Working on Self Discipline

[Daguyver]

Hi. Name's Dao. I have 4 minutes to write this because that's the extent of my self discipline. I take everything in 5 minute chunks. From cleaning the house, to reading forum posts, to looking for a date...you get the picture. Some things are easier to accomplish then others. I would like to build my ability to stay on a task for 6 minutes by the end of the week, and maybe get up to 10 minutes by the end of January. Sounds like a solid game plan, right? So I'm doing the 30-day trial and hoping so badly that this will work and that life will get easier after I've established some good habits and get inspired by how easy it is to maintain them after the 30 day trial.
So one of the reasons I've posted today and to attract others who have worked on self discipline with good results and also stories from fellow Pavliners who would like to join a yahoo chat group for support. Thanks
-Dao, yahoo messenger: dal_nguyen

[Tabs]

I like your five minute chucks idea, is that for time management or just to plain get things done? Good luck with your plan it is worth the shot.

Cheers
Tabs

[Nikos Sokin]

I have what is probably a milder case of ADHD, and while I've squeezed out a graduate degree based on the effectiveness of real world deadlines, my work habits are quite inefficient. I've tried many things in series, in parallel... anyhow, what I'm doing now, is this:

1) first, I make sure I have set my priority activities for the day.
2) I set my watch timer on 15 minutes, and when I'm ready to work, I sit down and ONLY work without email, websearches (my weakness) or other interruptions. I do my best to only work. Any interruptions--internal or external--mean I have to reset the watch and start all over again. I take this approach because I know I'm training my brain to think for at least 15 min increments. An alternative approach might be to just want to track how many min of actual work one is doing a day.
3) each time I complete 15 full min of just work, I count it (I actually bought a clicker on ebay, the thingamajig that night club doormen use to count how many people enter the club--pencil and paper would work as well)

This has worked better than a similar approach I thought of a few years ago, which was to note down each time I was distracted and caught my own attention and got back to work. It's easier for me and probably healthier to focus on the positive . The reason I set it to 15 min is that while many books suggest working on something for 30 min, I sometimes really can't make it that far, and I will not stop the watch to restart it later. It's 15 min of full focus or nothing. If I were to do 30 min, my baseline would be very low. Also, I've found that when I do take a break, sometimes I'm so happy I've done a chunk of work, that before I know it, 2 hours have passed. So having my timer automatically count down every 15 min means I'll be reminded to go back to work after 15 min...

If I were to share how many time chunks I click off a day, it would be pretty amazing to many people how I managed to get even this far! But I heard that the truth is, most people really work 50-75% of their office butt-time, if they really sat down to count the actual work time...

[SQUISH]

I like your idea of trying to work for 15 minutes...... I'm currently writing a lot and have recently disovered that I'm dyslexic.. or, well, maybe accepted.. or come to terms with is better... (looking for a forum on this if anyone has any recomendations?)

Anyway, I spend most of my day looking at this computer screen and not putting words on the page.. 15 mins seems pretty lofty... but well worth it!
Off I go!!!

[John Hill]

Having read your post, I guess I better make this short. Why don't you set some small goals to work towards in relatively short periods of time and reward yourself for a job well done when you complete the task. Thinking about what to give yourself as a reward might be as much fun as achieving the goal. If you have some fun with it you might be able to stay focused for longer periods of time.

John