7-days trial of state management before ANY activity

[Ralph]

How would my life look like if, instead of focusing on doing things, I'd focus on state management. This way all the doing follows the right state automatically, in the productive flow.

I don't focus on writing the article right now. When I started, I sat in front of my PC and focused on achieving the 'writer state'. Rest just followed. As long as I keep my state: I feel naturally compelled to write, my touch typing is close to my optimal and there's no writer's block at all. The quality of performance and amount of motivation is above average. This alone makes me curious enough to give a shot at implementing it full-time.

Earlier in the day I tried this with the tasks which I am strongly unmotivated to do. I must admit that cleaning my bathroom has rarely been such a pleasure as today. I didn't feel any compulsion to quit or do it quick&lame and move on to something more appealing. So I guess this is how it goes when I'm in a 'house-cleaning state'. Quite a pleasant change.

The seven days state management trial

For the next seven days I am going to focus on managing my state for highest productiveness, rather than focusing on productiveness itself. Each time before I do something, I will get myself into the right physical, mental and emotional state. As soon as I catch myself out of state during the activity, I will immediately re-tune.

I have mastered the techniques of state management to the sufficient extent. The only thing I might lack is commitment to follow through. My old way of doing things has a certain momentum to it. I'm now acting different than I'm conditioned to. Perhaps a week won't be enough to break the old habits, but as long as I'm consciously aware of the importance of state management, I will follow through.

As for the expected benefits, I believe this will improve the amount of motivation I experience, quality of results I produce and amount of satisfaction I derive from the process of doing anything. Sustaining a proper state during the activity kills off any second thoughts or mental resistance, which is the root of procrastination, mental block and distraction. Taking action will be set on aut0-pilot, in the natural flow following my beneficial state. The experience I will share after this trial with my readers can turn out extremely valuable. This might lead me to inventing a great productivity boosting and performance optimizing technique.

What do I have to lose? Frankly, I can't think of anything I might. It just takes a bit of commitment and willingness to consciously work on my personal efficiency. It's a very simple type of trial where I risk completely nothing. I take up higher commitment and higher results for one week just to see if it is worth implementing long-term. There's no way this could not succeed, I don't even have to invest any time in it. It can't possibly be a waste of my time even if I learned nothing, which is impossible in life.. And it works on my benefit from the moment I start.

The state is always slightly different for every activity that I perform. It's not that I have 10 states in my repertoire and pick creative state for writing, talkative one for socializing and accelerated learning state for reading. It's rather that I have thousands of states and various ones apply for writing an article, writing a forum post, talking to different people, eating dinner ... pretty much everything. The differences might be subtle, but they're noticeable. I'm not sure how I'm tuning into the right mental state. It's all intuitive and happens on the subconscious level.


I'll keep daily updates of my trial here and after a week I'll post on my blog a final update of the summary of the process, techniques I used and all I've learned. Feel free to join me on this trial, there's nothing to lose and everything to gain you don't even waste time, just effort.

I'll keep you posted!
Ralph

[ProbableReality]

This is similar to Abraham-Hicks teachings in which you establish your state of being with desire and visualization.

Then let the action come from inspiration. Your total mix of intentions will unfold better since they are in better alignment.

[Ralph]

Originally Posted by ProbableReality

This is similar to Abraham-Hicks teachings in which you establish your state of being with desire and visualization.

Then let the action come from inspiration. Your total mix of intentions will unfold better since they are in better alignment.

Abraham Hicks' books were on my reading list like forever and I've been considering getting to them recently. Is your post synchronistic?

[pyrogen]

Ralph - your idea of state management seems similar to what I was talking about (but in this case, regarding dating), the two basic approaches to anything... being "zen" (relaxed) and being tactical.

You're describing the relaxed state.

[Ralph]

Originally Posted by pyrogen

Ralph - your idea of state management seems similar to what I was talking about (but in this case, regarding dating), the two basic approaches to anything... being "zen" (relaxed) and being tactical.

You're describing the relaxed state.

Yeah, I believe it's most commonly known as the 'flow state' where everything happens on auto-pilot.

[Ralph]

In the middle of day one. My overall level of awareness and focus when working has noticeably improved.

I often catch myself distracted and get to work, while before I would succumb to the distraction. I've got this rule in my mind that says "sorry dude, 7 days from now your state can be an excuse, but now you gotta change it. Come on, tune into the writing state right now".

[Ralph]

Here goes an update in the middle of day two

First of all I have to say that remembering to manage my state is tough thing to remember most of the time. I usually start off in the right state and keep it up for a few minutes. Than after 10-20 minutes of the same activity I might catch myself out of state and go in for a few more minutes. Still, the benefits are noticeable and it only gets better from here.

State management improved my ice skating particularly well. It was quite an eye-opener to see more clearly what the state of stopping or moving backwards is.


Constantly managing my state is much more connected to staying in the present moment and disidentifying with the stream of thought (which is my spiritual practice) than I expected. I'm no longer allowed to daydream when doing little tasks because this puts me out of the doing state. Well, I'll daydream all I want after a week.

Getting into a talkative state before and during socializing is also extraordinarily beneficial. Other people can sense that you are 100% with them and in an open state.

That's it so far
Ralph