Experiencing Love Substack

Experiencing Love Substack

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Experiencing Love Substack
Experiencing Love Substack
Mastering Critical Tasks and Self Barriers

Mastering Critical Tasks and Self Barriers

"Self worth is internal. It doesn't come from the outside world or from any work that we do." Experiencing Love Ep 140

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Philip Joks
May 21, 2025
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Experiencing Love Substack
Experiencing Love Substack
Mastering Critical Tasks and Self Barriers
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morning to-do list with coffee and sunlight
Photo by Buse Doga Ay on Unsplash

Hello, and welcome to Experiencing Love. I'm your host, Philip Joks, and I'm so glad that you're here. Yesterday, I mentioned the idea of doing my eight critical tasks list. I create a list in the morning of eight things that I want to do that day, with the goal of getting them done by the end of the day. By the time I go to bed, the goal is to have them completed and then build up a streak of how many days in a row I can achieve this. Eventually, what happens is I run out of the easy stuff to do, and I have to start getting really creative about what can be a critical task for that day. The first few days are going to be easy because they're all the to-dos that I've been putting off. Eventually, it's going to get a little bit more fun, a little bit more exciting, and a little bit more automatic.

So, the update is that I started this today and, by starting to record this episode a little bit earlier than I normally do (honestly, by about five minutes), I completed my final task for the day. I get to cross it off my list. One thing I like to do is sign my name at the bottom of the page as recognition that I've completed the day. Just doing this, I found that I was much more proactive with how my day went. I wasn't completely productive, but I was more deliberate about the choices I was making. I spent the first half of my day actually doing a lot because I wanted to make sure to have enough time to finish everything. It had me looking at my entire day differently, rather than letting it happen to me. I was making the day happen. Or, as I like to believe, my life happens by design, not by default. Today, I was designing my life, and it's something I want to keep doing. I want to reach that point where I'm struggling to come up with my critical tasks, something I feel pride in when I reach that point.

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