September 16, 2011 at 15:12Killer of the day
I went through a lot of little things, but the main problems remained. “Although it really worked,” says Olegapro .
When I started working as a freelancer, I answered letters in the morning, then I sorted out the documents. And only then, by eight o’clock in the evening, he sat down to draw a design.
Letters came different:
- Enthusiasm and gratitude - they are the most pleasant, and the easiest to answer
- From potential customers with questions like “Are you interested in starting a project” and “Are you available for my project?” Are also very pleasant, promising profits. They are also easy and pleasant to answer, especially if they do not communicate anything about the substance of the project.
Then came the billing and execution of contracts: it was an unpleasant, but simple work. Since I never did business on my own, sometimes I had to kill several hours at Google, studying sample documents and legislation.
Finally, when I had no other reason to postpone the work, under pain of losing a client, I sat down for a real job: what I really can do and what I get paid for: draw a design. It is not difficult to assume that the real work suffered the most, as it was postponed for later.
What is the most unpleasant thing?
There are two types: one where you need to think a lot and one where you can screw up .
Thinking a lot
The hardest part about design is coming up with a design. Therefore, designers postpone this moment as far as possible, doing other supposedly useful things: they read LiveJournal (but only design communities!), Reply to mail, look through the news (supposedly to know the context). I, in order not to do the design:
- Cleaned shoes
- I studied alternative payment acceptance services: what if you can pay a lower commission?
- Wrote to friends on Facebook and endlessly stung Refresh waiting for an answer
- Put music, change tracks and end up downloading new music
- Even practiced with dumbbells! From morning and hours until five in the evening.
Some of these activities are called mental work, but only formally: in fact, they serve to get rid of mental work; from the things that require the greatest concentration.
Screw up
How hard it is to force yourself to make an unpleasant call! Most calls are micro-conflict. People rarely call to scatter in pleasantries. Rather, resolve a conflict of interest, albeit very small.
- Find out about the delivery conditions? They want to do less and take more, but on the contrary.
- Make an appointment? Everyone wants closer to his office.
- Remind me to pay the bill? There is already a conflict.
All these are micro-negotiations. I am already silent about the situation when the client is expressed in terms of “Damn the day I learned about VisualPharm ”. Any negotiations have the opportunity to fail.
Who is in a hurry to help us?
Two loyal assistants appointed by society rush to our aid: wines and lyuli .
You can blame yourself: guilt is a strong motivator. You can wait for external influences: lyuley from the boss or wife.
Such methods do not work for me; on the contrary, I rest. Since childhood, I am forced to do only those things that I do not want to do:
- Play the October game Buy a chicken instead of a yard game in the king
- Putting your socks in place instead of doing something more interesting sooner
- And many, many lessons instead of computers, drawing, fishing and card games.
In both cases, I was not only compelled by my parents, October leaders and teachers, but also by an inner voice of conscience. So, I considered myself an unconscious October October due to the fact that I did not stick to sing:
Turkey Falda-bulda,
Duck ta-ti-ta-ta.
I need something more powerful than a boss or a voice of conscience. Wines and luli are weak helpers.
The most important thing
The most important thing is one, maximum two. How to distinguish it from the rest? I ask myself the question: “Will I be pleased with the present day if I only do it”?
Today, I have two important things to do: write this article and help rewrite the resume:
Tomorrow is one thing: to complete the assignment for the bag:
I do not single out my important business; I plan it on the eve and, waking up, I know in person. First I do it, then the rest.
When I started writing this article, I used Highrise . Now I switched to a more functional thing - OmniFocus .
But any to-do list will do:
- Ta-da lists
- Remember the Milk
- or paper notebook
How not to be distracted from an important matter
An important thing is easy to get off. Check how you are doing on Facebook, pull the seagull or even clean the table. How to keep focus? Remove irritants. The following things distract me.
People
Familiar people will always be distracting: I did this with colleagues, family, ICQ and just acquaintances. Therefore, I go to places where I’m unfamiliar: in cafes, parks, libraries, beaches or working on a tram.
If you constantly go to the same cafe, you make friends. Therefore, constantly going to one place is not an option. A cute waitress, throwing an affectionate cue, flying by - it's wonderful. Just not when you draw a design, invent a super bag or write an article about an important day-long business.
Sounds
Russia is a noisy country. It is believed that if you turn on the radio "Europe Plus", then this will increase comfort.
The Lenin Library is a place where the cult of silence reigns. Everyone can get there. The only requirement is the age of 18 years. The first time you need to pay 100 rubles for reading.
For other places there are soundproof headphones. I like Etymotic , I wear a third pair (I lost the previous two), and Koss Pathfinder from inexpensive ones .
A computer
Facebook, LiveJournal, news, and even Wikipedia - they can fill my whole day. I block them with the SelfControl program (only for Mac, if you know an analog for Windows - write in the comments). It blocks the sites that you tell her tightly - even rebooting does not help: You
can still track your effectiveness with RescueTime . Here is my effectiveness:
That is, about half of the cases I perceive as undesirable. See this fat purple region here? This is mail (Gmail and Sparrow) and Skype.
Sparrow is a good customer. I don’t like the concept itself: spend so much time on email.
Own thoughts
They have no end:
- Not well, how can one be such a person. And after all, he believes that he is rightly fucked!
- Ahh, what for it was to tell a joke to Mikhail Yakovlevich about Odessa, a moron blah.
- EPT money will never be, and what? How tired of it, to look for something, plug holes.
Humanity is lucky with a big brain. Thanks to him, we have a lot of food, and we are the largest mammal population on the planet. And at the same time, in the load, we got an internal tormentor, chasing vile thoughts. Got a calm moment in time to rest? There it was: the brain begins the only thing that can: think, think, think. And turn it off is impossible.
Or maybe? He cannot be ordered not to think, but he can be trained . Professor Jonathan Heidt from the University of Virginia identifies three effective ways to workout:
- Meditation
- Cognitive psychology
- Antidepressants
On this I decided to stop and not write more about the methods. If you are meditating or prozak, welcome to comment. In the last article, there were meditators and many others who found their own ways to solve problems. And that is wonderful. Thank you for reading and Wellcome in the comments.
UPD: Ha ha ha, kament of the day: “You say SelfControl helps you ... I put it on and what do you think happened? I didn’t jump to other sites, I got into digging into the software and watching what it does and how. Then I went on the Internet to look for analogues for other OSs. ” Sayber
UPD November 2013: I supplemented my arsenal with applications for routines (established sequences of actions): Routines , the frightening Stickk thing(and not only intimidating - she fined me hundreds of dollars!), and also make my Last Hour app for both.
UPD November 2013: I wanted to write a FAQ on an article, but did not write. Therefore, I just provide a link to comments that are close to me: about Yana Frank , about gestalt therapy and of course about the hardcore .
