will – From the desk of Adam Thomas

When I don’t have a habit defined, it lives or dies based on “task o’clock”.

“Task o’clock”” is a term I came up with to define the “right time” for any particular task. For example, if my next task is to eat dinner, “task o’clock” is about 6:30 PM-ish where my internal rhythm (hunger) syncs up with the acceptable time/space(“dinner”). This works great when I use it for theming the day or a block of time, however, by relying on it without specificity is a gateway for procrastination.

When I lack specificity:

I decide to try the habit based on an emotion.
I look at the clock. Is it “task o’clock”, and if not, how close is it to task “o’clock”. ( It becomes dangerous if it is close, because through procrastination I can miss “task o’clock” and its gone forever.)
I come up with a reason why it isn’t “task o’clock”( Unless I am absolutely feeling it, it always ends up bad here)
I find Reddit (Nothing is more fun when wasting time, but you can swap Twitter, Facebook, or Yahoo etc.)
I get fired up about a story, talk to myself, and then eventually get back to step 1.( Useless anger is always “worth it” at the time )

When you deal with “task o’clock”, it becomes black and white at every step. Black and white thinking relies on will, and that is a coin flip at best.

I have found the only way to beat this is by being very specific, and holding yourself accountable. Instead of saying I am going to write jokes tonight, I try to say I will write jokes at 8:15 (specific) and putting it on my calendar (accountable). I have noticed when I do this enough, eventually task o’clock syncs up with the habit I am trying to do and it becomes easier to make sure the habit happens.

Energy Management

We all have limited energy. Nothing can run forever. There is a sunrise and a sunset. As with life, there is a process to all energy, and once that process completes, that energy is gone. This was daunting to me when I first thought of it. I knew that energy had a limit, but I didn’t recognize how much of how I feel and my energy levels played throughout my day. I tried to handle everything at once, and because I tried to do everything – nothing got done. It was frustrating, but a part of regular life. My reasoning is that I could just put it back on the list and knock out multiple things when I get free. My energy levels didn’t matter as much as my “will” to get things done.

There are two sides of this equation though. Taking care of yourself makes your energy levels soar. I am recognizing I am not doing the other side justice. I don’t sleep well, I don’t eat well, I don’t exercise. I affect my limits just because I don’t take care of myself.

I didn’t make it a point to follow thorough, I just thought I would be able to bulldozer my way through with will and focus. Although there are ways to recharge and hold on to that energy throughout the day, I didn’t use them. Tools like checklists and power naps restore, but I thought I didn’t need them.

What I didn’t realize was, everything took energy. Each thought, each action, each plan all took energy. Rescheduling took energy. All these things took from my limited store of energy. When I reached a limit, when I got done, nothing else did. I wasn’t scheduling things or operating on the top of my game. I didn’t realize this is like betting on adrenaline when you’re in a foot race. The adrenaline can make some amazing things happen, but it isn’t controllable. You cannot will adrenaline into yourself.

Making good things happen, instead of waiting for them to happen, rely on proper energy management. The first step for proper energy management, is awareness.