Notion Chris

When was the last time you actively recalled anything?

As in, spent time to remember something important without a sticky note?

I can't count the number of times, I'd been derailed for a couple of days, because I simply forgot what's important.

There is no perfect solution to your productivity troubles.

Committing to a technique or tool is where the change is.

It really doesn't matter what you choose.

At a certain point, that deliberate effort becomes a part of you.

Nothing is more gratifying than when that thing stretches you to your limit, which is now second nature.

It'll happen eventually, I promise.

Doing something new for the first time is about just doing it for a while.

You are literally carving a pattern into your brain.

Don't stop a good thing, because it doesn't "feel" satisfying, yet.

Something I’ve realized about managing fatigue or exhaustion:

Your headspace can determine your levels of fatigue.

Feeling bummed? Low energy.
Feeling Excited? High energy.

Either way, the outcome shouldn't change. Your "energy" levels is just perception.

Tip you should hang on your wall:

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

If I had a dollar every time I thought I found the answer to my problems, only to realize that it's going to be harder than I initially thought.

I'd have 282 dollars.

If you don't know how to use Notion, why would you pay someone to set it up for you?

You are just buying into the sales talk.

If I had never committed to Notion and continued to dip my toes, I would have never realized that willpower doesn't have to be at the root of every effort.

Are people really working 12-hour days? Or are they ignoring the hours of breaks in between? Genuinely curious.

You’re one committed act away from changing everything you'd ever known!

I've been writing away behind closed doors for 5 years.

I haven't been in a new environment long enough to make a single new friend during that time.

It sucks.

But, I've learned more about myself than in the other 30 years of being alive. That's worth it.

You aren't special. A schedule is something everyone can benefit from. If you think it's not for you, then you probably suck at scheduling.

Why would you not plan your ideal day?

You’re one committed act away from changing everything you'd ever known.

2024 is coming to a close.

Here are the most important lessons I learned this year:

Are people really working 14-hour days? Or are they ignoring the hours of breaks in between? Genuinely curious.

The first thing I adopted from Stoicism was pressing towards understanding my lifespan.

I think about it every day.

What motivates me more?

My puppy only lives 15 years 🐶

Fear is the most weasely emotion.

It'll disguise itself as timing, patience, or even masked virtue.

In the end, when the thing doesn't get done, fear has won.

The biggest mistake I've made in these past 5 years of solopreneurship:

Not building a steady stream of wins.

Going straight for the ideal outcome isn't how you get there faster. It'll become a reminder of how much further you have to go.

If someone could teach me anything, it wouldn't be how to work optimally.

It would be how to relax as deeply as possible.

The only signal I can trust when I need to take a break isn't when I feel overwhelmed.

It's when I fixate on the hundreds of tasks that need doing and my eye starts to spasm.

Anything before that is just a signal.

I still don't know how to find a niche. It seems like a question to throw people off the trail.

The closest I've gotten is by publishing content and seeing what resonates.

All those hours of self-discovery did nearly nothing.

Productivity legitimately changed my life.

Before:
- Stressed out
- Couldn't focus longer than 5 minutes
- Getting nowhere, quick

After:
- Sit down to do work, no thinking involved
- Learned to measure growth so that I do feel progress
- Satisfied with the effort alone

In these five years, despite not achieving any huge "successes", would I do it over, again?

I can't deny how much I've gained. The person that I am now, is significantly more compassionate than when I first started. I had to be.

How could I pass up a chance to find that connection with myself?

I spent an unbelievable amount of time pursuing what I thought I should have, before figuring out why I should live.

The worst thing you can do is to be your own critic.

You aren't being humble.

You're not avoiding an ego.

You are just beating yourself up, because you can.

It isn't enough to scrape by when you can barely commit to the task.

It'll infect everything that you do.

The secret is diving head first despite the lack of energy. That's where the excitement comes from.

Never in my life has being different led to the idealism of a Hollywood movie.

Being different sucks. To be different is friction.

If you want something different, you know you're heading in the right direction when you're treated as such.

I used to make the mistake of:

I need to catch up by working 5x as hard. I wasted a lot of time.

It took me a long time to learn the reason why, as I compared myself to people I didn't even know.

I don't I've ever felt excited during all aspects of my "passions".

Usually, it's a couple of things that are well worth the all other uncomfortable bits.