Creating the Life You Want
For years I thought the best way to accomplish my goals was clearing everything from my calendar and having nothing to do. While this may work for some, it didn’t for me. After struggling to be productive throughout my week, I slowly started to realize I needed some structure in my schedule or I’d just keep spinning my wheels. Two things had to change before I could start creating work I was proud of.
First, I had to acknowledge I had no one to blame for wasting time but myself. It was far easier to blame external forces for my lack of control - for example, my work, phone, social media, Netflix, etc. It wasn’t until I started dieting these activities that I began having control over my time. One such exercise I used was from Tim Ferriss. He recommends making a Not to Do list which is basically what it sounds- a list of things you shouldn’t do instead of things you should. I’ve been practicing this for a while now and it’s amazing how well this reverse psychology can improve your workflow.
“Everyone has the opportunity to create the life they want, some just haven’t been able to see it yet. ”
Second, I realized I needed to create strong routines. I struggled with this for a while because I felt like making routines would suck the joy out of being free and spontaneous. The opposite ended up being true. The more structure I had, the more spontaneity became noticeable and actionable. I also didn’t realize how many routines I had already unknowingly created. Once I understood this, I was able to use existing routines, remove bad ones, and create new routines structured around my goals. Another big revelation was the idea of scheduling my leisure time. This concept was first introduced to me by Cal Newport in his book Digital Minimalism. His idea is this- if you want to have leisure time, schedule it. Cal breaks this down into two areas, high-quality leisure, and low-quality leisure. High-quality leisure is something that contributes to a great life such as building things, learning, reading, hobbies, etc. Low-quality leisure is mainly entertainment, web surfing, social media browsing, binge-watching Netflix, etc. The suggestion here is to fill your time with more high-quality activities than low-quality ones. This has been a game-changer for me and my ability to have more time to devote to things I find important.
The topic of lifestyle design is nothing new* but I wanted to share a bit of my journey in finding more time for the things I love. Through my learning I have found this to be true, everyone has the opportunity to create the life they want, some just haven’t been able to see it yet.
*Note: I may sound like a broken record here, for this topic has many voices and opinions. You could literally spend hours researching and going down different rabbit holes. If this topic is of interest to you, I would suggest doing some research for yourself for there isn’t a one size fits all approach. It may take some time to find the right tools that fit your situation. The work of Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Cal Newport would be great places to start. Happy rabbit trail hunting!