After I wrote the blog post My principles of effectiveness a lot of people expressed interest in learning how to be less effective. Making your life worse can result in some unexpected benefits. Or at least I hope so. Here are my personal tips.
I rush
I hurry past things that I could enjoy. I rush my morning bike commute and get frustrated by slow and incompetent bikers. I rush through books because it seems like I should be reading even when I don’t want to. I rush eating breakfast even when I am really hungry and it tastes amazing. I rush drinking tea and burn my tongue.
I am overly idealistic
I expect everyone to have the same high standards I do. I think everyone cares as much as I do. I take it for granted that everyone wants to make the world a better place. I assume everyone wants to be better.
I multitask
I feel productive when I rapidly switch between different activities. It feels like I am getting everything done at once. When I am really on a roll I can start 5x the number of tasks I finish. Sometimes I multitask while I meditate.
I waste time on things I don’t enjoy
I play stupid, frustrating games on my phone. I scroll my LinkedIn feed and don’t click on any articles. I watch Youtube Shorts of shallow people talking about themselves. I watch people on ESPN talk out of their asses about basketball.
I fail to resolve recurring issues
This one was suggested by my girlfriend. I try to solve problems that happen multiple times. And I fail. And they keep happening. Over and over again.
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comment section!
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