I’m a guy with a lot of ideas, most of them are pretty bad, nonetheless I can’t prevent myself from constantly trying to invent, optimize and innovate. I am like this at work, at home, with friends, with family and also on my personal projects. I guess this is what’s leading me to create a cradle of invention Idea Shortcut.
Juggling with so many ideas and thoughts across the different planes of my life can be quite exhausting. Nevertheless I haven’t been able to rewire my brain to act, think and behave differently. Despite the fact that I consciously, not always believe this is the best frame of mind.
Despite any handicaps or conditions, there’s only so much one can do at the same time. Excelling in every plane of living can be quite difficult. Ranking life’s priorities, becomes very important.
Life Goals
At a macro level, it’s important to understand the roles that are most critical to you in your life. I can clearly identify them: My family and my job, in that order.
I am happily married and a father of 2 young kids, 3 years and 6 months old. I wasn’t always like this, but when I got together with my wife I became very family oriented. I am constantly focused on being a provider and a success enabler for both my wife and my kids.
Even though my wife may disagree some times, most of my daily worries are related with my family. The success of my wife and kids, their health and wellbeing, the house, our finances, are things that cross my mind all the time. This means that I dedicate a good portion of my non-working time to the house and family. To be honest, with 2 young kids, there’s no other option, it takes time and effort! Having my family as a priority, factors in some of my decisions and general behaviour. Simple things like being present at meals (and actually cook them most times), play with the kids, or (mostly) actively hear my wife’s day is something that I prioritise, or cause an impact on me if I can’t achieve them. More complex things like having to provide financial stability, or creating a stable environment are also things that impact my choices. I can’t simply wake up one day and join a startup in the Carabean!
After family, work is clearly my second priority and one that I take very seriously. Achieving my work objectives usually allows me to stay course with the financial stability I look to provide to my family. In a healthy company personal success generally aligns with company success, which also leads to job security. In addition, seeking professional excellence is great for self improvement, allowing me to learn skills to strengthen my future success.
The Short Blanket Dilemma
Is there life beyond family and work? Yes! Too much life I would say. Sometimes life feels like sleeping with a short blanket, either you cover your feet or your chest, but it’s very hard to sleep comfortably if you’re tall. Time (the blanket) is limited and there’s loads of other things to do, beyond work and family, which sometimes need bigger blankets too. There’s also my personal health, my non family relationships, learning, hobbies, entertainment and one that I often keep on the back of my mind: personal projects! My next big thing that never comes, when will I actually work on it?
Shall I’ll screw everything and JUST DO IT! No… Do all JUST DOERs have kids and a mortgage to pay? If they do, good job, but you’re INSANE!
Shall I quit, well not yet… Maybe there’s life after 6p.m. …
Stretching the blanket: How the hell do I find time to innovate after 6 p.m.?
Is it really 6p.m., not quite… Dinner, baths, putting kids to bed, spending time with the wife, sending that last email. More often than not, the time one gets to work on anything else than their actual job is reduced to 5 mins before bed (or a bit more if you skip sleeping). Anyway, do I have the answer to question? I am sorry to tell the reader that I don’t. But I’ve looked for it.
I tried a number of productivity techniques to optimize my time usage. None of which really worked for me. However, in the end, I finally got comfort on one mantra, that actually made me feel better.
First, I’ll start with some techniques I tried to follow, which have great merit, but weren’t very successful for me.
Prioritization: focus on what matters
I have tried it all task lists, GTD frameworks, prepare the day on the previous day, planning the day first thing in the morning.
I have also tried focusing apps, looked into meditation, uninstalled games and social networks from my phone.
None of this was game changing.
Time boxing
Calculate and dedicate time to each vertical of your life sounds great. A good way of implementing this is using the pomodoro technique. I used the Forest android app for this. Amazing app and concept.
Did it work for me? Well… No.
Forming Habits
Some of the techniques described above help and I keep some bits of them on day to day life. But I was never to able incorporate the habits. And yes I tried habit forming techniques and apps like Habitica (again, great app and concept), but nothing stuck.
Can’t stretch the blanket, what do I do?
Unfortunately none of the above allowed me to cover my feet and chest simultaneously, meaning, I still couldn’t find meaningful time to work on my personal projects.
The bottom line is that innovation and creation takes time and preseverence. In addition, as cliché as this may sound, creative thinkers are often a mess, so organization habits are not always natural to them.
Seems like we got to a dead end, and I often think that way. The problem could be simply solved by accepting the reality and enjoy the remainder aspects of life. I’d love to do that and have great admiration for the ones who do. But I can’t do it… And surprisingly, that’s ok!
I may not have all the time and energy to work on my things, even if I want to. I also know that I won’t be able to accept that I’ll never have a meaningful personal project that I can be proud of. But most importantly, I know that even though it will pain me not to work on my next big thing, it will cause me even more pain if I just have to accept life as it is.
This idea is enough motivator to keep chasing and hopefully Idea Shortcut will be a way for me to embody this mantra and motivate others. I know that I am not a JUST DOER, but I am not a JUST SETTLER. I guess I’ll be a JUST NOT A QUITTER, not as sexy, but it will have to do.