So, for those of you that have already subscribed to my
blog, THANK YOU! For all the new readers, I hope you enjoy reading this as much
as I do writing it…
So, quick update; loving it in Dubai. If you ever have the
chance to come and visit, you HAVE TO! I recently moved to Dubai, read all about it here.
Dubai has a certain magic to it. Everyone that stays here
will tell you to come during the winter time. Which starts around about the end
of September. Average temperature highs will be 26˚C (I am yet to experience
it). Summer months are May till September and is an average of 40 ˚C and
seriously humid. But now start of September you can see people returning from
holiday, even the birds are starting to return. I think it is safe to say that
Dubai is getting its mojo back.
So today, for the first time in 3 months I visited my blog
again. WOW!
I was so busy going for interviews, planning what new
direction my life would take that I completely forgot to track the activity om
my blog.
This just means that I am doing something right. I just
reached 1000 page views.
I know to some it is not a lot, but this is a MAJOR
milestone for me. It is a bit surreal, I mean that is hundreds of people all
over the world reading MY stuff. Kinda cool!
So sorry for the looooong delay in posts. I think I was
looking for some inspiration, and as some of my old students would tell you,
you can’t rush inspiration. When it comes, it comes and you need to be ready
for it when it does. Check out my new website with exciting new ventures.
Trying to force something is so tedious and never fun. When
I feel like I am forced to write it will take me hours on hours to write 300
words, but when the inspiration strikes it can take a full 15 minutes to write
200 words. You get the point.
I have stopped thinking that I purely need to do something
because I have to. I want to be a person with passion, and I can’t be that if I
am not true to myself and what I want to do with my life. Surround yourself with good people, but don’t get me
wrong, this doesn’t mean you can stop doing anything and everything you don’t
like. I don’t like doing the laundry but that doesn’t mean I can stop doing it.
I do like walking around in clean clothes so certain things must be sacrificed
for the greater good. So my only option is to do the laundry now, and start
working really hard and really smart at what I love and then pay someone to do
the laundry for me.
Does that make me lazy? Hell no, that just means my
priorities differ from the next person. We all need to follow our passions for
the next person to succeed. The guy on the corner opening his first laundry
business would agree that one man’s chore is another man’s choice.
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and
the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And
the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
- Steve Jobs
So guys and gals, keeping it short and sweet
today. Already working on a new post. “Strike while the iron is hot”. So please
subscribe and be on the look-out for: “Why I didn’t get my dream job” Love,
So, I know I have been very quiet the last few weeks, and I
apologise. I was on holiday for 3 weeks and had a bit of writers block with
that. To my defence I started to write an article I wanted to post but I have
been struggling with it for the past 5 weeks.
Yesterday, it was my 3rd day back in the gym,
don’t know if you know already, but I am a bit of a fitness freak/fanatic. It
makes me a happier person and I can promise you that if I skipped a few days
the people around me would drag me back to the gym by my hands and feet, as I
am generally a more pleasant person to be around if I have an outlet for my
normal day to day frustrations. It’s my therapy (A lot cheaper than lying on
someone’s couch talking about my feelings, I can promise you that).
So, where was I? Vacation? Never mind the vacation, keep
that for a next entry. I was in the gym yesterday, contemplating my blog and how to finish the story I was busy
with, not really finding a solution. As I have told you before my brain is way
too busy with a million things at once. Go read my first article about why it is important to know your personality type. So as per normal when I couldn’t find a
solution for my blog problem (sounds like an addiction or something my “Blog
problem”), I realised that that is one of the things I do, one of my not so
favourite character traits.
I hesitate and prolong the situation if I don’t know the
answer, or I don’t want to make a
choice. I drag things out; sometimes end up in tears, frustrated with myself
for not making a decision, for not being able to know what I want to do. I concluded
that writing my blog is more of a reflection on my life than I initially realised.
Sometimes you need to stop, scrap the piece of paper you are
writing on, throw it in the bin and start over. You need to wipe the slate
clean in order to make sense of the chaos in front of you.
Obviously being a “new year, new you” everyone is talking
about New Year’s resolutions, what are you going to do differently, and what
are you going to start or what are you going to finish?
Well, I am a fan of New Year’s resolutions, and at the age
of 25 and a half, I realised why.
I procrastinate. That is who I am, a procrastinator, and
that is OK, It is not great but it is OK. Now I know what to fix. I need to scrap the paper, start over, and hopefully
the words will flow without hesitation. Well what do you know, it seems to be
working. You will know what is the right
thing to do. Don’t force the things that don’t come naturally to you. I don’t
mean “don’t do anything about it”, I mean if you are hesitating to do it, maybe
there is a reason.
Although I am not going to try and change myself, I am going
to try and speed up the process, not only for me but also the people around me
(and deciding what to eat at a restaurant is small fries in comparison to what
I am talking about, although that all seems to be a problem for me as well). The things I do today could change someone's life. The
decisions that I have to make have an influence on the people around me as well
and I know it can be frustrating for me so how much more for the people around
me, especially big life decisions.
In the same way I am
not a professional but I seeked help with regards to my problem around
procrastinating EVERYTING! Cestine Chua
wrote an article in this regard on Lifehacks.org. So I am going to follow
these 11 practical tips to overcome my problem with procrastination. I will
keep a diary, and let you know if it works for me in 2016.
11 Powerful tips to
help stop procrastination (Oh golly, here
we go. Do I have to start today, why not Monday?)
Break
your work into little steps. Part of the reason why we procrastinate is
because subconsciously, we find the work too overwhelming for us. Break it down
into little parts, and then focus on one part at the time. (Grab a pen and paper) If
you still procrastinate on the task after breaking it down, then break it down
even further. Soon, your task will be so simple that you will be thinking “gee,
this is so simple that I might as well just do it now
Change
your environment. Different environments have different impact on our
productivity. Look at your work desk and your room. Do they make you want to
work or do they make you want to snuggle and sleep? If it’s the latter, you
should look into changing your work space. One thing to note is that an
environment that makes us feel inspired before may lose its effect after a
period of time. (I don’t want to work when I get to bed…)
Create a
detailed timeline with specific deadlines. Having just 1 deadline for your
work is like an invitation to procrastinate. That’s because we get the
impression that we have time and keep pushing everything back, until it’s too
late. (Jup that’s me!) Break down your project (see tip #1), then
create an overall timeline with specific deadlines for each small task. This
way, you know you have to finish each task by a certain date. Your timelines
must be robust, too – i.e. if you don’t finish this by today, it’s going to
jeopardize everything else you have planned after that. This way it creates the
urgency to act. My goals are broken down into monthly, weekly, right down to
the daily task lists, and the list is a call to action that I must accomplish
this by the specified date; else my goals will be put off. (I will need to try and
implement this, anyone knows of a good diary to buy?)
Eliminate
your procrastination pit-stops.(But it is so easy, and more fun!) If
you are procrastinating a little too much, maybe that’s because you make it
easy to procrastinate. Identify your browser bookmarks that take up a lot of
your time and shift them into a separate folder that is less accessible.
Disable the automatic notification option in your email client. Get rid of the
distractions around you. I know some people will out of the way and
delete/deactivate their Facebook accounts. I think it’s a little
drastic/extreme as addressing procrastination is more about being conscious of
our actions than counteracting via self-binding methods, but if you feel that’s
what’s needed, go for it.
Hang out
with people who inspire you to take action.I’m pretty sure if you spend just 10 minutes talking to Steve Jobs or
Bill Gates, you’ll be more inspired to act than if you spent the 10 minutes
doing nothing. The people we are with influence our behaviours. (I
need more of them) Of course spending time with Steve Jobs/Bill Gates
every day is probably not a feasible method, but the principle applies.
Identify the people/friends/colleagues who trigger you – most likely the
go-getters and hard workers – and hang out with them more often. Soon you will
inculcate their drive and spirit too.
Get a
buddy.(this work really well for exercising, get a gym buddy) Having
a companion makes the whole process much more fun. Ideally, your buddy should
be someone who has his/her own set of goals. Both of you will hold each other
accountable to your goals and plans. While it’s not necessary for both of you
to have the same goals, it’ll be even better if that’s the case, so you can
learn from each other. I have a good friend whom I talk to regularly, and we
always ask each other about our goals and progress in achieving those goals.
Needless to say, it spurs us to keep taking action.
Tell
others about your goals. This serves the same function as #6, on a larger
scale. Tell all your friends, colleagues, acquaintances and family about your
projects. (This is scary, what if you fail, then everyone will know? Maybe start
with one or two people? Your spouse?) Now whenever you see them, they
are bound to ask you about your status on those projects. (That’s what I am scared of) (Read why the friends you keep are responsible for your success)
Seek out
someone who has already achieved the outcome. What is it you want to
accomplish here, and who are the people who have accomplished this already? Go
seek them out and connect with them. Seeing living proof that your goals are
very well achievable if you take action is one of the best triggers for action.(takes
a bit of research, maybe telling the people around you about your goal will
help as they maybe know someone in the field)
Re-clarify
your goals. If you have been procrastinating for an extended period of
time, it might reflect a misalignment between what you want and what you are
currently doing. Often times, we outgrow our goals as we discover more about
ourselves, but we don’t change our goals to reflect that. Get away from your
work (a short vacation will be good, else just a weekend break will do too) (Done
that) and take some time to regroup yourself. What exactly do you want
to achieve? What should you do to get there? What are the steps to take? Does
your current work align with that? If not,what can you do about it? (So
many questions, it is answering them that is the problem!)
Stop
over-complicating things. Are you waiting for a perfect time to do this? (Yes)
That maybe now is not the best time because of X, Y, Z reasons? (YESSS)
Ditch that thought because there’s never a perfect time. If you keep
waiting for one, you are never going to accomplish anything. Perfectionism is
one of the biggest reasons for procrastination.
Get a
grip and just do it. At the end, it boils down to taking action. You can do
all the strategizing, planning and hypothesizing, but if you don’t take action,
nothing’s going to happen. Occasionally, I get readers and clients who keep
complaining about their situations but they still refuse to take action at the
end of the day. Reality check: I have never heard anyone procrastinate their
way to success before and I doubt it’s going to change in the near future.Whatever it is you are procrastinating on, if
you want to get it done, you need to get a grip on yourself and do it. (Well
I am game to try it! Let’s go 2016)
This sounds simple enough right?? I am excited to start
ordering in a restaurant, I am sure it will easily save 30 minutes! Let me know
in the comments below if you are going to try it and if it works for you!
