“Those who don't overcommit, who undercommit, who just focus on one or two things, those one or two things become magnified so they become these big heavy, pressure-filled things. And those conditions can lead to procrastination. Overcommitting takes the pressure off those one or two things because now the pressure is on doing ALL the things. A counterintuitive hack there.” BusyGoals In LifeGetting Things DoneGoal AchievementBusynessBusy PeopleAchiving Author:David Tian Ph.D
“When I wanted to get into the habit of writing [...] I had to small-chunk-it so much to make this manageable. I started off with the length of a tweet: I commit to writing tweet-length essays everyday! And then eventually I was able to expand that.” WritingHabitDisciplineHabitsOne Step At A TimeStep By StepDisciplinedDiscipline YourselfBuilding HabitsCreating Habits Author:David Tian Ph.D
“There's scientific evidence for the satisfizer over the maximizer. Those who just get it done will generally be happier with the outcome and will be able to be more effective than those who try to maximize every decision and they hold off on it until they have the maximal amount of information. They are less happy with the outcome, whatever decision they do end up making, and that decision is only marginally optimal in most cases, and sometimes is even worse. So get into the habit of being decisive. It is going to make you more effective and happier.” Just Do ItPerfectionismPerfectionistGet It DoneOveranalysisOveranalysingOveranalyzingProcrastinationm Author:David Tian Ph.D
“There's a temptation to want to summit the summit of the mountain. [...] One of the greatest temptations for a man is the desire for it to be DONE. Just get to the end and be done. And that's not life. That's not actual fulfillment either. There is no end. There is no done.” ResultsGet It DoneClimbing MountainsResult OrientedFinish ItEnd GameResults OnlyThe End Game Author:David Tian Ph.D
“Aim higher, more ambitious or more audacious than the goal you are currently struggling with, and that will help you get those lower goals done. If you've got to get to that big goal, you've got to do that other thing to get there. That other thing may have otherwise been a gigantic goal for you with all this weight. But now that it becomes the number two goal on the way to the bigger goal, it becomes this mindset of "I just got to get this thing done" on your way to the bigger goal, because this is one of the lower goals now.” GoalsAmbitiousGoal SettingAim HighAmbitionsSet GoalsAim Higher Author:David Tian Ph.D
“In order to achieve flow, that thing has to be CHALLENGING enough to occupy your whole brain. All of your capacities. So you're fully immersed in that activity. [...] A lot of people are doing things that they don't enjoy in the moment and they're not finding it challenging or fulfilling in a good way. It might be so challenging or so hard that they give up, or they don't know what they're doing, or they're just bored [because it's not challenging enough]. Those are all going to be unfulfilling achievement activities. [...] In order to get that intrinsic enjoyment of the activity it has to have, built into it, baked into the activity... it has to be challenging enough. [...] Growing itself is enjoyable [because it's challenging].” AchievementFulfillmentChallengeAchievement And AttitudeChallengingChallenging Yourself Author:David Tian Ph.D
“I read these biographies all the time about these successful people and one of the patterns that I've discovered, and what I've discovered in myself and all of my friends who have become very successful, has been the fact that they say "Yes" to a lot of commitments. If you just have this one goal, then that one thing may get shoved under the rug and procrastinated on. But if you say yes to a lot of things; if you almost overcommit, then you probably won't get all of the things you've committed to complete. But you'll get a good portion of them. The 80% that you DO get done will still be more than that one person who said no to a lot of things. The busiest people get the most things done.” ProductivityEfficiencyEffectivenessJust Do ItBusy LifeGetting Things DoneGetting StartedProductivity TipsBusy PeopleProcrastination Quote Author:David Tian Ph.D