PFENIX.remix

Quickie Gloat!

ONE MONTH OF KICK-ASS INBOX CLEARING!

Go ahead, email me! I dare you.

caragee@gmail.com

Notes to Self. Four, in fact.

I didn’t manage to finish my 40 days video this weekend. I overbooked myself. I’m postponing it until Thanksgiving—sorry! This IS a work-in-progress blog about how much I fail at time management and productivity, resulting in a need to attack it via stratagems and sneaky tricks.

When trying to get a shitload of happy-homework done in the presence of people (say, a boyfriend or a group of friends staying in your dorm room), the motivation to work becomes endangered. Here’s some truths I realized were, in fact, true and not just made up by snobby time-managers:

1. Give myself more time than I think I need. At the end of the day, ‘tis better to have extra time than extra work.

2. SCHEDULE BREAKS. It’s much better to have a designated 30 minuted of fun than an unplanned 3 hour detour through Facebook, junk food, and brooding.

3. This comes from the late Randy Pausch’s “Time Management” video. If you have to eat a frog, don’t spend too much time looking at it. If you have to eat three, don’t start with the smallest one.

4. Ask myself, “Why am I procrastinating?” The answers—I procrastinated quite a bit—surprised me. “Fear of not understanding it.” “Fear of being unable to finish everything on time.” “Wishing I’d started sooner/knew the material better/etc.” These responses were generate by fear and by “have nots”. My procrastination is a product of a desire for perfection when perfection is not possible.

The best thing I can do for myself is to forgive my inner procrastinator once more and move on with it. I can only do one thing at a time—what’s the point of worrying about what I am not doing when I am working on something?

Silly procrastination. I shall laugh in your face someday.

40 Productive Days: "Conclusion" Coming Soon.

Tweeted today: working on me. Making serious, beneath-the-surface progress… but I understand that output is the real measure.

Making the output ready for minor consumption!

40 Productive Days: #33 - Staying Really Freaking Inspired

Tumblr wasn’t workin’ for meh last night, so this is yesterday’s post.

In order to achieve the best possible outcome for myself, I have to be brutally motivated to keep going. My soul is a snotty bitch. I have to keep her happy and fruitful; interestingly, she likes to make tall orders. She’s picky. She’s demanding. She’s the perfect boss because she knows exactly how to have her cake and eat it too.

This is what she loves about this challenge. She likes being proud of the accomplishments—of staying focused for a long run (for me), of going public, of the better contributions, of the small changes she can sense but most people can’t see. She is already optimistic for the future; she is already demanding more. She’s pleased to see how much less stressed I am.

These are two things she told me to ax. She ice-queened them.

- The two planner system. I have a daily and monthly planner. The daily planner is going to become a daily diary—but the important stuff, like keeping track of assignments and appointments, is going to stay in the weekly/monthly planner. Basically, I just want one planner. (The daily diary will be twitter-esque: short, just the essentials, maybe a food log, and other useful data I’d want.) Also, I have 3 notecards: Today, Tomorrow, Next 3 Days. Such a better system for an easily distracted chica.

- How my room was arranged. Space management, desk management. She didn’t like the setup and therefore she refused to use it. Instead, she pushed for better and more efficient systems. I didn’t know this about myself. I thought when my desire to be organized stemmed directly from wanting control and simply needing it. But it turns out, efficiency is not only useful, but I realized that it is also very pretty. And I’m a collector of pretty things.

She’s still inspired by this newfound productiveness. She’s still critical because I have much more to go before I have mastered this productivity thing. She’s still raring to go go go GO.

I’m deeply grateful for how this is changing what I am capable of. We’re looking forward to more. We can’t wait until we reach “less is more”.

40 Productive Days: #32 - Skipping Straight to Celebration!

I have been without my computer for over 3 days now… I was supposed to have access to it by last night, but since that didn’t work out, I’m using my boyfriend’s computer! I wonder if this is normal; to not have computer/internet access a couple times a month. It’s strange to think of myself as being “disconnected” every couple weeks. I’m one of those pople who would consider getting a chip in her head that would allow her to connect to the WWW anytime.

I’ve noticed that over the last 32 days of badass productiveness… I spend less time online. And was definitely a positive thing for me. I still spend quite a bit of time on da Web; probably more than average. But I’m even using that time more wisely! So by managing my time better, I end up using my computer more efficiently and having more time in the real world.

Change one attitude and you can change everything.

Also, on more romantic note, today is my three-year anniversary with my boyfriend.

I’ve always had an issue with concepts like “loyalty”. I associated it with royalty and a sense of blindness. However, since Geoff and I started dating, I know now that the opposite is actually true. To choose to what and whom you are loyal to requires insight, wisdom, and warm-hearted rationality that MUST guide your commitment. To anything or anyone. And especially to yourself.

I am being loyal to myself by participating in these 40 days. This commitment is making huge happy waves in my life. I’m enjoying the process and look forward to following up on it once these 40 days in complete. Perhaps I’ll pick up another commitment to strengthen the new changes I want to keep in my life.

40 Productive Days: #28 - One Sentence Post

I learned one thing today: don’t stop believing.

40 Productive Days: #27 - I am the Cutest Lil' Badass, Seriously

Yesterday’s organized mojo has replicated into 100x and, so, I’ve just been one cute lil’ badass today. Everything has been running smoothly under my watchful eye and deft hands. I feel awesome! This is the best reward for taking it easy this weekend.

I was sort of annoyed because my lab group was like, “uh, don’t sleep through our lab meeting?” today because… that’s what happened last week. I want to whine I felt like death, I said I was sooorrrrryy, you guys have missed meetings/been super late before, don’t look at me, you know I’m normally really responsible, waaaah.

But then I realized I was making excuses for myself and just said, “Well, I’m not sick anymore, so I’m on top of my game again. See you there!”

Moving forward is super.

Trying to figure out how to make a video! Technology. I swear there’s way more of it than I have creativity/know-how to use it.