Thursday's Chaos
The plan to be uber-productive was thrown out when that 4 AM alarm went off to get me up—then slammed me with a throbbing headache.
Might have been caused by a lack of good-quality sleep. Maybe fatigue. Or maybe my body clock is still adjusting (I’ve been forcing myself to get up that early). Who knows. It doesn’t really matter. What matters more is:
How do you go on when all the planning you’ve done has gone to waste?
As per Mike Tyson, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Which is why it pays off to be flexible.
When shit happens, you should always have a back-up tissue to wipe it off – a Plan B. A plan that you craft on the go – not prior to the chaos but during the chaos.
So instead of reading 100-page project specifications at work that day (my daily task), I decided to do side projects instead – tasks that do not require a large amount of focus and comprehension.
A major adjustment – “major” because I needed as much time as I can get to catch up with all the current projects that were rolled out. I certainly wouldn’t want to spend my time on side projects if that meant taking some time off the main projects. But something has to give – a trade-off.
I could’ve popped a Tylenol and tried harder. But trying “harder” will only turn things into a bigger waste of time due to the risk of poor quality output WHICH would probably come to bite me in the ass later (nuh uh, not gonna do that).
Prolonging my stay to work at my 5% capacity is not helping me or the company. So I asked my boss for a *last-minute request* to leave early. Request granted.
Then on the fly, instead of heading straight home to rest, I decided to go to the Police Station – to apply for my Criminal Record Check. They close early so I took that opportunity to get that thing done and over with.
But I was asked to come back the next day. I was too late. I got there at about 5-minutes before it closes lol. #FAIL
On my way there, I knew I wasn’t going to make it BUT I tried anyway.
I was curious to see how things will unfold even when the current circumstances tell me that it’s almost impossible.
I had about 30-minutes to get there. It would’ve been fine assuming that everything fell under ideal conditions. But that’s almost always never the case. So I was late – because I failed to take the following things into account:
- construction on the road
- rush hour
- parking
I was a little disappointed in myself because I failed to plan things properly (I blame the headache for that).
But at the same time, I’m proud of myself for trying 😉
A lot of us give up too soon because everything that happens around us tells us that, “this isn’t going to work”.
Also because we are scared of wasting our time and looking like a goof – not to others but to ourselves.
But what if our intuition is not as good as we thought it was?
Which is why sometimes, it pays off to take the risk.
This risk paid off. I lost $2.00 of parking and 30-mins of my time in exchange for these lessons:
- The Google Map does not take road constructions into account.
- Parking Payment Stalls will not take your payment because it is its way of telling you “YOU CANNOT PARK HERE DURING THESE HOURS”.
- It’s OK to fail. What matters is you tried.
Some will say, “WHAAAT?! You didn’t know that?” Perhaps, I’m stupid. But now that this shit happened – now I’ve become less stupid. #WIN
Stop and Smell the Roses
I often try to add more items to my To-Do-List whenever I get most of them done early. I figured, “Why not?” I still have time to do more.
While that seems to make me more productive, in reality, it’s making me less productive. Counterintuitive I know but those are the best lessons in life.
I read a blog about it and I agreed. The more we add to the list, the more we push ourselves to fail (fail in terms of checking everything off our list). And that failure will cause us to feel unproductive.
Our brain keeps a record of this feeling and may create a bad link between “more tasks” and “feeling unproductive” which could affect my goal of increasing my productivity.
Also, we rob ourselves the time we could’ve used for taking a much-needed break.
Recently, I noticed how a lack of planning causes me to feel scattered as if I’m not spending my time with intention.
It’s ok to let yourself loose for a period of time (it is mandatory) but don’t get carried away and do it for the whole day and certainly not for a whole week.
There’s a balance between order and chaos.
Both are required to keep you efficient.
And because everyone has a different lifestyle, there is no single solution to keep these two in balance.
That solution can only be crafted by you.
Roses Really Smell Like Poo-Ooh-OOh
Take too long of a break and you’ll feel guilty for wasting time.
Too much coffee (while it helps to keep you going) does not make you more productive either – it makes you glitchy.
Sleeping is VERY good for you – but sleeping too much will also give you a headache because you violate your internal body clock.
The point is: Sometimes, too much “good” is bad.
I’m writing about this because I feel guilty for playing too much Call of Duty.
Why the hell do I love playing this game anyway?
Often it just pisses me off because I keep getting killed. In other words, I suck at it. And yet I still love to play it. Why?
Must be because of the challenge. Must be because I think I can improve (even though getting better at it does not make my life better). Perhaps it’s how I take my mind off of things.
But one thing I’m learning from COD is to not be too harsh on myself for sucking…?
Haha ok ok whatever. Maybe that’s not the case.
Often we are so creative at finding excuses NOT to do something.
What if we flip that script and use that creativity to find excuses to DO something?
A Year Ago This Week
I…
- purchased Headspace – a meditation app. I did not renew this year. But I’m going to try something new “Wake Up App” by Sam Harris.
- talked about my cheapness
- shared my view on ‘quick fix’ and instant gratification.
The 3rd quarter just started. So far so good.
[Read more about it here]
Goal Update
Personal Projects
I failed to apply for my Criminal Record Check at the police station. Might need to go back sometime next week.
I’m still trying to get the hang of creating a daily to-do list. I’m doing more reflection now (journaling) than reading.
Health
I planned on getting back to doing the Happy Body.
No, not to lose weight, but to increase my energy capacity and get a good sleep. Often people confuse the reason why I work out. While getting fit is one of them, I’m really doing it to make myself more efficient.
My subscription with Headspace ended this weekend. So now I’m going to re-adjust to meditating without guidance.
This could mean, no meditation at all. We’ll see. I’ve been doing more journaling lately.
Finance
I finally finished creating my calculator [see here]
This is what I’m gonna use to track my expenses.
Please note that this isn’t a well-developed calculator.
I also wanted to start looking into investing in ETF’s.