frozen octopus

Another thing that I am thankful I started doing a while ago is resisting temptation and letting myself get to the end of a review. Get a complete overview of the land before starting down the path.

I have a daily and weekly review that I do each morning before starting into work. A review is basically a self-meeting where I discuss things with myself. During the reviews, I would come across a task and start in on it.

“I rule”, I thought as I got a task done as I found it. It felt like I was getting things done.

Then I heard someone talking about how you need to review, resist doing the things, and get to the end of the reviews. So I gave that a shot.

For sure, getting to the end felt frustrating because it didn’t feel like I was doing the work. But with each day I did the complete review of the land completely, actually doing the real work felt easier to do.

My image is I clear off the workbench each day and put the tools where they belong daily. Weekly, I step back and make sure the shop is in order. I am not always looking for the hammer. Projects that I am waiting for the glue to dry on aren’t on the workbench.

Woke up today thinking about how I am grateful to past me for implementing a couple of self-rules a while back that I take for granted now. They are glacial in scope, but they really see the difference now, even though I didn't notice changes when I started.

For example, when I put something into any to-do list or calendar app, the first word is a verb. When I first started doing it, I was like, “ I'll know what to do if I see "Drum Rudiment" in my task app.”

The problem with that is when I read "Drum Rudiment”, I have to think about what that means. I equate that split second of decision like leaving the window open and letting flies (distractions) in. When I start chasing the flies, I don't do the task.

If I read "Do a drum rudiment", I do a drum rudiment right away without opening the window of distraction.

Another benefit of verb first is that on apps, they often truncate the task when they display it. So on my Apple Watch, "Do a drum rudiment" sometimes gets shortened to "Do a drum...". It makes your brain crazy because you want to know "Do a drum what!?". I click to see, and now drumming is on my mind. Just having "Drum Rudiment" does have that effect.

Give verbs to the things you need to get done and write instructions for your future self. You'll start to notice things starting to get done.

( ^ . ^ )y