Life is a Problem of Design, not Circumstance
“People get the mind and quality of brain that hey deserve through their actions in life.” — Robert Greene, Mastery
We have to embrace chance and uncertainty in our lives otherwise we end up crushed by unexpected events. The good news is, I think we can create a day-to-day design that allows us to strive.
It’s funny how things come together sometimes. This post wasn’t planned, or at least not in this way and certainly not for today. As fate would have it today’s Stoic lecture from The Daily Stoic would emphasize on the fact we need to have a plan for our life: “Life without a design erratic,” Seneca said. Chances are we get overwhelmed pretty fast when things go not as we hoped they would.
After reading the teachings from The Daily Stoic, I noticed an email in my inbox: “Designing Your Life Starts With Designing Your Days” by Srini Rao. How circumstantial yet perfectly fitting to what Seneca and Ryan Holiday had to say about this topic.
So, I decided to put together small design framework for my own day-to-day life with the help of other books and articles I’ve read in the past.
I hate listicles, and I refuse to make this a five-item list called “5 things you need to do to create a successful day”, or anything like that. However, I think we need to keep the following items in order, so they make sense:
1. What’s your end goal?
Right in the introduction of Law 29 of his book “The 48 Laws of Power”, Robert Greene tells us that we need to plan all the way to the end:
“The ending is everything. Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others. By planning to the end, you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances, and you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking ahead.”
When you don’t know where you want to sail no wind is favorable, as Seneca put it more philosophically.
So, what’s your goal?
(You could use the technique of the ONE thing to determine what it is you want to achieve.)
I think we need at least a basic idea of what our goal is!
2. Lay out your perfect day
The key is feeling in control of our time. Even though that’s not always possible what we can do is manage the time we do have that is not under the control of others. We need to create a system that allows us to do just that.
Michael Hyatt has an excellent example of a day-to-day planning schedule on his blog. Hyatt even confirms the “end goal” theory at the beginning of his post: “Sure, you can’t plan for everything. Things happen that you can’t anticipate. But it is a whole lot easier to accomplish what matters most when you are proactive and begin with the end in mind.”
Now, create your plan for today, tomorrow, even the whole week if you can … but don’t lose yourself in too many details. The point here is to get a picture of what you want to achieve during the day, not to plan for every minute of it because that won’t work.
There is no one-size-fits-all to this, and we have to experiment with what works for us! Don’t look for the perfect system, start with something and adapt it to your needs. If it doesn’t work at all, discard it. Don’t be dogmatic either!
3. Schedule your work and habits
When we don’t plan ahead, we might as well surrender to life completely. Others demand our time for meetings, unforeseen appointments pop up, and we get busy with minor tasks instead of working on our priorities. This even happens to great minds like Cal Newport, who wrote the masterpiece “Deep Work” and the quake book “So good they can’t ignore you.” He discovered that by the time his average week started his calendar was already full, but not necessarily with things we wanted to get done but with time blocks others push onto him for interviews, meetings, etc.
Obviously, this is not ideal. What did Cal do? He created a tactic that would guarantee he has enough time for his deep work sessions and his most important tasks; he calls it “deep scheduling.”
“I now schedule my deep work on my calendar four weeks in advance. That is, at any given point, I should have deep work scheduled for roughly the next month.
Once on the calendar, I protect this time like I would a doctor’s appointment or important meeting. If you try to schedule something during a deep work block I’ll insist I’m not available.” — Cal Newport
The key to success here is to protecting your time from the outside world as much as possible. I want to point out that we don’t need any particular app for this to work. Any calendar will do the trick.
So, what are your most important habits and tasks any given day that need protection from others?
Put those in your calendar first. Maybe even weeks in advance.
4. Start right now, and show up every day
“Without consistency, your inner critic will write off your attempt to make a change as nothing more than a moment of more inspiration and hokey new age bullshit. If you’re going to experience significant and lasting change, consistency is an essential ingredient. When you’re consistent about something, your habits become part of your identity.” — Srini Rao
Consistency is king!
I’ll bet that you would notice some things when you show up at the Gym every day: I think it is logical that a gym is most crowded in January when a lot of people start their New Years Resolutions to live a healthier life, get stronger or whatever they tell themselves. After a few weeks, usually not more than three or four, most of those people tend to vanish from the surface of the earth. You don’t see them anymore at the gym. However, you keep grinding at your physique. Getting stronger week by week because you show up, and you will get the results for your hard work!
When Michaelangelo was asked how he was able to produce his masterwork David, he responded, “I cut away everything that did not look like David.” He didn’t finish his sculpture within a day or two. He showed up every day for three years (1501–1504) to do it.
I think, slow and steady wins the race in this case. If we keep being patient at the macro level and grinding on a micro level, things start to work.
5. Have a plan for unexpected
“It’s the chaos the ensues from not having a plan. Not because plans are perfect, but because people without plans — like a line of infantry-men without a strong leader — are much more likely to get overwhelmed and fall apart.” — Ryan Holiday
Nassim Nicholas Taleb tells us to not become the turkey on Thanksgiving because the turkey is fed all year long hence life must be good, but guess what: the turkey is right until Thanksgiving arrives.
How do we avoid the turkey-problem? Luckily, professor of psychology Gabriele Oettingen provides us with a tool that helps us to prepare for these situations in advance, and she calls it “WOOP”:
W: Wish
O: Outcome
O: Obstacle
P: Plan
For the sake of time, I focus on the last two letters: O and P
O: The obstacle in WOOP is a method that lets us think of anything that might stand in our way to accomplish our goals. Think of everything — whether internal or external — that could be a (major) obstacle in your path.
P: Now comes the important part. Once you know what could stand in your way, you have to develop a plan to overcome it. “Form an if-then plan,” Prof. Oettingen tells us. Meaning: “If obstacle x occurs (when and where), then I will perform behavior y.”
I highly recommend reading her book “Rethinking Positive Thinking”!
I hope you enjoyed this post. If you do, hit that heart button. It would mean the world to me when more people can read it. Thank you!
