New Direction for LJ

[mrlich]

I've been thinking that I'm too scattered. Too quick to jump from idea to idea and plan to plan.

So next I thought: How do I stabilize myself? Especially given how I live my life / my job, this seems like it might be a bit tricky.

The solution, I think, might be to keep a log. Something that is ongoing and focuses on several 'silos' or columns of important concepts in my life. That way I can work on keeping steady forward progress towards clear goals in each silo.

As an example, one might be:

Fitness
Goal: Lose ten pounds.
Update: Yesterday I blah blah blahed and ate fairly healthy with the exception of... Also did 15 minutes on the elliptical.

Currently, I'm thinking the silos should be:
1. Fitness / Health
2. Art / Culture
3. Adventure
4. Social / Dating
5. Finance / Business / Work

Still working on what they should be though. I want general areas, so that they encompass more than just one element of my life, while still catching all major components. The idea is to make these posts simple conceptually so that if I want to keep it quick (while still keeping it structured) that's easy, but it also has the flexibility to be as complicated or 'deep' as I'm feeling that day (while still maintaining that structure).

So what do you think? What should my silos be?

Comments

[xtingu]

Remember shellefly's meme RWP? Here looky: http://shellefly.livejournal.com/tag/rwp

I always loved that meme. It could be as quick and mundane or as involved and deep as you liked. It was handy and never felt overwhelming, and it served as a good check-in. It was also fun to read despite it being something she was doing for herself.

Were you thinking you'd have a different post for each category, or would you take the RWP approach and have everything in one post? I suggest the latter, because if you have, say, five categories, feeling like you have to write five blog entries every night (or every week, or whatever your schedule is) is gonna overwhelm you, I think.

I dig the categories you have, but you may wanna consider splitting up #5 because money and work are pretty separate. I mean yeah, you need one for the other, but if you wanna bitch about the boss and talk about your work progress while also talking about your IRA account, I dunno. Could get gompy.

If I may offer something I've noticed:
You have a lot of posts like this in your LJ history. Like, a lot a lot. Tool shopping posts and posts about how you wanna come up with a process for something... for the "pre-work" you need to do before you can actually start creating output. Like having a meeting to discuss what the meeting will be about. You get so wrapped up in finding the perfect tool, configuring the tool, deciding on how you want it to look, coming up with a process for how you will decide what the best way to use the tool is going to be, evaluating that process, and and playing with the tool (huhhuhuhuh) blah blah blah that you don't get around to doing the job because your attention span ran out. :-) Or, you blame your lack of output on the tool. So what I'm suggesting is... Try not to get too bogged down in those weeds and just write something. Fuck the format. Fuck the tool. Just write it. Just do it. Get out of your way.

(Case in point: You have a closet overflowing with art supplies but one of your favorite creations was made with cigarette ashes in the diner because that's all you had. Ya dig?)

But I think tracking this stuff is vitally important, healthy, and necessary. It may not be comfortable. But you're clearly wanting some change and some focus, and if writing it down via LJ will give you the discipline you need, then do it up! Do you want nudges from folks if you're not keeping up? Do you need to be held accountable? I'm willing to bet you'll get that support here if you ask for it.

(That's why Weight Watchers works so damn well when people go to the meetings. The program gives you everything you need to be successful regardless of whatever weird lifestyle you lead (yes, it can handle you living in a hotel/van and eating only at convenient restaurants). The focus is on results and not excuses, you have a weekly check-in so you have someone external to keep you honest and accountable, you get the guidance and support from people in the same boat, and there's camaraderie. These are all things you need to be successful in managing any kind of change: a detailed playbook; rules that are accommodating without letting you of the hook; an external, unbiased, and consistent evaluation; nonjudgmental friendly support; human interaction; and accountability.)

Holy shitballs I am talky tonight. Sorry! I'm just really excited for you about this.

Go get 'em!!

(Speaking of tools, I wrote this on my tablet using a new keyboard... Swype (my favorite keyboard) shit the bed so I'm now using Google's default tablet swipey keyboard and I'm sure I'm misspelling shit all over the place. Apologies!)

[mrlich.livejournal.com]

You are, of course, absolutely right. I am a tools fiend, and I should really take a pointer from Nike.

That's kinda what inspired this post. The idea is that I could do something standardized, to keep moving forward rather than fear the "what should I write about today?" dilemma. Believe it or not, that sort of thing stops me pretty frequently.

Yeah - shellefly's RWP posts are exactly the sort of thing I'm thinking about. Though, while I'm planning more commonplace 'day to day' stuff for here, I was thinking of something like that in addition over at dragonbones.

Maybe something like Planning / Working On / Enjoying - all in relation to artwork. Should work in a motivation sense because it will get me talking about stuff I'm working on, and when there's no forward progress, I'll feel like an ass.

Plus it will get some activity going on the blog there.

Anyway. Speaking of just getting a move on and being productive...

*poof*

[shellefly.livejournal.com]

I am a champion slacker/procrastinator. When I really want to get something done and must be successful, I set a specific, measurable goal.

For example, I want to lose 10 pounds. My first goal was to track my calories every day and not lie about it, even if I screwed up. I have been successful. Second goal is to be under my calorie goal every day. The losing 10 pounds part will come out of goal #2, but the point is that what I am doing is specific, constant and measurable, I am not just deciding to lose 10 pounds, because that's vague and vague never works for me.

Another thing that works for me is to change one or two things at a time, three at the most. When I try to make too many changes at once, I get overwhelmed and I fail. So I suggest picking one to three things that you want to work on, set specific, measurable goals and blog at the same time every week (or day or whatever) about your progress. Always record your progress and never lie. You can make the post private, you can select a small group to see it, but be honest with yourself and be accountable to yourself because if you don't document your screw-ups as well as your successes, it's a lot easier to allow yourself to fail. Also, if you keep recording for a while, you can look back and see your process and feel a real sense of achievement.

As Jillbot says, don't get too bogged down worrying about the toolset. Figure out the GOAL and how you will achieve it, specific action by action, then document however the hell you feel like as long as you're consistent - same information, same time every week. Also, if you are posting your progress, that may spark other thoughts/ideas and you will end up with some interesting posts.

I hope that helps. I am having a very fuzzy brain day today.