Question Everything: Weekly Report: Discomfort Solved

This was a very interesting week to start my experiment, because I bought a condo! That obviously took a lot of time, and I faced some other personal challenges this week as well. But my scheduled bursts still allowed me to get a lot done, and my habits have taken a lot of the stress out of my life.

If you haven't read up on my new system yet, see my last blog post.

See after the calendar for the lessons I drew this week.

Report (see calendar): I met my scheduled bursts (green) on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday without much trouble. However, on Wednesday (yellow) I had an urgent interruption related to the condo, so I simply did my burst later in the day, under non-ideal (i.e. distracted) conditions. On Thursday (red), I was simply exhuasted from the condo closing and decided to take a nap instead. Yes, I would call that poor planning, and in the future I will avoid planning bursts on days surrounding major events.

Green = success. Yellow = urgent interruption. Red = failure. Blue = other commitments.

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My new favorite thing: discomfort

But overall, I got a lot done this week. I tackled two big experiments that I had been putting off, partially because of lack of time, and partially because I was a bit fearful and didn't know where to start. However, just 1 hour of focused concentration in each case proved sufficient to break through the barrier. At the beginning, I felt stupid and perhaps a bit guilty. After that very uncomfortable hour, I knew what I needed to do, and I was able to get started on real work. And I managed to get real (and exciting) results for both of them.

This illustrates what I've known for a while, informed by bloggers like Cal Newport and Scott Young:

~Comfort with discomfort is one of the most important skills a person can develop. Forcing yourself to persist through discomfort is critical when starting any new project. Otherwise, it is too tempting to go back to easy work that only makes you feel productive.~

Scheduled bursts are a great way to force yourself to embrace discomfort. They are time-limited, so the task no longer seems as daunting and it's easier to get started. The process of systematically eliminating distractions also helps to psychologically prepare you for the discomfort.

To facilitate getting into "the zone," I have implemented a checklist for when I start these sessions. Checklists are obviously ubiquitous, but I'm using them for two very specific reasons:

1) Mental attention: It gives my mind one less thing to keep track of. Making deliberate changes to one's productivity system itself requires mental attention, and checklists lessen that requirement. The checklist makes it easier to fully focus on the task in front of me.

2) Ritual: This tells my brain that it's time to enter a state of "deep work."

My checklist for scheduled bursts.

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Habits are investments

I won't comment much on these this week. But I've observed two things:

1) I've already begun noticing changes in how I perceive events and how I interact with people. In particular, I make much better eye contact and feel much more confident.

2) These habits are now always running in the back of mind. Thus, I can automatically activate them when appropriate.

Lift habits.

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Next week's schedule

I also noticed last week that front-ending my bursts (e.g. scheduling more towards the beginning of the week, and beginning of the day if possible) makes good use of my abundance of early-week energy. It also eliminates feelings of guilt if I have to tend to other things later in the week. This week, I have to front-end my schedule, since I will be away for a wedding Friday-Sunday.