Starting self-improvement with your time management #selfimprovement #plusrated
My strong belief is that everything is in your own hands. But you certainly can get lazy, and flow by the stream (like dead fish, and I promise you'll stink badly soon after that); the other option is to figure out missing pieces in your life or career and go reach for them. Frankly speaking, it's much easier to say than to do, but it's more than doable, so stop looking for excuses. To begin with, I should say that first step takes forever. Because it's hard. I've been in "self improving mode" like forever now. Since high school, I saw this as the only possible option to get up from where I was. It did work fine so far, but every step "up" was as hard as previous - and it still does not get any easier. But results are more rewarding, so it's well worth the "torture" ;-) There is one big problem. Always at least one, and always this one is the biggest. Time. You will always have tons to do at work, in personal life, family stuff, you'll feel lazy or/and exhausted, tired, under pressure, feeling lack of sleep, sick or many other "important" things. It's okay, as they are part of your life. Squeeze them and find part of the day you are wasting. There is always long or short part of the day been wasted. May be even few parts, minutes long, spreaded all over your day. "Self"-improvement? Let yourself improve your TIME first. So figure out how much you reasonably have. You certainly will see million things you might be doing in those "spare" parts, but truth is - you are NOT doing anything there now, that's why you see them as spare time, and you know that. It might be just few minutes, or even hours, but there are such parts of your life you are skipping. Realizing that you *have* this time is important. Now you just have to use it. If it's spreaded across the day - figure out what tools do you need to make good use of it. Is it iPhone/iPod touch/Kindle to read books or listen for podcasts, or go through visual tutorials? Go for it. Those devices are not cheap, but they help you. They can help you to fit your self improvement while you are in gym, or in the car, train, etc. But please, no toys on them. Don't even keep them there ;-) Or you'll get closer to be "dead fish" (see the paragraph right above).
If you can figure out the bigger block of time - then you are in much better position - just mark this time in your calendar or in your todo list, desktop, or put sticky paper on your screen. Same way like you have time for your school, job, food, sleep - mark THIS time for your self improvement. Read, try, experiment - because you have this special time. Don't let it loose. It's not free time. It's not "tomorrow" time, or "other", or "weekend" time. Fuck tomorrow. Do it today for an hour. Every other day for half an hour. But it should be consistent. Don't allow yourself to lose attention, don't interrupt yourself. This time has it's own rules. You cannot skip it. It's like second (or third, fourth, ...) job. But it will be much more rewarding in all possible ways, my promise. In my current life I have interests besides of job, family and leisure. It's my self improvement. I am hold a stack of books with label "to read" and video podcasts "to watch". And I know when I'll be doing that. Almost every my day will have time for that. It's scheduled already. And one more important thing. Say, you are preparing for the exam, or studying to get better job, to ask for job promotion - anything like that. Anything when you are doing something but still waiting for something. Don't lie to yourself. This wait will last forever. And then some more. Stop it from the very beginning - just give yourself timeframe, limit yourself, set the final date. If you are not done - sorry - you may suck, you may fail, not get what you want. But you WILL know what you are missing, what you didn't do right, what exactly is not enough... That will help you to catch up with missing stuff in days, if not hours.
Instead of waiting and just waiting for "the sign that you are ready". You ARE ready for something already. You don't know if you are NOT ready, because you didn't try. Not trying, not doing, not improving -- those are all synonims to WASTING YOUR LIFE. Is your life worth wasting? Is any even single minute of it NOT valuable? Try. Always try and do. I have bunch of other my tricks on spotting "lost" time in your day, etc., so I am thinking to do those posts on self improvement more often. Sometimes I feel like I am losing my track, too, so putting them "in writing", even if it is just for myself on my blog helps to gather my shit together.
If you can figure out the bigger block of time - then you are in much better position - just mark this time in your calendar or in your todo list, desktop, or put sticky paper on your screen. Same way like you have time for your school, job, food, sleep - mark THIS time for your self improvement. Read, try, experiment - because you have this special time. Don't let it loose. It's not free time. It's not "tomorrow" time, or "other", or "weekend" time. Fuck tomorrow. Do it today for an hour. Every other day for half an hour. But it should be consistent. Don't allow yourself to lose attention, don't interrupt yourself. This time has it's own rules. You cannot skip it. It's like second (or third, fourth, ...) job. But it will be much more rewarding in all possible ways, my promise. In my current life I have interests besides of job, family and leisure. It's my self improvement. I am hold a stack of books with label "to read" and video podcasts "to watch". And I know when I'll be doing that. Almost every my day will have time for that. It's scheduled already. And one more important thing. Say, you are preparing for the exam, or studying to get better job, to ask for job promotion - anything like that. Anything when you are doing something but still waiting for something. Don't lie to yourself. This wait will last forever. And then some more. Stop it from the very beginning - just give yourself timeframe, limit yourself, set the final date. If you are not done - sorry - you may suck, you may fail, not get what you want. But you WILL know what you are missing, what you didn't do right, what exactly is not enough... That will help you to catch up with missing stuff in days, if not hours.
Instead of waiting and just waiting for "the sign that you are ready". You ARE ready for something already. You don't know if you are NOT ready, because you didn't try. Not trying, not doing, not improving -- those are all synonims to WASTING YOUR LIFE. Is your life worth wasting? Is any even single minute of it NOT valuable? Try. Always try and do. I have bunch of other my tricks on spotting "lost" time in your day, etc., so I am thinking to do those posts on self improvement more often. Sometimes I feel like I am losing my track, too, so putting them "in writing", even if it is just for myself on my blog helps to gather my shit together.
