DonationCoder.com Software > The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006

who dares wins - my challenge to you.

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app103:
I like app's idea above about locking myself in a room until I work on X for Y hours. -Lilly (October 01, 2006, 07:38 AM)
--- End quote ---

That wasn't exactly what I meant. It's locking yourself in a room for a length of time that would be unbearable to sit & do nothing...with the only alternative being to work on your task. Then you can choose which you'd rather do. The unpleasantness of boredom? or the work?

You can feel free to do nothing and be bored and not work. But can you really feel comfortable doing absolutely nothing for an hour or 2 every day? It would be kind of like sitting at a table in a library, all alone, and not reading....just staring at the table in front of you. No sane person could handle doing nothing like that for very long. It would be torture.

It's just a matter of putting yourself into a position where you have to choose the lesser of 2 evils...boredom or the dreaded task.

My main goal in life is to not be bored, so this might work well for me.

mouser:
i think this challenge is SUPER important, and i've decided in my mind this is a CRITICAL skill to master.
we need to be able to say, i'm going to work on this for at least 5 minutes each day.

there are no days where you can't find 5 minutes to spare - that means that there should be no excuse for not finding time for this - it's really just mental resistance.

so i suggest we start this again - starting from October 1st.  Choose a project you have been avoiding.  Commit to working on it AT LEAST 5 MINUTES PER DAY, every day, for the next 7 days.  make yourself a checklist with each day listed or use a calendar.

then find 5 minutes each day to work on it.  you don't have to do great work on it, you dont even have to do anything but sit down with the work in front of you and do nothing else but that.  just tell yourself you are going to think about it for 5 minutes.  get yourself a timer perhaps.  but just do it. even if it means sitting still in front of a blank peice of paper for 5 minutes.

mouser:
don't aim for x hours - as forster says that's going to create a huge amount of resistance from your brain.  just tell (promise) yourself you will work for 5 minutes on it, each day, and stick with that.  you'll often find that once you get started you can work for longer, but the point is you are only committing your brain to 5 minutes, which is much less stressfull.

Lilly:
Okay, here's a question....

I can grok the 5 minute activity. I can also grok the 5 minute might turn into something else. But, if you're trying to be organized and be able to master your schedule, how can you schedule anything else if a 5 minute task might turn into a half an hour or two hour venture? It's easy to get sucked into these types of projects...

make yourself a checklist with each day listed or use a calendar. then find 5 minutes each day to work on it. 
-mouser (October 01, 2006, 08:34 AM)
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I've actually just sat down to come up with a morning routine checklist of things I have to do every morning. My goal is to stick to that every day for the next week. It will include the 5 minute dreaded task as well.

Thanks for renewing the challenge, mouser. I think that's a great idea. I think the resistance to having a deadline threw me off, so it's worth taking up again.

mouser:
since we are focusing on mark forster i will just again remind you that part of his strategy is to circumvent the normal resistance that your mind puts up to these things, and not put stuff on your todo list that you can't actually maintain.

if you make yourself too-ambitious a plan for each day, your brain is likely to rebel.  so just dont go crazy and plan out some schedule packed with stuff that you'll never be able to stick with.  start really small - as small as your need to, in order that you can actually work on what you've chosen to work on.  reduce the commitment until you can overcome the resistance.

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