You’ll Always Have More To Do. (This is a good thing.)

00:00:00.000 | All right, Jesse, let's do some questions.

00:00:02.000 | Our first one is a written question.

00:00:06.200 | This comes from Colin.

00:00:07.760 | Colin says there, there always seems to be more to be done.

00:00:13.960 | How do you stop yourself from losing faith in your system?

00:00:16.900 | It's like painting the fourth bridge.

00:00:18.700 | Once you finish, you just go back to the beginning and start all over again.

00:00:24.000 | So I don't know the fourth bridge reference, but I've heard that

00:00:28.000 | saying with the golden gate.

00:00:29.100 | Bridge by the time they're finished painting the golden gate bridge, they have to.

00:00:32.500 | Go back and I like this question a lot.

00:00:35.600 | Repainted again.

00:00:36.400 | Now, Jesse, do you think he's talking about, I want to make sure I'm

00:00:38.400 | interpreting it properly.

00:00:39.400 | Did you think he's talking about just, there's always more goals or projects

00:00:43.500 | or tasks to do, and it's sort of Sisyphean you, no matter how many things

00:00:48.100 | you get done, there's always more things to get done.

00:00:49.700 | That's what I think he's saying.

00:00:50.800 | Right.

00:00:51.100 | Okay.

00:00:51.400 | Not that you're always, there's always tweaks to do to your system.

00:00:54.900 | I think it's the first situation.

00:00:57.300 | Yeah.

00:00:57.500 | Well, you know, Colin, that's it's a, it's a good point.

00:01:00.100 | So here's the issue.

00:01:00.900 | Um, you don't want an oppositional mindset towards the activities or

00:01:10.400 | tasks or projects in your life.

00:01:13.100 | You do not want to have a mindset of, I have to get through these things.

00:01:19.200 | Until I can get to where I want to get, which is, I don't know, having nothing

00:01:23.000 | to do or having free time that my, my task list, my projects, my goals, my

00:01:26.700 | task list, my projects, my plans are somehow an obstacle to some other better

00:01:32.500 | state that if you could just get through these things as fast as possible, you

00:01:36.200 | could get to that better state.

00:01:37.700 | I'm going to suggest a alternative mindset, which is that man is always in

00:01:45.100 | action, activity is fundamental to life.

00:01:49.000 | Our bodies taken food and water and convert it into energy so that we can

00:01:54.200 | actually create movement.

00:01:56.600 | We can actually create action in the world.

00:01:59.900 | So the goal of a time management system or productivity system and a life

00:02:04.000 | structuring system, the various types of things I talk about is making sure

00:02:08.000 | that the action that you're doing, because you're going to be doing action

00:02:10.600 | one way or the other is as meaningful and directed as possible.

00:02:13.600 | We could think about this.

00:02:16.000 | If we wanted to biochemically, there's a certain amount of calories you're

00:02:19.900 | taking in each day.

00:02:21.500 | That's going to be converted into energy.

00:02:24.600 | That energy then allows you to do things like think and move.

00:02:27.300 | Taking those calories, you're going to create that energy every day.

00:02:31.100 | There's a certain amount of energy you are burning through.

00:02:33.300 | So the question is, what do you want to get in return for that energy?

00:02:37.000 | And so thinking about interesting or meaningful things or things that are

00:02:39.900 | useful to the world, being, being a leader, being effective, being good to

00:02:46.400 | others, all of these type of positive targets for your energy is good.

00:02:51.400 | You're going to burn it one way or the other.

00:02:53.000 | You want to direct it towards the thing that's going to make life meaningful.

00:02:56.200 | That's going to make life useful.

00:02:58.100 | So we're wired for that calling.

00:03:00.400 | We're wired for action.

00:03:01.900 | Your goal is just to direct that action.

00:03:04.600 | It's nice to take a break now and again, but I can tell you if I could take

00:03:09.100 | everything off your list, every task, every project, bring in a whole staff

00:03:12.500 | to take care of your every need, you could just sit there.

00:03:14.500 | There's the hammock will bring you food, will bring you water.

00:03:16.700 | You don't have to do anything.

00:03:17.700 | You're not going to be happy.

00:03:19.300 | And the reason why you're not going to be happy is that our mind does not

00:03:21.400 | expect life to be like that for any extended period of time.

00:03:25.500 | Action is fundamental to the human experience.

00:03:28.300 | It's your job to try to make that action as useful as possible.

00:03:32.400 | So the bridge needs to be painted because otherwise it rust.

00:03:36.600 | So keep painting.

00:03:39.700 | Thank you.

00:03:41.300 | [Music]

You’ll Always Have More To Do. (This is a good thing.) | Deep Questions with Cal Newport

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