A few thoughts on time management and productivity from a 25-year old High School teacher, newborn dad, and master's student.I actually made a course on this! But I'm not here to promote that.Personal backgroundYou might wonder: "Why is this unknown long-time lurker making a post on an entrepreneurial subreddit?"- Well. Truth be told, I really dig the "movement" on this subreddit that recently pushed through with talks and topics on the truth of entrepreneurship - that it's often hard and demands sacrifices. When I was young (13-15 years old) I had a youtube channel with almost 1k subscribers and it made my dreams about being a youtube and internet-celebrity flourish. With the years going by, and also a heavy gaming addiction, I spent loads of time wishing to be a streamer/YouTuber and I loved to watch people like Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, and other motivational speakers "selling" productivity as if it was the easiest thing online. I was in a bad place and endless rabbit-holes of procrastination.Years passed, I went to university, reduced gaming, stopped drinking as much alcohol, started working out/sleeping/eating better. And then I and my wife got pregnant last year. Amazing. I was going to be a dad. But with the dreams of being a dad came true responsibility. Therefore, I had to cut out gaming since I personally knew it wouldn't work with being a dad. Best decision ever. That's when I started to realize the pleasure of everyday routines and how they realistically improved my time management and productivity.My thoughtsI'm almost an educated psychologist, so I think I have a few points that could be relevant for anyone in this subreddit. I will list them and try to explicate them accordingly.Often, the words "productivity" and "time management" are used in a way that creates unrealistic expectations of our lives.- By watching loads of YouTubers and looking at different self-pronounced Gurus, I really think that psychologically speaking, the material they put out can be way more harmful than helpful. By creating a 7-minute video naming it "How to accomplish your dreams" like any other click-bait video, it underestimates the stories of entrepreneurship being told in this subreddit for example. Failure will weigh heavier than success.Happiness stems from attending to both long-term and immediate happiness- I remember listening to a researcher, who was pre-occupied with research-oriented emotions, that you can be happy while experiencing negative emotions. I didn't really understand this before I became a dad. Becoming a father is stressful, demanding and you're constantly tired and experiencing negative (perhaps the best word even though no emotion is negative), but you feel thoroughly happy. On the other hand, you can sit on your chair and watch funny youtube videos constantly, laughing, but be truly unhappy. Therefore, I would argue that happiness stems from creating a balance of attending to both!Use time management methods (possibly the Pomodoro method?) in altered ways to fit them to your respective day. Those aren't one-size-fits-all models- There will always be people introducing different "methods". I found great joy in using the Pomodoro method in a flexible way due to my daughter. However, the core principles of that specific method work wonders for me (25-minute work-bursts with short breaks)Cut out unnecessary time-fillers- This point might be self-explanatory. However, I had to reconsider how I use social media. I've recently watched the Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma", which is amazing. I've used it in my teaching at the high school, where I work. It basically explains the psychological evolutionary principles of Positive sporadic reinforcement and how it's implemented on social media platforms to steal our attention. Be aware of these (just a personal tip!)Spend time to release more time- Put short: living a healthy life might cost time (doing exercise and preparing healthy food), but will statistically make you live longer than people treating themselves like shit. In this sense, I argue that spending time being healthy releases more time, in the long run, to set your print on this world.Structure your residence- Lastly, founded in a neuropsychological approach, I subscribe to the idea that objects/places in our residence have associated representations and thus affect our neural brain-wirings. In this sense, if you associate your work computer with youtube and entertainment, you will end up having a hard time for yourself in terms of getting work done.Oops: the last points were a bit quick - my daughter started crying.Hope this can help someone. Have a great day. I'm up for discussions if anyone is interested in that.Thanks for this sub see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
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