How to Live Every Waking Moment?

Hi there Fabulous Traveler,

“More than any other person… he showed the singular primitive quality that belongs to ultimate matter—the quality that medieval theology assigned to God—he was pure act”.

This is what historian Henry Adams wrote about his friend Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States.

But Teddy wasn’t always “pure act”. He learned the habit of hard work during his time at Harvard, on his desk.

It was at his desk that he built his famous iron will that served him throughout his life.

Teddy’s Inordinate Concentration

Teddy’s contemporaries often spoke highly of one trait in particular, his ability to focus.

Whenever he sat down to work, “His occupation for the moment was to the exclusion of everything else; if he were reading, the house might fall about his head, he could not be diverted.”

He worked “as if alone by a campfire in some deep forest”, with no one able to wake him from his concentration.

As soon as a new task arose, he set to work, never leaving anything for the last minute. He felt that preparing so far ahead “freed his mind” from worry and facilitated fresh, lucid thought.

Iron self-discipline had become a habit of his, and he planned every day with ruthless precision.

But that didn’t mean that he was a workaholic who spent all day studying and never saw the light of day. It was quite the contrary, in fact the amount of time he spent at this desk was relatively little - rarely more than a few hours. But his concentration was so intense, that he had more free time than most of his classmates at Harvard.

With his fierce utilization of every waking moment, Roosevelt stole time to work both before and after social engagements.

His iron will allowed him to rise early and work before breakfast. This strategy allowed him to pack six to eight hours of studying into the first half of his day, leaving his afternoons and evenings free.

Iron-will as a tool for life

The habits he built at Harvard served him well throughout his illustrious career.

He always gave his full effort at work. When he first became a reform commissioner, he was a blur of high-speed activity. “He mastered the Commission’s complex operations within days, throwing off a wealth of new ideas, devouring documents at the rate of a page a glance, dictating hundreds of letters with such hissing emphasis that the stenographer did not need to ask for punctuation marks. Staff and visitors alike were dazed by his energy, exuberance, and ruthless outmaneuvering.”

When he became Assistant Navy Secretary, the Chief Secretary of the Navy (his boss) longed for a vacation and didn’t appreciate getting stressed out over work. He once took 6 weeks off and Teddy found himself as acting Chief Secretary.

Both the President and the Chief were away on vacation, so he had no one to report to. He was finally able to unleash all of his plans for the Navy, which he’d been contemplating since his time at Harvard. Roosevelt once again found himself able to unleash his hyperproductivity.

Here’s an excerpt from the biography “The Rise of Teddy Roosevelt” describing this period of hyperactivity:

“In just twenty-two days of official duty he managed to write a report of his tour of the Naval Militia; inspect a fleet of first- and second-class battleships off Sandy Hook; expedite a stalled order for diagonal-armor supplies; devise a public-relations plan for press coverage of the forthcoming North Atlantic Squadron exercises; set up a board to investigate ways of relieving the chronic dry-dock shortage; introduce a new post-tradership system; weight and pronounce verdict upon the Brooklyn Navy Yard probe; surreptitiously backdate a Bureau of Navigation employment form in order to favor a protégé of Senator Cushman Davis; extend his anti-red-tape reforms to cover battleships and cruisers; eliminate the department’s backlog of unfilled appointments; draw up an elaborate cruising schedule for the new torpedo-boat flotilla; settle a row between the Bureaus of Ordnance and Construction; review the relative work programs in various navy yards; draft a naval personnel reform bill, and fire all Navy Department employees who rated a sub-70 mark in the semi annual fitness reports”

What are 2 character traits of Teddy that you can distinguish by reading this?

• The ability to concentrate
• The ability to organize his day with precision.

Let’s take a look at that first trait.

Meaningful & Deep Work

When you think about his ability to conduct meaningful work without feeling distracted, you might realize that Teddy, in his time, had one great advantage over to us.

When he sat down to work, his phone wasn’t constantly buzzing.

This is one of the reasons he was able to concentrate with inordinate attention on his current task.

A recent study has shown that the worst forms of interruption are the ones we decide to act on ourselves. When you receive a notification on your phone, it’s your decision to stop your work to look at it that’s disrupting your ability to go into a state of deep work.

The notification by itself is just interrupting you for a second, but the decision to take a look and to act on it is the real interruption.

Over the next 2 weeks, we will introduce you to the magic of Deep Work sessions. With the help of a new performance statement, you’ll conquer this new challenge and be more productive than you ever thought possible.

Every day, at the end of your Morning Ritual, open your To Do list and highlight the most important items for the day. I’m talking about those that you keep moving to tomorrow’s To Do list, the ones you most dread.

Then look at the rest of your tasks and delegate the ones you can, eliminate those that aren’t important, and choose to work on the rest. You can start with one or two small tasks just to get yourself in a productive mood, but then get right to the highlighted tasks and make some real progress.

Immediately afterwards, put your phone in airplane mode and hide any other possible distractions.

Get out your Fabulous notebook and during your session, if you find yourself thinking about anything that isn’t work related, just write it down in your notebook so you’ll be aware of it.

Then, start the 25-Min “Just Get Started” Deep Work Guide in the Deep Work section.

At this point put your phone out of sight, don’t leave it out so it can tempt you. Fabulous will let you know once the 25 minutes are up.

Before you start each session, realize that it’s just 25 minutes! It’s not so intimidating when it’s less than half an hour of concentration. And then, after 10 minutes of work, you’ll only have 15 left!

It’s important that you always start your day with a productive 25 minute session, because the first thing you do in the morning dictates how the rest of your day will go. If you start your work day by checking Facebook and catching up on your favorite celebrity, then you’re setting yourself up for a day of distractions.

You might get some work in throughout the day, but you’re not building the habit of meaningful work. You’re building the habit of light work which will take you more time, and it won’t be of the same quality.

Don’t let the Internet tempt you with a super interesting article, even if you promise yourself it’s only for 5 minutes. These small acts of defiance are what we want to eliminate.

Whenever you catch yourself being tempted, celebrate! It’s one more opportunity to improve your self-discipline. Value these moments and realize their significance.

This Week’s Plan

We have a one-time action and a new goal for you.

One-Time Action: Performance Statement for Deep Work

Let’s now create your performance statement for deep work. Think about the main obstacle that’s preventing you from doing your best work. It could be lack of motivation or maybe it’s constant distractions and interruptions.

Craft your performance statement to explain exactly what you will do in these kinds of situations.

It could be similar to “Whenever an interruption prevents me from doing my best work ever, I will write down what distracted me and get back to work.”

If you have a hard time enjoying and hence focusing on your work or studies, use a statement that will give meaning to what you’re doing. “I’m committed to doing this work because I know that I’m learning the habit of hard-work.” That will make even botany class seem not too bad.

If you really abhor your day job, then use the deep work session for one of your side projects. Maybe you love to write or make improvements around the house? Feel free to launch a new pet project and craft your deep work performance statement around that.

Your Goal

Just like Teddy, our aim is to resist any outside temptations and to focus like a laser beam on the task at hand.

When you wake up in the morning, repeat your Deep Work performance statement and do the Self-Discipline: Mental Focus Guide in the Get Inspired section. It’s important that you don’t rush through it, really think about it. The more vividly you visualize, the more effective the exercise will be.

Then, once you’re ready to start your work day, launch the 25-Min “Just Get Started” Deep Work Guide in the Deep Work section.

When you tap “I Accept”, we will add the habit Deep & Meaningful Work to your morning ritual. Feel free to move it to a custom ritual, for example I have mine in a “Workday” ritual.

Each time that you’re tempted by distractions or feeling unmotivated, launch the Get Inspired training again and repeat your Deep Work performance statement.

What are we doing?

We’re now showing you how to use performance statements for all the different obstacles you may encounter when developing self-discipline. With every small act of defiance that we overcome, your self-discipline muscle gets stronger and stronger.

Talk to you soon Fabulous Traveler.