eydis

Yes, it’s this late and I haven’t done much today. But this green tea is amazing! I’ve only taken a few sips of it and I already feel better and like doing some work.

So here’s a list of what I want to get done today:
- go through my article notes
- write a few ideas for every point in the outline of chapters 3 and 4
- think about my experimental model for a little bit.

...collected from comments & discussions all over the place…

1. Clearing your thoughts
   Clear your thoughts of extraneous stuff. “Part-of-me-that-worries, shut up and let me get some work done, so you can worry about something else.”
2. Pen and paper
   Try to limit the time when you need to be in front of the computer..
3. The egg-timer trick
   Think about what you should be able to accomplish in 15 minutes. Set an egg-timer for 15 minutes, and do that task you visualized. You can eventually work up to larger increments. You’ll probably find yourself beating the timer in some cases.
   You are allowed to switch tasks after 15 minutes.
4. Exercise
   Body and mind are connected – it seems that exercising might help
5. Low caffeine (if any)
   Drink 1 cup of green tea instead of coffee. This might actually help me to stay focused
6. Value of outcome
   Think about the value of the outcome and about the missed opportunities.
7. Reality check
   Basically, life doesn’t suck enough, or you haven’t found a passion. It makes all the difference in the world. No mind tricks, just a nice reality check. You don’t get a second chance at life so you better start deciding how to live it.
8. Stop punishing yourself
   Punishing yourself won’t help, on the contrary. Disentangle thinking from emotions.
9. Remove the distraction
   ...such as the direct connection to the Internet (unplug the cable or smth)
10. Break project into smaller pieces
    This should help. And also, remember that the only difficult part is to GET IT STARTED!
11. Read e-mail just once or twice a day
    I’m not sure how this would work for me..
12. Get your circadian cycle in sync
    Wake up at the same hour, go to bed early enough, this sort of stuff
13. Worry Pad
    Have a small notebook and write down for later consideration every thought that might come to your mind so that you are not distracted from studying
14. Sitting Quietly (from Daniel Pinkwater’s book Fishwhistle)
    Sit down for an half-an-hour a day, at your desk. No distractions, no extra stuff to work on, and just one project to finish. Take a quick, zen-cleansing breath, and don’t think about everything else you have to do. (Don’t panic, if what you have to get done takes more than that time, I’m just saying you have to sit for that time.)
15. Complete Something Every Day (from Daniel Pinkwater’s book Fishwhistle)
    Do something that you can complete in one day, and do one of every day. If it’s a book, slice it up into chapters or 10 pages or whatever. If it’s one calculus set, use that. Do that every day, at the same time, once a day. It give some sense of accomplishment, gets you practiced at doing something on a regular basis.
16. Work scent
    Light a candle when working so that you associate what you’re doing with its scent. Then this will function as a reminder to work.
17. Just write one sentence
    Make a deal with yourself: just write one sentence. That small amount might get you going.
18. Just sit
    If you don’t work, just sit there. Do not read slashdot. Do not read Usenet. Do not browse the web. Do not pick your nose. Do not look out of your window. Just sit. You’ll soon get so bored you’d rather work.
19. Don’t be paralyzed during the first draft.
    What you’re writing doesn’t have to be perfect. Just WRITE for a while, and let it take the shape it’s going to have. It’s much better to write a first draft that you have to throw out entirely than to sit there without writing anything.
20. Practice delaying gratification on other things
    Don’t allow yourself to do what you want for a certain period of time. If you want to watch your favourite show for instance, move the TV to a neighbors if you have to, but make sure you deprive yourself of this pleasure.

OK, after having abandoned this site for a few months, I just decided that I will give it another try.

I deleted most of my former goals and am now reorganizing them.

Stop procrastinating – Focus no. 1: I need to finish my Master thesis. Really. I will keep this as a separate objective from now on.

My list is a mess. I need to rethink it.

For the past few days I have been too busy/distracted to spend time w/ 43 things. This also means that I spent less time monitoring my progress towards certain goals…like this water drinking one…

So this is how I ended up totally ignoring my 1 litre target and actually forgetting to drink water for hours…

Key lesson: you really need to monitor yourself for a long time before you can count on the fact that a certain behaviour has become a habit.

Self-monitoring should be enforced for at least 3 months.

As I was saying in my previous post, weirdly enough something started to change during the past few days. Before, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life and felt quite depressed because of this and had no determination to do anything. It was that “I want to hide under my bed” feeling, that probably many of you have also experienced. But now it’s like I want to do a lot of things at once and I am wondering if I am spreading my efforts in too many directions. Probably not, but here’s the longer story:

While wasting time (yeah, that’s something I’m working on – see my other goals) on the Internet, I also started to look at jobs or fantasize about places to go and things to do. And I realized that I don’t have to have a very clear direction in mind. I found some concrete – let’s call them – “career opportunities” that sounded like a lot of fun and decided to give them a try and apply. Of course some require that I take other steps in between. For instance, I still don’t know if I want to be a researcher or not – but you know what? it doesn’t really matter that much! I found a PhD position that I liked and I will take the GRE and apply for it. At the same time I found a video contest and I will try to do something for that as well. In the end, whether I will be a scientist or an artist it will depend on chance, success and others, but for the moment I keep my options open.

So my advice for all those going through this hard time of 20sth is EXPLORE! Nothing has to be forever, really. If later I won’t like my PhD anymore and decide I’d be happier teaching English in developing countries, that’s what I will do!

Weirdly enough, having to write for my goals on 43 things has made me a bit more determined and optimistic about my chances of success.

I still haven’t figured out what it is that I really really want, but at least now I am approaching more opportunities and taking direct action on them. I think it will be easier to understand myself and my motivations if I explore different paths.

I have never been 50 years old so far, but maybe the quarter-life crisis is not that bad, because now there is still time to explore. I am happy I am young! :)

I was sick, I am better, but my body is probably still recovering as I woke up at 10:30 today and thus started later. I did work later though so I guess I’m good with this for the day.

This is actually working to some extent as today I wasted less time than usual. This morning I logged into my Google Calendar and assigned time slots for different activities/tasks that I wanted to do. Even when the descriptions of the task was not very detailed, I had to stay within the alloted time because I knew there was something else that I had to do later.

I did stay quite flexible though, which should be good…OK, maybe I was a little bit too flexible, because I didn’t continue with what I had planned after dinner. However, the first part of the day went well, so I will continue with this idea for the moment…

So last week I was sick. Too sick to keep track of any of my goals. Now I’m OK again. Today I did pretty well on this. I drank at least 1 litre of water.

Next step: try to keep this up for at least a week then increase the quantity.

I did pretty good on this one today. I drank 1 litre of water so far and the afternoon is not yet over. I also had a glass of fresh orange juice and some soup.

What seems to help is having a 500ml bottle around – it is easier to achieve the target if I drink it all and refill it once than if I had a bottle twice the size.

I’m happy! :)

I have problems starting to do whatever I want to. Maybe it’s also the mood and the health related issues I’ve been through, but I keep telling myself that I will do it later. “Just five more minutes” – and then I realize that the whole day is over again.

Need to take extra-measures. I will add another sub-goal here:
- take some time every evening to make a (realistic) to-do list for the following day

So I couldn’t actually do this today, because I had to go to the doctor. This incident sort of affected my progress on other goals as well. Provided that I will feel OK tomorrow, I will try again then.

I don’t know how this could be achieved… For the moment I will try to focus on the smaller e-mail-related goal that I listed under “stop procrastinating”, but that also fits in here

Today I didn’t actually manage to drink 1 litre of water, but that’s because I was a bit sick and I had to drink some tea instead. Nevertheless, the idea of the 1 litre of water + something else was that I would take in 2 litres of liquid which I don’t think happened. Maybe it’s also the loss of appetite..

I am not a big fan of self-help books, but this time I decided to give it a try. I just ordered from Amazon a book entitled “Conquering your Quarterlife Crisis”. I looked through it and it seemed quite OK – I don’t expect it to be life changing, but at least it contains some stories of other people who went through the same moods and phases as I do now. So here I move from “I didn’t know” to wanting to hear the stories of all those other “many people”.

I guess in another society we would gain life experience by talking to those elder than us. But in this alienated world we’re living in today it’s more difficult to get that sort of insight. Perhaps it is here that this sort of literature is expected to be useful, by filling up a gap.

I shall see to what extent my expectations will be met when I actually get the book. Yey!

I’ve been having this goal for a long time now. Sometimes I drink enough water, sometimes I don’t. So I decided to write this goal down so I can actually have a place to keep track of my progress. I guess it’s important to monitor it.

My idea is that I will try to drink at least 1 liter of water for a week, starting tomorrow. I know I would normally need more than this, but I want to take small steps not to get discouraged. Besides, 1 liter is the minimum that I want to monitor here, but it is possible that I will drink more and also other things such as milk, soup or juice (I only drink soda or coffee very rarely).

Good luck, me!

there were so many people going through this as well..

This is a sub-goal of the “stop procrastinating” one.
I’m starting with it on Monday and I hope it will work well..

This is my first goal on 43 Things and the priority right now.

Procrastinating..this is something that many of us do in relation to all sorts of things. I, for instance, procrastinate work, fun, seeing friends, doing something useful..

I realize that it will not be easy to solve this issue, particularly because it touches so many aspects of life and you can find yourself procrastinating something when you expect it the least. But I am committed to at least try to improve it, so I will start working on this goal by defining smaller ones.

Right now, for instance, I need to finish my research proposal for my Master’s thesis and for weeks I have been unable to focus on my work. Whenever I sit at my computer to read or write for it I end up wasting a lot of time with e-mail or Facebook. My friends all work on their proposals from 9 until 5 and then they are free to do whatever they please, knowing that there is a time for work and a time for play. I, on the other hand, just can’t get started. Once I were into it, I’d actually enjoy working.

For the moment I decided to define two smaller goals:
- I will try to start working at 10 a.m. the latest.
- while at work, I will only spend 5 minutes every hour on checking e-mails

Let’s see how this goes..wish me luck!