Random journal

[Preety_India]

The above post was helpful as I'm trying hard to be as productive as possible but my mind goes blank too often 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

6 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

Taken from forum 

I notice that when I'm disorganized and I have a lot of uncompleted things rattling through my head that time seems to slip through my fingers like quicksand. When your attention becomes fractured and diluted by many things, the present moment disappears beneath you. It can become a vicious cycle where:

>you have x number of things to do and you're behind on everything

>you can't decide what to work on and in what order, so your efficiency and effectiveness drops

>you get even further behind and x number of things to do gets bigger

>the problem gets worse

 

If you start to get reaaaaaalllllllly far behind all of this can start affecting things like your self-esteem and your mental health which of course, only makes the problem even worse.

 

Something that can help is to simply get out a sheet of paper and a timer and write out a list of everything you either need to do, want to do, or have considered doing for 15 minutes. Once it's all out in front of you then you can start figuring out a plan of attack to knock things off in order of importance.

 

It helps to complete one thing at a time, starting with the smallest and easiest up to the most difficult, like you're paying off credit card debt or something. Once you're debt-free (mentally speaking) time feels fresh and the present moment feels alive again!

 

Unfortunately, the list of to-do's never goes away and as you get older you start getting more responsibilities. Life can start to feel like it's just one damn thing after another. So you need to develop a good system to get out ahead of things as much as possible, see what needs to be done, know how long you can expect things to take, expect the unexpected and give yourself time buffers for emergencies. Tricky to do especially if you are trying to create one from a place of overwhelm, but it can be done.

 

Also as you get older you become more subject to hedonic adaptation. You stop perceiving the world around you with as much wonder because, for the most part, you've seen it all before. If you pay attention to things though, you can find novelty and surprises every day. I think this is why the internet can become addictive before it starts to feel suffocating. If the world on your screen is where the most excitement comes from, the real world starts to feel bland in comparison. It's not true though. The smell of fresh-cut grass, pink clouds during a sunset, the smell of coffee in the morning, the feeling of a nice hot shower or freshly cleaned sheets before bedtime ... these things can't be replaced by dopaminergic hits and can be savoured forever.

 

If you try a vipassana retreat or similar time feels different.

 

 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

One of the reasons why I'm not productive enough is because I am not organized at all. 

Organizing myself will help me a great deal. 

Talking to my mother is very distracting. 

She always creates an issue out of every little thing. She also assigns me work that distracts me a lot. 

In order to focus hard, you have to be in relative isolation at least mentally.. 

One way is to imagine you're in college or a gym where you have exclusive focus devoted to yourself and nobody to disturb you. 

At this point I feel like everyone needs a life coach. 

 

[Preety_India]

Two methods that I used last week to keep a sharp focus were 

- assessment cards 

- Taskmaster 

 

These techniques were useful but only if I already knew what I was planning to do. 

If the plan wasn't fully laid out in my mind, I can't use these techniques for that kind of stuff. 

I feel stuck sometimes. 

For example past 4 days were eaten up by a phonecall from a family member who created some new drama. 

That consumed a lot of my time. 

Plus this month the weather is too cold and depressing and I tend to suffer from winter depression or seasonal affective disorder. 

I get sluggish in winter. It's hard to focus if it's cold outside. 

 

 

[Preety_India]

I have a collection of cue prompts that help me bring my focus back to where I need it. 

 

[Preety_India]

You know college programs, gyms, bootcamps, therapy sessions, these resources are very important for young people. 

A regular attendance system is also helpful 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

First is that I should know what I want to get done. Because half the time im not really aware of what I want. 

I can do a lot of scheduling and appointment stuff. If I keep an appointment for different tasks I guess that would help. 

To do list is obviously a great necessity. Goal trackers as well.. 

Like let's say I have 3 tasks. Then I keep 3 appointments,one for each. 

 

 

(I have to remind myself to do tarot reading and include that in to my spirituality kit) 

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

I can also hold a regular discussion time that I can call the podwork time.⚫ This time is only meant to discuss stuff related to goals and productivity and my own progress. This will keep me in the loop. 

The other thing I can do is set intentions separately and use intention witchcraft jars. ⚫

 

I can use a grounding ⚫technique. I have a silly cute grounding technique. 

 

Apart from using cue prompts (im also planning to use cue prompts for specific tasks, for example, cue prompt for task XLRS - ⚫"honey you need to do XLRS this week, did you forget XLRS?"), I want bigger chunks or tasks or big/major goals. And then smaller tasks or baby steps which are not very planned or the major goals associated with these baby steps aren't well figured out, yet I can do these small tasks without actually knowing the whole plan. Like a vague idea in my mind that makes sense in the current moment yet I don't have a big picture of what it's going to be about. I'll call these mini maps. ⚫

 

So i have three things - big goals, assessment cards (helps to switch categories of goals, like classes or categories of projects I'm working on, these aren't too specific but a vague classification of what I need to cover broadly), and mini maps 

 

So here it is 

 

⚫ Big goals (very broad but specific, for example - diet change) 

⚫ Assessment cards (meant to categorise things or subjects or fields of self development I want to cover, this helps with keeping track on a larger bulkier scale) 

⚫ Baby steps - these are carefully planned actionable steps that are figured out in accordance with specific goals and eventually help to achieve those goals. Example - if i eat less greasy food today to balance my cholesterol. 

⚫Mini maps (these are if I'm unsure how to correlate them to a specific goal. They are pretty much temporary and help to supplement goals. For example - if i clean up my garden space I can use it for my art collection. This is not pre-planned. But I can do it on the spot, yet I might not be sure if i really want it for my art collection. Maybe I can abandon that idea later. It's not fully organized or laid out in my head yet in the moment I can simply get it done just as a way to help myself. Maybe it's not a part of a plan.. Maybe there is no plan in the moment. Yet it can be either incorporated or abandoned later. It's like a random task that may or may not help or supplement a bigger goal yet doing it might help at least slightly.) these are just random unplanned undecided tasks that are just done in the spur of the moment, yet helpful in achieving a bigger goal. Another example would be - "I'm planning to join the gym. Yet I haven't fully executed the plan. If a friend invites me for a walk, I might go along. This is not a plan, yet it helps in getting some random exercise, so it kinda supplements the bigger goal of getting exercise, yet it wasn't a part of a  specific plan. But it's outcome still helps a bit. Just a random task. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

I'm also coming up with a new idea that I will call integrative Loop. 

This means getting all your goals done in baby steps and chunks and integrating them together to create a loop and always existing within this loop. Almost like a Discipline System 

 

I can also call it the Biological Homeostasis Discipline System. Or simply Discipline Iterative System where goals are slowly integrated into the system one after another and stacked up to create solid integrations and networks of task scheduling and processing. Almost like a production factory in process. Like an assembly line.. 

This means I'm never outside the loop and always in a state of constant flow and constantly in the loop. 

Two important phrases to remember here(can be used as new cue prompts) 

-* in the loop 

-* in the flow. 

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

This integrative loop system will exhaust perfect concentration, will be extremely strict and demanding (like a military camp or a rigorous boot camp, think stage Red), and will leave very little to no room for any distractions. 

 

[Preety_India]

This is so adorable. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/XiRbTN0iO0E?feature=share

[Preety_India]

Climbs the drawer like no problem, right? Not afraid at all. That's a great cat right there. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/zddrImZR6h8?feature=share

 

 

[Marcel]

@Preety_India

I hope our cats will do adorable stuff like that all the time as well hehe 

Lub Lub 

[Preety_India]

9 hours ago, Marcel said:

@Preety_India

I hope our cats will do adorable stuff like that all the time as well hehe 

Lub Lub 

I want that to happen. Hehe. Lub lub 

 

[Preety_India]

Another cue prompt 

 

"let's do a recap." 

 

 

[Preety_India]

Yessss.

Let's do a recap. 

 

[Preety_India]

I've decided to use this as a recap board so it will quickly freshen up whatever I need to be doing. 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

I'll use this as an achievement board template for my goals. 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

I need to think about what I need to write on my recap board. 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

Recap board content 

 

• Mini maps 
• Projects 
• Assessment cards
• Taskmaster 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2021 by Preety_India