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Productivity

Do These 3 Things Tonight to Achieve Success Within Next 333 Days (with Mathematical Proof)

Simply: Write down your tasks, prioritize, then do it. But there’s something more to it…

Your success depends on your actions — what you do in each set of 24 hours. Right?

Wrong.

Up ahead:
• Step#1
• Step#2
• Step#3
• The Most Important Step
• Summary

But first…

We Don’t Have 24 Hours.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the entire 24 hours to work towards our goals (unless you’re Elon Musk!)

According to OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and PE (personal experience), on average:

• 30% (7h 12m) of our day goes into sleeping.
• 19% (4h 33m) goes into paid work or study.
• 19% (4h 33m) goes to daily chores, responsibilities and commuting.
• 17% (4h 5m) goes to leisure activities.
• 15% (3h 36m) goes to personal care and food-related activities.

Sum it up and it’s 100% of your 24 hours.

Let’s say you did some adjustments and extracted:

• 30 minutes from your sleep.
• 1 hour from your daily chores and personal care.
• 2 hours from your leisure time (little leisure is necessary).

Now you have 3 hours and 30 minutes (only) for your most important tasks that’ll take you to the moon!

This is the time, on average, we get to really work on our pursuits!

• Now, if you’re a student, for you that number can be 5.
• If you have a day job, it could be 3.
• If you’re a single mother, maybe you have hardly 1 hour.

(Or if you’re like me you may have 10 hours to spare, but all of it goes to entertainment and instant gratifications.)

Whatever time your current lifestyle may allow you — you can utilize that to achieve success.

It’s not about the number of hours you have. It’s about making every minute of it count.

Here’s how to do it:

Step#1: Turn Your Mind from a Pulp of Thoughts into a Piece of Paper.

Currently, there are 1000 things in your head that you think you should do, want to do, or need to do.

Choosing any one of them is overwhelmingly difficult.

It’s the Paradox of Choice: the more the options, the more the difficulty to choose.

So, most of us just wing it every day and do whatever we feel like at the moment.

Don’t!

Remember, success comes from a series of consistent actions. Winging it simply doesn’t do it. Besides, that way it’s also difficult to track your progress!

So, your first task is to concretize your thoughts.

Do this:

Grab a piece of paper (yeah, right now!)

Now list down everything you think you should do, want to do, or need to do in the upcoming days (it doesn’t need to be in order).

Pro tip: Use bullet points instead of numbered lists to avoid this order bias.

Include everything that you can think of:
To eat healthy, to run 5 km, to not wake up with your phone, maybe to finally call that person, and of course, the tasks that’ll serve toward your goals.

My list of tasks for tomorrow • Image by Saran

What it does is:

1. It declutters your mind. You’ll notice your 1000 perceived tasks boil down to only 5–12 max.
2. It gives you 5–12 clear tasks to prioritize next.
3. Feeling lighter on your head is just a bonus.

Step#2: Find Out Your Task #1

Now you have a mixed bag of important, unimportant, urgent, and non-urgent tasks.

You need to find out 1 to 3 tasks that you must do to proceed toward your goals.

You can use the Eisenhower Matrix to sort your tasks.
(There’s a couple of articles by Michele Remonato and Leo Serafico I’ve linked below. Both are equally good.)

Or simply ask yourself:

“If I could do only one thing tomorrow for my goals, which one would it be?”

Add a “①” beside that task.

This is your Task #1.

For me, it’s the task related to writing • Image by Saran

If you can do more, ask yourself again:

“If I could do two more, which ones would it be?”

Again, add “②” and “③” to it.

Congratulations! Now you have your first 3 priority tasks that you must do tomorrow — hell or high water!

Pro tip: Try not to add more than three, even if you’re feeling super enthusiastic! Adding more to your priority list will only overwhelm you later.

“If you have more than three priorities, then you don’t have any.”
— Jim Collins

Step#3: Wake Up & Implement.

Now comes the most important and — spoiler alert — the most difficult part: Really doing it.

Don’t be discouraged, but it’s going to be difficult. It’s difficult for all of us, trust me!

Once you wake up tomorrow, after getting up-&-running, ideally you should get started with your Task #1.

Just to clarify: Checking your phone or your emails or even the newspaper doesn’t count as “getting up-&-running”. You know that, right?

Discipline yourself to work on your Task #1 first thing in the morning until completion.

You can use Time Blocking or the Pomodoro Technique to complete your task and keep track of it (articles by Ananya and Alberto linked below).

Or use whatever technique you’re comfortable with — I don’t care. But you must finish the job.

Once you’re done, move on to Task #2, then #3.

The secret is: Once you get your Task #1 done first thing in the morning, you automatically get a motivation boost for the next ones.

As you go on, it becomes easier. The trick is to finish what you start and start what you plan.

And the Most Important Step:

Repeat the Process.

Here’s my uncomfortable truth:

I had started 17 different things throughout the last 5 years and could’ve been a Millionaire by now. But I am not, because I never saw them through.

I always start something with gigantic enthusiasm, do it the first week, then get bored or overwhelmed and finally ditch the idea.

Don’t be like me, please.

Here’s the math:

Let’s say, to reach your initial goal you need to put in 1000 hours of total work.

What you did till Step#3 is crossing off 3.5 hours from that total number.

There’s still 996.5 hours of work left.

Now here’s the magic:

Even if you consistently repeat this 3-step process for only 6 days a week it will take you only {1000 / (6 ⨉ 3.5)} ⨉ 7 ≈ 333 days from today to reach your goal!

Then, throw parties the rest of the 32 days and call it a year! (Please don’t do that.)

Replace “3.5” with your available number of hours and you’ll get your timeline.

Conclusion:

Here are the steps at a glance:

1. Bullet point everything you should do, want to do, or need to do within the next few days.
2. Find out your Task #1, #2, and #3, that you must complete to move toward your goals.
3. Start and finish Task #1 first thing the next morning, then move on to the others.
4. Repeat this process for only {1000 / (5 ⨉ [no. of available hours to work])} ⨉ 7 days to achieve success.

Here’s another mathematical fact for you:

• 20% of those who desire success actually learn how to do it.
• 20% of you learning about this will actually follow these steps.
• 20% of you following it will actually take consistent actions.
• 50% of those who take consistent actions will actually achieve success (due to luck factor).

So only (100 ⨉ 20% ⨉ 20% ⨉ 50%) = 2% of all of you reading this will actually achieve your desired goals.

And you can increase your chances only by doing more and delaying less.

I want you in that 2%.

Deal?

These might help:

Mastering Prioritization with the Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix: A Simple Tool for Prioritizing Tasks Effectively

The Ultimate Guide To Time Blocking in 2023 — Skyrocket your productivity 10x

Pomodoro Technique Magic: Leverage It to Improve Well-Being, Not Just Focus

And I think you might wanna know this:

The Truth about “Being Your Own Boss” I Wish I Knew Before Dropping Out and becoming Self-Employed.

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Much love ❤