On 28 Jan, I highlighted two challenges to achieving my goals: Time and fear. I tackle the first challenge here, with possible solutions.

Making time

• Stop doing things that waste my time.
• Optimise and be more efficient with the things I do.

I'm being strict about how much television I watch: One hour a week for Desperate Housewives (what can I say? It's my guilty pleasure).

I won't even have television in the background because I tend to get distracted by it, sometimes being tempted to start watching it instead of doing things.

I've downloaded an egg timer program called Minuteur (Mac app), which is helping to jolt me out of procrastination. By default it makes a ticking noise, this is good because it reminds me that time is slipping away and I'd better not waste it!

I've been reading some articles about procrastination and the best advice I've heard includes:

1. Eight minutes as a suggested period of time to work dedicated to one specific task. When that's up, you can do another burst if you want and so on.
2. 'Fill your hands' when tidying: Grab a handful of stuff and rush around putting things where they belong – stops you from worrying about where to start and encourages you to just get on with it.
3. When working, sometimes you'll become aware that you're daydreaming. When you do, make yourself switch back to working. As you do this more you'll increase your awareness of when you're procrastinating and encourage yourself to stop.

Some excellent articles from lifehacking, productivity etc. blogs:

• LifeDev: How to use Twitter as a productivity tool
  I use Twitter (Bright Achievements) to record my successes, so as to increase my self-confidence and maintain a record of what I've done. LifeDev shows how you can use it to increase awareness of you procrastination.
• LifeHacker: Get rid of clutter with the container method

What do you think? Any articles to recommend?

Intentions for All Things Bright, 2007

1. Images to distinguish particularly noteworthy or unique content
2. Join three blogging networks, especially Mind Petals – the community of young entrepreneurs (seems to be offline at the moment)
3. Publish excerpts from my philosophy of religion essays, with some exegesis as to why what I'm doing is important and relevant to life more generally
4. Be (more) creative: Specifically, start writing poetry again and publish some of it here
5. Detox! I've got lots of design changes, as well as tweaks for taglines etc. to implement by end of Feb 2007, starting 29 Jan
6. Seamless integration in to my forthcoming self-employment blogfolio (a portfolio in blog format) by end of March 2007
7. Continue to a) write every other day, b) reply to comments promptly (within 24 hours where possible) and c) add value to the blogging community and to the world generally via blog comments and forums
8. Seek out and respond to more blog challenges
9. Start guest blogging at appropriate blogs
10. Review my plans every month to ensure I'm on track for my goals

On 29th December 2006, I made some important goals for 2006. I've already modified and developed them. (Update: For details, see 2007 goals reviewed, January, 4 Feb)

I'm doing really well: All Things Bright has a new focus as my Personal Entrepreneurship site. The main thing to do is implement the changes I've decided to make. As for my other blogs and my essays, I have a lot of writing to do. I love writing; just as well!

Challenges: Entrepreneurship, professional blogging & studying

• Time: Making it
• Fear: Facing it

So, how do I create more time and face my fears? I'm exploring that, check back on Tuesday/Thursday for my discoveries.

In response to Lorelle's Top 10 Blog Goals Blogging Challenge.

I'm writing about education, yet again and with good reason.

My essay deadlines are creeping closer and closer. This time procrastination will lead to failure (er, again). So, I'm tackling my tendency to procrastinate.

You too can "Say No! to Procrastino."

Studying & Entrepreneurship

My two main areas of focus at the moment: Studying and Entrepreneurship. Each has its challenges, for example, I'm working on breaking down the massive goal of 'doing Ethical Beads' in to daily tasks. Each has its rewards: Writing for All Things Bright is a reward in itself, knowing I'm helping people is brilliant and getting feedback makes me grin inanely. :)

The biggest challenges? Time and fear, which are intimately connected, especially as I tend to procrastinate out of fear, thus leaving myself less time. Doh!

Lately being cold has been enough to stop me from acting. This is actually a big problem for me, as my parents switch the heating off when they go to bed, but I tend to work better at night. Aagh! I'm tackling it by slowly adapting to working earlier (e.g. by going to bed earlier to ensure I get enough sleep), although it's cold in the mornings too – roll on Spring! Isn't that terrible though? To let being cold defeat me.

So, what I need to do is, well, just get on with it – there are no shortcuts. In the long run, getting on with it now will mean I save time anyway, so better get to it.

Essay-writing, what's to love?

Well, quite a lot really. I've chosen topics in which I'm genuinely interested. For example, virtue ethics is about working out the best way/s of living one's life, how to be a better person and becoming wise – fascinating! These are all topics I explore, out of choice, at All Things Bright. So, I'm going to synchronise the two activities (essay-writing and blogging) more and thus cut down on the amount of work and 'work'.

Resources

• Daily PlanIt: Why We Procrastinate
• Trizoko: 2 Rules to Stop Procrastinating
• 43 Folders: Motivation to do things you dislike

Update: I almost forgot to mention that in my next entry I'll be bringing you up-to-date on my goals, which will also serve to give me something to measure my success against. 27 Jan