One of the key questions I've asked myself for years when a task comes along is "What if this were easy", so seeing Oliver Burkeman bring up the same question in week three got me smiling.
One problem with typical productivity advice is that it assumes you need a deep reservoir of motivation to do a task, because you don't really want to do it1. We idolize the cult of hard mode as we follow the latest Notion templates, or look at the most complex Obsidian setups as the ideal system we'd use if we were really "productive".
But we don't have to view tasks that are hard to do as the ideal tasks to do. True there is some correlation between doing hard things and being rewarded financially for them, its just that we shouldn't only be looking for the hard tasks as the ones we should be doing. Whatever takes the most effort on our part is not the most valuable thing we could be doing.
What would your day look like if it was easy? Would the kids do more chores so that the whole burden of keeping a house doesn't fall on you? If you could plan your ideal day what would it look like?
No you won't be able to hit that ideal easy day every day. Many days won't be easy. Some days will be damn hard, but if you have an idea of what your ideal day looks like you can take some steps to make it happen.
You can put your phone down and read. You can get to bed at a reasonable hour so that you get enough sleep. You can be as gracious to yourself as you are to others2. You can set boundaries and let other people deal with their own problems without taking up their burdens for them3.
Again I ask, if tomorrow was easy, what would that day look like?
