No Day Without A Thought

'With self-compassion, we give ourselves the same kindness and care we would give a good friend.'

Hell, even people who know me just a bit (funny, since the blog is anonymous so far) feel that I am not a person of excuses and have a lot of patience. You can complain. For 5 minutes. Shout it out, get bitchy - and then move on. If you have a problem, do something against it. If you can't change it or chose not to, move on.

Still, even though I try to to play the no excuse game as often as possible (and obviously I am not perfect and learn and grow every day, hopefully), there are times you as well should be self -compassionate. This is not about making excuses, but it is just not possible to be a master from day one. You probably won't be a millionaire without practicing your draft before or getting you into the position that this was possible. It won't come out of the blue that you are happy with your partner and kid, sipping a cocktail in South America.

It is more important to do a step into the right direction, rather then making 10 into the wrong direction.

The way will probably be hard and come with a lot of sacrifices. (Yes, sacrifice means not doing something you might would have liked to do.) And if you don't manage to live up to your imagination the first time, be self-compassionate. It is ok to push, and even though natural laws don't apply to you, because you do more than everyone else, there is still a limit you can't cross from the start.

Today I went to my weekly yoga class and as usually it ends with a headstand. Oh boy, I never managed a proper posture so far. I've been there now 6 times - read: impatient - and haven't managed. I was sure that today will be the day. Then the teacher saw how I started, came over to me and stopped me. You shouldn't go further.

One moment of 'Nope, not me, I am going to ... ok, fine.' It really bothers me in this position, because that's the posture I am the furthest from being perfect. However, for every other posture I am also not perfect. What actually does 'perfect' mean here? What does perfect mean in general? What does perfect mean for your profession, your day, your life? With every time I go to yoga, I am pushing myself a bit more in every posture. Compared to other sports, you stay in the posture for a while and your mind truly realizes that there is a limit you're yet not able to cross - and that is ok.

That's why I like to do yoga: it brings your mind to emotions you are usually not in touch with that often and experience a new view. You get wiser about your body and yourself and the reasons why you feel a specific way + how to react to it.

By practicing you will get there.

Start. Push yourself. Continue. Do more. And know that it is hard. 

Omg, actually, I wanted to start today with the phrase 'I don't know when it started'. Then I pondered for a second and realized, I could actually take a look. So, I did.

May 14, 2013.

That's the day of my oldest article on one of my reading lists.

I started with bookmarks. Then I started making a folder for bookmarks. Then I did different folders depending on the topic, urgency and importance. For example, I had one named 'Weekend', as I thought I can catch up with them, well obviously, on the weekend. Never happened.

I am not saying that I figured it out by now, I can however say that I am feeling better organized and getting to the things I want to read with my current tools. That's why I shortly want to tell you about my three tools I am using for articles and reading material.

OneTab
Imagine you sitting on your PC, surfing the web, writing emails and having a double digit number of tabs open at the same time. Not only does it slow down the performance of the PC, it also distracts your mind - at least that applies to me. Having everything open at the same time, also gives me the feeling of I need to take care of everything at the same time. Or subconsciously seeing that there is more stuff to come, so you better hurry. With OneTab that is history. Just install the browser plugin, click it, and the tabs magically merge to one tab.
I sure have 90 at the moment in that tab, but those are also topic related. For example was I looking for different growth tactics and didn't have the time to actually read them, but I know where they are.

Pocket
App and plugin for your browser to save every page to read later. Also available for tweets. I use Pocket more for individual articles and things I don't want to forget and which I can read at another time on the road, when I can just pull out my phone and have 5min to spare. So, instead of sending myself an email to remind myself of an article and then opening it in the browser, still having no time to read it, the article is just in the app, ready for me to read when I can. At the moment, there are 10 in it.

Evernote Clipper
Evernote is my source for so many things. They doing an amazing job and fulfill the promise Evernote for me. I already have a note for potential names for my future children I don't want to forget. It's also the place where I write my diary in - when I manage to do it. Besides my own written notes, it is mostly the place with tons of different notebooks where I save read articles I find useful and never want to forget. Via Evernote Clipper, you can just save every article with the browser plugin right into your desired notebook. That's it. And everyone who uses Evernote knows that their search of documents is outstanding. As soon as you remember a keyword, I guarantee that you'll find the article you are looking for within seconds.

If you have your article/reading game sorted, let me know what you are using. Happy to improve mine, as there is always way to improve. Otherwise, if you feel you're not there yet, take a look at them and see how/if they work for you.

Recently I had an interesting discussion on when is one on the right track in life. The answer of the person stuck with me and since then leads many of my decisions:

'When you spend time doing things that give you energy rather then deplete energy.'

Sure, there are hard times and crunch time, but do you feel great to have done it? Are you in an environment where you feel energized? Do you feel comfortable and inspired at work? Do you learn what you want to learn? Do you have people around you that support you and encourage you? ...

Obviously, everyone is different and gets energy from different things. What gives you energy and do you spend enough time doing it?

Today I mark the last day in a 7 day writing streak. Giving myself a little clap on the shoulder.

Nevertheless, it was also the first time I struggled to get my writing done. It's close to bed time and when I don't go to bed at that time, I won't get my 8 hours of sleep. Or rephrase, I would get my 8 hours of sleep, but then my schedule would be restructured and I like how it is.

After waking up, I usually start doing sports within ten minutes. Mostly running or a 30min self chosen fitness practice. After that showering, kind of meditation and then leaving home as fast as possible. If I need to long in the morning and stay at home, I waste too much time surfing the web on my phone. It really is like this. However, as soon as I managed to take a step outside of my apartment the day can get started.

So, instead of switching between sports news, Quora, Facebook, Twitter - you name it, I go to my favorite café and read a book for about 20min before getting to do my first work related tasks while not getting distracted. After that I've already done sports, got some stuff out of the way and structured my thoughts for the upcoming day.

Afterwards the days most often get super busy and I am working on this part of the day to get better in it; while knowing that one can't plan all day in a fast moving startup. Regardless, I know that I perform well in the morning, am useless after lunch, have a good session between 3-6pm and then again closely before bed. Those are my sweat spots I always keep untouched of external factors like meetings etc.

Remember the last time anyone asked you, if you had time and you said no that they followed up asking 'why'? Never happened to me. So, every time a meeting happens to be at my sweat spots, I say I can't. Luckily, I work in an environment everyone is open to each other and you want your coworker to be in their best condition and value how they structure their day. Thus, I can also just say that I would prefer a different time to focus on other things in the afternoon.

Find your sweat spots. Make sure to structure your day around them and put things with less importance and other brain power needed into the rest of the day. For example having meetings or meeting for a post lunch coffee chat. The crucial work happens in your sweat spot.

Fyi I've written about a similar topic here.