Well, this got complicated quickly.
You would think it would be a relatively simple concept and that most people could quickly whip out examples of a ‘good day’. From that, we could then distill down what a Good Daytm really means. Apparently not!
Start with The main secret of having a productive day (and the tips to get you there) | Spica
This looked like a ‘how to be productive’ post, with lots of Kanban and sound sleep. And while that is in there, it all rapidly goes to higher places.
It’s slightly different because they talk of a ”productive” day, whereby…
- You need to create value (to contribute and execute the essential tasks)
- You need to grow as a person (learn and experience something new)
- You need to enjoy the day (connect with other people, find meaning in your work, etc.)
Even as a semi-retiree (still fighting against that…), the top one is still true for me, before I can look back and see a good day. Things still need doing, even if I don’t work for the shareholders anymore.
The third is probably self-evident, at least if I narrow it down to human contact. I find it hard to be satisfied in my day away from people.
But the second one is more interesting. Grow as a person, learn, and experience something new. Or as they put it elsewhere: “Improving yourself on a physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual level on a daily basis”.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs speaks to this (thanks Wikipedia):
“What a man can be, he must be.” This quotation forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of need refers to the realization of one’s full potential. Maslow describes this as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be. People may have a strong, particular desire to become an ideal parent, succeed athletically, or create paintings, pictures, or inventions. Self-actualization can be described as a value-based system when discussing its role in motivation. Self-actualization is understood as the goal or explicit motive, and the previous stages in Maslow’s hierarchy fall in line to become the step-by-step process by which self-actualization is achievable; an explicit motive is the objective of a reward-based system that is used to intrinsically drive the completion of certain values or goals. Individuals motivated to pursue this goal seek and understand how their needs, relationships, and sense of self are expressed through their behaviour. Self-actualization needs include:[3]
- Partner acquisition (me reaction: !!!! Like buying cheese)
- Parenting
- Utilizing and developing talents and abilities
- Pursuing goals
Maslow is all about needs & drives, which at this level is self actualisation, ie becoming the best we can be.
An aside: Is there a difference between an actual universal human drive (maslow style), and just a desire to do the personal growth thing, because the results are desirable? Maybe hair-splitting.
Maybe the self-actualisation drive is just there (after the rest of the pyramid is broadly addressed), which then makes it desirable to improve ourselves to fulfil that.
Working that thread… To satisfy that drive and thus be more content within ourselves, we should be feeling the need to improve ourselves on a daily basis—on a ‘physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual level’, as they say above. And I suppose I do, hence this high level thought about it all.
Sounds exhausting! And yet…
I’ve been experimenting with doing this over the week. It’s still only at the level of a tickbox each day, trying to address all four (probably a subset is enough, but does that give you a get-out…?) . It’s certainly not close to the level of a real habit, though I can see the virtue of making it so. I doubt I could manage it without some form of commitment device, which is currently a partner trying to create similar habits. It certainly feels rewarding at the end of each day so far. But ideally, we should get it to the level of a standalone habit and not rely on a feel-good backscratch at the end of each day.
The experiment continues…..