There are lots of tips and tricks that will help, and it can be valuable to learn them, but the real secret is that there's no secret. No shortcuts. Hard work is hard, and it usually sucks when you are doing it, and no tricks will get you around that. There is no correct mindset that makes things effortless. There is no preparation that automates this process for you. Take the energy you're using to look for the easiest way to do something and spend most of it just starting. Just do the thing. No amount of processes, tips, tricks, mindsets, or anything else will help you if you don't begin and end them with ACTION toward what you want.

With that out of the way, here are the things that have helped me:

- GTD (Getting Things Done). It's almost a lifestyle. You don't have to read the book, you can find a decent tutorial online for it. Basically you just create an organized system into which you put everything in your life that you find yourself devoting energy toward remembering or thinking about. If that sounds overwhelming and like overkill, just remember that the alternative is keeping it all in your own head all of the time. It is implementation-agnostic. I currently use Remember The Milk, Google Calendar, and a physical inbox on my kitchen counter.

- Stoicism. There are lots of good books on this. The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday is an easy read. The original works by Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus are pretty good too. On the Shortness of Life is awesome, and short too. You can also get it for free on audiobook. I would put Jocko Podcast into this category as well. Stoicism can be good at teaching you how to stare down impossible odds with a fierce grin as you charge into battle.

- Mindfulness. Mindfulness is in vogue right now, and it's starting to mean a lot of different things to a lot of people. Maybe a better word would be "paying attention". If you can clearly see and accept yourself and your environment, as they are, right now, with no judgements or distractions, it's a lot easier to enact meaningful changes. Said inversely, if you can't see your own biases and emotions with regard to some subject, they influence, no, completely control your actions with that subject, which makes it hard to enact meaningful changes, because you're playing out an unconscious pattern.