Takeaways
Proactive day architecture is important
Most people feel that they should be busy at all times however this is a highly destructive behavior
People will do their thinking on the walk back from lunch when they are lethargic vs. First thing in the morning
Hemingway’s approach: Ending the day with a direction
End your day thinking about the most important question (just pose it, don’t solve it)
Finish with a sense of direction activated so that when you wake up and restart you can start in the right direction and can leverage the power of your subconscious.
Wake up and write about the question pre-input (i.e., before email, news, browsing the internet, etc.)
Importance of slack in your schedule
If you are always at your *simmering six* out of ten (in terms of activity level) then you are never relaxed and critically, never hit your peak
Creation of slack and whitespace in your life for deep work is important
The power of the empty space gets you away from nominal thought constructs and groupthink where everyone else is clustered
”This is Water” - getting away helps you see what water is
Aggressively seek to work in your Zone of Genius
It’s very easy for people to follow the mental models of others (we are memetic creatures after all)
Un-obstructive self-expression is key- what makes you tick, when did you operate at your best from a professional, technical, psychological standpoint
Find the thing you wake up in the morning and want to do and make sure you feel like you are expressing the core of your being by what you are doing