How many of you have started the new year with a list of things you want to change? Or a list of things you ought to get?
What are you planning to buy/do/change?
One thing? A hundred?
What if you don't need to add new things to your already busy schedule, but simply keep doing the things you're already doing?
That was my resolution after my notebook session on the first of January.
Each year, I sit down with myself to figure out what I should do/change in the coming year. And for the first time ever, I don't have anything new on the list. I'm not saying that my life is amazing or that I have figured it all out. Far from it. Rather, it's that I've found the things that are working out for me. And now, I simply have to keep doing them.
On the surface, this looks amazing: "I know what I should do, and I don't need to look for more things!"
But when you think about it, you can see that it's quite a dreadful insight.
The dim realization when you've found a working tool, routine, project, idea is that you must keep doing/using it.
You know what you have to do, and that's precisely the problem.
Considered from a different angle, I've concluded that there are two main stages in life:
- Do different stuff till you figure out what you need to do.
- Do the thing you need to do.
The first phase is messy and unorganized, but also quite fun.
It's like when you are single, and you get to go out with different people. Sure, you are lonely and depressed most of the time, but there is a huge dose of excitement when you get to meet others.
Similarly, when you're still determining your future, you acquire books, courses, swarm your life with productivity apps, and consume countless YouTube videos in the pursuit of figuring things out.
You justify enrolling in a shady online course because it should supposedly help you with "finding yourself."
You defend keeping your TikTok account because it allows you to escape from your dreadful reality.
You justify purchasing a ton of merch from social media celebrities because it empowers the self-image you are desperately trying to relate to.
And then, at some point, you find it. The routine, the tool, the idea that can transform your life. At first, it feels exciting - like a romantic honeymoon phase. Eventually, it transforms into a methodical and sometimes even boring activity - you probably know what I mean if you've been working the same job for more than a couple of years.
Part of you craves novelty, but the rational part knows that you must stick to the established path.
If the first phase is about exploration and dreaming big, the second is about buckling down and consistently doing the boring, mundane things - i.e., getting good at boring.
Worth reflecting on:
What do you need to keep doing daily, despite how you feel about it?
To keep doing the same set of things (routines, tasks, chores) over and over again is the hardest problem in life.
I've spent a good chunk of my life trying to find the perfect productivity system; The ultimate machinery that would upgrade my life to the next level.
Well, after having the opportunity to live for a while and to peek into the lives of experts - someone credible, others not so much - I've concluded that there is no shortcut. No life-hack that will suddenly change your life - only gimmicks pitched as savior tools.
It's all about the good old-fashioned doing the work daily.
For me, this daily sandwich of sameness includes activities like writing, exercising, keeping distance from sugar, and avoiding the social media vortex. What about you?
Worth reading:
From my desk:
- 7 Reasons Why You’re Still Unsuccessful: "Why are you still unsuccessful? The online world is booming with advice on how to make it big. How to crawl out from under the suffocating layers of mediocrity and climb to the peak of greatness – just like those totally trustworthy dudes and chicks that sell success-in-a-bottle on social media. Which part of their overhyped, self-congratulatory monolog you didn’t get? The part where…"
From around the web:
- Japanese Philosophies That’ll Help You Have a Work-Life Balance: "Asobi teaches us the importance of play in our lives. Play relaxes us amidst the stress and busyness of life. Play engages our minds to be creative, think outside the box and glue unrelated ideas. Play makes us human. Yet, we often dismiss any play time in favor of productivity. We see play as a waste of time and instead aim to squeeze every minute of our lives into work."
Worth thinking about:
"Our culture is concerned primarily with production and
consumption of things. In this process of being primarily concerned with things, the ever-increasing production, the ever-increasing consumption we ourselves transform ourselves into
things without knowing it. We lose our individuality in spite of
the fact that we talk a lot about it."
― Erich Fromm
Happy 2025!
I know, it's not exactly the beginning of the year, but I'm not exactly following a strict schedule with my newsletter either.
I ended 2024 with an announcement about launching a new thing, a new project, a new way to make more people care about note-taking. But after preparing nearly everything, I decided to shut it down. To kill the thing before it has a chance to see the light of day. And more importantly, before it turns into a chore.
I'll discuss my reasoning at some later point - probably in the next edition.
So, what about you? What are your priorities for 2025?
Wishing you all the best!
Regards,
