Broken "Promises"
I said, “I’ll get it done”.
But judging by my current workload, it seems unrealistic to meet my deadlines.
Now I can hear you say, “Just do what you can”.
And that’s exactly what I’m going to do, however, I need to be very careful not to use that as a “go-to excuse” whenever we’re swamped with work. Ok, let’s not call it an “excuse” because it’s legit – sometimes there’s just too much on our plate.
And because it’s “legit”, it becomes a handy “tool” you can keep using to justify why you can’t meet your deadlines.
However, if we dig a little deeper, I can think of 3 main suspects that cause us to miss our deadlines:
- We cannot manage our time as efficiently as we thought.
- Too scared to say “No” to our superiors every time they ask as to do more.
- Not skilled enough to keep up with the pace of the job.
I can plead guilty to all that. Ok, so now what?
If you were in my position, what would you do?
Work harder by putting in the extra hours?
Or simply keep doing what you’re already doing? *consistently put in the best work you can do at the moment.
I work in the office – where the job is not physically demanding but man, it’s mentally draining.
Physical tiredness is easier to recover but mental tiredness? Good luck…
Energy Management
I’ve been putting in the extra hours at work, hoping I can get all my shit done before I leave for my vacation.
And because I’m tight with time, I learned how to say “fuck off” (in a polite way) to co-workers who demand things I consider to be “not-so-important”.
The last couple of weeks, I’ve been interested in the relationship between Energy and Productivity. Now is a perfect opportunity to get a better understanding of that relationship.
Observation #1
On Thursday, I was well rested. I already put in 1-hour of OT but felt like I can keep going for another hour. However, I didn’t do that. Why? I was scared of reaching a point of exhaustion that would require me to take a longer break.
Remember: there are other things you still have to do outside of work. If you’re tired AF, then how well do you think you’re going to perform your other important tasks? Chances are they going to be half-assed.
Observation #2
On Friday, I felt like I was also well rested. This time, I put in 1.5-hours of OT (to further find out where my limits really are). But after working OT for 1-hour and 10-minutes, I suddenly felt exhausted.
This left me puzzled but I pushed myself to keep going anyway – I put in 1.5 hours as planned. Then I felt a little headache or some form of dizziness after. This made me worry a little because I still need to drive home. There is no way in hell I’m driving half-asleep. That’s like playing hide-n-seek with Death.
I’m sure there are a lot more factors as to why I felt very exhausted – but I’m not gonna dig further into that. I’m too exhausted to think further.
Sometimes, you have to step back and keep things simple.
Cooking vs. Buying
Lately, I haven’t had enough energy to:
- think about what to cook.
- to do the cooking.
- clean the kitchen.
So I decided to buy food instead. *yup, keep it simple
The frugal person inside of me says “That’s expensive. Are you rich?”
Hell no I’m not rich! But if I was to consider the time I needed to allow for cooking, I need to have about 2 or 3-hours (prep + cook + clean-up) in my schedule. I wouldn’t have a problem with that if I don’t have a lot of deadlines to meet at work.
But since I can’t afford to give up 2 or 3-hours of my time, I resorted to buying.
Is it that expensive? Not really, depending on how you look at it.
A decent meal cost about $10.00 per person. If you’re getting paid at minimum wage then I can see how that can be expensive. But what if you make more than that?
Let’s say you make $20.00 per hour.
If you were to cook your meal and it takes you about 2 hours, that means that whatever it is you cooked really cost you $40 (plus the cost of the ingredients).
Now is $40 per meal expensive?
What if you make $30.00 per hour? Then your home-cooked meal costs you $60 (plus ingredients).
Now now. I’m not going to argue with you about how I’m wrong about this and that. Because I am fully aware that I (in a way) disagree with what I’m saying.
There’s a crapload of benefits of cooking your own meal that cannot be justified in terms of monetary value. Because really, money isn’t always a good scale to judge how valuable something is.
But please don’t miss the point I’m trying to make. And that is:
We are good at changing our perspective to justify our actions especially when we internally believe think they are “wrong”.
A Year Ago This Week
I…
- successfully added meditation into my morning routine.
- still struggling to add “workout” into my daily routine.
- was itching to get back into finding ways to make money online. *I’m feeling that itch again. But I wanted to acquire my insurance brokerage license first.
[Read more about it here]
Goal Update
Side Income
- Insurance Broker License = too tired to study.
- Still waiting for the Tenikles.
Health
- I might need to add napping to my schedule if I’m consistently feeling exhausted after work.
- Need to extend my meditation to 15-minutes. 10-minutes does not do it anymore…
Finance
I missed a fuckin payment again by 1-day. Sometimes, when your mind is too busy, you forget the things you typically do. And that is to check my bank account regularly.