Wednesday, February 01, 2017

The Deep Work Wednesday Challenge


So, for three weeks now I've been talking about Deep Work Wednesday.   The idea is that we all need to turn off electronics and spend time thinking or reading or studying or writing -- without any interruption or any electronic stimulation.   I have been able to get a lot accomplished in just 30-45 minutes when I put this into practice.

Some of you may be having trouble knowing what to do during your time, so I challenge you to take 30-45 minutes and sit down with a piece of paper.  Write at the top:   January in Review.   Then answer three questions:

1)  What worked?

2)  What didn't work?

3)  What do I need to improve?

Sometimes thinking back and reviewing the ways things have gone can help us move toward the future.

As a short cut, you can even print this one.

Think about thinking.  It's definitely not over-rated.


4 comments:

AnnMarie said...

My manager wants me to reflect throughout the year, so I'm trying this set of questions today. How do you distinguish between the latter two? Seems like things that didn't work are the same as things to improve?

Claudia said...

For me, the difference is that some things that didn't work I"m not going to try again. One of the principles that I have learned is to create a "stop doing list." We can't keep adding stuff indefinitely.

So the "what didn't work" would be things that I tried, it didn't work, and I really don't think I should try to do again.

What needs to improve are things that I did, still believe I need to do, but didn't do as well as I'd like.

Does that make sense?

AnnMarie said...

That makes perfect sense, thank you!
I don't bullet journal, but I enjoy your posts about it, and may start doing so. Haven't taken the time to figure it out yet....I do love making lists. It seems so involved to get started, however. You've mentioned all the resources you've found. Could you share maybe 3-4 that are the best or you'd recommend for someone just starting? I love to research things, so can get bogged down when there are a zillion places to look.

Claudia said...

I would LOVE to! So.....

It kind of started here. This is VERY basic. http://bulletjournal.com/get-started/

Here's a great how to:

http://pageflutter.com/2017-bullet-journal/


Here's one more general guide:

http://www.gurl.com/2016/09/08/tips-on-how-to-make-the-most-perfect-bullet-journal-ideas/

And then if you want to just follow me on pinterest there are a ton of resources. Or there are instagram channels. And there's an awesome Facebook group with over 95,000 members from all over the world that post stuff all the time. But that's a lot.

The key is to make whatever mix of artsy and practical works for you. I almost never create a page outside of my computer because I have zero artistic ability. But tracking everything has changed my life!

Hope you get started and love it as much as I do!