In tracking my time, I’ve gained a lot of insight into how I’m spending my life. Where I’m using my time, and in what ways I can shift that time to the things I want to work on. I’ve long been a serial planner, but executing those plans hasn’t always been consistent. This is definitely a habit I want to continue.
Planning Is Only Half the Battle
Over the last couple years, I’ve become a person who makes plans of what to do for each day, week, and month. Having these plans has helped me to focus on what I set out to…some of the time. Often, I end up rescheduling or rearranging my plans because I get caught up in some distraction. Be it a new idea, a good book, or one more turn.
Having a plan is great, but executing the plan is the important part. Tracking my time has shown me how poorly I tend to stick to my plans. Being able to compare my plan to tracked time directly is huge. It is an easy way to see the disconnect.
With this in mind, I will continue time tracking. It’s a tool I don’t know how I lived without before. It’s made weekly reviews much easier.
Stopping Strategies
In better understanding this tendency for distraction, I created systems for sticking to those plans.
One strategy that has promise is to envision what my goal self would be doing at a given time. For example, if I have a goal physique, when I’m feeling too lazy to workout, I think of what the ideal version of myself will be doing and start. Even if it’s a few pushups and pullups, it makes me glad I to do something.
When self control failed, I needed a more concrete solution. To stop playing games too late I scheduled my PC to shutdown at a certain time. Since putting this in place, I haven’t once run out this shutdown timer. Simply having the pressure to stop has helped me to control the impulse to keep going.
With this success, I want to find ways to add this type of pressure to more areas of my life. There are services like BeeMinder and Stickk that fit the mold. A brief explanation is they add a financial incentive to completing goals. While I’m hesitant to put my money on the line, it may well be the thing to get me to better execute. Starting somewhere small but with a big impact is best. I plan on reviewing my time tracking, plans, and goals to find a good crossing where I can find the best place to start.
Video Killed the Write-io Star
While I’ve learned a lot in writing this blog for 3 YEARS now, I want to shake the format up for the next trial. Moving from the written word to a recording. That’s right, I’m dropping the B for a V and trying out video.
Over the years of writing, I’ve become a much better writer. I find reading my early posts pretty painful. Shifting this logic to the speaking, I’d like to see how much I can grow as a speaker. There are also other skills and technology to learn. From filming to video editing to lighting and set design, there is a lot of growth potential in changing the format.
I’ll still have a post each week with an overview and outline, but will primarily cover my thoughts in the video itself. So feel free to continue checking here for new updates.
Trying Out Before Buying In 