Using Intention to Stay Present
Removing the worry of acting out of priority
One of the simplest yet most important lessons I’ve learned from obsessing over productivity is to get the right things done. Working in order of priority is about 95% of the game, and if you can figure out how to execute on these priorities, you will go a long way. But for an extreme optimizer like myself, even if I am acting in priority, the fear that I might not be is a source of stress.
A good example of this is with my old workout routine. I had a high-level vision for what my strategy was: hit the gym almost every day and rotate between different exercises and muscle groups so I could get stronger. Because I’d developed a fair amount of discipline and working out had always been a habit of mine, I executed on the plan pretty well and was able to achieve what I wanted. But, even though in retrospect I did what I needed, I always found myself stressed that I was doing too much of a certain exercise, that I was taking too many rest days in a week, or that any given workout wasn’t the right one for that day.
What I’ve realized since then is that there is value in not only doing the right thing but also knowing you’re doing the right thing.
Now of course what’s “right” is subjective and there probably is no “right” thing you can be doing, but what I’m talking about here is gaining the security that you are acting based on the well-thought-out priorities you made and plans you previously created.
To demonstrate what I mean by this, I want to tell you about my current workout routine. Because I’m training for a marathon (to raise money for a very important cause), I created a spreadsheet with all the run distances I need to complete for the next few months. And I also created a rule that I would have 3 strength workouts a week and 1 yoga session. Then, before every week, I sit down and layout when I want to perform each workout. Because of this system, when I go on my run Monday morning, I feel confident that I am in the right place, doing the right thing, to accomplish what I’m after.
The point here is not that you have to plan your entire life down to a T or that your gameplan has…
