Happy Friday!

“We are what we repeatedly do”

That’s what Aristotle said—if by “Aristotle” you mean “Will Durant paraphrasing Aristotle.”

Repetitio est mater studiorum. “Repetition is the mother of learning.”

Same vibe, but in Latin.

“If you want to be more productive, discover and domesticate the recurring actions in your life.” – R.J. Nestor

Less pithy, but I stand by it. And in this Weekend Upgrade, I’ll explore why.

Spoiler Alert!

The movie Groundhog Day is almost 30 years old, and you probably know the basics even if you haven’t seen it.

But if you want to watch it and you haven’t yet, save this newsletter, set aside an hour and forty minutes, make popcorn, and enjoy some classic comedy.

Then continue reading.

It’s Groundhog Day… again…

Groundhog Day is special in my family. My wife and I watched it on our first date, and because of that, I chose February 2, 2007, to propose to her.

We watch the movie every year to celebrate our engagement anniversary (and to observe Groundhog Day, I suppose). Every year I find something new in the film. It may be a comedy, but its exploration of the power of repetition and iteration is profound.

Brief Groundhog Day refresher

Phil Connors is a self-centered jerk. In his job as a weatherman, he is sent to report on the Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. While there, he gets trapped in a time loop, repeating Groundhog Day over and over and over.

After the initial shock wears off, he engages in hedonistic pursuits, including abusing his “repetition power” to seduce the single women of Punxsutawney. Eventually he focuses on his producer Rita.

Phil spends years worth of Groundhog Days iterating on the “perfect day” to lure Rita into bed. Rita is a wonderful person, so by learning what she enjoys and values, he actually improves. But it’s limited—he’s trying to seduce her, after all, and there’s only so much improvement possible when your motivation is corrupt. When her repeated rejections finally overwhelm him, he gives in to despair.

After grappling with life and death, Phil genuinely tries to be a better, more well-rounded person. He iterates on himself rather than his pursuit of someone else. He learns to play piano, masters many languages, studies ice sculpture, and reads voraciously.

Over time his self-improvement evolves into improving the world around him. By the end of the movie, he wins Rita’s heart not by seducing her, but by selflessly serving the needs of the people of Punxsutawney. When the time loop ends, he says to her, “What can I do for you today?”

So what?

“Yeah, yeah, R.J. Thanks for the synopsis of Groundhog Day. What’s that mean to me?”

We could go lots of directions here—I really love this movie!—but we’re going to focus on the incredible power of recurring actions.

Harness your recurring actions to dramatically improve your productivity leverage

👆 That’s your weekend upgrade.

How do we improve? We repeat. We iterate.

This is true whether we’re talking about improving our behavior, our craft, our physical strength—it’s true of most everything.

How do well-organized recurring actions improve your overall productivity?

To make sense of this, first we’ll define recurring actions, then discuss why it’s important to harness them. Last, we’ll explore how we can implement them in Tools for Thought.

Recurring Actions definitions

I break recurring actions down into three types:

1. Routine tasks

These are tasks that repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or annually—or twice a week, every other week, etc. Their repetition period is predictable.

Each time a routine task repeats is distinct from the previous or next instance. Brushing my teeth yesterday doesn’t mean I don’t need to brush them today, tomorrow, and beyond. This is particularly stark in Groundhog Day—every day is literally distinct for everyone except Phil.

Routine tasks tend to be “system-related” rather than “work-related”—meaning they facilitate your work and life, but are not usually the substance of your work or life. They aren’t generally attached to a specific project.

Routine tasks continue indefinitely, until they’re no longer necessary or relevant.

2. Project-specific recurring tasks (PSRTs)

These are tasks that recur based on the progress of a specific project.

That may be daily, weekly, etc., like routine tasks. Or the repetition may be triggered by specific milestones in a project.

PSRTs tend to be “work-related” rather than “system-related.”

The primary distinction between PSRTs and routine tasks is that PSRTs will go away when the project they’re tied to is complete. When Phil is pursing Rita, he accumulates an enormous list of PSRTs he executes every day, each specifically designed to appeal to Rita. But when he finally despairs of pursuing her, those tasks go away. They’re no longer relevant.

3. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

These are collections of tasks that are performed in a predictable sequence.

They might be as small as a “morning start-up” process or as large as a complex project template.

SOPs help you stop reinventing wheels. The positive effect of this is cumulative—an SOP that streamlines one process will make it easier to develop an SOP to streamline another process. And combined, those may make it easier to develop yet another SOP, and so on.

As Phil expands his worldview beyond himself, he refines processes for his day—and “his day” is just about the perfect way to describe it, as he was fully in command of every aspect of it. He knows where to be and what to do to change a flat tire, to catch a kid falling from a tree, to save a man from choking. The sequence becomes a rhythm, and he is completely in control.

Why is it important to harness recurring actions?

A friend of mine (who’s probably reading this—hi, friend!) shared a story about his deck umbrella that was picked up by the wind and blown a few hundred yards into the adjacent desert. Mercifully, it didn’t hit anything, and it wasn’t damaged. But if it happened again, it could easily break a window or seriously injure someone.

There are two ways to approach a solution. He could put the umbrella back, tighten it up in its base, and then leave it alone until the next time it jiggles loose and flies into the desert. Or, he could put it back and create a Routine task to tighten it regularly—say, once a month.

Doing it the first way seems to save time. You’re only messing with it once, after all, and it might not ever come loose again. But if it does, the cost in time and (potentially) damage is much higher.

The second way takes a few seconds each month, but effectively guarantees the umbrella never pulls free again.

It’s curative versus preventive—an ounce of the second being worth a pound of the first. A little time spent regularly saves a lot of time spent all at once.

Objection!

“But R.J., if I list all these ‘Recurring Actions’ in my system, I’ll go nuts! I already feel overwhelmed without another boatload of stuff to do daily or weekly or whatever.”

I get it. It does feel that way! But you’re missing two critical points.

First, whether they’re listed or not, those tasks need to be done. Better to have them written down than making you anxious by tying up mental RAM.

Second, getting them out in front of you makes it much easier to plan when and how to do them. Once your routine tasks are tamed, it opens up more bandwidth to look at the bigger picture.

Routines lead to SOPs

SOPs are not inherently better than routine tasks or PSRTs, but there is a natural and desirable flow from routines to SOPs. And even for those routine tasks that are too infrequent to be lumped together into longer processes, SOPs will develop at the metawork level—systems and workflows—that help handle all routine tasks.

Phil Connors experimented for a very long time (the actual amount is never stated, but he mastered a lot of independent skills, so I think it’s at least a lifetime). He tried every one-off task he could think of. Those that he liked became his Routine tasks. When he had a particular goal like wooing Rita, he developed many PSRTs to assist him.

But all of those gradually gave way to the SOP for his perfect day—and he finally escaped!

As a side note, I’ve often wondered how disorienting his February 3rd was. I would be terrified going from being effectively omniscient back to the chaos of “real life.” But Phil was giddy—his repetition gave him tools to handle whatever life could throw at him.

How do Tools for Thought help?

If you’re new to the Weekend Upgrade newsletter, I like to explore how processes can be created in Tools for Thought (TfTs). TfTs are apps optimized for linking your ideas, thoughts, notes, etc.—apps like Roam Research, Amplenote, Logseq, and Obsidian.

Routine tasks and PSRTs are possible “out of the box” in Amplenote and Logseq. Amplenote in particular has robust options for when and how often tasks shout recur—akin to what you would find in a dedicated task app like Todoist. Logseq’s implementation is through the SCHEDULED command. It is a bit simpler, but it handles all your basic daily, weekly, etc., tasks.

Roam Research doesn’t have recurring tasks natively, but I used the SmartBlocks extension to build a powerful recurring tasks system. Rather than explain it here, you can watch my YouTube video that demonstrates it. It handles almost all my Routine task and PSRT needs.

TfTs show their true power with SOPs.

The best way to create an SOP is to prototype it. Once you recognize that you’re repeating a workflow, jot down the steps you’re taking. Then turn those steps into a template.

Templates are a native feature of every TfT I’m aware of. In Roam, you put a template title and [[roam/templates]] on the same block and indent the template underneath it. If you need a more dynamic template, use a SmartBlock instead.

In Obsidian you can define a templates folder and store them there. In Logseq you can choose your templates from the “/ menu”. Refer to your TfT of choice for the exact procedure.

Then, as you use the SOP, refine it. Need to add a step? Update the template. Need to swap the sequence of two steps? Update the template.

TfTs outclass simple task apps here because they allow space for further developing your SOPs. You can think and plan right within your templates; maintain different versions for comparison; add notes, links, or other “rich info” to clarify for your future self how the process is supposed to work.

What do you do next?

1. Take 2 minutes and answer this question: What’s one thing I learned in this newsletter that I can put into practice right away?

By committing to a specific action, you make it much more likely you’ll do it.

1. Over the weekend, spend time listing the Routine tasks in your life and adding them to your system.

Get them out in the open—don’t let them tie up your mental RAM and leave you anxious!

If this was valuable for you:

Forward it to someone you think would like it. And if this was forwarded to you, sign up here if you want to receive the next one: https://rjn.st/weekend-upgrade.

Until next time, friends:

Harness the recurring actions in your life! Free up the bandwidth to see your big picture!

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R.J.

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