Work Smarter

I have this theory about my day.

From a productivity standpoint, I win or lose it in an instant. I wake up immediately, or I don’t.

It’s binary. There is no “hit snooze once and see what happens” option.

The earlier I get started, the better. In the morning there are no distractions and I get my best work done. Mark Twain says you should eat a frog first thing in the morning so that nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day. For me, that frog is waking up itself. Once that’s done, the magic starts to happen.

It’s all downhill from there. But I have to control my first decision of the day (wake up or sleep on) to get to that point. So it’s on me.

“Space I can recover. Time, never.”

-Napoleon Bonaparte

Mel Robbins’ The 5 Second Rule was a nice refresher for me on the subject of waking up. I’ve heard most of the ideas in the book before, but it was good to review. The main thing I took from it is you can’t control how you feel, but you can always control how you act. If I start moving the moment the clock rings in the morning I’ll find myself in good shape.

Here’s Robbins basic concept in another form:

“You are only entitled to the action, never to its fruits.”

-Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 47

So much of success for creatives can be attributed to waking up and sitting down at a desk. That’s an action we can all control.

Coffee helps.

It’s fine to be a visionary, as long as it’s not a self-appointed title. If it is, I’d argue that your vision is quite limited. I saw this fantastic design from Gaping Void recently on the subject and thought I’d share it. Way too many people fall victim to their own ego, especially online.

We used to identify with our job. I’m a dentist, a doctor, an artist. As the world went online, that began to change. It feels like we’re in a world with more voices, and more competition, so more and more people are feeling insecure. Thus the need to self-identify as a “dreamer”.

If I could give one piece of advice on this subject, it would be to under sell and over deliver. This Ryan Holiday’s article on Thought Catalog about faking it ’til you make it continues to be one of the best things I’ve read on the subject. It’s a must-read.

What does Instagram do for you? Unless you’re some sort of “influencer” getting paid to post, would you say it’s making your life better?

I like Instagram as a creative outlet, but I’m not sure browsing the app is a good use of my time.

Apple recently released a new feature in iOS called “screen time”. It tells you how long you stare at your phone (and at particular apps) every day. I was pretty shocked at how much time I was spending on social media, so I started evaluating my usage. A lot of my time was being spent on two platforms.

First: Twitter.

I spend 30 minutes a day on Twitter, and while I do get some value from the platform in the form of news discovery and professional development (mostly by building relationships with others in my industry), 30 minutes is too much. I can accomplish what I need to on Twitter in 5 minutes a day – so no more perusing upon waking in the morning for me.

Second: Instagram.

Again, I like posting photos to Instagram. I feel like it’s a good creative outlet – but I haven’t posted a photo in almost a month. This means that all the time I spent on the platform in the last month was looking at other peoples photos and videos. Not good. I’m consuming, not creating, and that’s not what I want for myself. As I really monitored how I was using the app, I came to the conclusion that my time is better spent elsewhere: learning and creating.

I’m really happy Apple released screen time. It’s been eye-opening for me. I’m only allowing myself to look at Instagram and Twitter once per day now. I’ve moved them to the last screen on my phone, and honestly, I’m not missing them. Five minutes a day on social media is plenty. I feel like I’ve read more, learned more, and gotten more done in the last week than I have in a long time.

 

I’ve been reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius to start off the month of February. I’m almost through it, and book eight offers some great advice for Monday mornings.

When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic – what defines a human being – is to work with others. Even animals know how to sleep.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

For many of us, waking up early sucks. It’s the first challenge of the day, and it can sway your productivity greatly. The phrase, “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed” comes to mind. It might not be the wrong side, it might be that you woke up on your side at the wrong hour.

Jocko Willink, the retired Navy Seal and recipient of both the Silver and Bronze Star for his service in the Iraq war views waking up early as crucial to winning the day. “Don’t think in the morning,” Willink says. “That’s a big mistake that people make. They wake up in the morning, and they start thinking. Just execute the plan. The plan is the alarm clock goes off, you get up.”

I’m not sure that Marcus Aurelius would have agreed about using a “don’t think” approach to getting out of bed, but he certainly would approve of the results. If you want to be successful, separate yourself from the animals: wake up and get to work, whatever your work may be.

I’ve been in the marketing space for almost half a decade now, and one thing that the industry is plagued with is gurus. Business gurus, sales gurus – basically, people promising to bring you and your nonexistent company from $0 in sales to millions in two weeks after they tell you a few secrets.

They’re all full of shit, folks – and I’m amazed at how many people haven’t figured that out. The dude on YouTube who says you can get 4 Lamborghinis by signing up for his 3-day course doesn’t have your best interests at heart. There is absolutely no magic bullet to success. Even the Magic Bullet blender sucked. The thing couldn’t even mix up an omelet, forget mince garlic.

Everyone wants to take the escalator and nobody wants to take the stairs. Everyone wants an instant omelet and no one wants to chop vegetables and crack a few eggs.

Recently, I’ve seen business coaches on Twitter offering courses on how to become business coaches. Business coaching for business coaching! You’ve got to be kidding me. When will this cycle end?

Here’s the best business advice you’ll ever get: work hard. Working hard is the only way to guarantee you’ll be a success. Everything else is just background noise.