WEEK 17: SCHEDULE TASKS SOONER IN THE WEEK FOR MORE BENEFITS

PLANNING (task, scheduling, and WT = DT):  This week I planned to create a new outline for the book by using the guidelines from Book In A Box. I planned on doing during Tae's nap time and took pictures of past outlines in advance so I had them available to use. Lastly, to turn WT = DT, I uploaded Tim Ferris', 5-Bullet, http://fourhourworkweek.com/blog/, so I could learn new information and strategies to become more efficient with my time.

IMPLEMENTATION (strategies used): In order to complete the task and the post this week I properly used the 3-bucket system of writing. First, I create the format for the blog post and add ideas throughout the week, next write a draft, and then finally edit the draft. In addition, my wife ,Meggo, bought me a passion planner to organize my week. I had been using the gTasks pro app exclusively to organize daily tasks, but the passion planner is a great tool to plan out the whole week and identify certain tasks for each day. In addiiton, it allows me to incorporate the Seinfeld Rule that I learned from James Clear. It is called this because a young comedian asked Jerry Seinfeld how to become better at their craft. Jerry said take a huge calendar and place a big X for everyday that you write jokes, and if you can place an X for every day of the year, then you will become a better comedian. For me, the passion planner allows me to see the whole month and allows me to place a big X for each day I complete tasks that take me towards my goals for this year. This makes my progress visible and helps me understand what is and is not working.

REFLECTIONS (learnings and actions): This week I was able to make some more connections and found ways to improve the weekly process of completing the task. First, I was able to combine the Sunday planning period and the 3-buckets system of writing. I did this by actually creating the blog entry and then write in what I PLAN on doing for the week. This completes part of the post and also allows me to add in learnings from the week as I go (which is the first bucket of the 3-bucket system). I will continue to follow this format in future weeks. 

Second, I was able to identify a tip in terms of scheduling your task. Lately, I have been scheduling time in the middle of the week to devout to my task, but I had an AHA moment while journaling on Monday. It occurred to me that there would be more benefits by scheduling tasks sooner in the week. The first benefit is that by scheduling and completing the task earlier on in the week, you feel a sense of accomplishment and hopefully it drives you to do more before the end of the week. Second, is the fact that if something comes up, as life usually presents others things that we must attended to, then you also have more time to complete the task as you are only in the beginning part of the week. Lastly, I feel rushed and out of sorts if I wait until the end of the week to complete the task then draft and edit the blog post, so this new strategy of scheduling earlier on  in the week helps me avoid procrastination. 

For my last learning it is the idea that you will never know until you start. At the beginning of this process I had no idea where to start writing this book on how to discover, pursue, and achieve my dreams. But, ideas came together and steps were provided as I consistently completed the tasks each week. It is very difficult in todays instant gratification era to see the benefit of completing action consistently and using the cumulative effect to create something meaningful. But as I completed my fourth outline ideas for chapters came more easily and these topics would have never come to me without me showing up every week and completing the tasks. So, if you are on the path to achieving something great, show up every day and complete the actions, especially when you don't want to, and the results will take care of themselves. 

Thanks for dropping by and see you week 18.