2952: Long Term Valuable Output by Tynan on Creating Goals & Finding Productive Routines

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[00:00:26] This is Optimal Living Daily, Episode 2952 Long Term Valuable Output by Tynan of Tynan.com

[00:00:34] and your narrator Justin Malik, the guy that reads blogs or articles to you every single day of the

[00:00:39] year including weekends and holidays. And we get right to our next post as we optimize your life.

[00:00:49] Long Term Valuable Output by Tynan of Tynan.com

[00:00:53] There was a time in my life when I was singularly obsessed with output. My rate in my days in terms of

[00:01:00] how much output I had produced that day and tried within reason to limit anything that did

[00:01:06] not produce output. It felt great to do this as I had previously not been particularly good

[00:01:11] at producing output, and was completely within my power to make any day into a good day.

[00:01:17] Over time both in myself and others however, I noticed that high output didn't always lead to

[00:01:23] achieving goals. It was certainly better than not producing output, but I had a persisting

[00:01:28] feeling that my results weren't as good as they should be. I now have a more balanced approach

[00:01:33] and my results towards goals now seem disproportionately good compared to my output.

[00:01:39] If you don't feel like your results reflect your output or you are trying to figure out

[00:01:43] how to get started at being more productive, I have some suggestions based on my own experience.

[00:01:49] It's important to realize that what you create when you are at your best

[00:01:53] will be many times more valuable than what you create at average or worse. Sometimes work created

[00:01:59] can even be a net negative. For example, if I forced myself to write a blog post when I'm not

[00:02:05] at my best, maybe it will be unclear and actually turn people off from reading future posts.

[00:02:12] If I write some c***** code, maybe you'll have to spend hours in the future chasing down

[00:02:16] a bug that could have been avoided in the first place. Therefore, it's sometimes best not to work

[00:02:22] and it's always beneficial to do things at your best. Also, effort spent getting yourself to a

[00:02:27] better stake can be more valuable than work itself. It's for this reason that I always try

[00:02:33] to get people I coach to take care of the fundamentals. Sleep is one of the biggest factors.

[00:02:38] I sleep an average of 8 hours a night and frequently, like last night, sleep over 9 hours

[00:02:43] to catch up if I'm not at my best. I drink tea and eat healthy food every day. I work out every other

[00:02:50] day. Recently, I've started going into the sauna every day, no verdict yet on whether it has any

[00:02:55] effect. At the very least, you should be sleeping as much as your body needs, no alarm clock,

[00:03:01] drinking a lot of water, eating healthy food, and doing some sort of exercise.

[00:03:06] It's also important to optimize your workspace as much as possible. Get a huge monitor,

[00:03:11] a comfy chair, and a nice desk. Get some plants. Spend the time customizing your computer to make

[00:03:17] it easy and efficient to use. These are basic things but they really matter a lot. An undistracted

[00:03:24] mind is one which can work most efficiently, so automate and delegate anything you can.

[00:03:30] You should focus on your work not through force of will but because you've eliminated

[00:03:34] everything that can distract from it. It's a random estimate and varies from person to person,

[00:03:39] but I'd guess that with changes like that, you can get from being in the zone 10% of the time

[00:03:45] to 50% plus. In other words, it really matters. When you sit down to work, your task must be

[00:03:52] connected to a goal that matters to you and it must be an effective lever. With a tinge of shame,

[00:03:57] I can think of so many weeks and months I spent on various features of set that no one

[00:04:02] including myself ever really used. I was sometimes working with the goal of producing

[00:04:07] a big piece of work rather than thinking about why I wanted set to exist, how I needed to reach those

[00:04:13] goals and which steps would be required to get there. I don't know whether or not set would

[00:04:18] have succeeded if I had thought more about these things but it would have had a better chance.

[00:04:23] Once you start a task, you are precluding yourself from working on other tasks during

[00:04:28] that time and are also possibly adding future responsibilities. If I start writing a book,

[00:04:34] I am obligating myself to designing a cover, laying the book out and entering it into Amazon.

[00:04:40] If I create a new software feature, I am obligating myself to fix any resulting bugs

[00:04:45] and to support that feature going forward. For that reason, it is important to do tasks

[00:04:50] that matter and will get you closer to your goals not just to do tasks. Sometimes it's

[00:04:55] better to do nothing but ponder why you're doing what you're doing and what the best next

[00:05:00] thing to do is. People are so afraid of being idle and bored that they don't give themselves

[00:05:05] time to plan and build the confidence that the output they're creating actually matters.

[00:05:10] When you're at your best and are working on something that matters, that's when it's time

[00:05:14] to step on the gas and work hard. The amount of valuable output you can create in even 4-6

[00:05:19] hours of peak performance can be better than days or even weeks of mediocre output.

[00:05:25] If you're not sure if you're at your best, act like you are and work hard anyway.

[00:05:30] Understand the state you're in and do a task that will best use your present capabilities.

[00:05:35] And if you're not at your best, don't use that as an excuse to watch TV.

[00:05:39] Instead, clean your house or organize files or something else productive.

[00:05:44] Start with your end goal in mind, figure out what output will be needed to get there,

[00:05:49] and then optimize your life around being able to produce that output.

[00:05:54] Don't burn yourself out as short-term gains are never worth the sacrifice of long-term gains.

[00:06:00] Work to achieve an outcome, not to feel busy. You just listened to the post titled,

[00:06:10] Long-Term Valuable Output by Tynan of tynan.com.

[00:06:15] They get a tynan? A great point in there that we might not consider sometimes forcing

[00:06:20] ourselves to create can actually be net negative. I really like that example.

[00:06:26] Sometimes productivity for productivity's sake is actually anti-productive and even damaging.

[00:06:32] It all comes back to the too much of a good thing scenario or the middle path.

[00:06:37] We're always in a constant flux and up and down. Staying in the middle is usually a good

[00:06:41] place to be because the extremes are where scary things happen. Sometimes scary good,

[00:06:47] but often scary bad. So if you're a very all-or-nothing person, you have to make sure

[00:06:51] you can handle those consequences and make sure you're taking care of yourself.

[00:06:56] That's a slight detour from this post, but that's where my head went with this one.

[00:07:00] I'll leave it there for today though. Have a happy Saturday,

[00:07:03] and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.