Mitch Schwartz | Life/Work

Thought I would share a few recent breakthroughs. It's been said that finding inner peace isn't about doing something new but rather doing less and connecting with what we already are.  It's described as a wordless experience that can't be described so much as pointed to. A teacher of mine, Joe Hudson's favourite pointer is to 'Drop the resistance'. While the phrasing 'drop the resistance' is a great pointer. I've been missing a piece needed to more fully with his teaching. I've recently noticed myself spinning in resistance loops. I came across Adyashanti's framing of meditation as simply 'not trying to change anything' and It's been amazingly powerful. It feels exactly how I would expect 'dropping the resistance' to feel. It also reminds me of 'the great perfection' that so many Buddhists have referred to, Naval Ravikants preferred 'drop the intention' meditation, and the state I get into when I medit...

Welcome! If you're anything like me, you're looking for a system that helps you feel focused and on top of things.  Many productivity systems create resistance and get in our way. Our habits break, we feel shitty. There's a stress loop that forms and we stop enjoying what we're doing.   If you're feeling anxious about your productivity, your organization, your focus, or your habits, Leo Babauta's modified version of GTD — Zen-to-Done , is a great place to start.  I recommend starting with the minimal ZTD and building from there.   Though his ebook isn't long (77 pages) I've done my best to condense them into actional steps and tips. To read those notes, click here

How I use a few minutes each day + ~30 minutes each week to make sure nothing falls through the cracks Two or three weeks ago, I rebuilt my tasking setup. I had let it break and decided to be ok with that.  I chose to be comfortable with the broken state of things and simply observe the consequences. With that knowledge, I could rebuild my system with only what is valuable.  Being among the second brain community helped motivate me but what really hit me was this note: What it feels like to be disorganized There is always a low level background anxiety that there is something important undone Chaos, lost, frazzled, overwhelming, messy, reactive. It feels normal until you experience the clarity that organization offers. Without ever experiencing organization, a scatter brained, stressed, and tired state is just "normal" and a consequence of working. It was all true.  My daily routines were going well, but I felt like tasks and projects were starting to pile up...

I used to think my wants needed to be explained. Like all of my feelings. Like most western people, I've appointed my brain as the judge and manager of my entirety, and of everything around me. I want whatever my brain says. My mind is logical. It knows what is rational and what isn't. It knows when something is dangerous. Millions of years of evolution have created my brain. It prevents me from following paths that could lead to destruction. It filters all of my wants and decides which ones are valid. It finds out why I want things so I can explain it to others so that they will see me as rational. My rational mind keeps me safe. It helps me know what is about to happen. it separates me from the animals. It separates me from the underclasses and the unsuccessful. It separates me from the people around me. It separates me from my feelings. It separates me from myself. In return, I get to think I feel like things around me are controlled. Each week, in the AoA course,...

An arrangement of notes I took during the Art of Accomplishment Course: Artistry requires self awareness; Your consciousness comes through in every product you create. When we use a product, we are consuming also the consciousness of it's creators;  Consciousness is part of creation, this is what makes it an art form. If a product is made in scarcity and fear, we'll feel that when we use it. Software developed by a team with poor communication, running around trying to complete a huge backlog, will bring this level of consciousness into the product. Trust your full expression. Trust what's coming through you. When we see this full expression in others, we want to follow it. If we're judging and questioning ourselves, we can't be in a flow state. The only way we will see that we're inherently good is by knowing who we are; Artistry comes from this place. I know what I am and I'm committed to fully expressing it Is the state which drives the purest creation. T...

For the better part of the past 2 years, I was the Flow Manager at a company that guided clients through digital transformation, helping each of them move into the future of work. Many people have asked me: "Mitch, what the F*** is a Flow Manager?" Good news: while there, I wrote a post: What my goals were What I learned while fulfilling them The good people there were kind enough to let me use that post for my post-employment posting, and now I'll be sharing it with you. Below is my short manifesto: what I learned about teams, people, systems, and overall management, while working as, essentially, the internal productivity manager for a team of productivity consultants.