- Hey, what's up guys?
So we did it.
Another year is on the books,
and we are one step closer
to the inevitable robot uprising.
Possibly two or three steps closer,
if I can just find that bug in my code.
Anyway, about 365 days ago,
I put out a video rounding out 2017
with 10 productivity tips
that you could use to make 2018
a more productive year,
and if you saw that video,
hopefully you were able to implement
some of those tips,
and this year was a more productive one for you.
And I wanna do something similar
for the end of this year,
but instead of focusing on productivity
this time around,
we're going to focus on the topic of stress.
In addition to all the emails
and tweets and DMs that I get
about productivity topics,
like how to focus
and how to not procrastinate as much,
I get a lot of questions from people
who feel that they're overly stressed
on a daily basis, that they're overwhelmed,
and if you find yourself in a similar situation,
then hopefully one of the five tips
I'm gonna share in this video
will help you go into 2019
feeling a little bit more stressed,
and like your life is a little bit more balanced.
First up, we've got a useful planning hack
that I try to use whenever I'm taking on
a future commitment,
something that's next week
or maybe even further into the future.
And it's to ask myself, if I had to take on
this commitment this week,
would it have actually fit
with everything else that I've already had to do
or that I know that's coming up.
As we discussed in my procrastination series,
we human beings have this tendency
to view our future selves
as basically superheroes.
We think that our future self
next week or two weeks from now
is gonna be able to handle
a lot more than what we're
dealing with right now.
We think that that person in the future
is not going to have to deal
with the same procrastination tendencies,
the same distractions,
and when we look at our calendars,
usually next week or the weeks afterwards
don't seem as full as this week,
and of course every single week
when you find yourself in that present moment,
there's always things that come up, right?
So when you're thinking about taking on
a commitment next week,
and you feel like oh, that's super easy.
I can easily fit that in, ask yourself,
would that have actually fit in to this week?
With all the surprises that popped up?
With all the tired spells you found yourself in?
And see if that would have actually worked.
If it would've, then maybe it would be
a good idea to actually add that
into your next week's schedule.
But if it wouldn't have,
you may wanna give it a second thought.
All right, tip number two,
which is something that I have used
for a long time to great effect.
Be a contrarian.
Do things a different times
or in different locations
than everyone else tends to do them.
One of the biggest causes of stress
in our lives is the fact that
resources are limited.
There's only so much food to go around,
so much money, so much internet bandwidth,
but certain resources are only taken up
at certain times of the day,
and at other times of the day,
they're basically free,
or at least they're a lot less busy,
so if you can be a contrarian,
if you can commute to work at a different
time of the day,
or if you can go grocery shopping
at a different time
than everyone else typically does,
then you're gonna run into a lot less friction,
and that cuts down on your stress.
Now of course there are gonna be
varying degrees to which you can be
a contrarian based on your schedule.
If you're an entrepreneur,
you can be a contrarian in basically
any way that you want,
whereas if you have a full time job,
your options are a little bit more limited,
but regardless of what
your life situation looks like,
there are probably areas where you can exercise
a little bit of control
and change your schedule up just a bit.
You could wake up maybe an hour earlier,
and drive to work and maybe work out
at a gym near there,
or you could go to the grocery store
on a Saturday morning instead of after work
on Thursday afternoon.
The typical times at which we do things
are in part dictated by our schedules
and our obligations, but they're also
set in part by our habits,
and by the way that everyone else
seems to do things,
so, and this kind of calls back
to a tip in yesterday's video about organization,
if you can ditch the dogma,
if you can stop doing things
the way other people do them
just because they do them,
and be a bit of a contrarian,
you can really cut down on the stress
that you experience in your life.
All right, tip number three,
and this is a bit more of a specific tip,
but be ruthless about your inbox in 2019,
and this tip is on the list
because email can be a huge stress creator
for a lot of people.
Most of us are being constantly bombarded
with tons of emails on a daily basis,
and a lot of these emails
frankly are completely unnecessary,
and even for the ones that you do actually
need to look at,
you might need to look at them
right at the time they come in,
or you may need to receive them,
but not actually see them,
so as you go into 2019,
start taking some steps to tame
your inbox a little bit,
and I've got a few suggestions.
First, ruthlessly unsubscribe from newsletters,
daily digests, marketing emails,
anything that doesn't bring you value,
and I realize this is kind of an ironic tip
coming from somebody who literally
has an email newsletter,
but hey, if you get my email newsletter
and it doesn't bring you value,
then I actively encourage you
to unsubscribe from that, and that counts
for anyone else's newsletters as well.
You might think that it's not a big deal
to just delete the emails when they come in,
but realize that every single one
that you have to delete represents
a little bit of work you have to do,
represents a decision you have to make,
and over time, as the day goes on,
that creates mental fatigue.
Secondly, start using filters and rules
to automate the email
that you do need to keep.
For example, I get a lot of receipts
sent to my business email
for all kinds of transactions
that go on in my business,
and I need to keep these receipts
for good record keeping
and in case I ever get audited,
but I don't need to see them all
when they come in.
Like every single time
I make a video here on YouTube,
I have to order captions for it.
When I do that, there's an email receipt
that gets sent to my inbox,
but I don't need to see that.
I just need to have it in my records
in case I ever need it down the line,
so a long time ago, I created a filter
that will automatically add the receipt tag
to that email, so I can easily find it
if I need to, and it automatically archives it.
That way it's there,
but I don't have to see it or deal with it.
That brings us to tip number four,
which is going to sound like more work,
but hear me out.
In 2019, I suggest that you start
keeping a journal.
Now the astute viewers among you
might realize that in my previous year end video,
I advocated keeping an accomplishment journal,
and I do still advocate doing that,
but for this video, I'm going to recommend
keeping a normal journal,
a record of your thoughts and experiences,
and the things that go on
on a day to day basis.
And yes, this does create a little bit
of work for you, especially if you're making it
a daily habit,
but it has a hugely important benefit,
which is that it crystallizes your thoughts
about the experiences you're having
in the moment,
and it's really useful to have
this record to look back on,
because we're really good
at rationalizing things,
and we are especially good at looking
at the past with rose tinted glasses,
and if you don't keep a journal,
you might find yourself in a situation
down the road where you're looking
back at the past, wishing that you could
kind of go back to the situation
that you were in,
because where you are right now is stressful,
but if you have a journal,
you can go and look at how you were
actually feeling during that time,
and you might realize that they way
things are now are actually better
than they were back then.
Finally, if you wanna feel less stressed
in 2019 and in the years afterwards,
then stop rushing so much.
A few months ago, I was browsing Reddit,
and I found a thread from a guy
who had remodeled his house.
He was showing all the pictures,
and the job was honestly excellent,
but he was kind of lamenting the fact
that a lot of the rooms were now empty
because they didn't own a whole lot of stuff,
but he also said that his dad
gave him a really good of piece of advice,
which is that you've now got the house,
and now you have an entire lifetime
to fill it up,
and for me, that one line
is a great encapsulation of the fact
that we don't need to rush
as much as we think we do.
We have a lot more time
than we think we have,
and the reason that a lot of us
take on so many commitments
is that we feel like we have to rush
through all these stages of life
that society sort of expects for us
to go through.
There's all these things
that we're supposed to achieve, right?
We have to graduate from college,
buy a house, start a family,
do all of these things,
and social media makes this worse.
Because we've got all these friends
who in past decades we would only see
once in awhile, maybe at reunions
or family things or something like that,
but now we can see them posting
about all their life milestones.
This person started a family.
This person bought a house.
This person got a new job.
And we feel like we are falling behind
for not doing all of those things,
so if you are an ambitious person like me
there's this really strong temptation
to keep taking on things
because you feel like you have
to get to that next stage
as soon as possible,
but just like that guy who remodeled his house
and now has a whole lifetime
to fill it up, you and I have
time to do the things that we want to do.
You have time to achieve your goals.
And whenever I feel the temptation to rush,
I try to remind myself of what's really important
by asking myself the question,
and I truly that unhappy right now?
Usually the answer is no.
I'm content right now.
And I was content five years ago,
even though I hadn't achieved
nearly as much as I have now.
And I'm hopefully going to be content
five years in the future as well.
It doesn't mean I'm going to stop working.
It doesn't mean I'm going to rest on my laurels.
But it does mean that I can
afford to be methodical in my approach,
and that I shouldn't be sacrificing
my mental health or my time
just to get to that next stage
as quickly as I possibly can,
so stop rushing so much.
If you are constantly stressed out,
then pull back and assess the expectations
you've put on yourself.
It might actually be a good idea
to edit them and to allow yourself
a bit more time to meet them.
Because when you have that time,
you'll feel less overwhelmed,
and you'll be able to put more care
into your work.
Plus, when you're not always
rushing to finish an overwhelming task list,
you've got free time,
time to go on long bike rides,
time to cook healthier dinners,
and time to actually keep your house clean,
and since none of these things
requires a ton of concentration
in the moment, you can also use that time
to learn something new with Audible,
which is the best place on the internet
to get your hands on audio books.
Audible has an unmatched library
of audio books, in a ton of different genres.
From science fiction
to biographies to psychology.
They've got tons of obscure stuff,
and they have all the bestsellers,
including my recommendation for this week,
which is The Laws of Human Nature
by Robert Greene.
If you're interested in becoming
a more rational thinker
and making better decisions, and in controlling
your emotions more effectively,
especially in your interactions
with other people,
then this is a fantastic book
to go through, and I highly recommend it.
And you can actually get it for free
along with a 30 day trial of Audible
by going over to www.audible.com/thomas,
or by texting Thomas to 500500
on your phone.
Once you've got that membership,
you're gonna get one credit
every single month,
good for any title in their library,
plus two Audible originals
that you can't get anywhere else
and access to audio workout programs.
Plus your personal library of audio books
that you've downloaded is yours to keep forever.
Even if you end up canceling Audible,
you're gonna have those books
as long as you want.
So once again, go over to www.audible.com/thomas
or text Thomas to 500500 on your phone
to get that free 30 day trial
and a free audio book download
of your choosing.
As always, a huge thanks
goes out to Audible for sponsoring
this video and being a big supporter
of my channel in general.
And thank you guys so much for watching,
both this video and everything throughout 2018.
And possibly further back,
if you've been watching for awhile.
If you enjoyed this video,
definitely hit that like button
to support this channel,
and I also wanna hear from you
down in the comments.
What do you wanna see from me in 2019?
Both on the academic side,
the student focus side,
but also in a broader sense?
What do you wanna see from me
that maybe doesn't have to focus on academics
and productivity and all those kinds of topics?
I'm looking forward
to hearing from you down below,
and hopefully you had a great 2018.
Hopefully 2019 is awesome for you as well.
As always, you can subscribe right there
to get new videos every single week
when they come out.
You can go right there
to get a free copy of my book
on how to earn better grades in school,
whether you're in high school or college.
I think you'll find it helpful.
Follow me on Instagram right there,
or last but not least,
watch one more video on this channel
by clicking right here
or smashing your face into your phone screen.
Thanks for watching,
and I will see you in the next one.
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