March 4th, 2020
I need to do less "small things".
Lately, I can *feel* my tolerance for "small things" getting higher. I've been taking too many meetings, too many phone calls, and I'm generally too optimistic lately, I think.
I want to help more people, get more help, make more online connections, and be more involved in the community, but I also feel like these "small things" can be a huge detriment for me personally, just knowing how I operate. Hanging out on Telegram & Twitter & WIP.chat & etc has been awesome lately, but if I look closer, it's really preventing me from getting important stuff done.
I cannot multitask well. One of my best friends (and also extremely productive guy) crushes his todos while watching Netflix - I cannot wrap my head around that.
Yesterday, I woke up at 7am (been waking up early lately) and I got to noon and I had not done any of the big things I wanted to do that day. Just got 7 "small things" done. I realized I was 5 hours into my "workday" and I hadn't done shit!! I was "working" but it was like my brain was scattershot. Not focused. Not deep work.
Just small bullshit items like "reach out to X about failed payment" (an example) and "tweet about Y" and "add weekly calendar event for Z" and other non-essential things.
I've just given myself too many "small commitments" - for example - joining someone's podcast, or even this daily journal. Each little thing like that really does add up big time.
Maybe this is just one of my mood swings. One month I'm completely heads down and don't check Twitter for a month and pessimistic about the maker scene, and then another month "it's the greatest thing in the world" - probably all in my head and also tied to my own success, but yeah...
But it's pretty easy to fix this. What I've been doing lately is cutting my daily todo list from something like 12 items to 3 items. By cutting it down you have to pick the most important ones. The 9 "small things" can wait. OR, you should do them when you think about them. There is a book called Getting Things Done, that says "if you can get something done in 2 minutes, just do it right then" - I need to be better at that.
As always, I need to have a balance.
Lately, I can *feel* my tolerance for "small things" getting higher. I've been taking too many meetings, too many phone calls, and I'm generally too optimistic lately, I think.
I want to help more people, get more help, make more online connections, and be more involved in the community, but I also feel like these "small things" can be a huge detriment for me personally, just knowing how I operate. Hanging out on Telegram & Twitter & WIP.chat & etc has been awesome lately, but if I look closer, it's really preventing me from getting important stuff done.
I cannot multitask well. One of my best friends (and also extremely productive guy) crushes his todos while watching Netflix - I cannot wrap my head around that.
Yesterday, I woke up at 7am (been waking up early lately) and I got to noon and I had not done any of the big things I wanted to do that day. Just got 7 "small things" done. I realized I was 5 hours into my "workday" and I hadn't done shit!! I was "working" but it was like my brain was scattershot. Not focused. Not deep work.
Just small bullshit items like "reach out to X about failed payment" (an example) and "tweet about Y" and "add weekly calendar event for Z" and other non-essential things.
I've just given myself too many "small commitments" - for example - joining someone's podcast, or even this daily journal. Each little thing like that really does add up big time.
Maybe this is just one of my mood swings. One month I'm completely heads down and don't check Twitter for a month and pessimistic about the maker scene, and then another month "it's the greatest thing in the world" - probably all in my head and also tied to my own success, but yeah...
But it's pretty easy to fix this. What I've been doing lately is cutting my daily todo list from something like 12 items to 3 items. By cutting it down you have to pick the most important ones. The 9 "small things" can wait. OR, you should do them when you think about them. There is a book called Getting Things Done, that says "if you can get something done in 2 minutes, just do it right then" - I need to be better at that.
As always, I need to have a balance.