Welcome back you sweetest potatoes.
A few weeks ago I made a video on the
single most important habit that helped me change the way I view habits all together: by creating a
system instead of setting hard goals. As a few of you suggested, I'd like to expand on the point
of how to create your own system for optimal productivity, peace, and calm. Here's a quick
refresher of the difference between systems and goals. In Scott Adams' book "How to Fail at Almost
Everything and Still Win Big", he explains that a goal is a specific objective that you
either achieve or don't sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that
achieves your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, it's a system. If you're
waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it's a goal. As explained and James Clear's "Atomic Habits",
a goal is a result you want to achieve, a system is a process that leads you to those results.
To take it a step further, think of it this way: systems vs. goals is like journey versus destination, practice
versus performance, long-term versus short-term. All that being said, goals are still great and amazing
starting points and North stars for building out your systems and habits. We'll go over how to do
this in a hot second. An example of system versus goals that we're all too familiar with is keeping
a tidy space. In the previous video I talked about how if you have an untidy space (which I always do)
you'd set a goal to clean your place a once every one or two weeks. Once you accomplish this goal
the result you get is a clean room... Temporarily, until it's messy again because your habits of
not putting things back where they belong haven't changed. The outcome or output will always be the
same because the system or input didn't change. So, in today's video we'll go over how to change our
outputs by changing our system of inputs in four steps, and how I'm setting up my system
of keeping my space tidy and organized for the long run.
There are always opportunities to learn and improve on this beautiful journey that is our life.
But in order to do so, we need to first reflect on where we currently are and where we ultimately want to go.
Doing this will help you gain a clearer understanding of where you want to be,
what you want to achieve, and most importantly, why you're doing anything in the first place.
A great framework to try is the current state versus desired state gap analysis.
It's very similar to Aileen from Lavendaire's current "me versus future me" exercise that I'll link down below.
First, take a look at your current situation. Ask yourself:
"How am I currently living my life right now? How am I feeling? Am I content? Why or why not?"
"How am I spending my time? Who am I surrounding myself with? What kind of thoughts are occupying my mental capacity?"
"What's currently driving me?" There's many, many questions that you guys can ask yourself about the
different pillars of your life, from relationships to work to school to health to spirituality- anything.
Once you have a good understanding of where you currently are, think about your desired
situation by answering the same questions above. "In an ideal world, how would I be living my life?"
And if you want to take this section to the next level you can continue chipping away at this by
asking yourself, "Why do I have this desired state? What is it rooted in? Is it essential? Are these
my values? Does it align with what I truly want?" And you can refine and iterate and keep asking
yourself this question until you get the most satisfactory answer for your desired state.
Once you've identified your current state as well as your desired state, it's time to look at the gap
between these two states. Why does it exist and why do you want to close it? For this exercise you can
go as broad and macro as setting up a system for your life, or go as a narrow and micro as setting
up a system for a very very specific aspect of your life. So for me the current state of my space
has been perpetually messy. I'm constantly bringing home skincare from the office and scattering it
all over my apartment, from the dining table to my kitchen counter, to my bedroom table to all over
my sink. Over time this has grown to become a very accurate reflection of my mental state: scattered
and unstructured. So what is my desired state? My desired state is to keep a clean and tidy space
where I won't have to constantly spend weekends or nighttime picking up after myself, feeling
frustrated and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff and things that I have lying around my apartment.
I like to be able to come home to an organized and clutter-free home after a
long day at the office so that I can go straight into unplugging, unwinding, and relaxing, without
feeling anxious over a laundry list of chores that I still have to do. Now why does this gap currently
exist between current and desired? Because I keep telling myself I don't have time. It hasn't been a
priority and I don't have a good system in place. Number one, I have too many things. Number two,
I don't have a home for all of my things. And number three, although I've gotten much better at putting
things back where they belong, whenever I get tired piles of things to start accumulating and it just
kind of never ends from there... So, why do I want to close this gap? To save time and get that mental
clarity that comes from a tidy and well organized space.
To summarize the importance of identifying your 'why',
having a solid 'why' and being grounded in your North Star will help you stay motivated and focused.
This means your 'why' needs to be powerful and compelling enough to you so that it can keep you on track.
Even when it's cloudy out, even when it's raining out, even when you're lost in a forest,
your North Star should be shining bright.
Now that we've identified where we are and where we want to go,
we can start working backwards to figure out how we can get from our current state to our desired state.
How can I close the gap between my current state of being messier than I like, and my
desired state of keeping my space clean and tidy throughout the week? If I'm being honest this one's
pretty straightforward. I clean my space, and more specifically I come up with a system to clean my
space, which we'll get into in the next section. So, clearly identifying the 'why' will help with defining
the 'how', which will help you execute your 'what', and this is from "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek.
One of my favorite books of all time. All right- so we've identified our current and desired state and
defined how we can bridge the gap between the two states, now it's time to come up with the plan of
action and get to the doing. What will you have to do in order to achieve the desired state? What are
the actionable steps you can take? Where can you make adjustments, and what small daily incremental
changes can you commit to? To tackle having too much stuff my 'what' would be making time, sitting
down, pulling everything out, taking an inventory of all of my stuff, keeping what I need, tossing
what's expired, giving away what I don't need, and bringing extra things that I have to the office.
As for creating a home for all of my things, I'd have to first find a home for all of said things
that I decide to keep so that I can implement my two-minute rule throughout the day every single
day and get in a better habit of putting things back where they belong on the spot instead of
putting it off until the weekend, which turns in to the rest of the month, which turns in to the rest
of the year. So overall in life, executing your 'what' is pivotal because if we're constantly dreaming in
the clouds nothing will actually get done. So it's all about thinking less, doing more.
Now that we have a pretty solid system in place, it's time to start assessing, adjusting, and enjoying the
process. Don't be afraid to take a step back and make changes to your system if you need. Celebrate
the small wins and remember that your systems and your habits are unique to you. Build systems because
you want to build them not because you see people around you building them. Choose habits that best
suit you and your needs, not what is currently trending and popular being propagated by online
potatoes like me. If you'd like to lose a few pounds, create a system where you limit sugar
intake, opt for stairs over escalators, add more veggies to your diet, or find some activity you genuinely
enjoy doing. For example if you don't like running you can try swimming. If you don't like swimming
or running and try rock climbing. Or if you don't like any of the above you can try stairmasters or
pilates or yoga- there's so many things we can do nowadays that can help us sweat a little
more throughout the day. Even just opting to walk more over sitting on your desk.
If you'd like to deepen your relationship with your friends, you can create a system where you leave your phone out of
sight during meals. You can actively listen during conversations and follow up with asking deep and
meaningful and great questions. If you like to be more calm and at peace, create a system where
you write down three things you're grateful for every morning. Spend five minutes meditating daily
or simply breathe more throughout the day. I think breathing - the act of breathing - is such an underrated thing.
And lastly if you like to become a lifelong learner, create a system where you set aside ten
minutes a day to read, commit to learning something new every day on platforms like Skillshare, or
simply follow your curiosity and google away. Whenever you're wondering allow yourself time
to wonder because I remember reading an article recently that we don't wonder anymore because
things like Google exist, but I also feel like it's important to chase your curiosity and to find out
the ponderings that you have in your head. So let yourself wonder, have these thoughts, and then you can Google
to figure out why the world works the way it works, or why certain animals look a certain way, or how, I don't know...
Yeah, mkay.
So quoting James Clear, author of "Atomic Habits", remember:
"The purpose of setting goals is to win the game, the purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game."
"True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It's not about any single accomplishment, it's about
this cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to
the process that will determine your progress." So commit to the process, identify your 'why' to find
your 'how', execute your 'what', and continually assess and adjust as you go along this wonderful journey.
Thank you so much the Skillshare for sponsoring this video. Skillshare is an online learning
community offering thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people like you (if you're
watching this, that's you) on topics including illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing,
and so much more. Most classes are under 60 minutes with short lessons to fit any schedule so if you
want to do 10 minutes a day within a week you can finish a class. My favorite courses are "Drawing as
Self Discovery" with Mari Andrews, who's an all-around amazing and crazy inspirational human.
I've fallen in love with her blurbs and doodles on Instagram ever since I took her course.
There's also "Digital Illustrative Typography" with Jennet Liaw, she's a dear friend of mine and one of the
most creative and boss humans I know. She inspired me to get an iPad and start playing around with
Adobe Fresco, which is what you guys will see throughout this video, all the doodles is made from this.
"Personal Branding" with Kate Aarons is also really really amazing. This class inspired me to
create this video all about how I'm approaching my personal brand refresh. If this is something you're
interested in, an annual subscription to Skillshare is less than ten dollars a month, and the first 500
people to click the link in the description will get a two month free trial of premium membership
so you can explore your creativity and get to becoming a lifelong learner.
and with that thank you guys so much for joining me, here's a voice hug, as always. <3
and I will see you next week. Hehe. Kay bye!