20 for 2020: week 40

Week 40: Week of 28 September

My 20 for 2020 list.

What did I want to do better this week?
Learn about different ways to get stuff done because planning and scheduling isn’t working for me.

So, how did that go then?
I’ve been vascillating between thinking I am incredibly unmotivated and lazy because I can’t make myself plan out my days and stick to the plan, and exploring the possibility that maybe this is not the best way for me to get things done and that rather than beat myself up about it I should be finding ways that work better for me.

I won’t go into a lot of detail but, as part of my research for my uni project (thing 8), I fell into a big Myers Briggs Type rabbit hole, which I know is a tool that has its fans and its critics. I’ve always found it interesting and have found that the description of the type I think I am has been pretty accurate and explained a lot about they way I think and behave. Over the years I felt that maybe I had changed my preferences significantly because of the way I’ve been working and the work environments I’ve found myself in. Doing some of the “unofficial” online tests (I know!) returned results that suggested the same thing and one of my workmates said that a type profile that was the direct opposite of my type on two of the dimensions sounded exactly like me. I was horrified!

Looking into this further, and learning how the four preferences interact with each other beyond the basic type descriptor, I’ve concluded that my basic preferences on the four dimensions are still the same as they were when I first did the profile many years ago but I’ve adapted the way I work to fit the places I’ve worked so much so that people think I’m like that persona. It makes sense to me that I’m actually really not and that my real preferences have been suppressed. So I’ve developed the other side, if you like, to enable me to do the things I’ve needed to do, but it’s not really the way I prefer to work.

Don’t get me started. Oh right, I already have.

Long story short, using that particular tool, I believe that my real preference, and where I feel most fit, is not in a particularly structured world and that’s why I’m struggling to impose structure on myself and to follow my own plans. Another part of the same tool also explains my tendency to get lost in rabbit holes as often as I do and to start things I never finish. It’s why I’ll come up with the ideas but you’ll never see me putting them into action. That’s someone else’s job. Apparently there are people who are good at that and enjoy it. Who knew.

In my rabbit hole last week, I found a resource about productivity for my particular type (or what I believe to be my type), which made so much sense to me and proposed another way of getting things does that doesn’t involve a daily schedule. So that’s going to be my focus over the next few weeks: putting that approach into practice and seeing if it gets me better results.

On to 20 for 2020
This week was still all about uni (thing 8) and, true to type, I haven’t actually looked at the project plan I made at the beginning of the project, despite the wonderfully detailed, colour coded timeline I made. (I know what you’re thinking after I said I wasn’t the scheduling type. I love making plans and schedules. I could do that all day. Just don’t ask me to follow them.)

From memory, I’m about a week behind where I expected to be. That’s in part because I didn’t allow enough time to actually sign people up, so the consultation stage has taken longer than I expected it to. This week I talked to eight people about the project, four of whom I didn’t know at all, which was extremely challenging for me as an introvert who would have been happy for everyone to respond in writing. Amusing, right? An introvert talking to introverts about being introverted. What was I thinking?

It was a challenging week, exhausting for me just being around people so much, but also very rewarding because I think I got a depth on some of the issues that I don’t  know I would have been able to fully explore if those people had responded in writing. And that’s exactly what they said to me. We had those one-on-one in-depth conversations that introverts are supposed to love. Challenging, but it’s certainly expanded my thinking on the project. How I’m going to fit it into 3000 words is anyone’s guess.

I have two weeks to do it in and I will hand it in.

What did I achieve this week?
My regular check in: I’m keeping up to date with my weekly photo journal and my street corners project. That’s the bare minimum I want to keep going while I finish my project, and it also makes sure I give myself a break from the intensity of the project by doing something creative for a while.

A couple of images from this week’s Hobart Street Corners.

I’ve also been doing a bit better at getting to bed on time. I reactivated my Habitica app, which basically gamifies your habits. I’m not much of a gamer but using an app where my character loses strength and health if I make an undesired choice or don’t tick off a daily habit is a little bit more motivating than checking a task off a to-do list in an app that I always forget to look at. And I have a bear cub! How cute is that!

I guess I should also acknowledge the work that I did on my project as an achievement, especially talking to people I don’t know. It was a big step out of my comfort zone and I am really proud of myself for having done it.

What didn’t go so well?
I feel like this was a bit of a reset week for me so I’m not going to be too hard on myself for things not going well.

What do I want to do better next week?
Start to use the new system and see how it works.

Summary for the week

• Things completed this week: 0
• Things completed to date: 12 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20)
• Things I progressed: 1 (8)
• Things in progress I didn’t progress: 5 (7, 11, 13, 17, 22)
• Things not started: 4 (9, 12, 19, 21)
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 2
• Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 0
• Days I shut my computer down before 10.15 (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I went for a walk in the afternoon (Goal = 5): 6
• Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 5): 5