An example of why I am not good at explaining things...

It came to my attention that in my last post I made it sound like I was going on a strict regimen of work, blocking out all other concerns.  Here are a couple points:

1. I just don't have the gift of explaining things well.  I know that.  Therefore, it is not surprising that my last post was misunderstood.
2. My point was that by dedicating myself to working for a set period of time, and not outside that set period of time, that I hope to achieve more AND have the free time to dedicate to my family or other private interests.  I definitely value having balance in my life and not letting work consume me.

Having Free Time

I Googled across an interesting article about productivity and priorities.  It presents the case studies of a few people who impose upon themselves a fixed schedule. They decide that they will work during a fixed set of hours—let's say, for example, something like 8:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M., Monday through Friday—and then they don't waver from that.  These are people whose lines of work would otherwise influence them to work long hours; for example, my current profession, graduate student, is one such profession; I have to set my own schedule, and I have to produce results from said schedule.

In my experience, there is a lot of pressure to work long hours.  It stands to reason that the more I work on something, the better I will be at it.  I can think of many people in other fields for whom this is the case; Michael Jordan, famously, dribbled a basketball around with him everywhere after he was cut from his freshman basketball team tryouts.  When I was a high-school wrestler, I was told the story of Dan Gable, who after winning the national championship in his weight class, instead of celebrating, was seen that very night jogging, preparing for the next big tournament. The book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, talks about the 10,000-hour rule; people who are masters in their fields typically have put in at least 10,000 hours of work to become masters.  I have been taught, either directly or indirectly, that one must work tirelessly to rise to the top of one's field.

The article I have linked makes an interesting point.  By forcing themselves to be constrained, the people in the article put themselves under pressure to do the most important and most efficient tasks possible.  It was interesting to read how once people implemented a fixed schedule they actually improved their overall production even though they were now working less hours.

I am going to implement this idea and see how it works.  It is definitely something I need.

Addendum:
The story of The Fisherman and the Businessman seems appropriate for this topic.

Projects

As I was working on one of my newest projects, I peered over at my bookshelf and noticed a book I bought to work on another project which I had long since abandoned. I realized how often I start ambitious projects to improve myself in some way, only to abandon them once the demands of every day life get to me. My new goal is going to be to stick to my projects.

I make this goal with one caveat: I need to pick projects which are absolutely the most important and best uses of my time. Virtually every ambitious project that. I can imagine is a "good" use of my time. Some of these projects are better than others. The key for me is to figure out which projects are the best uses of my time. The ideal is for me to identify this early so that I don't have keep quitting something that I started.

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Productivity, 2 Weeks Later

I blogged about productivity about two weeks ago.  In said post, I said that I would check my progress in two weeks time.  Here is what I am seeing.

• I have the hardest time remembering to do all of the simple little things I ought to be doing every day.  What has worked for me during these two weeks is keeping a to-do list.  I got a to-do list app for my phone which I have been using to keep track of everything.  I have small daily tasks repeat every day.  Every time I think of something random that I ought to do, or that would be good to do, I put it on my to-do list so that I make sure that I remember it.  My progress on this front has been satisfying.  I have had a virtually perfect record on my small daily tasks, and I have taken care of a lot of one-time tasks that either (1) I had put off for a long time or (2) if I hadn't had written them down, I might not have done them.
• I still have a lot of room for improvement, unfortunately.  Obviously it is not realistic to expect that I can solve all of my problems in two weeks.  However, I have been inspired by the good things that I have been doing lately and have set a few more goals to improve.
• I feel better when I do what I am supposed to.  I feel like doing what I am supposed to for an extended period of time will give me a lot of personal strength.  We'll see how I am doing in three months.

Productivity

I admit that I am a bit of a procrastinator.  It's true.  However, recent developments have increased my daily productivity dramatically.  In no particular order:

1. I got married.  Being around someone who, like me, has good goals and good intentions has given me more strength to act on my good goals and good intentions.
2. I got organized.  My apartment is finally getting over our move-in clutter.  I am sticking to my agenda and to-do list that I have loaded onto my new phone.  Whenever I think of something else that I should be doing, I note it down for future reference.
3. I am doing.  The big thing about acting on ones intentions is actually acting on ones intentions.

I really hope that I can keep this up.  In addition to becoming more productive, I am also getting rid of some poor habits (like eating so much fast food).  I feel really good about the direction I am going.  I will only be able to feel better about it though once it becomes a permanent change.  In two weeks time, let's see how I am doing.