Manage Your Day-to-Day 

99U & Jocelyn K. Glei 

 

Book Overview from the Publisher 

Stop doing busywork. Start doing your best work. 

Are  you  over-extended,  over-distracted,  and  overwhelmed?  Do  you  work  at  a  breakneck  pace  all  day, 
only to find that you haven’t accomplished the most important things on your agenda when you leave the 
office? 

The  world  has  changed  and  the way we work has to change, too. With wisdom from 20 leading creative 

minds,  ​Manage  Your  Day-to-Day  will  give  you  a  toolkit  for  tackling  the  new  challenges  of  a  24/7, 
always-on workplace. 

Featuring  contributions  from:  Dan  Ariely,  Leo  Babauta,  Scott  Belsky,  Lori  Deschene,  Aaron  Dignan,  Erin 
Rooney  Doland,  Seth  Godin,  Todd  Henry,  Christian  Jarrett,  Scott  McDowell,  Mark  McGuinness,  Cal 
Newport,  Steven  Pressfield,  Gretchen  Rubin,  Stefan  Sagmeister,  Elizabeth  G.  Saunders,  Tony Schwartz, 
Tiffany  Shlain,  Linda  Stone,  and  James  Victore.  Plus,  a  foreword  from  Behance  founder  and  CEO,  Scott 
Belsky. 
 

KEY POINTS COVERED IN THIS SUMMARY: 

1. Become a pro -​ Find out what it takes to be a pro 
2. Power of frequency ​- Why applying frequency to your goals is 
powerful 
3. Compulsive vs. conscious ​- Choose the right behavior for a life 
well-lived 
4. Proactive work first -​ How to structure your day if you want to do 
something great in this world 
5. Make progress visible ​- A really simple way to manufacture 
inspiration 

1) Become a Pro 
 
A  key  to  being  highly  productive  is  to  become a pro. Stop being an amateur at whatever you're 
pursuing and become a pro at it.  
 
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Amateurs  only  work  when  they  feel  like  it.  So  if  they're  not  in  the  mood,  they're  not  going  to 
work on their goal or task. If the circumstances are not right, they will not work on it.  
 
During  the  war,  one  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte’s  commanders  approached  the  general  and  said, 
“Sir,  the  circumstances  of  the  war  are  just  not  right.  I  suggest  that  we  delay  the  attack.” 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  got furious. He said, “I don't care about circumstances, because I make the 
circumstances. I say we must attack, and we must attack right now. I shall not wait.”  
 
And that's how we need to be. We need to act right away.  
 
Whatever  you  want  to be -- an athlete, a musician, or an entrepreneur -- be a professional at it. 
You want to be the golden standard for being a pro in your field.  
 
Act  irrespective  of  your  feelings.  ​You  have to make it your practice so that no matter happens, 
you do what you need to do. When you don't feel like it -- that's when you must do it.  
 
In  ​The  7  Habits  Of  Highly  Effective  People​,  Stephen  Covey  talks  about  the  habit  of  being 
proactive  (Habit  #1).  This  means  we  should  act  according  to  our  values,  not  in  accordance  to 
our  feelings.  We  should  also  act  irrespective  of  the  circumstances.  Being  a  pro  is  the  start  of 
being hyper-productive in your field of endeavor. 
 
 

2) The Power of Frequency 

 
To harness the power of frequency is to do things in a repeated fashion.  
 
Aristotle, the great philosopher, said: We are what we repeatedly do.  
 
Excellence then is not an act but a habit.  
 
Repeated daily action will beat any spasmodic herculean effort.  
● Example:  Work  on  something  important  1  hour  a  day  from  Monday  to  Friday,  rather 
than working on that one thing 8 hours on Sunday.  
● Even  though you only did 5 hours of work during the week, you're much better off doing 
that  than  just  working  on  that  task  for  8  hours  on the weekend. That’s because there is 
no frequency to harness there.  

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Why frequency is powerful 
● It  is  easy  to  get  started  when  you  are  ​on  this  track  of  doing  that  thing​.  Otherwise,  you 
get  stuck  because  you're  thinking  about  all  the  things  you  need  to  do.  You  start 
worrying about everything that is not done yet.  
 
But if you're constantly taking small steps, you are making progress. So it's really easy to 
start when you know you have done something the previous day.  
 
● When you are frequently working on something, it keeps your ideas fresh.  
○ You're constantly thinking about it  
○ You’re constantly getting new ideas about it  
 
In  contrast,  when  you  are  doing  it  just  once  in  a  while, the ideas go stale and you can't 
act on them. 
 
● There's  no  pressure.  It's  not  just  about  one  day's  work  but  rather a compilation of work 
that  you  do  over  the  days,  and  that  is  what  matters.  So  there's  no  pressure  to  perform 
really  greatly  that  one  day.  You  have  the  liberty  to  do  well  over  an  extended  period  of 
time and that takes the pressure off of you.  
 
● You  will  get  sparks  of  inspiration  over  time,  but  only  because  you've  been  working  on 
that  idea  day  in  and  day  out  again  and  again.  If  you  stop  that  trend,  then  your  brain  is 
not  actively  working  on  that  idea  and  hence,  it's  not  going  to  give  you  these  sparks  of 
inspiration.  But  if  you're  constantly  working  on  it  on  a  daily  basis  and  you  have  that 
frequency and rhythm, then you will get those sparks of insight.  
 
● Frequency  begets  frequency.  The  more  frequent  you  become, the more likely you are to 
follow  through  on  your  frequency.  It's  like  momentum  --  once  your  have  frequency  on 
something,  you  get  momentum  on  that  and  it  becomes  more  and  more  likely  that  you 
will follow through.  
 
● You  begin  to  see  your  progress.  As  you  write,  as  you  produce  content,  as  you  work  on 
your  business,  as  you  work  on  your  sales,  you  create  progress.  But if you work in stops 
and  starts,  it  will  be  hard  to  see  your  progress  because  you  are  almost  starting  with  a 
blank  slate  every  time.  Have  consistent  frequency  (daily,  weekly,  whatever  it  is  you 
need) in order to do great work and to be extremely productive.  
 

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3) Compulsive vs. Conscious 
 
What is the reason behind our unproductiveness and what we can do about it?  
 
The  reason:  ​We  are  giving  in  to  our  compulsive  behavior  without  any  conscious  thought 
process. T ​ he unconscious behavior is taking over.  
 
You  might  see  this  in  your  daily  life.  You  start  working  on  something  and  then  you move on to 
social  media  and  then  again  you  work  on  something  for  a  little  bit  and  then  you  check  some 
email  and  then  you  get  back  to  it  to  your work, and then your phone starts to ring and you pick 
it  up  and  then  you  check  stats  and  on  it  goes... You might also find yourself typing the name of 
a  website,  checking  it  out,  and  then  5  minutes  later  you  type the same website again into your 
browser.  
 
What’s  happening  here  is  that  we  are not able to consciously control the monkey mind that we 
have inside of us.  
● It wants to stimulation.  
● It wants something new.  
● It wants some excitement.  
 
That leads to a drastic loss in productivity.  

What we need to do  

 
● We need to cultivate focus. 
● We need to design our life through conscious choice.  
 
So we say: “I will work from on this task 8 AM to 10 AM.” Now you are designing your life.  
 
And  then  you  will take a break for maybe 30 minutes. And then again you say, “I will work from 
11 AM till 3 PM on Task No. 2.” Again, you're designing your work time.  
 
At  the  end  of  the  day  you  give  yourself  time  for  your  social  media,  your  email  and  so  on.  You 
don't  let  it  just  weave  into  your  life  all  the  time and constantly create ruckus. What you want is 
a very consciously designed routine, habits, and rituals in order to be extremely productive.  

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Move  from  Compulsive  Behavior  to  Consciously-Designed 
Behavior 
 
Meditation  by  far  is  the  most  potent  technique  to  get  yourself  to  focus  and  to  increase  your 
willpower  and  self-discipline  so  that  you  don't  let  external  stimulation  drive  your  behavior. 
Instead you do everything by design.  

4) Proactive Work First 

 
Most  people  check  their  phone as soon as they wake up. They look at their text messages, their 
social media and off they go into the w ​ eeds​.  
 
What  they're  doing  is  reactive  work  in that moment. They are reacting to the world’s demands, 
and that is a very dangerous place to be.  
 
So  what  we  need  to  do  is  to  work  on  the  things  that  we  had  proactively  defined  as  important 
for  us.  We  need  to  do  work  where  we  actually  create  something,  where  we  add  value  to  this 
world, where we don't consume but instead create something magical or big.  
 
Just  go  and  work  on  something  that  was decided upon rather than react to the demands of the 
world.  Because  as  soon  as  we  react  to  the  demands  of  the  world,  we  will  get sucked into that 
frame.  
 
If  you  want  to  chase  your  greatness,  choose  proactive  first  and  reactive  work  much  later.  So 
when  you  wake  up  in  the  morning,  make  sure  you  assign  time  for  your  proactive  work  before 
you do anything reactive.  
 
Proactive work before reactive work, always. 
 
 

5) Make Progress Visible 

 
A  lot  of  people  get  discouraged  when  they  are  working  on  some  task  for  a  long  time  because 
they think it'll take a thousand hours to do that work. They don't see any progress.  

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Manufacture Inspiration 
 
In order to manufacture inspiration, make progress visible. That will make you happy.  
 
● Create  a  checklist  for  every  day  of  your  work  and  then  mark  off  the  things  that  you 
accomplished.  That  will  give  you  a  great  sense  of  accomplishment  and  make  progress 
visible.  
 
● You  may  also  calculate  the number of hours you worked on that task. Over time you will 
see  that  you're  making  progress.  That  will  give  you  tremendous  sense  of 
accomplishment.  
 
● Another  way  is  to  count  the  total  amount  of  work  you're  putting  in.  For  example,  if 
you're  a  writer,  count  how  many  words  you've  written  each  day.  It  gives  you  such  a 
sense of boost and accomplishment, and that triggers forward progress.  
 
● You  can  also  set  small  deadlines  for  yourself.  It  could  be  a  day  from  now,  a  week  from 
now,  or  a  month  from  now.  But  start  with  the  short-term  deadline  and  accomplish  it. 
And then move to the medium-term deadline and accomplish that.  
 
Again,  as  you  hit  these  goals,  you  manufacture  inspiration  by  making  progress  visible  to 
yourself.  Because  if  you  can  see  that  deadline,  if  you  can  see  this  list,  if  you  can  see  your  time 
adding  up,  if  you  can  see  your  work  adding  up,  then  you  feel you're on to greater things. But if 
you cannot see any of these things, then you will constantly feel like you're not succeeding.  
 
So  make  yourself  feel  that  you  are  succeeding  at  your  endeavor.  Whether  it  means  checking 
things  off  your  list,  or  adding  time  on  your  overall  time  report,  or  adding  the  number  of  words 
you're writing, or creating deadlines,​ g ​ o and manufacture that inspiration. 
 
Related Books: 
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