DonationCoder.com Software > The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006

i'd like to buy some discipline please.

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app103:
Before this GOE idea came along, my method of getting things done was very simple:

Do what I want, when I want, for as long as I want.

My life was a series of "Keep-Me-Busy's"...and I got stuff I wanted to do done, for the most part.

With the huge range of interests I have it's not hard to have stuff to do to keep me busy.

But lately I feel like I am not getting anything done, and my desire to do things has gone out the window.

I think the more I think about getting things done, and try to get more done, the less I am actually accomplishing.

All this making and defining goals and putting things in writing...making lists of things that I don't even know what to put on the lists...it's frustrating me...and making me very unhappy.

Before all this started, my main goal in life was to not be bored...everything I did was to fulfill that goal...and it worked well for me, I think.

I wasn't bored...and I was about as happy as I could get, all things considering.

Now I have the attention span of a cat and feel quite depressed.

My email is backing up, my projects are not getting done, I am 3 pages behind in unread forum posts here, I have produced no new art, my doodle pad is blank, and all I want to do is sleep.

Maybe I already had the method that worked best for me and just didn't know it.

Maybe I need to stop all this and go figure out how I was doing it before and go back to it, because this just isn't working at all. It is having the opposite effect of what it was intended to do.

I miss my old more productive life.  :(

momonan:
@app103.  Please cheer up

Whatever you were doing WORKED for you.  That's so great.  We love your programs, your energy and your creativity.  I hope you can forget all this and go right back.  These systems are only useful for those of us who are struggling with either not getting done what we think is important or not knowing what's important to do.

Maybe you can just ignore these struggling posts.  Or, if you want to participate, filling us in every once in a while on what gives you pleasure about what you do.

nudone:
app, it certainly sounds like you aren't in need of a 'system' like this experiment is trying to find.

you were happy without trying to implement rules so i really see no use in doing something that takes you away from that.

i'd recommend just forgetting about this experiment - see if you are back to doing what you did in a couple of days. just let it flow.

Mark Forster's second book, 'How to Make Your Dreams Come True' is a far more relaxed approach to achieving goals - you might find it interesting but to be honest it sounds like you had already worked out what he was trying to say in the book.

Arjen:
I've been thinking and reading about what self-discpline really is. To me it still sounds like a dirty word - it sounds like I must do something, to being forced to do something. I don't want to be forced to do things; I want to do things because I like doing them, because I have a passion for them.

But you can ask yourself: who is forcing who to do something? If you're talking about self-discipline, it would be me "forcing" me to do something. So who is forcing who? It basically just means I'm deciding for myself I'm going to do something. Let's say it this way: self-discipline means I'm using my own power, my inner power, to get things done. That sounds a lot better. :-)

Steve Pavlina has some interesting things to say about passion vs. self-discipline in this article.

He also has a whole series of articles (six parts!) on self-discipline. Here is part one. He defines self-discipline as "the ability to get yourself to take action regardless of your emotional state."

Here is a very practical tip I found helps me. It comes from the book "Do It Tomorrow" by Mark Forster:


* Every night, make a list of tasks you want to do and are sure you can do the next day.
* Put a line under the list so you can't add more items to them. Really, do this!
* The next day, do it.
Of course the third point, "do it", is the most important one. Working in short "bursts" helps with this. So use an egg timer or on the computer, a program like InstantBoss to do this. Here is the procedure:


* Decide which task on your list you want to start doing.
* Decide for how long you would like to work as the first "burst" (say, 20 mins.) and set the time on your timer.
* Feel how that feels. :-) If you get this really ugly feeling in your stomach or if it feels like someone is grabbing you by the throat, go back to the previous step and choose a shorter period. Repeat until you say "I can do that!", then... 
* Do it!
* Take a break. Also decide how long your break will be, and time it, so you won't wander off.
* Repeat and try increasing the time of the "burst".
I've been doing this the last week or two and although I must say I've only completed all the items on my list once, I do notice it keeps me more focussed and I am improving.

Where I wander off most is (surprise) the internet. It's so easy to just keep browsing and "just look up one more thing". Does anyone have a tip on how to deal with this? I see some people post a lot on these boards and I can imagine they spend a lot of time on this - or maybe not, maybe they're just very efficient. I'm interested to hear how these people deal with this.

mouser:
great post arjendk.

i find this intriguing:
Decide for how long you would like to work as the first "burst" (say, 20 mins.) and set the time on your timer.
Feel how that feels. :-) If you get this really ugly feeling in your stomach or if it feels like someone is grabbing you by the throat, go back to the previous step and choose a shorter period. Repeat until you say "I can do that!", then...
--- End quote ---

to me this seems clever because (as forster points out) often the hard part is just STARTING.  once you get started its not as hard as it might feel.  so this is sort of a trick to make it possibile for you to kickstart the thing, even if you end up telling yourself, ok im just going to work on this for 2 minutes.

as for internet addiction and procrastination - it's very real and i suspect many of us hear suffer from it.  make sure you read this:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=5287.0

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