I Need Focus, Not Motivation
Over the past few weeks, I have noticed that I have an abundance of motivation to do things. The problem is that I have limited time and my day can easily end unproductively if I get distracted. My solution is to keep my head down.
Today I worked 14 hours, rode my exercise bike for an hour, put my laundry away, and backed up my files. For the past couple of weeks, this way of living has been typical. Since beginning my new job, I noticed that I have the motivation to run my errands, even after a long day at the office.
These past couple of weeks have actually been quite nice. I’m working hard at the office and already being recognized. I then come home and usually manage to get everything done that I need to do and then some. Although I don’t have a chance to read all my favorite blogs and such, I don’t feel deprived because I still watch an hour of TV while exercising.
My Epic Failure
Although I have managed to keep myself busy, there were a few days when I was less productive that I hoped to be. One such day was when I downloaded a hex editor to modify a small program I downloaded. Rather than actually doing something important I spent my few available hours looking at the hex/decimal/ascii values to see if I could find something useful. As you can guess, I did not succeed.
I was not lacking motivation on the days of my failures. On the contrary, I was still highly motivated, except I was motivated to do useless things. Since I have very limited time, a small distraction sapped all my available resources before I had a chance to correct myself.
My Successes
Except for a few days when I became distracted, I have been fairly productive. Just over the past few days I washed and waxed my car, went to the La Brea Tar Pits with my girlfriend, cleaned and mopped several rooms in my house, and a few other things that escape me right now.
The secret to my good days, compared to my bad days, is knowing ahead of time what I will be doing next and sticking to the plan. My routine cards and my Hipster PDA have been immensely helpful in keeping me focused.
Since I automatically have most of my tasks scheduled and organized through my system, interruptions don’t even have a chance to act upon me. I just move from one action to the other effortlessly. Distractions seep in when you end one task and have to think about what you will be doing next. It’s 11:53 PM right now, so I know I will be doing my evening routine and then go to sleep.
Cheers!
Yo. You say that you like to follow a routine. So, how do you take care of things when something comes up that isn’t on your list of things to do? How do you balance things that are important to you? Say, if you had someone who was important, but wasn’t on your list of things/people to talk to; how do you factor that person in? How do you make sure that you aren’t being a robot essentially?
Thanks for the very interesting comment that delves into the question of what it means to be human. Although I may have a routine or procedure to do certain things, I am the one who creates the routine and ultimately still in control and flexible.
As for taking care of things that aren’t on my list, I will either do them if I have extra time in the day or I will add it to my queue of things to do in the future. If something important pops up and I decide it’s important (or the situation cannot be avoided), then I put off the things on my list.
I think the important part of having a list is not requiring yourself to do the things on the list, but knowing what to do next after you finish what you are currently working on (rather than wasting time thinking about it).