As folks start going back to work and restaurants and venues start to reopen we can start looking forward to things again. Like date nights and hanging out with friends and family again. This is also the perfect time to start over. Reinvent yourself. Maybe not outwardly but in your day to day life. Time to get organized and on a schedule again. Get back to being active. How do you suppose you're going to do that? By writing it down and planning.
I've been doing my own self inventory and evaluation lately. I've taken small steps toward achieving big goals. The problem with humans is we want results now. We don't want to work up to the big results. My first goal was to get focused. Focused on what? Just learning to focus. I'd become so complacent in my daily routine of work, tv, eat and sleep. That's all I've been doing. Wasting hours flipping channels that I could use to achieve my goals. First I had to eliminate distractions. I made the conscious decision to cut my television time to 1 hour a day. I used to watch TV about 5 hours a day. Now I only watch my favorite shows only new episodes. Other than that, I try to learn by watching how to videos on YouTube. I do watch one movie a week on my second day off.
After eliminating my distractions, I decided I needed more time to work (real work, towards personal goals or on self improvement). I work (my day job) mostly nights so I was getting up at 10 am to get ready for work. I started getting up at 8m to have extra hours to check items off my to do list and work on those small goals. Me writing this post is one of my small goals which is to write half a hour a day. After eliminating some of my distractions, I next focused on decluttering my life. The experts say that clutter equals stress. I selected two major areas that I inhabit and decided to not only organize, I also rearranged it to make easier to use and down size things that didn't bring me joy like Mary Kondo. In this case it was holy socks. I started in my bedroom. I went through my shoe and got rid of the ones that didn't fit or I didn't wear any more. Then I went through my closet and got rid of stuff that I didn't wear any more. Same with my sock and underwear drawer. Anything with holes, dingy, or size shmedium had to go. On the plus side I bought new socks and undershirts to replace the ones I got rid of. The last thing I did was replace my night stand. I would knock everything off the old one in my sleep. The new one has selves and a railing to keep me from swatting everything off in my sleep.
The other area in my day to day that needed organization is my living room that holds my extensive record collection. That means going through and alphabetizing every section. Finding sleeves for records and records for sleeves and trying to make it more user friendly since one of my small goals is to start a weekly live mix show. Decluttering is a constant chore. Next time you open the catch all, go through it and see just how much of that stuff you need or use. Don't try to do the whole house at once. Go floor by floor, then room by room. Then break the room down. One day the closet, then drawers. More importantly commit to declutter, Don't just rearrange the junk. If you haven't used it in at least six months, you don't need it. If it doesn't fit, you don't need it. If you have to come up with an elaborate explanation on why you have to keep it, you don't need it. Donate it, sell it, sprinkle it with fairy dust, but do get it out of the house.
After regaining my focus and wasted time and clearing the clutter that was blocking my sight literally and metaphorically, I started concentrating on my wants and needs. Make a list. What are things that you want and why? What purpose will it fill in your life? Then I thought of the things I needed. Those of course took first priority. I start with a big idea or goal, I break that down to how it applies to my needs. Then I take each item and make a list of steps that become part of my weekly focus and then my daily to do lists. Below is how this week is broken down
Needs
- Camera
- New Turntables
- Chromebook or tablet
- MPC or sampler or beat machine
- Learn to make beats
- Write regularly
- Do a weekly live mix
- Start a podcast
- Take up photography
- Start taking DJ gigs
- Finish organizing records (declutter)
- Move turntables back to living room (for weekly live mix)
- Test and update Gemini deck and laptop (for DJ gigs)
- Compile playlist (for weekly live mix)
- Write at least a half hour per day (write regularly)
- Research and price shop production equipment and software (learn to make beats)
- Research and price shop professional digital cameras (take up photography)
You see how every list correlates to the other. Take a big idea. Break it down to manageable parts. Then start knocking them down one by one. Of course in real life there are no bullet points of spreadsheets. I have a couple of notebooks and a pencil. I use a pencil so I can make adjustments when needed. Sometime I add tasks in real time or move some to the next day if I have to. The important thing is that I wrote it down. Now I can remember what I need to do. I have a reference point. I sometimes forget things. Life is hectic. This way when I get to my free time, I know exactly where my focus needs to be and what the current project I need to work on is. So writing everything down is just the start. Now you have to actually commit and get it done. Set deadlines. Schedule everything you need to, to make the most of your day. Schedule meals, exercise, sleep, quiet time and even fun stuff. It all matters and is necessary. Making a plan makes huge difference. Otherwise your mind is jumbled and thinking about nothing, so to occupy it, you sit on the couch until you get hungry, sleepy or need to make money. Hours of wasted time you could be using to advance your personal goals.
Try it for a week and see how it improves your day to day
Thanks for your time
You can follow me on IG @cheeto_puente Facebook: Augusto Cesar Guerrero
or email me questions or comments directly to Augustocguerrero@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment