20th post! Not doing any special post to celebrate- I'm just noting it. I considered an epic, deep post (yeah, right) but today is going to have to be quick- it's a busy week as usual.
You all know that I was a little obsessed for a while with setting goals and tracking them. I developed a single system in Evernote and stuck with it. The rigidity was definitely worth it- I developed a lot of discipline and I got used to reminding myself of my goals frequently. Furthermore, I really liked having just a few primary goals for the month that I stick by, not letting myself get so excited about other ideas that I lose focus. What I've found is that this really makes me feel like I have a "theme of the month" which is great motivation. But now I've moved into an experimental phase, playing with incentives and expanding my thoughts on what I truly want to accomplish. You know, the "why" rather than the "what." Recently I've tried two new systems, one of which is described below in my August goals. I think I'll save the other for a post in the near future (it's a web + smartphone app).
My August goals are:
1) Make tally marks each time I lose focus at work. This is a neat trick and it's helped me a lot in the last week. Essentially I have a sticky note on my laptop keyboard that says "Focus." I catch myself every time I feel like I'm about to do something unrelated to the task at hand (such as randomly checking Facebook or the news for no reason), unless I explicitly give myself permission to do it. I make a tally mark, remind myself of why the task I was performing was important, and get back to work. If I actually get to the point of checking Facebook and getting distracted, then I make two tally marks. During breaks, I may explicitly give myself permission to visit a particular website, and even then I make sure I don't continue clicking on links forever.
1a) Make tally marks each time I find myself having negative thoughts. This is auxiliary to the first point, and is accomplished in the exact same way. There's no point to worrying incessantly about something. Whether something is going badly or not is useless information to me- in fact it will just distract me from doing what I need to do. If something is worrying me, then I should ask myself "Can I do anything about it? Right now?" If the answer is no, I stop worrying and focus on something I can actually influence. If the answer is yes, I either do it or make plans to do it. This is a game I've been playing in my head for a while, and I found that having an object (piece of paper) to dump this on helps me push away the thoughts that are bothering me. That brings me to my next goal.
2) Keep a pocket Moleskine journal. I've resisted keeping a dedicated paper journal for many months now. I figured- I have Evernote to record all my thoughts! Everything backed up in one place! But it's just too clunky on my iPhone while I'm on the go, and I really need to be able to draw diagrams and integrate them with the text. Accessing a stickied page in a paper journal is so much faster than pulling up the relevant note on my computer. I tried a Hipster PDA for a bit but it didn't work out. Anyways, I've used this for the past week to develop my thought processes on my values, my short- and long-term goals, my ideas, etc. Putting it on paper (or Evernote) helps you pare down the bazillion things going on in your head to just the most important things. I originally disliked the lack of structure in the Moleskine (and you can't copy/paste templates like in Evernote)- but I've come to understand that forcing yourself create a system from scratch for organizing your thoughts is important for, well, personalizing your personal development. By the way, if you haven't started recording your thoughts and goals in any way, I highly recommend you start. If time is a worry, just know that it will save you time. Here's a wealth of productivity systems you can implement in a Moleskine.
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| My red Moleskine. On my computer for size comparison- it fits neatly into my pocket. |
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| A page from my Moleskine. I made a thought process flowchart in response to feeling guilty about not getting enough done in lab. I asked myself a couple of key questions that completely modified my perceptions and put the work I did that day in context. In the end I concluded that my other priorities were more pressing and so I was at peace with myself. Those key questions are labeled 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the flowchart and lead to specific actions I should take (eg not worry or find a specific way to fix it). Then I solidified it in a Moleskine flowchart- so I can refer back to it in the future so I don't stress myself out in the future unnecessarily. |
3) Be productive in the evenings learning information or a new skill that is unrelated to labwork. I don't think I have time this month to keep a consistent side project up on top of my Moleskine experimentation, so I figure why not just keep my mind fresh. I'm reading a book about dishonesty (thanks Dale!), learning some coding, learning some memory tricks, doing logic puzzles, and whatever else. The primary reason I'm keeping busy at night is that I've found it helps me sleep a lot better than if I just watch 30 YouTube videos.
Finally, I have started using a productivity web app for my goal tracking. I'm using it to remind myself of a bunch of other goals that I'd ideally like to accomplish a few times a week. Because of the way the website works, I don't need to think about them as much as my primary goals, so I don't have the focus issue that arises when I have too many goals. I will share after I explore it a bit more.
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