Alright, so I wanted to share my recent dive into this whole “Ryan Berg” approach. You might’ve seen it floating around, some circles talk about it like it’s the next big thing for getting stuff done, or at least that’s how it was sold to me.
Getting Started with the So-Called Method
I first stumbled upon the “Ryan Berg” name on some obscure forum. People were hyping it up, saying it cut through all the usual noise. The core idea, as far as I could piece it together, was this extreme focus, almost a minimalist take on tasks and projects. Sounded simple enough, right? Famous last words.
So, I decided to give it a real shot. My first step was trying to implement what I understood to be its main principles. I cleared my desk, like totally. Then I moved on to my digital life. That meant aggressively pruning my to-do lists, which, let me tell you, felt like throwing away parts of my brain at first. I also tried to adopt this “single-tasking” mantra that seemed central to the “Ryan Berg” philosophy. No more juggling five things at once, which is basically how I’ve always operated.
The Grind and The Hurdles
The first week was… interesting. I spent more time trying to set up the “Ryan Berg” way of working than actually working. I made these super detailed plans for single-task blocks. My calendar looked like a military operation.
- I meticulously blocked out time for one specific coding task.
- I turned off all notifications – phone, email, everything.
- I even told my team I was “going dark” for certain periods. They loved that, as you can imagine.
Did I get super focused? Sometimes, yeah. There were moments, maybe an hour or two, where I felt like I was in “the zone.” But then reality would hit. An urgent bug report would come in. A colleague would physically walk over because I wasn’t responding to messages. The “Ryan Berg” system, in its pure form, just didn’t seem to mesh with the chaos of a normal workday, especially in a team setting.
I found myself constantly fighting the system I was trying to implement. It felt like I was trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The problem wasn’t necessarily the “Ryan Berg” ideas themselves, but how they clash with the unpredictable nature of, well, life.
So, What’s the Verdict?
After a few weeks of diligently trying to live the “Ryan Berg” dream, I’ve mostly backed off. It wasn’t the silver bullet I, or those forum posts, made it out to be. I ended up cherry-picking a few bits that kind of worked. For instance, dedicated focus blocks are good, but you can’t be a hermit about it. And yeah, a cleaner desk is nice, I’ll give it that.
But the whole rigid structure? Not for me. It felt like one of those things that sounds amazing in a blog post written by someone who probably doesn’t have to deal with the same kind of daily fires I do. Or maybe Ryan Berg himself works alone in a cabin in the woods. Who knows?
Honestly, I spent a good chunk of time trying to make this work. I even bought a specific notebook someone mentioned was “essential” for the Ryan Berg method. That notebook is now gathering dust, a monument to my attempt. It’s funny, really. I was trying to simplify, and I ended up adding another layer of complexity by trying to follow this “Ryan Berg” thing too strictly. Back to my own slightly chaotic, but ultimately more productive, way of doing things, I guess. Live and learn.
