Be a professional. Have a stop loss, even for life goals.
This is a chapter from the journey on a self-improvement path. Read more about that at the end.
So. Day 1 sucked. Did I manage to get my chores done? Yes. Wrote about “how I fixed my browser chaos” on Medium, and answered a question on “how to start a online grocery website” on Quora. And that was not all I did. Managed to clean up my house, went through some profiles for a bunch of positions we are trying to fill at dressrs, and worked a bit more on Ana. But even then, the day sucked.
Why?
Because I think I ended up wasting a lot of time. The idea was very simple. 1 Medium article, 1 Quora post. When I thought of doing that, I never thought something that simple could be messed up. It was just about committing yourself to the task at hand, I figured. I was wrong!
I completely overlooked the fact that if I don’t do it right, it might end up hurting my productivity on other fronts.
And that is exactly what happened yesterday. I think I was done with my tasks of the day around 3–4pm yesterday. That was the biggest mistake. What that essentially meant was that till 4, “have to do these two things today” was always on my mind. No matter what work I would be doing, I would subconsciously always be thinking of it. If I am reading an article, I would try to figure out what I could write about today and so on. End result? My work wasn’t getting the attention it deserved. That was counter-productive.
So, by the time I got to bed last night, I had a solution — and coincidentally the topic for today’s medium article. “Think like a trader. Have a stop loss. Get in. If you hit the stop loss, get out. Don’t let emotions get the better of you.”
Have the discipline of a stock trader.
The solution was quite elegant . Every morning, I would be having from 7:30am to 9:30am to finish the two tasks I have assigned myself with. If I am able to meet the deadline, well — good for me. If I don’t, too bad — get to work. That way, I would not let these resolutions creep into the time I am supposed to be doing work. Are the resolutions important? Of course they are. I am trying to imbibe some discipline in my life.
But,
A. I can’t afford to put my life or work on hold, while I try to make myself better
B. If having a stop loss is not a part of being disciplined, what is?
C. It might help me in sticking to a schedule in getting my lazy ass off of bed every morning and not hit the snooze button
I have also realised, as time passes, I might be able to finish my chores in an hour max. I can use the spare 1 hour to catch up on my workout. :-)
It’s a win-win really.
Now. For a few days, I will give myself 30 mins of grace time every day before I get to bed. This is to give me the chance to complete my task in case I encountered failure in the morning. But eventually, even that will stop.
This is part of a series, where I would be encapsulating my journey to some self-improvement over the course of next 16 weeks, starting April 9, 2017. ;-)
To get more context, do visit the series: Resolutions — without it being December
This was the first article in the series:
