> Get the right kind of music going, it's time to focus 😎 ## Brainstorming ### Topic %%What is the big idea you're thinking about? Why are you writing this? %% ### References %%Are there any existing notes, resources, or experiences that come to mind related to the topic? For each thing, why is it related and how can it be helpful? %% ### Brain Dump %% Write out any other thoughts that come to mind, then create a cognitive scaffolding that combines your references and brain dump. Break it down into branches and sub-ideas for further elaboration %% ## Organized Ideas %% A place to start your rough (or maybe even final) draft. What writing framework or checklist best works to guide you towards your ideal finished product? %% Isn't writing down our goals and breaking it down into tasks we can check off enough to get things done? That's what I initially thought, until the end of 2023 where I reflected upon the year. - being able to be as close with aidan - Obsidian University with Aidan! first time making a product with someone else - Learned a lot about email marketing and collaboration - Being in my first relationship [[official]] - working out for a 30+ week streek that only ended because of me getting sick asldjadlkasjdklajd - being told I am qualified to be an entry level developer - being able to stay close with an ex-romantic interest - 14k subs? 40k+ in CC? crazy how this is the first time i thought of this the entire time, i really don't care about the number alskdjalkdjaslkdasjdlkajdklajdlakjdlakdjlskdjaslkdjaslkdjaldkjaslkajdlkasjdlkajlkadjalkdjaldjalkdjalkdjalkdjasldkjaldkjadlkjadlkajd I dug through all my weekly, monthly, and quarterly journals, reliving the past. QWEQWE %% maybe not go too specific? %% Of course, there were quite a few things to celebrate: - For the first time in my life I worked out consistently, even hitting a 30+ week streak that only ended because of me getting sick ! - During my internship I wa - I g But at the same time, I realized there were two recurring themes that hindered me from living my best life. Ironically, these were caused by my productivity system! %%But wait, what is the point of setting up an elaborate system? %% %% To understand these problems in a fun way, let's imagine our productivity system as the space craft we use to help us on our boundless journey of creating a meaningful life. To better illustrate what these problems were, imagine yourself on a cosmic pursuit of boundless exploration and growth in the universe. - % turn diagram into animation that would be so sick holy fk %% %% - ? We all want to accomplish our goals and work towards our ideal self, but the truth is, online productivity culture is flawed. during my 2023 reflection… - & I biologically need to. neurodiversity %% #### Long-term %% Unfortunately, even when I did get things done, it wasn't always fulfilling. I realized my second problem when revisiting . %% When revisiting my goals for 2023, upon first glance I wasn't even sure if they were mine. They were completely different to what I currently wanted to do and who I wanted to become. As much as I thought these yearly goals would be my guiding compass throughout the year, they eventually faded in their meaning and relevance. The whole point of goals are for working towards meaningful long-term commitments that transform our lives, yet my old yearly goals seemed to do exactly the opposite. As a result, there were times where I felt lost and uncertain on whether the tasks I was checking off and completing projects I was completing were actually helping me work towards my ideal life. In reality, this comes with a hidden cost. Without any goals, it's easy to get trapped into making life optimization your main purpose in life: - Working more hours to get get more things done in a day - Strictly following science-backed morning routines and workout routines to live longer - Being frugal with spending and to achieve financial freedom Growth for the sake of growth, which is the ideology of the cancer cell. You will end up with an objectively successful life. %% > Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell > - Edward Abbey %% As the author of The Burnout Society Byung Hul Chan puts it, > [You] cannot be killed at all. [Your] life equals that of the undead. [You] are too alive to die, and too dead to live. Fortunately, we can prevent this. This is where we can leverage the top part of Ali's productivity system, which is for direction. It's comprised of three elements, a life compass, yearly goals, and quarterly quests. Unfortunately, with my old system I was only actively working towards and paying attention to what was urgent in my life. I spent little time looking at my quarterly or  yearly goals, and had no life compass whatsoever to guide my life. But using this part of the system, these long-term goals became empowering milestones that were part of my journey towards self-actualization. %% - & there's a lot of things i want to do, and i don't want to end up hyperfocusing on only one aspect of my life, neglecting other areas like my health %% Unfortunately, this is where my other problem ended up harming me. %% This leads me to one of the main upgrades to my space craft I've had when using his system This leads me to the biggest skill that has benefitted me when using his system. %% #### Short-term %% First off, each day I would have detailed daily schedules and tasks clarifying what I had to do, but I didn't always have the motivation to follow and execute on my plan. %% A core principle of productivity is to break down your goals into specific actions you can complete on a daily basis. %% vague projects into small and actionable tasks for clarity, so you feel less overwhelmed by uncertainty and can start making progress towards your goals. %% This is what he refers to as the the "Drive" part of his productivity system. You break down your goals into weekly projects, which are then broken down into clear tasks, which are then completed during focused hours. %% - % rocket ship with past %% With my previous system, I did exactly this. I had your typical daily schedules of time blocks and tasks to map out what I was supposed to do during each hour of the day. But when it was time to start working, I didn't always have the motivation to follow and execute on my plan. %% - % stop midway - [ ] @ The amount of willpower I had was only a limited fuel source and could only take me so far %% Sometimes I was able to power through using sheer determination, but other times, it led me to burnout and procrastination. Instead, the only thing I could do was escape these negative feelings through mindless distractions like doom-scrolling or mindlessly playing games. %% and escape these negative feelings through actually stimulating activities like mindlessly doom-scrolling and aimlessly playing video games. %% Not only did this hedonism make my productivity suffer as it wasn't helping me recharge, but it also compounded into guilt as I felt disconnected from who I wanted to be. Wanting to overcome these pitfalls of limited willpower, I began searching for a new source of motivation, one that could let me stay engaged and intrinsically motivated during my daily tasks. A way to enter effortless flow like my previous days of playing video games for up to 16 hours a day where I would hyperfixate and lose track of time. So, as I embarked on my quest to find a solution for both these problems, I began rebuilding my productivity system. %% I needed to reframe the way I viewed motivation. As Eckhart Tolle says in the book "The Power of Now", > The eternal present is the space within which your whole life unfolds, the one factor that remains constant. Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be. Let's imagine the present moment being the only unit of time in life. If we view our days as a series of present moments, then all we have to do is find a way to be motivated to work during this state. - this is to emphasize how it is a never-ending process. an identity that naturally compels us to do things. - instead of having to do something, what if it came naturally as part of our identity? [[Doing comes after the being]] a controllable point in time where we can actively work towards our long-term goals. But figuring this out would only solve one of my problems. %% ### Apps First, I had to equip myself with the right tools for the job. If you really wanted to do the bare minimum, you could use pen and paper for the whole system. Unfortunately, my programmer brain wants to make things as complex as possible for the sake of autonomy and marginal efficiency 😎 First, I wanted a highly customizable app for freedom to create any setup I want, now if only there was an app I was familiar with… oh yeah. with obsidian, - i can create notes to represent the different items of the system like my goals - then, in each note i can have properties to add information specific to an item, like the deadline of the goal - additionally, properties can also be links to connect it with other parts of the system for quick access and integration with the larger system. - but wait, if you're familiar with a different app that has similar features (notion), please don't switch for the sake of switching. sure you might miss out on other useful but not necessary features you'll see throughout the video, but the goal is to create a system to use, not to create a system period. only switch if you're willing to learn a new app and get your hands dirty. now despite my praise for obsidian, it isn't the only app i use. for the second part of the system, i needed to manage the tasks from all these projects, and time management for when i would complete them. for this I've found myself really enjoying akiflow, to the point where I even paid for their 5-year believer plan! but in reality, any combination of task management app like todoist and calendar app like google calendar works just as well. %%And so, the two apps I've chosen to create this system are Obsidian and Akiflow. This brings me to the two apps I've used to create this system. , with the first one being Obsidian. - ? - But wait, isn't Obsidian a note-taking app? Why don't you use an app build for project management like Notion? This is for two key reasons - **Although Obsidian might be more known to be a note-taking app, I prefer using it over other alternatives like Notion for two main reasons.** Additionally, thanks to the linked-based nature of the app, I can create notes to represent the different elements which are then integrated into the larger system through the First, I want to have complete ownership of my system. Instead of my data being stored in a company cloud's servers, with Obsidian my entire system is locally stored as files on my device. This lets me easily preserve it by creating backups in different locations and freeing me from having to worry about future updates breaking my system as I can use the current version of the app for the rest of my life. Second, I want control of how it works and feels so that it is best personalized for my needs. Thanks to the countless community plugins available, I've been able to start with Ali's system as the foundation but then enhance it to include custom hotkeys, templates, and additional features that make it feel like an extension of my brain. - ? With this creative freedom, it's evolved into an all-in-one-second brain that empowers me in other activities like learning and writing. But as much as I am biased, there are still some things I don't like about it. It's not the best for quick-capturing tasks when on my phone, and I'm not satisfied with the way it integrates with my Google Calendar. This is what I've been using the second app for, which is Akiflow. It's my all-in-one task and time management app to help me stay focused and in the flow state throughout the day. I can automatically sync all my tasks and calendars across different apps into here, where I can then easily organize and plan what I'll be doing by dragging them and modifying them onto my calendar to follow throughout the day. However, as much as these apps work well for me, if you're more familiar with another app and think you can implement the setup there, don't hesitate to use it. Now that I had a foundation on why and how to implement his setup, it was time to dive deeper into what the system actually looks like. %% ### System %% Ali breaks productivity down into two components. - @ I like to imagine the system as a spacecraft for effectively implementing these two components. The direction component acts as the sail guiding us to where we want to go. This direction starts vague with the life compass, but slowly becomes more concrete with waypoints like annual goals and yearly quests. The second component is drive, our way of making progress towards our desired destination. This comes in the form of weekly projects, joyful days, and focused hours. Right now it might just seem like random abstract parts I'll explain these more in detail, but to easily visualize all this, I've created myself a vision board in Obsidian I can refer to whenever I need clarity on what my long-term priorities are. %% %% And when it comes to the smaller timeframes like daily plans and focused hours, this is where I use Akiflow for planning my day. %% Now, how do we understand our core values? The first element is the life compass, where we plan a vague but meaningful understanding of where we want to be in life. He does this through the wheel of life, a holistic rating scale across the different key areas. In the book, he suggested to use the following three main areas, which were then also broken down into three parts - For health we have body, mind, soul - For work we have mission, money, and growth - And for relationships, we have romance family and friends On top of the three main areas, there is also a 10th rating not inside the wheel, which is [[Joy]], which is how enjoyable the process towards growth has been. You can feel free to change these areas to ones more relevant to your life, but since this was my first time using it, I decided to use the recommended 9 areas and consider any adjustments for next year. - & Core areas are turned into area notes, the main place we can visit Once you have your key areas, we can start thinking of an ideal rating for each on a scale of 1-10. By doing so, we can continuously check in with ourselves during these smaller timeframes to be more aware of if we've been on course in the right direction. If you're curious about what mine looked like for 2024, well, you've been looking at it this whole time 😅 Now, you might be asking, shouldn't I be striving for a 10 across all areas of my life? How did I even get to these ratings specifically? During my 2023 reflection, I created a baseline by assessing myself across all areas, which ended up looking like this, a total of 74 out of 100. For this year, I made sure not to make too big of a total increase from last year and thought about which core areas I really wanted to improve on, which led me from a total of 74 to 84 out of 100. To create my own wheel of life in Obsidian, I used the Charts plugin to create these circle polar area charts. In a note, you can create a code block like this to make the different areas, then edit the values yourself. I personally like to create this chart in a note for the year and store each ideal rating as a property of the note so I can reference it in other ones as well like how you saw with my vision board. - -> Okay, now we have these ideal ratings, how can we make them a reality? This is where we can break them down into annual goals, the second element of direction. As we start talking about time-bound goals, I'd like to acknowledge how the size of the timeframe affects how defined these goals should be. It's hard to predict what you can do and want to do in a year due to your ever-evolving self. Because of this, I recommend viewing these not only as objective goals you can track but also as vague states of being that are adaptable throughout the year. - So, to turn each life rating into an annual goal, I referred to my previous years' ratings. If I kept the rating the same, I asked myself what it would mean to maintain that level of satisfaction. If I increased it, what would lead me to feel an increase of that much? - Asking these questions led me to come up with these vague yearly goals. It's okay if it's not perfect, as we can always consider re-alignment during reflection periods to eventually discover one that feels right. - & some are straightforward and can be accomplished by having a few key habits, while some are more complex and need to be broken down more for clarity - For example, my mission goal for the year was to elaborate on my core brand mission of digital self-actualization, but I had no idea what that would look like. all I knew was that it was probably going to take a lot of work to incorporate it into my content and brand identity. So for these more elaborate ones, I created goal notes. Each item in the system is stored as a note in Obsidian, which I can then add properties to store information and relationships it has with other parts of the system. For goal notes specifically, I can link them to the yearly timeframe and then to the area it's related to. %%Other notes can also link back to this note, which I can then automatically see organized in the note template.%% - When creating a goal, I can just press the hotkey to open the command menu, type in goal, and type it in. - A note gets created with a custom template for following his goal setting strategy by filling out the input fields here - facts -> objective - @ Integrate my space vtuber aesthetic into my personal brand - feelings -> how would it feel - @ Empowering - Can begin to infuse my other interests - Can take inspiration from media that inspired me - function -> why - @ below - Not much advancements made in promoting self-actualization in entertainment-based mediums like anime or vtubing - Self-improvement or productivity content can feel more fun if mixed with creativity through world building and animation, which also makes it more enjoyable to make for me - I can easily fill out these input fields in my note to follow his planning strategy using an Obsidian plugin called Meta Bind - Whatever I type will be synced to the frontmatter properties of my note - So now if I visit my vision board, I can see these prompts there - Plan - Prepare everything you need to - steps -> key results, which are then broken down into more steps - @ - schedule -> deadline - @ - I personally don't like setting harsh deadlines, prefer to just use the periods as them - support -> not necessary imo - @ - snags -> generic obstacles - when you think of one, think of whether it is just something you will refer to as a reminder when it does happen, or if it's something you can already incorporate into your plan or system - @ - -> of course, if I were to stop here then I would feel paralyzed by the lack of actionability of this goal. this is where we can continue to break it down into the last element of the drive component, which is quarterly goals To plan out how to complete my quarterly goals, you can follow something like the 12 week year as a way to brainstorm what a plan could look like - As the name suggests, the 52 weeks we have in a year are broken down into four quarters with 13 weeks. 12 are for working, while 1 is for reflection and celebration. To avoid any confusion though, I'll continue referring to these 12 week years as quarters in a normal year. - For my goal on creating my brand philosophy, I ended up only planning my first quarter and use the experience and feedback there for determing what I could do in my second quarter. - So in Q1, my goal was to get the ball rolling and make time to begin elaborating on this idea. my method of choice was to create a newsletter to share these ideas. unlike videos that can't be edited after they're published, writing gave me a space to share these draft ideas for people to give feedback on, which in turn helped further refine and grow my ideas - This resulted in the form of notes like: - [[Digital Self-Actualization]] - [[Digital Universe]] - [[Digital Galaxy]] - With these new understandings, I had more clarity and integrated it with my current space-themed brand identity. I emphasized it as part of my website, my profile pages, and existing products. - At the end of the quarter, I realized that now I had a way of sharing my work-in-progress ideas, I needed something to actually work towards - & So in Q2, I began working on public resources to share how I've been building productivity system into Obsidian. You can see this in my digital galaxy at my documentation for the Obsiidan Starter Vault - And now in Q3, I feel ready to begin creating polished content on my youtube. so for this quarter, i'm thinking of two main goals: - first is to set up my 3d model to be compatible for recording videos and streaming - second is to learn 3d animation for fun to have more relevant b-roll in my videos to better illustrate this cosmic world I'm building beyond basic educational content - third is to combine the two to create videos - Now, these quarterly goals are a bit more specific, but how do I actually make progress on them? - -> This is where we can turn to the next step of the 12 week year, which is well, planning the 12 weeks that comprise of your year - So in the goal note for this quarter, I made a 12 item list to represent each week - Start dumping out the different key items I have to work on - Then see how I could group them into things I think I can do in a week. if it was too big i broke it down even more. but you could also dedicate multiple weeks to an objective. - i also have to accommodate for other things ongoing like having to move or working for LYT, so these goals aren't that ambitious. - Then I numbered them sequentially - now theoretically, if i complete all these 12 things then we should be done the goal! - the problem is, how do I do so? - -> This is where we go from a vague direction into more tangible action, which leads us to the drive component of the system Drive - This is where we switch gears. instead of planning from a higher-order view, we're working and making progress - first step is weekly projects, expeditions we go on to make progress in building out these solar systems - $ Making progress towards - ! balanced weeks - With the 12 week year outline i created, I can turn each week i outlined into a project i can template - For each project, I have a note to help me break the objective down into tasks that i can work on in a day during my focused hours - Section to think of the tasks - Weekly progress, what I want to achieve for that week and how - Break things down into tasks to work towards it - During each week I think of how much time I want to spend on each weekly project - Use it as an outline for how I plan my days - Becomes my bare minimum that would make me feel confident i am putting enough effort to actually hit my objectives - these tasks are then added into my task management app, akiflow in the relevant project folder - to visually map out my workload i like to pre-plan tasks and look at the amount in a week - look at estimate - helps me see whether it is reasonable or not - ! Joyful days - Daily notes help me organize my day - Have sections for the start, during, and end - Reminders - help with alignment by looking at my vision board. i can easily see what my focus is for the week, and see how it is conneced with my higher-order goals and values - Today - help me stay organized and clear on what i need to do - in akiflow i plan my focused hours - Reflection - give me time to organize and prepare for tomorrow - plan tasks i didn't finish - potentially adjust my time blocks or even weekly progress goal - You'll see this more in action during the 5 actions - ! Focused hours - Then throughout the day - create my planned amount of time blocks - I move the tasks for the day into the slots - offload thinking about my schedule, as i follow its notifications - i'm actually aware of my energy, and can shift them around as needed - Having limits helps us have clear boundaries for work and leisure - -> so now that we have the system, we begin to level up the five core skills ### Actions - Align -> Organize -> Focus -> Recharge -> Reflect - To use the system effectively, need to become familiar with these key actions - @ solar system orbit - Can see it as a loop that you follow across the different timeframes - ? Process should be just the enactment of skills - $ 14:04 - If you can ultimately have a balanced culmination of these skills, you are basically guaranteed to achieve whatever goal you set out to - The way you incorporate this in each timeframe might vary - ! Align - As mentioned earlier, the action I've found most valuable, promoting harmony across the different levels of the system - This occurs every time you plan what you want to do at all timeframes - Whenever I have to clarify what I want to achieve in a new timeframe, I can [[Revise higher-order goals for alignment]] - Review on which goals you made progress on or are neglecting based on the planets in your [[Digital life solar systems]] - After, evaluate whether you might need to adjust it to be more realistic or accommodating for your current priorities and capability - ! [[My Alignment Philosophy]] - This helps us prepare for the second action, organization - ! Organize - Unfortunately, even if we're aligned with our values, we can still feel overwhelmed by the chaos and uncertainty of our objectives. - To not feel overwhelmed, we can incorporate the principles of a second brain to support and free up the resources of our primary one - [[Externalize and offload as much as possible]] to [[Close open loops by capturing tasks]] - Based on your alignment, we can capture our current and future plans through goal notes, project notes, tasks, or time blocks - To reduce friction, I use the quickadd plugin in Obsidian - I can always open up command palette, search for the note I want to create, and have the template loaded - Now that we have it written down, it becomes something tangible we can continue to revisit them to stay focused, review them when reflecting, or update them for alignment - This is good enough, but I personally have a bit more structure - I personally have further structure by adopting a kanban-style approach to my objectives where I classify the stage it is in - Folder notes to view each note type - To stay consistent, I have routines - [[Systems provide external accountability]] - I have a workflow I follow for each periodic timeframe that helps incorporate these principles - If you visit my published notes, you can also see these instructions for myself - Maintenance and clarity - always know what to do - ! Focus - To prioritize and actually work towards what you need to - This is achieved through our intentional choices with what we choose to do in each timeframe. - annual, quarterly, weekly - For when we take action this is - daily and hourly - [[Time blocking]] using Akiflow - But to maintain this consistency overtime, we need to also allow for time to recharge - ! Recharge - Where we incorporate breaks across all of them - For longer goals like quarterly quests, we can follow the principles of the 12 week year where the 13th week of a quarter is used for rest and reflection. - For smaller, you can experiment with what keeps you focused and remind yourself of it during the day - Does doing nothing productive on sunday prepare you for the week ahead? If so, in your daily note you can remind yourself when it is - Does 8 hours of productive work a day give you enough progress and time for unstructured leisure? If so, you can add a reminder in your daily note to only plan that much for the day, also keeping the allocated hours per project you have in mind - Can you only stay focused for 2 hours before having to take a break? How long of a break do you need? When planning your time blocks, you can plan with that in mind - These can variable depending on the season of life you're in and external circumstances, but I find just having that awareness and intention helps me with consistency - Okay, we know what we can do to recharge, how do we know whether it's effective? - This is where we can reflect %% - If you need suggestions, Ali recommends to incorporate play, power, and people to recharge - Play - Curiosity and adventure - customize your system in a way that makes it fun - change theme - as much as routine is nice, find ways to add novelty - Power - Self-efficacy - During periodic reviews you can remember your wins - People - Kind of hard to add a socialization aspect here, but consider just joining productivity communities - maybe even promote mine lol %% - ! Reflect - You can have your own self-reflection metrics, I just like to just use 4 areas from HPH: - physical, body - mental, focus - emotional, joy - spiritual, purpose - At the end of each day, I have a prompt to ask myself what activities I did to recharge, and how effective they were - @ Then for each energy I'll rate it from 1-10 - tracker plugin - look back to reflect on important parts - Prompts to facilitate this - Appreciate and be mindful of the journey - Look at the things you're tracking - Wheel of life reflection on a weekly basis - Help you determine whether you are finding joy in the present moment - Food for thought for the next alignment session, where we can repeat the cycle all over again - [[Iterative Learning]] ## Potential Outputs %% What can I use these ideas for? Content, new notes, etc. %% At the beginning of 2024, I read Ali Abdaal's book "Feel Good Productivity,” which caused me to rethink my productivity system and my view on productivity as a whole. Instead of the traditional view of productivity, which focuses on the end result through what you accomplish and achieve, he advocates for productivity driven by joy and meaning, prioritizing the journey as much as the destination. So, after implementing this new approach for over half a year, it's done more than help me get things done. It’s helped me do more of what matters as I explore my curiosities, pursue my passions, and cultivate my ideal life. In this video, I'll be sharing: - How my biggest problems with being productive have been solved by the six core elements of his productivity system, - The tools I used that were essential for bringing it to life, - and the strategies I’ve been finding helpful for practicing his five primary skills for productivity. In his recent workshop explaining this system, he claims that (Ali’s quote: if you do these five consistently, you can achieve anything you want to). By the end of this video, if you want to create it for yourself, you can explore my growing resources and notes from years of learning, experience, and obsession with productivity. With this, I hope you can spend less time trying to find what works and finally start working on what matters most to you. // Transition Now, you might be wondering, what makes it different and more helpful than all the other traditional productivity methods? Why isn’t it enough to write down our goals and break them down into tasks we can check off? I wasn’t sure either until the end of 2023, when I reflected upon the year. During this time, I dug through all my weekly, monthly, and quarterly journals, realizing there was a lot to be proud of: - For the first time in my life, I worked out consistently, even hitting a 30-plus-week streak that only ended when I got sick! - During my programming internship at a global 500 company, my senior commended me and said my skills were on par with those of a junior developer. - I got to develop long-term relationships, with some being a core part of my life (Aidan) and some drifting apart (ex) But at the same time, I realized two recurring themes hindered me from living my best life. Ironically, these were caused by my productivity system, the thing that was supposed to help me do so in the first place! // First problem - long-term goals When revisiting my goals for 2023, upon first glance, I was confused, questioning whether I was the one to have even written them. They completely differed from what I wanted to do and who I wanted to become. As much as I thought these yearly goals would be my guiding compass throughout the year, they eventually faded in their meaning and relevance. The whole point of goals is to work towards meaningful long-term commitments that transform our lives, yet my old yearly goals seemed to do exactly the opposite. (show example of them) As a result, there were times when I felt lost and uncertain about whether the tasks I was checking off and projects I was completing were actually helping me work towards my ideal life. In reality, this comes with a hidden cost. Without any meaningful goals, it's easy to get trapped into making life optimization your primary purpose in life: - Working more hours to get more things done in a day - Strictly following science-backed morning routines and workout routines to live longer - Being frugal with spending and to achieve financial freedom Growth for the sake of growth, which is the ideology of the cancer cell. You will end up with an objectively successful and healthy life, but as the author of The Burnout Society Byung Hul Chan puts it, > [You] cannot be killed at all. [Your] life equals that of the undead. [You] are too alive to die, and too dead to live. All this optimization should be a means to a meaningful end. Fortunately, we can prevent this. Here, we can leverage the top part of Ali's productivity system, which is for direction. It consists of three elements: a life compass, yearly goals, and quarterly quests. With my old system, I was only actively working towards and paying attention to what was urgent. I spent little time looking at my quarterly or yearly goals and had no life compass to guide my life. However, using this part of the system, these long-term goals became empowering milestones in my journey toward self-actualization. However, this would only solve one of my problems. // Second problem - Actions A core principle of productivity is to break down your goals into specific actions you can complete daily. He refers to this as the "Drive" part of his productivity system. You break down your goals into weekly projects, which are then broken down into clear tasks, which are then completed during focused hours. With my previous system, I did exactly this. I had your typical daily schedules of time blocks and tasks to map out what I was supposed to do during each hour of the day. But when it was time to start working, I didn't always have the motivation to follow through on my plan and execute it. Sometimes, I was able to overcome my challenges through sheer determination, but other times, this led to burnout and procrastination. Instead, I could only escape these negative feelings through mindless distractions like doom-scrolling or playing games. This was only amplified with my ADHD brain, which craves stimulation. Not only did this hedonism make my productivity suffer, as it wasn't helping me recharge, but it also compounded into guilt as I felt disconnected from who I wanted to be. Wanting to overcome these pitfalls of limited willpower, I began searching for a new source of motivation that would allow me to stay engaged and intrinsically motivated during my daily tasks. A way to enter an effortless flow like my previous days of playing video games for up to 16 hours a day when I would hyper fixate and lose track of time. So, as I embarked on my quest to find a solution for both these problems, I began rebuilding my productivity system based on a new lens to view it from.