You can summarise my productivity as a rule of threes. I’ll use ironman training as an example.

Find race 9 months in the future. Sign up. Tell everyone. Plan.

1 - quarterly progress

2 - monthly progress

3 - weekly progress 

4 - daily progress

Plan all of your quarterly progress to give an annual structure, then forget the mountain. Plan the months then forget the quarters. When you get to the single days, forget everything; all you need to know is the plan for the day.

Incentivise everything. Give yourself a reward before doing your workout, as well as after. Make sure you plan recovery.

The key is to divide it all into lego blocks and then incentivise every block you put into place. You are writing your own instructions - the only ones you ever stick to - and all you need to do to finish the piece is look at the single step in front of you. Use every trick you can just to get started.

20250701

Messier / more detailed version here.