The Nerdist Way_ How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) - Chris Hardwick [71]
Bad Busy: Anything that does not involve your goals or move you closer to them in any way, pushing you instead into a cul-de-sac of unproductiveness. Tim Ferriss calls this “procrasturbating,” a word I’m jealous I didn’t come up with.
Now, BAD BUSY can also equal “fun times” playing video games, mindlessly surfing the webs, looking for animal faces in ceiling tiles, whatever you do to check out. Fun times are important because you need to decompress, but when fun times start eclipsing “good busy,” that’s when they become “bad times.” Now listen to “Best of Times” by Styx.
So how do you keep the voracious FUN TIMES from devouring your productivity? Simple, Nerd! You schedule it! Now, I’m sure that your child glands will initially reject this idea because it might seem that scheduling fun is some kind of square thing that account executives do in between spreadsheets. WHILE THAT MAY BE TRUE, that doesn’t make it any less of an excellent thing to do. In your calendar program, add a calendar devoted only to fun activities. Make it orange or something if you want it to feel “wacky” because you’re “a real card.”
The advantage to scheduling your fun time is that you NEVER have to feel guilty about it. You’ve EARNED it. Also you’ll appreciate it more and it will motivate you to work harder to get to it.
CHARACTERCIZE
Tag your common activities as “Good Busy” or “Bad Busy.”
Make sure you have a proper balance that you are sure is moving you in the direction you want to go.
RELAXING
Truthfully, I am TERRIBLE at this. In full disclosure, I try to do it, but my mind always drifts back to work. In a perfect scenario, I would take regular vacations. When I have indeed done this, it was because I put it in the calendar and STUCK TO IT. There’s always going to be something, a reason not to go. But you HAVE to do it. Recharging is an important part of brain maintenance. If you’re busy all the time, it’s important for your self-image to reward yourself. I’m sure you have an authority figure in your life from whom you cherish praise and emotional rewards, but I think the most important person to look to for rewards is yourself. It’s about acknowledging that you’re on the right path and that you approve of your actions. It will reinforce your decision making and clear your head for new ideas.
Whatever your work environment may be, try to make your vacation environment the OPPOSITE. Mix it up. If you work in a big city, take a nature trip. If you’re in the verdant Pacific Northwest, go to a beach or take in the Great Plains. (BTW, as a touring comic I have to recommend being a tourist in America. I have seen so many wonderful places in this country that most people wouldn’t think of when choosing a vacation. We are a diverse land and people. Just don’t order that Asian chicken salad in Kansas.)
CHARACTERCIZE
Write down some ways you can relax.
Plan your dream vacation in detail.
Use it as a goal to motivate you.
HOW TO CONTROL TIME
You can’t control time in a Doctor Who fashion, jumping forward and back, across dimensions, doing really cool things with a flying police box (damn, I WISH!!!). But you can control the SPEED of time. Not absolute time, but relative time. I believe the latter matters as much, if not more than the former.
How many of your friends have said to you recently, “Man! This year has just FLOWN by! What the hell happened??” The last few years seem to have moved at an unbelievable pace, to the point where it feels difficult to grasp sometimes. So what DID happen? Did the space-time continuum start going to universe raves and doing meth? That would be rad. The more likely answer is that technology happened. The dawn of the smartphone era happened. Once Apple changed the game and everyone else followed suit, we became a culture of beings with fully functioning web-enabled devices. At any given moment, we have access to the sum total of human knowledge. Granted, we don’t often use the Internet to tap this knowledge. Though I