The theme of the week
Rest and slow down.
It’s been 7 days of complete relaxation for me. Okay, I guess the word complete is not appropriate as occasionally I had to go through my email for urgent requests but the total amount working was no more than 40-50 minutes a day. The point is – I’ve been doing my best to rest my mind and get back to work at high speed.
One thing that we often forget is that slowing down and relaxing is not the archenemy of productivity. It is its best ally.
Just like with weightlifting – you need your body to rest and recover to perform at a higher level next time. If you don’t allow your body to recover, your performance suffers. I believe (and have witnessed it with myself) that you need to unwind and take a break from being productive.
HOWEVER, there is a caveat – to recover, you need to be mindful and understand how to recharge properly. You can’t go out, party and drink on the rest days. You need proper food and sleep. The same principle applies to your work. Binge-watching Netflix and doom scrolling Twitter will bring little to no positive effect on your recovery. More time spent outside, less screen, good food, more sleep, and books.
Random thoughts
Meditation does work. You just need to stick with it long enough. Although the results are not visible while you are practicing it, if you stop for more than a week you will understand. Just dedicate 10 minutes a day and you will not regret it.
Everyone is curious about something. You need to follow your curiosity/passion. The internet is so large, that there will be people with that same passion to form an audience. That is the creator economy
Cool things I found
PrinciplesYou – a very useful personality test that will take you between 15-20 minutes. The results are insightful and more than actionable. It is created by two very respectful and successful people in my opinion Ray Dalio and Adam Grant. What is fascinating is that you can add friends and compare your results. The website gives ideas on how you can improve the communication and collaboration between you two.
The Technium: 99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice – just read them and try to reflect and apply as much of those as possible. Written by no other but Kevin Kelly.