{"id":10322,"date":"2016-12-06T14:40:33","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T14:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/?p=10322"},"modified":"2019-09-25T19:48:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T19:48:57","slug":"0618-magic-adulting-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0618-magic-adulting-powers\/","title":{"rendered":"0618 \u2013 examples of magic adulting powers"},"content":{"rendered":"

What are the magic adulthood powers?<\/p>\n

# Monotasking<\/strong><\/p>\n

This means doing the thing that you\u2019re supposed to do, and tuning out everything else. A problem I\u2019ve always had is doing tonnes of different things all at once, and then ultimately never getting anything done at all. In the short run it can seem like it\u2019s a way of optimising for things \u2013 when you don\u2019t know what the most important thing is, you do a bunch of things and hope that you learn something along the way.<\/p>\n

By that I mean \u2013 along the way you learn what\u2019s the most important thing, maybe there are some surprises, maybe there are some shortcuts, you don\u2019t know and so you open a few things. It\u2019s like listening to music while watching a video on Facebook with subtitles on and talking to a couple of friends all at the same time \u2013 you can\u2019t do this for any meaningful work. You need to focus. And focus is something that you need to train.<\/p>\n

# Prioritising<\/strong><\/p>\n

You need to pick something. If you have a bunch of things to do, the worst thing to do is to dither between all of them and then do nothing. You have to quickly devise a system of deciding what to do, and then start doing it. This is a sort of fractal thing. OODA loops, I suppose. You want to observe what you have ahead of you \u2013 how big is the landscape or context that you\u2019re operating in? If it\u2019s small (relative to you and your ability and so on), you might want to just get started straight away and reevaluate after some amount of time. If it\u2019s massive, you may want to do a quick scan to figure out if it\u2019s worth figuring out in greater detail, if you know what I mean.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like\u2026 I mean, think about how sometimes your computer is a bit dumb when it comes to say, deleting tonnes of stuff. My wife tried deleting some Time Machine stuff a while ago and the computer just kept counting files until it was in the 500,000 files range. That\u2019s silly, isn\u2019t it? At that point the computer should realise that it\u2019s probably smarter to batch the problem. Yeah. So you have to figure out if the thing you\u2019re doing requires batching. I suppose this is where the various sorting algorithms come into play. Once you cross certain sizes, it starts making sense to figure out if there\u2019s a superior sorting algorithm. But you never want to spend too much time on a sorting algorithm either, because the one thing you know is that you don\u2019t have infinite time. You\u2019re going to die eventually.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a funny meta moment \u2013 why am I here, in this document, writing this? I\u2019m in the middle of a bigger project where I\u2019m trying to tidy up my evernote. Most of it has been touch and go \u2013 add a comment, add a note, delete or transfer to an appropriate context. A sort of global sort. And then I found this note, which had 4 points: mono tasking, prioritising, saying no, putting yourself first. And I thought hey, let\u2019s develop this. And so I started writing. And after making a bit of progress on the first point, I jumped to point number 4. Build that a little, then jumped to point 2, and here I am. There\u2019s a sort of sorting algorithm taking place right now, as I decide what to write, how to spend my time. I\u2019m going to publish this one as a word vomit.<\/p>\n

# Saying no<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wonder if this is distributed differently for different people. I never really learned to say no. As a child, you don\u2019t really get to say no to your family and to your teachers and whatnot. I think very young children get to do it with their parents, but I don\u2019t remember that phase of my life. After that your life isn\u2019t really yours for a while \u2013 you have to go to school, you have to do as you\u2019re told. Elliott Hulse has a great video about this that bears watching.<\/p>\n

This ends once you\u2019re an adult, but I still don\u2019t fully appreciate it. I don\u2019t appreciate that I can say no to my wife, to my colleagues, to my boss. I mean, there\u2019s always a cost to the no, as there was even when you\u2019re a kid. But saying no is the single fastest way to cut things out of your life and make your life simpler. I\u2019m saying no to staying up all night. I\u2019m saying no to staying up past this word vomit. I\u2019m going to publish this once I finish these few sentences, and then I\u2019m going to wrap up and start winding down for bed because Sleep is my #1 priority.<\/p>\n

# Putting yourself first<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to know how you\u2019re doing. You have to really listen to your body. I\u2019ve always been surprised by people who seem to know when exactly they\u2019re tired, when exactly they\u2019re hungry, when exactly they\u2019re beginning to get burned out and so on. I\u2019ve always felt like a fraud on all of these things. When I\u2019m running, how do I know if the discomfort I\u2019m feeling is the natural discomfort of doing something physical, or if it\u2019s something that\u2019s going to cause me pain? Yeah, excruciating pain is obvious, but what about a dull ache? At what point does a dull ache go too far? I\u2019ve heard from people who say that it\u2019s all in the mind and that the body can take a lot more punishment than you think. I completed a 21km half-marathon without training once. I had to walk about half of it, but I still passed the finishing line \u2013 there were several actual runners in their proper marathon running gear and whatnot who had to drop out and be transported to the finish by a van. Maybe they wanted a good time, pushed themselves too hard, and then decided that finishing wasn\u2019t a priority? I don\u2019t know, I wonder.<\/p>\n

Anyway so I\u2019m learning that it\u2019s important to put yourself first \u2013 particularly your health. Your physical health, your mental health, your well-being. The thing is I used to spend all my time playing video games and random nonsense, surfing the web and so on. Was that healthy or unhealthy? Smoking is obviously unhealthy but sometimes it seems like a useful tool for managing my psychology. You could say that that\u2019s just the addiction talking, but people do that sort of thing with all kinds of things. It\u2019s clear that ultimately most people are just full of shit, and the only people you can really trust about this sort of thing are the high-performance folks \u2013 and even then you have to ask if it\u2019s the sort of high-performance you want. Kobe Bryant said that being the #1 basketballer was his #1 thing, and as a result he had to sacrifice relationships with other people. He\u2019s an okay friend, but he\u2019s not to going to remember birthdays and things like that.<\/p>\n

This goes back to priorities. What\u2019s most important to you? And this is something you have to figure out for yourself. You can\u2019t outsource this to a parent or a spouse or a teacher or a boss. You have to figure out what\u2019s most important to you, decide that it\u2019s something you\u2019re going to be able to live with \u2013 e.g. if family comes first then you\u2019re going to have to live with that decision when you make some choices that maybe means not being #1 at work. You can\u2019t do it and then whine about it later on.<\/p>\n

I wonder how much people avoid making decisions so that they can reserve the right to bitch and whine about it later on, at the bar, with all the other sympathetic people who want to bitch and whine too. Must be a disturbing number of people. See: any comments section. Anyway, sleep is #1 for me so it\u2019s time for bed.<\/p>\n

Before I go though \u2013 what are some of the other magic adulting powers?<\/p>\n

7 Habits come to mind \u2013<\/p>\n