3 Things That Secretly Destroy Your Productivity Tim Ferriss ~ Chris Williamson

come up for you there, things that are productive but you don't realize it or are not productive that you think are? Anything athletic is

going to be net positive, cross-transfer to everything else, which is slightly different from exercise. I mean, exercise, yes, but specifically athletic, something that is faster paced, where you get punished for not paying attention. skiing, pickleball in your case, rock climbing, these things are all deeply restorative for me, even though they're energetically intensive and expensive. I would say

on

the unproductive side, often any type of competition, which is a tough one for me because I like competing and I think I'm a pretty good competitor and I've been rewarded a lot for competing. In school, you get the top marks or in sports, you have a certain record. In business, you have a certain outcome. In investing, you have a certain portfolio of startups. You're rewarded for competing in so many different ways that you can end up choosing, allowing the competition to dictate what you do instead of choosing what you should do or might want to do, whether there is competition or not.

Does

that make sense? Yes, yes. For instance, I'm very... I like competing. There's part of me that enjoys competing, but I don't want to use the wrong tool for the job, which is part of the reason that I'm exploring other things like rock climbing. I don't think I'll necessarily compete in rock climbing archery, maybe looking for other avenues to scratch that competitive itch rather than for instance, looking at what the latest best practices might be in the podcasts that are growing the fastest slash television shows now, of course, And it doesn't mean I shouldn't experiment with those things. But if the primary driver behind it is because I want to quote unquote win, I find that to be a false lead. That is a, as Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sachs said on my podcast before he passed pretty shortly thereafter, maybe a year, year and a half later. that is a temptation to be resisted rather than an opportunity to be seized. So I think a big part of maturing is separating those two, being able to distinguish between an opportunity to be seized and a temptation to be resisted. And for me, Much like when I chatted with BJ Novak, who's a very well-known writer, famous for The Office. He also does a lot of acting and directing. But he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, but something along the lines of, whenever I find myself saying about an opportunity, but it's so much money. That's a red flag. That's a cue to pause when it's like, but it's such good money. That's a cue to pause. For me, the drive to compete and win at this point for me, is a cue to pause. When I was younger, I think it was really helpful, really critical fuel. And even now it might be at some point, but- Use it strategically. Use it strategically because in competition of various types, and you see this in the money game and say pure finance, not always, but often- What's invisible from the outside are the sacrifices that people are making, the compromises they are making to fixate solely on whatever this competitive driver might be, or whatever the scoreboard might be. And for