Category: Productivity

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Additional Thoughts on Having Systems in Place

In my last post, I talked about the need for some kind of system in my business to keep things going forward. After deeper thought, I definitely think that’s a must!

I just read one of my old blog posts here where I essentially described this blog as my “system”. It was the only place where I was reading over old thoughts and goals and it was the only thing I had that resembled accountability of any kind.

But the problem is that it’s totally informal and has no real rhythm to it. I read old posts whenever I have time, and they all get the same amount of attention. That’s not really a system.

So I need something in my business that can prioritize tasks, keep them top-of-mind, and make me accountable to them. It also needs to have some timings built-in that ensure things are continually addressed in a systematic fashion.

But I’m also thinking now that maybe I need better systems for other areas of my life, too. I’m always trying to develop new habits and improve things, but there is no real system to it. I try to develop a habit until it works, or sometimes I fail, and then just… Keep going?

Maybe I need to put a schedule together and record results for new habits. Once something is established, I can move on. I should probably review it and record the results at least once a week, or maybe even more often. That would keep me focused.

With the unprecedented and continued success of my weight training “system”, it has made me even more confident that this type of success could be applied everywhere else in my life if I can just develop or find the right systems.

So in the coming weeks, I’d like to work on searching for or developing new systems for myself. From there, I think I can really improve rapidly!

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The Power of Having a System

I’ve started seeing rapid gains in my weight-training. After something like 7 or 8 years of little-to-no progress, that really is something!

And you know what really changed?

I have a system.

Historically, I’ve always chosen a handful of movements, and basically just lifted until I couldn’t anymore. Next week I would try again, and hopefully be able to do more reps.

It worked great in the beginning, when it’s easy to grow your untrained muscles. But within a year or two, it stalled almost completely. And I had no system to get me through roadblocks.

But now I have one! It tells me how much weight to lift each week, how much to add for the next workout, and what to do if I fail. It anticipates those failures and outlines a systematic plan to alter the weight I’m doing, grow stronger, and then break past barriers.

And it has been wildly effective. In a month or two I’ve improved more than in the last several years. It really is incredible.

It turned out that the problem wasn’t lack of effort, diet, sleep, form, or any of the other tiny details that can be totally overwhelming. It was just that I needed a system.

Of course, once things start going well, you tend to do everything else right, too. I’ve been eating better, getting enough of the nutrients needed, and being much more consistent in my training. The success is extremely motivating and it’s easy to do the harder things when you know they are going to be successful.

But now I’m thinking: where else can I apply systems to my life to have these kinds of impacts? How can I apply it to how I’m running my business?

I mean, what is my system for improving my business?

That’s a rhetorical question. I obviously don’t have anything remotely resembling a system to improve my business. And that’s bad!

In fact, I think I’ve been relying on this blog to be my “system”, which is almost exactly like how I used to weight train. I have a lot of good ideas, things that can really help. And I’m trying things here and there, hoping something sticks. But ultimately, they don’t lead to results.

Maybe the one thing I’m missing is just a system to guide my actions and hold me accountable. I’m at the tail-end of many months of essentially doing nothing to improve my business. Maybe I just need some structure.

I know I’ve read plenty of books that outline specific systems for doing exactly what I’m describing. I think it may be time to dust those off and take them more seriously.

Because while things are actually going decently in my business (all things considered), I’m really not improving right now. And if I could replicate the success of my weight training with my business, I think it would be extremely motivating and actually lead to even more success.

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Successes Within the Last Year

I think I need to take a step back and acknowledge the successes I’ve had over the last year that maybe I haven’t really mentioned here too much.

Too often I only focus on the failures and things that need to be improved, while rarely pointing out all of the things that have gone well. That should change!

So here are some successes I’ve had over the past year or so:

  • Drastically reduced or eliminated time spent on social media
  • Drastically reduced time spent browsing the news
  • Eliminated non-productive time on my phone
  • Replaced it with productive activities
  • Learned the name, location, capital, and flag of every country in the world
  • Learned the name, capital, and location of every state/territory in Canada, the US, and Mexico
  • Learned every US president in order, including the years they served, their party, and their presidency number
  • Grew my English vocabulary by about 300 words
  • Put on a significant amount of muscle and figured out a new workout routine that is yielding consistently positive results
  • Got into the habit of running, and reduced my one-mile time from over 8:30 to nearly 6:30
  • Have greatly improved the time in which I get up every morning, and minimized how late I sleep when not using an alarm
  • Started drinking less
  • Played drastically fewer video games
  • Greatly improved Spanish skills with drills, continued practice, and watching Spanish-language television instead of English shows
  • Learned a lot of history from reading and watching documentaries
  • Finished renovating my house and rented out the bedrooms
  • Paid off student loans, all credit card debt, and a business loan
  • Purchased a company and successfully migrated all of the clients to my services
  • Started investing money for the first time ever
  • Improved my yard and lawn considerably and harvested my first black raspberries
  • Caught the biggest snapping turtle I’ve ever caught

Honestly there are way more things than I thought there would be when I decided to make this list! That’s why it’s good to do it, to really get a sense of where you’re at and what’s going right.

I can’t help but feel like, while I did all of these things, there are many other things I should have been doing but didn’t. And while there is always room for improvement, it doesn’t all have to come at once. I think most of these fall into the category of self-improvement which I firmly believe will roll into improvement in all areas.

So I think I just need to keep it up, and good things will come!

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Working Out Earlier in the Day

Okay, so not every post here has to be deeply profound. I’m all about improvements, no matter how small.

Lately, out of necessity, I’ve been pushing many of my workouts to early in the day instead of in the evening when I usually do them. And I’m realizing there are huge benefits to doing so.

Historically, I would basically get all of my important work done, and only then would I do a workout. This typically has meant not working out until 6, 7, or sometimes even much later.

But the problem with that, I’m realizing, is that when you put something so physically demanding at the end of the day, it acts as a sort of barrier, like a magnet facing the wrong way.

It is hard to get through the work you need to do, because you know you’re going to need all of that willpower to do the workout at the end. And that’s a problem.

Now that I’ve been doing it earlier in the day, I’ve noticed that not only is it easier to get going on the workout itself, but also that you feel much freer afterwards. You’ve already done the hardest thing for the day, so everything else is easy. You just finish the rest, and you’re set!

So I need to focus on doing the workouts early consistently, I think. I’ll get a lot more done, and probably be more consistent, too.

That’s just my thought for the day.

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It’s Amazing that I Still Don’t Have Time

I barely leave the house, and yet I still feel like I barely have any time to get things done at all.

My experience makes me feel like I have nothing in common at all with other people. Maybe it’s because  actual hobbies have become a dying pastime.

But I’ve been filling all of my days with work, learning/studying, exercising, socializing, house/yard work, and of course other hobbies like kayaking, disc golfing, etc.

And I feel like I’m really productive, but at the same time, there still just isn’t enough time. I’ve found that I’m never even close to bored, I’m never sitting around doing nothing (or even just watching TV for fun), and I rarely finish everything I set out to finish for the day.

And the bigger problem is that I’m not finishing some of the very most-important things I’m supposed to be doing. There are major, long-term projects in my business that are critical to my future success that I’m not getting done.

Maybe I just thought that with everything shut down, it would be easy to get all of these things done. But obviously that won’t be the case for me.

So now I’m left wondering if I need to start cutting some things out or limiting certain activities more, even if they are productive.

Or maybe it’s just a case of needing to delegate more in my business. I think that, along with the sense of “having more time”, I’ve started to take on more of the development work myself. That’s time that could fairly easily be freed-up by delegation.

Maybe the answer really is that simple. I guess I’ll have to think more about that.

Either way, it truly is important that I figure out how to get these important long-term things done. My career depends on it!

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News Diet Update and Reflections

It’s been something like 9 days since I gave up reading the news and all forms of social media feeds. And it feels… strange!

The first thing is that it’s really odd just how quickly something that seemed so important and relevant can feel so completely distant and irrelevant.

I’m speaking, of course, of the pandemic. So far I’m fortunate enough to not have suffered any losses personally or professionally as a result. And my day-to-day is virtually unaffected, since I already stayed at home most of the time to work even before the pandemic, and most of the activities I do for fun aren’t really impacted either.

So in any given day, it really feels as though there is zero impact to my life as a result. And when I’m not reading about it or talking about it, eventually it ceases to feel important.

I’ve also been extremely productive during this time. In addition to having more time to do things, I also feel better and am more motivated.

So I’m really starting to wonder about the actual cost of reading and caring about the daily news.

Clearly I’m not advocating total ignorance, but really, the vast majority of news has no impact on me at all, and of the remainder, I typically have no ability to change.

So ultimately, the rewards of keeping up every day are virtually non-existent, but the cost is extremely high.

While I think I’ll still check in from time-to-time, I think I just need to acknowledge that following most news is just another form of mindless entertainment with no benefit other than killing time; just like social media, most television, and (in my humble opinion) sports viewership.

I am better off without it.

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Going to Get Back into Focusing on One Thing

Since early on when I went to Mexico, I haven’t focused on my “One thing” that I’m supposed to be focusing on. I have times scheduled into my calendar to do it, but I haven’t done it!

The world’s been crazy and so has my life, but this isn’t really about excuses. It’s just time to move forward with all of my plans.

Last week was my first one back home, and I really wanted to work on developing good habits. I think I did that.

This week I’m just furthering that along and also getting quite a bit of things done around the yard.

Next week, it’s time to get back into doing my “One Thing”.

It’s what will carry me through, and what will truly lead to success. I need to focus on it every single day if I want to accomplish what I’ve set out to do.

I need to start by going over everything I’ve prepared in terms of the plan. Then when I’m reacquainted with everything, I need to execute.

Keep in mind: virtually all of my future success rests upon me doing these things now. So do it!

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New Habit – Getting out of Bed When I Wake Up

I’ve spoken at length in the past about how important habits are and how I should constantly be developing them.

I don’t think I’ve really been focusing on one in a while, and it’s time to start!

At the moment I’m doing a good job of waking up without hitting snooze. I’m also on a news diet and am avoiding Facebook and other sources of current-event information as well.

And Imgur is blocked on my phone.

So there isn’t much pointless entertainment left on my phone, which means I don’t even have anything to do in bed after I wake up.

Why not just get up?

I’ve wanted to do this for many years, and I think now I’m finally ready for it. It will add a ton of productive time to my week, and will let me finish things way faster.

So, I’ll do it! I’ll post more about it here as I progress.

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I’ve Always Been Restless but My Interpretation of that has Completely Changed

I feel like I’ve always been quite restless. I’m always thinking about the future and my current state and get a bit antsy.

But in the past, I feel like it made me uneasy and anxious. Now it makes me feel motivated.

So what changed?

I wish I could say it was some huge, profound realization inside myself that allowed me to break old scripts and get out of self-destructive patterns.

But it wasn’t at all.

I owed a lot of money before, and now I don’t. That’s it.

More specifically: I owed a lot of bad money like credit card debt, and it wasn’t really going away at all. It wasn’t growing much but it was still always this huge burden that made it feel like I wasn’t succeeding at all.

Recently, after a string of good financial moves, I’ve been able to quickly pay off a ton of debt, including all credit card debt. Every month, I’m able to pay everything down to zero on personal cards and in my business. I also paid off my student loans completely.

And it’s made all the difference.

In the past, I’d be thinking about the future and just worry about all the debt I had, and how it’s been years and I still hadn’t managed to really get control of things financially. It always just felt like this specter I couldn’t get away from.

And when I started feeling that way, I feel like it just turned to general anxiety and actually crippled me from getting things done and really succeeding, which probably kept me in that state a lot longer than I should have been.

But now that’s gone! I’m running a massive surplus of cash every month which I can use to pay off anything or even start investing. Whereas before it felt like I had no opportunities at all, now I can do anything I want!

And so when I feel that familiar sense of unease, I’m interpreting it as excitement and a sense of unlimited possibility in the future, and that’s actually quite liberating and motivating. Suddenly I feel like if I really focus on something, I can really take this business off the ground and do whatever I’d like with it.

That’s a great feeling.

And it really just comes down to interpreting how I’m feeling differently, not even necessarily feeling differently. I think the Buddhists would have a lot to say about that, but it’s still a really interesting thing to experience myself.

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I Need to Make the Most of my Time Here in Mexico

So I was finally able to rent out my bedroom and get out of the country. That’s the good news.

The bad news, is the coronavirus.

It’s starting to look like I’ll soon be quarantined inside here, and I’ll be here for two full months just about. Most of that time may be spent in my own apartment!

But I don’t want to waste my time here. It’s easy to just get lost in the news or doing nothing productive, but I really want to make the most of it even if I end up stuck inside.

With work, that means re-focusing on my “one thing”. It means being productive when I’m supposed to be working and concentrating on long-term success.

For everything else, I just want to make sure I’m concentrating as well. I want to do a lot of reading, studying Spanish, and even speaking in Spanish with people. I think I’m going to have to start scheduling italki lessons because there’s nobody to meet here! Everything is closed. And what’s not: I shouldn’t be going to.

So, I’m in a bit of a dilemma. But it doesn’t have to be terrible.

Worst case, I watch every sunset from the balcony, have a pint of Corona, and wait for this all to blow over.