1/7 🧵 5 Things I Got Wrong About Productivity

I used to think productivity was all about discipline, perfect time management, and cramming as much as possible into my calendar.

Here’s what I’ve realised over the years: 2/7 Productivity isn’t just discipline

It’s more about feeling good—being happier, less stressed, and more energised. When I feel good, my to-do list is way easier to tackle.

I used to make the mistake of thinking that I could fit everything into my life.

Work, hobbies, fitness, friends, family, a side-hustle, chores AND time to rest and recover.

But the truth is that we DON’T have time for everything. And that’s okay 👇 There’s a pretty common metaphor used to describe how you should prioritise your life, and it goes like this.

Imagine your life is an empty glass. The things you consider to be the foundations of your life - your family, your job - are big stones that you put into the glass.

We all want to get the best night's sleep possible.

Here's a mega thread of top tips to improve your sleep routine 🧵 1) It starts in the morning 🌞

Exposure to light in the morning sets our body clocks properly. Taking a walk first thing will give your body the light it needs to tell the time and start your day right.

How can we build a life that we love?

This is an evidence-based life design framework that I come back to every few years. I hope it helps you too 🧵 Step 1: Identify what matters to you

Step 2: Experiment with ideas

Step 3: Iterate on the good parts

I wasted seven years of my life.

And it was all because I was scared.

But you don’t have to learn the hard way.

Here's how to stop fear holding you back. It took me seven years to make my first YouTube video and launch my business.

I’d block out time in my calendar and sit down to film, but for some reason I just couldn’t do it and I didn’t know why.

At first I thought I was being a perfectionist.

When we’re feeling really stressed out, it can be tempting to drop everything and hide in bed, ignoring our responsibilities and numbing ourselves with Netflix or doom-scrolling. You might feel better in the short term, but in the long run this tends to cause more harm than good. Your mood will drop and you’ll only get more behind, leaving to even more anxiety.

Can't attend the Annual Planning Workshop today? No worries!

You can still join in on the fun by answering the following prompts to help you reflect on the past year and manifest your best self for 2024 🎉

Let's start by reflecting on 2023 👇 📅 Key Events: What actually happened in 2023? Take a look through your calendar (or camera roll) and note down the key moments from each month.

Do you have a beginner’s mindset?

If so, this could be a huge advantage.

Here’s why 👇 When we hear the words ‘beginner’s mindset’, we might conjure up some negative ideas. Perhaps you think of amateurism, or a lack of commitment or knowledge.

But it turns out that thinking like a beginner can help even the most talented people perform at their absolute best.

Of all the skills I’m glad I’ve learned, confidence is pretty high up the list.

But it’s less about finding confidence in the skills I already have, that’s the easy part. The real value I discovered, was learning to believe in my ability to figure things out and *become* confident over time.

But this is not easy.

While I was researching for my book, I dived into the science of productivity. Confidence was something that cropped up everywhere.

In the early 1970s, the psychologist Edward Deci became intrigued by a simple question. What motivates people to do hard things? This is what he found 👇 In 1970, he published a paper asking people to solve a puzzle called the Soma cube. He found that those who were offered money for solving the puzzle were less likely to enjoy the task, compared to those who weren’t offered anything.

Would you start something if you knew you were going to fail?

If this tweet were a poll, I can hazard a guess that most of you would click no. I think I would too at first thought. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in the past 6 years is that fear and procrastination are emotional problems that we can very easily overcome.

Here are 3 ways to reframe your thinking 🧠

If I could only share one lesson with the world, it would be this.

Procrastination is an emotional problem.

You don’t put things off because you’re lazy, unmotivated, or lack discipline. We put things off because it’s the easiest way to cope with the negative feelings caused by a daunting task.

And one of the most common obstacles we face is fear.

So, here’s why fear could be holding you back - and some actionable steps you can take to overcome it.

I've tried numerous strategies to overcome productivity inertia.

Here are 6 essential lessons I've learned about creating and sustaining momentum in our work. 🛞 Inertia in Action

Our actions (or lack thereof) follow Newton's First Law. Like a ball that won't move until pushed, our tasks need that initial nudge too.

I've experienced this firsthand. Writing a chapter can feel daunting at first, but once I start, the inertia is broken

I used to wake up tired every morning 💤

This 9-step sleep routine saved my life (Based on science): 1 - Get Your Hours In

I aim for 7-9 hours of sleep every night.

Studies show that less than 7 hours a night leads to:

1. Depression
2. Weight gain
3. Heart disease

Instead of obsessing about an exact amount, experiment & see where between 7-9 hours has you feeling your best.

I've read pretty much every book on productivity and time management.

Here are my top time management tips that I genuinely use 👇 ⏰ We own all of our time - at any given moment we're doing what we most want to do. If we decide to play WoW or scroll twitter like a wasteman then we can't say "I don't have time to workout". We're all in control of our time and choose how to prioritise it.

If you're struggling to stay consistent with literally any goal, try applying the Atomic Habits mindset.

Here's how👇 Let's use YouTube as an example:

1. What’s your goal + why?
I'd suggest 1 video a week. It's important to affirm what content you want to make and why at the beginning, to motivate yourself.

2. What tasks will help you get there?
i.e. research, scripting, filming, editing

In 6 years of YouTube, the most common question I still get from my viewers is “how are you so productive?”

So here’s a thread of 15 actionable tips that help me do more of the things that matter to me, without burning out. 1 - Set a Daily Highlight. Each morning, ask yourself “what’s the most important thing I want to do today?” and then make sure you just do that thing. When you do this everyday (or even most days) for a whole year, you make an incredible amount of progress.

Overthinking nearly stopped me from starting my Youtube channel.

A decision that changed my life forever.

5 proven strategies that helped me stop overthinking 👇 Most people I know struggle with overthinking.

Even creators with millions of followers that look like they have it all figured out.

Overthinking is basically when we stop ourselves from doing things because we are too much in our heads.

I used to be shy & have no confidence.

Now, I’ve built a YouTube channel with over 4,500,000 subscribers.

Here are 5-hacks I use to be confident on camera: 1. The 2 modes of thinking about the camera 📸

Mode 1: Coffee mode ☕️

Treat the camera as if you were having coffee with a friend.

This is good for things like:

1. Sales calls
2. Zoom meetings
3. YouTube videos

Everyone’s #1 goal in life:

Happiness.

Follow this 3-step process to live a life you love: Step-1. Identify. 🆔

The first step is to identify what a life you love would look like.

You can group your life into 3 categories:

1. Health
2. Wealth
3. Relationships

Most people work until they’re 70 & don’t get freedom until they retire.

Here’s how you can retire in the next 10 years starting from $0: 1. 3 levels of retirement. 3️⃣

Level 1. Traditional retirement.

This is the most common type of retirement, which involves working until the age of 65 or 70 and then relying on welfare.