This article is adapted from an article I wrote for Roam.
Sitting in the doldrums of discomfort that can come along with perseverance swing wide open the door to an understated benefit of perseverance: we learn ourselves so well through the messy middle of perseverance that we tap into even greater productivity.
And it’s true: tiny, imperfect progress adds up. Perseverance unlocks secret benefits along the way.
How can you harness the sweat of perseverance to actually turn around and serve you?
Claire Diaz-Ortiz’ 128-page wunderkind book called Design Your Day guides you through brilliant tips and tricks to achieve more in less time. “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion,” Parkinson’s Law states. You’ve probably heard that more conventionally as the 80/20 rule: 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people, or your best 80% of work can be done in 20% of the time. And while we know it innately, persevering through some tasks — especially things like writing, heady tasks, and deep-focus client work — well, we tend to stretch that out ’til the coffee cup’s cold, right?
Tap into the benefits of perseverance with this productivity trick from Claire — I love this trick!
Step 1
Grab a piece of paper and — throughout a day, or even over the course of a week — jot down work and life tasks. Literally everything. Things like:
- Working out
- Writing content
- Writing and answering emails
- Brainstorming
- Leading meetings
- Taking calls
- Giving presentations
- Fielding client inquiries
- Invoicing
- Sending contracts
- Researching
- Chatting with friends and fam
- Reading
- Relaxing
- Cleaning
- Sleeping
Step 2
Now, work through the list and consider the time of day you feel MOST productive doing that task — when is it most natural in the day for you to persevere at a certain role? Really think about it. If an answer doesn’t come, watch yourself live life, and see when you get in a zone and contrarily, when you don’t tend to stick to a task.
Step 3
Reorder the list based on time of day, and slowly, surely, work to structure your day around this new goal.
It won’t be perfect. “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently,” said Henry Ford. If that’s true, it only makes sense to navigate difficult challenges steadfastly, by smartly streamlining perseverance to launch us into greater work.
I schedule out the tasks both in my Emily Ley Simplified Planner, and in my Trello queue — I have fallen in love with this system hack!
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It’s true: tiny, imperfect progress adds up. Perseverance unlocks secret benefits along the way.
How can you harness the sweat of perseverance to actually turn around and serve you?