Somedays are good and some are bad, but the best days are those that teach you a lesson. Today I would like to tell you the story of the book that made me a man of action. But First a Detour.

I have recently been reading about Elon Musk and how he has a true sense of urgency and a system which encourages really hardcore work and how he is very good at it. Always be on the ground and no useless meetings, 16 hour days and all that. I was ofcourse inspired by it all and started thinking about how my system works. I think I will probably not implement his style. The reason is I tried to do this many times in my life already.

Growing up in Pakistan I was always told to work hard. To someone like me it meant nothing, because I did not understand what it means to work hard. It was one of those filler phrases that people use all the time, like "Good Morning", or "Nice to meet you". It was not unless I read the book Atomic Habits that my habits changed for the better. How i read the book is also a story in itself. I was aware of the book it was generally mentioned in the productivity youtube vids and also on twitter however I was never paid it much attention. My earlier experience with non-fiction was extensive, some I found boring like "The 7 Habits of highly effective people" others mildly interesting like "The 12 rules for Life". But this book, it was different. I actually saw my niece reading it. She was 15 and I asked her opinion about it. To my surprise she said its the most useful book she has ever read. I could not belive it. Surely her youth made her naive to the knowledge. So in my frugality I actually borrowed it from her. And that is when my life changed.

It was as if a veil was lifted over my eyes. Here was a guy (James Clear) contradicting all of the advice I have received in my life. Most of the advice I had received asked me to put in long extensive hours, 8 to 10 hour minimum doing monotnous boring work like memorization. And yet James shared his findings and his achievements. Later I found that many people especially creative people in history had used the methods he described. I was sold immediately, I finally understood what hard work meant. In essence it was just cultivating consistency. And Atomic Habits was the best way to do it. I thanked my niece for giving me the book, I bought her many more, Infact I bought a bunch more copies and sent it to my friends, almost none of them appreciated it.

So far I implemented only 2 of his methods, The chain method and the easiest route mehod. I created strong habits of development, Since the implementation in March of 2024 I have completed three projects, Launched one which did not work out and about to start working on a new one. I had never completed a project to my satisfaciton before reading Atomic Habits.

Coming back to Elon's work ethic, I think I cannot implement his work ethic, but I think he also does not do what others think he does. I think what happened with Elon Musk is his Atomic Habits have become so refined and executable to such high quality that to normal people it looks like he works super hardcore. Regardless I will not be following his method because I don't think it works for me.

Therefore I will be returning to my roots, going back to my chain and creating products/projects. I will just focus on very small projects, micro or even nano projects.