Sunday was my first free day for the weekend, which normally occurs on Sunday and Monday. There was nothing planned and nothing really essential for the day. Somewhere in my head I had considered that it would be good to do a number of different things, but thought that I would leave it to the chance of the day rather than plan anything. After all, it was my day off.
That chance never came. All of the things rolling around in my head that seemed to be a great idea to do never actually got done. Not one of them. Instead, a whole bunch of unimportant or even unnecessary things took up the entire day. Watching movies, organising files, organising the room, and reading bits and pieces from a variety of books. All in all a wasted day, and it felt that way too.
I had wanted to put another coat of paint on the Prayer House bathroom walls. I needed to wash my clothes. It would have been great to pack all of the stored items in my closet to make room for better organisation. Yet not one of these actually happened. Even though they were on my list of desired things, they were not actually planned as being part of the day and so they just never happened. Some were put off for a while, while others were forgotten. The end result was the same - in that nothing got done.
Today I had set out a plan. Shower, breakfast, immigration office, internet (specific items for this too), pack. In many ways I felt quite silly for putting in simple things such as breakfast and shower, yet when the time came these items were invaluable to help me feel a sense of accomplishment even before my day had begun. With these first two items checked off my list, the rest of the items seemed even more achievable. They were all finished and completed without problems. Why? Because they were on my "list" which somehow seemed to click in my brain to tell it that these were the most important parts for today.
On the way to town my bike flipped over down a small hill and ended up broken and doubled over. It then took me somewhat over an hour to repair the bent wheel, discover the bent forks, and fix the two holes in the front tube. Even with this delay I managed to get everything done without too much trouble. I even found time to stop and chat with the bike-shop owners while buying the replacement parts for my bike.
Internet, which normally takes a huge chunk of my time, was also very fast and I quickly found myself without anything more to be done. It was a great feeling to be able to return early to the base, where I then had time to finish the pack part of my list of to-dos. By the time the day was over, everything planned had been done and there was still time over to spend with people and to do some impromptu work for an urgent situation.
The difference between these two days are huge.
This weekend I experienced the difference that goals can make. The first day I did nothing important, everything I wanted, and got nothing done and didn't even feel great about it. Today I set some big but loose goals, programming in even the mundane things of breakfast and lunch. Then, as many things seemed to go wrong, I still managed to achieve all of my goals, spend time with people when it mattered, and do some extra work for others.
Goals make the difference between just floating through a day and being certain of where you are going.
Sunday was my first free day for the weekend, which normally occurs on Sunday and Monday. There was nothing planned and nothing really essential for the day. Somewhere in my head I had considered that it would be good to do a number of different things, but thought that I would leave it to the chance of the day rather than plan anything. After all, it was my day off.
That chance never came. All of the things rolling around in my head that seemed to be a great idea to do never actually got done. Not one of them. Instead, a whole bunch of unimportant or even unnecessary things took up the entire day. Watching movies, organising files, organising the room, and reading bits and pieces from a variety of books. All in all a wasted day, and it felt that way too.
I had wanted to put another coat of paint on the Prayer House bathroom walls. I needed to wash my clothes. It would have been great to pack all of the stored items in my closet to make room for better organisation. Yet not one of these actually happened. Even though they were on my list of desired things, they were not actually planned as being part of the day and so they just never happened. Some were put off for a while, while others were forgotten. The end result was the same - in that nothing got done.
Today I had set out a plan. Shower, breakfast, immigration office, internet (specific items for this too), pack. In many ways I felt quite silly for putting in simple things such as breakfast and shower, yet when the time came these items were invaluable to help me feel a sense of accomplishment even before my day had begun. With these first two items checked off my list, the rest of the items seemed even more achievable. They were all finished and completed without problems. Why? Because they were on my "list" which somehow seemed to click in my brain to tell it that these were the most important parts for today.
On the way to town my bike flipped over down a small hill and ended up broken and doubled over. It then took me somewhat over an hour to repair the bent wheel, discover the bent forks, and fix the two holes in the front tube. Even with this delay I managed to get everything done without too much trouble. I even found time to stop and chat with the bike-shop owners while buying the replacement parts for my bike.
Internet, which normally takes a huge chunk of my time, was also very fast and I quickly found myself without anything more to be done. It was a great feeling to be able to return early to the base, where I then had time to finish the pack part of my list of to-dos. By the time the day was over, everything planned had been done and there was still time over to spend with people and to do some impromptu work for an urgent situation.
The difference between these two days are huge.
This weekend I experienced the difference that goals can make. The first day I did nothing important, everything I wanted, and got nothing done and didn't even feel great about it. Today I set some big but loose goals, programming in even the mundane things of breakfast and lunch. Then, as many things seemed to go wrong, I still managed to achieve all of my goals, spend time with people when it mattered, and do some extra work for others.
Goals make the difference between just floating through a day and being certain of where you are going.