How Creative Challenges Can Make You Exponentially More Productive

Self-Imposed Challenges are the Best!

Have you ever felt like a piece of crap and wanted a fast way to shake up your world and become exponentially more productive? There’s a reason why Lent is so interesting. It gives you the opportunity to give up something you regularly do for 40 days and see how that will change your life. Some people give up alcohol, others give up meat, and some give up sex. These self-imposed challenges are the best because it tests your resilience and your self-discipline. When you complete a challenge, you feel a sense of pride for being able to resist your temptations for a few short weeks and can see how the changes affect you. By choosing to give up certain vices, your life can change for the better, forever!

The “MAD” Challenge

I tried many of these challenges in the past, but nothing beats the challenge I created for myself last year. I’ve followed the author Tim Ferris for a long time. One of his challenges is called the “MAD” challenge. MAD is an acronym for three things that people usually do, that they know are bad for them, but do anyway. Completing the MAD challenge as a man in his 20’s is a huge feat and not something that should be taken lightly. Basically, you can’t do the M (I’ll let you guess it stands for), drink the A (alcohol), or take the D (drugs). Since I don’t do drugs, I changed it to a MAY challenge. The ‘Y’ stands for Youtube/Netflix/TV. For one month, I decided to cut out all entertainment from my life.

November 2018

During the first week, I felt so refreshed. Instead of watching Youtube or Netflix to sleep, I started reading books before bedtime. I started sleeping earlier and sleeping better. By making a firm decision to stop drinking alcohol, I could now be the designated hero and drive to San Francisco to hang out with my friends on a Friday night. I could stay up all night, drive back to the South Bay, and wake up early without feeling like crap all day. It allowed me to do things I couldn’t do before!

By cutting all forms of TV out of my life, I poured my free time into reading books. Suddenly, images started popping into my head and I could feel myself in the fictional world of the book. A long, thick, and dry book was suddenly the most interesting thing to read, and I couldn’t put it down. I finished Atlas Shrugged in one month. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a book with over 1000 pages on Bible thin paper with letters that are the size of an ant. I’m proud of that achievement, and don’t think I would be able to finish that book if I could do something more entertaining.

Side Effects

These challenges aren’t all fun and games, there were definitely side effects. I felt like a junkie trying to quit cold-turkey.

Some days, I would be so burnt out from reading and so bored at home, that I would go to the gym twice a day so that I could hang out with different gym buddies and talk about our day.

On one depressing Friday, I decided to stay an extra 2 hours at work because I had nothing to look forward to when I got home. There wasn’t even anything to look forward to on the weekend because I stopped drinking!

After November

I got a lot done during my November challenge! I didn’t need Youtube or Netflix in my life and I certainly didn’t need alcohol. To date, I still haven’t broken my ‘no drinking challenge’ (does dipping the bread in wine during communion count?). When people ask me “why?” I just tell them because I feel like it, and they respect that. I still go out and hang out with my friends, but I just do it sober. It lets me go out, have a good time, drive others home, and be able to wake up with no hangover the next day!

Unfortunately, after a few weeks, I started to slip and Youtube became part of my daily routine again. This happened because of my trip to Asia, where I would have pockets of free time with nothing to do. Instead of using that time to rest up or catch up on a good read, I would watch videos of people playing games.

The Latest Challenge

I’ve been bombarded with tasks lately. I’m finishing up my last project in Santa Clara, I’m thinking about transitioning out of my W-2, I’m producing and publishing two podcasts a week and I’m hosting two live events a month. It’s tiring, and it makes me want to be a P.O.S. any chance I get. I would spend hours watching Youtube or playing Diablo 2 (yes, classics are great) with my girlfriend. If I had a free day, I would debate between going to the gym, being comfortable at home, or going to a meetup event. Days, weeks, and months went by and I realized I wasn’t going to as many meetups as before and the books on my desk started piling up. Was Youtube really worth the time and investment that I could have spent meeting new people or reading books?

“MAY” 2019

My girlfriend booked a two-week trip to Europe, so I figured this would be the perfect time to try the challenge again. This is a toned down version of the “MAY” challenge, and is only going to last two weeks. I’m getting rid of Youtube, Netflix, and TV (besides Game of Thrones ☺) and I’m also going to stay away from browsing on random websites (Goodbye Quora).

So far, I’ve attended a meetup group every single day! I close my eyes and meditate when I’m in line waiting to get my hair cut or sitting at the doctor’s office. I read books at night and fall asleep earlier than before and get great sleep. On the weekend, I plan on spending most of my day out of the house and going to other meetup events or gatherings with my friends. I booked about a dozen new interviews for the podcast. I’m able to produce more and read more by getting rid of the micro-distractions.

Self-Discipline

I recently had lunch with a friend who asked me about tips about self-discipline. The way I see it, there are activities that everyone knows they should be doing. They ‘know’ that they should go to the gym, they ‘know’ that they should study or read. But when it comes time to go to the gym or to read a book, they prefer to watch TV and eat cookies.

Pull, Don’t Push

People slip because willpower gets diminished as the day goes on. Studies have shown that if someone has an incredibly long and challenging day, then their willpower decreases and they feel like they ‘deserve’ to take a break and enjoy a snack. Their willpower has run out, and they can no longer ‘push’ themselves to do what they should be doing.

Instead of ‘pushing’ myself and ‘forcing’ me to do something, I flip the script in my head and make it a ‘pull’. Instead of pushing myself out of my chair to go work out, I think of the gym as a safe haven where I can release my energy and frustration while being productive. I’m pulled to the gym. It’s a place I have to be.

Conclusion

Creating a self-imposed challenge for a few weeks or a month is a great way to test your resilience. How long can you stay away from eating sweets or from playing video games? What can you accomplish when you deprive yourself of your vices?

These challenges have been fun and I highly recommend it. Try to think of the thing you can’t live without (smoking, browsing reddit, playing games) and quit cold-turkey for a month. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll get done!