Why You Need a Spiritual Approach to Productivity
New Strategies to Align Your Work with Your Life’s Purpose
If you don't have a life goal or purpose that you work towards every single day, you will end up — unbeknownst to you — following someone else’s plan for your own life.
In the following article, I’ll discuss some of the tools I’ve found to be very effective in creating a better life for ourselves — project planning. These tools also have a spiritual aspect, which is equally important.
The idea is that while we know the world can be challenging, we still have our responsibilities. If we set goals for ourselves and work on projects by implementing certain techniques, practices, or production routines, we gain better control over our time, attention, and daily life.
This “project planning” allows us to produce creations of our own, and as we persist day after day, week after week, month after month, we’ll begin to see our world change.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the essence of project planning.
From Spirituality to Nihilism: Understanding the Shift and Its Impact on Productivity
In my book, I dedicate the first half to discussing how our world has transformed from a spiritual one to a more nihilistic reality. I reference this in articles like those on dinosaurs, lies within the truth community, and my recent piece, “The Magic of Albert Einstein.”
The main idea is that as the world has shifted from a spiritual to a nihilistic perspective, powerful techniques such as imagination and visualization have been discarded as pseudoscience. Instead of contemplating our work, we simply do it without much thought, which leads to inefficiency and lack of substance.
In the second half of my book, I emphasize the importance of understanding this shift, as it encourages a more thoughtful approach to our work. By visualizing and imagining what we want to achieve, we can build things of real substance.
The first step in production is to have a goal. If you don’t have a life goal or purpose that you work towards every single day, you will end up — unbeknownst to you — following someone else's plan for your own life instead of your own.
Whether it’s for the day or for the next few years of your life, having a goal is crucial. A book that has helped me with this is “The 12 Week Year.”
The concept behind this book is to envision your life ten years from now and then scale it back to determine where you want to be in five years.
From there, you break it down to a one-year goal. This way, while working towards your one-year goal, you keep your ten-year vision in mind.
This goal setting is a very effective practice, one that could be seen as a spiritual practice of projecting or forecasting. You’re imagining in your mind’s eye what you want your life to be in the next ten years and five years. Not only are you visualizing it, but you’re also making it concrete by setting substantial goals for the next five to ten years.
This practice is the magic of project planning at work. By identifying and visualizing your goals, you first create a rough draft in the etheric realm—the realm of imagination and the mental world.
With “The 12 Week Year,” once you have your goal for the year, you break it down by quarters, then by weeks, and finally by days. I’ve used this practice for the past fifteen years, perhaps unknowingly, but it has worked tremendously in my life.
I’ve used it to set financial goals, life goals—which has led to the creation of this Substack, and in my professional life, where I’ve climbed the corporate ladder to my current position. This practice is incredibly effective, and while it may seem like simple business planning when combined with spiritual knowledge, it becomes much more meaningful.
Once you’ve broken down your goal into daily components, it’s essential to understand what that looks like on a day-to-day basis.
Mastering Your Tasks: Insights from “Getting Things Done”
One of the most important books I’ve read in my life, which I also discuss in my book, is “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. This production book is designed for anyone with a lot on their plate—whether balancing work, life, and extracurricular activities. It helps you capture everything, turning these items into actionable tasks.
One key principle from “Getting Things Done” (GTD) is the concept of an inbox, where you capture every item that comes to your mind. These items, once acted upon, become projects—anything that requires two or more steps to complete.
Through this process, you might discover that you have at least twenty different projects, which is just a facet of life. Personally, I have about thirty professional projects and another twenty personal projects at any given time. Life is full of projects, and while this could be simplified, that’s a topic for another day.
The important thing is to have a system for capturing all your ideas. Writing them down is the first form of creation—it brings something from the invisible to the visible, from the first dimension of 2D (whether on paper or a computer) into physical form. Eventually, these ideas will manifest in 3D in the real world.
You should not rely on your brain to memorize everything; instead, focus on creating. Your mind and body are designed to create, and holding onto these ideas in your mental space only takes time away from your creative work.
As you start planning your day, it’s crucial to check this list of ideas and projects. Before diving into GTD, David Allen recommends taking one Saturday out of the month to go through every area of your life—from financial to business to personal—and capture everything.
This process might take two, four, or even six hours, but it’s worth the time investment. Once you’ve captured everything, start organizing it so you have a clear idea of the actions and ideas that need your attention moving forward.
This is the preamble to the work we’re about to dive into. With your list of ideas and projects in hand, you’re now ready to start your day and turn these thoughts into reality.
In Closing
This article is part one of a series. Tune into part two, where I provide the productivity routines or practices I use to get the most out of each day. All that’s needed is 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes when you’re done working for the day.
The world is the way it is. We aren’t going to change it overnight. However, we can change our individual worlds, and projects are the way to do so. By doing this day in and day out and ensuring that we’re grounded in reality, we can make our individual world and the world of our families a better place.
Thanks for the time and attention in reading part one. See you in part two here shortly. Ashe!
Franklin O’Kanu
Having recently finished the book by Dr. Michael Nehls, The Indoctrinated Brain, your approach using goals is mentioned there as a very good way to achieve hippocampal health. I agree.
I like this topic!