In July, I started using “Daily Success“, an Android App that really changed my sense of productivity and got a lot of things accomplished. A LOT. It enables you to check off and track your completing of daily tasks. Sometimes the bear ate me, but more often than not I do all or most of the list (though not so much this month, between holidays and helping Alb3rt a bit too much on Farmville 2).
My initial list:
- write a blog article
- read a chapter of a book
- go through prayer list
- OT on my hand (soaking, stretching, etc.)
- take vitamin (kids chewables)
- drink a bottle or full glass of water
- watch a TED video
- scan a folder’s worth of old records
- get rid of 10 icons (shortcuts or old files)
Of course, I did more than a chapter or folder, or article, or video some days. The motivation really kicked in at times.
Over the Summer and Autumn, I read more than a half dozen books, digitized an entire filing cabinet (the lion’s share of my records — talk about eating an elephant one bite at a time!), caught up on most of my cRc drafts as well as writing new articles on various blogs (GeeksBearingGfts, here, etc.), and just generally went to bed with a sense of accomplishment. I also got through thousands of dead bookmarks, loose text files, and stuff I just am not sure why I was keeping. As I went on, I took the icons and scanning off the list, and added “memorize a paragraph” (such as from the Bill of Rights or some Masonic ritual). The last one seems the hardest.
And it took me forever to finish my last book, “The Vicar of Christ”, a rare dose of fiction for me. It was given (or loaned?) to me over 20 years ago by Prof. Nielsen. Yes, that’s how far behind I was on my books to read, LOL.
I’ll be re-evaluating the list for the new year, but will probably include exercise and violin. Meditation might not be a bad thing either. I also need to address my writing projects somehow or they’ll never get done. We’ll see. I might also make the tasks stagger over various days of the week.
At the very least, it gives me a better sense of time and reward to reinforce small steps in various aspects of my life. And it’s also why I got to some of these blog posts.