How to write consistently and get things done?
Hey friends,
The fervor and enthusiasm of new year would have subsided by now and we all would be back to our routine. It takes just a few days for us to realize that the change of dates on calendar does not really change our life. In order to bring a change, we must put in efforts consistently. But in order to change our life it is essential to identify things that are worth doing for. It is also important to focus on things that matter in long term rather than things that give us temporary satisfaction.
I’m sure a lot of you would have made a resolution for this year to become better. Some of you would have also made a commitment to write daily. In today’s newsletter we will be talking about how to maintain a consistent writing habit and how to focus on our long term goals.
How to Maintain Consistency in Writing Process?
When I started blogging in 2012, I often struggled with writing consistency. The primary reason for this was that I used to wait for a unique idea to come to my mind. I wanted to write on unique topics and I wanted to write it in the best manner possible. This led to inconsistency and eventually I abandoned blogging.
It took some time for me to understand that unique idea is not essential for us to start writing. Everything that needs to be said is already said by someone in the world. Once we understand this, the first hurdle to writing consistently will be overcome.
The second hurdle is that we often fall short of topics to write about. We live in exciting times, there is so much happening around us and we get to know about it within minutes through internet. There are numerous things that we can write about. In fact, we can start by writing about our own life. Journaling is the best way to exercise our writing muscle. There is no one to judge us on our writing there.
A simple mindset shift that I need to write everyday, rather than thinking that I need to find a topic to write everyday will make writing consistently easier for us. Write everyday. Write even if you think it will be beneficial for even a single person in the world.
Eisenhower’s Matrix to Identify Task Interference
For the beginners, Eisenhower’s matrix is a task management tool that helps us organize and prioritize tasks by urgency and importance.
We divide your tasks into four boxes based on the tasks we need to do first, the tasks we will schedule for later, the tasks we will delegate, and the tasks we will delete.
Urgent versus Important Task Conflict
Researchers found that often our attention is drawn to time-sensitive tasks over tasks that are less urgent, even when the less urgent task offers greater rewards.
Whenever our affairs seem to be in crisis, we are almost compelled to give our first attention to the urgent present rather than to the important future.
This explains that whenever our affairs seem to be in crisis we often give importance to urgent tasks on cost of an important task. Important activities are often overshadowed by urgent activities.
Not Urgent and Not Important Tasks as Distractions
The not urgent and not important things can be attractive distractions because they provide immediate gratification or are fun. These activities also have capacity to present with false urgency if we let them constantly interrupt us.
Things I Learned in 2023
It was an year when I embraced social media. I started a personal website which was one of my goals for the years. You can read more about how I built my website as a beginner here. I also embraced social media and become active on X (formerly Twitter). However, the most significant change in my personality was that I started believing in getting things done. The seeds of this was sown when I joined Amit Varma’s course Art of Clear Writing. I understood the tradeoff between getting things right and getting it done. This was the theme that I found in almost all creator’s method of working. They believe in getting things done. In psychology this is called having an action-bias. Once we develop an action-bias mindset it becomes easier for us to bring things to conclusion rather than being stuck at one thing due to one tiny obstacle.
In the upcoming year, I want to shed the imposter syndrome that has been preventing my from getting my self out there. I intend to start on YouTube and just continue the channel without any thoughts about subscribers or what people around me will think about it.
Interesting Article of the Week
The world must learn from “karoshi,” Japan’s overwork epidemic — before it’s too late
PS: Please do reply to this email if you have anything to add / any questions. I enjoy replying to comments/emails from the readers.
PPS: Please hit the <reply> button and let me know what you thought of this email. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what was useful about it and what could be changed.
Your Friend,
Rohit Yadav