Do less, do well.

The power of doing less

I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with the idea that I was blogging, working, meeting friends, not able to workout, and then blogging again and again and again. I was unable to sleep during the time. Moreover, I was reacting to everything that was happening around me. I would react if someone said something to me. I didn't have a reading block and would read at any time of the day. I would write at anytime of the day. A total loss of structure in the moment. This is when I came across the power of staying silent and doing less. I also read Cal Newport's slow productivity during the time to recognize that slow and steady was still better than doing too many things. I recognize that during the time I do a lot lesser things, I became focused at everything. The structure just came in. It became a way of life. 

An interesting case study comes from Leonardo Da Vinci. While one might think that Leonardo Da Vinci would be doing multiple pieces of art at a time, Da Vinci took around 4 years to complete one project called the Mona Lisa. The idea of producing work that comes slowly, but generates quite a lot of impact was a think that he applied. He had periods of slowness in the sense that he would simply chill during that time. Followed by times of intense focus. It's argued that people who work slowly, and then produce a work within 1 year or more do have a better quality. Even Aamir Khan was one of those guys, who would do one film at a time. But when he does that one film, he would just focus on that one single project. He would enjoy that thoroughly before moving on to the next. These words give us an insight that while doing more is quite a tempting alternative, but true joy is when one does less work. 

Multitasking:

Research has shown that doing multiple things at one time will wander our attention to something else. Especially in activities that require more creativity. Imagine you are doing some sort of complex activity. Like solving a calculus problem. Now at the same time if you are trying to text, or if your boss pings you, you won't be able to focus well on the problem and you would not get the sort of creative output you are looking for. Because once your mind gets distracted, it takes time for it to come back to the task that you are doing. So the context switching is actually a killer of productivity. 

Thinking:

While one aspect is multitasking, the other is thinking. Thinking is also needs quite moments. These quite moments make you feel good. I remember Einstein had said one thing, "If you give me a problem, I will try and spend 80% of the time thinking about the problem and 20% of the time actually solving the problem". Thinking is quite an abstract notion. It's just you and your mind. No one has actually taught us the way of thinking. Let's say you see the tree. How do you think about the tree? Leaves, Stem, Roots, Fruits, etc. Now these are the subparts of the tree. You water the plant daily for it to become a tree. Similarly, becoming an expert at something means you water that plant daily. If you want to become an expert in AI. Don't think of it like a 3 month thing. Think of it like a life style. The fact that you learn about AI every day for 1 or 2 hours. That's a lifestyle. Do the hard things again and again. Water the plant but start somewhere. 

Connection of ideas: 

A lot of creativity is about connecting multiple ideas. For an example, what if you create a productivity system that can combine the idea of cal newport and david allen. Have a time block, but while you have the timeblock, write the outcome of the time block and then a few next actions on the time block. That's it. Now you know you can use both of these techniques. Moreover, don't do a context switch while working on a particular idea. What if you create something with David Allen, Stephen Covey and Cal Newport. Divide your activities in 4 quadrants like stephen covey, important and urgent, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, not urgent and not important. Now give time blocks to each activities and put them in your calendar. Make sure most of your time is being spent in the important but not urgent activities. The point is that you can use your imagination to connect multiple ideas together. 

Stress and overwhelm: 

When you are not focused, it's quite possible that it will create stress and overwhelm in your life. I have heard Jeff Bezos speak about this, "Stress comes by not taking action on activities that you have some control over.". Play the long game. Your idea and perspective completely shifts when you start playing the long game. Its not about what you accomplish today, it's about what you accomplish within the next 10 years and that's going to be important. So its all about zooming out your life and seeing it from the lens of taking the long run. 

Read the experts, talk to the experts and learn them: 

Let's say you're field is of computer science and software engineering. Go to chatgpt and ask, who are the top 10 software engineers in the world: 

You can research about their lives, find out patterns and apply them to your life. This way you will find more of the patterns of how they run their lives. I mean they all have done something incredible in their lives. I am interested typically in how they have achieved their lives. 

Here the point is that you should read about the experts all the time. This is the way you will be gaining insight on what people generally do. Go for it. 

Focus makes you happy in life

This is my personal take. Whenever I find my routines working well, I realise that I am happier in life. Yes, there are times when I feel like the relationship aspect of life does not work as well, however, it's always a great time when you are focused. Focus is about silence and not talking to anyone. In the stillness you will find so many answers that you didn't think would find you. Focus means to blur everything else. It's like how camera lens focus works, it blurs everything else and helps you focus on what matters. Focus gives you happiness and satisfaction that you have achieved something in life. That's the life of focus. The more you dedicate yourself to a particular task, the happier you will feel in general. 

Practical tips: 

Now one thing you should understand is that focus is a limited resource. You can only do so much in a day. If you keep your focus for more than a certain threshold things breakdown and you wouldn't be able to keep it sustainable. So the way to track focus is that you should be focused for a minimum of 2 hours and a maximum of 4 hours. That's a great way to strike a balance. When you are focused on a single task and a single task only, just do that. If you are writing. Just write. If you are reading, just read. No need to keep switching back and forth because that also takes some mental energy. I believe that writing, reading, gyming, all of these things require focus. Even in swimming you need focus and energy. So the way you define productivity = amount of focus * time. If you spend 10 hrs with 0.1 focus you complete 1 unit of work and if you focus properly, with 1 and 1 hr then also you complete 1 unit of work. Moreover, the work that you completed through focus will be more quality rather than just quantity and you will be satisfied about the work that you just did. So remember to focus for one hour and the moment you see 5:30 step out of the work. Now you can do whatever the hell you want because you were focused till 5:30. That's a way to cultivate a great life. 

I am still bolding this out: Don't focus more than 4 hours and less than 2 hours. It's tempting to do that but the moment you do that, you will lose consistency. So consistency is equally as important as focus. 

Anything in excess is never good. 

Focus gives competence, and competence gives courage: 

So when you are focused, it certainly gives you some sort of competence. You understand the topic in more depth when you read for 1 hr, rather than reading for 20 minutes, then talking to a friend and getting back to reading again. My point here is that it's this depth that will give you more knowledge and competence in life. The more competent you are, the more you will find yourself focusing well. The more focused you are, you will become more competent too. This competence that you have, will give you the courage to speak in meetings, host conferences and do really meaningful work. But just make sure you don't overdo the focus parts in your life.

Focus in different areas of life

While one can say easily that you can focus on email for the 1 hr. Then you can focus on learning react for one hour and then take a break. Then you can focus on learning spanish for one hour. Then you can focus on learning music for one hour. My question is how do you focus on relationships there. Let's apply the basic concepts there. Firstly, it can't be more than one hour without a break. You got to focus on one hour at a time and that's the principle that remains the same. Now when it comes to relationships, the distraction can be jealousy, work, not being present, thinking too much of what your partner thinks of you, and not giving good quality attention. What's important here is good quality attention, not just attention for one day. Attention that's given with great depth and quality. That's what is required out here. Even out here, don't overdo it. That will kill the consistency. Focus on having quality time not just the quantity of time. Know that focus makes you a better person in life, although it's hard. It's important to focus. 

Use calling instead of texting. 

Listen more

Understand them

Get to know them

Laugh at yourself

Tell them you will be there when needed

It's all noise

When you live life with focus, you will know everything else is a noise. When you are focused at work, you will know those teams messages is a noise. When you are learning react, you would know trying to master everything at once is a noise. You have to learn to water the plants daily and go slow. 

Go slow because that's what matters in life. Life is not about competing but being. Life is eliminating the noise again and again. What's stopping you from approaching your dream girl, noise. What's stopping you from achieving your goals and visions, noise. What's stopping you from learning anything new, noise. Now imagine what you could accomplish in one year without noise in your life. No distractions. No people distractions. No work distractions. Just stillness. Pure stillness. Exactly what you want in life. I challenge you and dare you to live a life without noise and clutter. See where you can take your life too. Have your goals written down and make sure you are progressing on them daily. Have gym goals, have fitness goals, have work goals, have relationship goals. All of them will make you the person that you are in the long run. Focus on all of the important things and don't look anywhere else. That's focus. Once you have focus in life, no one can stop you. Make life of focus a priority today and inorder to make it sustainable use your thoughts and mind to limit the amount of focus per day. Too much of something is destructive.

Make it magical

Life when lived without distractions is magical and effortless. You will love yourself more. You will thank yourself more. It's not for the current you, but the future you who will say wow. Thank you for making those tough decisions in life. After all, you want to be happy and focus is happiness in practice. See the magic.

Goals :

1. Promotion in next 3 months. 

2. Have 100 posts on instagram in the next 3 months with quality.

3. Make more girls as friends and understand feminine nature well.