An Officially Productive Week

I am so tired and fulfilled! You see, I just completed my officially productive week. I read, programmed, exercised, volunteered, and taught. Now that I look back, I was nearly constantly working during this last week! Wahoo! During the last few weeks I have felt somewhat down about not fulfilling my calling to make something of my time. I used this feeling of defeat to entice myself to victory for a week by stating that I would officially call myself productive should I complete the above set of tasks. That's not to say that I didn't change any tasks half way through. Instead, I had a clear idea of the amount of effort I wanted to put into my week and a conscious default, which helped steer clear of random web surfing and starring off into space. Work hard and play hard, right? I finished off with reading one of Steve's posts on productivity. He concluded by saying that the most productive thing someone can do is find his or her essence if he or she hasn't already. Otherwise, one could go on and on working hard without accomplishing anything. This makes sense because seeking out one's essence is like seeking out a conscious direction to take one's entire life.

What is my essence? Hmm. I haven't thought of this question for a long time. My essence is to have fun, love others, love myself, work hard both physically and mentally, not care about what others think or be proper, live with a free conscience, and so on. How about some simplification? If I factor out laziness, my essence would subconsciously be understanding and exploiting that understanding up to this point. Just for fun let's take a look at my accomplishments this past week and see what goes with understanding. I read The Prince and some more details from the C++ Programming Language. These books are filled with understanding both in terms of leadership and technology. Programming was putting my understanding to use. Exercising increased my ability to understand through an increase in blood flow to my mind. Teaching is giving back knowledge. The odd one out was volunteering. That was for feeling worthwhile and doing something nice for another person without expecting anything back. Fun fun.

I suspect that maintaining this week's level of productivity is very possible in the coming weeks even though I am so exhausted right now. I just have to be more of a hard-ass when it comes to managing my time. That means no watching Hannibal Lecture eat living people's faces off... again, last night. That's trash anyway so I won't be missing much more than a bit of suspense. I should have gone to bed earlier. This all falls back to the three pillars of sustained productivity as I see them: eating healthy, sleeping minimally and regularly, and exercising until one can't exercise anymore. It's also very important to consciously plan relaxing time. By relaxing I don't mean sitting on the couch watching TV. I am referring to doing something very exciting. If I were married, that would probably be dancing with my girlfriend. I say girlfriend so as to denote a consciously fed desire for continued romance. If I were single, which I am (yay), it could be something as simple as throwing a flying disc with a friend without any fear of rejection. The beautiful thing about using sports to unwind is it brings life to a whole new and exciting level. This level requires hard work all the time but it is so much more alive then the lethargic alternative of drifting through life without any plan. When one doesn't have a plan, he or she is swept up by laziness or another person's "optimal" plan. Not so optimal for one's self now is it?