03-Mar-2019
I read an article from Emotion Machine. It is the summary of a book called Flourish - A new understanding of happiness and well being. This book is written by Martin Seligman considered to be the father of positive psychology. The book discusses how you can become happy and talks about a concept called PERMA which is elaborated as follows
P - Positive emotions: Experience joy and pleasure
E - Engagement or flow: Being consciously involved in our activities
R - Relationships: Having enjoyable and supportive interactions with others.
M - Meaning: Creating a purposeful narrative about our lives
A - Accomplishments: Completing our goals and following our core values.
Key findings are that one, you can be happy and also depressed or anxious, but not at the same time. The correlation between the two is only -0.2 and not -1.0 as many would think. Two, he talks of a concept called ‘Prospection’ which is think about future. It is the opposite of introspection which is reviewing what happened in the past. He says that most of the time we are thinking about the future.
For example as I write this I am also thinking what I will do after I finish the diary entry. It is like I am both in the present, typing this, as well as in the future.
As per Seligman, we are constantly creating positive representations of future and choosing among them. You have a choice to envision a better future and take steps to accomplish that future. This is the best tool to ensure a flourishing future. Hence the title ‘Flourish’.
03-Mar-2019
Today I read an article titled 12 questions that will change your life. This article is written by Ryan Holiday.
It is very important to ask questions even if we do not know the answers. The right question can calm a mind or change the course of life. These questions are gathered from some of the best minds. The questions are:
- Who do you spend time with? Identify people better than you to spend your time with.
- Is this in my control? If not let it go. While things may be out of our control, our responses to them are in our control.
- What does your ideal day look like? Made me think, this one. You have to identify the most enjoyable and satisfying aspect of our day and take decisions and actions to replicate them. Your job, your life and the place you have to live move you to their ideal day. If you are a quiet person you need environment that helps you attain that.
- To be or to do: Action versus reflection. Will you go after titles and power and prestige or will you go after real accomplishments?
- If I am not for me, who is for me? If I am only for me who am I or what am I?: If you are only for you, you are selfish. You should be able to subsume your ego for a higher purpose. They key is what will be your legacy.
- What am I missing by choosing to worry or be afraid? What am I choosing not to see now? You might be choosing worry over introspection, alertness or wisdom. The Greek word is ‘Apatheia’ meaning calm equanimity.
- Amy I doing my job? What is my job? We can be very busy and not doing what is important. You have to spend time on things that matter.
- What is the most important thing? Do I know? Am I putting it first? For example if your most important thing is family you should not compare yourself with those who have money. You make life choices based on what is most important thing for you. Understanding MIT, you will stay away from races that do not matter. Holiday talks of a concept called ‘Euthenia’, the belief that you are on the right path and not be distracted by tracks that cross your path.
- Who is this for? Who is your target audience? Who are interested in what you offer. Many people do not have answer to this question. You have to ask yourself who are my target audience, what do they want, what value I am offering them etc. Don’t try to get lucky and follow the hunch. As the questions and don’t stop till you get your answer.
- Does it actually matter? Author talks about the concept of ‘Memento Mori’, acceptance of mortality, given the shortness of life does this think that I am fighting about or worrying about matter? What is happening to you is minuscule in the light of eternity.
- Are you spending alive time or dead time? In alive time we are learning and acting and leveraging. In dead time we are waiting. Don’t get into meaningless debates. Decide on the ideal day and start acting on it.
- Is this who I want to be? Your actions have to be consistent with what you want to be. There is a good quote ‘In your twenties, you are deciding what you want to be, you might as well decide not to be an asshole’.
Remember that how we do anything is how we do everything. That is who we are. Keep asking ‘What is the meaning of life’. It is not for us to expect an answer. Life is demanding that we answer the question with the actions and decisions we make.
Continue regularly asking these questions and try to find answers.to them.
26-Mar-2019
In the morning I read an article in NYT titled Why you procrastinate (It has nothing to do with self-control), This article is written by Charlotte Leiberman. Procrastination is not about Laziness. The word procrastination is derived from the Latin verb ‘Procrastinaire’ which means ‘to put off till tomorrow’. It is not just voluntary delay. The word is also derived from Greek word ‘Acrasia’ which means doing something against our best judgement.
In our mind we feel that we are harming ourselves by procrastinating and that self awareness makes us feel rotten. The problem is that we know procrastination is a bad idea and yet we do it.
People engage in the vicious cycle of procrastination because of their inability to manage their moods around the task. Some of these moods will be insecurity, self doubt, magnitude of task, boredom, anxiety etc. Procrastination is an emotion regulation problem that we confuse as time management problem. In other words procrastination is the primacy of short term mood repair over long term pursuit of intended action.
We procrastinate those tasks that are unpleasant or create negative emotions. We feel we are not up to a task. The negative thoughts that are caused by procrastination are known as ‘procrastinatory cognition’.
The momentary relief that procrastination provides makes the cycle vicious. Procrastination is due to ‘Present bias’ a tendency to prioritize on the short term goals at the expense of long term needs. At a neural level we perceive our future self as a stranger. Our brain things that the task we are putting off is ‘someone else’s’ problem.
We can’t tell ourselves to stop procrastination. It is an emotion problem rather than a productivity problem and the solution is to control our emotions in a new way. We have to find an incentive to stop us from procrastinating. We give ourselves a BBO, ‘Bigger Better Offer’ which will motivate us to do the work. This reward should be better than the relief of avoidance. One option is to be gentle and kind with ourselves. We should not beat up ourselves for procrastinating. Another is to focus on the next task tricking our mind to assume that this task is over. Another way is to reframe that task to look at the positive aspects of the task at hand.
The main thing is to get started. That first step is very important. (I have experienced this again and again.). Once I start, I get the stuff done.
Another approach is to make your temptation more difficult. Another will be to make our tasks as easy as possible like sleeping in gym attire.
However, the best approach that I can recommend is to use ‘Positive Distraction’ method proposed by Cal Newport.
26-Mar-2019
In his article titled Productivity is not about time management, it is about attention management, Organization psychologist Adam Grant says that being prolific is not about time management. There are limited number of hours in a day and being focused on time makes us realize how many of these we waste. A better option is attention management. Prioritize the people and the projects that you need to focus your attention on. Attention management focuses on completing the right task for the right reasons in the right place and at the right moment.
According to conventional wisdom you are supposed to fix time goals for when you want to finish a task. That is not the right approach. Productive people gravitate towards projects that are personally interesting and socially meaningful. Before you do any task decide if it is meaningful. Identify all the stakeholders and how your task will benefit them. And work for a specific target audience.
Often our productivity struggles are due to lack of motivation and not due to time pressure.
Productivity is a means to a virtuous end. If productivity is your goal (I have to finish two blog posts today, for example), then you will be under time pressure. If your end is virtuous, then you will automatically become productive.
Since productivity depends on the nature of the task, sequencing of tasks matter. It is better to schedule a boring task after completing a mildly interesting task and then do the most exciting task as a reward for completing the boring task.
Productivity and creativity need opposite attention management strategies. Productivity is fuelled by creating filters to keep other thoughts out. Creativity is fuelled by letting as many thoughts and ideas into your mind.
How do you get the best of both worlds!
It depends on your circadian rhythm. Do not mix productivity and creative work. If you are a morning person for example, do your analytical (Productive) task in the morning, boring tasks in the noon and creative tasks in the evening.
You also need to think differently into how you plan your time. Attention management also focuses on when you get things done. As per studies, if outside weather is bad, we are more productive. One suggestion is to divide your week into 'Maker days' and 'Manager days'. You schedule your meetings and other mechanical work on manager days and creative work on maker days.
Time management asks you to eliminate distractions. Attention management asks you to be thoughtful about time of distraction. Most of the writers wait for 'Maker Days' to start writing. But there is evidence that binge writing do not work as much as writing in shorter bursts.
In summary, if you are trying to be more productive, don't analyze how you spend your time. Focus on what consumes your attention.
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