As I’m penning this, I’m practically on the finish of the second month in my year-long Foundations mission.1 This month’s focus was productiveness, particularly creating and sustaining a full-capture productiveness system. You can even see my opening replace and books reviewed.
General, the month was successful. Behaviorally talking, I used to be already pretty near the place I wish to be, so I made a decision to refurbish my system as a substitute of ranging from scratch.
The primary tweaks I made to my productiveness system had been:
- Reorganizing all of my lists.
My system had degenerated over time into considerably scattered lists for various initiatives and objectives. Now my setup consists of:
- NEXT ACTION lists for work/private and residential. The latter is shared with my spouse so we are able to coordinate on family chores and household duties.
- SOMEDAY/MAYBE lists for work and residential. Preserving these separate from my common to-do checklist has helped cut back muddle. After I wish to bear in mind a process, however am undecided whether or not I wish to pursue it proper now, I put it on this checklist—significantly if it’s a decrease precedence.
- CALENDAR. I used to be already utilizing this, however I took some further steps to coordinate calendars with my spouse so we don‘t have as a lot back-and-forth when reserving occasions as a household.
- Different lists, together with IDEAS, GROCERIES (divided by buying location), PROJECTS and WAITING.
- For work duties, I additionally made subdivisions for TODAY and THIS WEEK to take care of the weekly/day by day objectives system I’ve been utilizing for years whereas nonetheless preserving my whole to-do checklist seen.
- I made a decision to make a principled resolution about preserving all deadlines and temporal reminders inside the to-do checklist system (somewhat than on my calendar) until they’re laborious deadlines. My calendar had been getting a bit cluttered with varied deadlines that weren’t actually laborious deadlines. By including time-based reminders, I can comply with up on duties that I don’t wish to take into consideration now with out having them cluttering my calendar.
Did I Really Get Extra Completed?
As may be anticipated given my renewed concentrate on productiveness, I used to be fairly productive this month—particularly at residence, which was a little bit of a weak spot in my outdated system. I spent the primary two weeks of the month altering lightbulbs and fixing door hinges that had been uncared for.
Nonetheless, I believe it’s deceptive to say that is due totally to my new system. Productiveness is closely influenced by focus and motivation, so it’s pure to have a spike in productiveness whenever you immediately begin specializing in it, which occurred with my family initiatives.
Whereas I’m glad to have a bunch of little nagging initiatives finished, the true advantages to this month’s basis are long-term. Specifically, have I constructed a system that can cut back psychic friction in the long term?
On condition that the tweaks I’ve made have been comparatively modest, I’m optimistic that I’ll have the ability to resolve a number of the weaknesses I famous prior to now. Notably on the house entrance, having organized, shared calendars and to-do lists with assigned duties has made it simpler to get clear on what must be finished at residence.
On the similar time, writing down a process doesn’t imply you’ll do it. I nonetheless haven’t gotten a household physician, one thing I had written as a to-do checklist merchandise in my opening replace however didn’t put aside time to get found out. This doesn’t appear to be a failure of my seize system; it’s merely not a process I prioritized.
Plans for the Lengthy Time period
I believe one cause I delayed many family or private duties was that in the course of the workday, I prioritized work. After I acquired residence, dinner and bedtime for the children would occupy me till round 8 or 9 pm, after which there was often solely an hour or so earlier than I’d need to sleep. In consequence, even when the chores had been comparatively modest, I used to be tackling them at my lowest vitality. On condition that few of those duties had been pressing, it was simpler to say I’d do it later.
In my work, a profitable technique for coping with these points has been explicitly planning once I’ll do work. Preserving a weekly/day by day objectives checklist has been one in every of my higher productiveness habits for work because it carves a manageable chunk that may be achieved from the infinite to-do checklist.
To make progress on the family work extra reliably, I believe I’ll want the same concentrate on setting objectives—maybe month-to-month, weekly or day by day—for chores or initiatives we intend to perform now, versus initiatives we’d prefer to tackle sooner or later. Recognizing that the time to do these chores is all the time going to be once I’m drained (or once I’m additionally minding the children) means I have to set reasonable objectives right here but additionally settle for that being drained isn’t a great excuse for not doing them, since I’m by no means going to have the ability to work on them stuffed with vitality and whole focus.
After all, one other highly effective resolution is solely to decrease expectations. It’s simpler to populate a to-do checklist than to do the work on that checklist, so being extra aggressive about shifting issues I don’t intend to do imminently to my sometime/possibly checklist might be good.
General, this month was successful, however there are nonetheless extra tweaks to be made, which I’ll try to be conscious of as I am going into future months.
Comply with-Up on Health
Health continued to go effectively all through the second month. I maintained my unbroken streak of day by day train, together with throughout a week-long trip. Earlier than this mission, I not often exercised on trip (in any case, isn’t it imagined to be a trip?), however I discovered I actually take pleasure in operating in a brand new location. Considering of journeys as an opportunity to do one thing new with health, somewhat than as a break from it, has been a mindset shift for me.
I additionally did my longest-ever run—17 km (10.5 miles)—in the course of the journey. Since operating has gotten simpler, I’ve discovered it pleasurable to go farther. Whereas operating 10 km would have been an actual pressure for many of my life, it’s now straightforward sufficient that I can comfortably take heed to an audiobook with out getting distracted whereas I run.
My power is bettering, however I’m nonetheless nowhere close to my peak power of about 5 years in the past. I count on it is going to take a yr or extra to rebuild, as I had largely uncared for weights for the reason that begin of the pandemic. However on condition that power coaching is secondary to cardiovascular train in my present routine, I’m not going to stress an excessive amount of over my price of progress right here.
My weight on the dimensions hasn’t modified a lot from the 4 or 5 kilos I misplaced initially, though a couple of individuals have instructed me that it seems like I’ve misplaced extra weight. Maybe there’s some change in physique composition, however I haven’t finished sufficient cautious measurements to know for certain. I’m nonetheless above my college-age weight by a minimum of 12 kilos, however on condition that I’m additionally making an attempt to rebuild muscle mass, I’m not striving to drop it too rapidly.
With the second month’s basis concluding (and the primary month persevering with robust), I’m shifting subsequent month to the third basis: cash. I’ll share my opening replace within the subsequent essay!
Footnotes
- As a reminder, I’m engaged on my private Foundations mission three months forward of the Foundations course and the content material revealed right here. As I’m leaving on a household trip for the lengthy weekend, I’m penning this submit on August 27, 2024, a pair days earlier than the “official” finish of the month.