This is my long-delayed November Groundhog Day Resolutions Report, posted on December 5. After Thanksgiving it quieted down enough so I could do some THINKING about November, capturing a bit of it in this Procreate drawing (above) I made in-between chores.

So let’s recap up to November 11, even though it’s almost time to do the December 12 report! (more…)

Happy October! It’s time for yet another Groundhog Day Resolutions Update, which I have decided to do as just a picture (above). It took 4-5 hours to draw, but it was a novel way of approaching the report. I’ll provide a little more information in the RECAP. (more…)

Happy September! It’s time for another Groundhog Day Resolutions Update!

To recap, in last month’s review I realized that (1) I was tired of tracking and (2) it really wasn’t delivering the results it used to. I decided to substitute MORE EXTERNAL MOTIVATION TRICKERY in place of tracking to see if “harnessing my tendency to help others before helping myself” would have positive results. In other words, I was trying to WORK WITH the following personality quirks rather than FIGHT or WORK AROUND them as I have in the past:

• My main motivation to work is meeting someone’s immediate aspirational need. (I like helping people if I know how to help)
• My ability to focus is very fragile. (I am easily distracted without external aids constantly redirecting my attention)
• I am easily angered and frustrated when I can not move fast. (I am enraged by poor tools and information that wastes my time)
• I do better work when I don’t think about time. (When I am thinking about time, I could have been doing focused productive work)
• I feel trapped by too many scheduled tasks. Unscheduled tasks, though, are fine. (When I am worried about missing an appointment, these worries interrupt my focus constantly)
• Any scheduled event prevents focus for 8 hours afterwards. (My brain takes time to process external stimuli and is very “noisy”, so deep work is constantly interrupted by memories of the event).
• I absorb other people’s emotions easily and need to guard against sadness.
• I can’t rely on my brain to always be in charge, so have a backup.
• Despite all my shortcomings, I can always rely on my brain to converge toward a good solution, because that’s the way it’s wired.

Instead of fighting them, I wanted to try using them in my favor. Over the past 15 years I’ve tried a lot of tracking systems and productivity tools, and they ALL work so long as you stick to them, but these quirks seem to be innate traits. I’ve developed a lot of good habits and empowering perspectives, but these traits are stubbornly rooted in my very psyche.

So here’s what I did. (more…)