Journal Entry

I was looking over a list of books I read this year, (2019). I will start working on the list and the main takeaways I can remember for each book. I should read some of them over to do what I have been doing with Deep Work and make journal entries for what I am learning and how the books are making me feel. With Deep Work, I am saddened by the realization I don’t have much time for and am not really doing deep work with my current circumstances. I am getting up a 5:00 AM every morning and many times I am going to bed at midnight with not much deep work or attention to the things that are most important in my life.

Looking over this list I am going to have to listen to some of them again and go through the journaling process again.

Deep Work by Cal Newport
Before Happiness Shawn Achor
Unshakable: Your Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins
Made to Stick Chip and Dan Heath – 2x
Sam Walton: Made in America
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
Death By Meeting – Patrick Lencioni
Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions?
Spark – by John J. Ratey
Elon Musk – Ashlee Vance
The Boys in the Boat – Daniel James Brown
The 4 disciplines of Execution – Sean Covy, Chris McChesney, Jim Huling
Scrum: The art of doing things twice as fast – Jeff and JJ Sutherland 2x
The One thing: Gary Keller Jay apasen
Atomic Habits – James Clear 2x
Family Wealth – James e Hughes
Extreme Ownership: Jacko Willink and Leif Babin
The Prosperity Paradox – Efosa Ojomo, Clayton Christensen
You are the Placebo – Joe Dispenza
A More Beautiful Question – Warren Berger
The Complete Guide to Fasting – Jimmy Moore, Jason Fung
Delivering Happiness: Tony Hsieh
The Future of the Mind: Michio Kaku
Authentic Happiness – Johnathan Haidt
The Goal Eliyahu M Goldratt, Jeff Cox
Gates of Fire – Steven Pressfield
Born to Run – Christopher McDougal
Range – David Epstein
The Toyota Way – Jeffery Liker
Louder than Words – Joe Navarro
The Algebra of Happiness – Scott Galloway
Time Jumpers – Brandon Mull
Why – Simon Sinek
Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Coddling of the American Mind – Johnathan Haidt
The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
Interface Initialized – Christian Bradley

It’s interesting because Cal Newport seems to be trying to convince himself that Deep Work is a worthwhile idea and practice. Today he brings in the philosophy from the book 4-Disciplines of Execution. I need to re-read 4-Disciplines and go those the process of writing down what I am learning.

With my current work, I wonder if I can get into a deep work scenario? And if and how it would be beneficial? I would like to figure out how to be more effective. I wonder how I can be more effective. Could I get to be more effective with some deep work?

I started the book “Deep Work” yesterday. My first impression is we are supposed to be disconnected from everything for extended periods of time. It feels like the author, Cal Newport, would suggest at least three to four hours of this uninterrupted work each day. He explains that DW is a way to bring lots of value to the world in a very efficient way. He also suggests that we can become the best in our fields if we learn how to do this. I would like to have problems to solve that I believe required “Deep Work.” Maybe the problems I am working on with marketing will require deep work. I think he uses Carl Jung as an example that had a property away from the city where he could do his deep work.

I like these quotes;

I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

Carl Jung

I have read several books over the past two years. The Happiness Advantage, the power of habit, The happiness hypothesis, thinking fast, Atomic Habits, the prosperity paradox, scrum, the 4 disciplines of execution. A more beautiful question and others All of these books talk about setting up a system in some form or another that will achieve results. In Atomic Habit it talks about figuring out what you want to become and setting up the systems to become that person. It also says we are the product of the habits we have chosen or let run our lives. I agree with that statement. I am a product of the habits/systems I have set up to run my life. The question becomes what habits do I need to change to get better results than I am getting now.

Changing the results also means taking a look at what has motivated those systems. I am surprised and then not surprised how overpowering a few ideas have been to my life. Here are a couple; One is I want to be the person that will stick up for the underdog and include the outcast. I also want to have the courage to fight for what I believe is right. Another deep desire I have is to be respected by the rich and powerful. These are two opposing ideas. Because the rich and powerful are that way because they take advantage of the underdog, shun the outcast and crush those with opposing ideas.

I have reaped the harvest of those beliefs. I have been cast out by those I see as rich and powerful because I was willing to stick up for my beliefs. I am now wondering if I should start taking advantage of people? like I see the rich and powerful take advantage of people. The reason I am wondering this is that my family has suffered privation because of my actions.