Here’s the Tim Ferriss blog post I mentioned in the video: Unrealistic Athletic Goals
Clarification
There are really two things I want to get across. The first is that sometimes, the best way to increase your productivity is to take a break. The second is that to a certain degree, cycles or highs and lows are inevitable. Instead of beating yourself up over them or trying to avoid them, go with them. When you’re on a high and feeling great, use that drive to motivate yourself and others and to tackle new challenges. When you’re on a low, take care of more routine tasks, maybe do some clean up and organizing. The next high will come soon enough.
Question of the week:
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Note that I don’t reply to all comments, but I do read them all. If I don’t reply to your comment, it most likely means that I agree with what you say and don’t have anything meaningful to add, myself. I appreciate and read all comments and your comments play an important part in what I write about, so keep them coming.
Spammy comments are always filtered or removed. No surprise there.
“Sometimes the best way to increase your productivity is to take a break”, I agree with this statement. Everybody learns on different scales. Personally I find taking a step back, organize, and re-evaluating helps put things in perspective.
The times when I feel stuck can be frustrating on the one hand and yet the most important on the other.
This is when I begin to look for that next piece to my puzzle. The willingness and patients to continue putting together the puzzle will eventually help it take shape.
Regards
Stanley
I think you are right – it certainly does go in cycles. I have been trying to make money online for many years and I go through cycles of doing a LOT of work and then observing the nearly always zero results, and then I try something different.
Shane,
I know exactly what you mean. There are days when I have so much energy and enthusiasm.. Then the next week I just have a complete swing in mood, or even the reverse is true.
This is why it’s best sometimes to take a break to get away from everything. Even if it’s as simple as taking the dog for a walk, it gives your mind time to rest and the fresh air also will do you good.
The fact that you pointed out that there is the cycles is also a great thing to know and realise. If you then remember this whenever you are feeling low or off about something then you may know what it is and recognise this for what it is.. Then take the break and recoup.
Chris
Hi Shane,
I know exactly what you mean and wholeheartedly agree.
With me, it seems to work in a 6-week cycle. 6 weeks I’ll concentrate on my website and do the IM and all that goes with it. Then, slowly, I start to slack off, start to surf the web when I should be working, start to procrastinate – and then I feel guilty and talk myself down. I’ve noticed that if I go away and not even look at it for a week, my enthusiasm comes back. Without being aware of this cycle, it would be very easy to just give up and not bother, and I have done that in the past!
Great insight and thanks for your post!
Marion
Interesting that you’ve noticed it being as regular as that! Did you ever take notes to find out, or did you just notice intuitively?
I have observed this at various times throughout my life. Whether it was working out, running, stretching, or playing a sport I noticed this. I also did the tough guy approach, although I did not know this until just now!
Later in life I learned to take breaks. I actually had an epiphany working for someone else and putting in 12 hour days. I got sick, took off two days, and found I could do in 10 hours when it was taking 12 hours to do with no breaks.
Yes, I’ve noticed something similar. It’s amazing how the same amount of work can be compressed into a small amount of time or stretched out over a long time, depending on how you work and how you rest.
Great observation Shane. The question then is how to take advantage of the insight.
When do you actually take that break? When you are unmotivated? When you have been motivated for a period of time but know you are about to flag? Do you plan it long in advance and go regardless of your emotional state when that anticipated day arrives?
Personally, I have always found it difficult to plan a vacation (sorry, holiday :) ) in advance. It never feels right.
On the other hand, I have no problem starting a day with the idea of pushing through it knowing the drive is not really there and suddenly deciding that it’s time to take a plane to somewhere fun. (I think I risk the ‘no fly list’ by buying a ticket at the airport these days though. That sucks).
So what is the consensus?
I don’t have the perfect answer to that. But here’s something that works for me: Semoetimes I’ll be sitting here, trying to get work done, but I notice that I’m not really getting anywhere. I can’t focus properly and I just don’t manage to be really productive. That’s when I know it’s better to just let go and do something else. That’s when I know I’ll actually get more done by taking a break and coming back than by forcing myself to keep going.
Cycles, Schmicheals! Keep on topic and give us your IM thinkings Shane!!
(I try to go for a 10min walk 2 or 3 times a day. The secret is NOT to let yourself think about work during that time. I ‘keep up with the kids’ by listening to a couple of new/random podcasts. The best podcasts are < 6mins)
Question – If you're gonna do a review of 'sick submitter' next please may you include the date period of your test? Will the results be different pre-panda & post-panda??
Do you even think we should even think about these types of differently post-panda?
Any chance you could include a 'poll' in your post to ask those that have been regularly using sick submitter if they've seen any different results pre-panda and post-panda?
And ask the long-term users if they're using it differently?
Justin
‘Do you even think we should even think about these types of differently post-panda?’
Sorry!!!
Should we think about this types of links differently post-panda?
Yeah, still works.
None of my affiliate sites were seriously hit by the panda update. Some saw a very small drop in traffic, but most were completely unaffected. That includes very low quality sites where the only thing they’ve got going for them are the backlinks I’ve built.
I know a lot of people are scared after panda and will tell you not to do all kinds of stuff. I’ve seen people advising that you delete or no-index any kind of less-than-stellar content on your sites, even. And as every time when Google twitches, there are many people who proclaim that this is now finally the end of anything but the whitest shade of white hat SEO.
It’s happened many times before and it will happen over and over again. In the meantime, I’ll still keep doing what works until it really stops working.
Business is just like pretty much anything else in life in that it goes in cycles.
I find that if I’m tired and unmotivated, I can waste so much time not achieving anything. I’m much better off taking a break and getting some physical exercise to get the endorphins going and then I can approach the task with renewed enthusiasm.
Same for me. Except that when I’m feeling especially unmotivated and would need some exercise the most, I find it hardest to actually get myself to do it…
Hey Justin Knightley
Panda update was about filtering bad content which may be connected with low quality backlinks but as far i know backlink hasnt changed anything.
Hello Shane,
First, I am NOT a motivated body builder. I HATE that sort of thing. Thus, when garden time rolls around in the spring, it’s all I can do to drag up to the garden for a little planting action. But I feel SO much better after. And those actual real tomatoes on my sandwich are nice too.
In the meantime, occasionally I remove the clothing from my combo clothes rack/Total Gym and and start working out. I start off slowly, and gradually, build up until something breaks, and then I put the clothing back on the dratted thing! (Last time it was only a hernia.)
My solution to burnout is to go get some woods over my head. I grab up the wife and we run (actually drive) 15 miles up the highway to a little town, grab a couple of burgers and fries, and head out to a 40,000 acre (That is X hectare) plot of woodland, have our picnic, and do the big circle inside there looking for wild critters, deer, turkey, squirrels and such. We both like that very much. Saves on plane fare to exotic destinations, is more fun than the zoo, and we can be there on a whim in under a half hour.
For years, I’d work my every spare second on computer mess. It was pretty rough on her because we kind of like each other, but she finally gave in/up to my obsession. Didn’t understand it, but figured out that nothing short of a stroke would stop me.
Finally, one day a couple of years ago, I realized that there is more to life than marketing. (The nagging had long stopped, so I take full credit for my personal e-piff-a-knee.) It wasn’t like I was making a million bucks anyway.
Now, evenings are devoted to TV, sitting on our nice comfy couch, (Stuff I like to watch, naturally. No cooking shows.) and the weekends are pretty much a bust for computer work too. It’s more fun than a second honeymoon.
When all is said and done, how much is a potential (and I mean potential) few more bucks versus time lost with the one you love? Hmmn? The latter is a sure thing. Now there is more balance, we’re both having ALL the fun, and I can’t see where I have lost a nickel in “potential” revenue. And when I do hit the keys again, I’m fresh and fired up.
Even better, my last conscious thought, when my face falls over into my keyboard for the last time, won’t be, “How about that CPC!” Instead, it will be, “Gee, didn’t V and I have fun yesterday?!”
Living life this way, burnouts still happen, but they are more rare, and when they happen, I have a GREAT fall back. You gotta figure out your priorities. Electrons are fun, but people are too.
Norm, way over in Alabama
Wow, that’s awesome, Norm!
Looks like you’ve got a really healthy balance figured out. Can’t say the same for myself, although I’m working on it. :)
Hi Shane,
I am aware of the “cycle” you mentioned I just don’t know its interval or frequency. Perhaps it’s really necessary for me to find it out. Do you have any tips of how to identify them?
I think another productivity problem for me is that I am aware of my high period but I allow myself to do something less important instead of taking care of my business or some others important stuffs. And when I am low I take too long time to get high again. :(
Some cycles are natural like the seasons. Nature is used to these cycles and the whole world is designed around them.
Other cycles or oscillations are caused by underlying structures which form triggers to our behaviour. The most obvious is weight loss and then weight gain.
We gain weight and decide to lose weight. Cut down on food, increase exercise until we reach the weight we want. Once we have achieved the weight we want the cycle moves on and we eat as we did before and exercise (or not) as we did before and the weight goes back on.
My cycles of wealth and then lack of wealth are similar cycles or oscillations.
The really big issues is the underlying structures of our life and or business and there is a solution.
The whole wealth industry is based on the idea that we want to be wealthy. This idea of wealth is based on acquiring money.
Robert Fritz wrote a book called The Path of Least Resistance and provides a neat way to see life which identifies these wasted oscillations.
I am now convinced more than ever that building or creating the right structural tension is a better way forward (quite literally).
Accept that we have moods, good days and bad days but have a clear goal of what we wish to create. What do we really want is probably the hardest thing to define but once we get clear nothing stops our growth (personal, spiritual and other wealth).
Our Western culture is based on the individual, the self and we have moved away from working or helping each other and yet working together can provide huge rewards as well as leverage.
Define what you really want to create and then you will attract the right people to work with you.
Regards
Steve
Shane, Just wondering what video player/service you are using to host and stream you videos? Is it s3amazon or flowplayer…. I am curious as it’s good quality and obviously not YouTube… :)