So, you want to stop caring about everything else going on in the world--
and focus on yourself.
Because you have goals you want to achieve,
a new language to learn,
or skills you wish to perfect.
And after many attempts and challenges, with some minor successes here and there, you realized you need a proper schedule with good routines to maximize your output instead of mindlessly chasing the newest motivation hacks.
In this essay, I’ll give you the foundational principle to design a schedule that actually works—and it all comes down to—“Minimize, then Maximize.”
Minimize:
First things first, write down everything you ‘want to do,’ then cycle out 20% of what you ‘need to do.’ If you have just one goal, which is a great start, write down all the detailed tasks of that goal, then cycle out 20% of the priorities.
Now, let’s say someone has written down five different things they want to do, as follows:
• Learn a new instrument
• Learn a new language
• Lose 20 pounds of weight
• Get good at small talk
• Establish some form of passive income
Then this person should ask themselves:
‘Which of these would have the biggest impact on my life if I finished it first?’
For example, if this person is overweight, like a bag of chips away from type 2 diabetes, they should focus on getting healthy first—everything else can wait. However, if they have more time on their hands, they might pick up a new instrument at the same time. Or, if this person is in some kind of financial awkwardness right now, then they should focus on making more money first. Two things at a time is possible, three is a stretch, anything more than five is a lie.
So, delete, delete, delete.
Most people get the 80/20 principle wrong. It states: “80% of outputs come from 20% of inputs.” This is a description, not an instruction.
This doesn’t mean you only need 20% effort or can do five things at once and expect 400% outcomes. 100% of your input is still needed—80% of which is for practice and mistakes, which are necessary to reduce future practice and mistakes. Therefore, you should never divide your energy and focus all over the place.
You can’t do everything at once—but the good news is, if you focus on only one or two things at a time, you save a lot of time and resources while producing better, faster results.
Maximize:
This is the “easy” part. Now you have to invest your focus into the 20% of the priorities.
If you wish to learn the piano, for example, because you want to play a piece of music you love, beautifully, then all you need to learn is the basic theory of the keyboard: CDEFGAB. Any key to the left is the flat key of the right, and any key to the right is the sharp key of the left. For example, C# is also D-flat, D# is also E-flat, and so on. Then find an instructional video of that music you want to play, practice over and over again until you’re satisfied. That’s it.
You don’t need to practice scales, you don’t need more music theory, or spend money on any private tutor; you only need the most basic finger techniques—which many musicians would disagree with. But not everyone who wants to play a piece of music beautifully also wants to become a professional musician.
By the way, even if you do want to become the best pro musician, you still don’t have to overwork yourself forever. This brings me to another point: the routines and schedule you set for yourself must have an endpoint. You can’t keep one schedule forever, and you don’t have to.
To put things into perspective, let’s look at Lang Lang, one of the best pianists alive. He used to practice more than 12 hours a day for years. This painful process of mastery got him where he is today—one of the highest-paid classical musicians in the world—and he doesn’t practice 12 hours a day anymore.
He still practices around 2 hours a day, according to himself, while many other famous musicians rarely practice at all—because they’ve got it after years of mastering their craft. Life is a step-by-step process. Some steps are harder than others, but there are steps meant to be easy and relaxing. You’re expected to take it easy after completing any difficult, maximizing challenges.
A Few More Nuances About Maximizing Your Inputs and Outcomes:
• Never lie to yourself about focusing 12 hours a day—you can’t. Most of us can only focus for 3 to 6 hours per day, on top of everything else we do to survive in this big, bad world—unless you’ve got the drug from Limitless, which I don’t think is publicly available.
• Don’t set a precise time limit for reaching a big target unless it actually helps. In most cases, you won’t know how long it’ll take until you’re at least a third of the way in. Setting a time limit before that can only discourage, therefore sabotage your progress.
• The planner I used in this essay is my own creation. It’s a 100-day, 234-page planner designed specifically around everything we talked about in this essay.
• It also comes with:
• A grand planner to filter and prioritize your targets,
• A productivity and time management hack sheet,
• And—a small gift, which I promise will give you some very fresh and entertaining perspectives.
• It’s $19.98, and it’s a great way of supporting my future projects, right here:
Additionally, be very careful of productivity porn—it’s mental masturbation. Useful sometimes, but not everyone has to be David Goggins. His philosophies are valuable, but most of the well-edited short videos of him, or any other motivational figure, are designed to get views and likes. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you shouldn’t design your life based on a short video.
And lastly, the best productivity hack is actually just picking the right direction.
On top of everything we’ve covered, keep in mind that there are some basic, yet very powerful things you can do to increase your productivity, such as:
• 30 minutes to an hour of daily exercise.
• Healthy and tasty meals.
• Short, relaxing meditations to restore energy.
• And most importantly, quality sleep.
Just remember: these things are here to help you, not distract you. For example, unless your goal is specifically mental or spiritual, you don’t need to meditate an hour a day—most monks don’t meditate that long.
I'll probably write more things on this topic,
take care for now.
