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- Jun 3, 2015
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I have recently been inspired by the book we've been discussing on the forum, Atomic Habits by James Clear. A quote that hit me in particular, was the one whereby Clear tells us that our identities are the trailing sum of our habits, ergo when we take on new habits, we are actually attempting to change our identities.
After reading I decided to start a little experiment on myself and my family. You see, we are pretty messy and untidy, I have tried over the past decade to change this, and to some degree so has my other half, all to no avail.
After reading Habits, and thereafter reading all the various thoughts on it in the discussion thread, I had a mini epiphany and in the last couple of weeks our house is being transformed from perpetual mess, to a state that could almost be considered tidy!
So what did I do?
I simply created a Word document entitled; What Tidy People Do. In the document I wrote down about 20 bullet points, (which I've since added to). I then gathered my daughter and my girlfriend and asked them if they wanted us to be a tidy family, to which they enthusiastically replied, yes.
So I showed them the document, printed it out, and stuck it around the house, that's it. So now when I'm about to leave emptying the dishwasher till the morning, or leave an empty coffee mug on my desk till later, I can see that those actions are not what tidy people do, and lo and behold, it's working!
A lot of the list I got from the common sense part of my own head, however I got a good amount of feedback from the tidiest people I know, for instance a friend of mine with four children and a much larger, and infinitely tidier house than my own.
So now I want to use the same technique to start doing what productive people do, and I figure a lot of up and coming fastlaners (and maybe some established ones) would be interested in trying out this type of modelling, or if you are already productive, perhaps you can add to the list.
I'm hoping to have a good list of bullet points that I can keep in sight all of the time, so that I can copy productive people and become like them too.
I try and tend to keep it to what they do, rather than don't do, as it seems that has more psychological resonance, though I understand if anyone wants to chip in with a what productive people don't do.
Plus of course, this is a learning experience for me, so if any of the points I've put so far, or in the future are incorrect, I am very happy to be corrected by real honest-to-goodness productive people.
OK, without further ado, let's kick it off and let the games begin!
Productive people use scheduling tools to map out their days.
Productive people find time to work without distraction.
Productive people keep track of their progress from one day to the next.
Productive people plan their internet time.
After reading I decided to start a little experiment on myself and my family. You see, we are pretty messy and untidy, I have tried over the past decade to change this, and to some degree so has my other half, all to no avail.
After reading Habits, and thereafter reading all the various thoughts on it in the discussion thread, I had a mini epiphany and in the last couple of weeks our house is being transformed from perpetual mess, to a state that could almost be considered tidy!
So what did I do?
I simply created a Word document entitled; What Tidy People Do. In the document I wrote down about 20 bullet points, (which I've since added to). I then gathered my daughter and my girlfriend and asked them if they wanted us to be a tidy family, to which they enthusiastically replied, yes.
So I showed them the document, printed it out, and stuck it around the house, that's it. So now when I'm about to leave emptying the dishwasher till the morning, or leave an empty coffee mug on my desk till later, I can see that those actions are not what tidy people do, and lo and behold, it's working!
A lot of the list I got from the common sense part of my own head, however I got a good amount of feedback from the tidiest people I know, for instance a friend of mine with four children and a much larger, and infinitely tidier house than my own.
So now I want to use the same technique to start doing what productive people do, and I figure a lot of up and coming fastlaners (and maybe some established ones) would be interested in trying out this type of modelling, or if you are already productive, perhaps you can add to the list.
I'm hoping to have a good list of bullet points that I can keep in sight all of the time, so that I can copy productive people and become like them too.
I try and tend to keep it to what they do, rather than don't do, as it seems that has more psychological resonance, though I understand if anyone wants to chip in with a what productive people don't do.
Plus of course, this is a learning experience for me, so if any of the points I've put so far, or in the future are incorrect, I am very happy to be corrected by real honest-to-goodness productive people.
OK, without further ado, let's kick it off and let the games begin!
Productive people use scheduling tools to map out their days.
Productive people find time to work without distraction.
Productive people keep track of their progress from one day to the next.
Productive people plan their internet time.
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