Thursday, January 24, 2013

Procrastination Week 3


Once again, I have procrastinated writing the procrastination post.  That could be funny, but it isn't.  

I don't think I'm doing a good job of the Pause Habit.  I think the reason is that when I want to procrastinate, I procrastinate before I start.  I don't have the opportunity to pause, because I just avoid it altogether.

In general, I've been more lax on setting my MIPTs first thing in the morning.  This isn't a problem though, because I set my tasks for the day on the bus, and I just set my MIPT then.  I think it's more efficient, and it makes my morning shorter.

The rest of the month is dedicated to practicing these habits.  This is probably best, as I think I just need to get my routines set.  

Next week, I'm in Mexico.  I haven't decided if I'm going to worry about this stuff during that time.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Procrastination Week 2


This last week's goal was to form the Start Habit.  The idea is that just getting started is the hardest part of completing a task.  If you start, you'll likely get over the initial friction and complete it.  If not, at least you made a dent.

I was very good at setting and starting my MIPTs (Most Important Procrastination Task) during the work week.  I ended up picking the same task most of the days.  I would do a chunk of work on it (CRPs for my rentals - gross), and then go back to work.  It wasn't very hard.  I also got my hair cut, which I typically procrastinate for weeks on.

The weekend was a different story.  I set my MIPT, but never started them.  I think if I tried to do my MIPT first thing instead of planning it amongst all my other work, I could better guarantee that it happens.

Overall, the week was successful.  It may have to do with the MIPT being the same most days though.  After the first day's initial friction is overcome, maybe it's easier subsequent days.  Perhaps I should force the MIPT to be different each day regardless of whether it was finished.

This post is 3 days late.  That is not from procrastination.  I was crazy sick since Monday night.

Because I've been sick, I'm starting this week's goal of the Pause Habit late.  I'm supposed to pause whenever I feel the urge to procrastinate while doing my task, take a deep breathe, and let it fade away.  Sounds like a bunch of hippy crap, but we'll see...

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Procrastination Week 1


The goal for this week was to form the habit of setting the Most Important Task first thing in the morning.  After the first couple days of forgetting to do it right away, I got my shit together.

On the first day, I modified the goal slightly.  I decided that, with respect to the goal of the month, what I really need to set each day is my Most Important Procrastinated Task.  There are plenty of important tasks that I have no procrastination issues with.

Although I was solid on setting my MITP each day, I did a pretty poor job of actually accomplishing them.  I usually blamed it on not having a chunk of time or something.  Classic procrastination.  I don't feel that bad, because the goal was just to set the task.

The goal for this week is Habit 2 - Start.  The idea is just getting started, at any point, even for just a minute, will overcome the majority of procrastination.  This is absolutely true in my experience.  We'll see how it goes.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Public Accountability


In the interest of being successful with my commitment to following The Zen Habits Sea Change Program, I've decided to publicly post once a week on my progress and adherence.  

From the site:
Sea Change v2 is a monthly membership program designed to help you implement and stick to changes, with a different module each month. Modules will be focused on helping you: 
Stop procrastinating [January]
Eat healthier [February]
Meditate [March]
Exercise [April]
Write daily [May]
Simplify your day [June]
Get organized [July]
Declutter [August]
Be grateful [September]
Reduce/eliminate debt [October]
Read more [November]
Let go [December]
I'm actually pretty decent at most of these, but I've found myself slipping recently.  I'm also using this to offload choosing what I should "work on next"; so that I can be sure to make incremental improvement.

The first month is about Procrastination.  The first week is commiting to Habit 1 - Most Important Task.  Again, I'm actually pretty far along with setting goals and task management (I've been using Nozbe for GTD for years), but this will get me back into a simplier set of good habits (I hope).

I've run into some serious procrastination issues recently with NewGroupies.  I've wanted to do some design things as well as some feature enhancements/redesigns.  I've found it very difficult to get going on these for some reason.  I'm experiencing similar procrastination with some real estate and day-to-day items as well.  I hope this gets me going on the right track.

Next week, I'll report on how I did each day, what I learned and what I'll be focusing on for the next week.