Reflections from last mod (what did I do well? Where can I improve?):
Last mod was really chaotic for me, especially the last half. I felt that many of my habits and routines were out the window, and struggled to return to the productive ones despite recognizing the stability they could ideally provide.
In the past, I've fallen into the pattern of seeing and acting on an opportunity that I can accomplish some task on the list when a window presents itself, even if that window was not anticipated to appear. But often that more opportunistic approach will derail the plan I otherwise had in place for the things I was going to be working on, even if I'm glad to have taken care of that thing when I had the chance to. I think this can be improved by more deliberate time-blocking - having not just a list planning out all of the things I need to do, but more specific times allocated to each task on the list. To make this effective, of course, will require the discipline to commit to the blocks of time I've alloted so that I can avoid the tendency to roll one unfinished task over into the time I had intended to dedicate to the next on the list. This is difficult as it can be uncomfortable to feel like I'm leaving something unfinished, or maybe feel like I'm about to finish something, in the interest of moving on to the next thing. I'm hopful that building confidence to rely on my own judgements in this area will allow me to feel the benefits of getting more done accross my list of intentions (embracing the value of making some progress on more goals, rather than thinking that I might work to fully complete one before being able to move on to another - also hoping that this can address a sense of paralysis I've experienced as a consequence of my patterns in the past).
Goal(s) for the module:
Organization & Time Management - I have admired others who seem to have more strict and reliable routines in place to guide their days, weeks, etc, and recognize their seemingly lower levels of stress. I think there is a dangerous pattern especially in Western cultures to think that if we are not experiencing overwhelming stress, or presenting as such, we must not be working hard enough. In reflecting on how this has felt ingrained in myself, I feel that a habit of productive procrastination and paralysis have fostered that higher stress which ultimately leads to my working time producing lower quality work than could have been possible. I have connected to a Neil Strauss quote I'm finding helpful to keep in mind: “The stress we have about work we have to do, in most cases, is harder on us than the work itself.”
Publish an article / blog post - (Start a blog?) I have recently listened to a podcast conversation with Kent C. Dodds in which he emphasized the process over the product, and an approach of 1.Consume, 2.Build, 3. Teach to achieve true learning. This was helpful for me to hear as a counter to imposter syndrome, in reinforcing that the value the writer gets out of creating the content is enough, whether they think anyone else will consume or find value in it at all. I've admired blogs or articles I've seen from others already, and would love to push myself to engage more proactively in that way.
Habit to put into place this week:
Shower before bed to kick off a wind-down routine