20th Post

I made a goal to blog 5 times in June, at a minimum. I am planning to diversify my blogging soon, to include several blogs that cover more specific topics, since specific randomosity is indeed vague...

Some of the ideas I have for blogs that I would be interested in writing, and I feel others would be interested in reading, are as follows:

• Book/Reading
• Movie
• Health
• Parenting
• Gardening
• Lifelong learning
• Cooking
• Motivational/personal development
• Business/success
• Gaming
• Maybe others, just listing these off the top of my head...

Also, I am thinking about coming up with some kind of combination ideas that will cover multiple areas in a synchronized fashion. I don't mean that I must blog about all of these topics, just that they are potential areas I can cover. Well since this is the 20th post in my randomness-focused blog, here is a picture of my dog, for fun.

What to Do When You Have Too Much to Do

Feeling overwhelmed? Yeah, me too. For every task I complete there are always 20 more waiting for me to do. Sometimes I write a list of things to do, and cross them off, which is mildly satisfying, when I complete them. But then the next day, I have more to add, and I get less proportionately done, because of the leftovers from the day before...!
How to solve this dilemma? Let's start by following Brian Tracy's advice, from Eat That Frog!:

People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.

Eat That Frog!  Every bit of planning, prioritizing, and organizing comes down to this simple concept.

Every great achievement of humankind has been preceded by a long period of hard, concentrated work until the job was done.  Your ability to select your most important task, to begin it, and then to concentrate on it until it is complete is the key to high levels of performance and personal productivity.

By concentrating on your most important task, you can reduce the time required to complete it by 50% or more.

It has been estimated that the tendency to start and stop a task – to pick it up, put it down, and come back to it – can increase the time necessary to complete the task by as much as 500%.  This is not productive!

But when you prepare thoroughly and then begin, refusing to stop or turn aside until the job is done, you develop energy, enthusiasm, and motivation.  You get better and better and more productive.  You work faster and more effectively.

Another great source of advice is James Clear. In one of his recent blogs, he outlined the principle of the Two Minute Rule. The basic tenets of this rule are: if you can do it in 2 minutes or less, get it done now, and anything else, get started now, because 2 minutes is enough to get past your inertia and leads, quite often to getting the task done or at least a substantial start.

Well, it sure beats sitting around and sighing about how much you have to do!

Until next time!

More about Personal Learning Plans and Relevant Links

Hi again. When I last posted, I promised to continue my Personal Learning Plan discussion. In particular, I wanted to make sure that I included the list of helpful links for those who want further information.

First of all, remember than a personal learning plan is a guideline that can grow and change. I think that it might be easier to understand its purpose if you think of it as goals and how to reach them. The goals have to be specific enough to have a measurable outcome, or else one may not be able to know when or even whether the learning plan has been completed. 

Recommended links to get you started or stir the imagination in the right direction anyway:

How-To 2: Write a Personal Learning Plan | The Edupunks' Guide

How to Learn Anything | UnCollegeUnCollege

https://p2pu.org/en/groups/diy-u-getting-started-with-self-learning/content/write-a-personal-learning-plan/

http://www.topra.org/sites/default/files/assets/pdf/Personal_Learning_Plan.pdf

The last one is particularly useful if you have a business mindset, or if you are working on a PLP within the context of your job.

An article that I read awhile ago now is clamoring for attention (in my mind). It is about making 101 goals to complete in 1001 days. Here are a few links to information about this idea:

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/05/04/101-goals-in-1001-days/

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/03/24/101-things-in-1001-days/

http://dayzeroproject.com/about/

The last link is to a site that is something like a social network for people who love to make lists... I gather from perusing the site that people make and post lists to share with others, often including photographs, and that the 101 goals in 1001 days meme may have been the original list that started it all. It all looks like fun.... I may join.

On any account, I must be off, since I have places to to go and people to see. It's Summerfest on the Rio Grande time, and I have promised to go watch some kids I know belly dancing...

Until next time, happy random thoughts!

Why and How to Write a Personal Learning Plan

So I had an assignment in my leadership class to write a personal learning plan (PLP). Since I consider myself an autodidact, or self-directed, lifelong learner, I thought, what a delicious opportunity to write about the process.

What I did not realize was how much potential depth could be found in that assignment. While researching and writing my PLP, I found a multitude of relevant sites, as well getting turned on to a number of ideas that I either had not realized or had forgotten.  (As an aside, it is frightful how many things get lost in the process of learning. As more stuff gets crammed into your brain, some information is misplaced, only to suddenly pop up months or years later when some seemingly random event triggers a "memory" that is apparently connected to the "lost" facts and ideas. Strange stuff, memory.)

I will post more soon, including a list of relevant links that I found useful in the process of creating my PLP. Until then, sleep well.

Instant Gratification

Who doesn't want that?! But I believe that many of the problems of the Western World are due to the desire for instant gratification. Crime is often spurred simply by an uncontrolled urge to possess something that you don't have, up to and including power. The uncontrolled urge for power is an inherent weakness--even evil knows that gratification cannot always be instant!

Patience is a virtue; I need some NOW!

Here is the deal: children really need to be taught to delay their gratification. Seriously. Because I hate it when I see adults that never learned. Respecting others requires a delay of gratification as well at times. This will benefit you as well, in the long run. For example, you probably should not walk up to a complete stranger, grab them by the hand, serenade them with a love song, then ask for their hand in marriage. Um, bizzare! (although oddly entertaining as a possibility)

Remember "Good things come to those who wait" (Unknown author, English origin)

Well, it is true, but having a positive mindset definitely pays off too! You have to believe that those good things are coming, and work toward removing obstacles to their arrival! Maybe there should be a class in schools on how to plan/manage one's life. It should be required! Learn how to make goals, then set up practical steps to their achievement. Yeah, that's the ticket! Most teenagers today don't know what they want to do, where they want to be in life, much less how to get there.

Here is an interesting related thread with a thought-provoking psychological bent:

http://www.bordeglobal.com/foruminv/index.php?showtopic=16703

Well, enough specific randomosity for one day...