The house is quiet. I have two hours to myself. I certainly can knock it out in two hours. The topic is “distractions,” and I definitely will not get distracted while writing about distractions.

The phone shudders!

I ignore it. Some notification, it can wait.

Ding! Ding!

Messages that I have notifications. I ignore them all. Great! I am successful in ignoring external triggers.

I write three paragraphs. They are crap. Maybe I need to read what others have written about distractions. Since Cal Newport’s Deep Work and Nir Eyal’s Indistractable have been published, it has been a hot topic.

I own both books, so I get up to get them. Luckily I have underlined the interesting bits. I read them. But they are taking me in different directions. Maybe it will be quicker if I go online.

I hop on to google and read Cal Newport’s blog and Nir Eyal’s articles on Medium. There was an email by Oliver Burkeman last week, who also talked about distractions. Maybe I should read that one too.

I open my email. Over 50 unread emails stare at me? I should quickly scan them, in case there is something important. Or uplifting.

9:00 AM. I have gone through my emails, still haven’t found Burkeman’s email, checked and responded to earlier notifications, and my article hasn’t gone beyond the three initial paragraphs.

Nir Eyal would say I gave in to internal triggers.

The external triggers are all the things in our outside environment that can lead us off track. They are all the pings, dings, and rings that can derail a well-planned day.

They are less of a problem.

It is the internal triggers that more prevalent and hard to control.

An internal trigger is an uncomfortable emotional state you seek to escape. For example, if you slipped off track because you felt bored, lonely, stressed, or anxious, you succumbed to an internal trigger.

According to Nir Eyal, we can master internal triggers by following a four steps process:

1. Identify the emotion preceding the urge.
2. Write what it is.
3. Explore the negative sensations that accompany it with curiosity instead of contempt.
4. Be extra cautious during moments when you transition from one task to another.

And for an extra measure, play a game with yourself, challenge yourself to find variability in routine, add a dimension of fun to the task, and you will stay focused on the task.

But the problem with all these techniques is that they don’t work when you need them to.

Cal Newport refers to an article in The New York Times, sharing his frustration with the contemporary advice.

“And, like everyone else, I’ve nodded along with the prohibition sermons imploring me to limit my information diet. Stop multitasking! Turn off the devices at least once a week! And, like everyone else, these sermons have had no effect.” — David Brooks, The Art of Focus

There is a reason for that.

When we can control distractions for a period, we think we can do that all the time.

We think we can control our brains all the time. But that is not true.

Distractions are the way our brain tells us it had enough. It needs a break.

Instead of giving it a break, we keep on giving it more concentration-needing work. A few months ago, I would have been over the moon if I could write 2 articles a week. Now I am writing 7. Of course, I have got better with time, but rather than being satisfied, I am targeting to write two articles a day. That too within two hours.

No wonder my brain is rebelling.

I am expecting too much from it.

Our brains need time to process information.

When we research and find new information, our brain needs time to assimilate it. Just like computers, it needs processing time.

The processing comprises connecting new information with old one and coming up with something brand new. That can’t happen in a matter of minutes.

In fact, it happens when we are doing mundane, low energy consuming tasks such as washing dishes, cleaning the house, going for a walk, or even checking emails.

Distractions are not the cause of the problem but are a solution.

Our brains want us to do something mundane to do what it needs to — to develop a new angle for the article.

Our problem is not the distractions but expecting too much from our brains.

We get distracted because we are constantly expecting our brains to be productive.

In our quest to tick everything off our To-Do lists, we forget we are creatures of nature, just like cats, dogs, horses, and birds. None of them have To-Do lists.

Not so long ago, we too were wandering in woods, living in caves, singing, dancing, and telling stories around a fire.

We are designed to be lazy.

When we are lazy, we are most productive because creativity springs out of boredom.

I am more productive when I am rested. I don’t get distracted, then. Whereas I constantly demand too much from myself, my productivity drops, and distractions are hard to control.

How do you rest your brain?

By incorporating rest into your schedule.

Shane Parrish, the founder of Farnam Street, urges his readers to “schedule a time to do nothing but think.”

We writers regularly take in large amounts of information, think it through from different angles, anticipate objections, consider opposing views, and then come up with our own unique perspectives.

While experience and research can provide us with some leverage, we still need to schedule some time in our days (and weeks) to do nothing but think.

Otherwise, either our productivity will drop, or the quality of our work will degrade.

Nir Eyal suggests Timeboxing as a technique to plan spontaneity in our schedule.

“If you schedule thinking time and you stick to your schedule, you can use that time spontaneously and creatively. If you don’t, you’re going to end up having no time to think, because you didn’t deliberately set aside time for it.

If you’re anything like I was, you’ll waste unscheduled time scrolling social media or reading the news, instead of using time thoughtfully.

But note that it’s fine to watch a video, scroll social media, daydream, or take a nap — as long as that’s what you intended to do ahead of time. If you’re not spending your time doing what you’d planned, then you’re distracted.” — Nir Eyal

Lower your productivity expectations.

“Productivity is a slippery term,” says Cal Newport, “I like to think it as the intentional allocation of your time and attention toward things that matter to you and away from diversions that don’t.”

By continuity bombarding your brain with heavy-duty work and giving it unrealistic deadlines backfires pretty quickly.

Identify the most important thing for the day and how long it will take for you to do that. Do it. Then allow your mind to roam freely. It will be much less distracted when it comes back to a heavy-duty task later.

Elizabeth Gilbert only writes for forty minutes each day. No more. Because from experience, she knows that her mind will rebel the next day.

Shrink your To-Do list.

We have finite energy and finite time.

Each day we only have 3–4 productive hours. Of course, on certain days, you might work longer hours under certain compelling conditions. But those days are limited.

Plan your schedule to only allocate what could be realistically done in 3–4 hours and make peace with that. That will have an added benefit of reduced stress and a heightened sense of achievement.

In Summary

• Distractions are caused by external triggers and internal triggers.
• External triggers (rings, pings, and dings) are easier to control than internal triggers (boredom, anxiety, and stress).
• Our brain gives in to distractions more easily when it is tired and needs a rest or processing time.
• Schedule regular rest periods in your schedule, in fact, increase productivity.
• Lower your productivity expectations and shirt your To-Do lists. There is only so much you can do in a day.

Photo by Dan Barrett on Unsplash

I just finished the most ambitious project this year — I have written and self-published a book in one week.

Before that, I have been setting myself challenges after challenges. 

I promised myself that I would take a break and “do nothing” for a while before starting another project.

But doing nothing is not easy.

I am finding it too hard to relax. 

Why do I have to keep on doing something all the time?

The answer lies in the false sense of value we feel when we are busy. In a world where our productivity determines our value, we have become so driven that we have forgotten how to handle free time.

Yet much of what gives one’s life a meaning stems from accidents, interruptions, and serendipitous encounters. The “off-time” is more useful than “on-time.”

In my desperate bid to relax, I decided to read Jenny Odell’s How To Nothing. 

Frantic and obsessed with deliverables and results, Odell makes a case for the potential we can create by refusing productivity and redirecting our attention to active modes of listening and contemplation.

The book was something I was putting off to read because I was too busy with my “projects.” Even now, when I started reading it, I wasn’t reading for pleasure but to tick a box. To be able to say that I have read the book I wanted to read for a long time. It was a filler project — a mini project in-between real projects.

But something clicked while reading. 

I could identify with the “not-doing-enough” feeling while constantly doing “something” all the time. The obsession with being present digitally as if my absence even for a single day will be counted as “sickie.” 

A millennial, Odell belongs to the last generation born before the internet. She has seen the rise and slippery slope of the digital age.

Having worked in digital marketing, she understands how data can be used to see humans not as humans but as consumers.

From her position as an artist, writer, and teacher at Stanford University, she informs, ‘I find existing things more interesting than anything I could possibly make.’ 

She invites readers to consider the possibility that they can get a lot more out of observing rather than adding to the world around us.

By paying deeper attention to the context of the people and places of our world, we can move from connectivity (social media) to sensitivity (nature). 

Doing nothing is not a case for passivity or squandering time but rather to redirect our attention.

Odell writes that the ‘externalities of attention economy distractions keep us from doing the things we want to do […] long term, they keep us from living the lives we want to live.’ 

It’s not about disconnecting, but rather taking greater care in how we connect and what we use those connections for. It is about what we communicate and how. 

When we leave our connectivity and communication to technology, we allow algorithms to suggest friends, partners, lovers, and songs without leaving the possibility open for those things that don’t fit our ‘personal brand.’

Odell’s solution isn’t to call for a digital detox but rather shift and deepen our attention to where it matters most: our actual communities rather than online communities.

Photo by Chris Thompson on Unsplash

This year I learned the biggest lesson ever. The importance of each ‘day’ in my life.

All through my adult years, I wanted to start several projects, learn new things, and read a plethora of book but I couldn’t because I didn’t have time. 

I thought, one day, in future, I will have a lot of time. Then I will be able to do all these things. I thought that future was when I retire. 

Not working will add ten extra hours to my day. 

I retired two years ago and I still didn’t have any time to do the things I wanted to do.

The reason was not the lack of will or not knowing the productivity hacks. The reason was, I didn’t understand the importance of a ‘day.’

A day is the single unit of time that is most significant. It has fixed 24 hours which are same for everyone. 

Our weeks could be different, our months could be way different and a year is way too long.

But a day has a rhythm about it. Sun goes up, sun goes down.

Anyone can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the battles of those two awful eternities, yesterday and tomorrow, that we break down. It is not the experience of today that drives us mad. It is the remorse or bitterness for something that happened yesterday or the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Let us therefore do our best to live but one day at a time. 

— Richard Walker in Twenty-Four Hours A Day

That is why Alcoholic Anonymous has a slogan ‘One Day At a Time.’

How to establish a daily practice of anything?

Whatever you want to do, do it every day. Whether it’s writing, meditation, yoga, or a favorite creative activity, you’ll get so much more from doing it every day. 

When you do an activity every day, it become a second nature. Your skill level improve and same task that used to take you hours is done in fraction of time. And you no longer dread it any more.

If you want to write, write every day.

If you want to sketch, sketch every day.

If you want to paint, paint every day.

If you want to sing, sing every day.

Do it every day, until it becomes easy.

Luckily the steps to set the daily practice of anything are the same.

Set the intention.

 Everything starts with intention. 

If at the start of the year someone had said to me that the only way you will be able to make a mark on Medium is by writing an article a day I would have said, “Thank you very much, I am out of here.” 

Yet this is exactly what I did. Mid-April this year, I set myself a challenge to write 100 Articles in 100 Days. This meant writing one article a day.

It started with an intention but the most important thing was ‘why?’

Why I set myself the challenge? I had three very strong reasons for that.

1. I wanted to get better at writing. 
2. I wanted to bring the article writing time down from 5–6 hours to 1–2 hours. 
3. And I wanted to build a rigorous system to publish online articles.

You can make your intention even stronger, by sharing it. I announced mine by writing an article. However, be careful about talking about it too widely, it can dissipate the energy.

Set time and process to do the task.

Setting intention will get you going, setting a time and process to do the practice will make sure that you keep on doing it.

Once I declared my intention I set a time when I will be writing those articles. I write a handwritten draft in the morning, before breakfast. Between breakfast and lunch I type the article. Then I leave it for a few hours. Then either before dinner or after dinner, I edit and publish it. 

I rarely leave the articles for next day (not a good practice) because I know I will run out of steam on the topic and don’t finish it. I like to wake up each morning excited about what I am going to write today.

I have a similar process for watercolour sketches. I do them in the afternoon. I have all the materials at one place. That stops the procrastination. I make a small painting or even an easy one if I have less time. Some days my painting turns up horrible, even then I post it. It is the act that counts not the quality. The quality will come with time.

And should you start to despair at your progress, always keep in mind the words of Harvey Pekar: “Every day is a new deal. Keep working and maybe something will turn up.”

Whatever you are working on make it your most important task of the day and do it no matter what.

Track your progress

The comedian Jerry Seinfeld suggests a calendar method to help keep track of your daily practice. He recommends getting a wall calendar that shows the whole year. Each day, when you’re finished with your work, mark an X in that day’s box.

Every day, instead of just getting work done, your goal is to just fill a box. 

“After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

I made that calendar in Excel spreadsheet. I use it for my article writing, water colour painting and meditation practice. You are welcome to print it from below.

Submit to a daily practice. Your loyalty to that is a ring at the door. Keep knocking and the joy inside will eventually open a window and look out to see who’s there. — Rumi

To sum up

A day is your most important commodity. Make sure you use it wisely. 

If you want to learn something, there is nothing like it to practice it daily. 

If you are working on a project, figure out what little daily chunk of work is, and every day, no matter what, make sure it gets done.

Do the work every day. Fill the boxes on your calendar and don’t break the chain.

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

Get back on track in the second half of 2021.

We are already in June.

Half of 2021 is almost gone.

Remember the things you wrote down in January, the things you wanted to achieve. Your goals. How are they going.

Well, it is time to have a look at them. How are you going with them? 

Not good?

Well you are not alone. I am in the same boat. But guess what? There is still time. Each year, around this time, I review my goals and press the RESET button.

This year, I am doing it slightly differently. I am following my favourite artist’s Struthless’s method. 

Follow along if you want to revisit your goals and still achieve them. 

There is still time.

Empty your head

Write down all your thoughts on a page, preferably in a notebook if you own a diary or a journal to write in occasionally, even better. 

Vomit out all your thoughts. Mine started like this.

“My life sucks. I am no good. I will never be able to achieve anything worthwhile…

Write three pages at least. Or until you have nothing more to say. Now that your head is empty, you are in the right “headspace” to process new information. 

That’s right.

Our head is a processor like a computer, not a storage vault. A diary or a journal is a good place to store the crap occupying the prime real estate in our head. 

Besides, once we put down our thoughts on paper, they miraculously disappear from our heads. Somehow thoughts can’t exist in two places at the same time. They can be either in our heads or on paper.

Now that you have a head like a clean slate, let’s go to the next step.

Create two lists

Move to a clean page and draw a line in the middle.

Dig out that piece of paper (or the diary or the computer file) where you wrote your goals at the start of the year. If you can’t find it, don’t worry, just write them from memory.

Write them out on the left-hand side of the line.

Place a tick against the one which you have already achieved or in the process of achieving. No need to panic if you haven’t achieved any. This whole exercise is to make sure that you do accomplish what you set out to at the start of the year. 

Also, write down what you actually did in the first half of the year. You would have achieved things that you hadn’t written them down as goals. They are achievements too. 

Now stare at the ones you haven’t achieved for a good minute or two. Think hard. Do you still want to achieve them? 

Or were they written to make you feel better after drinking hard the night before? Has the world moved on since? Or better still, you have moved on? 

Cross them off if they are not relevant anymore. Let them go without any guilt or grief. 

Now on the right-hand side, of the line write down what you would really want to achieve this year. 

We are almost halfway through the year; you now have a much better idea of how much you will be able to achieve. More so now that you are not caught up in the heat of the moment of the New Year. And more in touch with your soul through the trials and tribulations of January to June. What do you really want to achieve in your life? What are your long-term goals, and what are your quick wins? Write them all down.

Once finished, I want you to prioritize them in order of importance. 

Which one is the most important one that you must do so that if you die in six months, a day before your death, you are really pleased that you have done it? Place #1 in front of it.

If you have been a little more organized and can achieve another one, place #2 in front of it. 

Then #3, #4, #5 and #6.

No more. Six goals are enough for the next six months. 

If something comes up and you are not able to achieve all of them, at least you have achieved the most important ones.

Now you have very little time and have only the most important goals to work on, so let get cracking.

Ask yourself a question.

Who would you have to be to achieve these goals? 

You won’t achieve goals just because you have written them down on a piece of paper. You are going to lose that piece of paper again. And your brain will not remember them. 

But one thing it will remember very well is what kind of person you want to become to achieve a particular goal. 

If your goal is to quit smoking, it is not enough to say I want to quit smoking by the end of 2021. But I am a person who doesn’t smoke makes it an identity-related goal. And identity-related goals work better than the outcome-related (quit smoking) or process-related goal(use chewing gum when I have the urge to smoke).

I would go to the length of identifying a person I admire and see myself acting and behaving like that person. My long-term goal is to write fiction and non-fiction. There aren’t many writers who are doing both effectively. But there is one, whom I admire a lot. I see myself becoming like her. I listen to her podcast. I read her books. I am following her footsteps. Each day I am getting closer to becoming like my idol. 

Before you jump in with both guns blazing, I am not becoming exactly like her but I am becoming the person who can be as prolific a writer as my idol. A person who can put in as many hours as she has into refining her craft, building her market, and continue providing value. 

Not everyone can become Gandhi, but having him as a model can make you a better person. You get my point.

So ask yourself, who would you have to be in order to achieve your goals?

If you know the person write down the name of that person or cut up an image of they person and put it on your goals sheet.

Let’s move on to the next step.

Build a system

We all should write James Clear’s following words in our best calligraphy handwriting, and put them over our desks.

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. — James Clear.

A system is either a routine (daily, weekly, or fortnightly) or breaking things down into smaller tasks.

Make the system to when you are at your weakest, not when you are at your strongest. 

You will not have all the energy all the time. There will be days when life will take over, and you will get no time to spend on your goals. 

If such days are more frequent, don’t make daily goals, make them weekly. Then make sure you achieve them each week. 

So rather than committing to write 1000 words every day, commit to write 3000 words a week. If you do it, you win. If you do more, you win again if you don’t do it,, up your game or tweak your system.

Accountability Partners

Now write down your goals and your system to achieve them and send them to your accountability partner by email. Ask them to check on you weekly. 

My accountability partners could be your readers on Medium, your friends, your social media fans. 

There your go. 

A halfyear reset and the system in place to make sure you achieve them.

I will be reporting my progress through my articles on Medium from point to point.

Let me know how you go with the exercise and who will be your accountability partners.

On 13 April 2021, I set myself a challenge, to write 100 articles in 100 days.

I was following Violinist Hilary Hahn, who started a 100 Days of Practice project. She posted a video of her practicing violin on Instagram for 100 days with #100daysofpractice and invited others to join her. 

Austin Kleon (the writer of How To Steal Like an Artist) connected Hilary Hahn’s idea with comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s, “put a cross each day when you have achieved your task/habit and don’t break the chain” and created a PRACTICE/ SUCK LESS GRID.

I am halfway through the grid, and I haven’t broken the chain so far.

I wanted to achieve three things with this challenge.

1. To get better at article writing.

2. To bring the writing time down from 5–6 hours to 1–2 hours.

3. To build a system to publish every day.

I wanted to write a post to evaluate where I have reached so far.

Did I get better at article writing?

Two years ago, I challenged myself to write 30 articles in 30 days on my website. That single exercise helped me more than anything else. But it was a very demanding challenge, and I couldn’t gather enough courage to start a similar challenge again. 

But I knew I have to if I wanted to get better fast. 

There is nothing better than concentrating on one activity and doing it every single day to get better at it. The improvement is remarkable. 

For one, I do not have the dread of writing an article. When I was writing one or two articles a week, I dreaded the day those were due. I would procrastinate and take a long time to come to the actual task of writing. Now I know I have to write and publish before the day is over. So I get on with the job and do it as quickly as possible.

I am typing much faster. My thoughts are much clearer. And I am writing more and more articles from memory. Writing 1200–1700 words article a day brings clarity to your thought process. You start developing your perspective about things, and you no longer waffle. 

I am much more fluent now than I was 50 days ago. I have been writing on varied topics such as Life, Writing, Learning, Travel, Authorpreneurship, Productivity, Self-Improvement, and even Short Stories. As a result, I have a healthy backlist of articles.

Did I manage to bring the article writing time?

I used to take 7- 8 hours to write an article. The day my article was due, I had to clear the whole day. I will start in the morning and sometimes wouldn’t be able to publish till late at night. I would agonize over the topic, second-doubt everything I wrote, spend hours researching and editing used to take even longer than writing.

Now I write the most articles within 2–3 hours. I use a stopwatch and write in 15-minutes sprints. I have developed a distinct voice. Although I would like to get my writing time down to one hour, I am quite happy with a 1–2 hour time frame.

The articles that need research still take longer than the ones I write from memory. This article is mostly written from memory; hence it is written relatively quickly. I have gone back and forth to get some facts from time to time, but most of it is from my head. 

Nowadays, I don’t research while writing an article, which used to be a big time-waster. So instead, I either do it beforehand or after writing the article. 

When I come up with a topic, I first write down all I know about it. Once I have done that, then I go and do the research. This way I do not get influenced by what other people are saying. I only use research either to strengthen the point I am making or to give an alternate viewpoint.

I can form an outline in my head as I am writing. As soon as I decided to write this article I knew I am assessing myself against what I was set out to achieve when I set this challenge. So three questions became the outline for this article.

I don’t pre-plan topics anymore. I have about 128 drafts sitting in my draft folder, but I rarely use them. Instead, each day, I come up with a topic to write about without much effort. Usually, it is from what I have been reading or something I have already written about, and I have a new take on it. 

When I can come up with a new topic, I feel really excited about it. If I leave it for a day or two, there is no guarantee that I will feel the same level of excitement. So I write and publish on the same day. But I do leave the article for a few hours before editing it. 

Have I been able to build a system to publish every day?

Definitely yes. And it is straightforward.

In fact, publishing becomes a mindless task once you start doing it every day.

It doesn’t have the kind of dread when you publish once or twice a week. 

Initially, I created a small checklist to remind me of the things I must do before publishing.

1. Run Grammarly and fix all grammar, punctuation, and readability errors. 
2. Get Microsoft word to read the article back to me one paragraph at a time and remove any superfluous material, tidy the sentences, and get rid of repetitive words.
3. Insert the feature image and make sure all images have credits.
4. Insert the footer with CTA (call to action).
5. Pick the correct tags.
6. Publish. 
7. Add to a publication or leave it on my profile.

After a while, I didn’t even need this checklist. It has become second nature. 

I stopped bothering to send my articles to big publications because they take a long time to respond. Since my aim is to publish every day, I couldn’t wait for them to get back to me. 

When I started with Medium last year, getting accepted by a publication was a big thing. But getting into publications was hard. Publications receive far too many submissions than they can publish. Besides, Medium has changed its policy regarding publications, and many big publications are closing down.

It seems like I have almost achieved what I set out to achieve with this challenge. But the icing on the cake is extra achievements. Here is a list of them.

Other Achievements

• I won a $500 bonus from Medium in early May.
• Many of my articles are chosen for further distribution.
• I won 300+ new followers. 
• Editors of many publications have invited me to submit my articles to their publications. 
• Several people subscribed to my newsletter A Whimsical Writer.
• Surprisingly, my most read articles are travel articles.
• I published five fictional stories which were well accepted.

What to expect in the next 50 days?

It will be nice to become a member of the $100-month club. However, I am not holding my breath for it. It will happen in due course, and while I am learning and growing each day, I am happy.

I want to write more series, like the three article series I did on How To Write Stories From Everyday Life. I can provide much more value with these. 

I would also like to collaborate with other like-minded writers who are committed like me, to help each other grow. 

It will be nice to see my follower numbers grow. 

Last but not least…

A big thank you to all those who read my articles and kept cheering for me. Without those claps and helpful comments, it is tough to keep going. 

So please keep them coming.

Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash