I convinced a friend to get the book "Get Your Sh*t Together" for himself and he went and got it as a gift for my birthday. I thought this dude clearly didn't get it. We laughed and eventually I started reading and it became obvious that I was the one who didn't get it. It was obvious - my life was screaming for this book, even if just for the cover as a constant subliminal message on my bedside table. It's already working.

More for productivity that I'd totally recommend is a spread out A4 weekly planner, the Focus Keeper app and Wunderlist. And maybe diet instead of working out for a month just to get ahead of your own self. Another recent purchase was the five-minute journal. Many things helped me get back on track, changing the place I work can be a hit or miss, but ultimately it's all about getting into that mindset where you're not blocking yourself from doing. 

With my own struggles this year, here are a few that I learned that might help you: 

1. Never be too busy you have no time to read; reading is like getting information from the friend we never had. That being said, pick your books with the same mindset. The same way around, don't loose your time with basic friends they can be good people but you're spending the one thing you will never get back in life - time. Giving them money would in some funny way be better for you since you are also giving them your mind and energy after all. In some funny way, better speed reading through people and scan the best books for you, and spend some quality time with that book you got while bored at the airport that never found the time to read.

2. it's not about how much you make but how significant you make; according to Tim Farris, not thinking is just another form of laziness. Making good decisions that have a significant impact will end up making you do less and have a much significant progress. The reason most people succeeded came down to one decision that opened a sequence of opportunities. Making decisions can involve right left up and down, but also yes or no - removing unnecessary things can make you work yourself forward instead of sideways. Think of yourself as a Sim in The Sims, what's the one task you'd be repeating endlessly till the Sim change? Exercise? Reading? Playing guitar? Spend time thinking about that because that is one of the decisions you will have to make. If you are constantly unsure like me, go through it and see how you feel - I did a lot of that this year.. 

3. If you are not ok, you will hardly do anything of significance; growing as a person means finding challenges outside and within yourself, sometimes we sort of block ourselves and get in our own way, and a simple "stop doing it!" before bed won't solve it. You truly have to find at least 30min a day to understand what you are feeling. Journaling (or writing the good old diary) should help you a lot, just make sure you write as no one would read it, keep it locked and burn at the end if you'd like. Getting these emotions and ideas out is the best therapy you will ever find since, after all, it is you talking to yourself.

4. Don't base yourself in the past or other people's experience to make decisions, this one is big. One time events count as much as you going to cross a street for the first time, have a car accident and never cross a street again. It's irrational. And if you consider someone else it can be even worse (and in that case, this just became an inception) take the information as precaution but never let it stop you - just because "if it had been you in her place" it would have been totally different because you have different ways of thinking, and knowledge so the small decisions would probably be different. She probably didn't see a way that you would have seen. Not trying for yourself is a form of laziness. 

5. If you don't want to do, don't complain, complaining or any sort of negative feeling towards something you'd never put your efforts to the limit in that area is not only pointless but also ridiculous, and brings you down to nothing. You right now, are in a city with a certain amount of money alone or not, healthy or not, fit or not - but that means nothing because you are not a tree - you can move and you can change and long as you want to! Whether you want the simple life or achieve big things in life, your actions need to be in the proportion of your wantings, if you put in the work (and decisions) push yourself out of where you are, you will inevitably end up somewhere different more in line with your new actions and decisions. Makes sense?

Hope this has helped you as much as it helped me, mostly to making decisions and being more productive. These tips were not based in the book mention, these were things a I learned individually this year, whether from my own experience or through someone else (books, videos) that made sense to me. Don't take anything you read literal to a point it stops you, but take the information and see if it makes sense to you with the things you are currently going through and with that be sure to make decisions that will bring you the closer to your one thing.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week!