Productivity

> I very rarely eat breakfast, so I get about 15 hours of fasting most days (except an espresso when I wake up). I know this is contrary to most advice, and I suspect it’s not optimal for most people, but it definitely works well for me.

Coffee isn't going to interrupt your fast, assuming it's black. I too skip breakfast and try to fast as long as possible. Fasting is tremendously helpful to productivity. Nothing will hinder your performance like a huge meal in the morning (especially one high in carbohydrates)

> I have one espresso immediately when I wake up and one after lunch. I assume this is about 200mg total of caffeine per day.

Interesting how often folks overestimate the caffeine in a shot of espresso. A single shot is like 60mg. You get far more out of drip coffee, especially the lighter roasts.

> I don’t think most people value their time enough

This is huge. Value your time! Not only that, build a culture around you of people who value their time. Work at a company that values work-life balance. This doesn't mean you don't want to work hard... in fact it usually means the opposite because when you are at work you are working hard because you are valuing yourself and your time.

For me, there's a conflict between long-term and short-term enjoyment. I have a 'goal' of independence from my 9-5, but after I get home from work and play with my kids a bit, it sounds more immediately _enjoyable_ to watch a TV show with my wife rather than spend a couple hours on my side project.

So it does sound ideal to > do things you enjoy, at a pace that you enjoy but I think there's a part of life where you're consciously sacrificing immediate enjoyment for a future goal. And hopefully the future goal is to do just that (enjoy life at an enjoyable pace).

If I can be more productive, that's minimizing the time I spend sacrificing enjoyment before attaining my goals :).

Never heard of people using LED lights in the morning. He's already supplementing with vitamin D, so what is the benefit of using the light on top of that?

it's also called a SAD lamp. "seasonal affective disorder"

https://www.google.com/search?q=sad+lamp

I really like that its so easy for successful and productive people to share their thoughts on what got them where they are and their advice on how others can get there too.

The part of the essay I liked the most was perhaps his comment about having strong convictions on things. This is incredibly important. To get to a level of knowledge on anything to get that conviction though, requires a lot of deliberate reading and experience. For instance, I didn't care much about politics until the 2016 election; the entirety of 2017 I spent learning more about the political structure of the US, the history of every party, the history of laws and such... a lot of things that has given me a strong base from which to view current events and future policies in a more nuanced way, rather than being influenced by the latest Op-Ed in NYT. It took a lot of effort, but for me its worth it if only for the perspective that you get from history.

The lists part is also highly recommended: it helps me offload things that I want/like to do in a concrete medium and not have to try and recall things when I get some time.