Insight Synthesis

Specific goals are important. They provide a direction, and more importantly, a finish line. Here’s what happens when you set goals, but don’t get specific enough.

On the whiteboard went a list of sites I planned on releasing for the month. The only thing I wrote was “Next Sites Up” with a check off list of 5 sites. Obviously no thought was given to the goal, although the sites were small and I had a general idea of what I wanted to do with each one.

I began working on each site, but a week later noticed that I was only focusing on the 1-2 sites that I enjoyed working on. Which is fine, except I had no idea if the sites were done or not. What was the goal, again?

What does “releasing a site” mean, anyway? Should the sites have a specific amount of content? Should the code or content by refactored or revised? What ended up happening was, 4 sites were barely started (2 of which weren’t touched), and 1 had too many drafts and content for me to work on before losing interest. The month goes by and I look at the whiteboard again and feel discouraged that zero sites have gone up, more so because I did put in the time required to “release” all the sites on time, whatever that means.

To get over this, I created sub-tasks for each goal. I began by using the first 2-3 days of every month to plan out the goals for the month, and using Trac, created only 3-5 tasks for each site. The very essentials that I _hated_ doing, were the first things I needed to get off the todo list. I only put down the absolute minimum amount of work needed to get the sites up and running, knowing that once they were, adding things here and there was no longer a turn off since a foundation was in place.

A goal should have a general timeframe, and a set of actionable tasks, both of which should be realistic. This applies to any goals you set. When it comes time to actually put in the effort and finish a task, if it requires any sort of thinking, and there are other things you could be doing that are either 1) more enjoyable (like the sites I enjoy worked on) or 2) require no thinking (mundane, mindless tasks, like dishes), then you’re going to avoid doing what you have to do. It’s easy to rationalize not doing something important when you can tell yourself that you’re something productive anyway.

Remember that productive for you, doesn’t mean “producing results,” but “producing results that matter.”

Here’s something we’ve all experienced. You wake up late, and miracourasly get dressed and out the door in minutes. But had you been awake 2 hours earlier, would you have gotten ready as quickly? For most of us, it would have taken us 2 hours to get ready.

If you have a lot of time to complete a task, you’ll make plans, organize yourself, and get “ready” to work. In the end, you spend 80% of that time just organizing papers and thinking, but not actually working on anything. In the end, all your work would total only about 5-10% of the allocated time the task was assigned.

I know that if I’m coding something, and have a big gap of time, I either won’t start doing anything until I absolutely have to, or, I’ll begin by taking my sweet time coming up with neat flow charts, and coding every possible scenario that “could” happen into my program. Whereas if I was pressed for time, I would only code the bare essentials. What’s the task? OK. (12 hours later) This program completes that task.

I noticed that I personally take a lot of time because I wanna ensure high quality in whatever I’m doing. What I’ve been failing to realize was that a finished product of the lowest quality is 100% better than having an incomplete product of higher caliber. Indeed, I usually end up having NO product.

I’ve thought about this for a long time but didn’t know until about a year ago that it’s known (and therefore deems me sane): Parkinson’s Law

Time is interesting. Most of us will agree that there isn’t enough time in the day, but the truth is that we waste more than enough time to finish everything we need to. Feeling like you never have enough time just means that you aren’t managing your time. Here’s what I thought about and observed, in myself and others.

You wake up in the morning, and you have 2 hours before you need to get to class. During those two hours, would you get any work done? Most people won’t. They will justify not getting anything done with “can’t really do anything in 2 hours, I’ll do it later.”

You go to class, and then come home and have another 2 hours before you need to head off to work. Again, using the same logic, those two hours are wasted reading blargs or watching TV, or doing something very productive that’s NOT what you’re actually supposed to be doing (this is a very interesting habit us procrastinaters have).

After work, you justify wasting a few hours by telling yourself that you’re too tired to do the work anyway, and it would be best if you get some sleep and do it in the morning.

Now looking back through this day, it might have felt like you had no time to get anything done because of classes and work, but at least 6 free hours were wasted doing nothing. So when people say “I don’t have time,” what they really mean is, “I don’t have a 10+ hour gap of time in which to get this done.” Which might be true, but

So the meaning of “wasting time” doesn’t just apply to wasting large gaps of time, but to not make productive use of the free, fragmented hours you get here and there. Besides, if you had 10+ free hours, it’s not like you would have done any more than 1-2 hours of work anyway, right?

Does it really matter if you wanted or really intended to do something, but ended up just not doing it? As far as the rest of the world is concerned, there’s probably absolutely no difference. In fact, many times it’s better to just admit to yourself that you’re not going to do it and get the weight off your shoulders. Here’s an example of something that happened to me.

I remember I was more than halfway through my semester, and my professor calls me over and says, “it’s near the end of the term and you have not handed ANYTHING in.” I was shocked that time went by as quick as it did, and looking back, I was intending on doing all the missed assignments since the first week of the semester. I attended every class, paid attention, did most of the work (all except missed papers), but deep down I just kept putting the task off.

The intention to make up the work was strong at first, but began fading from my memory the longer I put it off. Eventually, though I still definitely intended on doing the work the next day, the thought would remain in my in my “mental RAM,” subconsciously making me anxious and depressed for months. I couldn’t enjoy my free time because deep down I knew that I had work to finish.

In hindsight, had I dropped the class early on, I wouldn’t have had the weight on my shoulders, and could have probably been more productive in other things I was doing, and if not, then the stress-relief alone would have been a significant pro in itself.

The point of this fairy tale? Just wanting something doesn’t matter. You have to actually do it. I know too many people other than me who have this evil habit. It’s actually quite common, but most people just don’t notice they do it. Every time you put something off, it’s put into a queue, and nearly everything in that queue will NEVER get done.

Sometimes it’s best to stop things from dragging on aimlessly and to liberate yourself. Say “fuck it. This is very important and beneficial, but I’m just never gonna do it,” and take it off your todo list.