In this Aussie English episode of Walking With Pete I chat to you guys about my thoughts on productivity, following your gut and primary school education, among other things!

WWP: Productivity, following your gut and primary school education

Hey guys, how’s it going? I’m just hanging out in the park today and trying to do as much as I can for the podcast, and just expressing myself a lot at the moment. I don’t know. I’m doing a lot of different things that I feel like doing. I’m sort of in the mood. I’m trying to fix the roof while the sun’s shining, I guess. As we sort of chatted about in that previous episode where I was talking about JFK’s quote, “The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.” Hold on a second. [I] needed that. [I’ve] gotta stay hydrated. So, where were we? What were we talking about? So, yeah, the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining, and I guess I’m trying to apply that at the moment with the podcast and with helping you guys and with creating content. This weekend I’ve felt incredibly productive and I’ve just tried to put a few different things on the back burner, as we say in English. So, putting French on the back burner. Putting Portuguese on the back burner. Even putting the gym and jiu-jitsu on the back burner to some extent so that I can focus more on the podcast, because I’ve just been in the mood. I’ve just been in the mood to do it, and I think, again this is sort of me chatting to you guys before I’ve actually, you know, sat down and thought this idea or this sort of chat out and written down an idea about how to go… go through it concisely, but… excuse me. I guess I wanted to say that one of those really important things that I’ve found in recent years is really going with your gut. “Going with your gut” in English is when you trust how you feel in your gut, in your stomach. If you “go with your gut” it’s that idea of you have a certain feeling inside of you that you want to do a certain way, you may want to react to a situation. Maybe you want to go to a certain university and do a certain course. Maybe it’s medicine. Maybe it’s biology. And perhaps a lot of people are saying you should do something else. It’s a better idea to do this. It’s a better idea to do that. But your gut, or your gut instinct, is telling you otherwise. It’s telling you that “Actually, if I follow my dream of being a poet. If I follow my dream of being a real-estate agent, even though a lot of people aren’t going to like it, maybe they won’t agree with me, maybe they’ll be thinking it’s a bad decision, it’s a bad idea. I think in my gut that is what I’m going to enjoy the most. That is what I’m going to find is the most fulfilling for me. And, that is what I’m going to ultimately regret not doing if I don’t actually do this now and in the future.” And so, I guess I’m sort of applying that same attitude at the moment with trying to be productive. I’ll try and get this shadow off me. With trying to get a lot of these things done. So, like, at the moment I’m trying to do as much podcast work as I can for you guys, and I’m trying to give myself a bit of a break, not be as strict on myself with regards to trying to get all of my language practice in, all of my gym practice in, and just doing what I feel like doing, when I feel like doing it. And it’s definitely made me feel a lot happier recently, and a lot more prouder of my efforts, I guess. You know, it’s always good when you feel like doing what you’re doing. How’s it going? So yeah, where were we? At the moment I’m just trying to do that. I’m just trying to fix the roof when the sun’s shining. When I feel like doing a certain thing I just… I go and do it and see what happens, and at least until recently I haven’t regretted making any of the those decisions. I can always come back and do more French and more Portuguese when I feel like doing it. And I feel like all the effort that I’m putting in will eventually pay off with regards to the podcast. So, I definitely think that it’s one of those things that you guys can always apply to anything in your life especially if it’s going to be incredibly productive in the long run. It’s hard for me at times to do podcast episodes, and to sort of force myself to sit down, and I really don’t like doing that. When I don’t feel like I’m in the mood to do something I know that the job isn’t going to be as good a job as if I had skipped that day instead of forcing myself and decided to wait until it was going to be a really nice time, that I felt really into doing that podcast episode, for example. So, yeah, it’s really funny how that works and it kind of… it’s… it kind of transcends everything in productivity with regards to human nature I think. Whether it’s at work and, you know, you have a certain job that you need to get done for the day. A lot of the time employers are going to want their workers to be there for a set amount of time and get that job done whether or not the workers are enjoying what they’re doing. Whereas, it may be actually a lot more efficient and pay off in the long run for the employer and for the company if they get the workers to work less time but when the workers, you know, may feel more into it, may want to do it, and may be more productive. So, instead of working 8 hours from 8 O’clock in the morning until 4PM in the afternoon without a break maybe one of the workers is most productive at night, you know, between the hours of 4AM and 6AM, and he only likes working 6 hours a day, that’s when he works at his best. And so, you could say that obviously if he can get more done doing that you should find a way to allow him to do that. And it’s sort of the same that I’ve seen recently with chatting to different people about primary school education, especially in different countries. And it seems like the countries with less time emphasis on children being at school end up having better programs and better educational outcomes where the children actually learn more and exceed the abilities of other children that go to other primary schools in other countries that force the kids to study for longer. So, in Australia, for example, primary school and high school for me was always from about 8:30 in the morning until 3:30PM in the afternoon, and you would have maybe an hour off during the day across 2 or 3 breaks. But other than that there would be usually along the lines of 2 or 3 big chunks of learning in the day there, maybe even 4. And so, it is funny where you see that obviously Australia’s education system is ok. We do alright. But then you see countries like I think Finland, for example. And I was talking to some Dutch girls yesterday who were telling me about their setup in Holland, or in the Netherlands*, where they have incredibly shorter school days and yet the kids are way way way better when it comes to productivity because it’s obviously channeled and focused. Anyway, I’m sort of talking about a lot of these basic ideas that sort of tie back into “Fixing the roof when the sun is shining”, and I guess it’s that ultimate idea of getting the work done when you best feel up to it. When you best feel that you can do it. When you’re motivated. When you’re pumped. When you’re really really feeling that inside… I don’t know. I don’t even know how to explain it, but you know when you wake up and you could work for 4 hours from 4AM until 8AM and smash it out and get a lot done. Whereas, if you had slept in and woken up at lunch time you may not feel up to it. So, I’ve been trying to do that with the podcast and just keep doing what I feel like doing when I feel like doing it, and creating content for you guys. And I mean, I know I’m sure it’s not perfect and I’ll learn and I’ll keep tinkering away and keep trying to improve it, but I think the only way to really improve is to just keep producing things… These damn flies! …to keep making things, to keep making errors and to keep improving on those errors. So, anyway, this episode’s almost gone for 10 minutes and I’ve almost done a complete lap of the park. I hope you guys enjoy it and I’ll chat to you soon. Let me know what you think! So, comment on Facebook or comment on YouTube and tell me. Do you agree with me? Do you disagree with me? I’m up for a discussion. See you later guys.