Utilize my time more productively

My 43T goals are and will be my guide to how to fill up my daily closet. I AM GOING TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE. I will search out discomfort and do it.

Like a closet with too much stuff in it. My life is like that, but a lot of what fills up my days has got to go to make room for what is needed to get my life on track.

What needs to go:
Hours and hours on the internet. Mostly filling up my mind with information or engaging in escapism. My head already has too much information in it, I can ease up on the need to learn for a little while. So home internet shall be cancelled. Still have to have it at work but can limit time there.

Slow starts to the day with no plans. I usually take 2 to 3 hours in the morning to get going on the day. Some days never get off the ground. This has to be replaced with preplanning and a fast productive morning ritual. (To be formulated here soon)

Late to bed. My slow mornings are tied to my late nights of doing escapist activities. 3 nights this week I didn’t go to bed to after 5am. I was playing on the internet. The next days were none to productive. If the internet isn’t there I’ll sit in the media room and watch TV. Late night TV is no very good, save for Nova. Like my morning ritual this needs a major overhaul. Which will be layed out shortly (within the hour).

Sitting around doing something close to nothing. My wife asks me “where is your sense of urgency?” I lost it but now it is back. Used to be my days were so full and action packed that I barely had time to do the dishes. Lately I’ve been known to take 2 whole hours to do the dishes.

Long trips to the washroom. I used to catch up on my reading while on the throne, often good non fiction mind expanding things. Now what do I do. Play video games on my cell phone. I need to either re-establish my reading or just go and get gone.

Decision paralysis. I can take like forever and a day to come to some trivial decision (which is usually the instinct I had when the questions was first posed). Like what to eat for breakfast, or what to wear. I know and used to preach making a decision is the most important part of decision making. Making a bad decision quickly is often better than taking the time to make the right decision. And statistically I make a bad decision 5 out of 100 times. So 95% of time I would be making good decision and they would be fast. The other 5% can almost always be reversed.

Feeling tired, most of the time I feel too tired to so anything. Either because I was up too late the night before. I ate something bad before bed and had indigestion in the night. But mostly because I am slowly becoming fat and lazy aka out of shape. My old mantra that I’m pulling down of the shelf and dusting off. Feel the fatigue and do it anyway with vigour. Action begets action. Life inertia. Soon you no longer feel tired.

And lastly and possible most importantly. I’ve let my emotions take charge of me. I AM NOT MY EMOTIONS. I can experience my emotions and put them in their proper place. Like Shrek I have layers. Innermost is the observer my true self. Beyond that are my thoughts and beliefs which the observer can use as a guide but can observe nonetheless and put in perspective. Beyond that is my emotional layer. Emotions are biochemical responses to the outermost layer (the external world) and the deeper layer of thoughts and beliefs and the interaction of these two layers. Next two layers are my physical body and the aforementioned real world. My observer self is the part of me that needs to be in charge, not my emotions. This is the trickiest corner of the closet to clean up. But I know how to clean it.

Time to get serious about life again.

Get back to the man I used to be. I used to set goals make a plan, set a deadline and bang it was done. I read people entries in here all the time and I have done a lot of what you are all striving for. BUT in the last 3 or 4 years, I have sunk into a comfort zone and my carfully ochestrated life is slow falling apart.

First steps have already been taken, this website is going to help. First get back to the man I used to be should take 6 months or so I figure. Then perhaps a 18 months to 2 years to become the man I can be.

The eureka moment happened when I signed up for second life a web based community program. I started making goals for my second life and set out to achieve them late into the night. After my 5th visit a light went on in my head. A lot of the things I was doing there were things I should and could be doing in the Real World. I said WTF am I doing? I’m spending 5 hours a day carving out an existence in an online community, meanwhile my Real Life suffers because of this. And then I looked at my Real Life and saw clearly what I have lost and all there is to gain. Thanks Second Life, you are on hold my First Life needs me back.

So tonight I’m setting, tweaking, prioritizing, and planning how to get my life back on the track it was on not too long ago. Here goes!

I am in actuality a fairly productive fellow. I work in spurts and in the end get a lot done. I tend to look down on some of my recreation as not an effective use of my time. But it is important to my well being. The “Happiness Manifesto” insists we treat ourselves once a day and have a good laugh, this is important.

But, I really should work more when I’m at work and less when I’m at home. That is how I will gauge this goal.