Hey — It’s Toffer.
Live from hot Manila at 37°C (99°F).
Estimated read time: 5 minutes.
🌀Important things unsettle me.
The most important things are usually the most uncomfortable things. By prompting myself with this idea everyday, I constantly transform my brain (and my task-list) into doing the right things instead of just doing things quickly.
This means that the number-one thing that I will have to sacrifice to be great, to achieve what I am capable of, and to execute my plans, is my comfort.
This idea syncs perfectly with Tim Ferriss’ productivity hack where every morning, he writes down the 3-5 things that are making him most anxious or uncomfortable.1
🍖 The older the problem, the older the solution.
How to eat well is one of the oldest problems. So I went way back for a solution—around 200,000 years back when homo sapiens first appeared in Africa. I pictured myself living there for a week.2
In that short trip, I realized that I’m built for one world, but lived in another. Underneath it all, I’m just a caveman. I don’t mean to be prescriptive but the solutions are just so hunter-gatherer simple:
Sleep in a cave: Sleep quality is more important than quantity.3
Eat real food: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.4
Keep walking: The man who loves walking will walk further than the man who loves the destination.5
🗓️ Twelve-Week Year
As much as I hate deadlines, they just work. If I set a goal to achieve by the end of the year, I’ll probably start moving by September, and only take it seriously by November. But if the deadline is in twelve weeks, I’ll probably start moving by next week, and sprint on the last two weeks.
This Twelve-Week Year6 idea is all about consistent execution. In fact if I go from doing a task weekly to daily, that’s 7 years output in 1 year. If I apply a 1% compound interest each time, I achieve 54 years output in 1 year.
If we did the things we are capable of, we will literally astound ourselves.
— Thomas Edison
💩 Life is too short for bullshit.
Life is like that tiny square chocolate I want to last forever but melts away before I know it. When I was younger, I used to wonder: is life really short, or are we just whining because it doesn't last forever? But then I had kids, and boom, reality check! Life is short, folks.
Let’s compute. My earliest memory of Christmas was when I was 5. I remember those hard red swirly candies that were too pretty and impossible to eat, the scent of burnt Chinese ham, and PJs in the afternoon to sleep early to catch Santa by midnight. Magic. I was 10 when I discovered it was just Tito Romy that downed the Diet Coke and ate the chocolate chip cookies.
That’s a grand total of 5 magical Christmases. That’s all I got and probably what each of my kids will get. No more nonsense, fake smiles, unnecessary meetings, silly fights, red tape, and doom-scrolling. Life is too short for bullshit.
🎶 No day but today.
There is no future. There is no past.
Thank God this moment’s not the last.There’s only us.
There’s only this.
Forget regret or life is yours to miss.No other road, no other way
No day but today.
That’s from Rent. Youtube video here.
Your Friend in Time,
Toffer
Here is Tim Ferriss’ Step-by-Step process for maximizing efficacy:
Write down the 3-5 things — and no more — that are making you most anxious or uncomfortable. They’re often things that have been punted from one day’s to-do list to the next, to the next, to the next, and so on.
For each item, ask yourself:
“If this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?”
“Will moving this forward make all the other to-do’s unimportant or easier to knock off later?”
Look only at the items you’ve answered “yes” to for at least one of these questions.
Block out at least 2-3 hours to focus on ONE of them for today. Let the rest of the urgent but less important stuff slide. It will still be there tomorrow.
TO BE CLEAR: Block out at least 2-3 HOURS to focus on ONE of them for today. This is ONE BLOCK OF TIME. Cobbling together 10 minutes here and there to add up to 120 minutes does not work.
If you get distracted or start procrastinating, don’t freak out and downward spiral; just gently come back to your ONE to-do.
That’s it. Congrats!
I wanted to avoid the agricultural revolution because I know farm work and village life sucked—leisure time plummeted, violence and disease skyrocketed. Check out Yuval Noah’s Sapiens for a fascinating account of the accidental nature of the agricultural revolution and it’s unintended (but irreversible) consequences.
I was in an appliance store last night with my wife, and she asked me if money was no object, what’s the first thing I’ll buy? Hands down, stuff from this site: www.sleeplikethedead.com
This is from Michael Pollan’s bestselling book In Defense of Food where he wants us to eat good food and spend time with loved ones for a happier, healthier life.
“The man who loves walking will walk further than the man who loves the destination” by Lao Tzu is when you love the journey (the walking), the goals (the destination) just happen. You’ll hit milestones as a side effect. Plus, walking (literally) is a timeless practice embraced by thinkers and everyday people because not only is it physically healthy, it also soothes the mind, sparks creativity, and even connects us to the world and ourselves, making it a simple yet profound way to find peace and inspiration.
The Twelve Week Year is a book by Brian P Moran where the most important thing is to believe that you can reach your goals; next, to do something about it, ideally within a quarter of a year.