Productivity Principles
published 1 January 2019
updated 3 June 2020
updated 3 June 2020
Bonjour! I’m a fledgling philosopher passionate about the question, “How should one live?” Exceptionally happy and free from stress while studying at Princeton University along with the University of Oxford, I wanted to share about the habits I’ve developed to secure my peaceful universe. I hope these productivity principles help you optimize your time!
Unload anything you can from your mind into your environment, including your friends, calendar, or journal — all important! — so as to clear space to think.
Minimize time spent on your computer or phone.
Check emails exactly once or twice per day, as if they are snail mail.
Maintain Inbox Zero. A clean inbox, like a clean workspace, will keep you from feeling overwhelmed. It will also accentuate incoming emails, so that you don’t overlook them.
Organize your emails in Gmail.
Browsing in Google Chrome, use extensions.
Place your phone in Airplane Mode on Mondays through Saturdays from 8:30 am – 6 pm, as if or because you are working at a company. If you are planning to meet someone who might text or call, you can briefly switch off Airplane Mode just before the rendez-vous. Configure your iPhone or other smartphone.
Harness Google Calendar. It surpasses a list or a paper calendar by affording 1) ease in adjusting one’s schedule, 2) visualized durations of events, 3) color-coding by category of events, and 4) accessibility from any device.
Prioritize sleeping enough each night. Exercise every other day. Never skip, even if maintaining the routine means you must occasionally sleep a little less. Never watch television. Always answer people in a timely fashion.
Keep your word — never lie!
Commit.
Once you have grown accustomed to never reading your Facebook newsfeed and never using Facebook on your phone, as per the tips above, permanently deactivate Facebook. You can still keep in touch with Facebook contacts through Messenger. Work in total silence or, when that grows excessive, with instrumental music. Carry earplugs in case you need to insulate yourself from background noise. Work in aesthetically pleasing places. Reframe the work you have to do as an opportunity. Highlight and annotate readings profusely. Take notes by hand whenever possible. Use pen to record the lecture or reading, and pencil to explore your own thoughts. Never use laptops in class. Care for your body while working.
Protect your eyes from damage by electronics.
Take a Sabbath one day a week. This practice facilitates working for months or years without burning out, building friendships with those around you, and keeping in touch with long-distance friends. Spend at least 15 minutes a day in the sun, even amid cold. You will then rest your eyes, acquire vitamin D, breathe fresh air, reap the benefits of walking, and take encouragement from the beauty of God’s creation. You could take this opportunity to pray the rosary. Wake at roughly the same time every morning. Once awake, as soon as you can, thank God for the gift of another day of life. Start each day by reading one chapter of the Bible, praying, and, if possible, attending Mass. Commit to attending daily Mass and praying a daily rosary no matter what else is happening in your life. End each day, just before bed, by reading one chapter of the Bible and praying. Pray unceasingly, by 1) praying throughout the day and 2) making your life itself a prayer, dedicated to God. Don’t sin. In other words, avoid evil, however small. If you possibly acted wrongly, go to confession, where you will commit to trying, with God’s help, not to sin again. Share your actual thoughts and feelings, including struggles, so that every conversation invigorates both you and your interlocutors. If you hide yourself, you’ll drain everyone involved, while hampering your development as a person. See every conversation as an opportunity to uplift your interlocutors in love. If short on topics, ask indirect variations of, “What is it like to be you?” Always follow your intuitions or gut feelings, which come from the Holy Spirit. Time with people is never wasted. Every human is a child of God, infinitely precious, so of course sharing our worlds with one another is valuable. When someone requests your help, accept immediately. Help to the best of your ability. Trust that God will arrange for you to still have time to finish whatever you were planning to do. Cross yourself, giving thanks in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, before eating anything, even a little bite. Your body is a temple, not a receptacle for trash, as your prayer will remind you. Only buy food — other than fruit — containing up to five grams of sugar, an addictive wrecker of health, per serving. To banish acne, try eliminating dairy, aware that the results can take at least three months to manifest, as well as limiting sugar. While eating, never do anything else besides talking. Try not to eat between meals, except for once substantially in the afternoon. Eat larger meals and drink tea to compensate. Never eat after dinner. Never drink coffee or otherwise consume items expected to affect your energy level. Allow for silence and idleness. God wants to guide you toward the good of you and everyone else, but you’ll struggle to hear Him if you’re stuffing your ears, mind, and life with content. Don’t despair if your outcomes differ from those you sought. So long as you worked faithfully, you did your best. At the close of every day — and of every season, such as a semester of school or a month on a new job — reflect on what you could have done better and how you hope to improve next time. Flee gossip, vulgarity, superficiality, and negativity. Never swear. Never take God’s name in vain. Treat every time you speak or write as a chance to sharpen your communication skills. Eliminate tics, long-windedness, inelegance, imprecision, and other flaws. Imagine yourself as an archer letting your words fly at a target. Both you and your audience will benefit. If anything goes differently from planned, trust that God can bring good out of it. Rest in your identity as a child of God, beloved regardless of what you accomplish or how other humans view you. Apologize readily. When you perceive people as wronging you or others, forgive and pray for them. Don’t fester in anger. Always give people the benefit of the doubt. Process your emotions when or soon after they arise, by praying, journaling, sharing with friends, crying, or resting, as need be. Regularly check your progress by asking yourself: Would I excel as a wife or husband? Would I excel as a mother or father? Would my childhood self admire the person I have become? If the answer is not resoundingly “Yes” or “Yes, as long as I continue on my current path,” recalibrate. If you think your own efforts could never turn you into someone you would honestly approve of, you’re right. But thankfully, we can all reach perfection by depending on God through the Catholic Church. Sustain non-platonic interactions with someone only if 1) you might be open to marrying him or her one day, and 2) if you died, you would trust this person to raise your children. Save kisses for engagement onward. The wait will sweeten the gift when it comes, add to the beauty of the betrothal, and promote clarity alongside peace as you discern whether to proceed in the courtship. Only relationships, not any other goods, are permanent. To flourish, the one kind of relationship you need is friendship. If presented with an opportunity that you might regret missing, especially a risk, take it! You Only Live Once (YOLO). Live by the truth in love. In the words of my confirmation saint, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross: “Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth!” You will die soon. Your next moment is not guaranteed. Channel your time into love, which makes life worth living. “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” – Jeremiah 29:11 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” – Matthew 6:25–34 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:6–7 “With the Lord on my side I do not fear. What can man do to me?” – Psalm 118:6 “For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them; and he made five talents more. So also, he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, and gather where I have not winnowed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.’” – Matthew 25:14–30 “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes 8:15 “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” – Hebrews 10:23–25 “Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone; yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’” – John 16:31–33 “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” – Matthew 5:48 “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” – Acts 20:24 |
Onward and upward,
Ruby |