How Imagining Your Future Self Can Turn You Into a Productivity Machine

Screenshot from the YouTube video version of this article. Note the circle at the bottom (learn & create), that’ll come up soon.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to spend my time. You might be the same.

I’ve tried every time management, goal setting and productivity system you can imagine. Some worked, some didn’t.

Eventually, I figured out my two guiding principles:

1. Less but better.
2. Creating to learn and learning to create.

Most of what I do gets weighed up against these two. If there’s a match, I do it. If not, I ignore it.

Where’d these come from? By starting with the long-term and working backwards.

Long-term (3–5+ years from now)

2-years ago, I did a test online called Understand Myself and another called Future Self Authoring Program. They’re psychology tests which give you an idea of what kind of person you are and what you want to do in the future.

Both are valuable but the Future Self Authoring Program is what helped me figure out some of the things here.

The idea is simple. You think and write about the ideal person you’d like to be in 3–5 years.

The sky is the limit. You can be working any job you like, have any skill you choose, be in a relationship with…