Most of us, myself included, make the excuse that our well being is somehow better even though we lack accountability. What do I mean by accountability? Well, how often do you plan out your day—let alone your whole week? Probably not too often. For some odd reason I thought keeping myself in check was too much stress, maybe? Or, maybe I was just lazy. Whatever the reason was, I knew that I could be a better person. Not just better but more efficient. I was tired of constantly drifting off in thought about things I knew didn’t matter.
Enough is Enough
How often do we endlessly scroll on our phone? Ten minutes every hour, maybe? Who knows, but the ever present answer in my mind was always too much. I would think to myself, “I could be going to the gym right now, becoming a better person.” However, after two days in a row I was already back to the brainless state: me, lying in bed, scrolling through twitter. A never ending cycle of motivation-satisfaction-comfort-disappointment.
Thus, the title Instant Focus, by Patrick King, immediately grabbed my attention. Utilizing its concepts, I wanted to accomplish academic prosperity. Not only that, my new apartment was less than a five minute walk to Ohio State’s North Rec. So, I knew it was about time I took full advantage of the opportunities presented to me.
I soon realized the only thing preventing my success was a lack of accountability.
I 100% consider myself to be a perfectionist. However, to my surprise, the first thing the book taught me was to kill perfectionism. Often, I do too much because I deem it necessary for my own personal satisfaction.
If I had a project or exam in one course, that I felt was more important, then everything else in my academic life would suffer as a consequence. Since I was devoting my time to it, then that meant it deserved all of my effort—every ounce of energy—so that I wouldn’t feel grief when everything was said and done.
Prior, when I’d go to the gym the plan was all cramped in my head. I had about 7-8 workouts and did them in a random order, alternating every other day. What would I do if I didn’t feel like going one day? All was lost would be my goto mentality. Time and time again repeating that never ending cycle.
Motivation-Satisfaction-Comfort-Disappointment
My Answer:
To peak my productivity times and live in my calendar, ultimately, being more accountable for my success.
The first step: making something to be accountable of. A concept like going to the gym seems simple for most people, but I always had trouble with it. Therefore, I thought the best course of action after reading the book was to make an excel file. The file would list my workout routine, that I have wholeheartedly committed to for the past few months.
Although it may seem pretty perfectionist like, I was simple with how I accounted for my weights in doing these exercises.
If you’re an IPhone user notes is definitely an easy way to be a more efficient person. For example, another concept the book preached was to write your ideas no matter where you are. If I had more ideas I would have utilized this advice, and I definitely would have done so using this simple app.
Although lacking in the organizational structure a
perfectionist/slightly ocdc natured individual like myself would be comfortable using—it made efficient enough to stay motivated throughout my workout journey.
Knowing this improving my academic life would also be a simpler fix than expected. It merely involved another built-in IPhone app.
The Calendar, DO NOT Underestimate it
Like said before, once I am focused on one thing I often forget my other responsibilities. So, I decided to become more accountable by listing those responsibilities in my calendar app.
With the app, I planned each of my day’s assignments, events, and any other sort of responsibility I had. One of the most vital things about this app that helped my success was the alerts it provided.
Imagine that device you use everyday reminds you that your weekly assignment is due tomorrow. I could even set it up to repeat each week. For someone as forgetful as me that was a huge deal.
My Takeaway
I have become painfully aware of the positive impact these little changes in my life had on my success. I often think, if only I had done this sooner. Then I wouldn’t have missed that Economics assignment. Maybe, I would have realized that the textbook was required to do the homework problems earlier if I had simply written down in my notes the moment my teacher said it.
Overall, Instant Focus has provided great insight on how to be more efficient in my use of time and organizing. Things that once seemed like a meticulous unnecessary waste of time seem plainly irrational to not to incorporate in my daily life.
Although these things may seem annoying or one more thing to add to the never-ending list of things to do—I highly recommend incorporating tools that make us more accountable for ourselves.
I learned that not taking the easy way out by utilizing these methods in a sense was taking the easy way out. In all aspects of my life, I plan on having a well thought out structure for the goals I set out to accomplish.