Hi guys,
I have just completed a week of using a system. I currently have a white board behind me that has been there since about halfway through December last year with goals to achieve by the end of 2018, which includes a few goals including "have 50 patrons" and "make an episode of my cartoon". However, I also have another white board behind me with a system on it.
I have had trouble with getting everything done I need to get done, in getting the right things done and focusing on the right things and in being my most productive. I KNOW it isn't laziness though. I have a suspicion as to the cause but I'm not going into that right now, because as of this point, it is only a suspicion.
However I tried to find a solution. I discovered systems and have implemented a system. I have just completed my first week of having a system.
The way the system works is to have categories and then have minimum things to do and when under those categories.
I have categories for health, happiness / fun, career / study and social life. The information I found about systems said happiness and fun should be part of it, and after doing it for a week, I agree and say that forcing fun into being a habit and part of the day was important as I focus better after doing something fun than if I kept pushing onwards even though it had reached the point I wasn't taking information in from what I was reading etc.
My only everyday item on my system is the one under health: exercise every day.
I currently have a system of:
HEALTH
Exercise every day
HAPPINESS / FUN
Do something different once a month
Play video games each day I work from home / study from home
CAREER / STUDY
Apply for a job each day I work / study from home
Do something for my business each day I work / study from home
Study for 20 mins when in study semester each day I work / study from home
SOCIAL LIFE
See friends or play online with friends at least once a week
These things are things I tend to do anyway, but not consistently I guess. I'd more-so go through days where I get a heap done and days where I would get hardly anything done and I feel like I can't get my shit together at all. I am not in study semester yet so when study starts it will be the biggest test of how well this system works. However, this first week went quite well. Every day I did what was required for that day in the System and most days exceeded it. I found actually scheduling exercise and gaming into my day helped too because the break helped break up tasks and stopped me working on one thing for too long that I either became unproductive or didn't do other important things, and it made me feel better, and generally helped me concentrate once I returned to working on things.
Putting exercise in as a thing I must do every day has been good because it has made me do it every day. Before I'd do it but then decide I was too busy with other things and let it slide and then I'd do some exercise then I would let it slide over and over pretty much. However, everyone should be exercising and I have health issues that would benefit from me exercising, so I really should be, so adding it to a system I commit to following is a great help because it means I actually do it. I have got to the point in Study periods before that I have got too busy studying that I do nothing but studying and that means most exercise falls by the wayside as well. I have a little bike pedal thing that can go under my desk which helps with this as I can multitask and use the computer while pedalling but it isn't enough. It is better than nothing, and I love the little bike, but it isn't enough and I don't count it towards the exercise requirement on the system either.
One thing I also did throughout this time was start setting an alarm when I do things. Rather than deciding "I'm going to edit now" and not having a timeframe on it, I set an alarm for twenty minutes time and edited that whole time. I was not as tempted by distractions or distracting thoughts in that period and I was focused on my editing and I have been very productive on and off with this in the past, but I would say that I was more productive in that twenty minutes than I normally would be during twenty minutes of editing when I had no timeframe to work with. Seeing how much I could get done in that timeframe and knowing I could look at x thing or y thing after the alarm goes off was enough to halt the "I'll look at this or quickly do this" sort of breaks that would occur with no timeframe. I was to do that task and that task only for that period of time.
This seems better than goals for me. I will still keep my whiteboard of goals though, but the system will be the focus. I am quite ambitious and have goals but when they are too far in the future, they don't make me act now. Short term goals I feel will work better than long term goals, but I feel the system is better again, though they probably work best in conjunction which is why I won't get rid of my goals whiteboard. I find long term goals don't make me act, but short term goals are more likely to, however so far the best thing I have found to make me act on heading towards success has been my system.
The real test of the system will be when study starts though. Study is where a lot of stuff was getting lost in the past. I was struggling to keep up with study and then eventually hitting the point that I hardly did anything but study. Exercise would go out the window, as would my business, my channel etc. The system is meant to be minimums, but I am fully aware that twenty minutes each day I'm studying from home won't be enough for full time study, but twenty minutes still means I don't have those days where despite trying I seem to get pretty much nothing done, so having that as a minimum still should lead to an improvement I feel. Using alarms definitely I feel will be of benefit here since on a time-frame, it should be easier to focus purely on study and not be tempted to procrastinate etc and it also creates the situation of trying to get as much done in a short time-frame but also it stops me pushing and pushing at something to where I am still working on the same thing, when either a) I should be working on a different course by now or b)I'm reading the information and it is not going into my head at all because I'm having trouble concentrating.
I don't know if a system would work for you, the reader, but it seems to be helping me, as does making myself exercise and have fun breaks every day, and using alarms and making myself work until the alarm goes off. Strategies like these may also work for you if you have been really struggling to get stuff done and be successful. Remember if you do though, that the system is meant to be able to be completed consistently as that is how it works so it is meant to include your minimum expectations of yourself in these areas. Don't plan too hard on yourself and then fail at your system because the way to make it work is to always at least do what's on there, and hopefully exceed it.