I have spent my whole life not knowing how to be efficient at getting things done. I have always felt fucking terrible when comparing myself to these people who seem to be good at everything, all the time. I have asked people with maximal "life efficiency" how they do it time and time again. Some answers I have received have been extremely underwhelming, some very informative. I've done a lot of research about this "efficiency" over the years. There was a recent reddit post asking how people who work out and study have time to socialize and other things, which inspired me to write this.
I have such an intense yearning to succeed, but never had the skills in time management, never the mental health and never the support to do everything well.
I have been working my ass off recently in everything I do and for everyone I know. I haven't gotten much reprieve recently, but nobody can tell me I haven't gotten a lot done. Part of this is because I have been forced to become more efficient due to my living circumstances in order to succeed. The other part, however, was finding the key. I used my understanding of how other people work so efficiently and have applied it to my own life, and it has helped immensely. I'd like to share it, and make it simple, because most people I've met who are extremely efficient seem to already have these skills naturally, or learned them very early on. Many (not all) grew up with proper families, people to support them, and a rigid schedule which was conducive to success. I have had absolutely none of that. I've felt pretty miserable over the years seeing people I grew up with succeed because they had opportunities I didn't and learned efficiency and hard core work ethic early on. Not catching on sooner was my fault, but I battled mental health issues for the longest time, which kept me far behind in the race.
I'll try to keep this post as short as possible. Props to everyone who reads every word of this. I'm not some motivational speaker, or some cheesy, happy go lucky guy trying to throw hip buzzwords at people to help them succeed. The name I came up for it just makes sense to me. I'm just a dude on reddit. I was thinking today about how to quantify this type of work ethic. What is it called? I have slowly been learning and becoming more efficient over the years, to the point where I'm almost as efficient as I always dreamed of. It took a few simple changes, but a long time to learn how to apply them.
I'd nevertheless like to share my philosophy, because why not? When I look up stuff like this, nobody seems to actually write the exact things they do. I wake up relatively early, start on what I have to do, which is pre planned, and don't stop until I'm about to go to bed. If I haven't finished something, that's okay because I've planned it in such a way that I still have time to do it. I go to bed relatively early, and do the same thing the next day. It's not the most fun, but it works, and I know by doing this, I won't be stuck my entire life as a zombie or a slave to something. To describe this process, I came up with something as simple as possible.
It's just four words:
Persistent consistency
and
Consistent persistence
Two phrases made of the same words, but both are entirely different philosophies of working. They need to be done together.
You need to always be consistent in your personal endeavors, whether that be exercise, proper study habits, or work. Do what you have to do properly, every time. But you must continue in those endeavors, persistently and without fail- that's where the long term progress is made.
Likewise, you need to always be persistent in maintaining consistency of these endeavors, which requires intense vigilance. This is the price of productivity.
Yeah, I know it's a lot of rhyming words, and that wasn't really intentional, but it makes sense. This whole thing is therefore more of a type of discipline, the very same that people that seem to be good at everything do. And that's really it. This is of course, greatly simplified. This requires a great degree of organization and planning. However, too many people call doing well "hard work". Like, no shit it's hard work- but what is the work specifically that's being done and how? There's no magic formula, no answer for everyone, but I feel like this philosophy can be broadly applied to most people.
The concepts and the implications that these words make though, is really the key, but the trick is to prioritize and stay organized in doing so, so I've written up a list of a few things to go along with this philosophy.
1- Health
I know how hard it is to try to be good at anything dealing with things like depression, PTSD, or any mental health issue. I've been there, and if you want to stalk my post history you can see the things I have written about that when I was at my worst- it was quite a while ago now. I was in agony. Absolute fucking agony, and alone. It took a long time and the most work I've ever put into anything. That's where prioritization comes in. Your mental health comes before anything, and you need to be vigilant in maintaining it. Easier said than done, I know. I know this more than I care to admit. But you are not alone. Self esteem is hard, but you need to believe that it will be okay because you are going to be doing everything you can to make it so. It will be okay.
2- Organization
Plan, plan, plan. Look ahead- Stay organized, force yourself to. I used to keep a well kept agenda, but I hated getting it out every 5 seconds and writing down words I couldn't read. So, I got two whiteboards, one blank for goals and to-do's, and one which is a calendar. Everything I do and need to do is on those. They're right in front of my bed on the wall. I see them every morning. I follow every bit what I have to do every day, and cross off things when I get home as I go. The rest of the things I have written are long term goals, which are broken into smaller, short term goals.
3- You are not defined by your efficiency. Yes, I am writing this post for me, too. Why? Because I have always felt like shit thinking about some of the people who manage to do just be amazing at everything with minimal effort. Some of these people are highly intelligent intellectually and not emotionally. Some aren't intelligent at all. Some are just so organized that it is sickeningly efficient. Some people I have asked who have an extremely impressive resume are just like "I dunno, I just did it". This doesn't fucking help people like me who don't have that luxury.
While I cannot speak for everyone's personal life, Recognize that statistically, some of the most efficient people that you may compare yourself to don't know what it's like to experience intense pain. They don't know what it is like to suffer, viscerally emotionally or physically. Some of those people have never had something terrible happen them or dealt with mental illness. Some of these people barely have to try at anything, and it's not fair. Don't compare yourself to these people.
Alas, you already have a leg up over people like this.
Two of the most efficient people I know were vain, cocky fucking pricks. These guys were born with brains that never had to study to do well, never had emotional health issues, supportive families, and wealth. They subsequently had time to exercise, socialize and still be extremely academically and successful. They are in great shape, with good jobs. But guess what? They're fucking assholes. All too aware of how much better at most things they are than other people, they have terrible personalities, and they always will be that way. I'd rather be suck at accomplishing things and not be a smarmy fucking bitch. Don't let the bastards get you down.
Also, recognize that some of the most efficient people don't have lives outside of getting things done- and are usually lacking in at least one area of their life in some way. Of course, that all depends on how you define "getting things done" as. Some people do pretty well and still have time to socialize, and that takes a bit of natural skill, but lots of organization. People that can do everything all the time 24/7 are an anomaly. People like me, who don't have natural skill at this must work for it.
4- Focus on the immediate circumstances and save time for yourself.
You need to put you first, and if you're having issues with your health that prevent you from moving forward, those need to be put first. If you are just trying to learn to be efficient like me, always make sure you schedule at least the smallest sliver of time for yourself, in whatever way you want. You are you and nobody can take that away, be proud of whatever it is you are- because nobody else is. You need some time have fun in your way, but also try to appreciate the little things more, because they will be more present in your life the less time you have.
5- It will be hard.
It's supposed to be. Nothing worth anything is easy to accomplish. Though, I prefer suffering with little free time feeling like a zombie and getting a lot done and improving myself a little bit every day than not trying at all.
6-This will take a long time.
My inspiration for trying to become efficient was two fold. I wanted to pursue the career I want, which is extremely difficult to get into, and wanted to get into shape. The gym is a great way to learn and employ this type of work ethic. If you're anything like me and never picked up on all this shit over the years, you can start now. Every once and a while, add another piece of small responsibility to your life, if you are able. This will force you to make time for things. Mine, for example, started with buying a fish tank. I purposely did this in order to add something else on my daily to do list to keep track of.
7- Be persistently consistent.
Time management is HUGE. Learn to make your responsibilities into time efficient routines and do them, don't half ass them, even when you feel like a shit load of fuck. However, if this is eating into your health, prioritize your health and sleep over pretty much everything. Shit can wait when you're sick.
8- Be consistently persistent.
Do what you have to do regularly. Always do the above, and always keep trying to improve, reorganize, clean, and plan. You will to your goal one day if you never stop fighting for it a little bit every day.
9- Get used to having less free time.
It hurts, but it is the price of working hard for what you want. This doesn't mean you have to sacrifice who you are. You just need to be you over shorter intervals while you work.
10- It's worth it.
All of this spread over a long period of time will net you the highest levels of productivity humanly possible. I have been trying to become one of those people for 4 years and I'm finally getting there. I had to make some small changes in how I organize and plan. But, I had to make big changes in what it was I was planning, or lack thereof. I focused on my health and went from there.
tl;dr: Always maintain persistent consistency and consistent persistence in the things you need to do, every. single. day. Make goals and keep to them this way- whether that's to focus on your health, study, or workout.
If you have any other tips for being good at everything, please share.
Really, I just hope this helps someone. Genuinely, that is my main joy in this life.
Submitted September 30, 2017 at 05:33AM by Force_USN http://ift.tt/2xExqwZ
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