This article is specifically for people who are working a daily job, and have multiple side projects going on. Because, I am that person. I have lot of interests ranging from wood working to skating, programming to writing and teaching. I would like to develop at least one product which solves a problem or two. I have high expectations for myself. I always feel I could do more, do better, but I always fall short and never complete a project and leave it mid way. Even development of this blog, went through multiple discontinuations and finally saw the light of the day in two years and once completed, I didn't write every week, not even every month. I have a meagre 9 posts published. I have a YouTube channel with many videos but that is also under pause for now. I could defend myself by saying, lot of people don't even do this, but this is not about others, I am beyond that. I want to improve. I want to do more.
I would constantly read blogs, listen to podcasts, follow all successful people for motivation and take their advise seriously and implement their ideas. I would do good for two to four weeks, then a bad day at office or a disagreement with any of my close family members or any negative event would ruin this routine. I would watch a show on Netflix one day which due to my time constraints always happens on a night, get up late, only focus on office work, get tired, watch Netflix, sleep late and with in days, I would be on social media - X(Twitter) or Instagram, keep scrolling endlessly. I wouldn't realize I am in a bad rut, until it come to this. I would catch myself scrolling at some point, close it with guilt and then, I would start my reset routine, it would take again one to two weeks and this cycle repeats over and over again. Whatever I produced, I owe them to this cycle. Even though It has shortcomings, it helped me reach this point. So, I appreciate this, but I don't want to depend on external motivation again.
During one of my routine reset sessions in the late night after my kid and my wife went to bed, I turned on one of my favorite authors - Cal Newport's podcast and started cleaning up the house. It got done earlier than usual. So, I paused the podcast, started sipping coconut water and just sat in the balcony enjoying the late night summer breeze. A question popped into my brain out of the blue, WHY the f*** do I need to listen to a podcast when I am cleaning or running ? I say out of the blue, but I can see why it popped up. I finished reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck by Mark Manson last night. Normally I would think, I still don't know a lot about productivity, so, I need to know more to do better. And, this is Cal or Tim we are talking about, this is great content, not some brain numbing content posted on social media by some random user with no creds. Plus, I read somewhere that motivation is like bath, we need it everyday, brush the thought off and go to sleep. But today was different. I had time, it was Friday night, I don't have to get up early next day. So, I sat there longer with my thoughts and started recollecting, how my productivity journey started.
This might feel like a memoir of a nobody or everybody depending on the lens you wear. So, please bear with me for couple of minutes. Few of my friends started a software firm and I joined them leaving my safe job in Infosys just after an year working in it. All the founders were rich and I was naïve. I got used to their habits and party culture and picked up one bad habit which I shouldn't have which is spending with out a care. That got me into a non trivial debt. I thought, I was climbing the ladder but I was actually going deep into the pits. All this time, I was getting paid, being taken to out of country trips, so I didn't check what was going on outside. I was with my friends building something. That's what I thought. Then some of our projects went over deadlines, revenue started decreasing, payments were getting delayed, project pipeline didn't look so optimistic and initially salaries got delayed then they totally stopped coming and arrears went back almost to an year. So, suddenly I started realizing, may be I have to look for alternatives. I took the hard decision. I quit. I took the first job that came my way, no negotiations. I was happy to just get paid. The first month I received my salary in my third job, I cried happy tears alone. I didn't even feel that way when I took my first ever pay check from Infosys. This was rebirth.
I became cautious. I started reevaluating my thoughts, values and decisions. I looked at myself. I was overweight, no body would mock me yet, but soon that would happen too, if I didn't start caring now. I definitely needed help. Till then, I read only for fun, now I decided, I would read to learn. That's when I read my first ever productivity book - Atomic Habits by James Clear. I remember listening to an audio book of Atomic Habits during my daily commute to office. Inspired by it, I started walking for 20 mins everyday. After an year, I finished a half marathon. It just blew my mind. I got married to a wonderful girl. I thought I cracked life by reading one book. But my debt increased. After a quick BOTEC I realized, this was unsustainable too. I had to quickly grow my income, or else m doomed. I was lucky to be sent on an onsite assignment at the same time. I thought this could be my final chance. I started reading more. I cleared my debt, and that is when I decided I would never stop reading productivity books and that's how I discovered Morgan Housel, Tim Ferris, Cal Newport, Naval Ravi Kant, Nassim Nicholas Taleb etc. and then COVID happened, I didn't just read now, I was watching youtube videos, listening to podcasts, discussions. I felt, I stopped consuming productivity content for a while previously and I was into debt again, I didn't want that to happen again. Out of FOMO and anxiety, I was constantly in search of new information to implement, Initially I could implement, but very soon, implementation took back seat and searching took the lead. I never knew I could get addicted to consuming media. But I was an ADDICT before I realized.
So, a realization dawned on me. It is not just bad content, which could screw you, even good content could do it too. How on earth could I forget my favorite principle. DOSE is the POISON. However good the food may be, if you eat more than desired you would get sick. This applies to media as well. Immediately I decided to do an experiment. I wouldn't consume any media for a week. I wouldn't even read books, newspaper. I wouldn't watch YouTube videos, TV. I wouldn't listen to podcasts. Nothing.
I did not have many expectations for this experiment. At the most, I thought I would be bored, may be bored to death. So, what ? I was damn bored when I was a kid. But still I survived. Not just survived, I thrived. If I remember correctly, my childhood was mostly school, library, movies and rest of my time I would be at home playing by myself and inventing make believe stuff with my sister. For eg. I used to wear a ring, plug a Reynolds ball pen's cap in the ring, and act like I was Robocop and the cap is an all access key to everything. Once, I used a card board box (computer ), tied one end of a metal wire to a small palm sized box ( a mouse according to me) and fixed a slate pencil on other end (cursor on screen) and voila I have reverse engineered MS Paint. Why I didn't I feel anxiety then. I would simply see something, and start envisioning, how to do it by myself with the scrap available to me. Why can't I just start doing things now. Why do I have to listen to so many self help books in order to produce something. May be boredom is what I need.
I started the week with two huge realizations. 1. Not just bad content, even good content can spoil you. 2. Boredom is good.
Boredom Week
First day (Saturday): I felt strangely liberated while having my morning coffee. All I had were my thoughts. I could simply sit and go through them. By afternoon, I was so bored that I wanted to produce something. I finished writing an article for my blog - Be a Machine, or Be a Creator. I took a long afternoon nap of two hours along with my kiddo. I woke up and felt good. Previously, when I read Elon Musk's biography by Walter Isaacson, I thought I should be able to manage on 6 to 7 hours of sleep maximum, some times I just slept for 3 to 4 hours. I would feel great that day and think to myself it is working. But I was wrong. I got permanent black circles, I would get burnt out after two weeks, completely do nothing for another one to two weeks to reset and then start the cycle again. In the long run, it seemed unsustainable. So, I decided may be I need sleep. Why don't I use my free time for naps like this ? That night I slept early.
Second day (Sunday): I woke up late. Why am I sleeping so much, I thought to my self. May be it is time to clear my sleep debt. I kept taking short naps through out the day. Haven't thought about anything deep. May be boredom is not working out. But anyways, I was enjoying sleep. So, I wanted to continue the experiment.
Third day (Monday): I resisted this thought on Sunday, but I couldn't control myself from reading about Australia F1 GP today. So, I briefly read about it, nothing exciting so quickly got back myself into the experiment mode. Did some office work, not many deep thoughts. But nice sleep.
Fourth day (Tuesday): Few questions came to my mind. How long does it take to digest content ? both when consumed mindfully and mindlessly. Does the way we consume have any impact ? Looks like it has, I was still thinking like, what would Cal say about this ? what would Tim do to avoid this ? etc. Instead of having own thinking, we develop a lens and think like others. If it is not yours, it won't work for you. I also get that, first we imitate before developing an original style. But I now understand that, to develop your own vision, you need to stop wearing other's lens. You need to develop your own lens and that happens only when you stop consuming. If all you do is consume what ThePrimeagen produces, when will you produce something ? Never. You can only follow someone for a while. After that, you have to create your own path. I read somewhere that, If you read five books on a topic deeply and understand all of them, you can be called a subject matter expert. So, what next ? after that you need to research on your own. Generate your own knowledge. After an nth video, the returns start to diminish, you can only increase the returns by DOING.
Fifth day (Wednesday): I got to thinking, why do we never hear about how Linus Torvalds scheduled his day managed his day while building an operating system as an alternative to Windows OS, while attending university and doing multiple side projects ? I can give many examples like this by stating Guido van Rossum, Steve Woz. But I will stick to Linus only, because he co-wrote a book and titled with the same conclusion. We never hear why and how they managed to do something, because they did it just for fun. They never imagined their creation to become so big. The only conclusion I could draw from this is, if you want to create something, start it because it feels like play and it is fun for you. When do you think about fun ? when you are bored. I think I am on to something here.
Sixth day (Thursday): Suddenly some old memories which I haven't recollected in years came back to me. It was about a surprise essay writing competition in high school. Since it was sudden, and no body was prepared, the expectations were practically null. But surprisingly, I wrote well, I thought after finishing it and also I was the first to submit my essay. I even got a first prize for it. Then I remembered, I received lot of prizes for essay writing and quiz competitions during school. But then, why did I vividly remember this incident ? I don't know, but I feel, when you know you can do something well and if you like it, reducing the stakes will improve your result as well. How do you reduce the stakes when you know it is important ? I am not sure. Yet.
Seventh day (Friday): I went to gym in the evening and I was doing my usual routine and went down the memory lane. How it all started. When I started working out, the stakes were so low. I just got a new job. Other than keeping it by doing it well and paying my debt off, I had nothing to do. I also was getting over weight. I had a basket ball injury after which, doctor advised me to stay away from group sports or get a surgery. I preferred to give up group sports, and eventually gave up sports and finally any form of exercise. When I had nothing to do, I recollected what had happened. My excuses made me give up exercise entirely instead of just group sports. So, I decided to start walking for twenty minutes every day. No risk of injury. So, for almost a month, I simply went to office, did some light walking, came back home, watched some movie and slept. Once my confidence picked up in walking, I moved to brisk walking. I did this for another 3 months. Now my greed increased. Why don't I lift some weights, gain some strength. I started leg exercises to strengthen my knee. Slowly I started to run. Eventually completed a half marathon one and half years later. After ten years, going to gym and running is no more a barrier in my mind. It is something I do when I find time almost 3 to 4 days a week. Even if I don't find time for a week, I easily start doing it next week. No more starting trouble. So, now there was another important piece of wisdom to pick from here. Start slowly, reduce the stakes, and don't have anything else to do other than the one difficult thing you want to learn or master. If you are doing multiple difficult things, you will give up all.
So, the gist of my boredom week experiment is
1. Make boredom part of your life, enjoy your thoughts and memories, sleep well and keep yourself healthy.
2. Look into your childhood. Slow your life down as much as possible.
3. Boredom will trigger you to think how you can start having fun and how you want to play. You will get ideas to start building something new.
4. Pick one from it, once you start a project, don't plan to do any projects if the domain is new to you.
5. Do it because it is fun and with out it, you would get bored and don't keep any deadline. Deadlines give anxiety(at least to me).
6. Make it a daily habit, but reduce the stakes to zero. You don't have to care about end result.
I am still searching for answers like, how can you reduce the stakes, if you know it is important to you. Should I stop consuming content permanently ? etc. So, I want to continue this experiment. But I will be giving myself concession to read in the next week. I will still not consume anything fast paced. More on this later. Remember good things take time and every thing you consume takes time to digest. So, be mindful of the quantity of even good content. And as far as the success of the experiment, consider it successful, if you see me posting consistently.