Finding the Discipline to Get Things Done
October Sunrise: Every day is a fresh start!
I have always wanted to be a more disciplined person. You know, the type that does their homework on Friday, so they can have the weekend free to play. Throughout my formal education I was generally a good student and the type that started to panic on Sunday afternoon. That always left Friday and Saturday with a figurative weight on my shoulders. Aristotle was right. "Through discipline comes freedom."
As someone who works from home I have a lot of freedom as to how I use my time. This is a double edged sword as it can be really easy to get distracted and off track, even with the best of intentions. There are so many things that I want to do and get done. Yet, I often feel as if there just aren't enough hours in the day. There's that figurative weight on my shoulders again. The truth is, I need more discipline to get things done in the time I have.
For those of you familiar with author Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies (take the quiz here), I am an obliger with rebel leaning tendencies. Gretchen Rubin recommends that obligers set up outer accountability to meet goals. Finding an accountability partner or group hasn't worked out for me yet. In the meantime, I have found another way.
In his book Meditations from the Mat, Yogi Rolf Gates says " We are looking outside of ourselves for what is already within." With this in mind, I knew that an accountability partner wasn't the ultimate solution for my own problem inside of myself. Of course, the solution was within me already. The solution was finding a tool that would help me be more disciplined on my own.
This is how I started using a monthly habit tracker again. After several continuous months of habit tracking, I have learned a lot about myself and my personal productivity. For example, I do best when I schedule my most important projects at the beginning of a week. Likewise, mornings need to be for uninterrupted focus work. And, as always, simple is best. Too many colored markers, leads to skipped days of habit tracking. It's a trial and error, with many errors.
It has been surprisingly fun trying different analog formats for habit tracking. At the beginning of 2019 I let my perfectionist tendencies get the better of me, thus, doing nothing. At the end of February, I had had enough. From March until July 2019, I glued printed templates into my journal, including my own Monthly Resolutions Chart created with a designer friend back in 2013. From August, I have been experimenting with drawing a simple monthly habit tracker in a dot grid bullet journal. This was something I didn't think I had time for. In reality, it took just a few minutes and I found the process extremely relaxing.
A habit tracker, digital or analog, shows us what we are really doing and what we are not. It forces us to be honest with ourselves. It also allows us to see our success. Over the last few months, there have been very few habits I have done consistently over an entire month. The habits that have been consistent are cause for celebration. Those are the habits that have been internalized and I not longer need to track.
Overall, habit tracking has been good for me. It gives me more discipline, thus more freedom. I feel better on those days when I can tick off the little boxes, as my habit tracker is in alignment with the life that I want to live.
Please share your experiences. Are you a naturally disciplined person? Have you found success with accountability partners or groups? Do you utilize some sort of habit tracking tool? I would love to hear from you in the comments below or via email.
