The big why: my inspiration for launching this project

Permanent beta is essentially a lifelong commitment to continuous personal growth. Adaptability creates stability

From The Startup of You, by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

Two very interesting guys inspired the creation of this site – James Clear and Cal Newport. I came across the former on Medium – in which his posts explore the difference between having a fixed ‘performance’ mindset, in which you view yourself as having a finite amount of potential capability versus a more evolutionary ‘learning’ mindset, in which you view yourself as being capable of learning any number of new things, given the right skill development processes and personal habits. I began to follow and apply the approaches to learning and habit development outlined on James’s site in earnest starting in December 2015; I became fascinated in particular with the idea of choice architecture and working on my work processes to improve my productivity.

It was during this search on productivity hacks that I discovered Cal Newport. I read a popular blog post of his that called upon the reader to ‘Quit social media’ (which, as someone who devises digital strategy as a day job, I was never going to do), but nonetheless the underlying thinking behind his article – changing your relationship to, and habits around personal social media usage – were fascinating. I bought his book, Deep Work immediately after reading the post and then set about some ‘choice architecture’ of my own. My personal objective was this: in order to increase my learning capacity, I would need to be able to work more deeply. This would need to involve the removal of things in my environment that would negatively affect the focus of attention on important tasks.

There was a lot of trial and error (some of which I’ll tell you about in upcoming posts); the use of some fairly restrictive productivity apps that ironically made me less productive, and some rules that I found genuinely helpful (like removing the Facebook and Instagram apps from my phone). It’s amazing how much time you can get back as a result; I even realised that my primary excuse for my previous social media usage – that I needed it for work – was nonsense. I could easily keep up to date with the latest formats by using a work-only account that liked brand pages. I wasn’t going to lose my social life as a result of being less connected. In fact, being less online in my personal and contacting people directly more often was actually leading to closer relationships.

I also noted that in releasing myself from unproductive habits in my personal time, that I felt more free to dedicate time to productive thinking at work. At the beginning of the month, I discovered Cal Newport’s productive meditations, in which you can dedicate a certain stretch of dead time (like a walk to work, or a run in Hampstead Heath) to thinking about a complex work problem. It also has a bonus – spending time thinking of solutions means less rumination; an accidental mindfulness win. Now I’m not suggesting that I’m 100% perfect and that I have never ruminated since; you can take comfort in the fact that this site will never be a home for that macho, chest-beating, self-congratulatory posturing seen so often in personal development circles.

This site will never be finished – it will be forever in beta. It exists as a hub for learning methodologies and approaches –  and what a better place to start by going on a learning journey and taking you with me?