Design the defaults and don't negotiate with yourself

Design the defaults and don't negotiate with yourself

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Hey there.

I hope you've had a great week.

What I've made for you

Book notesHow to Become a Straight A-Student by Cal NewportI enjoyed this book because it wasn't someone with no skin in the game telling me how to study. It's deeply practical.This book is the result of interviews of A-students—it shares what they do in an actionable study approach.

PS. If you go to my books page, you'll notice that I have redesigned it so it's easier to find notes on books you're interested in.

TweetJust ship it.The perfectionist in me always flares up when I have something I'm excited to share.

This is a nice reminder.

Design the defaults and don't negotiate with yourself

Why should you design routines?Design and implement habits?Do timeboxing?

The answer is simple: so you don't have to negotiate with yourself each day.

You don't want to be in a position where you have to make an active choice towards something good, each time you are faced with the decision.Because often, doing that means doing the hard thing. Doing the thing with lots of friction.

Make progress a default. Your default should be to do the work.

When you don't allow you to negotiate with yourself, you become capable of something very powerful: doing things even when you don't feel like it.

Your systems should be geared for this: reducing friction.Making discipline easy.

Your systems, processes, routines should make making progress easier and faster.After all, what's the point of systems if they don't serve you?

  Quote

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

 — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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