Productivity Journal

[The Sum of Awe]

I struggle with laziness, and a little bit of internet addiction. It's got a lot better over the years, but I want to be a little better. I procrastinate on my goals because I don't have to do them there's no obligation in the present like there is cleaning the dishes or doing the laundry. Working out is for the future me, writing my book is for the future me. I can enjoy them in the present, but it takes discipline to learn to enjoy them and to maintain enjoying them requires consistency. I often break that consistency.

I need to discipline myself to write in my book, just a couple of hours a day. I need to discipline myself to workout so that I have a healthy body for when I'm older so I can move around healthily for a long time. I need to discipline myself to spend less money, because sometimes I go over my monthly budget. These are the things I need to start focusing on.

I'm not sure how often I'll post in this thread. Daily seems like too much, weekly maybe, or maybe just whenever I feel like I have something to write. It is mostly for my personal use, so I can monitor my productivity levels and encourage myself. I know being productive feels good, and I need to remind myself that, because I often forget how good it feels when I've allowed myself to laze around for a while (which in turn brings a mild dysphoria and I think is partially responsible for my low self esteem).


....

I'll start this thread by saying: The whole two last weeks, prior to this week, I had been working 6-day weeks for some overtime money. I needed to make up money for what I lost to car repairs and other expenditures that drew me over my budget these last few months. And I have upcoming cavities (it will cost $800 after insurance for them all) that I will have to make up for with even more overtime next month. So two weeks on I've been working 6-day weeks, this third week was my regular scheduled work week, and the following two weeks after this week I will be doing 6-day weeks again. I will continue this until the end of April.

Monday I did my taxes (finally), and visited my parents. Oh, and I replaced my ceiling fan at home with my dad. So all of that took about the whole day. Tuesday I had a therapy appointment in the morning, but other than that I lazed around (lazing around included going for a long walk around town, which is fun and active but not necessarily productive towards my goals). Yesterday I literally did nothing. No chores... I looked at my writing a bit but did hardly anything to it, just skimmed a chapter and made minor changes. Today? I did dishes and laundry, and I'll go shopping later (I have no choice), but as for writing? I haven't done any yet. It's only noon though, and my chores are mostly done (just need to finish laundry and do shopping - easy).

So I suppose this week wasn't horrible. I did get a few things done that I needed to. But again, I didn't work on any of my goals. I spent multiple hours on RF and Reddit and I'm frustrated with myself for it. I also bought a $24 pizza and breadsticks yesterday - AND I had a soda every day this week! What the hell, myself??? Especially the expensive pizza! Super ashamed of that, I didn't even deserve it as I did nothing yesterday.

But, all in all, I think today will be better. I felt SUPER good after doing the dishes, and then I've been lazing around again since for the most part. I opened my story up but I decided to come here instead and write this (lol). But after this post I will put the internet away until later tonight (I gotta resist the temptation!!) - I will finish going over another 10-paged chapter today at least. That'll be better than nothing.

Hopefully at some point here I will start working out again. I might take advice given to me in another thread to work out at night. I'll see if I can muster the energy for it then. It's definitely hard to muster the energy in the dead hours of the morning.

 

[Heyo]

I struggle with laziness, and a little bit of internet addiction. It's got a lot better over the years, but I want to be a little better. I procrastinate on my goals because I don't have to do them there's no obligation in the present like there is cleaning the dishes or doing the laundry. Working out is for the future me, writing my book is for the future me. I can enjoy them in the present, but it takes discipline to learn to enjoy them and to maintain enjoying them requires consistency. I often break that consistency.

I need to discipline myself to write in my book, just a couple of hours a day. I need to discipline myself to workout so that I have a healthy body for when I'm older so I can move around healthily for a long time. I need to discipline myself to spend less money, because sometimes I go over my monthly budget. These are the things I need to start focusing on.

I'm not sure how often I'll post in this thread. Daily seems like too much, weekly maybe, or maybe just whenever I feel like I have something to write. It is mostly for my personal use, so I can monitor my productivity levels and encourage myself. I know being productive feels good, and I need to remind myself that, because I often forget how good it feels when I've allowed myself to laze around for a while (which in turn brings a mild dysphoria and I think is partially responsible for my low self esteem).


....

I'll start this thread by saying: The whole two last weeks, prior to this week, I had been working 6-day weeks for some overtime money. I needed to make up money for what I lost to car repairs and other expenditures that drew me over my budget these last few months. And I have upcoming cavities (it will cost $800 after insurance for them all) that I will have to make up for with even more overtime next month. So two weeks on I've been working 6-day weeks, this third week was my regular scheduled work week, and the following two weeks after this week I will be doing 6-day weeks again. I will continue this until the end of April.

Monday I did my taxes (finally), and visited my parents. Oh, and I replaced my ceiling fan at home with my dad. So all of that took about the whole day. Tuesday I had a therapy appointment in the morning, but other than that I lazed around (lazing around included going for a long walk around town, which is fun and active but not necessarily productive towards my goals). Yesterday I literally did nothing. No chores... I looked at my writing a bit but did hardly anything to it, just skimmed a chapter and made minor changes. Today? I did dishes and laundry, and I'll go shopping later (I have no choice), but as for writing? I haven't done any yet. It's only noon though, and my chores are mostly done (just need to finish laundry and do shopping - easy).

So I suppose this week wasn't horrible. I did get a few things done that I needed to. But again, I didn't work on any of my goals. I spent multiple hours on RF and Reddit and I'm frustrated with myself for it. I also bought a $24 pizza and breadsticks yesterday - AND I had a soda every day this week! What the hell, myself??? Especially the expensive pizza! Super ashamed of that, I didn't even deserve it as I did nothing yesterday.

But, all in all, I think today will be better. I felt SUPER good after doing the dishes, and then I've been lazing around again since for the most part. I opened my story up but I decided to come here instead and write this (lol). But after this post I will put the internet away until later tonight (I gotta resist the temptation!!) - I will finish going over another 10-paged chapter today at least. That'll be better than nothing.

Hopefully at some point here I will start working out again. I might take advice given to me in another thread to work out at night. I'll see if I can muster the energy for it then. It's definitely hard to muster the energy in the dead hours of the morning.

I'm not only lazy but also suffer from depression. I keep a spreadsheet table (like Excel) "journal" to monitor my activity. Doing it there has the advantage that I can also keep an automated graph of the activity level. I make daily recordings for multiple kinds of activities.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I'm not only lazy but also suffer from depression. I keep a spreadsheet table (like Excel) "journal" to monitor my activity. Doing it there has the advantage that I can also keep an automated graph of the activity level. I make daily recordings for multiple kinds of activities.

What program do you use for that?

 

[JustGeorge]

I use a website called Habitica to keep track of what I need and want to do. It lets me set habits to build, Dailies that need to be done, and longer term to-do goals. It sets it up in an old school video game type style, and you collect gold for getting things done. You can then use the gold for buying stuff in game(like equipment for your avatar). I personally don't find the in game stuff motivating, so I've set it up that I use my 'gold' for rewarding myself with real life stuff.

There are social aspects for those who enjoy them(though you don't lose out any by not). Its pretty nuanced, though; not a lot of casual conversation, more directed(such as a student may join a 'study guild', and share study tips with other people in the same situation).

 

[Heyo]

What program do you use for that?

Libre Office Calc, the freeware alternative to Excel. It can handle Excel files and also store in Excel format.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I use a website called Habitica to keep track of what I need and want to do. It lets me set habits to build, Dailies that need to be done, and longer term to-do goals. It sets it up in an old school video game type style, and you collect gold for getting things done. You can then use the gold for buying stuff in game(like equipment for your avatar). I personally don't find the in game stuff motivating, so I've set it up that I use my 'gold' for rewarding myself with real life stuff.

There are social aspects for those who enjoy them(though you don't lose out any by not). Its pretty nuanced, though; not a lot of casual conversation, more directed(such as a student may join a 'study guild', and share study tips with other people in the same situation).

Unfortunately I got very confused using the site. At first I tried to add tasks and it didn't do anything, and when I reloaded the task I input was repeated multiple times, and it gave me dozens more that I didn't put in. And I'd have to delete them one by one. Thank you for the suggestion, though. It's interesting idea to turn it into a game.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Libre Office Calc, the freeware alternative to Excel. It can handle Excel files and also store in Excel format.

Do you mind if I see an example of how you organize your spreadsheet? Would a Google Spreadsheet suffice to the organization format? I would just like to try this method before I downloaded anything new to my laptop.

 

[JustGeorge]

Unfortunately I got very confused using the site. At first I tried to add tasks and it didn't do anything, and when I reloaded the task I input was repeated multiple times, and it gave me dozens more that I didn't put in. And I'd have to delete them one by one. Thank you for the suggestion, though. It's interesting idea to turn it into a game.

That does sound really confusing! Sorry it didn't work well, hope you find something that does help.

 

[Heyo]

Do you mind if I see an example of how you organize your spreadsheet? Would a Google Spreadsheet suffice to the organization format? I would just like to try this method before I downloaded anything new to my laptop.

I don't know Google Spreadsheet but it most probably would suffice. There is no magic in the gathering of the data. Looks like:

Just data and sums.
There's a little more to the stats:

I don't know if you can reproduce that with Google. You should be able to if Google can read .xls.