mess is measurable
I had a life coach.
One of the things she taught me was to set very specific goals with deadlines.
So what did I do when I wrote my goal for an entry-level remote job?
Made it not time-based, not deadlined, not immediate, not specific...in other words, the opposite.
Why did I think months from the present?
I had all these activities in a Notion page for each designated day. I wrote a blog post about this. To block out specific tasks on specific days.
Yesterday, my mind was so scattered before I started a #researchday session. It took me 5 minutes to pick the article that I would take notes on.
Because I didn't know which designated, daily activities to do in order because I wasn't aware of my immediate, daily goal with an immediate, daily deadline. I looked at the activities I wrote down spanning 3 months [the earliest deadline I set to get a job]. I wasn't clear on why I was wanting to do a specific activity in these 3 months and, therefore, which activity to prioritize for 4 weeks based on that [ultimately, which article to prioritize immediately]. I ask myself, why have I learned this specific skill? Why am I going to learn SEO? Why am I going to refresh my copywriting skills? Or sales techniques? And most recently, why do I want to research the right recycling locations?
So I did what my life coach taught me. I did the "5-whys" exercise.
Based on my weekly quantitative goals, I scribbled one blog post a week, two direct messages/emails/applications a week, four notes a week [#writingday, #connectionday, #researchday]. Why did I want to publish one blog post a week? And to make it even smaller...why did I want to write one blog post draft on #writingday? Why did I want to send one application on #connectionday"?
After five questions...same answer!
All of my answers were the same answer.
All of them lead to the same end which will occur months from now!
But my brain craves immediacy, measurability. I didn't know what my 4 week goal was. I imagine talking to a friend about what I will do for the day. I would say, "I'm working on my remote job search."
I do say that.
However, that doesn't get me pretty pumped up!
What if instead I said to this friend that I want to send one direct message today? Or take notes on one article or module today? My burnt-out brain would be a thousand times more enthused to do the work if I get after the goal of one more LinkedIn connection. Stating I want to up my LinkedIn network isn't effective.
I also learned from her that it's best to have a very specific reason why you get up in the morning. Is it just to accomplish some tasks for my current project? The larger why, if I keep it at the forefront, helps me when I rise for the day. The smaller why keeps me disciplined when I'm deep in a focus session. I structure these sessions numerically using the "Pomodoro Technique," 25 minutes of focus alongside 5 minutes of rest.
She also shared with me the effectiveness of calculating how many hours I will do a task/activity. Personally, the word "hours" is too intimidating and I like to think in terms of minutes. I find two 25 minute sessions [50 minutes which is almost an hour] is a lot easier to process than an hour session. I also calculate the breaks beforehand. Two breaks within 50 minutes. I do six 25 minute sessions [making that equivalent to 3 hours] alongside six 5 minute breaks. Before starting a session, I set up a 25 timer. The only thing left to do is to determine exactly what will be worked on.
The current priority are my 4 week goals. My daily goals are based on my weekly goals which are based on these 4 week goals.
The mess is measurable.