Book Summary — Manage your day to day: build your routine, find your focus & sharpen your creative mind

It’s such an amazing book and inspired me to change my bad habit. We can’t change it at one day only, but we need to manage it day-by-day.

Book’s cover

At the end of the day-or, really, from the beginning-building a routine is all about persistence and consistency. Don’t wait for inspiration; create a framework for it.

Creative work first, reactive work second

Blocking off a large chunk of time every day for creative work on your own priorities, with the phone and email off. It feels uncomfortable, and sometimes people get upset. It’s better to disappoint a few people over small things, than to surrender your dreams for an empty inbox. Otherwise you’re sacrificing your potential for the illusion of professionalism.

The building blocks of a great daily routine

1. Start with the rhythm of your energy levels

2. Use creative triggers

Stick to the same tools, the same surrounding, event the background music, so that they become associative triggers for you to enter your creative zone.

3. Manage to-do list creep

Limit your daily to-do list. A 3" x 3" post-it is perfect-if you can’t fit everything on a list that size, how will you do it all in one day?

4. Capture every commitment

5. Establish hard edges in your day

A truly effective routine is always personal — a snug fit with your own talent and inclinations

Harnessing the power of frequency

We tend to over estimate what we can do in a short period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period, provided we want work slowly and consistently. Over the long run, the unglamorous habit of frequency fosters both productivity and creativity.

Reasons:

1. Frequency makes starting easier
2. Frequency keeps ideas fresh
3. Frequency keeps the pressure off
4. Frequency sparks creativity
5. Frequency nurtures frequency
6. Frequency fosters productivity
7. Frequency is a realistic approach

Step by step, you make your way forward. Daily writing exercise or keeping a daily blog. You see yourself do the work, which shows you that you can do the work. Progress is reassuring and inspiring. Panic and then despair set in when you find yourself getting nothing done day after day. The anxiety of procrastination often makes people even less likely to, buckle down in the future.

Honing your creative practice

The strategy is to have a practice, and what it means to have a practice is to regularly and reliably do the work in a habitual way.

Achieving goals is hard to do, because:

1. It opens you to criticism
2. It puts you into the world as someone who knows what you are doing, which means tomorrow you also have to know what are you doing, and you have just signed up for a lifetime of knowing what you are doing

Building renewal into your workday

YOUR CAPACITY IS LIMITED

What’s changed is that between digital technology and rising complexity, there’s more information and more requests coming at us, faster, and more relentlessly than ever. Human beings aren’t meant to operate continuously, at high speeds, for long periods of time. We’re designed to more rhythmically between spending and renewing our energy. By doing so skillfully, you can get more done in less time, at a higher level of quality, in a more sustainable way.

A couple of key scientific findings point the way:

1. Sleep is more important than food
2. Our bodies follow what are known as ultradian rhythms-ninety-minutes periods at the end of which we reach the limits of our capacity to work at highest level

A ROUTINE THAT INCLUDES RENEWAL

At first, Zeke worried that getting to work later and taking time to walk at lunch would make him less productive. Instead, he found himself working more efficiently when he returned, and getting more done over the course of the day. Zeke now begins his days by tackling his most important task first. What he now understands is that when he builds renewal into his day-when he establishes the right rhythms — everything in his life works better.

Making room for solitude

Today, it is essential that we find solitude so that we can learn what it has to teach us, so that we can find the quiet to listen to our inner voice, and so that we may find the space to truly focus and create. Even a small time set aside for solitude each day-from twenty minutes to an hour — can make an enormous difference. This calming of the mind helps us to figure out what really matters and to hear own creative voice, which can be drowned out by the cacophony of our daily tasks and online interactions.

CREATING THE SPACE

Set the time for your first block of solitude, now and make it an essential part of your daily routine.

A SIMPLE SOLITUDE PRACTICE

One amazing way to practice is a simple meditation session once a day.

What’s the point of sitting?

• There is no point — sitting is the point
• You’re not doing it to reduce stress, gain enlightenment, or learn more about yourself — though all these things might happen, but to practice just sitting
• In doing so, you are practicing being alone, and doing nothing but what you’re doing
• This is essential

Key Takeaways

1. GREAT WORK BEFORE EVERYTHING ELSE
2. JUMP START YOUR CREATIVITY
   - “associative triggers”: listening to the same music or arranging your desk in a certain way
   - that tell your mind it’s time to get down to work
3. FEEL THE FREQUENCY
4. PULSE AND PAUSE
5. GET LONELY
6. DON’T WAIT FOR MOODS
   - show up, whether you feel inspired or not

Scheduling in time for creative thinking

We’re being asked to simultaneously resist and embrace distraction to advance in our careers — a troubling paradox.

THE POWER OF DAILY FOCUS BLOCKS

People are used to the idea that they cannot demand your attention during times when you already have a scheduled appointment. The focus block technique takes advantage of this understanding to buy you some time for undistracted focus without the need for excessive apology or explanation.

Tips:

1. Start with small blocks of focused time and then gradually work yourself up to longer durations
2. Tackle a clearly identified and isolated task
3. Consider using a different location for these blocks.

Banishing multitasking from our repertoire

Switching tasks send us down a rabbit hole, pulling our attention away from our priority work for much longer than we anticipate. The unfinished morning task could linger in your mind like a mental itch, adversely affecting your performance later on — an affect that psychologists call “attentional residue”

Understanding our compulsion

We like to feel that we’re making progress. But if you think carefully about it, it’s not clear that you’re going to get something out of it. With money, opportunity cost is the fact that every time you spend 3 dollars on a latte, you’re not going to spend it on something else. With time, there is also opportunity cost, but it’s often even harder to understand. E-mail and social networks are great example of random reinforcement.

RECIPE OF DISASTERS

• the world around us tries to tempt us
• we listen to the world around us
• we don’t deal very well with temptation

There are self-control problems and self-control solutions. Self-control problems are all about now vs later. As we invent new technologies, we also invent new ways to kill ourselves: obesity, smoking, texting and driving; all of those are self-control problems. Self-control solutions are all the things we try in order to get ourselves behave better. We think that if we pay a lot of money to join the gym, we will feel guilty and we will keep going.

Ego depletion: what happens throughout the day as we resist temptation over and over.

Learning to create amidst chaos

Conditions to produce one’s craft are rarely ideal, and waiting for everything to be perfect is almost always an exercise in procrastination.

POSITIVE DISTRACTION

Set a timer and race the clock to complete a task. Tie unrelated rewards to accomplishments — get a drink from the break room or log on to social media for three minutes after reaching a milestone. Write down every invading and negatively distracting thought and schedule a ten minute review session later in the day to focus on these anxieties and lay them to the rest.

SELF-CONTROL

Self-control is not genetic/fixed, but rather a skill one can develop and improve with practice. Once the new habit is ingrained and can be completed without much effort or thought, that energy can then be turned to other activities requiring more self-control.

MINDFUL VS MINDLESS WORK

Every person has a different length of time he or she can work before productivity and efficiency begin to decline and this length can also shift over the course of a day and in a sense you do; any kind of excellence ultimately requires observation, refinement, adaptation, and endurance.

Turning in to you

RENEW YOUR INTEREST IN YOURSELF

What I learned during my solo experience was that my thinking — my creativity and imagination — reached a new velocity as soon as I unplugged. When you tune in the moment, you begin to recognize the world around you and the true potential of your own mind.

PRESERVE UNSTRUCTURED TIME

Preserving pockets of time to unplug — perhaps a couple of hours in the morning a few days a week — can be transformative.

OPEN YOURSELF TO SERENDIPITY

When you value the power of serendipity, you start noticing it at work right away. Try leaving the smartphone in your pocket the next time you’re in line or in a crowd. Notice one source of unexpected value on every such occasion. Develop the discipline to allow for serendipity.

PRIORITIZE BEING PRESENT

Be aware of the cost of constant connection. Recognize when you’re tuning in to the stream for the wrong reasons. Create windows of non-stimulation in your day. Listen to your gut as much as you listen to others. Stay open to the possibilities of serendipity.

It’s easy to blame the tools, but the real problem is us.

Making e-mail matter

To master your e-mail:

• Label your e-mails for faster retrieval
• Set up rules so that your e-mail can sort itself
• Archive all of your e-mails so that you can focus
• Color code your e-mail, for visual cues to priority
• Use a reminder tool so that important e-mail chains resurface
• Convert e-mail into tasks, so that nothing slips though the cracks
• Track e-mail, so you can see when / where it gets read
• Create e-mail templates so that you can rapidly send common messages
• Unsubscribe from excess newsletters frequently
• Limit you e-mails to five sentences or less
• Use a social plug-in so that you can see the faces and facts behind your e-mails

TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR INBOX

• Know your complex goals
• Connect the dots
• Let things go

Using social media mindfully

LOGGING ON WITH INTENTION

We may have been procrastinating on looking for a distraction, or feeling angry, annoyed, or frustated and seeking to escape that feeling. Talking abuot ourselves also triggers the reward center of our brains, making it even more compelling to narrate our daily activites.

BECOMING AWARE

PURPOSE, ESTEEM, AND MEANINGFUL CONNECTION

Training your mind to be ready for insight

The most successful creative minds consistently lay the ground work for ideas to germinate and evolve

DISENGAGEMENT, WANDERING, AND REST

LIMITATIONS AND CONSTRAINTS

PHYSICAL POISE AND CLAM

Exercise sharpens brain activity, reports Newsweek:”Almost every dimension of cognition improves from thirty minutes of aerobic exercise, and creativity is no exception”. The type of exercise doesn’t matter, and the boost lasts for at least two hours afterward. Regular sleep doesn’t hurt. A daily meditation practice.

Tracking your brain into creativity

If you want to come up with a new idea, the first thing you can always do is think of something that you did before or something that you’ve seen before. If you don’t put those things into your calendar and stand by that time, it’s never going to get done.

Letting go of perfectionism

I can’t be a perfectionist because nothing I do is ever perfect, was my not-so-self-aware response when one of my mentors suggested that I might have perfectionist tendencies.

Ironically, perfectionism can also inhibit your ability to reach your full potential. If you refuse to put yourself in a situation where you might give an imperfect performance, you’ll prevent yourself from receiving the proper feedback, input, and direction necessary for additional growth. The creative perfectionist approach can help you identify if perfectionism stands in the way of your progress. The creative pragmatist approach demonstrates a more effective way to proceed.

STUCK AT THE START

I set aside time to get started on one part of the process. When I get to that time, regardless of whether I feel like doing the work or whether, it seems like the most urgent priority at the moment, I get started on what I can do now. I understand that the first stage of working on the piece is messy and that the project inevitably will take longer and have more complexity than I initially anticipate. I have time to adapt and adjust my plans and still meet my goals and create good work.

LOST IN THE MIDDLE

I define the meaningful and deliverables and then start to clarify the intermediate steps to create them. Bu “time” I mean both number of weeks and number of hours during those weeks to move this project forward. Then I allocate my time budget to the incremental steps, weighted by the reality of minimum time that it takes to complete the elements and also by the importance of that element to the overall success of the project. I push myself to keep pace with the goals I’ve set, producing good enough work within the time I have to spend and giving myself permission to circle back If I still additional hours at the end. This will ensure that I don’t over-invest in less important items and then botch the finish.

REFUSAL TO FINISH

I define “finished” as having at least met the minimum requirements for the piece and as knowing that I’ve done the best I could given the time and resources allocated to the project. Saying something is complete doesn’t mean that it can’t be improved upon or elaborated on the future. It just means that I can submit it and move on to other work

DREAD OF FEEDBACK

I appreciate feedback because it helps to test and refine my work. If I never open myself up to others insights, I might miss out on something really wonderful. My work is improved and y world is expanded through the input of others.

Getting unstuck

First, if you’re wrestling with a creative block, it’s a great reminder that event the stars get stuck.

Second, it shows that the solution can be surprisingly straightforward once you understand that the problem correctly.

The most common types of creative block

1. Inspiration drought
   Relax or apply yourself a completely different type of project. Even a short break can work wonders when you’re running low on inspiration.
2. Emotional barrier
3. Mixed motivation
   When you’re focused on intrinsic motivations — such as your fascination with the material or the sheer pleasure you take in creating it — that you do your best work.
4. Personal problems
   Don’t beat yourself up if you’re not on fire creatively every day, give yourself credit if you show up for work and make even a small amount of progress. When you put down your tools for the day, you may even see your personal situation with a fresh eye.
5. Poverty
   Make a virtue of necessity and set yourself the creative challenge of achieving as much as possible with what you have.
6. Presentation problems
   If you’ve spent years plugging away with a minuscule audience or client list, you may start to wonder why you bother. You may not see yourself as a natural marketer, but sometimes a few tweaks to your presentation can make a huge difference to your impact and the rewards you reap which in turn can replenish your enthusiasm for your work. This is where creativity blends into communication skills. You need to understand and influence the right people. If you want to succeed, you need to communicate. Show me a creative who’s never suffered a setback or a bad review, and you won’t be pointing a superstar.

Key Takeaways

• Practice unnecessary creation
• Wonder lonely a s a doud
• Define “finished” from the start
• Don’t go on autopilot
• Search for the source
• Love your limitations

How pro can you go?

At the amateur level, the only skills we possess are those of dropping the ball, flaking out, panicking at opportunities, over-aggressively asserting our “rights”, and in general getting in our way. When we turn pro, all that changes. Stage one is simply being able to sit down and work, if only for a single hour. The next stage is being able to repeat that single hour. What we’re doing in fact is learning how to manage our emotions, control our impolse to self-sabotage, and keep on truckin’ in the face of adversity. Stage three is crossing the finish line. Starting at “A” is easy. But can we make it all the way to “Z”? Can we type THE END and actually have something in between that stands up?

That force never goes away. In fact, it becomes more protean and more cunning as we advance through the levels of professionalism. A professional is someone who can keep working at a high level of effort and ethics, no matter what is going on — for good or ill — around him or inside him. A professional shows up every day. A professional plays hurt. A professional takes neither success nor failure personally. A pro gets younger and more innocent as he or she ascends though the levels. It’s a paradox. The practice get simplers and less self — oriented over time. We rise through the levels of professionalism by a process of surrender. We surrender to our gift, whatever that may be. We give ourselves up to the goddess and to the process.