As I sat in my pale blue room that was being lit by a single light in the left corner I can hear the clock ticking away behind me as I stare into the white abyss known as my computer screen. I turned to my left to look at the time on the microwave clock and it's already past 3. Then I heard it clear as day…
You have a problem.
These are the thoughts that plague me in my efforts of productivity.
Maybe I do have a problem. I have too many goals. But is that really the problem?
It can’t be!
There are so many things that I want to do and even though I know I am making progress in my efforts, it seems I’m still missing something. Or rather I still feel like there is so much left to do and when I look up it's already 3 in the morning. It honestly makes me feel like I have failed. It's as if I don’t know how to structure my goals and am disorganized.
But I don’t think that’s the case
It goes against everything I think I know about myself. I believe I am a person who is organized and what I consider to be smart, at least when it comes to doing what I want to do. I’m just torn between so many objectives and at times I just want to put all my efforts into one thing some nights.
Hmmm maybe there’s an idea…
At this point I need a way to clear my head, organize my thoughts, and figure out how I can create a better way to achieve my goals without feeling overwhelmed.
I heard building a system can do wonders.
So I have to ask myself, why do I feel this way and why do I want to do this? Well first, I want to feel at the end of each day that I was successful in some capacity while not beating myself up.
Second, I want to be able to look back and be proud of my accomplishments.
Therefore, what I think I need to do is sit down and clearly write out my objectives. What I want to be able to do within a potential deadline, and create measurable progress trackers to know what’s working.
One idea that came to me that I think needs more exploring are dedicated days or theme days.
This will consist of dedicating one day out of the week to a specific task within an allotted time I so choose. I think that will be one way to destress myself from overthinking.
Another idea is potentially finding ways to kill 2 birds with one stone. So what are 2 or more skills that I can be building and working on simultaneously?
I heard once, or rather many times in a keynote, that the problem with men today is that they simply don’t think. I know I have fallen victim to this tragedy and am consciously making an effort to set a course for a more productive life and peaceful mind.
I know one overarching goal through all my endeavors is that I want to be consistent in what I do and be willing to spend years honing a craft. I don’t want time to be a determining factor, but I also do not want to neglect reaching goals within specific targets.
In other words, not neglecting a sense of urgency.
So what are some of the goals, or interests, that brought me here and how can I create better systems in order to reach them?
I’ve always been a person that if I see something that interests me I want to learn how it works and replicate it. Right now in my life the things that interest me and take up the majority of my time are the following…
It doesn't look like much but each thing has its intricate parts and some interests can literally take hours to learn or practice.
And thus lies the issue because sometimes I want to just spend hours for example studying spanish, but I feel like if I do that I will neglect the others.
In reality I think the one interest that really bothers me is the creating a business aspect, because deep down I believe that this is the thing that can help change my life and give me more time for everything else.
However, I think the other parts can help play a role within creating a business so the real question is…
How do I bridge the gap between them?
Do you remember what the problem with men today is? It’s now time to put on our thinking caps. I heard writing is a tool that can help flesh out ideas and it's time to get some things straight.
First the idea of business. I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of business but it can seem quite complex. That is until I came across a model that resonated deeply with me. It's called the one person business model.
Within this model there is a new perspective of how to conduct and create business, and I think it takes away its complexity. Simply put you become the business in order to find your niche. In other words, solve your own problem and you can create the product that you find useful and beneficial.
It's not really a new idea but with this form of thinking it gives me the freedom to explore and create from my interests. But of course there are a few principles that are key to making your interests relevant to others. I will dive deeper into the One Person Business Model in another post but for now I will take this concept and apply it to my current situation.
In order to create a plan, that requires testing and experimentation which will eventually lead to creating a system. Studying and hearing advice from many sources is great but sometimes we need to stop and learn how to put this into play and find what works for us.
I think of it as exploration with the basic understanding of concepts and principles you discovered.
Sometimes just going for it is all you need because greatness can lie inside your own mind, it just needs to be dug up.
My goal personally when I work is not feel stressed and I can get stressed easily. Overthinking about all of this can hinder my progress as well.
So I think the next step in this process is to take the one idea I had and begin to flesh out the obstacles that I feel like I currently face and attack the issue with potential solutions. So let's go over some of the obstacles blocking my way.
Creating a theme day: Splitting each goal/interest into its own specific day.
I think the biggest thing I face, if I am being honest with myself, is I don't have a plan. I am just doing things I want to do but I haven’t planned out how long I will spend on each activity and what days I will spend more time on one thing compared to the others.
That understanding alone makes me feel like I have taken a step in the right direction.
So instead of trying to do everything, I need to create a schedule, create end goals for what I want to do with each activity, and a progress tracker.
The best part with pre-planning my goals is trying to see if I can kill 2 birds with one stone. If I can do that then I can capitalize on building skills quicker and even have fun learning 2 skills at once.
I can see the potential of how 3 to 4 of my interests can work together but some of my exercises are practiced differently so it may take some time to find how they can work together.
For now my first iteration to fleshing out this plan is creating the schedule. I want to create a plan that I know I can stay consistent with everyday regardless how tired I am.
I will try to rank my activities by priority and create everyday tasks. Some interests will take higher priority because I want to learn and produce faster than others. So I will put them higher on the list and some will be implemented as a way to maintain progress, consistency and growth.
If I were to rank them according to learning and developing a skill quickly then it would probably be the following
I put business and drawing in the last positions because I feel these are important but with drawing it's more of a fun leisure skill so I don’t mind taking more time to learn it.
With business I believe developing my other skills will help me in the creation of a business especially with the idea of the one person business model. But I also think I will always be trying to study how business works. So instead of rushing I want to create a business with quality products and integrity.
The others are ways that help me to communicate in different ways, again which I believe will help me in my business endeavors.
So tentatively my schedule will look like this:
Spanish: 30 mins
Drawing: 15 min
Day Theme: 1-2 hours
Daily: Language Learning
Monday: Storytelling
Tuesday: Cinematography
Wednesday: Language learning
Thursday: Business
Friday: Drawing
Saturday: Theme of your choice
Sunday: Theme of your choice/rest
Now that I have a tentative schedule I can now spend that time focusing on how to develop that interest. I already have some exercises, it's now just refining them in the allotted time. Of course this will give room for experimentation.
Honestly I think this first step alone will help me create a more effective process for my mind and developing my interests. The best part is I am not stuck to this so if I find out that this is not working for me then I can go back and make changes until I find the best plan.
What do you think about this idea? Does it sound like something you can put into practice yourself?
