Productivity

Real life magic and self fulfilling prophecies

December 3, 2025

Have you ever noticed how you get precisely what you expect?

If you’re a gym goer, here’s an example you might relate to. You need to do 10 repetitions of an exercise. You pick the weight up; “Oof, that’s heavy”. You say to yourself “Hmm… well, if I get to 8 that’ll still be good”

What number do you get to and simply can’t push any more?

I realised this internal mechanism one day when I mis-read my workout tracker and picked up a heavier weight than I was supposed to… but I still completed the number of repetitions for the exercise I was supposed to be doing.

I had accidentally increased the weight I was able to lift. I had thought it was my physical body preventing me from lifting more, but in that case it was psychological.

Just because I expected to be able to do it, I could.

It’s also said that you’ll use all the time you give yourself to complete a task. If you set a ten year goal, you’ll likely take the whole ten years to get there.

Set the same goal for one year and you move a little different.

It’s worth questioning and sometimes changing our expectations to match the results we want.

Be the boss of your notifications

November 30, 2025

Here’s the easiest way I know to be more productive:

Don’t let any apps send you notifications.

Smart phones are awesome but they’re also annoying. If anything happens on any messaging, email or social media app, it tells you.

There’s a noise and then that enticing red-apple-looking-notification sign with a number of how many juicy messages you get.

I’ve removed them all. My phone doesn’t tell me if I get an email or message.

The apps are still on my phone, they just don’t talk to me.

They can wait, thank you very much.

A number in a little red bubble doesn’t have the right to divert my attention.

I let them all accrue- messages, dms, notifications, emails.

And then I go and visit them when I’m ready.

I’ll look at you and deal with you when I’m good and ready. And some days I’m simply not ready. I can check tomorrow or next week or never.

Of course it does take some training to fight the urge to check. But once you get over that, you’re a bit free aren’t you?

And that’s pretty nice.

Less time reacting to red number bubbles and more doing things that matter to you.

Why you need to break your flow state

November 26, 2025

We should all take breaks when we work. You might think this is because you need to rest; maybe the work is difficult or not particularly enjoyable, so you have to stop to get some respite, right?

But you also have to have take breaks when you’re enjoying the work.

“But I’ll break my flow state!” you say.

I believe it’s detrimental to stay in it.

Set a timer to work and a timer to rest. Honour both.

If you don’t rest to break up the deep work, you’re more likely to burn out and get to the point of diminishing returns.

It won’t feel like it at the time, your brain will tell you “No! It’s going well, I’ll just do this little bit more!”

That’s a sure sign to take 5 minutes.

If you do take that 5 minutes, you’ll be ITCHING to get back to work AND you’ll have the benefit of a short break.

The 5 minutes you take off of the enjoyable work acts like a sling shot, pulling back the rubber band and building your excitement, anticipation and so the passion you can bring to your next work chunk.

Take breaks when it’s hard and take breaks when it’s fun.

You’ll get more out of yourself over time.

And the winner is…

November 25, 2025

Sometimes my work day feels like a host announcing the winner of American Idol:

“And the winner….of American Idol is…

………..”

And on they pause!

I feel like I have hundreds of these little pauses throughout the day, and if you added them all together it would be the length of the debut album of the above mentioned American idol winner.

My pauses are caused by indecision. Should I do this or that? Should I use this approach or that? What’s the best colour to use here?

Here’s my answer:

The best one is the one you choose, okay?

If I catch myself over-deliberating the next cause of action on whatever scale, I just say to myself “get on with it Seacrest!”

When energy meets purpose

November 11, 2025

Goals are easy when you first set ‘em.

It’s exciting! It’s the 3rd of January and the new habits are going well!

Even better, people are watching! They see what you’re doing and that feels great!

I’m really interested in what keeps us going on the 3rd of August. When the habits are boring and no one is watching any more.

This is where the real magic starts to happen, but it’s also when our enthusiasm fades (if not way sooner).

There’s a lot out there to help with this; people like Simon Sinek talk about connecting to your why. I agree, your purpose is the driving force.

One thing I’m thinking about recently is how we come to our why. We can’t think about our why and expect it to instantly move us. We have to meet it with energy.

Have you slept enough?

Have you moved?

What are you eating?

Check all your fuel inputs- then check in with the why.

Our ultimate purpose will only energise if we meet it with that same zest first.

Distorting time

November 9, 2025

We are all Marty McFLy. Yup, we’re masters of time distortion.

Recently I had a morning-long battle with myself to go for a walk. I was editing and writing and as each ‘pomodoro’ 25 minutes went by I said to myself:

“I’ll walk on the next break”

And of course I never did. I had distorted the time in my head. You can usually catch it in the language:

“That’ll take forever” I thought. Of course I don’t really mean that but the imprecision in my language is what helps me to distort it.

After a few hours my brain began bulging and fuzzing and I knew the walk was no longer a nice to have- it was needed.

So up I get and out I go- air pods in and happily strolling along the road to my favourite power pole. I check no one is looking, then turn around to head back (why do I always find it so embarrassing to do a 180 in public?)

I get back to my desk feeling refreshed and thinking why didn’t I do that hours ago?!

Here’s the crazy part- the from desktop, around pole, to desktop took me nine minutes.

NINE MINUTES!!

In that time it felt like I had visited another dimension, I saw my power pole for goodness sake! It felt like an eternity (there I go again) and the time away completely reset my brain’s ability to keep logging deep work hour.

But it only took me nine minutes.

Note to self, stop arguing with yourself- just go on the walk.

It’s always a good idea.

Overchunking Medusa

November 5, 2025

These aren’t just two random words I put together, I promise.

There’s a balance we have to strike between dreaming big and actioning small. It’s a tricky one to get right.

If we spend all our time focussing on the giant goal- or even the just big task for the week- we can freeze. A bit like Medusa has paralysed us.

This is called over chunking. It’s looking at too many chunks of information or tasks at once.

It’s being daunted by the giant elephant, the whole mountain or the entire dissertation…

I think back to some monumental tasks I’ve undertaken in the past and I’m almost certain I’d never have even started if I knew all it took now.

So when we are at the foot of the mountain, we have to simultaneously know about the peak while just taking one proverbial step at a time.

Get this balance right and I’m pretty sure we can do anything.

Email batching- thanks Tim!

November 4, 2025

Some say 6, 7; I say 12 and 4!

This idea is from Tim Ferriss. I read this over 10 years ago and I keep coming back to it over and over again.

Tim’s advice is simple- we get more time by eliminating things. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean we miss out on things, it just means we are smarter about what we get rid of and when. So it becomes possible to have your cake and eat it.

Like most, I sometimes feel like I’m a professional email responder. My email inbox is a GREAT place to go if I want to feel ‘productive’.

The problem with that is we are being reactive to the needs and the to do lists of other people. I open my inbox and suddenly an hour and a half would disappear.

My day becomes a continuous stream of processing the request that leak in from people whenever they feel like sending me an email. Over time, this removes my energy and ability to do what’s important and non-urgent to me.

Tim suggests instead we batch our emails, let them accumulate and check them only twice a day.

So I check my email at 12pm and 4pm. That’s it.

The amazing thing is, when I go to my inbox with the singular focus of processing what’s there- it takes all of 15 minutes. Its because I’m a lot clearer on my own priorities and can cut through them quickly. I’m also not kidding myself thinking I will split focus between what I’m doing and the emails as they come in- I am focussed solely on the inbox during these chunks.

The unexpected thing was I found it hard to wait! I had become so used to the magical task-giving inbox that I almost needed it.

“Oh! I wonder what emails I have!”

It became a discipline of it’s own not to check it outside of my allocated times.

I had become addicted to having an instant task someone gives me with a finite end!

When I feel productivity waining, I can pretty much guarantee it’s because this habit has slipped.

When I want to reconnect again to powerful focus on what actually moves the needle on the work that really matters to me, I go back to 12 and 4.

When in doubt, 12pm and 4pm.

Values make things stick

October 20, 2025

How do we make something a priority?

Sheer will power can be great, but might not last.

What really lasts is connecting the desired action to our highest value.

-Want to consistently make time to plan new creative lessons?

-Begin a new habit?

-Push through the initial difficulty of a new venture?

Sure, I can muscle my way through, but I know I’ll burn out quickly if it’s will power alone.

What does it mean to link something to your values?

We have to link in our heads, hearts and bodies that this action equals our highest value.

-The consistent time spent planning lessons is directly connected to the change you want to make in young people. Action – > high value

-The new habit is burned in your brain as an embodiment of your deep desire to always learn new things. Action – > high value

-Sticking to the new venture while you’re really bad at it is connected to the contributions you know you will make to others once you master it. Action – > high value

Don’t be strong. Plug into your values instead.

Don’t forget the victories

October 17, 2025

What was once a dream that is now part of your every day life?

We’re really good at forgetting good stuff.

It might be because of the insatiable human appetite for progress. Forgetting milestones probably serves us well in our pursuit of more and better.

But that’s a bit of an empty existence- success without fulfillment.

It might seem like a silly example but when I first started acting I remember how an audition would rule my entire day.

Well, to be perfectly honest I’d get the audition through and I’d question whether I could get anything else done that week…

If I was auditioning at 2pm on a Tuesday, nothing else existed until after that audition. Even then I probably took the rest of the day to gather myself and recover.

These days I can pack a full day around an audition and still have a great time.

This is progress- I’ve grown a LOT since the old days. I found myself lamenting that I wasn’t getting enough done recently and I suddenly remembered where I came from.

That I once couldn’t have imagined having the types of days I’m having now.

But of course now it’s just an ordinary day.

I think we’d do well to remember it wasn’t always like this. To give ourselves some credit and celebrate the things we forget to celebrate.

What is in your life now that was once a dream?

JUSTIN ROGERS

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