This week has been so fucking long, but it’s been a fun week. I’ve slept like shit this week, and just been playing catch up the whole time. Frankly I’m really fucking exhausted lol.
But it’s been a pretty good week. Whenever I’m super sleep deprived I try to look at the positive side, because I’m awake for more hours, I get to enjoy more of the day.
I’ve gone back over all of my notes from the last 7 days – here are a few of the most important things that I’ve learnt this week:
Prioritise what’s really important
I found on the days that I was the least productive writing, it was the days where as soon as I woke up, I prioritised other things apart from writing, that honestly weren’t that important.
There was one day when I checked my WhatsApp messages first thing, and one of my friends messaged me about some plans to meet up, and I had to reschedule some stuff and shuffle around to accommodate.
But like an hour later, the whole plan fell through, so I wasted that time in the morning, and I got myself into a frazzled state of mind, which really wasn’t conducive to creativity.
Protect your process!
By not starting the day with a prioritisation of my creative process, I’m subconsciously telling myself that writing is less important than this random logistical stuff that won’t have any affect long term on my life or career.
Going forward I’m just gonna make sure my phone is on aeroplane mode before I go to bed, just to make sure I’m not getting bombarded with bullshit to start my day, even if I fail to put on the brakes and auto open Instagram or WhatsApp.
I found that carving out the time in the morning to spend time on getting at least one step closer to your creative goals has helped me so much.
I just need to get better at consistently PROTECTING that process from all the bs and distractions your phone can bombard you with.
Set specific goals, add time pressure
In my uni course (Eng Lit) we have to do a 2000 word essay every two weeks. Usually, they take on average about 8 hours for me (I’m still kinda slow, working on getting faster), however this fucking essay took me like 17 hours which was STOOOOOPID long.
For my last essay, I pulled an all-nighter, and I made a promise to myself that I would never do this again, and I would be more prepared and finish it well in advance.
This did not happen.
The essay was due on Monday, and I literally didn’t start actually writing my essay until Sunday evening.
The thing is, I’d started doing research EARLY, like on the Tuesday of that week. I wanted to be a good student, be prepared and get a head start on my essay, so I’d be free on the weekend. But still ended up in the same situation.
Parkinson’s Law
All my work just filled up the extra time I gave it. This is a prime example of Parkinson’s Law in action.
Parkinson’s Law – “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”
I was basically just doing a lot of busy work, and treading water/running in place.
Sometimes I feel like this is very much the case with my creative endeavours, especially when I’m writing a longer form project that requires a lot of planning and outlining.
How to not waste all your time lmao
So to minimise this busy work, I realised that for every minute I’m working on something, I need to know what it is I’m trying to achieve in that block of time.
By setting a specific goal for each chunk of time I spend something I’m able to measure and see if I’ve achieved it, or I have made progress on that goal.
When setting these specific goals, it’s really important to ask yourself the question: is this really important? Is this the most important thing that I need to be doing right now?
Again, prioritisation is SUPER important here, and only doing the most important tasks – the ones that are going to give you the highest return on time invested.
I found that when you’re not super selective with what you do, you’ll waste copious amounts of time – it’s what happened this week with my essay – I went on unproductive research tangents on irrelevant topics.
Use a timer
I’ve found that adding time pressure by having a timer nearby is really useful for speeding up my rate of work.
Looking at the clock regularly really gives me a sense of urgency, and how much time I have left to complete something.
Your time is valuable!
One super important thing that I’ve learnt this week, is the value of time. I’ve always known that time is really valuable, as you can always make more money, but you can’t get more time.
But for some reason, this week it really sunk into my head. As a result, I’ve been a lot more selective with what I choose to spend my time on.
However, I still have massive chunks of time where I’m really inefficient, but it’s an ongoing process of self-improvement, and getting better at being more efficient in my work.