These are notes I made during the 2020-06-22 workshop. They are very brief due to a real-time nature of note-making.
The video recording of the workshop is available here: Link TBA
From Vague thoughts to clear action - workshop notes
Introduction, terminology
- what kind of person do I want to be?
- Effective - does what he says he’ll do
- Efficient - do things with not too much resources, not too much time.
Interaction
Reflection
Intention
What is Effective action :
- Do small steps towards a goal, and know why, every day.
Today:
- Understanding procrastination
- Consider it to be The enemy.
- is an emotional problem
- contrasting motivations?
- Procrastination def: lack of self-discipline
- typically, “waiting for a perfect condition” before starting
- “Self-worth Theory of procrastination” by Nic Voge :: a protective strategy for coping with conflicting motivations.
- Ability -> performance level + effort -> sense of worth
- people who procrastinate believe that their performance is mainly due to their Ability. They think that peformance =Ability= Worth. This is the belief. Note there seems to be no effort in this model.
- Desire to Success , being affraid of Failure : people who procrastinate overvalue both: they really want to procrastinate, and really do not want to fail. Hence, they are stuck between two pushes.
- This explains last-minute effort: when the time is too short, the fear of failure overtakes the desire to succeed.
Method: ““Deliberate procrastination”” where you set your mind to a creative process, but also consciously do something else, e.g. laundry. Deliberate is the keyword that makes this to work. Then, typing down the final thing takes short time.
Method: When the completed work is poor, submit it anyway. Understand that the mistakes made are what the work was about: You have learned, hence, the benefit is obtained.
Strategies to deal with procrastination
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Develop awareness – that this is happening.
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Challenge the P-A-W beliefs (pefromance–ability–worth)
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Tip the balance: avoidance motives vs approach motives
ad. 1.
- Knowledge of the self-worth theory and its dynamic
- Awarenes of thoughts and detachement from them -> “Defusion”(technique).
- Thinking self vs Observing self – two persons.
- Awareness of feelings (rather than avoidance) -> Expansion(technique) : “Give room for the feeling to be there”
- Say: “I don’t like it, but I have space for it”
- Say: “It is unconfortable, but I can accept it”
- Give space, accept the feeling, do not fight it,
When noting a thought: ask: is this helpfull?
Method:
Think e.g. “I am X”
then: “I notice that I think that I am X”
Then: “Is it helpfull that I think that I am X”
Book: “Happiness trap” by (??)
Ad.2. : Challenge P-A-W beliefs:
believe this: ability is what it is, and then effort that is the prominent component to performance.
ability*effort = performance, where effort has more weight.
“I Can get smarter”: Effort “makes me stronger” -> higher achievement.
Ad.3. : Tip the balance::
move towards Approach motives rather than Avoidance Motives.
- Stuck up all the positive reasons why you want to do the task/project – and keep them up, e.g. in a doc, or notes, or printout
- Break down your project into smaller chunks - down to 2-3 hours
The “Ultimate time management system”
Principles:
- Any task, idea, e.t.c.must immediately go to the collection list – so that you do not need to think about it again.
- After moving away from collection list - refine what the card says.
- Have an action ready for each project in project list
- Have a daily and weekly review
- Daily: At the end of the day, empy the collection list
- Weekly:
- Are projects on track?
- Review all the cards.
- Remove things from someday/maybe – keep the lists lean, realistic, achievable
Discussion: From now on: what is the one thing that I am going to be doing differently?
For me: In the daily, make a link to the trello, and try trello for 1-2-3 months
Remember about the problem of high motivation - unbalance the desire to success and fear of failure
Remember of the intention
When designing calendar:
- First, put leisure in - breaks for food, meditation, leisure, toys, movies
- Then, put the planning & review time in
- Everything else comes from the plan
remember the expansion: Feeling: it’s uncomfortable, but I have space for it, I can accept it.
The concept of momentum: For each project, do at least something (little) every week. It is more important to be consistent than how much you do; it is easier to keep a constant pace than sprint-stop-sprint-stop. This way you keep the momentum.
Also, this enables the practice of task-switching and practices not resetting the stack.
It also enables use of “Accountancy partner” - someone that you talk to in regular periods.
Typically, we overestimate what can be done in the day, and underestimate what can be done in long term.