reposted 5-7-2011
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
So I’m a neurotic mess, apparently.
Or at least, I can convince myself of this whenever I choose, by thinking about it and analyzing everything until my brain turns to bubble gum.
I found this out a couple of months ago when on the phone with a friend, and was trying to figure out why I was having so much trouble with some issue I don’t even remember now. I’m sure something to do with motivation. Anyway, at some point in the conversation, I realized that any further analysis was useless.
See, the day before, I’d gone through and taken a mental inventory of ‘things that work for me’. (Luckily these things do exist.)
It hit me, like a rain of frogs – there’s no point in ever peeling that ‘onion’ again. I -already know- what works for me! So that’s been quite liberating for me over the past few weeks. Now whenever I get bogged down, I don’t start analyzing and worrying that nothing will ever improve, I just get back with the program of things I know work to keep me motivated.
Here, I’ll share the list.
1. Regularly connecting with like-minded people. I need sounding boards, as I’m an extroverted thinker. I think best in the company of others. So at least once a week, I get together (in person or by phone) with my ‘creative partners’.
2. Regular (near-daily) review of books that have changed the way I see life. Currently the list includes:
a.) The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
b.) Getting Things Done by David Allen
c.) The Now Habit by Neil Fiore
d. Secrets of Power Negotiating by Roger Dawson (actually most of the book is online at www.rdawson.com/articles.html)
e.) The Power Of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
3. Making plans and lists I can see at-a-glance. Currently I use www.mindmeister.com for project planning, and www.rememberthemilk.com for task management. Remember The Milk integrates very nicely with Gmail, which is wonderful in its own right. Add Google Docs and Google Calendar to the mix, and I’m unstoppable.
4. Focusing on my strengths, and ignoring my weaknesses to some extent. There are some things I’m just not good at, and don’t want to ever spend the time on to become good at. So I’ll farm those things out, if for no other reason than to stave off procrastination over something I don’t want to do. I’ve got a fantastic assistant named Julie for many things, and for very specialized issues I can find great help on www.getafreelancer.com or www.guru.com or www.elance.com if nobody I know can pull off the job.
Anyway, these four things have made an enormous difference for me. You should find systems that work for you, by reviewing what’s worked to get you going before, and finding how to create a system based on that.
Enjoy!