I will enter the last year of my 20s in a few days. Recently, I have had a lot of time to reflect on my life on this planet so far(mostly because I am unemployed right now 😁). I am not the perfect human being in this planet but certain habits I developed have helped me so much so that I am living the life I dreamed about once. Let’s see what they are…

Embracing boredom

The majority of my childhood was in the late 90s and early 2000s, and boy, was it boring! No phone… No streaming services… I had to wait till Friday to get my weekly children’s magazine every week. But now that I think about it, that’s what fueled my creativity. I started drawing, cooking up stories in my head and sharing them with my friends, got into gardening for a while, and eventually, I even started writing novels LOL.

By the end of the 2010s smartphones became a thing. Unlimited internet, streaming services and binging became popular and nobody experienced boredom ever again. It was a golden time for slightly introverted curious minds who love stories like me.

Eventually, I found answers to all my questions on the internet along with hours and hours of useless content to binge. When I entered my productive gal era in my early 20s, I started filling up each and every waking second of my life with information. Be it an audiobook, podcast or a YouTube video about productivity, after point, it was all just noise.

These days I am trying to intentionally create pockets of boredom, without a show or podcast running in the background, especially in the morning.

I am writing this post on a day like that. I can genuinely feel the clarity.

Create more than you consume. Apparently multitasking is not good for your brain. Induced ADHD is a thing. I am not advocating for cutting out all technology from your life. Just schedule some time to reflect and look inward. Give some time for your brain to organize everything.

Ask yourself if all the noise is masking something that you really don’t want to face.

Balance is the key.

Detecting cheap dopamine sources

Even though I advocate for effectively integrating technology into our lives, the primal part of our brain is not very rational. It can easily fall prey to cheap dopamine. That’s why you scroll on Instagram or TikTok without knowing the hours passing by.

Finishing a personal project, doing a workout and decluttering or organizing your living space can be extremely satisfying but in order to enjoy the beauty of mundane things in life, you have to keep your baseline dopamine low.

That is why mornings are important, the content you consume in the morning will decide your day. Cheap dopamine is everywhere. Junk food, the sugar that is pumped in everything, social media, caffeine, nicotine, etc. are very common sources.
Replace them with exercise, meditation and healthy food. Give a break for social media in the morning.

A single cup of coffee is okay I guess, ideally 90 minutes after waking up to avoid the caffeine crash. If you have problems with your sleep avoid coffee in the afternoon.

Dopamine is the motivation molecule. Your brain releases dopamine when you think about doing something not when you actually do it.

Find ways to get excited about your major task of the day. A combination of all of these things has helped me so much.

If you want to know more about dopamine and its working listen to Controlling Your Dopamine For Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction by Andrew Huberman.

Learning to figure things out

I was listening to a podcast episode by author Mark Manson on “5 ways to hack your mind for greater success” and they were talking about this exact same thing. Figuring things out is a superpower. You can call it a growth mindset or a bias to action, but when I face a problem, my mind immediately asks whether I can do anything to fix it. I go into research mode quickly and If there is a way, I just do it without overthinking much.

This is something that I developed over the years with practice. The key here is to accept that it will be uncomfortable and focus on the result.

I had a health scare a few years ago. My hormones just started going out of balance and no doctor could figure out what was triggering it. I put on my research hat and started reading studies. I eventually figured out that there is a strong connection between food intolerances and hormone balance. I went on an elimination diet and figured out that I am intolerant to gluten and dairy.

Then I asked my doctor to test for it and I was right. Following a diet that fits me gave me back the energy I had lost for years at that point.

Adopting a growth mindset will help you immensely in life.

The ability to turn off all distractions and focus on a task is indeed a superpower these days.

Using a task management system

For a long time, I was under the impression that it would come to me if it was an important task until I lost wonderful opportunities because I couldn’t track the things I had to do.

I started to note down things on a diary and my brain just became so free. From that simple to-do list, it evolved into a PARA task management system. Now I use a combination of Notion, Google Keep and a notebook. PARA is a system developed by author Tiago Forte. I use a personalized version of that to track all of my project notes and tasks.

Trust me, having a management system will change your life as an adult.

Learning to say “No”

Life is too short to commit to everything that comes your way. If it doesn’t move you closer to the life you want to build and you don’t enjoy it, it is probably a distraction. Don’t stay in a toxic job or relationship just because easy.

Identifying my procrastination cycle

This is different for everyone. The tricky thing is that we don’t always procrastinate via binging Netflix. In my case, I cook, take courses, clean, watch educational videos on YouTube, etc. This is productive procrastination. The problem is that you will never feel like you are procrastinating. It’s just that you are not doing that one thing that has to be done to move forward in life.

This kind of procrastination stems from fear of failure, getting stuck in a comfort zone, etc. You have to try intentionally to break the cycle. How do we do that? Try things like time blocking, using a timer, gamifying tasks that you don’t enjoy much, etc. Focus on the end goal.

Not worrying about things I can’t control

I don’t worry about things I can’t control anymore. All we can do is figure out the next step and do it. There is no point in regretting the past. Learn from the mistakes and move on.

Expanding my comfort zone

It is so easy to just exist in a rut these days if you make enough money to survive. You don’t have to get out much. Everything will get delivered to our home. There is an unlimited amount of cheap dopamine. If we don’t keep growing our comfort zone, it will shrink. Gradually incorporate new things into life.

These are some of the points that come to mind right now. If you liked reading this, check out my YouTube channel where I share my data science journey, productivity tips, etc.