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Deadlines and Commitments
Productivity hacks
I embrace them as a productivity hack. Deadlines and commitments make us productive by forcing us to focus and shelve all the really interesting distractions that keep us from completing our appointed tasks. If you want to get more done, commit to something with a deadline and consequences to not finishing. The consequences can be embarrassment, humiliation, monetary loss, a law suit, or anything else that feels uncomfortable.
What you leave in and what you leave out. Deadlines can be really useful in pushing us to achieve our goals, if the commitment isn’t a bridge too far and is challenging but sensible and achievable. The required work needs to be in the sweet spot of challenging enough that we aren’t bored and easy enough that you don’t panic and stress.
Flow Channel
Flow state hackers call that Goldilocks state the flow channel, just the right amount of stress to be motivating and attention focusing. Make your commitments fit your flow channel.
The key is to eliminate distractions like checking social media and email. Every time you get distracted it can take twenty minutes to get back in flow. Shut off your phone and stay in the zone.
This is an extreme way to clarify the mind; for a fortnight. Dr. Johnson makes a good point but it doesn’t just pertain to the big deadline and the permanent vacation.
The prospect of confronting the finality of death does help us think more clearly about our priorities and what we would like to achieve and be known for. For the thoughtful contemporary poet and philosopher of life Mark Nepo, the catalytic experience that informs his deepened writings and ideas came from having, and surviving, cancer.
An experience like that peals away all the layers of superficiality and distractions. As Gandhi said:
