Productivity Hack: Be a Butler to Your Future Self
How to bring joy and calm to a chaotic world…
Get the door, will you Jeeves?
A couple months ago I heard some excellent productivity advice.
The framing was perfect.
I heard this as a sidebar on some podcast (don’t remember who… or which).
But the guest mentioned the importance of being a ‘butler’ to your future self as much as possible.
Meaning…
- Make those school lunches the night before
- Set out tomorrow’s clothes tonight
- Plan your day before it plans you
- Be early
- Batch your work
- Ship the first project before you start the second
- Build your daily work muscle (even if you only have 15 minutes)
- Beat your own due dates
- Do favors for yourself in the future (automated reminders in your phone)
- Send yourself emails in the future (like a year away) and remind yourself that you’re doing a great job.
The more you ‘buttle’ your future self, the more peace you’ll bring to your current self. We’re so busy and overwhelmed.
And much of this overwhelm is our own making.
We aren’t preparing ahead.
We’re running from chore to chore like our hands are on fire.
I’m writing this for me, just as much as you.
I’ve got a lot of work to do in the future-self department.
But, I’m trying.
You only need to pick one thing at a time.
Give your future self some grace and go polish the silver in advance, or pull the car around for me.
You get the idea…
How can you be a butler to the you of tomorrow to make that person’s life so good?
Sometimes it’s the little things…
On this podcast, the guy always left himself cash in the pockets of his winter coat, as he put it away for the season.
The following autumn, he’d grab the coat, find the money he forget about, and thank his past self for thinking about him.
In your service,
August “Get The Wrinkles Out of This Shirt For Me” Birch
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