There are some things in life that never change - my bad luck for instance. I still manage to be the only person to step in spills with my socks. In fact, the other day I was standing in the kitchen minding my own business when suddenly my three year old came running in holding a cup of water, tripped over an imaginary bramble, and dumped her entire drink onto - yes - my socks. It was funny, as are other goofy things that have happened to me, but I want to focus on something else that doesn't change: the need to prune my life of projects.
People with ADHD are famous for having a million irons in the fire but never remembering to light the fire in the first place. So part of the process of self-analysis is to figure out how to light that fire. I discovered long ago that a PDA
was perfect for keeping track of all my various things to do on a daily basis, but for life goals and all around focus I needed to reevaluate how I spend my time every few months. Sometimes this is easy - like now when I know what I want and know what I have to do to get it. In the past, however, organizing my life was difficult because I was buried in projects. In fact, I would discard projects and pick up new ones faster than I could keep track of them. Ideas were bursting out of my mind and I wanted to pursue each and every one of them. If you find that this is what you are like read along as I step through my evaluation process. It's been a few months and it's time to pull out the shears.
Copy Strategies:
1) Have ONE major goal that you are working towards, with one or two sub goals to prevent boredom of the major goal.
Right off the bat I break my own rule because I have much more than two sub projects eating up my time. Mainly, I want to be working as a children's book illustrator before I'm 40. This is my big goal now. Sure I have a signature line of scrapbook papers sold internationally and I've had my fractal art published in England, but it is not enough. I couldn't really call those successes a career, and besides, I want a book with my name on it. For that I need a new portfolio that is specifically targeted to the children's illustration market. This is what I am working towards. Anything that detracts from this goal must be shucked and discarded from my life.
Unfortunately, I have more than one iron in the fire. How do I make sure they don't take over? The first trick is to schedule my time around the main goal, leaving the little bits for the side projects. For instance, I want to learn the guitar. There are other instruments that I want to learn, but I won't pick them up until I have achieved a certain level of skill with the guitar. When I had to play the tinwhistle for a talent show with my kids two weeks ago I put down the guitar and focused on the tinwhistle for a few days then purposely put it aside again and renewed my guitar practice. One instrument at a time. Another example is that I want to write a novel, but there are many ideas I'd like to pen to life. Therefor I choose one idea and focus only on that one idea. Writing time is assigned to the late evening and two other times during the week when my kids are at school. I'd like to write more, but it isn't the main goal in my life. Other projects are given smaller slivers of time. For example, organizing the iMovie files and making DVDs is relegated to Sunday evenings. I won't allow myself to work on them any other day.
Sounds impressive, right? All my ducks seem to be in a row. What an organized man I am! Well, the next question is "How well am I sticking to the schedule?". The answer would be "Not so hot.". This is why a reevaluation is necessary. Anybody who has a hard time following through on projects, or seeing projects through to the end can relate with this. Projects have a tendency to breed and mutate. They generate new ideas and often those new ideas are awful tempting to pursue. Because of sickness, depression, sickness, chronic motor tic disorder episodes, distraction, and sickness I am behind schedule for my portfolio goals. In addition, my novel has begun to steal time from my portfolio goals. I have also picked up a few new projects: two podcasts with my daughters and The Analytical Potter forum. This is why having one goal is so imperative for ADHD people: without discipline the one goal becomes whatever is most fascinating at the moment. If I turn 39 and haven't seen significant progress in my illustration goals I will become depressed and angry with myself. To prevent that I must be dedicated. This is where I need the pruning shears.
2) Don't be afraid to prune
In my case, it is time to relist the activities I need to complete to create a new portfolio. Then prioritize them in order of importance. These activities need to be given high priority and the rest of my schedule must be planned around them. I have only so much time before I have to start creating new papers again and then I will be too busy to make this new portfolio.
That's a lot of work. There is clearly no room for waste in my schedule. However, I also do the following:
Clearly I'm doing too much and I have too much to do. Your list may be just as packed and seemingly impossible to manage. I haven't even listed the various house projects I need to finish, fix, or clean. And I haven't touched the list of projects in my mind that are waiting in the wings, like learning Spanish, rereading all five Harry Potter books before the sixth one comes out, etc. When prioritizing your projects it is important to write down the most engaging, the most time consuming, and the most important while shelving the other ideas you haven't had time to do and still won't have time to do (so don't even think about doing them!)
I go through this process every four to six months and have already pruned and emotionally relegated the lesser projects to the shelf of my mind. What I'm left with are the best of the best uses of my time. Since time is something I don't have a lot of (and neither do you) the answer in this case is to nail down some of these projects to smaller and more specific windows within my weekly schedule. Then reevaluate next time to see if that is working out or if something new needs to get chucked out of my schedule. Here's the list again with edits:
The project that should be cut is The Analytical Potter. However, I have obligated myself to at least get it launched off the ground and now that it is being hosted on somebody else's server I don't have as much work to do on it - or as much say about how the site should be run which might be a blessing in disguise. I will revisit this one later. I'd rather see this project removed than never start the podcast with my second oldest daughter.
3) Get to work on the new list
Once you have taken the knife to your life and cut away excess, rewrite your schedule or To Do List. Here's my new To Do List now that I've had a good look at my life again:
It is important to stick to the list of priorities. This is difficult to do because life is fun and distracting, but even more so for somebody with ADD. Just yesterday I was in the library and picked up a Spanish language series to study. I was on my way to check it out when I stopped myself and went through the process I always go through before leaving the library. I ask myself two important questions: "Do I really need this?" and "Is this just a distraction from my goals?". The answers were "no" and "yes" so I put it back. That's the strength you need to stick to your goals or your ADD will simply take control of your life and provide you with hours of entertainment and no accomplishments. I can't say I've mastered the process, but I have made significant progress when compared to even five years ago. I will continue to prune, shear, shave, and shuck all of life's distractions from my schedule until I obtain the goals that are important to me.
People with ADHD are famous for having a million irons in the fire but never remembering to light the fire in the first place. So part of the process of self-analysis is to figure out how to light that fire. I discovered long ago that a PDA
was perfect for keeping track of all my various things to do on a daily basis, but for life goals and all around focus I needed to reevaluate how I spend my time every few months. Sometimes this is easy - like now when I know what I want and know what I have to do to get it. In the past, however, organizing my life was difficult because I was buried in projects. In fact, I would discard projects and pick up new ones faster than I could keep track of them. Ideas were bursting out of my mind and I wanted to pursue each and every one of them. If you find that this is what you are like read along as I step through my evaluation process. It's been a few months and it's time to pull out the shears.Copy Strategies:
1) Have ONE major goal that you are working towards, with one or two sub goals to prevent boredom of the major goal.
Right off the bat I break my own rule because I have much more than two sub projects eating up my time. Mainly, I want to be working as a children's book illustrator before I'm 40. This is my big goal now. Sure I have a signature line of scrapbook papers sold internationally and I've had my fractal art published in England, but it is not enough. I couldn't really call those successes a career, and besides, I want a book with my name on it. For that I need a new portfolio that is specifically targeted to the children's illustration market. This is what I am working towards. Anything that detracts from this goal must be shucked and discarded from my life.
Unfortunately, I have more than one iron in the fire. How do I make sure they don't take over? The first trick is to schedule my time around the main goal, leaving the little bits for the side projects. For instance, I want to learn the guitar. There are other instruments that I want to learn, but I won't pick them up until I have achieved a certain level of skill with the guitar. When I had to play the tinwhistle for a talent show with my kids two weeks ago I put down the guitar and focused on the tinwhistle for a few days then purposely put it aside again and renewed my guitar practice. One instrument at a time. Another example is that I want to write a novel, but there are many ideas I'd like to pen to life. Therefor I choose one idea and focus only on that one idea. Writing time is assigned to the late evening and two other times during the week when my kids are at school. I'd like to write more, but it isn't the main goal in my life. Other projects are given smaller slivers of time. For example, organizing the iMovie files and making DVDs is relegated to Sunday evenings. I won't allow myself to work on them any other day.
Sounds impressive, right? All my ducks seem to be in a row. What an organized man I am! Well, the next question is "How well am I sticking to the schedule?". The answer would be "Not so hot.". This is why a reevaluation is necessary. Anybody who has a hard time following through on projects, or seeing projects through to the end can relate with this. Projects have a tendency to breed and mutate. They generate new ideas and often those new ideas are awful tempting to pursue. Because of sickness, depression, sickness, chronic motor tic disorder episodes, distraction, and sickness I am behind schedule for my portfolio goals. In addition, my novel has begun to steal time from my portfolio goals. I have also picked up a few new projects: two podcasts with my daughters and The Analytical Potter forum. This is why having one goal is so imperative for ADHD people: without discipline the one goal becomes whatever is most fascinating at the moment. If I turn 39 and haven't seen significant progress in my illustration goals I will become depressed and angry with myself. To prevent that I must be dedicated. This is where I need the pruning shears.
2) Don't be afraid to prune
In my case, it is time to relist the activities I need to complete to create a new portfolio. Then prioritize them in order of importance. These activities need to be given high priority and the rest of my schedule must be planned around them. I have only so much time before I have to start creating new papers again and then I will be too busy to make this new portfolio.
- Main goal - Getting an assignment illustrating children's books:
- Three new illustrations
- Create illustration website
- Cootey's Critters Picture Blog
- Set up business phone
- Make new business cards
- Make publishing house address list
- Print and mail off portfolio
- Herty Raptor illustrations
- Make publishing house address list
- Print and mail off portfolio
- Five new illustrations
- Make publishing house address list
- Print and mail off portfolio
- Rinse and repeat
That's a lot of work. There is clearly no room for waste in my schedule. However, I also do the following:
- Sub goals and projects:
- Podcast with Oldest Daughter - Takes up a bit of time each week
- Juvenile Fiction Novel - Potential mud slide of preoccupation
- Learn the guitar - Taken at a slow and casual pace. No threat
- The Analytical Potter - Initial setup very time consuming but easy maintenance afterwards?
- Podcast with Second Oldest Daughter- Hey, I want to do this. Something's got to give.
- Family Movies - Managed well on Sunday evenings. No threat
- Church Calling - I mustn't forget to take care of things throughout the week in preparation for Sunday
Clearly I'm doing too much and I have too much to do. Your list may be just as packed and seemingly impossible to manage. I haven't even listed the various house projects I need to finish, fix, or clean. And I haven't touched the list of projects in my mind that are waiting in the wings, like learning Spanish, rereading all five Harry Potter
books before the sixth one comes out, etc. When prioritizing your projects it is important to write down the most engaging, the most time consuming, and the most important while shelving the other ideas you haven't had time to do and still won't have time to do (so don't even think about doing them!)I go through this process every four to six months and have already pruned and emotionally relegated the lesser projects to the shelf of my mind. What I'm left with are the best of the best uses of my time. Since time is something I don't have a lot of (and neither do you) the answer in this case is to nail down some of these projects to smaller and more specific windows within my weekly schedule. Then reevaluate next time to see if that is working out or if something new needs to get chucked out of my schedule. Here's the list again with edits:
- Sub goals and projects:
- Podcast with Oldest Daughter - Teach her the skills so she can do it entirely by herself with only editorial oversight by myself.
- Juvenile Fiction Novel - One hour a night's work is all I should afford - even if it means not meeting my July 16th goal. My illustration goals are more important. (This was the hardest decision to make, btw)
- Learn the guitar - Pursue guilt free
- The Analytical Potter - Relegate to Saturdays only. This may mean a slow start but it can't be helped. My friends will understand.
- Podcast with Second Oldest Daughter - Unless I can start and finish this within an hour on a certain day (I'm thinking Fridays), this cannot be pursued. Still mulling this one over. Will discuss with my wife and daughter.
- Family Movies - Pursue guilt free
- Church Calling - Guilt guilt guilt!!! No, I'm just kidding. This needs one other night a week to help lighten the Sunday load. Wensday is the choice. I'll have to try it out and see how that works.
- This blog - I completely forgot to list this blog as a potential distraction. I spend more time on this blog than I do writing my novel. Is that smart? I don't think so. This requires some thought and planning. Can I jot ideas down throughout the week and just work on this blog over the weekend?
The project that should be cut is The Analytical Potter. However, I have obligated myself to at least get it launched off the ground and now that it is being hosted on somebody else's server I don't have as much work to do on it - or as much say about how the site should be run which might be a blessing in disguise. I will revisit this one later. I'd rather see this project removed than never start the podcast with my second oldest daughter.
3) Get to work on the new list
Once you have taken the knife to your life and cut away excess, rewrite your schedule or To Do List. Here's my new To Do List now that I've had a good look at my life again:
May: June: July: August and on... |
|
It is important to stick to the list of priorities. This is difficult to do because life is fun and distracting, but even more so for somebody with ADD. Just yesterday I was in the library and picked up a Spanish language series to study. I was on my way to check it out when I stopped myself and went through the process I always go through before leaving the library. I ask myself two important questions: "Do I really need this?" and "Is this just a distraction from my goals?". The answers were "no" and "yes" so I put it back. That's the strength you need to stick to your goals or your ADD will simply take control of your life and provide you with hours of entertainment and no accomplishments. I can't say I've mastered the process, but I have made significant progress when compared to even five years ago. I will continue to prune, shear, shave, and shuck all of life's distractions from my schedule until I obtain the goals that are important to me.
