I have listed out a list of things that I need to do and a process in order to achieve my goal for 2019.
For mastering of skills, I came out with a process to motivate myself. So instead of just vaguely says that I want to know XYZ, I came out with a list of books, online tutorial that I want to go through. I will go through it and hopefully but the end of the year, I will be better than when I first started out.
This approach gives me the motivation to work on my goals. having specific actions that I need to take, gives my brain a goal to push myself. Also, instead of just saying I want to complete say a book or tutorial by the end of the year, I told myself I will fully focus for 2 hours. The result does not matter, what matter is the time and consistency that I will need to put in every day. I am confident that if I can do this consistently every day until the end of the year, I will find myself knowing more than when I first started.
This approach also makes it fun. There will be no pressure that I have to know everything or learn everything.
Next, I came out with a method to ensure I work consistently every day. Usually, after a long day of work, it is hard to work on my goal. So I came out with a couple of tools and methods to combat it.
- First Thing First
- Pomodoro
- Timer
First Thing First
I know that if I don’t work on the things that I need to work on immediately, I will be distracted by other things. Using the technique of first thing first, I will work on what I need to work immediately or as soon as possible. No surfing of net or playing games. Knowing that there is a high chance that if I don’t work on it, it might not get done. Also, it is okay not to do other things if I do not have the time. There will be no consequences but if I do not work on what I have planned, I can only blame myself at the end of the year for achieving nothing significant.
Pomodoro
To get myself started, I will use the Pomodoro method. I found out that Pomodoro is an effective way to overcome the inertia of working. No excuse, for the first Pomodoro, get working no matter what I think or feel. if there is anything I want or feel like doing, I can wait for 25 mins later to do it. Usually after the first 25mins, usually, I will get myself in the momentum to work.
Timer
While Pomodoro is effective in getting myself to start working, I realised that it is not so effective for tracking hours. Sometimes I will be distracted by people or my brain, which will screw up my Pomodoro session, which greatly throws me off. If I screw up in the middle of a Pomodoro session, I will feel like I wasted my time and gets unmotivated. So to properly track and also not get myself unnecessary unmotivated, I will run another timer. I will stop the timer whenever I am not focused on my task. So this will properly track my progress and not make myself feel bad whenever I am distracted in the middle of a Pomodoro.