Get More Done (Without the Drama) 🙌🏾

Issue #108: Learn how to identify and remove obstacles standing in the way of your productivity, Sleep tips for noisy nights, Strive on your own Dharma.

💡 Here are 3-ideas to help you learn, grow, and be inspired this week!

🎓 Learn

Picture this: you’ve got a pebble (little rock) in your shoe, and it’s making running pretty painful.

But, you really need to get to your friend’s house in time for dinner.

Now you’ve got a dilemma: do you suck it up and run anyway, or… well, not?

Let’s look at your options:

1. Do nothing. Stay home, miss the dinner, and silently accept you won’t be invited next time. Easy. But also, you’ll be stuck eating leftovers and feeling kind of bad about yourself.

2. Rely on motivation. Convince yourself that the dinner will be so amazing that it’s worth the pain. You’re hyped—until you collapse halfway there, and the only thing you’re eating is the sidewalk.

3. Go full-on discipline mode. You’ve made a commitment, and you’re determined to keep it. So, you push through, running all the way to your friend’s house with that pebble digging into your foot. You arrive—victorious! Except, now your friend has to drive you to the hospital. Oops.

But wait, there’s a fourth (and much smarter) option:

You take a breath, stop for a minute, and think, “Why is getting to my friend’s house so hard?”

You take off your shoe, shake out the pebble, and boom—problem solved. Off you go, pebble-free and on time for dinner.

This, my friends, is the Unblock Method.

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How Can We Use the Unblock Method to Get More Done (Without the Drama)

Procrastination usually shows up when we’ve got too many negative feelings—confusion, fear, dread (you know, the usual suspects).

But instead of muscling through, let’s remove those "pebbles" causing the block. Here’s how you can put this into action:

1. Break Down Big Projects
   Do you have a big project like redesigning a whole website or coding a new app feature? That can feel like trying to run a marathon with a boulder in your shoe. Solution? Break it down! Start with something small—like outlining the steps or getting clarity on the requirements. Boom, no more boulder, just a pebble-sized task you can tackle today.

2. Automate the Boring Stuff
   Decision fatigue is real, and nothing kills productivity faster than having to make the same decisions every. single. day. You know what I’m talking about—routine tasks like deploying code or sending status updates. Automate it! Set up scripts or workflows to handle these so you can focus on the cool, high-impact work. Less boring pebbles = more brainpower for the fun stuff.

3. The 2-Minute Rule: Get the Little Things Out of the Way
   We all have those tiny tasks that sit there, mocking us. You know, like replying to that email or fixing a minor bug. Here’s a quick fix: if it takes less than 2 minutes, just do it now. No thinking, no planning, just knock it out. It’s like clearing pebbles off the path so you can focus on the bigger stuff that actually matters.

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Key Takeaways:

This method is inspired by Ali Abdaal’s book "Feel Good Productivity." The Unblock Method is all about removing obstacles so you can get stuff done—without the unnecessary struggle.

1. If something feels hard, don’t just power through. Take a second to figure out why, and remove the problem (aka the pebble).

2. Break large tasks into smaller, doable steps. One pebble at a time.

3. Use tools to automate boring tasks, clear out the small stuff, and save your energy for the big wins.

🚀 Growth Tip

If you're a light sleeper, or trying to sleep next to someone who snores (I feel for you!), or can’t sleep because of loud AC or noisy neighbor, here are two tips that have helped me:

1. AirPods ( with noise cancellation mode): If you have AirPods, use the noise cancellation feature while you sleep. It’s like putting a "quiet mode" on the world around you. I’ve been using them for a while, and they really help block out unwanted noise.

2. Quiet 2 Loop Earplugs: I got these for a trip where I had to share a room with a friend who snores—loudly. At first, it felt a bit strange sleeping with earplugs, but after a few nights, I got used to it. And guess what? They work! No more snoring to keep me awake. Buy - in the USA or India (no affiliation).

🤩 Inspiration

This is one to frame if you find yourself always comparing your life to others or feeling envious.

⁠"One’s own dharma performed imperfectly is better than another’s dharma well performed...It is better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another."

📢 When do you usually prefer to read Learn + Grow?

I'm curious— is Saturday at 8 AM Central Time still the best time for you to receive and read Learn + Grow?

I'd love your input to help decide if we should make any changes to the current publishing schedule!

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👋 Until next time, Anil / CEO and Co-Founder of Multidots, Multicollab, and Dotstore.

FYI…I also write about agency growth and Enterprise WordPress.

May the Peaceful Growth be with you! 🪴

P.S. If you're a founder looking to grow your agency to $5M (without working overtime), keep reading.