Dec. 22, 2024 | Demir Antay

Building a productivity system for freedom

I haven’t reached my goals.

I am 25, do not really have a business that makes money, am still overweight and not fit, and don’t have a good family life.

I am not tired of trying but I am definitely tired of trying too many self-improvement habits and I intend to change that.

Too Much Habits

2 years ago I just decided that I would “try” you know.

All my life up until I was 23 years old, I was in a fight-or-flight mode.

My body was nervous all of the time because of my traumatic upbringing and the only productive thing I did was to learn to code because it was my escapism from the pain and incompetence of my life.

But two years ago I decided to make a change and actually started “trying” with life.

I just did not want to dishonor my own life and future self.

I discovered self-improvement just like how most people do, you are doom-scrolling on your phone and one day you stumble upon a reel you like, there are some self-improvement gateway items in that video, for me it was “Atomic Habits” and “Reject Modernity” type of edits on Youtube.

After reading that book, I just took on the challenge to improve all 3 pillars of my life at the same time: health, wealth, and relationships.

During that time I tried and consumed all self-help gurus like “Hamza”, books like “Eat the Frog” by Brian Tracy, and all other things you can think about.
But I never really made any progress for the last 2 years up until the last 6 months.

In the last 6 months, I have lost 12kg=26lbs (huge win for me), earned my first ever online income of 50$ (it ain’t much but it feels so good to get out of 0$), and lived in Paris for 4 months and learned a little bit of their language and visited 2 cities (it was my dream to get out my living situation and travel).

I know that I am not in a place at this point to force you to do the things that I have done right or claim that I got all of the answers.

I am just gonna list the things that have helped me so far, especially the changes I have made in the last 6 months so that it might help somebody who is just starting out or plateaued like me.

The Changes I Have Made

• Declutter your routine, I added so many things like red light, mewing, facial workouts, taping your stupid mouth, cold showers …etc.

  I just tried every good habit on the planet because I was just so tired of hating myself and wanted to treat myself with honor.

  But there is no need for this many habits, trying to be 10/10 with your habits is exhausting. Now I just have a rule of 3macro, 3 micro habits.

  I wake up, do my morning routine, (1 hour, reduced from 3 hours lol), 5 hours of deep work, shallow tasks, and reading, and the rest is just omad, walking 10k steps and spending time with family.

  That is literally it. Reduce it back to 80% from 100% of habits which just overwhelms you.

• I picked a business model that suited me more.

  Back when I was just starting I was just jumping from one opportunity to the next, video after video.

  But what made me earn that 50$, in the end, was literally sticking to a single business model that suited my introverted personality.

  Just choose a business model which is based more on a product if are introverted and sales if you are extroverted.

• Funding, I was so against 9-5 and all other types of work, and all of my goals were centered around breaking out of the chains that modern society puts on us.

  But the times have changed, we can literally work 2-4 hours a day with entry-level gig work in order to pay for food and transportation.

  I was so motivated to not work for anybody else again I just neglected health and started only eating bread and cheddar cheese because the food was 1-2$ a day, which is not a sustainable strategy.

  Just at least earn 200-300$ from gig work so that you can eat.

• Do a morning routine.

  Just not a big one there is a huge debate online about whether or not we do a morning routine.

  Business/Entrepreneur people are saying you shouldn’t and just jump straight into work and self-help gurus are forcing a 2-3 hour morning routine down your throat.

  Just do a simple 1h-45min one, I don’t think I am gonna lose in life if I just put a 10min of meditation before opening my computer to work nor do I need a 1-hour meditation session every day.

  Moderation is key I think.

• I neglected social time a lot.

  I don’t think I ever went on a date last year and neglected the relationships in my life a lot. I think this was a good idea at the time in order to change my behavior and build my habits but from now on I am gonna spend 5 hours every day to change this situation.

  It has to be a habit in my day because it is work and productive as well. No more locked-in, winter-arc, monk-mode tricks, and trinkets.

• Work every day.

  I tried to hack my routine by stacking 10h workdays for 6 days and having a day off on Saturdays to have a work-life balance but it is BS.

  I am switching to a 9-hour sleep, 5-hour work, 4-hour health habits, and 6-hour relationship habits structure. It keeps me consistent and not burnt out.

  Everyday consistency is the key part.

So this is it, it has already been a longer writing than I anticipated.

I am trying to document/share my journey on my profile/blog.

I did not want to link it because I didn’t wanna break the rules.

If you are interested you can just skim through my profile.

I hope this letter is useful for your life. Thank you for reading and have a great day.

Demir