Thought Gathering and Other Nice Things

Welcome back or welcome for the first time!

If the former applies to you then you know that I committed (to myself and only to myself) to write weekly reflections and use this blog to document strategies I use to be more intentional with my time, keeping stock of what I think increases my quality of life. If the latter applies to you, then by now you know what this is. I am going to list some strategies I used lately and expand on them a little bit, I encourage you to try it, a little experiment never hurts anyone, well, until it does, but I promise this is a safe zone.

Strategy 1 - Thought Gatherer

Imagine this: you finally sit down to get something done. You attempt to eliminate distractions, close your door, maybe you log off social media, or at the very least you close the tabs, maybe you put your phone on silent, even leave it in another room! (how does that thought make you feel?), all is good, you're ready, you start. Now, all the random thoughts that ever existed come rushing into your mind; that cute outfit, is it on sale? wait, did you check again if the new Xbox console is available for pre-order? holy shit, what about this cool tweet you just thought of, you should probably tweet it now before this fleeing moment of creativity passes you, and what a waste that will be!. The way I've been trying to manage that is to keep a "Thought Gatherer" document. This is really what I call it and I use notion for that. I have this notion page open all the time, and whenever I think of some random ass idea, I just write it down in that document. When I've written it down, I have ensured its "safety", which means I know the thought will not disappear, I can come back to it when I have time for that. You can use any tool, you can use a physical notebook to write your thoughts down, or a word document, the idea is to have a place for random thoughts so that you don't feel like you need to act on them right when they appear in that glorious mind of yours. What the urge to act on them really is, is resistance, resistance to the work that you have sit down and do, and this strategy, it's not about you vs your resistance, but you working with your resistance, you're allowing it to exist but not to interfere.

Strategy 2 - Infinity Pools

In the book Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, the authors coin a really fun name for social media apps, Infinity Pools. Any app where you can scroll infinitely, giving you unlimited stimulation is an infinity pool. I listened to that book on audible and this is perhaps one of the coolest terms they use, it is spot on. I find the problem with infinity pools is how they rob you of intention. Pretty much no one "mindfully" scrolls down twitter or Instagram, you go on these apps mindlessly and you stay on them mindlessly. The book suggests trying to uninstall infinity pools, just as a trial, and see how your mental state shifts. Not a big deal, you can always reinstall them ,in my case I am unable to log in Instagram after I reinstalled it, which I am sure is a blessing in disguise, but I digress. My screen time decreased a lot, I still go on infinity pools using the browser but somehow they are not as captivating that way, I have less urge to engage with content, and I have less urge to make content. I am going to try to keep my phone infinity-pool free at least during the work week.

Strategy 3 - Morning and Evening Reflections

I started asking myself some questions at the beginning and the end of the day. I only have one question for the morning "What are you grateful for?" and I only have one bullet point for the answer. I could be grateful for more than one thing, but if I have more than one point to fill, I immediately feel resistance to do this exercise, I don't want to think too hard about that, in fact, in the morning I don't want to think too hard period. I have more than one evening question to reflect on my day. This is like wrapping my day in a sandwich of reflection, and I like how that is working out. I like starting the day not thinking about work by doing a morning reflection thinking where my gratitude lies, and I like concluding the day by looking back at it and thinking about what I did that day, because even if I didn't accomplish what I set out to do, it gives me a sense of conclusion.

That's it! If you came that far, well, I'm impressed and I am happy you were intrigued enough to keep going. Until next week!