For the longest time since I left school, I have struggled with enjoying my life and the things I used to love. It’s largely been because of poor time management and planning, because I have been unable to manage my priorities, allocating almost all my time to working on something I became obsessed with. Recently though, I am slowly teaching myself to be more present and patient with myself as I work for the things I want.
Scheduling things out has helped
Before recently, I would wake up and live the day “with the flow”. That is not bad. Infact, this is how some people recommend that you live life. Just go with the flow. But as someone that has lived it for so long, I realized it was not working for me and that perhaps it was time for me to switch it up a bit. Which was why I started scheduling my day out.
I was telling @cmplxty yesterday how I was doing more listing these days. I guess my idea of of listing is more of scheduling my day out, and how that helps me is that it keeps me accountable and hence, productive, not busy. I tell myself what I have to do by what time, create a To Do list on my laptop and cross the tasks out one after the other. I’ll be crossing this post off as the first thing on my list today. After completing all my tasks for the day, I spend the rest of the day spontaneously doing a combination of the things I love – Watching movies, listening to Podcasts, Scrolling Hive, X and Reddit, or Reading. This way, I am both being productive, but also careful of not getting overwhelmed or burnt out.
It’s helped to realize that goals take time to achieve. Why I became obsessed with some of my goals were because I was in the-speed-of-light hurry to achieve them because I felt like I was behind in life. Social media can do that to you. It give me an unrealistic sense of urgency that I cannot afford to waste a single minute of any passing day doing anything else but chasing goals.
But recently, I am learning that big goals don’t just materialize overnight. A lot of the things I want will/might take time, and so there’s no need rushing them, but just to stay committed to putting in the work that will make them a reality one day at a time.
Before, I used to spend my entire day literally doing one thing. On top of this, I would spend the entire night clacking away at keys on my laptop. I am still just as motivated as ever to pursue my goals, but I have found a middle ground to pursuingdoing that whiles maintaining my sanity and enjoying and living my life to the fullest in the present, by staying conscious of the fact that my self and life as a human are a work in progress, not a race to compete in, or a perfection to behold. This is how I practice slow living. I wish I started sooner, but I know that if I don’t start now, even now will become sooner, looking back at things in retrospect 10 years from now.
All images here are mine, screenshot is from my To Do App on my laptop.
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