Jake Knapp: belief

Transcript context

…Yeah, that's a really important point. I can give you a concrete example of a highlight, and a failed highlight, from yesterday, actually. And so, most days these days, my highlight is around making progress on the book. John alluded to working on a book, and so obviously it's a huge project. I heard it said that if you are writing books, it's like having homework forever. You always feel like there's always more to do. And so, that's mostly been my highlight. But yesterday, I wanted to prepare for this podcast. I knew that was going to be satisfying, to feel like I was ready. We don't think about talking about Make Time all the time, like we said, it's sort of like a side project for us. So, I wanted to be ready and somewhat coherent. And I knew I'd be satisfied, but I also knew it was urgent. We're going to be doing the recording today. So, that was my highlight. Write that down. "Get ready for podcast." And I had two focus blocks, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. It should be easy. Focus block number one, kind of just didn't do a good job. I was distracted, I was in my email, I was doing everything that I would say you shouldn't do, I was doing. Feeling down on myself. I've become a loser. I didn't get anything done. Okay, second focus block. Man, now the pressure's on. I got to do it. And so, I finally get into the zone. And my wife thinks I have a pretty serious case of undiagnosed ADHD, so a lot of it is just, if I really do have a deadline, then I really will click in. So, now I have a deadline. I'm doing it, and I'm making notes, and getting there, but I feel like there's still a ways to go. And my 12-year-old son bursts into the room, and it was, "Oh gosh, you're invading me right when I'm at peak focus." And he is like, "Hey, I'm going to do one more trip outside to sled in the snow. Do you want to come?" And I'm like, first reaction, "No, absolutely not. I can get this thing done. It's my highlight. This is the one thing I need to do today. I can do it max level of quality if I can just stay in this precious zone of focus." But then I was like, "Wait a second, what's really going to be the highlight of my day? What's really going to be the highlight, the thing that I might actually remember in the future?" We rarely get snow here. I live on this island in Washington state. We maybe get significant snowfall once every two years. We've only lived here for a few years. He's 12. He loves snow more than anything in the world. He loves snow. But he grew up in California, so he hasn't had many days, and he's 12. He's on the cusp of being a teenager. There's not, maybe, any more days in his life that he's going to want me to get on the sled with him and wrap my arms around him and go down the hill. I was like, "I got to get out there." So, okay. Pause this, ran outside. We did it. And man, it was magical. And I didn't know we were going to get one more in, because the snow was supposed to be melting already. I got to get out there." So, okay. Pause this, ran outside. We did it. And man, it was magical. And I didn't know we were going to get one more in, because the snow was supposed to be melting already. We went down the hill, we went down the hill, we went... It got dark, we had to stop. But it was so magic. And I remember the very last end of the sled run, and it's like the last one, and he's like, "Man," he's like, "That was a great last sled run. So glad we did it." And I was like, "Yeah, so glad we did it. It's great." Come back inside, 15 minutes. I try to hustle and get this done. So, I was like, maybe it was like 80% or 75% to where I wanted to be on this. I couldn't check off that highlight as being the most important thing. But because of the framing of, it might be wrong, what am I going to remember, all this stuff, it just felt natural to me to switch modes and say, "Oh my god, that actually is a highlight. That's this thing that's going to be really, really precious. That's where the joy and the satisfaction are most for today." And still, because I had written down the other thing, I still did it instead of churning on email the entire day. But I screwed up twice, but it still turned out pretty good. So, anyway, that's kind of what it can look like at its best. And a lot of times, it doesn't make that much sense, and a lot of times I miss the special moments, or I miss the key work moments, or the key time when I could have gotten the most done. But I just feel better about it, which is a lot of what this is about. I just feel better about it because I feel more intentional.…

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