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Ball People, Looking Foolish, and Tricking Ourselves Into It
The Portal: Issue 058
Internet People
November 22, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
WELCOME TO THE PORTAL: a weekly dose of refreshing productivity strategies and unconventional ideas to help you finally feel in control of your time.
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Happy short week to our friends in the US who get a couple days off! We’ll be taking the rest of the week off, but if you’re still working, go easy on yourself 😌 We’re super grateful for each one of you!
💭 ONE THING WE’RE THINKING ABOUT
Starting is often the hardest part of any task or project — especially if you struggle with executive dysfunction 🤪
If starting things feels especially difficult at the moment, just know that with everything going on in the world right now, this is not surprising. Executive dysfunction often comes for us under extreme stress, boredom, and fatigue — so even if you don’t have ADHD, nobody is safe 😯
Executive dysfunction distorts your perception of tasks and makes them feel bigger and more complex than they usually are, and indecision amplifies the struggle to begin.
On the blog this week, we’re revisiting some of our favorite ways to trick ourselves into starting for the times when it feels absolutely impossible.
This issue of The Portal is brought to you by
Sunsama is our absolute favorite daily task planner that can help you time block your tasks, visualize your days, and easily re-shuffle your schedule when sh*t hits the fan — they hooked us up with a 30-day free trial for all Portal readers, no CC required!
🍿 ONE THING WE’RE WATCHING
Forever fans of a niche subculture, this 13-minute short documentary elegantly chronicles the intensity and endurance it takes to make it through the tryouts to be a ball person at the US Open 🎾
⚡️ ONE THING WE’RE INSPIRED BY
This blurb about the willingness to look foolish:
It's possible that one of the reasons you got on the path of mastery was to look good. But to learn something new of any significance, you have to be willing to look foolish...
When a Most Valuable Player candidate misjudges a ball and falls on his duff, he does it in the sight of millions. You should be willing to do it before your teacher and a few friends or fellow students. If you're always thinking about appearances, you can never attain the state of concentration that's necessary for effective learning and top performance.
TLDR:
Embrace being bad at things! The cringe will set you free!
🤔 ONE QUESTION FOR YOU
⭐️ ONE LAST THING
Free serotonin!
We’re about to send you to Instagram for this video, but if you’re prone to scrolling once you’re there (who isn’t?), remember that you can come back here right after if Instagram isn’t where you want to spend your time.
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