hello swedish potatoes are you feeling a
motivated uninspired unproductive or
just a straight up sack of potatoes and
proceeding to be hard on yourself
because you're not motivated not
inspired and not a productive potato two
pieces of good news the first is that
chinese new year or lunar new year is
upon us so the new year technically just
started the second is that discipline is
one of my three words i wanted to focus
on this year while i used to think it
was sheer willpower for me to live this
life i've always wanted to live what if
i told you you're not lazy unmotivated
or unproductive rather we just don't
have the right systems in place it's a
freeing thought because it means we're
not inherently lazy or motivated as some
of us may have thought something i've
definitely thought about myself and i
still do think about myself sometimes
and rather with the right systems and
with the right mindsets we'll be able to
turn our realities around take control
of our lives stick with our habits and
not rely on something as elusive and
fleeting as inspiration and motivation
what i discovered was when we feel we
lack motivation to stick with our habits
we're actually lacking confidence or
feeling like we're not filling the blank
enough lacking purpose lacking systems
which is what we'll be spending most of
this video on setting system rather than
gold really really breaking that down
lacking focus as well as lacking the
proper environment now let's break down
every single one of these five causes of
why we feel
unmotivated this is the last and final
video in our new year reset series and
as with all the previous videos you can
reset any time of year so don't worry if
you're watching this video months after
january to accompany each video there
will be notion worksheets you can
duplicate as well as challenges and
meetups in our online productive potato
community if you're interested
everything will be linked in the
description below without further ado
the first cause of us feeling
unmotivated is good old confidence i
feel like this is a topic that deserves
a video like a dedicated video on its
own to me it really boils down to the
way we feel ourselves and the way we
view our abilities when i think of when
i lack the most confidence it's usually
when i feel like i'm not filling the
blank enough i'm not smart enough i'm
not capable enough i'm not knowledgeable
enough i'm not pretty enough when we
think we're not enough i feel like that
is textbook fixed mindset where we
believe our innate abilities our talents
our intellect all of that is fixed i'm
either good at something or i'm not i'm
either enough or i'm not how many of us
actually goes around thinking we're
enough so obviously our default is just
i'm not enough period on the other side
of the spectrum you have your growth
mindset and growth mindset believes that
our innate abilities can be developed
through putting in the hard work
following our curiosity challenging
ourselves instead of thinking that
you're not enough is thinking okay i may
not be the best at this thing yet but it
is through not knowing that i can grow
and learn and improve as i embark on
this journey and how exciting is that
so in the mindset reset video which is
our second video and the second
worksheet of this series we take our
fixed mindset thoughts and change it
into growth mindset thoughts so if any
of these phrases resonate with you and
if you like to change them into these
phrases check out that video the second
cause of why we may feel unmotivated is
lacking purpose so why is purpose
important we talked about this in last
week's video the two main reasons for
why it's important to have purpose is
the first thing it gives you direction
if you have a very bright
clear
north star of where you're trying to go
if it gets very cloudy if it gets very
cold if it's foggy and you're kind of
lost you'll still be able to see that
north star and it'll still be shining
brightly and you can still follow in
that direction the second thing is that
it gives your life meaning if you choose
what's important to you if you choose
what you value if you choose what
success means to you you'll be able to
measure your life based off of your own
definition of what any of these things
mean so in our previous video for find
my values and set intentions we
identified our values we have
prioritized our values reflected on our
values and we set intentions for our
values and this brings us to the next
point of why sometimes we may feel
unmotivated the lack of systems in our
lives so when we talk about setting
systems rather than goals this doesn't
mean that you shouldn't have goals at
all if anything goals to me very similar
to purpose gives you direction however
if your mind is solely focused on the
goal and only focus on the destination
it becomes a fixed mindset and you're
constantly operating in a failure state
until you reach that goal so every step
of the way fail feel feel fulfilled
because you haven't reached your goal
yet until that moment you finally
reached your goal that's when you're
like ah like i succeeded a quick
refresher on the difference between
systems and goals a goal is a specific
object that you either achieve or don't
sometimes 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 so how do you actually set
systems rather than goals i feel like in
previous videos where i have talked
about systems versus goals i didn't
actually go as in depth as i will in
this video we're gonna use the same
framework as the one i use in the one
habit you need how to set systems rather
than goals it's these four steps the
first is to identify your why or your
values which is what we did already the
second is to find your how the third is
to execute your what and the fourth is
to assess and adjust your systems
accordingly which all fits beautifully
into this notion template worksheet
we've hopefully been working on you can
also just pause this video as we're
going along get a piece of paper and pen
and just follow along as we kind of go
through these questions before we get
started quick shout out to notion for
sponsoring this video they really
created an amazing app where i was able
to make these worksheets including being
able to auto populate a lot of our
answers so if you're not familiar with
notion they're an all-in-one workplace
that's super customizable whether it's
for your personal life or your work life
you can organize literally your whole
life in this app design your dashboard
for your needs and or aesthetics and
create an entire system that works for
you all within this app i'll link a few
videos down below on how i set up my
dashboard including tutorials as well as
how i run my whole team on the app if
you haven't checked out notion at this
point and you are interested you can
sign up using the link in my description
box popping open week four of our
worksheet if you guys have been
following along step one and two should
already be completed step one is to
identify your y we identified our values
which is basically our y's and if you
guys are just tuning in here's the list
of values that we chose from pick up to
five that mean the most to you and five
that you want to work on and so this is
step one
values step two is to define your how
what we did last week was we set
intentions for what we wanted to do with
our values this year these are the
values i want to work on this is what i
want to do more of and this is what i
want to do less of for example i want to
exercise qigong more i want to meditate
more i want to read more and i want to
give myself less excuses and then we
figure out how we're going to get there
this is step 3
of executing your what if you guys need
any examples as you're working through
it feel free to pop this open you're
basically taking your intentions and
you're turning it into actionable steps
of what you can do and how you're gonna
do it i think the most important thing
here is really being as descriptive as
you can about the systems you want to
set the more you can attach a number to
it the more you can attach a time frame
to it the better it'll be for example i
want to read for at least 15 minutes
every day as soon as i get up after i
brush my teeth i'm going to make a cup
of matcha and i'm going to sit down on
this couch and read for at least 15
minutes the more descriptive your system
is the easier it will be for you to turn
it into actionable next steps for you to
implement into your daily life this is
why this next step i think is the most
most most most important for example if
i want to exercise more qigong if i want
to meditate more if i want to read more
how can i actually make that happen
rowena went a bit ham i drew out what i
want my schedule to look like i
basically blocked off first starting
with spirituality the things i wanted to
do
what you can also do and which is what i
also did was i created a weekly habit
tracker i've had a very love-hate
relationship with habit trackers because
there are months where this is helpful
and there are months where it makes me
feel like complete sack of potatoes
because i'm like i'm not doing anything
i'm telling myself to do but i think i'm
at a place in my life right now where i
know this will be constructive and i
actually want to keep myself accountable
another thing is to make in time in your
calendar to actually review your
progress every single week because i
think if we want to be good at anything
if we want to succeed at any system that
we do we need to kind of measure like
okay we're doing well this week we're
lacking we're a little behind this week
what can we do when we're doing well to
keep doing well and what can we do when
we're not doing well to maybe either
change our system or maybe change our
input so that the output can change very
similarly for relationships i wrote down
review upcoming week schedule every
sunday schedule in some time for friends
block off time for spontaneous time and
just live a little also schedule and
down time into the calendar as you guys
saw i blocked off road time as well as
row days the core of everything that
we're talking about really is baking in
that weekly and monthly sync with
yourself okay so if i want to
keep up with monthly planning reviews
and okrs something that i have been
doing or i started doing last year was
i'll future send emails to myself i'll
copy and paste my okrs as well as my
systems into an email i'll future send
it to myself at the beginning of every
month if you know you check your emails
of your day if you know you look at your
calendar every day or if you know you do
something every day let me meet myself
where i'm at and put all of these things
in there so going back to
i feel like we're so many layers in this
video it's like a christopher nolan
movie okay going back to how to set
system versus goal fourth step is to
assess and adjust your system so this is
kind of what we've been talking about
this whole time if you guys have been
following on the worksheet if you click
here
right here my 2022 plan you can rename
this to whatever you want it to be
everything that you've worked on in the
past four worksheets should
automatically populate into this final
worksheet you shouldn't have to touch
anything it should already all be in
there but there's a few adjustments that
i will recommend you guys make for
example here because it gets cut off i
would just pop that open and click wrap
cells and then maybe adjusting it so
that you can see everything the purpose
of this
is so that you can star right here star
this page so that it is here
for you to look at i'm gonna drag it a
bit lower so you can look at this every
single month or every single quarter
when you're reviewing okay how am i
doing how has my month been where do i
want it to go this really is the purpose
of it's like the grand finale yeah i
feel like me just talking about it like
this isn't doing it justice but this
really is what everything's been leading
up to and down here pro tip reflect back
on these valleys and systems at least
once a month how are you holding up has
a system stuck if so amazing keep going
keep growing if not how can you iterate
your system self-growth is a
never-ending journey
my friend one quote from james claire
the author atomic habits which inspire
my first systems vs goals video 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 the cycle of endless
refinement and continuous improvement
ultimately it is your commitment to the
process that will determine your
progress and i think this really
beautifully sums up why it is important
to really put in the time to review i
feel like i'm harping on that because
it's the one thing that i just
completely avoided and didn't do all the
previous years but i really want to do
that this year for whatever reason maybe
the planets are lining up and it's just
some cosmic shift but i just feel like
this is the year that rowena wants more
structure in her life and this is the
year that she's gonna give herself
structure and this is the year that
she's gonna be the most disciplined not
because she's a disciplined person but
because she set beautiful systems in
place to do the things that she needs to
do and i can say confidently simply
putting things in my calendar reviewing
it on a weekly basis has actually helped
immensely like had i known this i would
have done it a long time ago but again i
think who i was even in december or in
2020 we really do go through different
seasons in our lives and what can help
us now may not have helped us in the
past and vice versa so moving back up a
level to
the fourth cause of why we may feel
unmotivated and that is lacking focus so
honestly i feel like this happens to the
best of us it's something that we all go
through i think there's many many many
things that are contributing to our the
detriment of our attention span but this
is a video for another time i'm gonna
share four things that really helped me
in terms of helping me focus the first
thing is time blocking as you guys
already saw i think the most important
thing worth noting here that i did
earlier is that i moved all of my calls
to mondays and fridays it's actually so
helpful because throughout the rest of
the week as i'm scripting a video i
don't even like oh my god i have a call
i need a okay what is this call let me
prepare for it and then you take a call
and you come back and you sit down
you're like wait what was i writing what
was i scripting and that whole time to
context stories actually can take a lot
out of your time and out of your day the
next thing is to plan your days either
the night before or the morning up i
actually do both because my schedule is
it's honestly pretty bonkers i'm
juggling three channels now a podcast
and like a thousand other things that i
want to do really being on top of my
schedule helps immensely which brings us
to the next point of prioritizing your
task and actually keeping track of how
much time it takes to do a specific task
i didn't ever really want to time track
because i don't know i feel like if you
do so much tracking it kind of loses
this human element to just being a human
into just doing the things that you need
to do however in my own defense when i
started using time tracking in sensama i
feel like that's very different so at
the end of every night i'll sit down
i'll wrap up the dance in summer and
i'll look at the following day of like
okay here are the tasks i need to do let
me prioritize them in the order that i
should be doing them i'll log off for
the night go home in the morning i'll
come in i'll take a look at my cards
again i'll move things around if need be
and then i'll actually start with the
very first task if i'm very focused and
if i'm just doing things based off of
this order of things that i need to do i
can actually get a lot more done in
significantly less time but i think that
only works because i'm not stressed out
thinking about the thousands of other
things i need to do because it's already
all in my sensama as soon as i click
done because everything's already
prioritized the next task will pop up
automatically so it just becomes this
very seamless process because you've
planned ahead the very last tip is let's
say if you're like okay rowena all of
this is too overwhelming i don't know
what sensama is i don't even want to
give it a try is there any other
alternative the alternative is the
pomodoro method where you set 25 minutes
of work five minutes of break 25 minutes
of work five minutes break during that
25 minutes you're working on one task
let's say if you finish the task earlier
great take your five-minute break sooner
and then you set 25 minutes to work on
another task or if let's say you set 25
minutes to work on a task you didn't
finish it yet you still take your break
and then you dive right back in to see
how many sprints of these 25 minutes
doesn't need to take for you to
accomplish this task so this is another
way of kind of keeping track of your
time moving on to the fifth and final
reason why you may be feeling
unmotivated and that is the lack of a
proper environment whether it's removing
clutter whether it's rearranging your
furniture whether it is switching around
your desk so that you're facing natural
light but if you do make sure you wear
sunscreen you should wear sunscreen
either way even if you're just staying
home to get in the habit of doing that
what it comes down to is just knowing
yourself well enough to know that i work
best when i'm in this environment with
this noise level with potentially these
people like sometimes you know it's like
it's nice to work next to someone or
it's nice to work in coffee shops
because there's like random people there
so it's like you're by yourself but
you're also not by yourself as always
taking a step back and really asking
ourselves like okay i know this is who i
am i know i thrive in this environment
how can i create a better environment
for myself to thrive in and with that
yeah truly at the end of the day we are
only as strong as our systems if just
one of you guys benefited from this
worksheet i would be very very very
happy i feel like i lowkey feel
invincible i actually do i severely
underestimated how amazing systems can
be for as much as i've talked about
setting systems rather than goals i
think the missing piece for me this
whole time was turning it into
actionable steps you can dream all these
things you can conceptually think about
all of these things but how can you
actually put it into practice and if you
guys have any cool systems that you've
created for yourself for example like
the future email sending time blocking
whatever whatever i mean these aren't
that cool but if you guys have any cool
hacks or tips please share them down
below i just think it's so cool learning
and seeing how other people are
implementing their systems and whether
there's anything we can learn from each
other thank you again to notion for
sponsoring today's video if you guys
want to check them out or check out the
template it will be linked down below
and thank you guys for following along
these four weeks i'm losing my voice but
i'm very grateful and i hope that i
really hope that you will be able to
have your best year ever for me
personally my year is starting tomorrow
february 1st chinese new year that is
when my year is starting i took most of
january to plan as you guys can tell
these videos came a lot later than
expected i hope you guys are good to
yourself as you're gentle with
yourselves we start off the new year
strong and
here is a hug
the sun has set classic rowena
very grateful for you guys
see you in the next video it's gonna be
a good one on the lessons i learned in
my 20s
bye