| Well, what if I told by limiting your access to those | | | | choose between those goals and you will end up |
| resources your productivity would increase | | | | choosing those that are more important for your |
| significantly? You would tell me I'm mad, and to a point | | | | growth as a human being. The end result is fulfillment. |
| you would be right, but I would be also telling you the | | | | * Tools. Compare two workers: one with 1000 tools |
| truth. | | | | and one with 5 really efficient tools, which works |
| We live in an abundant Universe. There's plenty of | | | | better? You get the idea, so get a smaller toolbox. A |
| anything for everyone (it's just poorly distributed). In the | | | | lot of people have tons of programs, plugins, etc. that |
| Western World everyone has access to plenty of | | | | they don't really use. |
| resources now. This has made us lazy. Because there | | | | * Work. Pareto Principle states that the 80% of your |
| is so many resources, we don't pay attention to our | | | | results come from the 20% of your efforts. The wise |
| choices and that makes our productivity worse. In | | | | thing to do is focus on that 20%. Timothy Ferriss is |
| scarcity, we are forced to make choices. It's only | | | | famous for teaching people how to apply that rule to |
| when we don't have access to everything that we | | | | have more free time, but I'll talk more about it in a post |
| realize what's important for us. | | | | I'll write on outsourcing. |
| This is how the setting limits system works to improve | | | | * People. Limit your close relationships to a closer circle |
| your productivity. Now, this scarcity is not real, just an | | | | of friends. When you set a limit (a number) you'll have |
| illusionary Sword of Damocles. You can apply it in | | | | to choose those that make you more happy and lead |
| different ways: | | | | you to success. |
| * Time. Guys, this a BIG one. Almost everyone is | | | | * Information. Neurologist have recently found that our |
| literally running around trying to have more time. If we | | | | choices are statistically right with more frequency |
| told them that by actually decreasing the time they had | | | | when we have less information. That's when we use |
| they would be more productive and efficient they | | | | our intuition instead of contrasting the pros and cons of |
| would turn mad, so let's not do it. Parkinson's Law | | | | each option. It seams like this contradicts our |
| says: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for | | | | Resourcefulness principle, but it doesn't. |
| its completion". Think about it. In my own case, when I | | | | * Products. Apple is a company that is known for |
| have a deadline near the corner I'm more productive. | | | | doing just a few products but doing them really well. |
| Motivation takes a part in the process, but just having | | | | Although marketing plays also an important role, their |
| less time makes you do things more focused. Racers | | | | success it's obvious. |
| don't have time to hesitate or procrastinate either. | | | | * Possessions. Reduce your stuff to just the important |
| Some examples: The Pomodoro Technique or the | | | | things. |
| (10+2) Procrastination Hack. These methods also work | | | | * Speed. Slow down your work and how you change |
| because they allow you to eat the elephant in small | | | | things. Do things in really small steps and take one |
| chunks. | | | | every day. It creates quality and it's more of a |
| * Goals. Leo Babauta is the responsible for me writing | | | | long-term success approach. It's the principle behind |
| about this one, because it's a big theme in his books, | | | | crafting and habit changing. |
| specially The Power of Less. Basically, it tells you to | | | | I like this minimalist approach, but It's not perfect and |
| narrow your focus to one major goal (that you will | | | | we want the whole deal. Check out this other |
| divide into mini-goals later). This transforms you into an | | | | resources on this method. |
| effective laser. Also, by down this you are forced to | | | | |