CHANGE begins with clarity

CHANGE begins with clarity.

It is what I remember the most from the blink yesterday. The full story was about undistraction where the author pointed out many things in life we are doing and get distracted. Yet, the idea is “If you don’t dare to look straight to what you have/have not done right; you cannot change the way it used to be. So change begins with clarity.”

This is very on-point for me, at least for me these days. I have long been a FOMO (the fear of missing out) for information, projects and so on. And I got myself distracted easily. Now that I am working for a corporation again, I see my old self working the way I used to work. I see how focused I could have been.

So what is the difference?

Back in 2012-2014, in those years where you go to office to work and you cannot open social media on your computers, you have more time for your work. In short, it is the quality of time you can spend on your computer. It is dedicated to your mental activities. The only thing I remember that could distract me was chit chat with my colleagues or going out for breaks. But well, I think it’s the way it should be, working on-site.

Moving fast forward to me being a working from home individual (I still find it hard to label myself as workers/expert/freelancer/consultant etc …) I have the urge to open and check updates from different tabs . It is either social media news, business performance dashboard, email and newsletter, other communication channels. Let me put the list of my distraction here, and see if we have anything in common. I bet that we do. So here we go:

1. Social Media channels such as Facebook and Instagram notifications: to check newsfeed.
2. Communication from Social Media such as ZALO, Messenger
3. Email: to check inbox from different email accounts (to see if I missed any important emails for works/deadlines). I end up starting my day, knowing that there are some missed deadlines, getting panic and still couldn’t handle the feeling
4. Video music with lyrics that sometimes drag me from one song to another. Although this kind of distraction is not very bad, it still consumes a huge amount of my time if I don’t pay enough attention to it.
5. Functional activities at home such as cooking, doing dishes, eating. I’m a slow person especially when it comes to doing physical activities.

What I have done to reduce such distractions:

1. I deleted my Facebook app on phone. Only leaving Messenger, ZALO and Instagram app as a means for communication if needed. It worked after I deleted the app, but I slowly get hooked on IG T____T. Ideas, inspirations and entertaining on this platform is a huge temptation.
2. I established a morning rituals that I follow to activate my day. Some time ago, it worked very well. Now, with the very moment, I need to revise it to let the day less heavy and productive in a same way.
3. I don’t check email on phone in the morning right after waking up. I’m thinking to schedule particular timeslot for emails, by accounts and categories. For example, when I plan my freelance business, I would check that email and resolve all matters related to my business. It should be in the morning or late morning. We can also assign that to Wednesday/Friday. The same goes to others.
4. Music is the must-have in my life. No day passing by without music is a pleasant one for me. I have a list for different mood. For calming myself and focusing on the work, I will then listen to mostly the one below.
5. Functional activities can be done in break time and should also be dedicated time for it. Plan to have time for eating, cooking, doing dishes. Some months ago, I plan different shifts in a day I would have. It did work. So maybe now, I can monitor my schedule and adjust.
6. Last but not least, I think for now, everytime there’s a thought popping up “Let’s check that one a bit”, I should just take some deep breathes and respond “Let’s finish this first. It would be another 5-10 minutes max. Then we can move to the next one.” The importance is we finish, big or small, the more we finish, happier we are. And we always have time if we really spend time on the thing.

SONGS for the MIND

Here is the song that I’m listening to. This one is a very soothing one.

(I just know that Prana means Wisdom in Sanskrit. It is from a book that I read. And again, reading book is one of the best ways to calm yourself down and feeling motivated. It doesn’t matter if you get anything new, getting some peace for yourself in these days, I think, should be the biggest matter already. And reading book does.)

And this is the song that I love to listen to, be it meditation or for working:

(The nice flute, the silence, the image inside my head – all of them are perfect for any activities that require focus. Also very nice if one combine these music to journaling. And this blog post is one of the journals in that sense).

Have a mindful day.