5 Habits that Changed My Life
Summary
TLDRThe speaker shares five life-changing habits that enhance productivity and well-being with minimal effort. These include avoiding technology first thing in the morning, reducing caffeine intake, pacing to refresh the mind, allocating time for contemplation, and shifting from passive consumption to active production. The talk emphasizes the importance of understanding and implementing these habits to achieve a balanced and successful life.
Takeaways
- 🌅 Start the day without technology for the first 30 to 60 minutes to avoid feeling overwhelmed by tasks and to maintain a clear headspace for work.
- ☕ Recognize caffeine's deceptive effects; it numbs tiredness rather than providing energy, leading to increased fatigue over time.
- 🚫 Delay caffeine intake and ensure sufficient sleep to mitigate the addictive cycle and crash associated with its use.
- 🚶 Implement pacing to counteract the tendency to engage with technology when feeling distracted or fatigued, promoting mental decompression and physical movement.
- 🤔 Prioritize giving yourself time to think, which is essential for processing thoughts and ideas, often lost in our overstimulated modern lives.
- 🛠 Shift from being a passive consumer to an active producer, creating value by producing content instead of just consuming it.
- 📚 Understand that consumption, such as reading or listening to books, is not inherently productive; it's the production that delivers value.
- 🎯 Disconnect the creative process from the pressure of creating a finished product, focusing on the act of creating itself.
- 🔄 Replace some consumption time with production, suggesting a balance of around 10-20% of time spent creating.
- 💡 The speaker emphasizes the importance of building habits that lead to substantial life changes with minimal effort, focusing on easy-to-implement practices.
- 🌱 The five habits shared are designed to enhance productivity, wellness, and success by making small but impactful adjustments to daily routines.
Q & A
What are the five habits mentioned in the transcript that the speaker believes have drastically improved their productivity and wellness?
-The five habits are: 1) Avoiding technology for the first 30 to 60 minutes after waking up. 2) Cutting back on or eliminating caffeine consumption. 3) Pacing, which involves walking back and forth to take breaks. 4) Giving oneself time to think. 5) Shifting from being a consumer to a producer.
Why does the speaker suggest avoiding technology for the first part of the day?
-The speaker suggests avoiding technology to prevent feeling overwhelmed by the day's tasks and to avoid getting stuck in a cycle of using technology for distraction, which can deplete willpower and negatively affect the mindset for work.
How does the speaker describe the effect of caffeine on the body and mind?
-The speaker explains that caffeine blocks adenosine receptors, which are responsible for the signal of tiredness. It doesn't provide energy but rather masks the feeling of fatigue, leading to a buildup of fatigue over time and potential addiction due to its rapid effect on focus and energy.
What is the speaker's personal experience with caffeine withdrawal that led to a change in their habits?
-The speaker experienced food poisoning, which led to abstaining from caffeine. They noticed increased mental alertness in the afternoons and evenings without caffeine, which made them realize the impact of caffeine on their energy levels.
What is 'pacing' and how does the speaker use it to improve their work habits?
-Pacing involves walking back and forth to take breaks from work. The speaker uses it to avoid falling into the trap of technology distractions and to decompress their mental state, making it easier to return to work with a clearer mind.
How does the speaker suggest using the time gained from cutting back on caffeine and pacing?
-The speaker suggests using the time to think, allowing the mind to process thoughts and ideas without the constant input from technology and distractions, which can lead to more innovative and productive work.
What is the problem the speaker identifies with being a passive consumer according to the transcript?
-The speaker identifies that being a passive consumer can lead to a lack of value delivery to the world. They argue that success comes from production, not just consumption, and that one should shift their focus to creating rather than just consuming content.
How does the speaker address the issue of perfectionism when transitioning from a consumer to a producer?
-The speaker advises to focus on the process of production rather than tying it to the end product. They suggest writing or creating without the pressure of publishing or achieving success, which can alleviate perfectionism and writer's block.
What does the speaker mean by 'giving yourself time to think' and why is it important?
-The speaker means allowing the mind to process and decompress information without immediate distractions or the need for productivity. It is important because it can lead to better insights, creativity, and mental well-being.
What is the speaker's view on the relationship between consumption and production?
-The speaker believes that while consumption can be beneficial, it should not be the primary focus. They advocate for a balance where a portion of the time spent consuming is shifted towards production, as this is where true value and success come from.
How does the speaker recommend someone to start implementing these habits?
-The speaker recommends starting with the five habits they outlined: avoiding technology in the morning, cutting back on caffeine, pacing, giving oneself time to think, and shifting from consumption to production. They suggest beginning with these habits if one struggles with building new habits.
Outlines
🌅 Morning Tech-Free Routine
The speaker introduces the concept of establishing new habits to improve productivity and wellness. The first habit discussed is avoiding technology for the first 30 to 60 minutes after waking up. This practice is aimed at preventing the immediate engagement with digital devices, which can lead to feelings of being overwhelmed by the day's tasks. The speaker shares personal experiences, including time spent in an ashram, to illustrate the benefits of a tech-free morning, suggesting that it sets a positive tone for the day and helps maintain mental clarity and willpower.
☕️ Caffeine Dependency and Its Effects
The second habit revolves around reducing or eliminating caffeine intake. The speaker explains the neurobiological effects of caffeine, highlighting that it does not provide energy but instead blocks the tiredness signal, leading to increased fatigue over time. They discuss the addictive nature of caffeine, how it can lead to a cycle of dependency, and the impact on daily productivity. Suggestions for cutting back include delaying the first caffeine intake of the day and ensuring adequate sleep to ease the transition off caffeine.
🚶♂️ The Power of Pacing for Mental Breaks
The third habit introduced is pacing, which involves walking back and forth to take mental breaks from work. The speaker contrasts this with the common alternative of seeking distractions through technology, which can lead to prolonged periods of unproductivity. Pacing is presented as a way to decompress the mind, allowing thoughts to wander and emotions to settle, which can ultimately improve focus and productivity when returning to work.
🤔 The Importance of Time for Reflection
The fourth habit is giving oneself time to think, a concept that the speaker argues has been lost in modern society due to constant stimulation and busyness. The speaker reflects on the historical context of having time to think and the current societal pressures that discourage it. They suggest that making time for reflection can lead to innovative thoughts and a better mental state, drawing parallels to the clarity often experienced during shower moments.
📚 Shifting from Consumption to Production
The final habit discussed is the shift from being a consumer to a producer. The speaker criticizes the modern tendency to equate consumption with success and emphasizes the importance of creating original work. They share their personal journey of writing extensively without the pressure of publishing, suggesting that the act of production itself is valuable, regardless of external validation or success. The speaker encourages others to allocate a portion of their time to productive activities that can offer value to the world.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Habits
💡Productivity
💡Wellness
💡Technology
💡Caffeine
💡Pacing
💡Consumption
💡Production
💡Willpower
💡Addiction
💡Mental Alertness
Highlights
The speaker shares five habits that have substantially improved their life with minimal effort.
The first habit is avoiding technology for 30 to 60 minutes after waking up to start the day without digital distractions.
Technology can be addictive and lead to emotional overwhelm, which hinders productivity.
Cutting back on caffeine can lead to increased mental alertness and reduce dependency on its temporary boost.
Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors, numbing the tiredness signal rather than providing energy.
Delaying caffeine intake and ensuring sufficient sleep can help in reducing its consumption.
Pacing, or walking back and forth, is a simple habit that can replace technology use and reduce mental fatigue.
Pacing helps in decompressing the mind and improving focus after periods of work.
The importance of giving oneself time to think and process thoughts is emphasized as a lost human ability.
Turning some consumption into production can lead to more value delivery and personal success.
The speaker discourages the idea that production is only valuable if it leads to a finished product like a published book.
Becoming a producer involves creating without the pressure of perfectionism or the need for external validation.
The habit of production can help overcome problems associated with being a passive consumer.
A recommendation to shift 10-20% of consumption time to production for a balanced approach to personal growth.
The speaker reflects on their personal struggle with building habits and the realization of the importance of consistency.
The benefits of starting the day without technology include a better headspace and preserved willpower for the day's tasks.
The speaker's personal experience with food poisoning led to the realization of caffeine's impact on mental alertness.
The societal pressure to constantly consume information and entertainment is critiqued as detrimental to deep thinking.
Transcripts
with these five habits i actually was
able to make a substantial change in my
life with kind of like a minimal effort
investment so one of the things that i
want to talk to you all about today are
habits so i'm gonna share with you all
five habits that i've kind of
implemented over the last couple of
years that have drastically altered my
productivity and my wellness and success
and all that kind of stuff i think these
habits may apply to you this may be
useful for you if you're kind of like me
and what i actually struggled with a lot
was building new habits so what i sort
of found for myself is that first of all
i thought hat building habits was
important right so i recognized that
every day that i'm using like willpower
to overcome particular shortcomings of
mine like it was a slog the second thing
is that i'm also someone who really
really struggles to build habits because
i i struggle with consistency and things
like that it was just really hard you
know i try to exercise i try to eat
healthy i try to do all this stuff and
it was just like hard for me and so the
the habits that i want to share with you
all today are five things that i would
call easy with these five habits i
actually was able to make a substantial
change in my life with kind of like a
minimal effort investment so the first
habit that i want to share with you all
is
not using technology for like 30 to 60
minutes when you wake up in the morning
so for the first half hour to hour of my
day i do my level best to not use any
kind of technology you know we've grown
up in such a technological society where
we feel like we have to use technology
or technology is always at our
fingertips or there's like so much value
from technology and i didn't really
realize how little value technology
offers until like i started really
paying attention to things like when i
would go to an ashram right so i'd go to
a monastery and i'd study yoga for a
while right so i'm meditating and stuff
like that and there's very little
technology footprint then and that's
when i really realized oh i actually
like don't need technology now it's fine
for me to say okay so start off your day
without using technology for 30 to 60
minutes but the truth is that's
hard why is it hard because technology
is addictive so instead of trying to
change anything i just paid attention to
what happened when i started using
technology so when you wake up first in
the morn first thing in the morning
you're kind of sluggish you don't really
feel like working but you need to work
today so what i sort of noticed was that
the first reason that i would use
technology was not out of any
recreational stuff it was actually like
due to like legitimate reasons so the
first thing that i would do is like
check my email or look at my calendar
and try to figure out okay what do i
have to do today and that sounds like
pretty productive right you have to
figure out okay during the day like do i
need do i have an hour to shower do i
have half an hour to shower like what do
i need to do today but then what i sort
of found is as i looked at my day when i
first wake up in the morning how do you
think that makes me feel so when you
wake up first thing in the morning and
you open up your calendar and you open
up your email and there are all these
tasks you have to do and like you've got
all these meetings and oh yeah i have to
do this today and oh i have to do this
today and i don't do this today and then
i started to feel emotionally
overwhelmed because i'm not actually
doing it right all i'm seeing is like
the gigantic mountain that i have to
climb and so then once i start to feel
emotionally overwhelmed mentally i'm not
in a frame of mind to work so what do i
end up doing how do i manage those
emotions i move over to a different app
let's open up reddit let's look at what
happened on a live stream fail and so
then what we do is we we shift from our
kind of like work related legitimate
reason to kind of an emotionally numbing
dopaminergic kind of thing and then
you're stuck in that cycle and then i
have to start the day by digging in
using willpower to overcome that and
like drag myself to start working and
what i actually found is that when i
avoid technology for the first 30 to 60
minutes of the day you know i kind of do
my thing i take a shower i have a cup of
tea i'll read something i'll chat i'll
go outside for a little bit then when i
sit down to work i'm in a far better
headspace and my my willpower battery is
still fully charged because i haven't
had to overcome the addictive technology
first thing in the morning habit number
two as i started cutting back on
caffeine or even cutting it out entirely
so i learned this lesson in a kind of
bizarre way so a couple years ago i got
food poisoning and when i got food
poisoning you know like i couldn't eat
anything so i certainly wasn't having
any caffeine and what i found is like
three or four days after when i started
to feel a little bit better despite the
fact that i had been sick i was really
surprised by how mentally alert i was in
the afternoons and evenings the more i
kind of dug into it i realized this is
the effect of caffeine and there are a
couple of important things to understand
about caffeine the first is that
caffeine doesn't actually give us energy
the neurobiological mechanism of
caffeine is that it blocks adenosine
receptors and so adenosine so we have
the the fundamental energy molecule in
our cells is something called atp when
we burn an atp we're sort of left with
adenosine and the more adenosine we have
that sort of that's our brain signal
that okay like we're tired like we've
burnt up a lot of energy and when i go
to sleep i'm going to clear out all that
adenosine i'm going to remake atp and so
the interesting thing about caffeine is
that it doesn't give you energy it numbs
the tiredness signal so this is really
important because the more that you use
caffeine you're actually like building
up more fatigue more fatigue more
fatigue you're just numbing yourself to
that signal so it doesn't actually give
you energy all it does is create more
fatigue down the road for a temporary
boost right now so let's try to
understand what happens when we use
caffeine and why it's so hard to give up
it turns out that the way that our
brain's reinforcement mechanisms are
wired make it very easy to get addicted
to caffeine so there's a really simple
principle when it comes to addictions
the more rapid the effect of the benefit
the more addictive it is so the faster
that the benefit hits the more likely we
are to be addicted so when we use
caffeine what happens is we get this
burst of focus and i've got a bunch of
stuff to do today so i can't afford to
be sluggish so i'm gonna drink caffeine
and for a couple of hours man i can do
anything like i'm grinding i'm doing
this task i'm doing that task i'm on i'm
streaming i'm riding whatever it is and
then as time goes on and as the caffeine
wears off we get sluggish and sluggish
and sluggish and by the time that the
evening rolls around we're really tired
we really can't do anything and the more
that we feel like oh my god i can't do
anything the more dependent we become
with caffeine so if you look at like
your productivity over the course of a
day let's say it's really stable when
you use caffeine what it basically does
is shifts a period into high
productivity followed by a period of low
productivity so when i use caffeine i
feel that burst of energy and i'm like
wow caffeine is really amazing and then
i crash afterward and so the more that
my brain sort of learns okay like i need
caffeine i need caffeine i need caffeine
i'm so productive with it the more we
start to use it and then we kind of fall
into this cycle that ends up actually
like negatively impacting us so in terms
of how to cut back on caffeine so i
think the first thing is to recognize
once again use understanding right so
actually pay attention to your
productivity over the course of a day
and how you kind of feel another thing
that you can do in terms of getting off
of caffeine is delaying when you start
it okay this is really important because
a lot of times we're like zombies until
we have caffeine so i know it's kind of
weird but just wait half an hour do
other stuff take a shower like you can
still take a shower without caffeine
it's like not that hard and then the
last thing that's really really
important for coming off of caffeine i
know it's gonna sound kind of like a
no-brainer but getting enough sleep
caffeine is way harder to get rid of
when you are not sufficiently rested so
when i get off of caffeine now what i'll
try to do is plan actually a nap during
the day so i recognize that i'm gonna
crash and i'm gonna just lay down for a
little while oftentimes i won't sleep
i'll just close my eyes but it really
helps and then you kind of acknowledge
that for a three or four day period like
it's going to be a little bit tricky but
a big part is getting enough sleep at
night the next habit that i want to
share with you all that i think is
actually really really has
revolutionized my life and is so easy is
pacing so what i do now several times
throughout the day is get up and walk
back and forth and i will demonstrate
for those of you who don't know what
pacing is this is what it looks like
i'll get up and i'll go like this
and people are like
what the hell how is that how does that
help anything i pace
his revolutionized my life how the hell
does that help anyone great question so
let's understand why we pace and what it
replaces so when i'm working sometimes i
get tired of work and i get distracted
and what do we do when we get tired of
work and we get distracted we usually do
something with a technological device so
i'm fatigued feel distracted and then
what i'm gonna do is as i engage with
something let's say i open up like
reddit or twitter or whatever i get
bombarded with information so the first
thing is that all of these activities
are designed to increase engagement
right so like when you watch one youtube
video it's not like that's the only
video there's a bunch of suggestions the
suggestions on the right for the next
video there are cards at the end of the
video that directing you to additional
videos one distraction becomes a second
distraction third distraction fourth
distraction fifth of distraction so the
price of opening up some kind of
technological thing is like a five
minute distraction becomes an hour long
the second thing is that when we engage
in those kinds of things it tends to
ramp up our mind more so as i open up
twitter and i see everything that is
wrong with the world do you think that
that helps me get back to work and
generally speaking if you pay attention
to the cycle what happens is once you
like log on to twitter we get so
fatigued from our distraction that we
eventually get bored of it and we go
back to work but when you're going back
to work you're kind of exhausted and
like mentally so how does pacing help
pacing helps in two ways the first is
that it allows me to take a break from
work without slipping into something
that's gonna cost me an hour the second
thing that's really cool about pacing is
that it actually decompresses my mental
state so when i engage with something
some inflammatory content on the
internet it activates my emotions and
makes it like harder for me to focus
whereas when i pace like i just let my
mind kind of wander and like it kind of
thinks through stuff and i don't know
how to describe it but like basically
like when you use the internet you get
ramped up right when you pace like you
kind of get like decompressed you kind
of chill out you're thinking about this
stuff thinking about that stuff you kind
of just like
and eventually you can sit down and work
again pacing is completely op you just
get up step away from the computer
get the blood flowing right so improve
your venous return by walking back and
forth use your muscles a little bit
relieve some of that back pain from
sitting and all that kind of good stuff
so this kind of segues into the next
thing that i really noticed
which is the next habit that i built was
giving myself time to think this is kind
of interesting because i think one of
the things that we've lost
as humanity is time to think so like 10
000 years ago we had a lot of time to
think even if i'm a farmer working in a
field like i may be doing some kind of
monotonous activity or if i'm milking a
cow i still have time to think so i
think one of the things that we really
like lost sight of is that the human
brain evolved to have like this low kind
of like mental activity processing kind
of state and now what happens is we get
ramped up so much by everything going on
so much stimuli that we actually don't
have time to like process any of that
stuff why can it be hard to give
yourself time to think because you're
not being productive oh my god so i
think if we kind of think a little bit
about optimal productivity we have to
recognize that societally our brains
don't have time to decompress anymore
and so now what we're sort of seeing is
intensive decompression people are going
on meditation retreats they're going to
say therapists they have to squeeze in
all of their mental decompression into a
highly efficient little bundle and we
see the value of this if you all have
ever heard of shower thoughts and look
at what your mind is like in the shower
so many good thoughts man feels so good
it's like invigorating so give yourself
time to think it will transform your
life one thing that kind of came out
when i started giving myself time to
think and this is the last habit
arguably the most important is i started
turning some consumption into production
so increasingly what we've become as
humans is consumers books audiobooks
youtube videos twitter social media
video games so i i've even heard of like
you know people who play games like i
used to do this too like i would play
wow i would grind wow and listen to an
audiobook at the same time so i could be
productive while i'm playing wow makes
sense sort of right because if i have to
grind this stupid crap i might as well
like listen to a good book like listen
to stephen hawking and learn something
so like what the hell is going on here
so we've become consumers we think that
consumption is like laudable right so if
i read one book every day and i read 300
books a week and i read this many many
books and i listen to this podcast and
do this and do this like this is a badge
of honor and what i realized i was just
consuming consuming consuming and that
if i really want to be like be
successful
what i need to do is not consume like
sure reading can be helpful don't get me
wrong what i mean is if i want to
deliver value to the world if i want to
offer value as a human being that
doesn't come through consumption it
comes through production so i started
creating stuff so in my case i did a lot
of writing now here's the problem with
becoming a producer so as you start
producing
all kinds of problems arise
and the number one problem that arises
from being a producer
is wanting to make a product we've
associated writing
with publishing so like there's no point
in writing unless you become an author
there's no point in making music unless
you're going to become an artist so what
we've started to do is we've tangled
together the creative process with the
creation once you tangle these two
things together it makes things so
difficult because if my goal is to write
a book then the second i start writing i
get into problems with perfectionism is
it good enough is it not good enough
strategically am i doing this do i need
to find a publisher are people gonna
like it are they not gonna like it and
then you get into writer's block you get
paralyzed it's not good enough i need to
prepare more i need to go do this
workshop i need to learn more about this
because the goal is to publish something
the goal is to be successful the habit
that i learned
was just to become a producer
instead of a consumer to date i've never
published a book have i written books
100 haven't published one don't care but
the key thing is to stop being a passive
consumer and to recognize that once you
engage in that productive process you
will like shed a lot of the problems
that we face right now you're just
creating stuff so shift from consumption
to production why is that hard because
we assume production with the finished
product we want to be successful there's
no point in writing a book that no one
else will read i completely disagree i'm
not saying that you stop consumption i'd
say somewhere around 10 to 20 percent of
your consumption time should be turned
into production so
if you're like me and you think habits
are important but you struggle to
actually implement them then i'd start
with these five habits number one avoid
technology usage for the first 30 to 60
minutes of the day number two cut back
on your caffeine it's a scam number
three pace literally just walk back and
forth easiest thing in the world in the
world to do leading from pacing is to
give yourself time to think and as you
give yourself time to think
put that thought into the world in some
way start to become a producer instead
of a consumer so those are the five
habits i'd recommend you all start with
you
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