The View From Above

TJL #85 / Daily productivity #60

“Plato was right. If you want to talk about people, you need to look down on the earth from above. Herds, armies, farms; weddings, divorces, births, deaths; noisy courtrooms, desert places; all the foreign peoples; holidays, days of mourning, market days … all mixed together, a harmony of opposites.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.48

In Meditations 7.48, Marcus Aurelius reminds himself to view the world from above to put things into perspective. So that we can finally see things for what they really are: tiny things in a much larger world.

Of course this does not mean that these tiny things are meaningless. It just creates the awareness that they are happening in a much wider context. A context that we can easily lose sight of from our earth-bound perspective.

Previous TJLs

Read my previous TJLs by following on the links down below:

• TJL #1: How to conduct a weekly review

• TJL #2: How to set up a StackNavigator in React-native

• TJL #3: Money is not wealth

• TJL #4: You get rich by owning things

• TJL #5: How to not be overwhelmed

• TJL #6: How to remember the difference between margin and padding

• TJL #7: According to Jeff Bezos there are two types of failure

• TJL #8: A stupid coding mistake

• TJL #9: Akrasia

• TJL #10: How to set goals like Google

• TJL #11: How to write great copy for your startup product

• TJL #12: How to change font in React

• TJL #13: Civilisation advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them

• TJL #14: The Motivation-Skill Dichotomy

• TJL #15: No plan is also a plan

• TJL #16: How to understand difficult code

• TJL #17: How to write self-help books

• TJL #18: The power of precommitment

• TJL #19: Reflections on my first remote project (part 1)

• TJL #20: Reflections on my first remote project (part 2)

• TJL #21: Three small things

• TJL #22: Building Wedje (part 1)

• TJL #23: Building Wedje (part 2)

• TJL #24: Obscurity is good

• TJL #25: Zettelkasten method

• TJL #26: Use a checkbox (Daily Productivity #1)

• TJL #27: Be aware of the spotlight effect (Daily productivity #2)

• TJL #28: Start with the upper-left hand brick (Daily Productivity #3)

• TJL #29: It doesn’t matter where you take it from, what matters is where you take it to (Daily productivity #4)

• TJL #30: Start with writing your README (Daily productivity #5)

• TJL #31: Work with an outline (Daily productivity #6)

• TJL #32: Use active recall (Daily productivity #7)

• TJL #33: Use quadrants (Daily productivity #8)

• TJL #34: How to get started (Daily productivity #9)

• TJL #35: Use the Pomodoro technique (Daily productivity #10)

• TJL #36: How to handle your negative feelings (Daily productivity #11)

• TJL #37: Imagine the work, not the reward (Daily productivity #12)

• TJL #38: Separate your writing from editing (Daily productivity #13)

• TJL #39: Make it visual (Daily productivity #14)

• TJL #40: Make it pleasurable (Daily productivity #15)

• TJL #41: Don't be ashamed to ask for help (Daily productivity #16)

• TJL #42: Block all distractions (Daily productivity #17)

• TJL #43: Don't expect perfection (Daily productivity #18)

• TJL #44: Sweep up every day (Daily productivity #19)

• TJL #45: Make fewer decisions (Daily productivity #20)

• TJL #46: Copy the greats (Daily productivity #21)

• TJL #47: Play some office music (Daily productivity #22)

• TJL #48: Focus on interests, not positions (Daily productivity #23)

• TJL #49: Eat your own dogfood (Daily productivity #24)

• TJL #50: Delete all your code (Daily productivity #25)

• TJL #51: Keep a (dis)traction list (Daily productivity #26)

• TJL #52: Don't be scared to fail (Daily productivity #27)

• TJL #53: Don't underline (Daily productivity #28)

• TJL #54: Change your font to Comic Sans (Daily productivity #29)

• TJL #55: Be more coachable (Daily productivity #30)

• TJL #56: Batch your tasks (Daily productivity #31)

• TJL #57: Stop forgetting things (Daily productivity #32)

• TJL #58: Manage your time proactively (Daily productivity #33)

• TJL #59: Limit what you save (Daily productivity #34)

• TJL #60: Think of future you (Daily productivity #35)

• TJL #61: Build momentum (Daily productivity #36)

• TJL #62: Make flashcards as you go (Daily productivity #37)

• TJL #63: Never give up (Daily productivity #38)

• TJL #64: Motivate yourself with these two questions (Daily productivity #39)

• TJL #65: Ask validating questions (Daily productivity #40)

• TJL #66: You can do it (Daily productivity #41)

• TJL #67: Set aside time to think (Daily productivity #42)

• TJL #68: Take a walk (Daily productivity #43)

• TJL #69: Some things are up to us and some are not up to us (Daily productivity #44)

• TJL #70: Life is like picking shells on the beach (Daily productivity #45)

• TJL #71: Internalise your desires (Daily productivity #46)

• TJL #72: Watch your step (Daily productivity #47)

• TJL #73: Don't say, be (Daily productivity #48)

• TJL #74: Serenity prayer (Daily productivity #49)

• TJL #75: Solve the right problem (Daily productivity #50)

• TJL #76: Tell yourself this in the morning (Daily productivity #51)

• TJL #77: Even Marcus Aurelius struggled with distraction (Daily productivity #52)

• TJL #78: It’s Not As Unfortunate As It Seems (Daily productivity #53)

• TJL #79: Everything is just an impression (Daily productivity #54)

• TJL #80: It’s Not As Unfortunate As It Seems (Daily productivity #55)

• TJL #81: Talk about your problems (Daily productivity #56)

• TJL #82: Everything is change (Daily productivity #57)

• TJL #83: There is no harm in change (Daily productivity #58)

• TJL #84: How to think about your possessions (Daily productivity #59)