In this edition of the peak performance newsletter, we will be discussing:

• Why changing your environment is making you into a retard

• Why your environment is so important

• Tactics vs. Hard Work (What’s the difference?)

• How to make your environment start working for YOU

Before we start,

Reddit, but for self improvement. Welcome to the Summit Crew.

I want to announce that I’ve made an exclusive community called the Summit Crew. It is dedicated to individuals who want more personalized advice on self-improvement and to connect with a group of likeminded individuals who want to start improving their lives.

Here is what you’ll expect from joining this free community:

• You'll be able to connect with other likeminded individuals who are trying/on self improvement

• You'll be able to exchange advice from others and cultivate a brotherhood

• You'll have access to FREE upcoming guides that are community exclusive (See community guide to view)

• I'll give personalized advice to members frequently

• You'll get quick summaries and insights directly from the newsletter every week

• Occasionally, I'll host events covering a specific, advanced topic on self improvement (Usually targeted towards more experienced guys but beginners are welcomed too)

If that seems interesting to you, then you can click the link below to sign up.

Right now during the pre-launch, I’ll currently be accepting only 50 members in total to keep the community high quality, so act fast!

But first,

Respect to you for choosing to read long form educational content like this one instead of watching short, clickbait, self improvement content that you see on social media.

By reading this post, you probably have a top 1% attention span by choosing to invest your time in this form of content that isn’t entertaining for the masses.

I’m not trying to give you cheap dopamine, but rather actual lessons that will change your life.

So if you’ve clicked on this email, then I’m assuming your here to apply what you’ve learnt and take action right away.

You’re not here to learn about some cute tactics that helps you cope with being lazy, you want real results. And that is what I’m here to deliver. If that’s you, then you can subscribe to the Peak Performance Newsletter to receive high quality emails like this one every week, it’s a win-win for both of us.

But if not, feel free to unsubscribe and find another creator that will tell you what you already want to hear instead.

Just a bit of background info,

And lastly,

And in this post, my promise is to give you the quick insights that I’ve learnt which helped me maximized my productivity.

Why changing your environment is making you into a retard

First, let me tell you a story, that took place 3 days ago.

Most people work like retards, and I was that retard.

I was going through my usual schedule, so in the morning I would do some journaling, meditation for 5-10 minutes, and then I would go into my deep work sessions with writing emails like this one and doing other smaller tasks.

But I found myself stuck in a situation.

I was hanging out with some friends at the time, but I wanted to finish a post that was due for the week. Sure, it was fun and nice to blow off some steam once and a while to talk to other people. But of course, I still had my responsibilities that I promised not only to myself but to my readers who subscribed to the newsletter.

I knew that I was perfectly capable of sitting myself down, turning off my emotions, and completing the deep work that was needed.

I kept on procrastinating, procrastinating, and this irritation, this itch, kept getting getting worse. It was like I wanted to enjoy the time I had with other people, but at the same time I just really wanted to be productive and work right away.

I drove myself insane as the schedule, the routine that I’ve built for myself was gone because I was working at the wrong time, eating at the wrong time, I was scrolling on a phone a lot more, and had so many other distractions that prevented me from being productive.

I thought of myself as a pretty disciplined individual, so why did I find myself seriously struggling with writing even though I’ve been doing it consistently for well over a year now?

Why your environment is so important

I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now, but the reason why I was struggling so much with being productive is because I was setting up my environment in a way that was counter productive to my goals.

I was expecting to have the same level of productivity that I would usually have but didn’t consider the fact that I wasn’t optimizing my routine or my environment to match that same output.

I’m not saying the lesson in this story is to not have friends, of course not.

But the point I’m trying to make is to understand how much of a positive or negative impact that your environment has on YOU.

During a normal day, I would start doing my deep work straight in the morning, with no other distractions in my way. I’ve made a regimented routine and an environment that kept me accountable with my goals.

But once that was taken away, I found myself struggling with basic tasks that I would otherwise be able to complete without much difficulty.

I started to procrastinate more on my work, I started to eat more junk food, scrolling on my phone more, and I felt like shit, because I wasn’t doing the things that made me feel productive and fulfilled.

Now, am I saying that I wouldn’t be disciplined without a regimented routine or environment? It honestly depends, because the level of discipline that I had whenever I was just “going with the flow” was no where near comparison to what I was used to having when I did optimize my environment.

This wasn’t just a one time occurrence that made me realize this today, but it was just an example for you to understand the importance behind having a stable working environment.

And now imagine the average person who tries to become productive.

The average person doesn’t optimize their environment, and they try to become productive “whenever they feel like it”.

Now let’s imagine them trying to do deep work. They have loud music playing in the background, probably working on their bed, their phone notifications are constantly ringing, their working while watching YouTube shorts at the same time, they have a short attention span, and they end up losing focus on the hand at hand.

And the people who work in those shitty environments are the people who wonder why they can’t be productive. It’s because they set up their environment in a way that goes against them instead of serving them.

Tactics vs. Hard Work (What’s the difference?)

Now if you’ve been reading this newsletter for long enough, then you would know that I’m not really a fan of giving out easy tactics or systems for productivity advice.

And let’s be honest, if I did then you would probably like me more as a writer, and more people would have been subscribed to this newsletter by now.

But the only reason why I strongly advise against relying on systems and tactics is because it is stealing away happiness from your future self.

What do I mean by this?

The reason why tactics and systems are so attractive to the simpletons is because guarantees short term results.

It basically acts like a modern-day drug, and the simpletons love to consume this drug because they don’t have to put much effort into it.

Like seriously, think about all of the “hard work tasks” that 99% of people avoid. It’s doing productive work for 3 hours without needing to blow off steam, it’s going to the gym consistently, not binging on social media, or avoiding the junk food.

All of these things are considered pretty hard to do for the average person, and it is for a good reason why. It’s because it is difficult to do right now, but gives you the results you want later.

But when you rely on these tactics or systems, you are doing the easy work now, but gives you close to zero results later.

And even the progress that you make with these tactics, it always comes at a cost to your own discipline.

So ask yourself this, “Is applying these tactics and systems really making me disciplined, or is it just making me more dependent?”

Most people like using these systems because they have to overcompensate for a lack of discipline, not the other way around.

But if you train your discipline skill first, then you wouldn’t need to use these tactics as a crutch for your own weaknesses.

That’s not to say that it can’t be helpful, but I think that it is so relied on to a point that is generally more harmful than helpful.

But since you want to optimize your environment in this case, then it would make perfect sense since it makes it easier for you to be more productive if it is in a controlled setting.

How to make your environment start working for YOU?

So you’ve learnt how your environment is affecting your productivity and the importance of optimizing your environment.

Now you want to learn how to set up your environment to be more productive and complete the work tasks that you were procrastinating on doing.

So in this section, I’ll give you the steps or tactics that I’ve used which helped me create a better working environment for my goals.

1. Throw your phone out the window…if you want to be extreme

But seriously, your phone is probably your #1 distraction if you want to be productive, so we want it to be stored in a place where it won’t distract us when we’re working.

But first, at the very least, make SURE that your phone notifications are turned off whenever you’re doing deep work. I see so many people who try to be productive, but the moment that their phone rings, they snatch it like little gremlins who need more dopamine, and they end up not even completing the work that they were supposed to be doing.

So save yourself from that reality, turn off all of your notifications and only turn them back on whenever you are done.

And if you don’t know how to turn off your notifications, and if you’re on iPhone, just go to settings, search or click notifications, and then you manually or toggle off all.

If you’re on Android, you can pull down at the top of your screen and select DO NOT DISTURB MODE, which turns off all notifications for you.

Then place it in a spot that you know you won’t check on it, so either in a cabinet or a different room, whatever makes you forget that it’s there will work best for you.

2. Make sure that you have no tabs besides your work tasks

That means no random tabs open for YouTube, steam, or anything like that. Just focus solely on your work task.

This makes it less likely that you’ll be distracted and start doing something else other than your work.

Music is fine but put it in an alternate tab so that it’s still playing in the background but you can no longer see it.

3. Put yourself in an isolated area, alone, where there is no one else there

   I guess this doesn’t apply if you live alone, but regardless make sure that you’re working in a private room or setting where there’s no one else but you. So your bedroom or an office area would be a good option for you to work at. This makes it easier to focus and be less distracted on what other people are doing.

4. If you want to be more consistent in a task, make it easy to access

   So if it is your school assignments that you want to work on, then don’t hide it in a folder but instead put it on your favorites bar where you can access it easier. Sounds like common sense, but it’s those small details that we don’t consider which makes all the difference in the end. But if you want to take it a step further. before you do your deep work session, plan to already have those tabs out beforehand. So for my example, I only plan to have 3 tabs out at a time. Which is beehiiv, the platform that I use to write, a previous post I’ve made for referencing, and a tab for my music playlist.

5. Don’t put your vices near your work environment.

   If you’re planning to be productive, don’t ruin it with putting your potato chips, your weed, your video game console in the same room. Put it separately in a different room where there would be no chance of you accidentally indulging in that habit.

6. Only put the essential necessities in your work place.

   Don’t put random stuff that will clog up your space. Strive to have a minimalist mindset where you only have the essentials. So for me, it’s going to be my desk, monitor, mouse, earphones, and then like a desk lamp. The more stuff you put in your environment (The non essentials), the more your attention is going to be sapped away from it.

    

7. Lastly, and this is probably the most important tip. DO NOT change your work environment and expect it to yield the same results. Make it only one place and one place only for it to be your work environment. So for me, it would just be my desk setup that I’ve made at home while for you it could be similar or different to mine. But make that one place your work environment and don’t change it. So an example would be like working at home one day. working at the office another day, and then working on the coffee shop another day. There are just too many variables to account for and you would rather be better off being in a familiar environment that you can control.

Author’s Notes:

That is all I have for you today. And as promised, I went over the steps and realizations that I’ve learnt to optimize my environment to improve my productivity.

I hope this post was valuable. And if it is, feel free to share it to someone who might benefit from reading this type of educational content.

If you want to receive personalized feedback from me, then comment below your current problems and I’ll give you a solution based on my own experience.

Until next time, take care.

-Jason