3293: Conserving Mental Energy by Steve Pavlina on Productivity & Creativity

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Living Daily, Conserving Mental Energy by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_00]: and my narrator Justin Malik. I read to you every single day of the year from the best articles and blogs

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I can find with permission from the authors of course, and it's all in an effort to make your and my day even a tiny bit better.

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_00]: So with that let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Conserving Mental Energy by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: In a Vanity Fair profile piece from 2012, writer Michael Lewis shared some of President Obama's productivity habits.

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_00]: One of those habits involves routineizing mundane daily decisions.

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Since Obama has to make many difficult high-level decisions each day, he doesn't want to waste his mental energy on smaller decisions.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So he puts the mundane choices on autopilot.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: For instance, the article states that Obama only wears blue and gray suits.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_00]: He keeps his wardrobe choices simple so he doesn't bleed off mental energy fussing over what to wear.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Obama follows the same structured daily routine when he's in the White House.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Get up at 7am, go to the gym and exercise for 45 minutes, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, glance through the newspapers,

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_00]: review the daily security briefing, and then head to the Oval Office.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: In the evenings his family goes to bed around 10pm, but he stays up till 1am working solo including preparing for the next day.

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Much of his actual work involves making decisions.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_00]: The easy decisions are made by others so the ones that reach him are usually the tough ones.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_00]: They're the types of decisions that don't have obvious correct answers.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Such decisions require careful thought and often involve difficult trade-offs and significant risk.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Making these decisions is a key responsibility.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00]: To conserve his mental energy for thoughtfully considering options and making decisions,

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Obama does his best to avoid wasting this energy on low impact decisions like what to eat or what to wear.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: He either lets other people make those simpler decisions for him or he makes those decisions once

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_00]: and puts them on autopilot so he doesn't have to think about them repeatedly.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_00]: How much mental energy do you squander on low priority decisions each day?

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Could you make those decisions once and put them on autopilot?

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Here are some examples of mundane decisions you could routineize.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 1. Sort your clothes into reasonable predetermined outfits and wear them in the same order again and again.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: When an outfit wears out, replace it with something virtually identical.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 2. Eat the same meals every day such as having the same Formy Lake breakfast, lunch and dinner.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: This simplifies your shopping list too.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 3. Pay your bills on the same day each month.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 4. Always listen to podcasts and audiobooks while driving thereby putting some of your self-education on autopilot.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Purchase new audiobooks once a month on the same day.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 5. Exercise every day at the same time and for the same duration.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 6. Run your errands at the same time on the same day each week.

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Weekday evenings are often great for shopping errands while most people are at home watching TV.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 7. Pick a brand of phones, computers or tablets that you'll stick with and decide in advance how often you'll upgrade.

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Only investigate and purchase a new model when your upgrade appointment appears on your calendar.

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 8. Always repurchase the same soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 9. Do your dishes at the same time every day.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 10. Decide in advance how often you ought to clean your home and in which order you should do the cleaning steps.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Stick with that recurring appointment.

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 11. Use the same hairdresser and get the same haircut you did before.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Number 12. Always tip the same percentage.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And number 13. Begin each workday at the same time.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure you can come up with plenty of other ideas along these lines as well.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Now this may sound like a very boring, uncreative approach.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: No argument there, that's the point.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: When you avoid investing your creative energy in low impact decisions,

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: you free up that creative energy to be put to good use elsewhere.

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_00]: If you observe that you lack the drive and focus to consistently invest in high level creative work,

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00]: one reason may be that you're wasting too much of your best creative energy

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: on low level decisions like what to eat, what to wear, and how to spend your time each day.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: It's well established that your daily mental resources are limited and fatigable.

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Relative to other parts of your body, your brain is a resource hog.

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Parts of your brain tire easily and as their fatigue level rises,

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_00]: your access to their associated mental resources diminishes significantly.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_00]: So it makes sense to be conservative in your use of such resources.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Routineize your mundane daily decisions so you can wisely invest more of your precious mental energy

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: in your high impact goals and projects.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't drain your focus, concentration, and creativity on small low impact choices.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Hold yourself to a higher standard and adopt a more intelligent use of your mental resources.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: You just listened to the post titled, Conserving Mental Energy by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_00]: and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you to Steve.

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a big fan of these ideas.

[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I think I've been doing most of his suggestions just naturally over time,

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_00]: even though I'm not much of a planner.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: For me, like he said, it just feels less draining to not have to think about these things.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_00]: For meals, Monday is meal prep day and that gives me lunch and dinners through Wednesday or Thursday,

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: so there's no thought there.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And every other Tuesday is house cleaning day.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Now when it comes to bills, my favorite thing is auto pay.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd be surprised if one of your utility companies or internet service provider or credit card doesn't have an auto pay option.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty much a given these days and makes things so much easier.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're concerned that you might not be charged the right amounts or you like to review it, I get it.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: That's why I use Winab to track all my expenses so that I can keep an eye on my credit cards and make sure everything's making sense.

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And an added bonus is that tracking expenses like this makes me more aware of my purchases and makes tax time a lot easier.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And again, I'm using Winab to track my expenses. You can find out all about that at oldpodcast.com slash track.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_00]: But either case, I'd highly recommend trying to implement some of these ideas. Do try it out and let me know how it goes.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Wishing you a great rest of your day and I'll see you tomorrow. Where your optimal life awaits.