Your Productivity Philosophy is Useless Without This
Are you wasting your time and energy?
The problem with my “second brain”
After finally setting up my “second brain” on the Twos app, I had a systematic way to save and organize all my ideas. This setup not only made it easy to externalize noteworthy information from my brain to my “second brain”, but also helped me plan my entire life step by step.
However, within just a week, my “Inbox” list — where I initially capture everything before organizing it — started overflowing with ideas. Despite their brilliance, the sheer volume of thoughts shifted me from a state of hope to one of paralysis.
This pattern wasn’t limited to my ideas; it was everywhere in my life, from the broadest to the most specific aspects. My lists of books to read, topics to write about, supplements to research, skills to practice, and exercises to try were all growing rapidly. My YouTube “Watch Later” list mirrored this, filled with countless, intriguing videos I wanted to watch and implement.
“How can I possibly complete all of this?” I wondered, feeling demotivated by the overwhelming number of tasks.
The paradox of choice and a lack of a clear path were the perfect recipe for procrastination. The unchecked growth of chaos forced me to look away.
The law of the vital few
I tried to further organize different ideas from my Inbox list into respective categories like “Professional” and “Personal,” and then into sublists, since not all professional ideas or projects are the same. While this helped, it wasn’t enough to shift me from inaction to action.
Then, a thought struck me: “Not all ideas are equal.” This is true, not just in the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule/the law of the vital few) sense that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes, but also in that the 20% itself isn’t homogeneous.
Knowing which 200 project ideas will yield 80% of the results out of 1,000 ideas is valuable, but even within those 200, not all ideas are equal. The Pareto principle should be applied repeatedly to narrow down to the most impactful few.
Before diving into specifics, let’s understand this concept properly.
Return on investment
Throughout my life, I’ve tackled too many medium-to-long-term problems by immediately trying to solve them as they appeared. On the surface, this seems stoic, but I’ve learned it’s a flawed approach.
This habit of getting swept away by new and enticing interests distracted me from previous projects, leaving many incomplete. I did a little bit of everything but never delved deep enough into a project to see meaningful results.
Our reservoir of attention, willpower, and resources is limited. We must direct their use for the highest return on investment.
For example, I used to constantly switch up my workout routine based on new information. I changed not just the exercises, but also the workout split, timing, and nutritional protocols. I tried to build muscle without first addressing foundational issues like my weak rotator cuffs, muscle imbalances, poor mobility, flexibility, and lifting skills. This led to repeated injuries, forcing me to take breaks or use lighter weights. Jumping ahead never speeds you up; it always slows you down. Always.
Eventually, I accepted the importance of proper prioritization and focused on fixing what needed to be fixed first.
This principle applies to every pursuit
This principle applies to every pursuit. By focusing on foundations and resisting the urge to jump to something new and exciting before you’re ready, you can amplify your productivity like never before.
Here are some examples of where prioritization can be applied (hint: everything):
- Which book to read first
- Which injury to prioritize
- Which exercises to prioritize in the gym
- Which exercise adaptation to prioritize out of the 9 mentioned by Andy Galpin
- Which social skill to prioritize
- Which chapter to finish studying first
- Which video editing skill to learn first
- Which supplement to start taking
By spending time on the foundations, you’ll realize that many of your ideas aren’t as valuable as you once thought. You’ll start getting a clearer picture of the map.
Now let’s move to the specifics.
To start, understand that we’re focusing on impact to determine what should be done first. There are two other factors we can’t ignore: urgency and enjoyment. We’ll discuss those later.
Suppose you want to start learning about business (the logic we use here can be generalized to other areas as well). There are thousands of good business books, but we shouldn’t just pick one at random. The book that covers business in the broadest sense will teach you the most. You should get an overview first to understand not just what X and Y mean, but how X and Y are related.
Starting with a comprehensive resource is like having a map before exploring a new city. You get a sense of direction, landmarks, and how different areas connect. Once you have this high-level understanding, you can dive deeper into specific topics that catch your interest or that you deem most valuable.
In other words, the things you do first should facilitate or smooth the way for other tasks. This is why focusing on the fundamentals and basics is important. This principle underlies the structure of formal education, which systematically builds knowledge and skills in a way that random bits of information cannot replicate.
More examples
Let’s go through some examples. Suppose you have three project ideas:
- Start a blog
- Read “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser
- Design your blog
It’s clear what should be done first. Learning to write will help you create better blog content, so you should read the book first. Second, starting the blog should come before designing it. In both interface design and architecture, the skeleton comes before the aesthetics. Initially, people are unlikely to read much of what you write, so focusing on content is the obvious choice. You can design the blog later. For now, just select a template if possible. Note: we aren’t considering the factor of enjoyment in these examples yet.
Let’s take another example. Suppose you move to a new city for your studies and have some friends there. Here are your three tasks:
- Meet your friend
- Find a new room
- Get a haircut
Each task should leverage the progress and insights gained from the previous ones, creating a cumulative effect.
So, meet your friend first, learn more about the city from them, ask for contacts, and maybe stay with them for a few days if they offer. Then, using this new information, you can find a better room more easily and quickly. Finally, you can get a haircut, which you can delay by days or even weeks.
I’ll give you the step-by-step tactics as well. Hold on. First, we need to discuss the other two aspects of prioritization: urgency and enjoyment.
The other two factors of prioritization
Impact alone shouldn’t dictate what you do first; urgency and enjoyment should also be considered. No matter how beneficial a project is, if you don’t feel relatively excited about it, you’ll procrastinate.
Enjoyment
Enjoyment should be a vital part of decision-making. Once your ideas pass through the Pareto Principle funnel, choose the one you want to do most from the shortlisted ideas.
Urgency
Finally, urgency comes into play. Urgency involves external factors, like a new trend, an injury, a university project, or a work project. This means an urgent task will take a spot in your “Current Projects” list, which should already be small (1–3 projects at a time, the rationale is provided in the second part). Urgent tasks override Impact and enjoyment to avoid missing trends, worsening injuries, failing classes, or getting fired.
The full step-by-step system for prioritization
For the step-by-step system to help you prioritize anything, read the next part of this article on my blog here.
To conclude, productivity is the basis of getting things done. However, it’s not truly impactful if you’re not getting the right things done. Your investment of time, attention, energy, and money should yield high returns, making prioritization not just essential but the most important skill of our times.
