Only The Curious

There were two really great blog posts in my inbox today, both of which left me feeling better about my life and the way I’m running it.

Matt Chevy wrote about focus. Sort of. Really he wrote about priorities. He talked about how time and time again he’s set himself up to do things – write 500 words a day for his book or write a blog post every day for a month – but then fizzles out well before the task is completed, because he gets overwhelmed and it starts dragging him down. I was relieved to hear I’m not the only one who does this, often over and over again. Just this morning I woke up thinking about the fact that my 30th birthday is this month and I’ve only done about half of the things on my 30 before 30 list.

He came to the conclusion that it’s important to focus on your priorities, and not worry about the things that are taking time and energy and weighing you down. If they’re really important you’ll get to them, and if they’re not, then it doesn’t really matter if they happen, does it?

I left his post feeling okay about not doing all of my 30 things. In reality, I’ve done a whole bunch of other epic things this year I couldn’t have planned for myself, and I might have missed out on them if I’d decided, for example, that I needed to stay home and write more instead of going rock climbing for the first time. My resolution is to follow my energy – what’s flowing, what’s working, and what I’m getting excited about – and not let my worries over my unwritten book keep me from getting things done. I’m going to trust that when the time is right, the energy will start flowing for those things.

Then I opened up Peneolpe Trunk’s post. Sometimes I think she’s brilliant and sometimes I think she’s crazy, (she’s both) but she’s always a good and thought-provoking read. She talked about several things in her post, but the one that stood out to me was the idea of decision fatigue, and how people only have so much capacity for decision making on a daily basis. At a certain point we tire of figuring things out. I think this is why my boyfriend and I fight the most right after work – when we’re both burnt out from the day and something as simple as deciding what to make for dinner can provoke us into hostile miscommunication and anger.

This is also why I’m most productive in the morning, despite the fact that I’m not a morning person. Being self-employed and working alone means I have to decide what I do with every minute of my day – how I do it, where I do it, and ideally, why I’m doing it. By about 2pm I’ve got three free hours and a list of things to do, and by that point I’m usually tempted to call my mom and let her pick, or make a list and pull one of my possibilities out of a hat.

It makes sense that overwhelm and overcommitment aren’t just about time – maybe there’s time to do all of it, but is there energy? Mental capacity? Focus? Decision-making ability? I think both of these posts really get to one point: simplify. Figure out what’s most important, what will have the greatest impact on reaching your goal, and do that first. Don’t let anything else distract you. Don’t worry about what you aren’t doing. Then if you’ve got anything left in the tank, you can start writing your book, or learning spanish, or deciding what to make for dinner.

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Okay, this is not the follow-up post to my previous post about entrepreneurship vs. the 9-to-5. Sorry. I know I promised it like, a week ago, to be written the next day. And yes, Aly, I know you’re dying for the next installment. Mom and Barbara have been haranguing (how is that even supposed to be spelled? I’m a former spelling-bee champ, but I have no idea. And it’s Friday afternoon, so, no, I’m not going to go get the dictionary to look that one up,) me about it too. Sorry ladies. And everyone else. I’ll write it early next week. Finger-crossie promises.

It’s my blog. I can write about what I want.

And what do I want to write about?

I don’t know. Stress, I guess. It’s been a terribly. stressful. week. Which I didn’t know that you could have when there are neither bosses nor deadlines present in your life, and your family isn’t nearby, and your life is primarily filled with beautiful weather, bicycling, and your sweetheart.

Actually, I think I’m stressed because of the lack of both. As referenced in my post about why I need a boss, I find one of the biggest challenges to trying to start my own business/freelancing is being my own task master. (Okay, so I guess I am going to write about entrepreneurship today. Who knew?) It’s really a struggle for me to get stuff done. Like write promised blog posts. Or do things I know I need to do for my business but OH MY GOD LOOK AT THE LAWN. IT NEEDS TO BE MOWED. NOW. See?

Barbara Winter talks about this in her workshops. It’s really easy when you’re working form home to feel productive because you cleaned the entire house, organized the last 10 years’ tax documents, or made your sweetheart a gourmet dinner and mowed his lawn. (Not a metaphor. And yes, I’m really excited that the freaking lawnmower is fixed. Apparently.) But the reality is, you’re not working. You might be being productive, but it’s still just productive procrastination.

And hence, an entire week has gone by without an article written or a blog posted. I did a couple of interviews. And, admittedly, I had to deal with things like a broken car and spider infestation (hence the stress. Like whoa. SPIDERS. EVERYWHERE. IN MY BEDROOM. NOT OKAY.) and these things take up time and energy. Oh, and money. That I don’t have. More stress. (Shout-out to Jon: thanks for the help on the car, bro!)

But I also know my lack of work-related productivity is primarily due to the fact that I haven’t given myself a schedule, or an editorial calendar, or even written down goals. So, starting Monday, I’m going to try doing some of those things. Why not this weekend? Well, as luck would have it, there’s a wedding. No, not my wedding. (Karl, deep breaths.) And the rehearsal dinner is at Karl’s folks’ place. And I am now apparently coordinating it. So, little busy. Lots of fun. Also the World Cup starts like, now, so productivity is at a standstill until that’s no longer a novelty.

If you have ways to schedule, keep yourself on task, etc. I would love to hear them. Help me out readers, PLEASE SHARE! What do you do to manage your time and productivity?

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