My Monthly Self-Discipline Report: January 2018

64 min readFeb 7, 2018

Welcome to my Monthly Self-Discipline Report, where I outline my exact processes and tracking methods that I use every day in order to beat my many goals into submission.

My personal-development program looks complicated at first glance, but it really shouldn’t be intimidating.

I’ve always believed that your productivity system, your organization system, or what-have-you, shouldn’t take over your entire life. Instead, it should be in the background, making everything else work.

Mine isn’t the simplest program out there, and it has lots of moving parts, so there’s no need to copy everything I do. You can leave some things out, and add things that I’ve missed. And even then, it doesn’t have to be perfect.

After all, the incomplete system that you actually USE is FAR more important than the absolutely 100% perfect system that you don’t use at all.

The personal-development system that I lay out here evolved over time, and I add/subtract elements as needed, as my schedule changes, as my goals change, and as I change.

But let me warn you: My program is tough. Most people will quit.

I’m working out 5–7 days a week, reading 100+ books per year, developing virtues like obsessiveness (yes, it can be a virtue), punctuality, and wakefulness, all while running a non-profit, working 3 other part time jobs and chasing girls. I don’t have ANY time for the non-essentials, and even less time for complaining.

My system is tougher than most, because I want to be tougher than most. If you care about yourself at all, you’ll want to decide what kind of person you want to become, and then develop a detailed plan for getting there.

Here, today, I cover the fundamentals of my system, like my priorities, tracking metrics, key result activities, and my daily routine.

I leave out some of the more personal stuff (everyone has goals they’re not ready to share with the world yet), but I try to share as much as possible while striking a balance between full-disclosure and a reasonable level of privacy.

It’s my hope that by taking the elements of my system that work for you, and discarding the ones that don’t, you can make real progress in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

Remember, the price of discipline is ALWAYS less than the price of regret.

Discipline itself doesn’t have to be some big BURDEN, or CHORE, in your already busy life. You can look at it as simply the best way to gain the freedom that you’ve always wanted. Freedom within structure.

By being disciplined, you make so much more possible for yourself, and by doing what you KNOW you need to do, day in and day out, you begin to start living the life that you have imagined for yourself.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started…

OVERVIEW OF MY SELF-DISCIPLINE SYSTEM

My system seems overly complicated, and hey, it might be for some people. For what it’s worth, I’m always trying to simplify things. Regardless, my process as it stands now represents a system of checks and balances that makes sure I don’t miss anything that I feel to be important to my own life.

SECTION ONE: We begin with my priorities, where I’ve consciously decided what is important to me and what isn’t. If a proposed activity doesn’t align with my priorities in some way, then, odds are, I won’t do it. Now, this isn’t completely selfish, because helping people is a big priority of mine. But watching TV is NOT a priority of mine (although there’s nothing necessarily wrong with it), while working out and reading books ARE priorities.
SECTION TWO: There are certain things that I consider to be “foundational” to my success; things like getting enough sleep, managing my energy, tracking my time, meditation, etc. These are examined in this section.
SECTION THREE: Tracking my time is something I find incredibly useful for keeping me on pace. I record on my iPhone whether my previous hour was “Focused”, “Necessary”, or “Unfocused”. I also track whether or not my time was spent in something called “Deep Work”.
SECTION FOUR: From there, we move on to what I call the “Virtues” and this section is modeled after the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, where he lays out numerous virtues that he wishes to cultivate within himself before going on a personal campaign with the aim of doing so. Much like I’ve done here.
SECTION FIVE: Process goals are next, and they’re basically things that can’t be “achieved” in any traditional sense, but done every day, over time, will lead to the accomplishment of my biggest goals. Things like eating enough quality food, drinking three liters of water a day, and things like that. Even when you do them, they’re not “achieved” in any sort of ultimate sense, only done for that day.
SECTION SIX: I then give my “Final Numbers” which are the main numbers that I track each month, along with my body measurements, etc. I like to see these improve month after month. Obviously.
SECTION SEVEN: Short Term Goals are discussed here, and they are goals which are to be achieved within a year or less.
SECTION EIGHT: Mid Term Goals are discussed here, and they are goals which are to be achieved within 1–5 years or less.
SECTION NINE: Long Term Goals are discussed here, and they are goals which are to be achieved over a longer time period.
SECTION TEN: Here, I also give my Blog Stats, which are basically things like my reader/subscriber counts, monthly visitors to the site, etc. A lot of these are outside my direct control,but I find it fun to track them anyway, and it’s very motivating.
SECTION ELEVEN: Next, we have my Daily Habits, and here I go through some of my routines, specifically for morning, throughout the day, and at night. Things like meditation, stretching, reading, etc are all detailed here.
SECTION TWELVE: Winding down now, I run a single thread through my habits and routines and processes, and this I call my Most Important Idea.
SECTION THIRTEEN: I also have a Most Important State,and when I’m feeling this way, I am my most productive and happy and fulfilled.
SECTION FOURTEEN: My Larger Vision comes next, and it’s basically a macro view of what I want my life to be about. You should give some serious thought to developing a Larger Vision for yourself.
SECTION FIFTEEN: Simplify, man! This second-to-last section of my Monthly Discipline Report is a call to simplicity.
SUMMARY: In this last section, I tie everything together and give some of my final thoughts on self-discipline and forward progress.

SECTION ONE: MY PRIORITIES

PEACE OF MIND:

This is my highest priority. Everything is filtered through this, and if it’s not going to add to my piece of mind, or helpfully contribute to it in some way down the line, I don’t do it.

Basically, I’m always trying to “earn my sleep each night”, which means that I can lay my head down knowing that I did what I KNEW I had to do, and fought as hard as humanly possible to build my ideal life.

I don’t ever want to look back on my day (or my life) and think that maybe I could have done more. Instead, I want to see that I did EVERYTHING I COULD, put in ALL THE EFFORT I HAD TO GIVE, and that I TOOK MY SHOT.

When I do this, and when my life is generally in order, I achieve peace of mind.

Peace of mind, for me, means tying up loose ends and actively confronting every challenge in my life; it means not running away from anything. I may not solve every problem right away, or even at all, but as they say, all you can do is all you can do.

You know when you’re not putting forth your best effort. You know when you’re running away from something and when you should stand and fight. Fighting the good fight every single day is where peace of mind comes from.

It takes a lot of reflective thought, but peace of mind, for me, is the highest good.

HUMAN RIGHTS:

I don’t think we’ve given ourselves enough credit for how far we’ve come in the struggle for equal human rights throughout the world. That being said, there is so much more to do, and it’s my privilege to be able to make some small difference in the lives of others.

I do this in many ways, through my writing, my non-profit organization, my volunteer work, and whatever else. But it never seems like enough.

This is the most peaceful time in humanity’s history, and yet there are millions of children under the age of five who will STARVE TO DEATH this year, next year, and every year after that until we as a global community put this emergency to an end.

There are a multiplicity of amazing organizations doing great work all around the world, and some of my favorites are Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, and The Life You Can Save.

We should stop competing with each other in terms of conspicuous consumption and instead endeavor to improve the standard of human life all across the globe. What if we competed not on things like salaries and cars, but instead on things like how much money we gave to the poor?

Because, after all, what are we all here for if not to make life a little less difficult for each other?

SIMPLICITY:

I need to keep things simple. Having too many tasks and responsibilities crowding me at once makes it hard for me to do my best work, not to mention how living in a cluttered environment renders me completely ineffectual compared to my usual high standard.

To live up to this priority, I need to constantly audit my commitments, limit the people I spend time with, say no to more things, keep my living space clean, my car clean, my email inbox cleared, etc. When I reduce everything to the bare essentials, I am calm, happy, and productive.

PRESENCE:

Maybe, just maybe, the whole point of life is simply to be aware of it while it’s happening. Living in the present moment reduces anxiety and stress, makes you more productive, and measurably increases your happiness. These are all established facts.

For me, being in the moment, really feeling every moment of my life (Fight Club reference haha!), means that not only do I get more done, but I also enjoy myself when I’m doing it. This is huge.

There’s nothing else that you or I need to be ‘doing’ except what we’re doing right now, in this very moment. There is nothing to do, nothing to achieve, nothing to worry about. When your focus is on the present moment, you always know exactly what to do.

READING:

I honestly couldn’t care less about school, but I’m absolutely obsessed with learning. Books, courses, lectures, etc…all these are things that I consume at a rapid pace.

Currently, I aim to read at least 100 pages a day, but my overarching goal in this area is to read 1,000 books before I turn 30. Philosophy, psychology, classics, biographies; you’ll find me reading all of these and more.

TRAINING:

I’m at the gym consistently, working out 5–7 times a week, and fitness is one of my magnificent obsessions, just like reading.

Socrates said that “it’s shameful for a man to grow old without realizing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable”, and I believe that to be true.

Everyone should aim to see what their body is capable of, and I took his advice to heart. Whether it’s boxing, bodybuilding, or anything else, movement itself is amazing, and I’m just so grateful that I CAN move. So many people can’t.

Training for me is kinda like meditation, and I consciously put my mind INSIDE my muscles as I’m working out.

My body is like a statue that I’m working on. Every meal I’m adding more slabs of marble, and during every rep, I’m chiseling that marble into form.

Also, as I discovered was true elsewhere in life, the best results come from pushing past the “pain period”. Too many people are ‘comfortable’ at the gym. That’s why they’re not progressing!

In my training, I’m willing to do the things that most people aren’t willing to do. That’s why I get results.

FRIENDS:

Seneca said that we should greedily enjoy our friends, because we don’t know for how long this privilege will be ours. I agree.

A true friend is a sort of second self, and this amazing privilege that you have, to be in this person’s company, must never be taken for granted.

In fact, it’s been empirically validated that most people would prefer REAL DEATH to a sort of “social death”; to be ostracized, lonely, friendless…this is just about the worst thing that can ever happen to a person.

Erich Fromm even said that “love is the only rational answer to the problem of human existence.” I assume that this can be extended to friendship as well.

I keep a list of everyone I want to keep in touch with (wow, I’m a nerd…I have a LIST of friends!), I reach out as often as I can, and I try to spend as much time in the company of people who make me better, and who make my life better.

As they say, the road is never long to a friend’s house, and the only way to have a friend is to be one.

FAMILY:

My ‘circle of concern’ is quite large, and I care about a far greater number of people than my immediate family. That being said, there are two people in the entire world that I love more than anyone else, and they are my mom and dad.

I would drop everything for them, and I know that once I’ve lost them, I’ve quite probably lost them forever. There’s nowhere that they can “go” where I won’t always love them, but while we have this time together, I’m going to spend as much of it as possible with them, while still balancing my obsession with making myself and the world better.

I have other family members that I care for quite a bit, and I would do an incredible amount for them too, but my mom and dad are number one, by far. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

VIRTUE:

I believe that virtue is the highest good to which we can attain; everything is subordinate to virtue. Wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance are all part of virtue, and these qualities form the basis of a strong character.

If you’re lacking in any one of them, you’re not virtuous (but hey, who is?) and you don’t have a strong moral character (yet). Each one feeds into the others too, so improving in any one of them usually leads to improvements in the others as well.

Making virtue a priority is all about making improvements where it’s going to do the most good; to you, to others, and to society at large.

The Message: You’re not AUTOMATICALLY a good person; you have to work at it. Every single day of your life.

There’s no sense in trying to make money, or learn a trade, or learn a sport, if you aren’t working on becoming more wise, just, courageous, and temperate. There just isn’t.

MY PRIORITY NUMBERS FOR JANUARY, 2018:

Time Spent On My Priorities: 278.5 Hours

Compared To Last Month: -13.5 Hours

Average Per Day: 9 Hours

BY PRIORITY:

Human Rights — 37.5 Hours

Reading — 170 Hours

Training — 35.5 Hours

Friends — 23.5 Hours

Family — 12 Hours

SECTION TWO: THE FOUNDATIONS

There’s an excellent book called “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson, and you’ll notice that a lot of what I do can be related back to the core idea of that book, which is basically the idea that there are certain things that you can do that have a hugely beneficial compound effect over time.

They are things that are easy to do, but they are also easy NOT to do, and they are always having an effect on your life, even if it doesn’t always seem that way.

Skipping one workout won’t kill you. But if you miss one workout every week, then that’s 52 training sessions that you are MISSING every single year, and 52 training sessions is enough to make a radical difference in your health and in your overall look.

My “Foundations” concept marries the idea of “The Slight Edge” to the idea of “The Pareto Principle” in that there are certain slight edge activities that have a greater effect than others.

You can write a Facebook post every day for 40 years, but at the end of that time, you’re only going to have this huge collection of pictures of your dinners, statuses about how drunk your best friend was last weekend, or anecdotes about how your boss is a jerk.

In contrast, if you write just 100 words a day for 40 years, at the end of it, you could have a novel the same length of “In Search of Lost Time”, by Marcel Proust, which weighs in at 1,267,069 words.

Arguably the definitive modern novel, “In Search of Lost Time” is a far greater accomplishment than anything I’m ever likely to post on Facebook.

So to summarize this idea, there are 19 different things that, to me, are foundational. They set me up for every possible success that I want in the future, and they do so in the best and most efficient way possible, as far as I can tell.

None of them are especially difficult to do, but they need to be written down, because a list of 19 things is just too big to carry around in your head all day long. Here they are:

STOP AND ENJOY:

People tend to get swept along by life without realizing how good they actually have it. Enjoyment is my number one foundation, and this simply means that I take the time to appreciate that I do in fact enjoy everything that I am doing. Even the painful stuff. Actually, ESPECIALLY the painful stuff, because pain makes me grow.

Mindfulness comes into play here of course, and extreme focus on the present moment is critical to enjoyment. But, it pays to take a step back and consciously realize that you are having fun in life.

I love reading books, I love working out, I love long drives, and I love helping people, but I count this foundation as “built” each day when I can look back and see that I actually felt like I was enjoying what I was doing, AS I was doing it. This is huge.

RELAX:

My second foundation is just as important as the first. They feed into each other actually. When I’m relaxed, I enjoy myself more, and when I consciously realize that I’m enjoying myself, I tend to relax.

I use this as a counterbalance to external societal pressures that are always trying to tell me that I’m not “enough” in some way, or that I should be busy and stressed like everyone else if I want to be “successful”. I’m already successful. I don’t need to listen to anyone who tries to tell me to move faster than my own pace.

DESIGN MY DAY:

This means planning out, or ‘designing’ my day. Because it really should be a conscious design, not just a haphazard collection of appointments, commitments, and mindless tasks.

Aside from my daily habits, I like to have a general idea of what I’m setting out to accomplish each day, while still maintaining room for flexibility and surprise. That means not overwhelming myself with dozens of to-dos and appointments.

I add things to my schedule the night before, fit everything around my priorities (like reading, training, and family), and make sure to leave plenty of space between tasks and activities.

TRACKING:

What gets measured gets managed. If there is something you want to change or improve, then it behooves you to start getting religious about tracking.

As I progress, I’m sure I’ll start to track more and more metrics, such as blood pressure, blood sugar, investments, etc. But for right now, I just track things like calories in, protein consumption, expenses, productive work time, pages read per day, and stuff like that.

I use a simple printable calendar that I customize to include whatever I want to track. So I’ll have about a dozen of these printable calendars, one for each metric.

For example, I have one on which I track how many pages I read that day. Every night before I go to bed, I go over each sheet and track what I’ve done. Even publishing these Monthly Discipline Reports is made simpler by just going through these calendar pages and taking the recorded info from there!

This is critical if you want to improve in any area where you’re dealing with hard numbers. Seriously, if you want to improve, make sure you actually know where you stand right now.

PRIORITIES:

I cross this off my list at the end of each day whenever I have spent a large enough time focusing on my priorities. How much time depends on what I’m doing that day, of course, but mostly everything that I do should ideally relate to my priorities in some way or another.

It helps to know what your priorities actually ARE. Then you can review them each day and actually see, with your own eyes, whether or not you are focusing on them.

I don’t have a particular number of hours per day spent on my priorities that I shoot for, but when I compare the number of hours spent on my priorities with the number of hours that I COULD have spent on them, given my schedule, then I know intuitively whether I can cross this foundation off at the end of the day.

VISUALIZATION:

I always have to qualify this by saying that I don’t believe that there’s any “magic” in visualization.

Instead, it’s basically being able to vividly imagine my ideal future and “pull” myself towards it.

All it does is that it narrows your focus down to what’s most important to you. Nothing “New Age”about that. In fact, I would say that it’s one of the most important things that I do.

It also helps me to viscerally imagine what it will feel like and be like to achieve everything that I set out to achieve. Try and involve as many senses as possible when you do this yourself, by which I mean try and really “feel” in your mind what your new muscles will look like, or what your uncluttered life will feel like.

I cross this foundation off at the end of the day whenever I have succeeded in taking a few moments throughout the day to engage in my visualization exercises.

MEDITATION:

There are so many scientifically proven benefits to meditation that I can confidently say that you’re sabotaging your own success if you’re not doing it on a consistent basis. Improved focus, mental clarity, self-knowledge, reduced stress, and literally dozens of other benefits will accrue to you if you begin a diligent meditation practice.

I cross off this foundation at the end of each day where I have spent around 30 minutes in deep meditation. The most important thing is being consistent with it.

MAINTAIN HIGH ENERGY:

Managing your energy is just as important as managing your time or your money. If you don’t have energy to do what you need to do, then you’re just not going to make it. It’s just so critical.

In fact, I’d place energy and time on the same level, because you can always make more money sometime in the future. But you need energy NOW, and your time can never be replaced at all.

So do everything you can to regulate your energy. Drink water, breath properly, eat enough healthy food, get enough sleep. Find something you care about so much that your energy level naturally spikes whenever you even think about it. For me, that’s reading, among other things. And remember, if you’re not feeling amazing all the time, there’s always a reason.

WATER:

You’re MADE of water! I can’t even begin to describe how important it is to stay hydrated, and if you wait until you’re thirsty in order to drink water, it means that you’re already dehydrated. I try to slam about a liter of water as soon as I wake up, drink 3 liters of water in total each day, and add an equal amount of water for every cup of coffee that I drink.

SLEEP:

Sleep is so critically important…I…I just can’t believe how many people are shooting themselves in the foot by messing with their own sleep needs.

Sleep loss is like depriving yourself of food, and I instantly notice a drop in productivity and general satisfaction when I don’t get enough sleep. You’d be amazed at how much of our happiness comes from getting enough sleep, eating right, and moving every day.

CALORIES:

As a naturally thin guy who wants to build muscle, I need to be taking in far more calories than I expend. And I expend a LOT. Not only do I work out 5–7 days a week, I spend a lot of time standing, walking, and otherwise just being active. When I don’t eat enough, I start to lose weight fairly rapidly, and so this is a foundational area for me.

BREATHING:

Realizing how critical breath control is to mental performance and clarity, not to mention physical performance, I made this one of my foundations. I do deep breathing exercises throughout the day, and sometimes I focus exclusively on my breathing when I notice that I have been involuntarily holding my breath for long-ish periods of time. It happens, and it’s an energy-killer.

KEY RESULTS:

I cross this foundation off my list at the end of the day when I have consulted my “key results” list. It’s basically a list I keep on my phone where I track the most important things that I’m working on, as well as a lot of what we’ve discussed so far.

The key results list includes things that make a disproportionate amount of difference compared to other things that I could be doing, such as key tasks that I need to complete, and major projects that I’m working on that could make a huge impact on my career. It’s good to have all this in one place where you can review it often.

Reviewing this list keeps me focused on doing the most important things that I could be doing with my limited time.

GOALS:

This one’s fairly straightforward. One of my foundations is to keep my attention focused on my goals throughout the day, never losing sight of them for an instant if I can help it. At least, not while I’m working on something related to their achievement.

Taking time off is ULTRA important, but during the time I have set out to work, I always keep my goals in mind, and connect everything I do to their achievement.

Even while writing my Monthly Discipline Reports, whenever I lose momentum, I think about how publishing them gets me closer to my goals.

OBSESSION:

Obsession is NOT a bad thing. At least, it doesn’t have to be. One of my biggest role models in the universe, a Mr. C.T. Fletcher, says that unless you are OBSESSED with achieving whatever it is you set out to achieve…you’re never gonna make it!

Obsession can be taken too far, of course, but most people never take their obsessions far enough.

Obsession is what allows me to perform 2-hour workouts 6 days a week, read for 10 hours straight, and ultimately compile a file of notes on every single book that I’ve ever read that is thousands and THOUSANDS of pages long.

Obsession is how you do that. So one of my foundations is to remind myself of how important obsession can be, and to act in accordance with that.

My main man, Mr. C.T. Fletcher

PROJECTS:

I honestly won’t spend a lot of time discussing this one. In essence, this foundation is just to remind me to spend part of each and every day moving part of a major project forward.

It’s so easy to get caught up in minutiae and leave important work undone. My “projects” can include my nonprofit, an online course I’m creating, or whatever else, but the main idea is to do a little bit each day on something big that will move the needle forward in my career.

WRITE:

Again, super simple. Write something each and every day. It can be a lesson for my daily email course, or it could be part of a major book, but regardless, I’m sitting down in front of the computer each day and getting some writing done.

FOCUS:

Extreme focus is one foundation that I urge everyone to concentrate on. Focus, obsession, diligence, whatever you want to call it…it’s important.

It’s so foundational that it leads to every other form of success that you can imagine.

In my tracking system, I record how many hours of “Focused Work” I’ve completed, how many hours of “Deep Work”, etc. These concepts will become clearer later on, but staying focused is one of my superpowers and it can be yours as well.

ROUTINES:

Aristotle said that we are what we are repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not a trait, but a habit. My routine gives me structure, maximizes my productivity and sanity, and just generally keeps me focused.

I write everything down that I repeatedly do, and I have a separate morning and nighttime ritual.

As well, during the day, there are habits that I perform mostly every day that I keep track of too.

Whether you call them rituals, or routines, or processes, adding them to your life will be one of the best things you’ve ever done for yourself. Writing them down and making sure you do them consistently can only serve to multiply their benefits in your life.

MY FOUNDATION NUMBERS FOR JANUARY, 2018:

Foundations “Built”: 452/589

Percentage of Foundations “Built”: 76.7%

Compared To Last Month: +3.4%

Average Per Day: 14.6

SECTION THREE: TIME TRACKING

The first step to successfully managing your time is figuring out how you are spending it now. That’s where my time-tracking sheets come in.

I lifted my time tracking sheet from Laura Vanderkam, and adapted it to my own purposes.

Here, I track 5 key metrics, which are Focused Time, Necessary Time, Unfocused, Sleep, and Deep Work.

I track each hour on the hour using my iPhone. A push notification that says “Zarathustra”” comes up on the hour, every hour, and that’s my cue to go to my Notes app and record whether the last hour was spent in Focused Time, Necessary Time, etc.

It says “Zarathustra”” because it’s a way to remind myself of one of my favorite books “Thus Spake Zarathustra”, where Friedrich Nietzsche lays out his vision of the “Ubermensch” or “Superman”.

I’m obsessed with becoming Nietzsche’s vision of the “Superman”, and so the push notification has the double effect of reminding me to track how my time was spent, and to remind me to live up to Nietzsche’s ideal.

I don’t make this process too complicated, and it only takes me a minute or so. Each hour, I simply go into my Notes app, track my hour, track certain things I did in that hour (drink water, spend money, etc), and plan out what I’m going to focus on during the NEXT hour.

I also try to make it a habit of standing up every hour and getting moving in some way. It’s good to shake yourself up every once in a while, especially if you sit at a desk writing for a good amount of time like I do. OK, so let’s dig into what qualifies as Focused Time and what doesn’t…

FOCUSED TIME:

Focused Time refers to any half-hour block (because some hours are occasionally split between Focused Time and Necessary Time, etc), in which I am working productively at any task that is going to advance my goals forward.

If I spent an hour reading, I’ll mark 2 “x”‘s next to where it says Focused Time in my Notes app, and when I spend an hour and a half at the gym, I’ll mark 3 “x”‘s. Basically, anything that is moving me towards my goals is focused time. This CAN be different from Deep Work, but Deep Work always counts as Focused Time. You’ll see why in a minute.

NECESSARY TIME:

Sometimes I need to drive places, and I don’t always feel like listening to an audio-book while I’m doing it. If I were to listen to an audio-book or something during my commute, I might consider it Focused Time, but as much as I love driving my Spyder drop-top, I can’t really call cruising in my sports car listening to music as Focused Time.

Instead, this counts as Necessary Time, same as grocery shopping and things of that nature. There are things like this that we all have to do each day, but I try to optimize my systems so that I do as little of this kind of thing as possible.

That’s why I pay people to cook for me, and I try to outsource as much of the administrative stuff associated with running a non-profit as I can.

Less time spent on “Neccessary Time” leaves more time for Deep Work.

UNFOCUSED TIME:

What? You mean I waste time just like everybody else? Oh yes, it’s true! I’m not some sort of Terminator from the future, able to resist every time-wasting activity there is out there in Internet-Land.

Sometimes I’ll fall into the YouTube rabbit hole just like everybody else, and suddenly I’ve lost a half hour or more watching videos that, while entertaining, didn’t exactly move the needle when it comes to my goals.

SLEEP:

If you don’t know what sleep is and why I track it, you must be Elon Musk. In that case, “Yo, Elon! I’ll give you my home address so you can send me a Tesla Roadster for my birthday! July 5th.”

I try for 8–9 hours of sleep every night, I’m functional on 7, but getting 9 is sometimes an awesome way to spend an extra hour. 15–16 hours awake, 8–9 hours asleep works well for me. Especially since I’m doing such heavy lifting, mentally and physically, throughout the day.

DEEP WORK:

Deep Work is special focus on one thing and one thing only, usually some form of writing, but always on a bigger project that will take longer than a few hours to complete.

Writing copy for my non-profit’s promotional materials counts as Deep Work, same with writing articles and books; same with any bigger project, really.

I may be focused on lifting weights or on reading books, but that’s not Deep Work. Email is not Deep Work; neither is meditation. Writing a book is. By the way, “Deep Work” is also the title of an excellent book by computer science professor Cal Newport, and I lifted the idea from him.

ONE FINAL NOTE: I don’t track my hours on Friday or Saturday, although I still sometimes work on those days. I’ll track certain things like time spent reading and things like that, but not my hours of Focused Time, etc. That’s why, below, not everything may add up!

MY TIME-TRACKING NUMBERS FOR JANUARY, 2018:

Hours of Focused Time: 212.5 (+5)

Hours of Necessary Time: 93 (-1)

Hours of Unfocused Time: 47.5 (+0)

Hours of Deep Work: 37 (+4)

Hours of Sleep: 151 (+6)

SECTION FOUR: THE VIRTUES

My list of virtues does not necessarily represent what is “lacking” in myself, but rather the kinds of personality traits and characteristics that I most wish to develop further.

These are in no way meant to be hierarchical, and my omission of many important virtues should not be taken as my rejection of their intrinsic worth.

For me, at this time of my life, the virtues listed below are the ones that are most important to me. Discipline, toughness, presence, wakefulness…all these and more will allow me to become what I envision myself becoming.

If I fall short in any of these, which of course I will from time to time, then I am doing nothing less than cheating myself out of my desired possible future.

I’m not the first person to attempt such a thing, of course. A noteworthy example comes to us from the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. There’s one section in particular where he sets out to pursue a campaign of rigorous self-examination and moral cultivation that he begins by identifying specific virtues that he wishes to build in himself.

I did the same thing, and came up with these:

PRESENCE:

Some would say that the purpose of life is to be fully aware of it as it’s happening. I think there’s some truth to that, and so presence is a very important virtue to me.

I don’t try to get away from this moment, whether I’m here typing this paragraph, punishing my muscles in the gym, or having an uncomfortable conversation about something important.

Improved performance comes from living in the moment, along with decreased stress, heightened awareness, and elevated mood, to name just a few of the benefits associated with the practice.

While you’d want to pull yourself away from the present moment every once in a while in order to plan your future, you also want to get back to living it as soon as possible.

DISCIPLINE:

Self-discipline is the foundation that leads to everything else. You need to be disciplined in order to have fun. The real fun, I mean, which comes after putting in the hard work for as long as necessary.

Discipline can be drudgery, but it doesn’t have to be. I know that being disciplined now will let me achieve all of my outrageous goals in the future, and the process of “becoming” is exciting in itself. Cultivate this virtue, and everything else becomes easier and more enjoyable.

And remember, as I always say, the price of discipline is ALWAYS less than the price of regret.

TOUGHNESS:

Complementing discipline comes toughness. I don’t necessarily mean the kind of toughness that lets you win street-fights, but you’re deluding yourself if you think there’s zero chance that you’ll ever be in one.

You need to be able to defend yourself, for sure, but toughness also means eliminating complaining and sloth from your life. It means having some personal pride and some self-respect, and cultivating the ability to work hard when it’s not easy.

Anybody can be disciplined when they’re rested, well-fed, and untroubled. However, to be “tough”, you need to be able to get your work done when conditions may be unfavorable.

Toughness, for me, means doing what needs to be done, regardless of whether or not I feel like doing it.

OBSESSIVENESS:

To become the person you have envisioned yourself as one day capable of becoming, you need to be absolutely obsessed with becoming that person.

It doesn’t happen by accident.

If you can’t be obsessed with achieving the results that you set out to achieve, then it’s probably not going to happen.

It’s very difficult to take obsession too far. In fact, most people don’t take their obsessions far ENOUGH. That’s why many people are unhappy, lazy, and undisciplined.

Make friends with obsession. If you are obsessed, then you will be motivated. If you are properly motivated, then there’s not much that you won’t be able to achieve.

AUTHENTICITY:

Authenticity, to me, means rejecting or at least re-examining my social conditioning and living according to what I think is important, and not to what other people might think is important FOR me.

It’s also about acting the same way in public as when no one is watching. Within reasonable limits of course!

Authenticity is about critically examining what you truly feel and believe, and consciously designing your life so that you are living in accordance with that. At the end of each day, I evaluate whether or not I lived by this virtue, and I grade myself accordingly.

RESPONSIBILITY:

I speak here about the kind of responsibility you find in someone who has cultivated self-respect and self-mastery. We can go on and on talking about what “rights” you may have, but what makes you think you don’t also have responsibilities?

You were born into this world as part of a network. That network consists of every single other person on earth, and you need to realize that everything you do matters.

It might not matter in a few million years, but it means EVERYTHING today.

One of my intellectual heroes, Jordan Peterson, has a lot to say about this. Watch this!

It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults, when in fact it’s much more difficult to escape our own.

Whenever I start to criticize someone else, I immediately, instinctively now, turn it back to myself and ask what it is about myself that I’m missing. How am I deficient in this, or another area? How can I take more responsibility for the state of my world?

CONFIDENCE:

Cultivating the virtue of confidence has been one of the most profitable things I have ever done. The entire world just opens up to you when you can appear, or better yet, BE more confident.

Every single day, I just assume that I’m stronger-willed than whoever I’m dealing with, and can just roll right over them. I have this surging, unshakable confidence that lets me pull things off that would have astounded the “Matt Karamazov” of 3 years ago.

At the end of each day, I reflect and decide whether I generally acted with overwhelming confidence not just in dealing with people, but when going about my day and pounding my to-do list. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you use confidence as a weapon.

HUMILITY:

Humility is an interesting one, and it doesn’t mean the same thing to me that it might mean to some people. I don’t believe in false modesty, and I’m not going to sit here and play down my strengths just so I can appear to be humble and modest.

My self-discipline is off the charts, I’m incredibly smart, I care a LOT about other people, and I work like a dog in order to make the world a better place. I think I’m amazing. That being said, I think each person reading this is pretty amazing too (even if they don’t realize it), and as far as I’m concerned, I’m nowhere NEAR where I could be.

I’m smart, but what I know is NOTHING compared to what there IS to know.

I’m in great shape, but I have a LOT of work left to do.

Humility, to me, is the realization that I am both perfect, and a complete mess if there ever was one.

I am awe-inspiring in many ways, and yet I fall short in so many others.

I don’t waste time comparing myself to others, and I don’t dominate conversations by going on and on about myself. I can believe I’m amazing without having to go around telling people that I am. Except for here in this paragraph, of course. Sorry about that! Sort of.

ELOQUENCE:

Being able to speak and to have people listen to what you have to say, and more importantly, understand what you have to say, is almost a superpower.

It’s one of those essential skills that everyone should develop, and so eloquence is a virtue I consciously cultivate within myself. I’ve bought courses on vocal projection, worked to overcome shyness, forced myself to get comfortable having strangers listen in on my conversations (I still hate that sometimes!), etc.

Speaking loudly and clearly, with conviction, and not censoring myself in public is an ongoing battle.

PUNCTUALITY:

This is something I struggle with greatly, and so I decided to add it as a virtue. I’m late CONSTANTLY, and not only is it a rude thing to do to other people, it’s also not great to acquire a reputation for never being on time.

I’m excellent at my job…when I get there. But it’s just kind of assumed that I’m going to be late, and I’m not sure I like that so much.

So seeing this every day and actively trying to make myself more punctual is a smart move for me. Plus, I just feel so much more relaxed when I’m not in a rush to get somewhere! It’s honestly one of my favorite feelings ever, and so I’m not sure why I constantly shoot myself in the foot here. This is another ongoing battle.

PRODUCTIVITY:

Benjamin Franklin would call this “industriousness”, and not only the ability to get a lot done, but get the RIGHT things done is one of the best skills to have. To that end, I keep productivity at the center of my life.

Every single day, I’m working on something, hammering away at something, and getting further than I was yesterday. Creating effects out there in the world is what I’m after. Action.

PATIENCE:

You’re probably not going to succeed right away. While I do believe that someone is “successful” as long as they know what they’re shooting for and are out there every day fighting to make it happen, it won’t happen overnight.

You need to be patient, and do the things that need to be done every single day in anticipation of achieving your goals. Why do people think that massive success just HAPPENS?!?!

As they say, overnight success usually takes about ten years.

BEHAVIOR:

A lot can fall under “behavior”, and some may say that it’s not a “virtue” in itself. Sure, fine. It’s still on my list though, and speaking of lists, I have a list of behavioral traits that I want to display or improve.

On that list is everything from speaking louder, to swinging my shoulders more when I walk, to smiling when I enter a room. Moving slower is also on my list of desired behaviors, along with behaving more dominantly in social settings.

I review my list each day, and every day when I feel I’ve made progress and have displayed many of these desired behaviors is a day when I can check off this virtue of “right behavior”.

EFFORT:

Listen up, because this is important: in order to get what you want, you need to have a plan for getting there, and you must take massive action on the single most important next step you need to take.

You need to focus on the six inches in front of your face, and marshal all your strength in order to attack the ONE SINGLE THING that will make the accomplishment of your goal nearly inevitable.

This effort has to be sustained day in and day out, and I have committed to doing this for myself. I have committed to this path because I have become determined to live as if I actually care about myself. Who knew that THAT was the key to everything?!?!

Every day when I have put forth my absolute best effort in everything I do is a day when I can cross off this virtue for that day. I never want to go to bed thinking that I could have done more.

LEARNING:

I won’t spend a whole lot of time on this one because it’s pretty simple. When my day is centered around learning, or I have put myself in an uncomfortable learning situation, or whatever else, then I have worked towards the realization of this virtue within myself, and I can check it off my list at the end of the day.

WAKEFULNESS:

“Only that day dawns to which we are awake”, says Henry David Thoreau in “Walden”. Wakefulness, the idea of being fully and intensely alive, is one of my highest virtues. In many ways, it’s the most important one.

I think that perhaps the whole purpose of life is to be fully aware of it while it’s happening, and my whole job as a writer is really to wake people up to the life that is going on all around them. The life that they could be living, but they’re not, because they’re stuck in resentment, anger, and self-pity.

I believe in the truth of Dostoevsky’s words when he said that “Life is paradise, and we are all in paradise. Except that we do not want to know it. But if we did want to know it, there would be peace on earth the very next day.”

MY VIRTUE NUMBERS FOR JANUARY, 2018:

Days On Which I Cultivated Virtue:

Presence: 25/31 (81%)

Discipline: 21/31 (68%)

Toughness: 24/31 (77%)

Obsessiveness: 21/31 (68%)

Authenticity: 20/31 (65%)

Responsibility: 23/31 (74%)

Confidence: 19/31 (61%)

Humility: 19/31 (61%)

Eloquence: 20/31 (65%)

Punctuality: 18/31 (58%)

Productivity: 23/31 (74%)

Patience: 18/31 (58%)

Behavior: 20/31 (65%)

Effort: 25/31 (81%)

Learning: 27/31 (84%)

Wakefulness: 27/31 (84%)

SECTION FIVE: PROCESS GOALS

It’s in your best interest to break down big goals into the specific actions you need to take every single day in order to achieve them. You’ll hear that a lot if you’re the type who reads popular business books and such.

This takes two forms, one of which is a set of specific, one-time actions that you need to take in order to accomplish a specific goal. Like, if you wanted to write a book, you’d settle on one idea (step one), outline it (step two), gather the notes and references you need (step three), etc.

Those are all things that you do once per book, and when you’re finished those, you don’t have to do them again for the same book.

The OTHER kind of process goals I mean would take the form of, say, writing 1,000 words each and every day. Do you see how that’s a step that you can/must take every single day until your book is finished, unlike just once for those other process goals?

My process goals below aren’t necessarily specific to building a nonprofit, getting a podcast off the ground, or publishing a specific book. No, my process goals are things that I need to be doing every single day in order to make all those things possible in the first place.

I hope I’m not confusing you in any way. Both types of process goals are absolutely critical, but these ones below aren’t necessarily tied to a specific project. Unless you count getting down to single-digit body fat a project!

I have many Short Term, Mid Term, and Long Term goals, and we’ll get to those in a few minutes, but these are some of the process goals I am working on every single day in order to get there:

PERFORM DAILY ROUTINES:

These include the habits listed below (a few sections down), and this is one of the most important process goals on the list. Habits and self-discipline make everything else possible, and my most productive days occur whenever I perform my morning, daily, and evening routines and habits.

VISUALIZE MY FUTURE:

I never fully appreciated how important this was, but you need to see your desired future in your mind before you will ever see it in your reality. You have to see what you want your perfect body to look like, see what your completed book will look like, see what your perfect home will look like.

Again…please don’t take this as an endorsement of “positive thinking” or “manifesting” or any of that garbage.

There is absolutely NOTHING “magical” about this.

Granted, it’s more or less the same idea and all, but let me ask you this: How come you never see those people who talk about positivity doing any actual WORK?!?!

Just visualization alone won’t do it; you still need to actually do the work. But it remains true that you can’t hit a target you can’t see.

MEDITATE PEACEFULLY:

Ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes throughout the day, and ten minutes at night. That’s basically what my meditation routine looks like, and I believe that it’s absolutely critical to whatever success I’ve managed to achieve thus far.

Finding thirty minutes a day for sitting still and maintaining awareness of your breathing is sometimes difficult, but the literally dozens of mental and physical benefits of meditation make it all worth it. Plus I actually enjoy it! And isn’t that really the point?!?!

MAINTAIN HIGH ENERGY:

Managing your energy is just as important as managing your time. It’s basically one of the most important things you can do, and it’s one of those things that makes everything else possible. So it’s one of my process goals. Vegetables, water, adequate rest, proper motivation, etc are all important here.

DRINK LOTS OF WATER:

You might notice that nothing on this list is anything you haven’t heard before. It’s no secret that meditation improves your performance, you need to work out to build muscle, and setting aside a few hours each day to work will lead to the accomplishment of your biggest goals. Same with water. Drinking water is a simple way to stay healthy and improve your performance. That’s why it’s on my list of process goals.

HIT MY CALORIE GOALS:

I have a very specific diet that I have to follow if I want to achieve the fitness goals that I have set out for myself. Again, this is fairly straightforward, and when I follow my diet for the day, I can check off this process goal before I go to sleep.

GET ENOUGH SLEEP:

I am very, VERY serious about my sleep. My bedroom has blackout curtains, I bought a great new mattress, I keep a fan on during the summer in order to keep my bedroom cool, I shut off all electronic devices and I shut out all excess light.

There’s also an app that I use to track my sleep called Sleep Cycle, which lets me know the quality and quantity of the sleep that I’m getting. This is important.

The app also tells me a bunch of other things about my sleeping patterns, but I mostly use it to track sleep quality and how long I sleep for. I track my sleep hours on my time sheet, and I track my sleep quality on one of my printed calendar sheets.

At the end of the month, I add up my sleep quality for each night, divide by the number of days in the month, and then record my average sleep quality for that month. I’m still working on getting to 100% sleep quality!

BREATHE CONSCIOUSLY:

This is different than meditation because I am consciously working on developing healthy breathing patterns and not specifically training my awareness in this case. Of course I am focused on my breath, and so it’s similar to what I do in meditation, but the focus here is on deep breaths, and on moving oxygen efficiently through my body.

TRAIN EFFECTIVELY:

This is fairly straightforward. My workouts are part of my process goals because they lead me directly to the body and the high performance that I want. I check this off when I have completed my workout for the day.

ASK MYSELF QUESTIONS:

I have a list of questions that I ask myself at various times each day. They include questions like “What is the most important thing that I could be doing right now?” and “Do I want to spend my one and only life doing this?” This is an important process goal because it keeps me on track and brings my thinking back into line. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions!

MOVE A PROJECT FORWARD:

Between proper sleep, eating, hygiene considerations, commuting, etc, your day gets smaller and smaller. So the idea here is that you always want to make sure that you are doing SOMETHING each and every day to make progress towards an important objective.

I believe the three hours is an important number to shoot for, and those three hours have to be spent advancing your main goal in life, or moving some sort of project forward. They have to be focused hours, spent in deep work, and not wasted on trivialities.

This is massively important. Even the biggest projects get cut down to size when you work on them consistently, day in, day out, even when you don’t “feel like it”.

CLEAR SOME CLUTTER:

What I call “clutter” includes everything that I have to have “cleared” in order to give me more peace of mind. This includes my book notes, my email inbox, my car, the dishes, the fridge, my binders, all of it.

Usually I aim for Sunday as the day when everything is all cleared all at once, but I find that if I do a little bit every day, and especially try to clean as I go, my work on Sunday is a lot easier.

I can then keep everything in my environment clutter-free, and not have to spend hours each week feeling overwhelmed by everything that I have to clean.

There’s just something about having everything cleared that makes me feel good. Of course, being clutter-free doesn’t last long, but after I clear my emails, I close my browser. After I clear my phone of texts, I turn off my phone, etc.

That way, at least once a week, I have a few minutes where everything in my environment is completely clear and I can take a deep, satisfying breath before moving forward.

MY PROCESS GOAL NUMBERS FOR JANUARY, 2018:

Days On Which I Achieved Process Goals:

Perform Daily Routines: 5/31 (16%)

Visualize My Future: 18/31 (58%)

Meditate Peacefully: 7/31 (23%)

Maintain High Energy: 18/31 (58%)

Drink Lots of Water: 22/31 (71%)

Hit My Calorie Goals: 22/31 (71%)

Get Enough Sleep: 15/31 (48%)

Breathe Consciously: 19/31 (61%)

Train Effectively: 19/31 (61%)

Ask Myself Questions: 9/31 (29%)

Move a Project Forward: 15/31 (48%)

Clear Some Clutter: 22/31 (71%)

SECTION SIX: THE FINAL NUMBERS

The figures below are lifted from my tracking sheets (basically an empty, printable monthly calendar that I can fill in) that I go through each night before I go to bed. I quickly and simply run through my entire day and track what I’ve done.

For some things, like the hours I’ve spent working on my priorities, or the pages I’ve read, I use the total number of hours or pages, etc. For others, like how many days each month I’ve “maximized”, I give a percentage.

So, for example, if I feel as though I “maximize” 25 out of 30 days that month, then my percentage would be 83%.

When it comes to pages read, I add up the number from each day and write down the total. You’ll recognize most of these from the list of process goals, actually, with a few additions.

I consider a day “maximized” when I can look back and feel that I’ve done my absolute best to make the previous day as productive as possible. It’s not an exact science; more of a feeling. But I know when I’ve done my best and when I haven’t.

I’m a writer, so I write every day. Or at least I try to. This doesn’t mean that I finish a piece of writing every day, only that I’ve made some significant progress on a writing project that I had started.

The goal is to get to 100% here and to write at least 100–1000 words each day. Sometimes, it’s much more than that that I end up writing.

I also go through my list of priorities and determine how many hours that day I spent advancing them. If I spent an hour with my family, 5 hours reading, 2 hours at the gym, and 2 hours working on my non-profit, then I would put the number “10” in the space for today’s date and add up the total at the end of the month. I always want to do more than I did last month, but a number around 350 would be perfect. That would mean 12 hours a day working on my priorities, 30 days a month.

I do the same with my foundations which I wrote about earlier. I track how many of them I have “built” that day (those two words just go together it seems), add the number to the box for today’s date, and add them all up at the end of the month.

MY FINAL NUMBERS FOR JANUARY, 2018

Average Sleep Quality — (75%)

Hours on Priorities — 278.5 Hours (9/Day)

Foundations Built — 452/589 (76.7%)

Maximized Days — 24/31 (77%)

Write Something — 24/31 (77%)

Pages Read — 2,302/6,200 (37.1%)

I don’t take my body measurements every month, because I find they don’t change all that much. But every three months or so, I’ll take a tape measure, and go through and record all the progress that I’ve made in the last little while.

Recently, I’ve added an inch and a half to my arms, and being able to see that kind of progress reflected in my notes never fails to add some powerful motivation to keep going.

You might track different things, but these are the ones I’m focused on:

Weight — 191

Chest — 44″

Arms — 15″

Forearms — 12″

Thighs — 23″

Calves — 14.5″

Waist — 34″

Neck — 15″

Shoulders — 51″

SECTION SEVEN: SHORT TERM GOALS

Below are some of my short-term goals and a little progress report detailing where I am with respect to their achievement.

I used to have “Monthly Goals” but I found it better to stick with the admittedly more nebulous characterization of “Short Term Goals”. They don’t have deadlines for their achievement, but they do have some sort of incremental progress marker that DOES come with a deadline.

The short version of my thinking process here is that some months are more predictable than others. Instead of trying to make your goals fit into the neat and tidy calendar month, you can break them down and aim to have PARTS of your goals achieved by the end of certain months.

That’s what I’ve done here, and it’s working pretty well so far, so I’m going to keep doing it! Here are a few of my short term goals so you can see what I mean:

*Reach 200lbs With Less Than 15% Body Fat

Current weight is 192lbs with body fat unknown

Incremental goal is 200lbs by March 1st

*Reach 50,000 Monthly Visitors To MattKaramazov.com

Most website visitors in one month was 4,066 in December

Incremental goal is 7,500 visitors by March 1st

*Reach 5,000 Mailing List Subscribers

Right now there are 626 people who receive my emails

Incremental goal is 1,000 subscribers by March 1st

*Submit 30 Guest Articles For Publishing

So far I have submitted two guest articles

Incremental goal is 6 articles by March 1st

*Develop An Online Course On Self-Discipline

I’m almost ready to record, and the course should be ready by March 1st

*Write A Book On What I’ve Learned While Trying To Read 1,000 Books Before I Turn 30