The way you do something is the way you do everything.
I thought I needed to find a hack to accommodate my writing alongside my full-time job and running errands. And I found a hack, “sacred hours” in the morning, where nobody could come between me and my writing.
I wrote for a week to find myself at the deep end of burnout.
Productivity is not something you can gain from small-time hacks; it’s a lifestyle. And a lifestyle doesn’t just affect one aspect, but all aspects of your life.
- How you keep your cupboard is how you plan your day.
- The notifications on your phone symbolize the chaos in your brain.
- How you speak to the people around you is how you speak to yourself in your mind.
- The frustrations you experience are because of the lack of self-esteem and times you have not stood up for yourself.
- Productivity is about feeling good. It won’t last long if it doesn’t make you feel good.
And these feelings have nothing to do with comfort.
It points out the importance of intangible elements that we often ignore while discussing productivity.
1. “You Don’t Wake Up Early” — Marcus Aurelius
All the things you couldn’t do by the end of the day should have been done at the beginning.
Have you experienced the time between waking up and returning to complete consciousness?
Your brain is in a slow theta state with a frequency of 4–7 cycles per minute. I use this state to write, and since I started doing it, I have become way more consistent than I used to be when I had to write in the evening after my work with an exhausted mind.
The point of waking up early in the morning is to set yourself up to live a day filled with intention. And to successfully do this, you must set your mornings up the night before.
That state of mind where you don’t have much memory of all the chaos in your life, and your brain is still catching up with all the memories of the past day, week and your life — that’s the time for you to engage your brain into doing the things that can help your day. If you do this, you will change your life.
There’s a lot of outrage online nowadays about what the point of waking up early is, and by no means is this point trying to debate either side of that argument.
“If it works for you, it works for you if it doesn’t, do what works for you.”
The dispute about whether we should wake up early in the morning or not is a sign that we’re in the habit of indulging in unproductive discussions.
2. “You Focus on What’s Outside Your Control” — Epictetus
Do not think about pink elephants dying in Africa.
Even if you manage to go there, you won’t be able to save them.
But this is what we do to ourselves all day when we spend most of our time thinking about things we can’t control. Because if we could do something about it, we’d have already done it.
We have only a limited amount of willpower in a day.
There’s only a limited amount of energy we possess in a day.
And the best we can do is ration this energy well into the things we have some control over.
Even if you don’t realize this thought is a dissipation of energy, it’s still taking up energy meant for other important activities.
A couple of years back, I was a chronic overthinker. And I couldn’t control the thoughts that came into my mind, and they began fighting with each other.
But when I used the power of meditation and learned to be a spectator to my thoughts rather than a participant, I realized that having thoughts is out of my control.
And the problem with trying to control something that’s not in our control is war. And when you fight a war, nobody wins.
So, I devised this improvisation:
“Befriend, what you can’t control. And let them be.”
This way they won’t bother you, just like good friends.
3. “You’re in the Wrong Crowd” — Marcus Aurelius
Four years back, when I was forced to visit my hometown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, I met my childhood friends after 15 years.
Everyone had returned home from wherever they were working because of the lockdown.
I grew up with them, and the entire community of people I lived with had their children go to coaching classes for Engineering.
I also became an engineer and got a software engineer job at an IT company. But soon, I quit that job and got into a film school, pursuing my passion for filmmaking.
Things didn’t go too well for me, but I never stopped my efforts. Seven years of my life were dedicated to movies, storytelling, and training myself to think differently.
Back to my small town. It had been a long time, and I was excited to meet my childhood buddies.
The first few days were nice as we welcomed each other and just caught up on whatever was happening in each other’s lives. But as the lockdown extended, we continued meeting more and more, and I began to realize that I grew up in an extremely toxic environment that didn’t encourage divergent thinking.
Either you think like the rest of them or you’re boycotted from their group. They all wanted to be part of something where they felt they belonged.
That’s the security trap. We crave familiarity. We crave acknowledgement. We crave inclusion. We find safety in homogeneity. We feel our ideas will be accepted, endorsed, and acknowledged. And guess what? They will be.
But we also don’t learn anything new.
“When you spend time with people who are exactly like you, you’re replacing potential growth with assured safety.”
Just like social media algorithms, it amplifies your existing beliefs — and doesn’t challenge them. You only know of something new when you spend time with different people.
Creative people have to live this life if they want to succeed and gain longevity in their careers.
But I’m still thankful that I spent time with my childhood friends because I learned so much from this experience. When you spend time with contrarian ideas, you become a better version of yourself, not just a bigger version of yourself.
A lot of people talk about building a tribe and having people who can encourage you in what you’re doing because they relate to your thought process and your struggles, but it’s extremely important to keep challenging yourself from time to time and spend time with people outside your tribe because that’s where you’re challenging yourself.
Don’t try to prove anything to these people; just listen.
Don’t try to fight, or befriend. Don’t try to participate if you sense a volatile reaction within you; just be a spectator.
Growth is where discomfort is.
4. “You Don’t Know How to Say No“ — Seneca
I was in the same small town I mentioned in the previous point.
I felt shitty every time I came back home after meeting my shitty friends. It was like alcohol.
You enjoy it when you’re drinking it, but the next morning, you promise never to drink it again. But then, you’re back making the pegs in a few days. I hated being with my friends, but then, I didn’t have any other human connection, and I had to take time off from my overthinking.
So, whenever they called me — I couldn’t say no. I started believing that I needed them to escape myself.
I’ve realized that being unable to say ‘No’ to someone has a lot to do with your relationship with yourself. There’s a fight going on within, and you know the worst part? Even if you say “No,” you’ll feel bad.
There’s no win here in this state.
It all starts by mending your relationship with yourself. It starts with learning to stand up for yourself.
If you decide to do something, start as small as doing 15-minutes of exercise at 6:30 AM in the morning.
“Self-respect is earned when you learn to keep the promises you make to yourself.”
So, if you look at it this way, you’ll realize that when you learn to say no to your excuses, your lower self, your monkey mind — you’re effectively learning to say no to others because you’re self-aware of what you want instead.
5. “You Think You’ll Live Forever” — Seneca
The only certainty in this uncertain world is that it will all end one day.
One day, we’ll end our journey, and nothing will matter — none of our obsessions, none of our passions, none of our idiosyncracies, none of the money we earn, nothing.
At least, not in the tangible form, but we’ll stay alive in the form of stories within the hearts of our families, closest friends and, if we’re lucky, maybe our partners, but soon, that will dissipate too.
“In the end, we’re all stories.”
And unless we share who we are, these stories will go with us into the unknown.
Death is the ultimate motivator in life. If you want to do something, do it now. If you want to make a difference, do it now. If you love someone, tell them now. If you want to take the risk, take it while you’re alive.
Thinking that you have time and being laid back about it is the worst choice any human being can make.
I’m not saying that we should be impatient and do everything today. It’s just that we should be aware that if we’re suppressing something within us, it’s only adding to the weight we’ll take with us into the unknown. And if nothing else motivates you, at least make sure you travel light while undertaking your last ride.
Final Thoughts
In 2019, one of my films was shelved.
I had worked for two years on that film without getting paid.
Then, when I started getting paid, the film got shut down in its third month. I was shattered, and I was afraid of working again in the shithole of the film industry that we have in India.
I still wanted to do something useful with my time, and I continued to learn how to write, but I wasn’t getting paid for it.
Now, this is something I was used to . . . working without getting paid.
One of the most useful skills I learned working (or not so much) in the film industry is that developing your skills is the best investment you can make with your time.
When I started writing, I realized that many people face numerous challenges regarding long-form writing because they’re not used to articulating themselves in this form.
My point is that productivity can be a long-term game and is supposed to make you feel good. How you feel is paramount to the entire process, especially when learning new skills.
But if you keep at it, the rewards are exceptional, too.
I just told myself I want to become 1% better at writing every single day. I had no idea that someday I would start getting paid for a simple habit I cultivated to become better at storytelling.
None of our actions are ever wasted. It all comes back to us. We just don’t get to decide the form in which it comes back to us.
Until next time,
Ciao!
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