Roya Bloom

There is a particular time of the year when life seems to accelerate. It often starts with Singles’ Day and Black Friday, when our inboxes fill with offers, countdowns and promises that this might be our last chance to buy something at the perfect price. Then come Thanksgiving, Christmas preparations, family events, year end deadlines and the growing pressure to finish everything before the calendar changes. Just when we think we can finally slow down, January arrives with another challenge: a new year, a fresh start and the expectation that we should suddenly become a better, healthier, more productive version of ourselves.

It is a fascinating period because so many psychological forces collide at once. We are encouraged to spend, celebrate, connect, finish projects, reflect on the past and prepare for the future. We are surrounded by messages telling us what we should buy, what we should achieve and who we should become. Somewhere between Black Friday discounts, unfinished work, Christmas shopping and ambitious New Year’s resolutions, many of us begin asking more fundamental questions: What do I actually want? What deserves my attention? Why is it sometimes so difficult to do the things I know are good for me? And how can I stay motivated when life becomes busy, distracting and overwhelming?

This is where our new Mindset & Motivation Series begins.

Over the coming weeks, every Monday, we will explore ideas from psychology, productivity, philosophy and everyday life. Some of these ideas will help us understand why our brains react the way they do. Others will challenge the way we work, shop, set goals and use our time. We will look at motivation, but not in the usual sense of simply telling you to wake up earlier, work harder or think more positively. Motivation is more complicated than that. Sometimes we struggle because we lack discipline, but sometimes we struggle because we are trying to do too much. Sometimes we need to push forward, but sometimes the smarter decision is to slow down. Sometimes we need another goal, but sometimes we need fewer goals.

This series is therefore not about becoming productive every minute of the day. It is about learning how to direct your attention, energy and motivation toward the things that actually matter.

The Season That Tests Our Mindset

The end of the year is almost like a psychological experiment. During the shopping season, we are exposed to scarcity, urgency and fear of missing out. Then we move into a period of celebration and social connection, often while trying to complete work before the holidays begin. After that, the mood changes again. The focus moves from spending and celebrating to self improvement. Suddenly, we are expected to exercise more, eat healthier, save money, learn new skills and finally achieve the goals we did not achieve last year.

The problem is not that these goals are wrong. Most of them are probably good intentions. The problem is that we often try to change our behaviour without understanding what influences it in the first place. We create ambitious plans while ignoring our environment, our habits, our energy levels and the psychological mechanisms that affect our decisions every day.

That is why this series will start with understanding before changing. Instead of immediately asking, “What should I do differently?” we will sometimes ask a more interesting question: “Why am I doing this in the first place?”

Singles’ Day and Black Friday: When Your Brain Thinks Everything Is Urgent

The first major topic takes us directly into one of the most intense periods of the year: Singles’ Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These events are not simply about lower prices. They are also built around powerful psychological triggers. Countdown timers create urgency. Limited stock creates scarcity. Flash sales create pressure. Messages such as “Only 3 left” or “Offer ends tonight” can make us feel that we are about to lose something, even when we had never planned to buy it in the first place.

Suddenly, the question is no longer, “Do I actually need this?” Instead, it becomes, “What if I miss this opportunity?” That small shift can change the entire decision making process. Fear of missing out can become stronger than our original interest in the product. A discount can make something feel valuable simply because we believe we are getting a good deal.

In this article, we will look at the psychology behind these shopping events and explore what happens when scarcity and urgency influence our thinking. But the article will not simply tell you to stop shopping. Buying something you genuinely need or have planned to buy can be completely reasonable. The real question is whether the decision is yours or whether the environment has been designed to make the decision for you. We will look at simple ways to plan ahead, set limits and create enough distance between the offer and the purchase to make more conscious decisions.

The goal is simple: you should decide what deserves your money, not a countdown timer.

The Pre Break Effect: Why an Upcoming Holiday Can Change How We Work

Then comes a phenomenon that almost everyone has experienced. There are only a few working days left before the holidays, and suddenly the same people who spent weeks postponing tasks become incredibly productive. Emails are answered. Projects move forward. Decisions are made. Meetings are scheduled. Tasks that seemed impossible to start in October suddenly become urgent in December.

Why does this happen?

An upcoming break can create a powerful psychological deadline. Even if the official deadline has not changed, time suddenly feels limited. We become more aware of unfinished tasks and more motivated to close open loops before mentally switching off. The approaching holiday gives us a clear boundary, and boundaries can change how we prioritize.

The interesting question is whether we can learn from this effect. If an upcoming holiday can temporarily improve our focus, could we create similar boundaries throughout the year? Could shorter work cycles, artificial deadlines or deliberately planned breaks help us focus without waiting until December? The Pre Break Effect will explore how an approaching holiday can change our behaviour and what this seasonal burst of productivity can teach us about deadlines, attention and motivation.

Minimalism: Why Less Can Sometimes Give You More

After weeks of shopping, spending, notifications, deadlines and endless to do lists, minimalism offers an interesting counterpoint. But minimalism is about much more than owning fewer things. It can also be a philosophy for work, studying and everyday life.

Modern life constantly encourages us to add more. More tasks. More apps. More meetings. More goals. More information. More notifications. More things to buy and more things to manage. But progress does not always come from adding another system. Sometimes progress begins by removing something.

What if your daily to do list did not contain 25 tasks? What if you identified the three things that would genuinely make the biggest difference? What if your home office contained fewer distractions? What if studying was less about trying to consume everything and more about understanding the most important concepts?

Minimalism asks a surprisingly difficult question: What can I remove without losing what matters? Sometimes, that question can be more powerful than asking what else we should add.

The Progress Principle: Why Small Wins Matter

We often think motivation must come before action. We tell ourselves that once we feel motivated, we will finally start exercising, writing, studying or working on the project we have been avoiding. But in reality, motivation does not always arrive first. Sometimes action creates motivation.

This is where the idea of the Progress Principle and small wins becomes particularly interesting. Large goals can be inspiring, but they can also feel overwhelming. Writing a book, starting a business, losing a significant amount of weight or learning a completely new skill can feel so big that we do not know where to begin.

A small win changes the experience. You write one page. You take a ten minute walk. You complete one important task. You finally understand one difficult concept. The result may seem small, but progress creates evidence that movement is possible. Instead of staring at the mountain, you have taken the first step.

The article will explore why small progress can have such a powerful effect on motivation and how we can use momentum instead of constantly waiting for inspiration.

The Boogeyman Technique: Facing the Thing You Keep Avoiding

Everyone has a task that follows them around. You know you should do it, but somehow everything else suddenly becomes more interesting. You answer emails, organize your desk, clean something that does not need cleaning or start researching completely unrelated topics. Anything feels easier than facing that one task.

The longer you avoid it, the bigger it becomes.

That is why the idea behind the Boogeyman Technique is so interesting. The task itself may not actually be as terrible as we imagine. Often, the anticipation becomes worse than the work. We create a story around the difficult conversation, the unfinished project, the exam preparation or the decision we have been postponing. And every day we avoid it, the imaginary version becomes larger.

The Boogeyman Technique is about identifying what you are avoiding and deliberately facing it. Not because fear disappears, but because action prevents fear from growing indefinitely. The goal is not to become fearless. It is to stop allowing imagined difficulty to become larger than reality.

Hikikomori: When the World Slowly Becomes Smaller

This series will also explore a more serious and thought provoking subject: Hikikomori. The term originated in Japan and is commonly used to describe severe and prolonged social withdrawal. It raises important questions about isolation, belonging, technology and what can happen when withdrawal gradually becomes easier than participation.

We now live in a world where many things can happen without leaving home. We can work remotely, study online, order food, watch almost unlimited entertainment and communicate through screens. Technology provides extraordinary freedom and convenience, but it can also make avoidance more convenient.

The article will carefully explore Hikikomori and the broader questions surrounding social withdrawal and connection. Motivation is not always about becoming more successful or achieving another goal. Sometimes motivation begins with reconnecting, taking a step outside or rebuilding a connection with other people and the world around us.

The ONE Thing: The Power of Asking a Better Question

Modern productivity often seems obsessed with doing more. More tasks completed. More emails answered. More meetings attended. More goals achieved. But The ONE Thing, created by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, challenges this way of thinking with a much simpler question: “What is the one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

It is a powerful question because it forces us to acknowledge something we often try to ignore: not everything is equally important. A list of ten tasks does not mean all ten tasks deserve the same attention. Sometimes one important decision can eliminate five smaller problems. One difficult conversation can unblock an entire project. One hour of focused work can create more value than an entire day of reacting to messages.

The ONE Thing is not about doing only one thing in life. It is about understanding that focus begins when we stop pretending that everything deserves the same level of urgency.

Watch the Sunrise and Sunset: A Simple Philosophy for a More Conscious Life

Not every article in this series will be about productivity techniques. Some ideas are more philosophical, but perhaps equally useful.

Modern life can make one day feel almost identical to the next. We wake up, check our phones, respond to messages, work, scroll, eat and sleep. Then we repeat the process. Days pass, but we do not always notice them.

The simple act of watching a sunrise and a sunset can create a different rhythm. The sunrise can become a moment to ask, “What matters today?” The sunset can become a moment to ask, “What mattered today?” These questions do not require another app, complicated system or productivity method. They simply create a beginning and an ending.

In a world that is always connected, perhaps one of the most powerful things we can do is occasionally stop long enough to notice where we are.

New Year’s Resolutions or Spring Resolutions?

The series will eventually arrive at one of the most familiar traditions of the year: New Year’s resolutions.

Every January, millions of people decide that this year will be different. For a few weeks, motivation seems to be everywhere. Gyms become crowded, healthy food becomes popular, productivity apps are downloaded and ambitious goals are written down.

Then, for many people, the momentum slowly disappears.

We usually explain this as a lack of discipline. But perhaps there is another question worth asking: Is January actually the most natural time to demand major personal change?

In many parts of the world, January is cold, dark and connected with returning to work after an intense holiday period. We often expect ourselves to immediately become a new person simply because the calendar has changed.

Spring offers an interesting alternative. Days become longer, nature changes, light returns and the environment itself begins to feel different. Human history and culture have often connected spring with renewal and new beginnings.

This does not mean everyone should stop making New Year’s resolutions. But it does raise an interesting possibility: perhaps a Spring Resolution could sometimes be more natural. Instead of changing because the calendar says January 1, we might ask when we actually have the energy, environment and readiness to begin.

More Than a Productivity Series

This is what the Mindset & Motivation Series is really about.

It is not about becoming perfect. It is not about turning yourself into a productivity machine or filling every hour with meaningful activity. Life is more complicated than that. Some days you will feel motivated, and some days you will not. Sometimes you need discipline. Sometimes you need rest. Sometimes you need to push forward. Sometimes you need to let something go.

Over the coming weeks, we will explore both sides. The psychology of motivation and the value of slowing down. The importance of focus and the danger of doing too much. The power of small progress and the importance of human connection. The excitement of new beginnings and the reality that meaningful change rarely happens overnight.

Every article will explore one idea that can help us better understand how we think, work and live.

What Is Coming Next?

Here is what you can look forward to in the coming weeks:

Singles’ Day & Black Friday: What Happens to Your Brain When Everything Is on Sale? We will explore scarcity, urgency, fear of missing out and how to make better decisions when everything appears to be a limited time opportunity.

The Pre Break Effect: Why an Upcoming Holiday Can Change How We Work. Why do we suddenly become more productive when a holiday is approaching, and can we recreate that focus throughout the year?

Minimalism: Why Doing Less Can Help You Achieve More. From your home and workspace to your daily tasks and study habits, we explore why removing distractions can sometimes be more effective than adding another productivity system.

The Progress Principle: Why Small Wins Can Create Big Motivation. A closer look at why progress, even when it is small, can create momentum.

The Boogeyman Technique: Why the Task You Avoid Gets Bigger in Your Mind. How avoidance can turn an ordinary task into something terrifying and why facing it can change the entire experience.

Hikikomori: What Happens When We Slowly Withdraw From the World? A deeper exploration of social withdrawal, isolation, technology and the importance of reconnecting.

The ONE Thing: The Question That Can Change How You Prioritize Everything. A closer look at the method created by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan and the power of identifying what truly matters.

Watch the Sunrise and Sunset: A Simple Philosophy for a More Conscious Life. Why creating a deliberate beginning and ending to your day can change the way you experience time.

New Year’s Resolutions vs. Spring Resolutions: Are We Starting at the Wrong Time? Why January may not always be the ideal moment for major personal change and why spring could offer a different perspective.

The First Question Starts Now

Before the series begins, there is one question worth asking. Not, “What do I want to achieve next year?” That question will come later.

Instead, ask: “What do I want to pay attention to?”

Your attention is one of the most valuable resources you have. Companies want it. Advertisers want it. Social media wants it. Your work wants it. Other people want it. And if you do not consciously decide where your attention goes, there is a good chance that someone else will decide for you.

Perhaps that is where motivation really begins. Not with a perfect plan. Not with a dramatic New Year’s resolution. Not with waking up at 5 AM. But with the decision to pause and ask what actually deserves your energy.

Over the coming weeks, we will explore that question from different perspectives. We will look at why we buy things we do not need, why an upcoming holiday can suddenly make us productive, why less can sometimes create more, why small wins matter, why we avoid the things that matter most and why the timing of a new beginning may be more important than we think.

This is not a series about becoming a machine. It is about becoming more aware of what influences you, where your energy goes and what truly motivates you. And perhaps, over time, becoming more intentional about what you choose to do with your attention, your time and your life.

The new Mindset & Motivation Series starts here. Every Monday, a new idea, a new perspective and hopefully one thought that stays with you long after you finish reading.

See you next Monday.