productivity Archives - The Millionaire Hippie

Napping Is Becoming A Daily Part Of My Creative Process

Post published:May 6, 2019
Reading time:6 mins read

When I was younger, in my teens, or twenties, I used to believe that napping is a huge waste of time. I used to look at a sign of weakness. If I couldn’t get through the long days without sleeping, then that meant that I wasn’t strong enough to live in the real world.

Even if I was exhausted because of the long hours, waking up at 5am, and going all the way till 10pm, I refused to succumb and take a rejuvenating nap in the middle of the day.

Part of it has to be because I grew up in a high-achieving, Type-A personality, perfectionism-seeking family. Which meant that if I did ever fall asleep in the middle of the day, it would result in all of these queries about my health. “Are you not feeling well? Are you alright? You are still young, you shouldn’t need to sleep in the middle of the day.” And so on.

(more…)

Why Are You Getting Annoyed When You Have To Work?

Post published:February 5, 2018
Reading time:12 mins read

Over the past few months, I have been getting this revelation about work that I would really like to share with my readers. With you awesome people, that is. When I was a child and in my teens, I absolutely loved school work, and all of the other work that I got to do. It was a privilege to me. A lot of people in the world, I used to tell myself, don’t get to go to school or do all of this awesome work, because they are too poor, or too busy supporting their families.

I am lucky enough (and was lucky enough) to have parents who supported me, so I could go to school unfettered. I didn’t have to worry about bringing home the bacon. My parents took care of that for me, so I could study. I loved to study and I loved to go to work. It was all a major privilege and gain to me.

But as I entered my twenties, I started working at a job with the government, where the opposite viewpoint was held fast. For the first time, I was surrounded by people who hated their jobs, and hated working. They hated everything about it, and they expounded upon it for long periods of time to anyone who would listen. I ended up doing a lot of the listening, because I was young, and a junior member of the team. (more…)

My Gypsy Heart Is So Ecstatic To Be In This Creative Sinkhole

Post published:November 20, 2017
Reading time:12 mins read

When I was younger, I always knew that I wanted to be a writer. It was like, that had been imprinted into the insides of my heart, irrevocably and forever my destiny. But, as the world intervened, I was made to realize (falsely) that I will never make any money from being a writer, and I should find some other vocation. Some other vocation that paid better, much better, has more security, and more stability associated with it.

Ah, if only, I had been stronger in my mindset, and realized that it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how much money I could have made from the writing thing, because it was something that my gypsy heart wanted to do.

For the next 20 years (I am 34 now), I worked on various odd and end jobs. Marketing. Sales. Officiating. And so much more. It was all for naught. There was no point to it. My heart kept on going back to creating, and writing. It wanted to do that so badly. (more…)

I Am On The Low Information Diet To Be More Productive

Post published:August 21, 2017
Reading time:11 mins read

Every single day, people come to me asking if I have read this or the other news. I always have to remind them that I am on the low-information diet, and I do not have the time, energy, or patience to be up-to-date on everything that is out there. Instead of spending my time on reading blog posts, or keeping up on the News, or listening to podcasts, I focus all of that energy on my work.

I am a big proponent of staying focused, and removing all distractions. This need we have as human beings in the modern era, to know everything, and to be informed of everything, is highly distracting. I have noticed this for myself – when I am on Facebook too often, and too much, I am more distracted and unable to focus on my work.

If I am able to stay focused, I can finish writing an article like this in a matter of an hour or so. But if I have one of those distracted days, it takes me twice or thrice as long as that. (more…)

We Live And Die Under The Illusion Of A Thousand Tomorrows

Post published:June 12, 2017
Reading time:9 mins read

I have a procrastination problem, where I keep on pushing off my work from one day to the next, to the next, to the next, until I realize that the item I pushed off for months on end, isn’t even relevant anymore. Yikes. I see it happening, but like a car accident that’s gone too far, I cannot prevent it, all I can do is watch it happen over and over again, in a nightmarish way. No matter what app I use or how many admonishments I give myself, I keep on doing this over and over again.

There are two reasons for it. The first being that a lot of these items I am pushing off aren’t important to me, or aren’t important in general. If I was able to push them off for months on end, without any ill consequences to me, that means they weren’t truly necessary tasks, but just something nice to do. This reason is important, but not as important as the second reason, which is that, I live under the illusion that I am going to live forever.

That is the only reason I would keep on pushing off my tasks over and over again to this illusionary land called tomorrow, where I am a different person who gets everything on her to-do list done. If I believed that I was going to live forever, and I have a hundred or thousand or million tomorrows at my disposal, I can move off my tasks to those tomorrows, and still get all of my work done. (more…)