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Moisés Alcántara Ayre wrote: ↑March 13th, 2024, 1:41 pm I'm an English language teacher whose native language is Spanish. I've been considering the possibility of writing a book, but don't know where to start yet.Hi, Moisés Alcántara Ayre,
Nisha DSouza wrote: ↑March 14th, 2024, 1:40 am Hi Scott,Hi, Nisha DSouza,
In one of your earlier posts about budgeting time, I had a follow-up question.
I love the concept of monotasking and budgeting or planning my time. My issue sometimes is that the time I have allotted to a certain task is less and it runs longer than anticipated and then it derails the following tasks. What do you suggest in this situation?
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes wrote: ↑March 16th, 2024, 2:33 pmThat makes sense. I will write a new budget that I can easily and consistently stick to at least for a few weeks. Thank you so much! I will come back with examples if I face difficulty again.
Don't start by coming up with a seemingly super ambitious budget and then "attempting" to make your behavior, routine, or spending match it.
Instead, do the vice versa: start by writing a budget that matches your recent behavior and/or that you are confident you can stick to consistently for at least few weeks without deviating from it all.
Moisés Alcántara Ayre wrote: ↑March 13th, 2024, 1:41 pm I'm an English language teacher whose native language is Spanish. I've been considering the possibility of writing a book, but don't know where to start yet.Hi, Moisés Alcántara Ayre,
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes wrote: ↑March 12th, 2024, 4:27 pm
My main point in that post was this:
When taking on a big goal or big project (e.g. starting a weight loss plan with a goal to lose 100 lbs, learning a new language, starting a side business or side hustle that they one day want to quit their day job to do, etc.), most people put way too much time towards that thing per day and/or way over-estimate how much time it requires per day, which in turn causes them to do one or more of the following:
(1) not choosing to even start because they overestimate how much time it will take and either don't have that much time to spend or don't want to spend that much time on that thing
(2) quitting because it's so exhausting and time-consuming
(3) use their time inefficiently and waste time
In other words, even if they don't quit or give up due to their choice of making it so much harder, more expensive, and more time-consuming than it needs to be, they are still wasting all that extra time, money, and energy that they are throwing at the thing.
The workout example is just an example. If you are going to get basically the same results by working out for 2 hours every day as you would by working out for 30 minutes, then working out for 2 hours is at best going to be a waste of 1.5 hours per day. And that's at best. More likely, it's going to lead to you skipping days and/or giving up entirely.
My point was also to show how much you can get done with just 30 minutes or less, using 30 minutes as just an example. There's nothing magical about that number versus say other numbers like 15 minutes or 45 minutes.
[...]
30 minutes per day is about 2% of your time.
An hour per day is about 4% of your time.
An hour per week is about 0.5% of your time.
Two hours per week is about 1% of your time.
Those are just examples. For some tasks and projects, I'd recommend only budgeting 10 minutes per day. For others, I'd recommend budgeting 2 or even 3 hours per day.
However, I strongly advise my mentees to err heavily on the side of budgeting less time.
Kaitlin Bryant wrote: ↑March 16th, 2024, 10:55 am I just want to say, I absolutely love the break down of the percentage of your day. That is so encouraging for me. Makes working on the projects I have been avoiding because they seem overwhelming...seem a lot less so.Hi, Kaitlin Bryant,
Would you suggest setting a timer for tasks? Do you think that would be more stressful or helpful?
Sometimes I get wrapped up in what I am doing and then get frustrated that I "wasted time doing this, instead of that."
What would your suggestion be for helping with such issues?
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes wrote: ↑March 18th, 2024, 2:23 pm If you haven't already, you can sign up to be personally mentored by Scott "Eckhart Aurelius" Hughes at this link.Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my question and answering it so thoroughly!
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes wrote: ↑March 12th, 2024, 4:27 pm
My main point in that post was this:
When taking on a big goal or big project (e.g. starting a weight loss plan with a goal to lose 100 lbs, learning a new language, starting a side business or side hustle that they one day want to quit their day job to do, etc.), most people put way too much time towards that thing per day and/or way over-estimate how much time it requires per day, which in turn causes them to do one or more of the following:
(1) not choosing to even start because they overestimate how much time it will take and either don't have that much time to spend or don't want to spend that much time on that thing
(2) quitting because it's so exhausting and time-consuming
(3) use their time inefficiently and waste time
In other words, even if they don't quit or give up due to their choice of making it so much harder, more expensive, and more time-consuming than it needs to be, they are still wasting all that extra time, money, and energy that they are throwing at the thing.
The workout example is just an example. If you are going to get basically the same results by working out for 2 hours every day as you would by working out for 30 minutes, then working out for 2 hours is at best going to be a waste of 1.5 hours per day. And that's at best. More likely, it's going to lead to you skipping days and/or giving up entirely.
My point was also to show how much you can get done with just 30 minutes or less, using 30 minutes as just an example. There's nothing magical about that number versus say other numbers like 15 minutes or 45 minutes.
[...]
30 minutes per day is about 2% of your time.
An hour per day is about 4% of your time.
An hour per week is about 0.5% of your time.
Two hours per week is about 1% of your time.
Those are just examples. For some tasks and projects, I'd recommend only budgeting 10 minutes per day. For others, I'd recommend budgeting 2 or even 3 hours per day.
However, I strongly advise my mentees to err heavily on the side of budgeting less time.Kaitlin Bryant wrote: ↑March 16th, 2024, 10:55 am I just want to say, I absolutely love the break down of the percentage of your day. That is so encouraging for me. Makes working on the projects I have been avoiding because they seem overwhelming...seem a lot less so.Hi, Kaitlin Bryant,
Would you suggest setting a timer for tasks? Do you think that would be more stressful or helpful?
Sometimes I get wrapped up in what I am doing and then get frustrated that I "wasted time doing this, instead of that."
What would your suggestion be for helping with such issues?
Thank you so much for your question!
Whether or not I would recommend a certain person set a timer for a certain task or not would vary depending on several factors:
(1) what the specific task is. For some tasks, I would be more likely to recommend a timer; for others, I'd be less likely to.
(2) what your inspiration, motivation, and/or goals are in relation to that task specifically. This can be explored by me asking you (or you asking yourself), why are you doing the task? And, what are you hoping to get out of doing the task?
(3) what your broad overall big goals and dreams are in general. This can be explored in part by me asking you (or you asking yourself), where, ideally, do you see yourself in one year, in two years, in five years, and in ten years?
(4) your overall unique personality type. For example, my recommendations would likely be different for someone who tells me they struggle disproportionately more with issues like overthinking, anxiety, intrusive self-critical thoughts, over-motivation, and/or people-pleasing, versus someone who tells me they struggling and want help with almost opposite issues (e.g. under-thinking, carelessness, laziness, etc.).
Finally, a 5th factor is this common and fairly accurate wisdom can be described with the following two sentences: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And, insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.
In practice, what that 5th factor means is that the degree to which I would recommend someone change their habits and routines is strongly correlated to the degree to which they are lacking in free-spirited inner peace (a.k.a. true happiness). This is why in my book I talk a lot about the beauty of diversity and ideas like (1) live and let live and (2) to each his own. If two people are in nearly identical situations, but one of them is truly happy in terms of having free-spirited inner peace and the other is very unhappy (i.e. doesn't have inner peace and/or feels like spiritual slave or prisoner in their body), then I will likely give those two people opposite recommendations despite them both being in nearly identical situations.
For example, if someone asks me if I recommend they drink more alcohol on average each week, less alcohol, or keep it about the same, my recommendation will have almost nothing to do with how much they are currently drinking. But it will have a lot to do with what their stated goals are and whether or not they are currently truly happy, meaning whether or not they have extreme full-fledged free-spirited inner peace.
One person might only be having 5 drinks a week (which is less than one drink per day on average), and I'd recommend they do even less.
Another person might have 14 drinks a week (more than double the previous person), and I'd recommend they keep at it.
If what you are doing is working, then I typically say keep doing it.
In contrast, if you are persistently feeling feeling spiritually unfulfilled, meaning you persistently feel that you don't have wonderful graceful free-spirited inner peace (a.k.a. true happiness), then it's probably time to not only change your habits and routines but take a bigger step back and look at the larger scales patterns and cycles in your life that you can break. An unhappy alcoholic might bounce back and forth from going to AA meeting religious while remaining temporarily sober to then binge drinking, with the grass always seeming greener on the other side. It's not really doing something new if it's just part of a larger scale unbroken cycle of re-chasing the greener grass on the other side where you just came from not that long ago. Unhappy people are often great at lacking consistency with their habits and routines in the short-term (which is good because obviously those habits and routines aren't working for them). But they (e.g. textbook addicts) tend to get trapped in a bigger cycle that ultimately does keep them stuck and stationary without progress. If you run really fast in a medium-sized circle, you still end up going nowhere.
Granted, going nowhere can be more than fine if you are happy where you are.
Traveling and journeying, especially in terms of going on an endless journey with no destination, is great if you love the journeying and happy when journeying. I don't create and chase goals because I think the goals will make me happy in the future (which they won't). I make and create goals because I am already happy because the endless chasing of an endless series of goals is something I have learned to love and find great deep spiritual joy in doing.
Letting go of the times and letting yourself get lost in tasks that are allegedly "time wasting" can be a bit going out with friends to the bar for a drink or two, saying out a little late, and losing some sleep. For a stressed anxious workaholic whose parents use to pressure him his childhood to get straight-As and follow all sorts of strict rules and he can still hear their critical pressuring "you're-never-good-enough" voice in his head, day-in day-out, I might recommend he do the timers less and do the allegedly "time wasting" nights out with friends more. For someone else, or just for different tasks, my recommendation will be the opposite.
Roughly speaking, there's an old adage I like, possibly coined by Marthe Troly-Curtin: "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
The only thing I would possibly consider as truly wasted time is time spent being unhappy, meaning time spent not having free-spirited inner peace. Another rough way to say that same thing is to talk about being more present in your unique present, which we can--very roughly speaking--then use to say, [i"the only time wasted is time spent not being consciously present"[/i]. However, at a deeper level, even that is an illusion. At that level and in that context, there simply is no truly wasted time. That deeper truer simpler and more absolute level of reality is explored in the following topics of mine:
- Trying, failure, underachievement, and should-not-have-ness are imaginary phantoms that cause you real misery. (Everyone and everything is a success.)
- When I see someone in hell, I smile inside myself, and I think, "Good for him; he's getting what he's choosing." (In this most heavenly of heavens, even the hell-wishers get their wish.)
The Universe doesn't miscalculate. Reality is right. Nothing wrong happens. Nothing that happens at the wrong time nor at the wrong place. Everything that happens happens at the right time and place. The sleepers will wake up to lucidity when they are ready. Or, to say it shorter, they will wake up when they are ready.
If you give me a few specific details about your unique goals and the specific tasks for which you are considering adding a timer, I can advise you in more detail about those specific tasks specifically and whether or not I recommend adding a timer or not.
Nonetheless, the following four sentences might be the best, most direct, and shortest answer to your overall question: It's not that hard for you to empirically test if adding a timer for any given certain task adds more stress, productivity, and/or happy free-spirited inner peace to your day. You can add a timer to a daily task that you haven't been timing for a few days and see how it feels and what the results are, or vice versa. Just A/B test it. See which way is more or less stressful, productive, and/or happiness-conducive for you, and then go with that.
You do mention that you feel "overwhelmed" by the prospect of some tasks, and feel "frustrated" at yourself when you get wrapped up in some things. For those issues in particular, I suggest you read my answer to the following question as well:
I am FEELING OVERWHELMED in college in my first year. How do I manage everything around me?
In that answer, I point out that my book (In It Together) will teach you how to feel neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed but perfectly whelmed, a powerful state better known as inner peace, grace, or gracefulness that comes with instant invincible free-spirited happiness and also leads to seemingly supernatural levels of external success and achievements, such as making huge amounts of money or achieving ridiculous results in the gym, or whatever your unique external goals happen to be.
My book won't just give you some vague hints to reach that amazing graceful state. I guarantee that anyone who reads my book and strictly follows all 11 of the number suggestions at the end will thereby achieve that state instantly.
With love,
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
a.k.a. Scott
only-work-happily.png
---
In addition to having authored his book, In It Together, Eckhart Aurelius Hughes (a.k.a. Scott) runs a mentoring program, with a free option, that guarantees success. Success is guaranteed for anyone who follows the program.
KELVIN KAY 2 wrote: ↑March 16th, 2024, 12:51 pm What do you do when your loved ones have left you? Let's say you are married for 30 years and you don't know anything about life except being with your husband. What do you do ?Hi, KELVIN KAY 2,
Moisés Alcántara Ayre wrote: ↑March 18th, 2024, 7:51 am I'm an English language teacher whose native language is Spanish. I've been considering the possibility of writing a book, but don't know where to start yet.Hi, Moisés Alcántara Ayre,
[...] being an English language teacher wanting to write a book in English made me insecure as English is not my first language. The book could be on any topic--I just don't feel very confident with my skills to write yet. Then, once I decide to start this writing journey, where do I begin? Should I first brainstorm ideas on any topics that interest me? Should I just focus on one topic and add ideas methodically like for 30 minutes each day? ...
Emmanuel Asamoah 5 wrote: ↑March 19th, 2024, 3:44 pm Hi Eckhart,Hi, Emmanuel Asamoah 5,
Each time someone asks me to tell them what my career path would be, I get confused and I often don't know which response to give but in most cases, I avoid saying I do not know to avoid further questioning. Could you suggest or give me advice on how to get clarity on career path since this has been a major pandemonium in my life.
Swimmingly,
Emmanuel Asamoah 5 wrote: ↑March 19th, 2024, 4:36 pm Hi Eckhart,Hi, Emmanuel Asamoah 5,
how do you handle the situation of finding yourself in the midst of people who are always expressing negative or lower energy. What do you advice. I've encountered lots of people who are always wishing doom for themselves. They are at loggerheads with positivity. It is overwhelming to cope with it whenever I find myself in the midst of such people. I am mostly affected by this energy.
Swimmingly
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