A Tiny Celebration

I've been a little hard on myself lately. My procrastination habit bums me out and I can easily spiral down into the bad place. But I realized today that I've really come a long way in the past 3 years or so. And I've accelerated that progress in the past few months. So today is about celebrating the wins. It turns out, I know a few things...

Mind Tricks That ARE Working:

Freedom App - The Freedom App is a delightful little tool that will block whatever sites you want for on-demand or recurring schedules. I was previously only blocking Facebook during the typical "work hours", but I've recently increased my block to M, T, W, Th, F, Sun. I'm past the withdrawal phase where I would compulsively type "f" into the search bar all day, only to get the sad "can't find that site" message. Now I don't even think about it. And I definitely don't miss it. It's not out of the question that I'll just delete it altogether, as it is definitely more of a cost to me than a benefit.

Fake Deadlines - In a previous post, I explored the idea of creating fake deadlines (with stakes!) ahead of the actual deadlines, in an attempt to trigger the Panic Monster ahead of schedule. MY GOODNESS this works for me. I've noticed that right before I write or speak my fake deadline, I feel a strong resistance to doing so. As if a voice inside me is like, "Oh c'mooooonnnnn...that is going to be such a pain in the ass!" So far, I've been successful in ignoring that voice and signing myself up for the fake deadline anyway. It feels similar to Seth Godin's Buzzer Management concept. I just put it out there, knowing I can figure it out before the deadline arrives.

Bullet Journaling - Oh, how I love my Bullet Journal. I feel like the joyful and organized human I long to always be every time I write in it. At the end of every month, I plan the next month. At the end of every week, I plan the next week. And at the end of every day, I plan the next day. I write my gratitudes, my reflections, book lists, observations, silly things my kids say...all the things that matter. On the rare days I don't journal, I feel completely out of order and anxious. I need a plan to anchor me every day and I can truly say, after 18+ months, this digital woman has found it in a beautifully analog form. (At least for now)

Time-Blocking - And speaking of my Bullet Journal, incorporating time-blocking into my daily planning has taken it to a whole new level. My optimistic nature can be incredibly helpful in many situations, but when it comes to productivity, it often gets in my way. Time-blocking has helped me to get real about what's actually possible in a given day, which prevents the gloom that used to set in at the end of the day when I'd look at my to-do list and see dozens of unfinished tasks. Why don't they teach this shit in high school?!

MACRO Time-Blocking - I don't even know if that's what it's called, but I'm going with it. Yes, time-blocking on a day-to-day basis is great to make sure you get the tasks you've already decided you need to do for that day done. But the problem comes when you haven't decided, on purpose, how you want to allocate the time in a "typical week." How much time with the family? How much time doing household chores? How much time working on sales and marketing? How much time working on strategic planning? How much time taking care of yourself? If you can map out an ideal week's breakdown of these activities, when you later go to do your daily Time-Blocking, you can make sure you're staying aligned to your true values and priorities instead of getting sucked into today's random "most important thing." I only just started doing this and I'm still not great at it, but I can already see how much it amplifies the effects of daily time-blocking.

Meditation - I am an almost-daily meditator. And I am TOTALLY getting better at transferring my skills to real life. I do notice when I've gotten distracted most of the time. It feels like a tiny little super power that I've tapped into and is getting stronger and stronger. Again...every teen should know how to do this...I can't imagine where I'd be now if I'd have learned it then.

Pomodoro Technique - The Pomodoro Technique is so dumb to me. There's even a stupid little tomato-shaped timer involved. So of course, it totally works like a charm. When I'm feeling some resistance to doing something hard, I use an app called "Flat Tomato" to start a little timer. For 25 mins, I don't allow myself to do ANYTHING except the stated task. Not even go to the bathroom. I've noticed that this method especially works well during the morning hours, whatever that's all about. I can focus on most anything for 25 minutes, and that short little goal seems to help the task seem manageable. Talk about mind tricks.

So yay me. Yay for figuring out tricks that work and sticking to them and tossing out the ones that don't. Learning to be productive isn't simple. It takes time and effort to layer skills and techniques upon one another in a way that works and is maintainable. When I look at this list, I realize that I've totally underappreciated the valuable system I've built for myself. Kind of makes kicking a little procrastination habit seem like no big deal.