Living Life by Design

Productivity tips from the Ancient Greeks!

1. CHOOSE VALUABLE WORK, NOT BUSYWORK

Marcus Aurelius, who ruled the Roman empire from 161 to 180 AD, was perhaps the most prolific writer on the Stoic philosophy.

In his Meditations, Aurelius wrote:

“It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth…”

In other words, we should assign higher priority to more valuable activities.

When I step back to organize my priorities, I always keep this principle in mind: avoid low-value busy work, especially tasks that can be automated or delegated, and do more of the work that moves the needle for you.

For an author, that means sitting down with a blank page and writing. For a chef, it’s getting in the kitchen, combining flavors, and creating new dishes. For me, an entrepreneur, it’s reflecting on how to improve our business — rather than allowing myself to be a victim of the busy-ness epidemic.

Aurelius believed that many things we do are unnecessary, and as such, we should always ask ourselves whether a given task is necessary. If not, then eliminate it.

In his words:

“If you seek tranquility, do less. Or (more accurately) do what’s essential. Do less, better. Because most of what we do or say is not essential.”

Keep those words in mind as you move through your day: do less, better.

2. DECIDE WHAT’S IN YOUR CONTROL, AND DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE REST

Epictetus, a prominent Stoic philosopher in the first and second centuries A.D., considered this the chief task of Stoicism:

“To identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals, not under my control, and which have to do with the choice I actually control.”

This dichotomy can help us to focus our time and energy on what we can control and not waste time stressing about external forces.

Each day, countless issues are out of our hands: train delays, tardy colleagues, faulty technology. These things are inevitable. And it’s better to acknowledge our powerlessness and move forward than to waste time worrying about them.

What’s more, negative emotions like stress have been shown to hinder productivity and performance.

To cite one example, in a study of 137 managers enrolled in an executive MBA program, researchers found that negative emotions led managers to decrease their effort or time at work, lower their performance or quality standards, or decrease their commitment to their organizations.

So ask yourself every day: is this within my control? By focusing on what is, we can save time and boost positive emotions in the workplace.

3. LIVE BY YOUR ACTIONS, NOT YOUR WORDS

Words are procrastination’s best friend. We tell ourselves we’ll get to that project later, instead of sitting down and tackling it now. We make a list of reasons to avoid a task. In effect, we give ourselves the emotional comfort to procrastinate.

But Stoics don’t care about words. To them, actions are everything. We can only judge ourselves based on behavior.

In a letter to his older brother Novatus, Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca, better known as “Seneca,” described a method he used to measure himself objectively at the end of each day. He’d ask:

How am I better today?

What did I do with my time?

What were my outcomes?

I’ve adopted a similar ritual. As I shut down my computer, I think about what I’ve done, not what I’ve said I’ll do. Keeping that looming self-assessment in mind helps me to work productively, even when I’m low on motivation.

After all, we don’t need motivation to get things done.

4. PICTURE THE WORST CASE SCENARIO

Another buddy of procrastination is fear — the fear that we won’t be able to accomplish a task, or simply, fear of the hard work required.

Using a practice called “premeditatio malorum,” (Latin for the premeditation of evils), Stoics take a proactive stance against fear and any potential setbacks.

They imagine anything that could possibly go wrong, and in doing so, they psychologically prepare themselves for whatever the future holds.

As Seneca once wrote to a friend, “Nothing happens to the wise man against his expectation . . nor do all things turn out for him as he wished but as he reckoned — and above all he reckoned that something could block his plans.”

By preparing ourselves for any potential disruptions, we start to feel less afraid. In the case of a lecture, for example, the teacher imagines the projector malfunctioning or the students losing focus. So he prepares himself for those possibilities, and in doing so, alleviates his fears.

Premeditatio malorum helps us to stop avoiding things and start getting them done.

5. TODAY COULD BE YOUR LAST DAY. LIVE IMMEDIATELY

One simple but powerful Stoic practice is being ever-conscientious of your mortality. It sounds morbid, but it isn’t. I think of it as a rallying cry; a commitment to squeezing the most from every drop of life.

Seneca captured this idea when he wrote:

“We are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it.”

Time is our most precious commodity, and too often, we don’t treat it that way.

Sure, it feels good to binge-watch a series or to get lost in our social media feeds. We’re all guilty of it sometimes.

But we have to reel ourselves back in, and be mindful of the value of our time.

Writing about Seneca’s “On the Shortness of Life,” James Clear sums it up nicely:

“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future: live immediately.”

Live immediately. Live for the present. Live in the now. However you put it, today could be your last — so live like it.