One of my old bosses was a genius.

He knew how to influence people in meetings, pitch ideas to decision-makers, and inspire his direct reports to get things done.

But more often than not, there were situations where he gave us vague directions about a project and then disappeared. Being good employees, we followed his directions as best as possible and hoped we were doing it right. (Our follow-up questions never received a response.)

Yet inevitably, when he circled back with us and saw our progress, it was always wrong. Rarely was our work not good; rather, what he imagined the project would look like was different from what we created.

The directions he gave were not enough to communicate what he had in his head. So, when he saw what we made, he could say, “No, not that. _This_.”

This was incredibly frustrating and wasted so many hours of productivity.

I was thinking about this yesterday when I asked my wife if she could buy a gift for an event we were attending. My text was, “Hey, can you buy a gift for the baby shower?” She said, “Yes.”

When I got home that night, she showed me what she bought. It was all great gifts, but it was not what I had in mind for this close friend, and I got a bit frustrated. But then I realized this was completely my fault. My directions were vague: buy a gift. My wife, being the great executor that she is, went out and did that. She had no reason to ask follow-up questions about whether or not there was something specific that I wanted. She just bought something.

It made me realize that in life—and business—you either need to give specific directions of how you want something done or simply be okay with it being done differently than you would have done it. **Giving vague directions to employees and then making them change their work because it’s not what you “pictured” is a great way to waste time and make your employees resent you.**

This “vague direction giving” is one reason people work long hours. They spend a whole week working 9-5 on their boss’ project, only for the boss to, at noon on Friday, check-in and say, “Oh, I meant this.”

Give specific directions, or shut up and be glad it got done.

Specific directions or shut up

I used to like the phrase, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”

Doing the little things right is important. But there’s not enough time in the world to do _everything_ well. Some things just need to be done.

You don’t approach buying groceries the same way you approach creating and preparing for a big presentation at work. You _shouldn’t_ approach those things the same way. No matter how “well” you get your groceries, at the end of the day, if the groceries are in your pantry, you did your job.

Paying bills is like this, too. Sure, there are ways to be efficient and strategic in paying your bills, but all that matters is if your bills got paid. _How_ they got paid doesn’t matter.

I once read that a good measure of one’s maturity is how organized their sock drawer was. Because people don’t expect anyone to look at their sock drawer, having it organized shows they have integrity and care about doing the small things well. When I first learned that, I thought it was genius. But now I think it just means you spend too much time organizing your sock drawer.

Some things need to be done well, but a lot of things just need to be done. Don’t confuse the two.

Most things just need to be done

Even after writing 355 books over a span of 50 years, [Isaac Asimov](https://www.dltn.io/posts/june-05-2023-isaac-asimov-on-writing) said he never experienced writer's block. His trick? Working on several projects at a time. So if he gets bored of one he simply starts working on another.

> Fortunately I’m never without several projects in mind so that if I wake up in the morning, I’m sick and tired of what I’m doing, I do something else.
> 

Haruki Murakami practiced [something similar](https://www.dltn.io/posts/novelist-as-a-vocation):

> I have been writing fiction for more than thirty-five years at the time of this book’s writing; yet I have never experienced what is commonly known as ‘writer’s block.’ Wanting to write but being unable is unknown to me. That may make it sound as if I am overflowing with talent, but the actual reason is much simpler: I never write unless I really want to, unless the desire to write is overwhelming. When I feel that desire, I sit down and set to work. When I don’t feel it, I usually turn to translating from English. Since translation is essentially a technical operation, I can pursue it on a daily basis, quite separate from my creative desire; yet at the same time, it is a good way to hone my writing skills.
> 

[Austin Kleon](https://rainmaker.fm/audio/writer/austin-kleon-file-one/) also practices this habit. He calls it “productive procrastination.”

> **Kelton Reid:** I like that. You talk about ‘productive procrastination’ quite a bit, and you’ve written about it. Do you have some best practices for beating procrastination yourself?

**Austin Kleon:** Yes. The best thing to do is to practice what you said, productive procrastination, which means have one or two or three things going all at the same time. When you get sick of one thing, you can work on the other thing because you hate the other project so much. Then when you get sick of project two, you can move back to project one. You have to work, but you basically use procrastination as a way to get things done.
> 

I recommend the same advice to people [who want to read more](https://www.dltn.io/posts/read). It’s much easier to read three or four books at once than it is to read one because when you’re bored of one, you can just pick up another. But if you are only reading one at a time and get bored, well what you do is stop reading.

Beat writer’s block

Tick tock, tick tock, the clock goes on. Second…by…second. One no faster than the last; no shorter than the next. Yet these seconds, when they add up, seem to vanish when we account for them. *It’s time to get the kids already? Your birthday is* this *weekend?! Where did the time go?* It ticked away, second…by…second.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. It may seem like it because the items that burglarize our seconds never end. Phones, TVs, news, notifications, bings, bops, and blips are all over the pla – sorry, my phone buzzed.

What’s worse? It’s not getting easier.

The problems may be new(er), but the remedy is not: Arnold Bennett’s 1908 classic, *[How to Live on 24-Hours a Day](https://bookshop.org/p/books/how-to-live-on-24-hours-a-day-the-complete-original-edition-arnold-bennett/18888388?ean=9781250250674)*. This short book is a tour de force of philosophical advice and practical ideas for time management.

![https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3005eec6-9d00-4c18-a69d-76a0e26f1dd4_1280x720.png](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3005eec6-9d00-4c18-a69d-76a0e26f1dd4_1280x720.png)

The first step to living fully and comfortably within the allotted hours of one’s day is the realization that though it is possible, it is not easy. It requires an endless amount of effort and continuous sacrifice. Everything will be fighting against you, but you must not give in. Your happiness depends on it.

A note: If you’re reading this and thinking at any time, *there’s no way I could do any of this. I don’t have the time between the kids, sports, work, my marriage, and everything else I have going on.* That’s great! This book addressed those who felt like each day was ending with no control over what happened. If you’re not in that scenario, not all of these ideas will apply, but some will.

### Why care about this?

The importance of finding and using time deliberately is that we all have things we want to do (or to have gotten done) that we simply haven’t yet: going back to school, learning to write, studying history, improving our skills for a better job, and so on. “You are constantly haunted by a suppressed dissatisfaction with your own arrangement of your daily life,” Bennett writes, “and **the primal cause of that inconvenient dissatisfaction is the feeling that you are every day leaving undone something which you would like to do**, and which, indeed, you are always hoping to do when you have ‘more time.’”

*You will never have “more time.”* As Bennett writes, “We shall never have more time. **We have, and have always had, all the time there is.**” Instead of trying to find “more time,” you need to *make more time*.

Here are the main ideas in Bennett’s book.

### **Don’t center your day around your job (if you dislike it)**

Bennett writes:

> The person who works 10 to 6 every day, and who doesn’t have a real passion for their job, make the first mistake by assuming 10 to 6 is “their day” and that the ten hours prior and the six hours following are nothing but a prologue. This attitude kills any interest with doing something with those 16 hours. Even if said person does not intentionally waste them, the point is he does not count them; he regards them simply as margin.
>

Instead of 10 to 6 being “the day,” think of 10 to 6 as being a day within a day. The first day starts at 10 am and ends at 6 pm. The second day starts at 6 pm and ends at 10 am.

For the sake of our humanity, let’s reserve 8 hours for nocturnal rest: 11 pm to 7 am. Now, what will you do during the new hours of that second day, from 6 pm to 11 pm and from 7 am to 9 am?

### **Be deliberate**

First, let’s find 30 minutes in the morning between 7:00 and 7:30 to strengthen the mind deliberately. During these minutes, practice concentrating on something. Whenever your mind wanders from what it should be focused on, drag it back with all your might. You can focus on whatever you want: a quote from your favorite book, a song lyric, the beauty of painting, whatever. The *what* doesn’t matter so much as the *act*.

Whatever you do, do not use these perfectly good minutes of solitude to read “that which was meant to be read with rapidity.” Bennett here is referring to newspapers. I’m referring to Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or other social platforms. (And maybe even the news.) Don’t waste 30 minutes of your fresh mind on ephemeral content.

Bennett explains that practicing intense focus will make discipline easier in all aspects. If you can control your mind, you can control your mood, attitude, behavior, and more.

So far, we have found two and a half hours every week (30 mins a day X 5 days per week) that didn’t exist before. Let’s now turn to our evenings.

Most people come home from work, sit on the couch for an hour, watch the news, and start making dinner. After dinner, they either go back to tv or *maybe* start reading a book. Bennett advises that instead of having dinner interrupt the middle of your evening, have it as soon as you get home. Then, reserve an hour and a half three days a week to better oneself. In doing so, you still have two weeknights and all of Saturday and Sunday to do whatever you want.

Now, what will you do with your four and a half evening hours each week? Most people wrongly assume reading or studying literature is the only option. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You could study music, learn how to play an instrument, advance your knowledge in the field of mathematics, become an armchair physicist, write a book, become an expert on Renaissance paintings, learn how to paint, study for a certificate of some sort, learn how to program, commit to reading a large volume of text…shall I continue?

Everything is on the table with one requirement: **You must be keenly interested in that thing**. Don’t study philosophy because you like the idea of becoming a philosopher. Do it because you’re interested in philosophy and want to learn more about it.

Whatever it is, do it deliberately. That’s the point of all this.

If you want to learn something academic but don’t want to attend an actual school, do what Jack London did. Before he started writing, he got a copy of the syllabi from the University of California and read all the books from English and Philosophy courses.

## **Some warnings**

**For your evening study, don’t let anything influence your decision about what to pursue other than your interests.** Bennett writes:

> In choosing the occupations of the evening hours, commit to that which you have a supreme interest and let nothing else influence or dictate that which you choose to study. Being a walking encyclopedia of philosophy is all well and good, but not so if you have a disdain for philosophy and would rather study the stars.
>

**Maintain flexibility**. Following the program is important, but it’s not a religion. You’re the master. Maintain flexibility. However, you have to take it seriously enough for it to work and not just be a cruel joke. There is a right amount of rigidity and flexibility one must achieve.

**Don’t rush.** One may take the dog out at eight and be thinking the whole time that he has to start reading at nine and, therefore, never enjoy the moment of the walk.


2 Ideas for Realistic Time Management

There’s no better manual on time management than Arnold Bennett’s ***How to Live on 24 Hours a Day*** ([notes](https://www.dltn.io/posts/book-notes-how-to-live-on-24-hours-a-day)). It’s a masterpiece of philosophical advice and practical ideas for how to not fritter one’s day away.

Though the book is short, it’s sort of split into two sections. In the first half, Bennett writes about the preciousness of our time, how ridiculous it is that we often center our days around a job that we hate, and shows how to find 7 extra hours throughout the week.

The second half of the books shares different ways of using that newfound time.

## Find time and be deliberate

The first step to live fully and comfortably within the allotted hours of one’s day is the realization that though it is possible, it is not easy. It requires an endless amount of effort and continuous sacrifice. Everything will be fighting against you, but you must not give in. Your happiness depends on it.

The importance of finding and using time deliberately is that we all have things we want to do (or to have gotten done) that we simply haven’t yet: going back to school, learning to write, studying history, improving our skills for a better job, and so on. “You are constantly haunted by a suppressed dissatisfaction with your own arrangement of your daily life,” Bennett writes, “and **the primal cause of that inconvenient dissatisfaction is the feeling that you are every day leaving undone something which you would like to do**, and which, indeed, you are always hoping to do when you have “more time.”

******************************You will never ever have “more time.”****************************** As Bennett writes, “We shall never have more time. **We have, and have always had, all the time there is.**” Instead of trying to find “more time,” you need to *make more time*.

Here’s how to do that:

### **********************Don’t center your day around a job you hate**********************

Bennett writes:

> The person who works 10 to 6 every day, and who doesn’t have a real passion for their job, make the first mistake by assuming 10 to 6 is “their day” and that the ten hours prior and the six hours following are nothing but a prologue. **This attitude kills any interest with doing something with those 16 hours.** Even if said person does not intentionally waste them, the point is he does not *****count***** them; he regards them simply as margin.
>

Instead of 10 to 6 being “the day,” think of 10-6 as being a day within a day. The first day starts at 10am and ends at 6pm. The second day starts at 6pm and ends at 10am.

For the sake of our humanity, let’s reserve 8 hours for nocturnal rest: 11pm to 7am. Now, what will you do during the new hours of that second day, from 6pm to 11pm and from 7am to 9am?

### ********************************************************Be deliberate********************************************************

Bennett finds 30 minutes in the morning for the subject of his text on the train. Since most people don’t ride trains to work anymore, we can find those minutes between 7am and 7:30am.

What are you supposed to do with these new minutes? **Deliberately strengthen the mind**.

From the moment you leave your house to the moment you arrive at work, practice concentrating on something. Whenever your mind wanders from on what it should be focused, drag it back with all your might. At first, you may be able to focus for just 30 seconds at a time. But as you practice, your ability to concentrate will get better.

You can focus on whatever you want: a quote from your favorite book, a song lyric, the beauty of painting, whatever. The ****what**** doesn’t matter so much as the act of doing it.

Bennett recommends focusing on a passage from Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus.

Whatever you do, do not use these perfectly good minutes of solitude to read “that which was meant to be read with rapidity.” Bennett here is referring to newspapers. I’m referring to Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Don’t waste 30 minutes when your mind is as fresh as it will ever be that day on ephemeral content.

Great. So far, we have found 2 and a half hours every week (30 mins a day X 5 days per week) that didn’t exist before and we’re now using it deliberately. Let’s now turn to our evenings.

Most people come home from work, sit on the couch for an hour, watch the news, and then start making dinner. After dinner, they either go back to tv or *****maybe***** (if we’re lucky) start reading a book.

Bennett advises that instead of having dinner interrupt the middle of your evening, to have it as soon as you get home.

He then advises reserving an hour and a half three days a week for the activities of bettering oneself. In doing so, you still have two weeknights and all of Saturday and Sunday to do whatever you want to do.

Now, what will you do with your 4 and a half evening hours each week?

Most people wrongly assume reading or studying literature is the only option. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You could study music, learn how to play an instrument, advance your knowledge in the field of mathematics, become an armchair physicist, write a book, become an expert on Renaissance paintings, learn how to paint, study for a certificate of some sort, learn how to program, commit to reading a large volume of text…shall I continue?

Everything is on the table with one requirement: **You must be keenly interested in that thing**. Don’t study philosophy because you like the idea of becoming a philosopher. Do it because you’re interested in philosophy and want to learn more about it.

If you do want to learn something academic but don’t want to go to an actual school, do what Jack London did. Before he started writing, he got a copy of the syllabi from the University of California and read all the books from English and Philosophy courses. You could do the same.

If you want to learn programming, you could take a self-paced bootcamp.

If you want to read, you could embark on a journey to cover famous volumes like **********The Story of Civilization********** or **********The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire**********.

## Some warnings

- **If you choose to embark on this journey, your life will change.** It ***has*** to change. “If you imagine that you will be able to devote seven hours and a half a week to serious, continuous effort,” Bennett writes, “and still live your old life, you are mistaken. I repeat that some sacrifice, and an immense deal of volition, will be necessary.”
- ****************************************************For your evening study, don’t let anything influence your decision about what to pursue other than your interests.**************************************************** Bennett writes:

    > In choosing the occupations of the evening hours, commit to that which you have a supreme interest and let nothing else influence or dictate that which you choose to study. Being a walking encyclopedia of philosophy is all well and good, but not so if you have a disdain for philosophy and would rather study the stars.
    >
- ******************************************************Don’t commit to too much in the beginning******************************************************. People who embark on this journey fail in one of two ways:
    - They either commit to too little (good), fail to have patience and become unsatisfied with their slow progress, decide to try to do more (bad), become overwhelmed, and quit.
    - Or, they commit to too little (good), become unsatisfied with their lack of progress in a few months, and quit.

    You must resist falling down either of these paths. Commit to little at first. Be patient and let the results compound. You may not make much progress in three months, but you will in six months, and by month seven, you won’t remember what it was like before you started doing this.
    You will try and you will fail, multiple times, but keep going. This isn’t a matter of better time management. This is a matter of self-discipline and motivation. “If you imagine that you will be able to achieve your ideal by ingeniously planning out a time-table with a pen on a piece of paper, you had better give up hope at once,” Bennett says. “If you are not prepared for discouragements and disillusions; if you will not be content with a small result for a big effort, then do not begin.”

- ******Maintain flexibility******. Following the program is important, but it’s not a religion. You’re the master. Maintain flexibility. However, you have to take it seriously enough for it to work and not just be a cruel joke. There is a right amount of rigidity and flexibility one must achieve.
- ************************Don’t rush.************************ One may take the dog out at 8 and be thinking the whole time that he has to start reading at 9 and therefore never enjoy the moment of the walk.
- ********************************Don’t be a prig. “********************************A prig is a pert fellow who gives himself airs of superior wisdom,” Bennett writes. “He’s a pompous fool who…has lost an important part of his attire, namely, his sense of humor.”

You will be tempted to look at those who live the way you used to with disgust. Don’t. Don’t be a prig. Their 24 hours have nothing to do with your 24 hours. This isn’t a way to save humanity, it’s a way to save yourself. As Ryan holiday says, “Be strict with yourself and tolerant with others.” It’s called ****self-****discipline for a reason.

## Just Begin

You may be wondering, “Well okay this sounds all well and good, but how do I begin?” Just begin! Bennett says it’s like if someone were to ask you how to get into a cold bath. You would reply, “Well just get in!”

Good luck.


A Practical Summary of How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett

## Impressions

***********************How to Live on 24 Hours a Day*********************** is the most timeless, practical guide to time management. It gives both philosophical ideas and practical steps to help you take control of the hours you typically waste to do something that betters yourself with them.

This book, written in 1908, is the complete opposite of anything close to “self-help” books published today. You won’t read anything in here about cold showers, waking up at 4:30am, or going for a 5 mile run every morning.

The advice is simple. The words are witty and refreshing. I highly recommend.

## Notes

- The first step in arranging one’s life that they may live fully and comfortably within one’s daily budget of twenty-four hours is the calm realization of the extreme difficulty of the task, of the sacrifices, and the endless effort which it demands. I cannot too strongly insist on this.
- How to begin: ********************just begin********************. If someone trying to get into a cold both were to ask you, “Sir, how do I start to get in?” You would reply, “Well just get in!”
- You say your day is already full to overflowing. How? You actually spend in earning your livelihood–how much? Seven hours, on the average? An in actual sleep, seven? I will add two hours, and be generous. And I will defy you to account to me on the spur of the moment for the other eight hours.
- The person who works 10 to 6 everyday, and who doesn’t have a real passion for their job, make the first mistake by assuming 10 to 6 is “their day” and that the ten hours prior and the six hours following are nothing but a prologue. This attitude kills any interest with doing something with those 16 hours. Even if said person does not intentionally waste them, the point is he does not *****count***** them; he regards them simply as margin.
    - Doing this is a grave mistake because it makes the centrality of one’s day just something “to get through” or “have done with.” “If a man makes two-thirds of his day subservient to one-third, for which admittedly he has no absolutely feverish zest, how can he hope to live fully and completely? He cannot.”
    - What this person must do, then, is arrange a day within a day. This second day starts at 6pm and ends at 10am. It is a day of sixteen hours. And during this 16 hours, he has nothing to do but cultivate his body and his soul and his fellow men.
    - **“What? You say that full energy given to those sixteen hours will lessen the value of the business eight? Not so. On the contrary, it will assuredly increase the value of the business eight. One of the chief things which my typical man has to learn is that the mental faculties are capable of a continuous hard activity; they do not tire like an arm or a leg. All they want is change–not rest, except in sleep.”**
- Don’t dedicate the extreme hours of solitude to reading tiny thoughts and other things that are meant to be read with speed. Reading newspaper on the train is wasting a good 30 minutes of quiet time.
- “Can you deny that when you have something definite to look forward to at eventide, something that is to employ all your energy–the thought of that something gives a glow and a more intense vitality to the whole day?”
- One might say they are exhausted from their day’s work because they give so much effort and can’t commit to the evening hours of study. To that, Bennett says great! This book, this advice is not for those who are already living a good life–whom work hard at their jobs because they’re good at them and love them. It’s for the worker who shuffles through the day rising in the morning and just waiting until he can go to sleep again. There are probably some things the hard worker who loves their job can take from the book, like the morning and evening practices of focus and reflection, but they are already not wasting 8 hours/day, so Bennett says let them carry on as they are.

## Practical advice

- Face the facts and tell yourself at 6 that you are not tired–because you’re not. And don’t let dinner interrupt the middle of the evening.
- Work 7 days a week, at first. It is he who has only worked tirelessly for a time who truly appreciates a full day of rest. Especially if you’re young in age. Use that energy. But in the average case, only do 6. And if you so choose to do 7, look at it as an extra source of time, so that anytime you wish you can go back to six without feeling like you’re giving something up.
- So far, we have half an hour in the mornings six days a week and an hour and a half three days a week. With that seven and a half hours put to good use, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. “My contention is that the full use of those seven-and-a-half hours will quicken the whole life of the week, add zest to it, and increase the interest which you feel in event the most banal occupations.”
- During the evenings, give yourself more than an hour and a half to do that which takes an hour and a half. Remember human nature. Remember accidents. Remember distraction.
- From the moment you leave your home to the moment you arrive at work is reserved for strengthening the mind. What you ought to do, then, is to concentrate your mind on something–it can be anything, but Bennett suggests maybe a paragraph from Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus–and when your brain gets off topic, use brute force to think about it again. Doing this trains your mind everyday for long bouts of focus on something.
- Then, reflect. Reflect on your principles, your happiness, and your life. Man know thyself. If you are searching for happiness and you haven’t found it, and yet still don’t reflect, on the “deliberate consideration of your reason, principles, and conduct, you admit also that while striving for a certain thing you are regularly leaving undone the one act which is necessary to the attainment of that thing.”
    - Do so on your journey home. This is a good time to transition from the day to the evening hours and your tired spirit will be in a good position to do so.
- At night, you can study music, art, literature,
- If you choose to study literature at night, here are some tips:
    - Define the direction and scope of your efforts. Choose a limited time period, or a limited subject, or a single author. Define yourself as a specialist for there is much pleasure in being one.
    - Think, as well as read. Devote 45 minutes of reflection for each 90 minute period of reading. Doing so will slow your progress on the book. That’s okay. Don’t worry about that.

## Warnings

- If you imagine that you will be able to achieve your ideal by ingeniously planning out a time-table with a pen on a piece of paper, you had better give up hope at once. If you are no prepared for discouragements and disillusions; if you will not be content with a small result for a big effort, then do not begin.
- Beware of undertaking too much at the start. Be content with quite a little. Allow for accidents. Allow for human nature, especially your own. “Self respect is at the root of all purposefulness, and a failure in an enterprise deliberately planned deals a desperate wound at one’s self-respect. Hence I iterate and I reiterate: Start quickly, unostentatiously.”
    - “When you have consciously given seven hours and a half a week to the cultivation of your vitality for three months–then you may begin to sing louder and tell yourself what wondrous things you are capable of doing.”
- “If you imagine that you will be able to devote seven hours and a half a week to serious, continuous effort, and still live your old life, you are mistaken. I repeat that some sacrifice, and an immense deal of volition, will be necessary.”
- Don’t be a prig.
    - “A prig is a pert fellow who gives himself airs of superior wisdom. He’s a pompous fool who…has lost an important part of his attire, namely, his sense of humor.”
- Following the program is important, but it’s not a religion. You’re the master. Maintain flexibility. But you also have to take it seriously enough for it to work and not just be a cruel joke or something you hope to do. There is a right amount of rigidness and flexibility one must achieve.
- Don’t rush. One may take the dog out at 8 and be thinking the whole time that he has to start reading at 9 and therefore never enjoy the moment of the walk.
- In choosing the occupations of the evening hours, commit to that which you have a supreme interest and let nothing else influence or dictate that which you choose to study. Being a walking encyclopedia of philosophy is all well and good, but not so if you have a disdain for philosophy and would rather study the stars.
- Finally, but most importantly, don’t fail. The only way you can fail is by taking on too much. Get your ego under control and commit that which you can reasonably do and no more. If you take on too much, you have a greater chance of failing and if you fail, you’ll quit and never try again.

## Quotes

- Now that I have succeeded (if succeeded I have) in persuading you to admit to yourself that you are constantly haunted by a suppressed dissatisfaction with your own arrangement of your daily life; and that the primal cause of that inconvenient dissatisfaction is the feeling that you are every day leaving undone something which you would like to do, and which, indeed, you are always hoping to do when you have “more time.”
- “I do not suggest that you should employ three hours every night of your life in using up your mental energy. But I do suggest that you might, for a commencement, employ an hour and a half every other evening in some important and consecutive cultivation of the mind.”
- “The man who begins to go to bed forty minutes before he opens his bedroom door is bored; that is to say, he is not living.”
- “Happiness does not spring from the procuring of physical or mental pleasure, but from the development of reason and the adjustment of conduct to principles.”
- “When one has thoroughly got imbued into one’s head the leading truth that nothing happens without a cuase, one grows not only large-minded, but large-hearted.”
    - “One loses, in the study of cause and effect, that absurd air which  so many people have of being always shocked and pained by the curiousness of life.”
    - **************************************Nothing is humdrum.************************************** There is a cause and effect to everything.
    - **********************He’s saying here, essentially, that if you don’t like literature or art, then study why things are the way that they are–the cause and effect relationship between stuff in the world**********************.
- “The whole field of daily habit and scene is waiting to satisfy that curiosity which means life, and the satisfaction of which means an understanding heart.”
- “The best novels involve the least strain.”
- “The proper, wise balancing of one’s whole life may depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour.”


How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett

My life organization/productivity system for 2023 consists of 6 tools:

- Daily logbook and journal
- Notion
- Things
- Notecards
- Google Calendar
- Apple Reminders

I’m keeping this as simple as I possibly can. I don’t want to spend any time optimizing my productivity system in 2023. Instead, I want to spend that time actually doing work that needs to get done (imagine that).

## **Daily logbook and journal**

My daily logbook and journal is just that…a daily logbook. I was inspired by [Austin Kleon](https://austinkleon.com/2010/01/31/logbook/) for this idea.

On one side, I’ll do a [time blocked calendar](https://medium.com/rohdesign/the-daily-plan-bar-357972361096). Next to that will be the day’s tasks and reminders and what time I woke up that day, what I read, how long I ran, and what workout I did. Below that will be empty space to doodle or jot down fleeting thoughts and ideas I have during the day that I want to think about later.

Having empty space to write down thoughts is important because often, when I’m reading a book, I’ll come across a neat idea or story related to something else. Instead of saving that in the moment and ruining the flow of reading, I can jot down the idea and page number and return to it later. If I don’t come back to it, it probably wasn’t that great of an idea. I also do this with posting quotes on Twitter and Instagram. Again, instead of interrupting my reading flow, I can just jot down the page number with a ***“”*** symbol and post the picture later.

<SideNote title={On that note…} content={I’m looking for an easy way to organize all my book and article screenshots that I post. Any ideas? Let me know here. I’d like to take a picture of a book on my phone or a screenshot of an article on either of my computers and automatically send it to a special folder so I can re-post them later. In the meantime, when I do my weekly review and clear out my desktop and downloads folder, I manually copy them into a folder.} /> 

## **Notion**

Notion–the King of notes and organizational products–will do just that: manage my notes and help organize my life. I was tempted to organize Notion using the convenient [PARA method](https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/), but I eventually decided against it.

My reasoning: I don’t feel like I have enough resources, projects, or tasks for different areas of my life right now and adding the PARA system just added more complexity than it solved, so it wasn’t worth it.

Instead, I have a few databases that manage my blog CMS, YouTube, blog, and newsletter ideas, and then a database to hold all other notes. That’s sort of a “catch-all” for notes that wouldn’t otherwise belong in either of the databases I have. For example, if I take a one-off course in the early days of book publishing, I would just put that note in my Notes and Docs database.

I could see this becoming too cluttered, but I think that’s okay. The nature of these notes is for accessing them when I need them and not for discoverability or interconnectedness. So if I know I took notes on something, I know it will be in that database somewhere. Things like operating manuals for home appliances, notes about working out and eating right, and a note for brainstorming what 2023 will look like are all currently in that database. When in doubt, I place a note here. I like that cushion.

If a topic or something starts to overtake that database, I can create a new one for those notes. I like that flexibility.

Notion is also integrated with Readwise, which helps me process all my highlights from articles, papers, and e-books, which leads to…

## **Notecards**

Notecards: the atomic building blocks of my creative process for 2023. Continuing in my desire to stay analog with as many things as I could, I decided to go all in on using notecards for at least the first quarter of 2023. I learned this system from [Ryan Holiday](https://ryanholiday.net/the-notecard-system-the-key-for-remembering-organizing-and-using-everything-you-read/), who learned it from Robert Greene, who probably learned it from someone else. My friend [Billy Oppenheimer](https://twitter.com/bpoppenheimer), who is Ryan Holiday’s research assistant, [wrote a great article on how he uses the notecard system](https://billyoppenheimer.com/notecard-system/) if you want to learn the intricacies of it.

As a quick overview, here’s what it looks like for me:

**For articles and online PDFs**

1. Highlights get added to Notion from Readwise
2. Highlights get processed. Anything that I want to keep gets transferred to a notecard with the title and author of the source on the back (this will help me find it again later).
3. Write a title for the card and put it on the front of the stack.
4. Repeat

**For books**

The process is similar, but instead of going from Readwise to Notion, my book notes go from annotations and marginalia in the book to Notion. Because [I publish my book notes online](https://www.dltn.io/notes), I want to save everything digitally. The ideas that stand out the most get added to notecards with a reference to the book.

During my weekly review, I’ll lay out the new cards, flip through my old ones and see if they connect somehow. This is a hard process for me because I’m a linear thinker and like to have strict categories. I’m trying to be less rigid here, though. It’s okay if the card doesn’t connect with others or if I don’t see themes identifying themselves right away. I’m playing the long game with these. Collect, collect, collect.

Fanning through a few hundred notecards isn’t the fastest way to retrieve something you found. Still, it’s the best way to continuously revisit what you already wrote and had forgotten, which is the essence of a good note-taking system.

<SideNote title={Aside} content={I’m beginning to think all good note-taking systems **need** to be hard, and they need to be manual. If you outsource all of your thinking to the latest and greatest AI bots or apps with automatic backlinking and tags, who is really doing the thinking and creating?} /> 

## **Miscellaneous**

The rest of the stack is minimal. I’ll use Google Calendar for appointments, Things for tasks (not to be confused with [Thing](https://addamsfamily.fandom.com/wiki/Thing)), and Apple reminders for on the go reminders. Apple reminders get imported into Things which allow me to do a lot with them. I often have ideas when I’m driving and since I have CarPlay, I can just tap the Siri button and say, “Remind me tonight about how all planets’ moons are named after the planet’s gods counterpart.”

Out of context that looks like mumbo jumbo, but I know exactly what it’s referring to. When I see that in Things at the end of the day or the next morning, I can add a notecard with that idea.

I use Things minimally as well. I dump tasks in there and use it as a guide for the weekly and daily tasks I need to complete during my logbook. I rarely use the Projects or Areas feature because, again, my life isn’t that complicated right now. I do have a few projects in there now though. One is a project called “To Revisit” which are movies or tv shows I want to watch and another project is called “Things to get done over break,” which is a list of tasks I want to complete during the Christmas break (not going well so far since both my wife and I have been sick for a week).

I have another project called “My Site” which is a list of things I want to fix, add, or remove from my blog. I built it last year and am always finding cool things on other people’s sites that I want to add. Instead of getting distracted (read: optimizing the system) and doing it right away, I dump everything in that project so I know I won’t forget it.

**BS Hour**

One new thing I’m going to try scheduling into my week is a couple “BS Hours.” I’m not sure where I read this from (though I remember it being recently), but they said they schedule BS hours in their week to do the boring administration stuff that comes with being an adult. I’m notorious for neglecting these things, and it hurts (both mentally and financially).

I have a small box in my office that collects BS Hour work. I put things like mail I need to read or bills I need to pay in there. If I have another task I need to do, like get new windshield wipers or run to the dump, I write that down on a sticky note and place it in the bin. When BS Hour comes, I grab the bin and fan through the papers to see what I can tackle.

**Make boring work fun**

Something [Khe Hy](https://twitter.com/khemaridh) talks about is making boring work exciting. When he is working on menial tasks, he [likes to play his favorite music and drink his favorite cocktail](https://twitter.com/jspector/status/1607884208642592768?s=20&t=V8c28815Ll2Td_ZzdOaHCQ). It usually happens on Thursday and Friday afternoons because it’s hard for him to get deep work done during those hours.

My Analog and Digital Productivity System for 2023

Here's how I'm thinking of New Years Resolutions.

Instead of asking yourself what you want to accomplish this year, ask yourself **who you want to become at the end of it. **At the end of 2022, who do you want to be?

Personally, I want to be a developer and writer. At the end of 2022, I want to be able to build software and have an audience looking forward to my musings each time I hit publish. If that happens, 2022 will be a success for me.

Now it's your turn. Who do *you* want to be at the end of 2022? Someone different from who you are now? How so? Maybe you love who you are now and want to embrace that even more this year. Great! That makes things easy, but it's still going to take work to maintain that.

Once you've determined the person you want to become, figure out how that person spends their time. This will be your focuses for the year. I know developers spend their time building products, learning new languages, and maintaining their current projects. I know writers write, no matter how they feel, and they read a lot of different material for ideas. Therefore, I know my year will be spent writing (blogs and code) and reading. So, my focuses for 2022 are writing and reading.

At this point, you should understand who you want to become and what that person spends their time doing. If you love who you are, just do more of what you did in 2021.

Now, take whatever that person spends their time doing and turn them into habits for the New Year. There's plenty of resources out there on this, but this article from James Clear is one of my favorites:[ "7 Strategies to Help You Bounce Back After Slipping Up."](https://jamesclear.com/get-back-on-track)

Remember, every action you take is a vote for the type of person you become. There is no action too small to start with, but there are actions too big to start with. Start with small, tiny changes and watch yourself be transformed into a new person at the end of the year.