when it comes to productivity we spend
so much time focused on the work it's
about managing tasks striking through
to-do lists organizing our calendars
sending emails and shipping projects
once we dial in our work habits and
catch some momentum all we want to do is
ride that wave as long as we possibly
can so we work longer hours cram as much
as we can into our days and continue to
drive towards our goals the problem with
that approach is that if left unchecked
we will continue to work well beyond the
point of what's good for us we become
oblivious to the damage that we're doing
to our mental health and our own
well-being and eventually to our
long-term productivity if we truly want
to be productive for years on end and
not just for short blips at a time
it requires finding balance quite simply
you have the self-awareness to slow down
or you eventually completely burn out it
might help to think about it in terms of
a video game we're all characters each
of us with our own strengths and
weaknesses our own unique skills traits
and idiosyncrasies as you go through
your day you use up your energy on tasks
like studying check the email and taking
out the garbage some of these tasks are
more draining the course there are
certain ways that you can boost your
energy during the day but as the Sun
begins to set and you work past 8 9 or
10 hours your energy levels eventually
tap out and at that point there's no
amount of coffee that will keep you
going the only thing that will restore
your energy is rest that's simple enough
but when you stretch out this process
for days and then for weeks
when you pack each day with as much as
you possibly can focusing on increasing
your productivity above all else when
you ignore a proper rest then you will
fail to replenish your entire energy
reserves just like a battery that loses
its full charge over time you will only
reach say 8090 percent of your potential
energy and the more you grind yourself
down the lower that threshold becomes
now I don't think that there's anything
wrong with pushing yourself really
really hard I know that I often do that
with my own work there's this advice
that I got from my friend and director
Cole Wallace sir he said sometimes you
have to push yourself across the line to
find out where it is and I find that to
be so true but if you continue to push
yourself across the line time and time
again over and over again then you're an
idiot and don't feel bad because I
certainly put myself in that category
I've made that mistake so many times
until I realize that I needed to start
taking rest just as seriously in my
productivity as anything else as my
friends at wandering aimed Philly summed
it up a day jam-packed with tasks can be
just as productive as a day of rest when
it comes to incorporating rest into your
life I found that you need to be really
proactive and thoughtful about how you
do it and when you think about it there
are really only three ways that we can
accomplish this create boundaries for
your days for your weeks and for your
months when it comes to your daily
boundaries you might set restrictions on
what time you begin and end work each
day yes you could continue to work till
midnight night after night but that will
eventually catch up with you when you
accept that there's only so much you can
do in a day and you understand that real
progress takes time you can begin to
bring balance into your days for weekly
boundaries it's really important to
respect the weekend it's so easy to tell
yourself I'm just gonna do a little bit
of writing on Saturday I'm just gonna
check a few emails on Sunday night but
eventually that will turn into a seven
day workweek there's no quicker way to
burnout and no quicker way to ruin your
passion than by not giving yourself the
proper time to recharge each week and
finally you can set monthly boundaries
look at how you can create boundaries
and incorporate extended rest on a
monthly or bimonthly basis this is one
of the most overlooked because it's not
naturally baked into our typical
routines most of us work 9:00 to 5:00
during the day and have weekends off not
many of us take the time to truly take a
step back from our lives and
reset County ports 2016 book deep work
made the compelling case that the most
valuable skill in our economy is how
deep undistracted work will allow you to
gain focus and get more done to
piggyback along with the title of cows
book I think there's something else that
many of us miss especially those of us
deeply entrenched in the productivity
world and that's something that I
started calling a deep break so similar
to Cal Newports deep work instead of
doing that work you're getting away in
escaping for at least four days to a
remote location to detach from
everything from work from your life from
your problems and your troubles this
isn't the kind of break that includes
jumping off boats or wheeling through
the woods non-stop travel plans and
chasing waterfalls I repeat don't go
chasing waterfalls now this year more
than any other year in the past I've
realized just how important these deep
breaks are because for one at the
beginning of the year we just couldn't
take any breaks because travel was was
restricted we had to stay at home and
also because with that with staying at
home all the time with trying to
distract myself from everything that's
been going on I just poured myself into
my work and I worked harder than ever
before and without that deep break again
you're either gonna have that
self-awareness to slow down or you're
gonna face burnout and so once the
restriction started to lighten up I knew
that net and I needed to take a break
and that's exactly what we did and
whenever we go on these breaks we have
some rules that we set for ourselves to
make sure that we truly do detach the
first rule is get away from your home
office and city I've lived between
Philadelphia New York City and Los
Angeles for the better part of the past
twelve years I love living in cities but
I also often feel deprived of nature so
getting out of the city and away from
the nonstop busyness within it helps to
calm my nervous system the second rule
is to limit your screen time apart from
podcasts and my Kindle I do not use any
other screens while I'm away when it
comes to the content I don't like to
listen or read about current events with
my most recent trip I start to reading
nonfiction books and listening to
history podcast
and the third rule keep your work at
home your ego tricks you into the
importance of your work and it makes you
feel like you're gonna miss out on
something like you need to continue to
work or eventually you'll fall back into
those old patterns of being lazy
procrastinating and not doing anything
which is truly terrifying for somebody
who used to struggle so much with
getting to work with these trips your
job is to shut it down and do absolutely
nothing so having just got back from one
of these trips just a couple days ago I
can confirm that it is truly so helpful
to get away from everything and for so
many reasons I found that it allows me
to get perspective it allows me to step
back from you know you've got these
blinders on when you're working
sometimes and you're so focused on these
small mundane tasks just that date like
for me it's like the daily editing the
daily writing it's the emails there's
all these things that we feel like we
have to do when you step back you get
perspective you realize what's actually
truly important and what are the really
big things that you need to be focusing
on the things that are working the
things that are not working really I
found myself coming back to work this
week with so much more clarity and focus
and I definitely wouldn't have had that
I feel so much more recharged I feel
like my battery to go back to that video
game metaphor I feel like my battery is
fully charged up and I'm just as excited
more excited about my work than I have
been in months
[Music]
in truth none of us are perfect and I
certainly break many of these rules
whether it's my daily weekly or monthly
boundaries that I set for myself but
when you continue to stay in tune with
yourself when you have that
self-awareness when you know when to hit
the brakes
you'll be able to increase your
productivity more than you realize and
also in my experience you'll enjoy your
work a hell of a lot more so while it's
true that we've all got our own
strengths and weaknesses it's also true
that we can build upon our skills and
learn new ones that's where my sponsor
for this week comes in skill share
you're only as good as the skills that
you invest your time and energy into
mastering and skill share has loads of
classes to get you up to speed in fact
my friend and the author of essentialism
Greg McEwan just released a class called
simple productivity how to accomplish
more with less one of the things that
makes uncommitted odd for people is the
sunk cost bias get this class and tons
of others on productivity creativity and
more for a limited time use the link in
the description to sign up for a two
month free trial of a skill share
Premium Membership after that it's
really affordable with an annual
subscription of less than $10 a month so
last week Matt and I committed to
matching up to ten thousand dollars
worth of your donations to black and
indigenous charities and you came
through in an absolutely huge way
raising over seventeen thousand one
hundred and ninety three dollars which
is absolutely insane but wait cut the
music because when you add your
seventeen thousand one hundred and
ninety three dollars plus our ten
thousand dollar match that brings us to
a total of 27 thousand one hundred and
ninety three dollars which is amazing
but cut the music because I've got one
more add on I reached out to my sponsor
for this week's video skill share and I
asked them if they would also be willing
to match the ten thousand dollars and
they said drumroll please
yes so now we have a total of thirty
seven thousand one hundred and
ninety-three dollars raised for two
amazing charities it really means so
much to me thank you everybody who
contributed Thank You Skillshare for
matching and having our back and thank
you to everybody who contributed in
other ways besides money it really means
the world to me I also want to take this
moment to give a special shout out to
some of the most generous contributions
that came in there were over two hundred
eighty three hundred contributions in
total and a few of them were just super
super generous
I had Slayton Gorge Eve who donated
$1,200 Tevon Cole $1,100
Lauren Wagstaff came in at $800 between
the two charities Shebib sha $500 mic'd
Amazo $500 and Kalina Lomond also
contributed $500 this is just crazy the
amount of money that you guys put up for
a really great cause again it really
means so much to me whether you donated
25 cents or twenty-five hundred dollars
it really just goes a long way and it
also just makes me really proud to be a
part of this community here on YouTube
so thank you