1: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.
Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations.
At the end of each week, I’ve been sharing an idea from Tynan’s book Superhuman by Habit about how to install specific, positive habits into your life.
So far, we’ve covered:
- Building positivity
- Being compassionate
- Eating healthy
- Improving sleep
- Learning mindfulness
- Working out
- Seeking out masterpieces
- Writing every day
- Traveling to unusual countries
- Beating procrastination by starting work earlier
- Beating procrastination by planning when you’re stuck
2: “When you’re in a slump,” Tynan observes, “it can sometimes feel like your previous accomplishments were nothing but flukes, and that you’ll never be able to produce good work again.”
Ever been in that place?
So how do you get out of a slump?
Tynan suggests a surprisingly simple approach.
Rate your day.
“Every night, before you go to bed, rate your day on a scale from one to ten,” Tynan suggests.
The key is to rate your day not by how much you accomplished, but by how much time you wasted.
“The advantage is that you don’t have to give yourself a bad rating if you spent the day doing something unproductive but worthwhile, like helping out a friend,” he reasons.
3: Rating your day can also help reduce procrastination.
Knowing you’ll rate your day each evening can motivate you to waste less time throughout the day.
Rating your day has several benefits. First, doing so improves the quality of time spent each day with little effort. Second, it creates a record of your performance.
Don’t worry about keeping your ratings perfectly consistent. Over time, you’ll naturally expect more from yourself. “Inevitably, your standards will shift,” he says, “as you’re increasingly able to use your time efficiently.
“So you’ll give yourself an eight for a day, and when glancing at weeks past you’ll remember other days where you earned an eight, and feel like, in retrospect, they were no better than a seven.”
A third benefit of rating your day and keeping a historical log is that you can see how long your slumps actually last.
“They feel like they last forever in the moment,” he writes, “but I’ve never actually had one that lasts more than three or four days.
“You can also see just how recently you had a great day, and how frequently they come. All of this helps put a slump into context and motivate you to grind your way out, rather than feel helpless.”
More next week!
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Reflection: When you have a bad day, do you tend to see it as a temporary setback or evidence that you’re losing momentum?
Action: For the next two weeks, rate each day from one to ten based on how intentionally you used your time. Keep a record and look for patterns in your productivity and progress.