Taking my own advice
Every Friday afternoon I spend some time reviewing the past week and planning ahead before signing off for the weekend.
I’m not super molecular about it - I put a big plus sign on the top of a page in my journal followed by all of the things I managed to accomplish. Then a big minus sign ahead of everything that didn’t go so well.
I finish off this delicate masterpiece with a heading that says: ‘Next Week’, before listing all of the things I’ll do differently in the coming days.
Today (8 March 2024) marks the end of my two week cool down period and it’s been a bit hit and miss to be honest.
I’ve been busy at work, there have been a few disruptions in my personal life, and we’re currently heading into Autumn in the southern hemisphere – all things that typically disturb my chill and productivity.
I have had some stellar days of productivity and I still managed to get to my writing for the most part, but some other things have fallen by the wayside and I haven’t managed to make as much early progress on my project for cycle 2 as I had hoped.
It’s not like I got nothing done, but my consistency and also my output has decreased.
I’ve also felt a little scattered and spread too thin without a clear scope to guide me, so it’s been a little bit of a free-for-all.
Mistake #1 Trying to work my way through the cool down period to get a head start on cycle 2
Everything in life works in rhythms and if you try and cheat through a allocated fallow period, it will make you less productive when you actually need to be. Rest is not an optional extra, it is non-negotiable. I thought I had learned this lesson already, but it turns out self-sabotage is always lurking.
Gary Vee talks a bit about this when he talks about being ‘half-pregnant’ – when you’re meant to be taking time off but you keep dipping back into your inbox to look at work stuff, so you never really relax, but you’re also never really being productive. Meaning that you never get to fully be either thing.
The ShapeUp methodology wisely includes this down time because 37signals know that it needs to be there so don’t try and game the system - because you won’t win.
Mistake #2 Forgetting that perspective is everything.
The second thing that I’ve been feeling over the last couple of weeks, is this low grade but continuous feeling of frustration, disappointment and mild despair.
“I have been at this forever.”
“I still have so much work to do.”
“I feel like I’ll never get there.”
“This is going to take so long.”
“I want x,yz, I should have these things by now!”
“How do I make more progress, FASTER?”
That sort of jazz.
Basically I’ve been feeling frustrated with how long things are taking, and a little disappointed by the lack of visible progress. Just your garden variety no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel kind of buzz.
Writing this all out now, I think this is happening for a couple of reasons:
1. I’m not technically anchored to anything during these two weeks of cool down, and because of that I feel like I have fallen off the wagon and am not ‘actively’ working on stuff (but of course I am). So it feels like I’ve lost my way a bit.
2. I think I’m looking too far ahead, and haven’t taken the time to look back at where I started, and what I’ve already accomplished.
Yes I have been at this shiz for years, but also I have an enormous body of work and skillset to show for it. Just because I’m at week 1 of a cycle, doesn’t mean I’m at zero.
I also need to remind myself that it’s only the first week of March. I HAVE (almost) A WHOLE YEAR AHEAD OF ME and look at everything I’ve accomplished already! Using my previous work method (burnout, recovery, rinse and repeat), what I just did in the previous 6 weeks would have probably taken me until September to get done, at which point I’d promptly burn out and that would me for the year.
Mistake #3 Forgetting that big things are achieved via thousands of tiny, incremental steps in the right direction.
THAT SAID, there is (as always) a kernel of truth in amongst all of the existential FOMO clouding my vision.
I do have a very, very long road ahead of me.
And so, this last fortnight has been a timely reminder of the need to chill tf out and play the long game.
Because ‘keeping the pace’ is not just about momentum and speed, it’s also about distance and endurance.
Yes, you need to set a good pace so that you go fast enough, but you also need to pace yourself so that you don’t go so fast that you run out of steam before you get to the finish line.
“Don’t rush, but don’t wait. Act with urgency, but release yourself from the need to achieve it on a particular timeline (…) If it takes year, start now.” - James Clear
Mistake #4 Forgetting that mindset is everything.
Looking at all the unchecked boxes over the last two weeks has been an uncomfortable feeling because I know I can do better. That’s why trackers are so important – because they show you patterns, and patterns are early warning signs that something isn’t working.
‘How does a project get to be a year late? One day at a time.’ – Fred Brooks
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‘Working on your mindset is honestly the most important - if not the only - thing you have to master. Everything else you can just Google.’ - Denise Duffield-Thomas
Of course, we’ve already established that there’s a bit going on here, but there’s something else I uncovered this evening which is worth sharing.
The stuff I was supposed to get done to give me a head start on cycle 2 and didn’t? The block I uncovered today is that I don’t think I can actually do this thing.
Lots of reasons why, but one is my scope is too big! I tried to make it smaller, but what I really did was commandeer the cool down period at both ends of this cycle to accommodate for the oversized project.
That’s why I self-sabotaged and didn’t do the things I was supposed to over the last two weeks (that + I needed a rest). The fear that I can’t do this, has stopped me from truly committing to doing it properly. The self-fulfilling prophecy strikes again!
And so, tomorrow is Saturday – it’s a long weekend here in Victoria, and I am going to take the full 3 days off from everything.
And when I come back to my work and start cycle 2 properly I am going to do these 4 things:
Prioritise my downtime and stick to the bloody program!
Make a running tally of all the work completed after each heartbeat this year. I’ll print out my list and look at it periodically.
Change my daily checklist, and lower my expectations a bit. A steady pace of 1% improvement is better than massive but inconsistent action. As long as I make a bit of progress every day, I’ll be happy.
Go back to my prep docs for cycle 2 and redefine my scope. For this one I need to focus more on the process rather than the outcome.
- Linda ✌🏻