Want to experience effortless flow every day?
Want to have more mental energy to focus on the important stuff?
If you do, read on…
One of things I’m always obsessed with is, how can I remove friction from my life?
Friction drains your time, energy and pleasure.
What do I mean by “friction”?
The 3 sources of friction are:
- Unnecessary movements
- Unnecessary thoughts
- Unnecessary decisions
What are the benefits of the Frictionless Life?
- It saves your energy
- Keeps you in flow
- More money making brain power
When you’re living the Frictionless Life, you feel you’re flowing effortlessly through life instead of slogging through the mud.
Your precious mental RAM can focus on the RIGHT STUFF instead of burning it up on fruitless endeavours.
If you’ve never thought about “friction” in your life, odds are you’re wasting a lot of your energy.
Let’s go through a normal person’s day, highlight the friction and come up with some simple frictionless solutions.
Bobby McFyookin wakes up and spends 5 minutes figuring out what to wear today.
Solution: Although too extreme for most, Dean Jackson loves to wear the same thing EVERY DAY. No more clothing decisions. Steve Jobs did the same thing.
A less extreme solution comes from my friend Todd Herman. Todd keeps his colors simple: browns and blues. So almost everything matches.
Bobby spends a couple of minutes figuring out what to eat.
Solution: have 2 or 3 things that you cycle through… or have a pre made menu. Or ideally have a maid prepare what you want without even asking. That’s what I do. I wake up and the maid has my morning power drink ready to pound.
Mr. McFyookin jumps in his car and drives to work. Then he spends 5 minutes looking for a parking spot.
Solution: Unless it doesn’t make economic sense, use Uber or Lyft. You can work in the car, and you don’t waste time looking for a parking spot.
A bigger solution is to work from home, which I’ve done for the last 14 years. So much time and energy is spent on commuting. At the very least, aim to turn your commute into learning time by listening to audiobooks and podcasts.
Bobby arrives at his desk and he’s not sure what he should work on.
Now this is a MONSTER. This happens when you don’t have clear goals and missions to drive on. This almost always happens if you don’t have a Focus Window schedule set up.
Solution: You should have all your Focus Windows set up ahead of time for your weeks. I know that Mondays and Thursdays are meeting days. I know that morning time is writing time. I know that evenings is study time. That takes a MASSIVE amount of time wasting decisions off my plate. You should also have clear 90 day objectives that you’re focused on.
Bobby has a meeting at 10 am. He walks in unprepared with no agenda. The meeting is an epic waste of time for everyone.
Solution: First of all, prepare for the meetings. Don’t be the muppet that walks in with some blank pieces of paper and a blank brain. What I do is I list all the issues throughout the week and by the time the meeting comes around, we have a solid list of issues to tackle.
I’ve become a VERY BIG FAN of Traction by Gino Wickman.
Everyone should also read “Meetings Suck” by Cameron Herold.
It’s lunch time and Bobby forgot his favourite digestive enzymes.
Solution: Have multiple units of EVERYTHING that you use EVERYWHERE you spend time. Examples: Have multiple bottles of your main supplements at work, home and in the car. I have 3 mac chargers, so it doesn’t matter where I go — I don’t have to move the plug.
It’s the end of the day and it’s time to pump iron. So Bobby grabs his gym bag, but realizes he forgot his sneakers.
Solution: Have “to go bags” for all the regular stuff you do. I have my travel backpack that has all the cables, sim cards and things I need for traveling. Why pack and unpack every time I travel? This also minimizes the chances of forgetting things. Have a gym bag, a work bag, etc…
Enough about Bobby McFyookin, we get the problem.
Here are some additional tips for living the Frictionless Life:
- Only use a carry on. There’s lots of friction hauling big bags around and waiting for your luggage.
- Ship your bags to your final location if you want to haul freight.
- Set up recurring auto-shipping for the things you use on a regular basis on Amazon.
- Want to develop a photographic memory? Take pictures of things you want to remember. It’s far more reliable than our brains.
- Use alarms and reminders to remind you. Give your memory a break.
- Do the same things, at the same time each week. Read 3X Your Productivity for more details.
- Become an elite member with your main airline. It saves you A LOT of time and energy.
- Become an elite member with a car rental company. Saves you time.
- Simplify your closet and clothing. Read this amazing book for even more inspiration: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.
- Just rent movies on iTunes or watch them on Netflix. Torrenting is a major waste of time, not to mention bad Karma.
- Have systems for everything you do. Systems maximize efficiency.
- Make your entire life a GROOVE. The more patterns you have, the better.
- When you can afford it, get a personal assistant.
- When you can afford it, get a maid.
Hopefully this inspires you to start removing friction from your life. It’s going to have a major impact on your productivity, income and happiness.
Understanding “friction” is not only useful for you as a smooth grooving human, but it’s incredibly effective for building revolutionary products. I’ll be posting an article about this soon.
What are your tips for removing friction from your life? I’m sure you’ve got a couple of good ones. Post them in the comments below.
