1,2,3 for Week #24

The time we have, it is small. I spent a lot of my time learning or researching how to max my time that I had as much as I could. From masters of productivity like James Clear and historic stoics like Seneca. It’s not about stuffing everything we can into every minute we have. Let’s get going, time is of the essence.

Stacking. A simple easy focus that I spoke about on The Well Podcast this week during my walk and talk episode Morning Walk and Talk. I’ve found some incredible, useful ways to stack experiences. I used to schedule on my calendar everything separate. I found that I was butting up my deep work against each other, leaving me nothing in-between. With stacking, James Clear says we can find ways to do what we love, something we wanted to do but put off because there wasn’t any spots to add it in, and focus tasks on top of one another that can occupying the same space. Even, increase the feeling the experience creates by stacking. An example from the podcast that I shared was how I stacked walking, podcasting, and being outside into one hour of time. We have more time to do what we want, then we think we do. We just have to learn how to stack, fit those pieces on top of one another where it makes sense, and let them compliment each other. If I had done each of those separate, I would have eaten up triple the amount of time.
My two reads for the week starts from The Guardian with the piece, Oliver Burkeman’s Last Column: The Eight Secrets to a (Fairly) Fulfilled Life. In it Oliver discusses there’s never enough time to do something, how to make simpler choices, how tolerating minor discomfort can be a superpower and a few more. The second I’ve actually learned and taught myself. It works. Be a Schedule Builder, Not a To-Do List Maker works incredibly well with the aforementioned “stacking” habit stated above. Why the heck as humans do we insist on continuing to do things that don’t work, when we KNOW they DO NOT work? As humans we create a faulty operating system in our endless to-do list making. Consider this read a software update that is much needed.
The three quotes this week that stuck to me as I studied productivity mastery were:

“Continuous improvements is better than delayed perfection.” – Mark Twain
Keep on swimming, just keep swimming. Okay, that’s a quote within a quote. But, keep going. You face plant, no problem, get up, go at it again. Making continuous improve I’ve found paves the way to mastery.

“The distance between your dreams and reality is called action.” – Unknown
I’m pretty sure I put one very similar to this one. You’re not going to be a gold medalist in free style swimming wishing you were in the pool or even thinking about it. You have to jump in the lane, try out, and make the team. In action, breeds similar action.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world can’t be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
When you’re heart is in it, you’ll find your passion is in it. When you find that, you’ll find where it needs to fit in your day.

That’s your week. Stay tuned for another The Well Podcast episode coming up soon. Hang in there this week. Make some tweaks and try out stacking. Let me know how it works out in the comments below. Thanks as always for viewing the post!

✌🏻Shawn