Blissful ignorance
Hey friends, happy Sunday!
I feel incredibly grateful for all the new and existing people on this email list and I love sending out the Filter every week. If you're still waiting on a reply from me to your intro message bear with me I'll get to it soon!
One thing I want to share this week:
Why "following your passion" is more rational than you think.
Alrighty let's get into the Filter.
Blissful Ignorance
Recently I've been trying to embrace staying blissfully ignorant of all the things I 'should' be doing.
See when you're blissfully ignorant to what people say you 'should' be doing you don't read thread after thread telling you to learn copywriting.
Or watch video after video talking about 'The ultimate notion productivity system to give yourself big second brain energy'.
More than anything you don't get caught in the weeds consuming insight porn.
Sure this kind of content feels like learning (and it can be useful) but too often it replaces time you should spend actually doing the work.
So from now on I'm trying to be more blissfully ignorant to what I 'should' be doing and just focusing on the work I want to be doing.
I.
Most productivity advice optimises for the final 1%, but the results come from focusing on the fundamentals:
- Batching similar tasks
- Eat clean, drink water, move more
- Remove distractions
- Get enough sleep
- Do things that pay off in months & years, not seconds
II.
A lot of dissatisfaction in life stems from trying to over-optimise things that already function well.
Why constantly try grow your businesses if you're happy being lean and profitable?
Why learn to speed read if you enjoy exploring new ideas?
Infinite scroll: Infinite scroll is simultaneously the best and worst ux improvement ever made. It creates an infinite dopamine loop destroying your ability to focus.
Avoiding the news - so much more pieceful: Following on the theme of blissful ignorance, avoiding the news is another way not knowing about things can improve your life.
People often keep up with the news to "stay informed" but as the author points out informed with what? A bunch of things you can't change that just eat up your brain space.
Nobody knows the future, so focus on what doesn’t change: Every piece I read from Derek Sivers leaves me feeling positive and a little better off. This post on not trying to predict the future and instead focusing on the fundamentals is fantastic.
** BONUS FIND **
Listening to lo-fi increases cognitive performance? Interestingly research shows that listening to different types of music can improve your attention, alertness, and focus. With some counter studies showing that some background music can disrupt other cognitive tasks like text comprehension + verbal memory.
END NOTE
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Have a fantastic week!
- Stephen