If you’re lazy and unmotivated, it doesn’t matter what goals you set (don’t overthink them), just set some and start working towards them.
If I met you on an elevator and asked you what your goals are, could you tell me?
Productivity “gurus” will hate me for telling the truth.
Here are 18 non-BS ways to destroy idleness, increase your work output, and reach your goals:
If you’re lazy and unmotivated, it doesn’t matter what goals you set (don’t overthink them), just set some and start working towards them.
If I met you on an elevator and asked you what your goals are, could you tell me?
You think you work hard? Really? Track every minute of your day and prove it to yourself.
The act of tracking your time will force you to be conscious of how you’re spending it. You’ll naturally be more productive.
“Oh but that’s so unhealthy.”
Is it? Why? Everyone’s trying to impress someone else. Just bring it to the forefront of your conscious mind and use it as fuel.
Maybe it’s a potential mentor, leader, father figure. You already know who it is.
If you find it hard to sit down and focus for 90 minutes, then that’s because you don’t sit down and focus enough.
Train your work muscles like you would your physical muscles. Start with 30 mins of focus and work your way up.
Open = all the tasks you want/need to do, now and later.
Closed = 10 tasks max (you can’t add another task to this list until you’ve completed another).
Done = done.
Focus on clearing the closed list and bringing new tasks in.
Just because you got 4 hours of sleep last night, doesn’t mean you can’t have a productive day.
Talk to any parent and they’ll tell you that it’s not only possible, it’s necessary.
Harden up.
Keep this in your mind always. Average is unacceptable.
Forge ahead on the path toward mastery, knowing that every extra minute you put in compounds.
An extra 45 mins of deep work per day will compound over 5 years and result in something incredible. Likewise, hours of procrastination on a daily basis will compound in a negative direction.
Tell the world.
Make it crystal clear: “I will have finished X project by X date.”
Then work extremely hard to fulfill this commitment. Bonus points if you complete it before your public deadline.
Not your friends, not your spouse/partner, not social media. No one.
Be the one who works in the dark, and then months later show the world what you’ve done.
Great things have been achieved by men who are angry.
If you have a chip on your shoulder, leverage it. If you don’t, get one.
What gets you worked up? What problems frustrate you on a deep level? Work to FIX them. Use your anger as fuel.
You have so many things you THINK you need to have in place before you can get productive work done: Clean desk, coffee, noise-cancelling headphones.
These things are good. Not necessary. You won’t always have them. Which is why you should 👇
The person who doesn’t RELY on routines and an optimized work environment will be more productive than the person who does.
Those extra hours on the plane, in the hotel lobby before check-in, at a noisy cafe—they add up.
Make use of them.
Work hard and long as to fill your day. Be tired when you go to bed. BE BUSY.
Then figure out how to optimize your output and 80/20 everything.
Do not lie.
There have been times where you’ve told yourself, “I think I need to rest” and you KNOW it hasn’t been true.
Stop doing that.
Act in accordance with what you know is true and right.
Do what gives you internal power.
The “winning effect.”
It’s built by working hard and making wins. Once you’ve got it going, do everything you can to maintain it.
3 months of massive momentum will get you more results than years of mucking around.
Do you look at other businesses or people, see them winning, and feel like you’re falling behind?
Do you want to catch up to them, even surpass them?
Do not feel guilty about this. Use it as fuel.
Compete. It is natural.
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I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.
I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.
In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.
So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.
Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.
Ironies of Luck https://t.co/5BPWGbAxFi
— Morgan Housel (@morganhousel) March 14, 2018
"Luck is the flip side of risk. They are mirrored cousins, driven by the same thing: You are one person in a 7 billion player game, and the accidental impact of other people\u2019s actions can be more consequential than your own."
I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.
In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.
So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.
Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.