Periods Of Intense Productivity -- Avoiding The "Garbage In And Garbage Out"

[ProjectX]

Here is a great article I came up on the RSD blog.
The full thing is here;

Real Social Dynamics Blog: Periods Of Intense Productivity -- Avoiding The "Garbage In And Garbage Out"

So I've been holed up in "work mode" lately -- not taking phone calls or getting onto the internet very much.

I've always thrived off of stating my goals publicly, to force myself to be consistent, and my goal right now is to have Blueprint book and the new RSD Nation out by January 2009.

I'm in the zone right now. I've just experienced the most productive year of my life. There have been a lot of rewards for it, both personaly and professionally, and I'm aiming to take it to the next level in the coming months.

What I want to offer here are a few secrets I've been lucky to figure out, and that I've found to be incredibly helpful. A lot of this has been becoming a sort of revolution in how work is done in recent years.

(And by the way -- being back on Blueprint I'm writing about "picking up girls" on an ongoing basis, so I'm thinking the articles over the next few weeks might venture into a lot of non POOOAH related areas like this one -- if you don't dig it, wait for Blueprint because you'll be swimming in all sorts of great stuff on how to become better with girls.)

Alright let's do it.

1- REMOVE THE INTERNET FROM YOUR HOUSE

Getting off of the internet is tough...

I mean, it's so damned COOL. There's so much info at your finger tips it's like you can gluttonize yourself with it.

What's not to love??

Well in Honolulu I removed internet from my house and found that my productivity basically doubled. The internet is a massive diversion. It allows you to continually "click over" to some other site when you don't feel like working.

More than that, I realized that in the past I had an addiction to checking email. Running operations there are always these little "fires" you have to put out on an ongoing basis.

These are distracting and annoying, but even worse, they give you a little shot of adrenaline and stress. Over time the little adrenaline injection becomes addictive, even if it's unpleasant.

Your nervous system is adapted to become addicted to whatever state is most necessary -- whatever you're most exposed to -- and over time you start putting yourself into situations where you can get your "fix" even if it isn't what you really want. That's what the internet became for me.

In Hawaii I fixed it, by making it so I had to bike to the internet cafe about 15 minutes away whenever I wanted to use it. The charge was about $10/hr and it forced me to write my articles from home and just bring them to post them.

In Los Angeles I have a situation where there's a few computers in the lobby, so I can just walk downstairs every few days and do what I need to do. Totally solid.

I still check my favourite sites and blogs, but it's on a PROACTIVELY DECIDED ON period of time, instead of just surfing and surfing.

Really I can't recommend this highly enough.

2- REMOVE TELEVISION FROM YOUR HOUSE

This doesn't even need much explanation.

TV in the house is giving mainstream media a direct link to infect your brain. They change the frame every 7 seconds to keep you constantly stimulated, which causes you to become addicted to instant gratification. No good.

I still have a few shows I enjoy, like "Lost" (because I come from Hawaii so I love all the shots) and "Entourage", and ummmmmmm, actually I think that's all I really watch at this point.

All of these I watch on my laptop player, with no advertising, which I order from Netflix.

Mostly I like to watch nature videos like "Planet Earth" (on Blu Ray -- waaaaay better) and "Blue Planet" so I can plan out the places I'm interested in visiting and it puts me in a good mood.

3- POUND YOURSELF FULL OF BERRIES AND FRUITS AND VEGETABLES AND CLEAN MEATS

White flour, white sugar, saturated fats........NO GO.

I find this stuff fries my brain and burns me out. You eat this stuff and you can't seem to get anything done.

I love food and I love eating, but I pound myself full of all sorts of great stuff that makes me feel "powered up".

Running bootcamps on the weekend I sometimes forget to bring food out with me and I wind up eating hamburgers and all sorts of crap. I've had to discipline myself to bring out the pocket-sized organic bars and proper food in a tupper ware.

Obviously it's funny in contrast to the lifestyle of alcohol, drugs, and eating after-hours pizza that most of these people eat. They're in a different phase of their lives than I am, so it just is what it is.

You have to watch yourself when you're going out a lot, because when you're immersing yourself around party girls on an ongoing basis, you start to become a lot LIKE them.

For the most part, going out a lot is a super positive habit, especially when you're learning all sorts of new stuff about social interaction.

It's just a point of being super clear on your personal standards for yourself, which is valuable in making yourself an attractive person regardless.