Is productivity overrated? Is learning Spanish really about getting more done in less time?
In this episode of the Real Fast Spanish Tips podcast, I will share one of the best productivity tips that I have ever learnt. The best part is it is not about doing more in less time. It is not about maximising efficiency. In fact, it is almost the exact opposite.
Too often we are focused on the dreaded “to-do” list. We come up with new ways to organise the to-do list. We look for apps and computer software to automate our schedule. But sometimes it isn’t about maximum efficiency.
Sometimes the best way to approach the concept of productivity and doing more is by doing less.
The best tip that I ever received is to take a look at your schedule and start to work out what can be eliminated. It almost goes against human nature to remove things. We are so used to adding things all the time. New clothes, new software, new technology, new gadgets, new furniture etc. But when we get these new things we sometimes forget that we need to eliminate the old things first to make way for the new things.
The same goes for you daily, weekly or monthly schedule. If you want to find time to learn Spanish, one of the best ways is to start by working out what you can remove.
In today’s episode of the podcast I look of the strategy of the “not to do” list and how you can apply it in your routine. I will also tie the modern idea of the “not to do” list with an old zen proverb.
The quote from this episode:
“Knowledge is learning something every day. Wisdom is letting something go every day.” – Zen Proverb
How else can you subtract in order to add?
Podcast: Play in new window
This is actually how I got started learning Spanish. I though I watch a fair amount of tv. I wonder how much time that works out to over a year. How much of my life am I dedicating to watching tv? Well I did that math and it was scary. I though, I could have done something amazing with all this time, If I had been learning a language, I would be pretty good by now. So I decided to try that instead of tv for a while. I actually have been watching some, but nearly all in Spanish sometimes with and sometimes without subtitles. But still much less than I was before and my Spanish is coming along pretty well so far. Seriously, sitting down and doing the math to see how many hours a day, days or weeks per year, and just how much of your life you spend on TV is astounding. I’ll probably never look at it the same way again. As little as 2 hour of tv a day is 30 days a year. Math is not my strength so forgive me if I messed this up, but if I get to be 75 and I averaged 2 hours a day my whole life, I think that becomes just over 6 solid years of TV (10 years if you allow 14 hours of TV and 10 hours to sleep etc.) I don’t know what I could achieve if I put 50,000 hours into something. But putting that much time into TV isn’t likely to give me much to be proud of. I think and hope I can do better.