[If you received this as an email, click on the title to read the rest of the article.]
To my valued friend,
To my valued friend,
If one adheres to the "platinum rule" of productivity, one will list all of one's activities for the day that are most important to do and then specify the order in which they are to be done. Then one will diligently focus on those and when one is finished with those, one stops for the day.
To live the opposite of the never ending Parkinson's disease (where everything creeps in that can be done, regardless of the value, causing incredible stress and low productivity), one must have a schedule that is clear and definite. An example of such a schedule is to have work days go no longer than 9-6. All the items left over, if you've followed the rule of doing what is most important first, are of very marginal value.
The big mistake occurs when one still lives in fantasy land or "should" land, as the individual somehow believes that one should never "lose" anything (respect of another, approval, etc.) and therefore must do everything.
If one craves the approval of others, one dare not risk not doing something that others want, as that would risk disapproval - and some people have internalized this false "need" such that they dare not risk their own internal (false) disapproval! Thus, they are stuck with an overwhelming set of neverending tasks that no human on earth could ever achieve - yet they are often stuck in the illusion that there is such a thing as a "superhuman" and that they "could' be that, if only they could ... type faster, write faster, work faster, cut more from one's personal life, stay more disciplined beyond the normal human being for longer (without respite).
He/she MUST, however, realize how human beings actually function - and know that there is a limited pipeline and a limited source of psychological and physical energy that must be renewed. If they do not understand this, one does not renew - and then one suffers greatly, trying to do the humanly impossible, to keep on going without adequate rest and renewal, physically and emotionally, often sacrificing all that which is not urgent, such as relationships and the happiness of those they love.
Even if one has not yet achieved wisdom, one must do one's best to follow the schedule (and to give oneself "human" time) by quitting at 6 (except for very rare true emergencies - which cannot be frequent or, if so, there is a bigger problem to be solved, of delusion and "crazy busyness"). At 6 pm there is nothing of true importance left to do in the "doing" category, for the importance and value of the "being" and renewing category is much, much greater.
Yes, I would like you to gain the wisdom to really "see" that the latter is so, so, so true and valid. Meanwhile, use this structure and learn to practice it until you get up to doing it virtually every day. And in some of the time you've freed up, you can study that which will make you wiser and elevate your whole life (which in turn makes one more productive, so that even more hours are freed up!).
[Note that many great and successful people actually use 2 p.m. as their ending time for work.]
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