These 3 Books Helped Me Write Consistently Online For 1000 Days
And what happens after writing 403 articles was a shock
Books are your new superpowers.
Whatever I learned in my life is from books.
Be it health/fitness, money, life, achieving your dreams, business, or cultivating sustainable habits.
Here are the 3 books that helped me achieve audacious goals, set boundaries, and create a new identity for myself.
Hope it helps you too.
1- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World By Cal Newport
We live in a hyper-stimulated world right now.
Everything is available with a single click.
You’re connected to as many devices as you can at any given time — your smartwatch, laptop, phone, iPad, or anything you usually use day-to-day.
Every day, you receive tons of notifications, emails, messages, and whatnot.
“Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love — is the sum of what you focus on.” ― Cal Newport
Imagine this:
You are in a serious Zoom meeting, and suddenly your watch starts blinking with a few notifications.
You get distracted and end up checking the notifications during the meeting.
It has happened to me several times.
I’m on a Zoom call, presenting, and as soon as I get an Outlook notification,
I feel compelled to read it.
“Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction.” ― Cal Newport
With so many distractions, it’s really hard to concentrate on things that require deep focus and your full attention.
I know that when I started writing, I would write for 5 minutes only to get distracted by my phone or a message, and end up scrolling for an hour.
This book precisely talks about this and how to solve the problem of constant distraction.
The number one lesson from this book is to curate your environment carefully.
If you’re working on something critical:
- mute all your notifications,
- keep your devices on Do Not Disturb,
- or leave them in another room.
“Your goal is not to stick to a given schedule at all costs; it’s instead to maintain, at all times, a thoughtful say in what you’re doing with your time going forward — even.” ― Cal Newport
Aim for a flow state:
To gain deep concentration achieved through a flow state, start with a ritual or routine that will transport you to a world where you are fully concentrated.
For me,
- playing a song in a loop really helps.
- Another preferred way is to play instrumental music and set a timer for 30 minutes of work, repeating this three times.
- I keep only one tab open where I’m actually working.
“When you work, work hard. When you’re done, be done.” ― Cal Newport
If you’re constantly distracted and struggling to find balance, reading this book is highly recommended.
It can help eliminate distractions and enable you to get actual work done.
2- Atomic Habits by James Clear
I read this book 3 years ago when I just started my fitness journey and was looking to upgrade my healthy habits.
This book talks about the power of tiny improvements/gains every day.
“It is easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change: the fastest way to lose weight, the best program to build muscle, the perfect idea for a side hustle.
We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action. As Voltaire once wrote, ‘The best is the enemy of the good.’”James Clear
Most of the time, you think that to make major changes in life, you need to make huge adjustments.
This could be true in some cases.
Make progress everyday.
But to build sustainable habits and a lifestyle, all you need is tiny gains every day and consistency to create a new identity for yourself.
“Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.” — James Clear
These tiny gains may be small in quantity, but over time, they leave a huge impact.
If you’re looking to make improvements or trying to change your habits, it can be achieved through daily 0.01% growth compounded over time.
Small steps that make you a little better than yesterday, when repeated, lead to significant developments over the long term.
- If you want to walk 10 miles every week, divide it into a daily goal — roughly 1.4 miles each day — and it’s easy to achieve.
- Similarly, if you want to improve your reading habits, the obvious way is to read more.
- Start by reading 10 pages every day, and within a month, you can finish a 300-page book.
- If you want to start writing, begin by writing 100 words every day, and in the next 10 days, you’ll have a 1000-word essay ready.
“Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.”- James Clear
One of the best examples I’ve heard is from Jerry Seinfeld. He shared a method to write great jokes.
Every day, Jerry comes up with an idea or a joke and writes it down on paper.
He does this for the next 30 days and crosses off the dates on the calendar.
By the end of 30 days, he has 30 different jokes.
He started doing this in 1975 and has never stopped.
This is the power of consistency and showing up.
“It’s hard to change your habits if you never change the underlying beliefs that led to your past behavior. You have a new goal and a new plan, but you haven’t changed who you are.”- James Clear
Trick your mind into doing it anyway.
If you don’t like going to the gym, just convince yourself to go for 5 minutes and come back.
Do this for the next few days, and you’ll realize you actually start doing the workouts.
There’s a quote that says, “the heaviest weight at the gym is the front door.”
3- Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life By Bill Burnett, Dave Evans
I’ve read this book twice in my life — once in 2019 and again in 2022.
Both times, the lessons learned and the ideas hit me differently. This is a book I will definitely revisit in 2025 as well.
If you’re not sure how to build a life that you truly want to live and enjoy, this is the book you must read.
The book takes the concept of product management and how companies build great products and applies the same principles to your life.
“A coherent life is one lived in such a way that you can clearly connect the dots between three things: who you are, what you believe, what you are doing.”- Designing Your Life
For example, categorize life into different sections:
- Work/career/job
- Relationships/family/friends
- Money/finance/wealth
- Health/fitness/mindfulness
- Travel/hobbies/side-hustle
You can redefine the categories based on where you are in your life and where you want to go.
“You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you are.” — Designing Your Life
Then prepare a plan/roadmap to actually get there.
For example, if you want to start a new career.
- You need to look at different domains and industries you actually like.
- Check out the top 10/15 companies you’d like to work for.
- RResearch the roles they hire for, identify the skills required.
- Start from there to improve or acquire those skills.
The same principle applies to other categories.
Decide where you want to focus and then take action to achieve your goals.
“You can imagine a career and a life that don’t exist; you can build that future you, and as a result, your life will change.” — Designing Your Life
Another lesson this book talks about is prioritization.
There could be many areas you want to improve in, but as a human, you won’t be able to focus on everything every day.
So prioritize what you need right now and do it, instead of stretching yourself too thin and getting exhausted in the process, only to quit afterward.
These three must-read Books from my list will transform the way you think about life, goals.
And finally to help you live your dream life exactly the way you want.
All the best.
Be Bold
Be Courageous
Be Your Best
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