Excited To Work

Battling Procrastination

2011-10-28T08:10:00.002-04:00

This has been my biggest challenge in both my work life and personal life. It is one I have yet to conquer, but I continue to try nonetheless. This post hits the nail on the head, but I think most procrastinators are still waiting for that "magic potion" to cure them of their ills.

Need A Cure For A Case Of The Mondays

2011-10-17T10:30:00.003-04:00

It is Monday. And that sucks. How do you get yourself out of the gutter when you start the work week?

Lifehacker: Debunking The Myth of Multitasking

2011-10-12T09:47:00.002-04:00

Found an interesting article a while back on one of my favorite websites, Lifehacker. The topic was multitasking and how it is not as effective as it is really made out to be.

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Random Thoughts

2011-10-07T09:43:00.001-04:00

Been wanting to post for awhile, but have hesitated because I've been so scatterbrained that I couldn't land on one topic I felt driven to talk about. So, here's a peak at my brain in linear fashion:

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Keep On Keeping On

2011-08-22T09:18:00.001-04:00

It has been a long time since I've posted. That doesn't mean I have forgotten about my journey or am being lazy. Quite the opposite actually.

My aim to find a new job has been accomplished. Is it my true calling? Is it the job I've been searching for? Maybe not. We will see. In searching for fulfillment, I can't rest it all on the job. That certainly helps. But, its the whole package I am after. So, while I try this new role on to see if it fits, my focus is to use whatever spare time I can scrape up to develop other areas of my life.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned this year is that you absolutely must have goals. Not just one, but many. But, keep them small and achievable. Goals should be like steps on a staircase. Your aim may be to get to the next floor, but focus on each step you take. Live in the now. And reward yourself for your accomplishments. It may only be one step out of 20 that must be taken, but how many people would make the excuses to avoid the staircase completely? What I am getting at here is " a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" kinda thing....only, my phrasing is pretty lame.

Be proud of the steps you take. Never stop expecting more from yourself, and each of those steps will lead you closer to your dreams faster than you ever thought possible.

Cool Tool: Prioritize My Goals

2011-05-30T12:15:00.000-04:00

A few months ago I came across this online tool for prioritizing goals simply called: Prioritize My Goals. It has been one of the few organizing/planning tools that I've actually received some benefit from. Let me tell you why it is worth checking out....

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A Bit of Advice: The Pomodoro Technique®

2011-05-03T10:16:00.001-04:00

If, like me, you find yourself overwhelmed by distractions or seemingly important tasks competing for your attention, I suggest taking a serious look at the Pomodoro Technique. It is brilliant in its simplicity. It is easy to use. And, best of all, IT IS EFFECTIVE.

Still here!

2011-04-26T08:01:00.000-04:00

The fun is not over yet.

I apologize (to anyone who cares) for my absence. I've failed to post anything over the last few weeks. The most recent week I was justifiable. Last week I was on "vacation" in Florida with my wife. I use the term vacation loosely because I am unemployed. Just doesn't feel right. Especially when it was my wife, Tabitha, who was truly on vacation from the work she devotes so much time and effort towards.

Lazy much?

The rest of the time, not including vacation, was an absolute failure on my part. I failed to keep up with some of the habits I set for myself. I also failed to heed a few lessons I had learned along the way. This will be discussed further in another post.

The time in Florida provided a great chance to "reboot". It was a chance to get away from all of my daily habits, most of which were unproductive. I left my computer at home, purposefully ignored my cell phone, and primarily used my iPad for reading. I even read a real book! You know...the ones made with paper. Crazy! The point is, the time away from home and all of its distractions provided the chance to start again. Not from the beginning, though. Much of the slate has been wiped clean, but there is much left that I can work with.

So here we go....

21 Days In

2011-04-06T12:13:00.000-04:00

Not a milestone, but I figured it out for the first time today: I started my 48 Day Journey about 21 days ago. And where do I stand? And where the heck am I going?

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Week 2 Habits

2011-04-04T16:38:00.001-04:00

It is time to get our hands dirty. This week, my habits will include cutting myself off from some of my most favorite distractions.

NOOO!!! Don't leave me!!!

This Week's Plans

2011-04-04T09:24:00.000-04:00

Hello from me and my buddy, Pepper!

Welcome to the first full week of April 2011. Hope you got your taxes done already!

To start the week off, there are a couple goals I'd like to get out in the open:

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Under Construction!

2011-03-31T12:09:00.001-04:00

I know, know! It's a disaster here! EDIT: If it doesn't appear to be now, it will be later.

Profound Realization

2011-03-30T15:44:00.001-04:00

It just occurred to me that this whole being organized thing is very difficult and complex. I feel the need to organize my efforts to improve my organizing skills. I can spend all day just planning how I'm going to get organized! I'm organizing organizing!

This further leads me to several thoughts and possible lessons:

1. I'm not particularly bright

2. Some people brains are just in tune with more organized lifestyles. The rest of us have to work really hard at it and practice. (Practice...like I'm learning the trombone or trying out for a minor league baseball team. It doesn't seem right but I think I may be on to something)

3. Sometimes you just got to do it, whatever "it" is. Don't get too caught up in order. There can be order in chaos.

4. Everything seems to go back to positive habits. That way it isn't a task that needs to be completed. Its just something that is done and always ready for the next step.

Whatever the case, my mind is a mess that needs to be cleaned up. Not to say I have a "dirty" mind. Don't be so childish. (Note: for serious, I accidentally put a "g" instead of a "t" at the end of that last "don't ". I LOL'd.)
Get your mind out of the gutter! I mean my mind feels like my bedroom floor, completely covered in a jumbled mix of clothes that have yet to be folded or washed and every day wondering "did I wear this already? Better yet, will anyone realize I haven't washed this? "

Oh, Sunny Day

2011-03-30T10:34:00.000-04:00

Actually, it is a slightly chilly and rainy day. But, I get to be out in it running some errands.

No matter what the weather, it is important to get out of the house and in get things done. Even if those errands you are running are small and insignificant. Without a job, it is easy to lock yourself away in the house and keep to yourself. Get out and enjoy the world for what it is. Be around people. It will help you appreciate the time you have on your hands, as well as help keep you from dwelling on possible negative circumstance. No need to get uptight about being "lonely", or feel bad because you don't have a job, or any of the other feelings and thoughts that might go through your head at this stage. Get out and do something, even if you don't have a plan. At least you will be getting somewhere.

Making progress...

2011-03-29T13:31:00.000-04:00

It's been a good day, so far. I've not made much progress on the job front, but as you might notice, I'm more concerned about developing myself to be more efficient and productive. Being unemployed has given me a ton of perspective on my life. I wan to get every bit out of any revelations that I possibly can. There is a lot of things I want to do in my life. Either I find a career that is in line with those priorities, or I get better at managing my time so that my career doesn't interfere with my hobbies, my hobbies don't distract me from my career, and I can still feel happy and fulfilled by accomplishing things that I want to do.

For example, I am a musician. This is a must. This will always be apart of my life and it is important to my mental wellbeing to continue to progress as such. I have a creative side that desperately needs to be put to work. If this isn't happening at "work", then I must make time for it at home without hurting the time I devote to my wife, family, and friends. I also want to be a writer, a computer programmer, a world-class chef, a penguin, play an alien on one of the Star Trek shows, and learn to juggle. It is important that I get myself straightened out to do these things!

From my research, much from the books I've listed in a previous post, it seems beneficial to work on this by adding 2 or 3 productive habits a week. It is important not to dive in the deep end and change everything about your life in one shot. If I can make just one habit stick, I will feel accomplished and motivated to add another. If I try 10 habits and fail at all of them, I will feel worthless and just end up cursing at myself in a mirror. My focus will also be to remove several bad habits a week. Essentially, I want to replace two or three bad habits with good habits every week. To better choose effective habits, I have created categories to which a habit I choose will be used to improve:

Mental Health
Physical Health
Diet
Chores & Overall Well-Being
Work
Family & Friends

For example, this week I am adding the habit of doing a 2-Minute Drill every morning, as recommended by the Men's Health Belly Off! Diet. This quick series of exercises (sit-ups, push-ups, etc) is to be done as soon as I wake up every morning. It will improve my metabolism, get the blood going to prepare me for an active day, and will start off the day on a proactive track. This habit will benefit the "Physical Health" category primarily. After this becomes habit, then I will add on an actual work out of top of this, to be done 4 times a week.

The bad habit I'm trading in for this is VIDEO GAMES. I've made a horrible habit of getting out of bed and immediately playing video games while I drink my morning coffee. In my defense, it has been a very successful way to wake myself up. Unfortunately, it is also successful in creating a black hole that I get sucked into for several hours before I even noticed the day is passing me by. Starting off the day this way creates a lot of lazy momentum that is tough to turn it around. To help facilitate this habit, I have stowed away my video games. Out of sight, out of mind. Good-bye my darlings....

Also, I've given my kitties the boot from my office space. KTHXBAI!!!

One Down, One Hundred To Go

2011-03-29T10:07:00.000-04:00

This morning, I am attempting to eliminate distractions.

You've seen one of them. I guess that one, the cats, should be easy. Just got to lock them out of whatever room I am in.

Next, I am removing all my video games from sight for the remainder of the week. Maybe I will stash them all in the attic. I don't want them laying around tempting me. This way, I can take the week to begin establishing some productive habits. Once the habits start to take place, I will slowly begin introducing Crysis 2 and Killzone 3 back into my life in a way that does not interupt my new habits. Maybe I should make it two weeks. I don't know. What do "they" say, it takes 4 weeks for a habit to truly become a habit? I certainly can't go 4 weeks....we'll try one week. If unsuccessful, we will try two weeks. If that's not successful, then maybe it ain't gonna happen.

OK, OK! I'll go four weeks if the first two shots don't work out. You have no idea how much that thought hurts me...

Then there is the Droid. This one is actually more of a problem than video games. My cell phone is capable of a sneak attack. I grab it to send a text message, next thing you know, two hours have passed and I have completely re-setup my homescreen widgets, flashed a new ROM, and/or got a few rounds of Dungeon Defenders in. It's fair to say that I can spend 4 hours on my phone and accomplish absolutely nothing, even when avoiding games or silly apps I've loaded, and despite all the "productivity" apps I've downloaded. I STILL BELIEVE that my smartphone can be a great tool for productivity and helpful in my job hunt. But, I must learn to be in control of my phone. And to do that, I must stop allowing it to control me.

I am open to suggestions. But, I think I will start by turning my phone off for several hours during the day. I'll have it off from 9am-12pm and then 2pm-5pm. My home phone will be available for emergencies and I will also have access to email, which is another story and possible hurdle I must overcome. But, I'll dive into that later.

Distractions

2011-03-29T09:36:00.000-04:00

This is what I am up against!

The ultimate display of cute.

Attention hogging at its best.

It is so hard to say "no" to this face, despite the fact it is so rude!

"What? Oh. I'm sorry. Were you trying to work? Oh...well....I'm just gonna play with the mouse cursor for awhile. Be out of your way in a minute...."

"Would you mind moving the mouse so I can chase the cursor on the screen please?"

I'm A Loser, Baby.

2011-03-28T11:27:00.000-04:00

First off, I would like to admit and take full responsibility for the fact that I have fallen off track. I'm eating into my 48 days heavily with not much to show for it. There are excuses, as there always are. It has been a challenging two weeks. But, my goal in all of this is to be able to overcome the the exceptionally difficult times by creating productive habits that allow me to continually strive towards meeting my goals while also addressing immediate concerns that may spring up.

Today I will get back on track. There are several things I must get back in order to give myself clear objectives. I will plan out my goals and break them down by what I wish to accomplish today, tomorrow, this week, this month, and this year.

I wish to also focus on minimizing distractions. I'm going to take some small steps and rather large ones as well. I'm using a program called Time Doctor to track my time for the next two weeks, at least. It will track applications I use, websites I go to, and attempt to match them with stated priorities/goals to give me a report showing just how much time I spend working towards my goals, and how much time I spend on distractions.

Let me openly admit my flaws that will make future successes difficult:

I'm very easily distracted. ADD? Probably. OCD? A little. Lazy? Too often.

I'm an avid gamer- PS3, XBox 360, Wii, PC Games, Cell Phone games, iPad, Android, Gamespot.com, etc, etc. This is a huge hurdle. It's how I like to relieve stress and I certainly plan on keeping it apart of my life. But I must sever it being a go-to time waster so easily.

I love my Smartphone. DRROOOIIIID! I love my Droid X. Google and Android OS FTW! Playing on my phone can be a full time job in itself. If there is a way to make money fiddling with my settings and apps, please let me know. In the meantime, I must stop giving it control. How will I do this? I will try to figure that out today.

I'm a cat lover. I have two young cats. And they are just the cutest darn things you will ever see. They seek attention and I gladly give it to them. It is important for me to minimize the distracting cuteness. This might be as simple as locking them out of my office. But then I get to see cute little furry paws stick out from under the door as they attempt to figure out how to break in the room. That alone is enough to make me drop everything and swim in the sea of adorableness. Did I mention I'm a bit ADD? "In a true free market, it is important for the government to... awww, look at the kitty!"

Finally, I am a PROCRASTINATOR. The best you will ever see. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? That line will end up on my tombstone if I don't get myself under control. Procrastinating can be a great tool in a pinch. But, 99.9% of the time, it will come back to bite you. If only I can get that into my thick skull....

Some of these aren't really flaws. More hurdles, really. But I must get them under control if I am to success.

I will end it here for the time being. I must practice what I preach. I will be by later with details of my progress.

Day 1

2011-03-15T21:52:00.002-04:00

Day 1 was a little more unorganized than I had hoped. Let's actually consider yesterday (3/16/11) the first Day of all of this. I think this is unavoidable at the beginning of this project, as I begin to focus on specifying priorities and tangible goals that I can obtain. Once I do that, I can become a bit more focused.

I was all over the place though. To make matters worse, I have a very dear pet cat that I've had for 18 years who is not doing very well. It's not an excuse. There should be no excuses as I can be more disciplined in our I manage my time so that I may focus on my career goals while handling life's many hurdles like having to nurse your cat back to health. Aside form that, I put in a good deal of time "researching" on the Internet. YES. I admit, there was the occasional distraction there too. All in all, I feel as if I found some good resources and pointers for setting goals as well managing my time more efficiently. I would recommend the following websites as helpful resources for those in need of guidance:

Dumb Little Man- Article: 21 Excellent Tips for An Amazing New Year

It's a few months into 2011, but these are relavant tips for any time of the year. You are sure to see me mention at least a few of these in my journey as I am already implementing some.

48 Days

Official website of Dan Miller, the author of "48 Days To The Work You Love", the book that is my inspiration for this blog and primary source of guidance. I have yet to dig into this site very far, but at a glance, it appears to have a wealth of resources.

Lifehacker

Excellent website that is tailored to geeks like myself. Pretty much a great source of news and articles directed at the use of the newest technology in helping us get more done with our lives. This is great for me because I need to put my Droid and iPad to better use than being a delightful way to waste away every minute of every day of my life (e.g. I picked up my Droid phone twice while....three times...while writing this paragraph alone.)

I also started to use a website called "My Life List". I will not link it, as I was not very happy with it. Seemed like an excellent site. A "social" website that helped you create goals, obtain them, and share your story with others as well as read the motivating stories of the other users that meet their goals. I signed up, logged in, and started filling out my profile and listing goals. Went back today to continue doing so, wouldn't let me log in. Oops. Must have messed up my password. Then it said my email address was not in the system when I tried to reset my password. So, I even bothered to create another profile. Clicked submit...."Error: User with same email address already in system." Goodie! I'm done with your website. KTHXBAI!

Introduction

2011-03-15T21:52:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Adam. And I am on the search for a great job and a fulfilling career.

I'm 28 years old and I have spent almost 8 years of college (undergrad and grad) studying business and finance, plus 5 years of dedicated work in the banking industry. A little over a month ago, I joined the ranks of the unemployed. Now, I have a long journey set before me. It is not my intent to spend my time finding just any job. I want to find the right job. Whether it be in banking, finance, or fast-food.

What is the right job? Haven't the faintest clue. I know it exists. There is a job out there for me. One that will put me on the right road to a career that is meant for me. My goal is to devote myself to work that doesn't feel like work. I want to be excited to get out of bed every morning. The right career will fill me with a sense of purpose and pride. It is my sincere belief that, in doing this, I will take a major step in achieving the peace and happiness I seek out of life.

So, I've decided to begin this blog as a self disciplinary tool, as well as a way to offer help to others that may be in a similar position. Follow me in my journey. Learn from my mistakes. Because I can assure you, I will make many.

To facilitate this journey, I will be reading and following the book 48 Days To The Work You Love by Dan Miller. It is my goal to discuss each of these 48 days that I experience, recap the progress made, and share the successes and failures in following the steps I've taken as inspired by the book. I'll also review in detail tools & resources I used along the way.