I used to think that setting aside free time to do side hustle or creative work aside from my 9–5 day job, meant setting aside 3 or more hours a day to get that work done. I thought it was about “setting” that fat chunk of time to “actually get shit done” was so important that in reality, I never got jack shit done. I felt so unproductive and to say the least, unmotivated to even doing anything.
Sure this “time chunking” method used to work when I was in undergrad and only have classes during the day or once a week, it was much easier to manage my time then. But now, adulting, working full time, and graduate school, aside from other side projects started to build more pressure on my time management. My long laundry list slowly turned into my basket of dirty laundry that needed a serious wash and I saw my life was starting to be unmanageable when I missed deadlines or job interviews opportunities. I started to track my productivity over the span of a two-week period, which in adult world, is a long time. There was enough data collected to conclude: I wasn’t get chicken shit done.
So here’s how I turned my shitty habits into a productivity heaven and what I learned from unchunking my free time:
1. I changed my to-do list to reflect tasks that needed to absolutely be completed that week only, no tasks for weeks ahead were added:
It’s easy to bury yourself with your own anxiety when you physically see on paper the amount of shit you have to get done or the tasks you’re responsible for accomplishing. It’s impossible to get all the things in the world done at the same time, it’s sheer impossible. But I was swimming in my anxiety (and sweat) because I wrote down all the unrealistic tasks I thought I could finish in an unrealistic time frame.
I broke free from the crippling anxiety by focusing my tasks to reflect one weeks time only and created a list of tasks I could accomplish in said week. Some weeks were more hectic than others but that one week time frame decreased my stress, increased my productivity, and I actually was able to achieve 85% of my tasks for the week.
#deep-learning #minimalism #deep-work #deep learning