Simple plans aren't
June 26, 2011 7:13 AM Subscribe
How to dig deeper? How to get more specific and detailed until I can actually do something?
i'm at a point in my life where I have lots of interests and goals, fairly well dwfined, but when it comes time to actually do something about any of them, I get confused and thrash about until I get distracted.
There's an established way to deal with this in computer programming. It's called test driven programming, and it works by writing the test code first, then filling in the groundwork until the test actually works. This doesn't totally solve the problem, but it mitigates it.
I suppose I need more things like that. Intermediate goals that aren't really what I want, but are required for it, and are easier to plan for. I have difficulty thinking of those intermediate goals. In programming, I have difficulty writing the tests. It seems to be a focus issue: I get as far as the first test, then wonder what it would require, and then work on that while losing focus on the tests as such.
I suppose I'm looking for advice on how to handle focus issues like that.
i'm at a point in my life where I have lots of interests and goals, fairly well dwfined, but when it comes time to actually do something about any of them, I get confused and thrash about until I get distracted.
There's an established way to deal with this in computer programming. It's called test driven programming, and it works by writing the test code first, then filling in the groundwork until the test actually works. This doesn't totally solve the problem, but it mitigates it.
I suppose I need more things like that. Intermediate goals that aren't really what I want, but are required for it, and are easier to plan for. I have difficulty thinking of those intermediate goals. In programming, I have difficulty writing the tests. It seems to be a focus issue: I get as far as the first test, then wonder what it would require, and then work on that while losing focus on the tests as such.
I suppose I'm looking for advice on how to handle focus issues like that.
You have stated that you have 'long term goals' but from your description of the programming analogy, it sounds like the problem is one of digging deeper into the long term goal itself.
It may well be too vague, not rewarding/exciting enough, or not a goal for you, just one you think you 'should have' for whatever reason.
I recommend you start there first - find truly exciting and inspiring goals for you, and the intermediate goals will then fall out naturally from there. Often when I'm stuck at the "okay, what's in the mid- and near- term for this goal?" Stage, I discover that the goal doesn't fit me well, due to some vagueness or misalignment.
Think about a progamming goal: stating the problem concisely goes a long way toward solving it. (IME anyway!)
posted by scooterdog at 7:58 AM on June 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
It may well be too vague, not rewarding/exciting enough, or not a goal for you, just one you think you 'should have' for whatever reason.
I recommend you start there first - find truly exciting and inspiring goals for you, and the intermediate goals will then fall out naturally from there. Often when I'm stuck at the "okay, what's in the mid- and near- term for this goal?" Stage, I discover that the goal doesn't fit me well, due to some vagueness or misalignment.
Think about a progamming goal: stating the problem concisely goes a long way toward solving it. (IME anyway!)
posted by scooterdog at 7:58 AM on June 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
I find I'll never be - or feel - fully prepared, so I have to force the issue. I learned to recognise the feeling of being not-quite-ready as meaning "plunge in unprepared now, or give up on the fantasy that you'll actually do this".
It gets easier as you learn how good you are adapting to the unforeseen, such that being prepared isn't actually as direly critical as it seemed. It's more important to get started - preferably starting a course of action that necessarily commits you, be it signing up to something you can't back out of, or mixing up the glue or paint which has to be used before it sets.
posted by -harlequin- at 8:13 AM on June 26, 2011 [4 favorites]
It gets easier as you learn how good you are adapting to the unforeseen, such that being prepared isn't actually as direly critical as it seemed. It's more important to get started - preferably starting a course of action that necessarily commits you, be it signing up to something you can't back out of, or mixing up the glue or paint which has to be used before it sets.
posted by -harlequin- at 8:13 AM on June 26, 2011 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: I'm in college and studying computer science. I want to finish that degree. My grades are alright--not as good as they could be, because I tend to work in spurts and then get lazy.
I have a job with a small database company. I'm mostly testing, but also writing a bit of SQL, and that's fascinating. I think the skills I learn there will prepare me to actually design stuff.
I have a few hobby coding projects. One is a life simulator, like Dwarf Fortress in the whole "set up a bunch of game mechanics and see what happens" approach, but with the world model severely simplified, into something more like an interactive fiction game. Another is my contribution to someone else's open source project, a character generator for a roleplaying game. Lots of false starts on both.
I write fiction. Published one story in a tiny fanzine a while ago. Spent something like a year and a half on the story I'm now seeking a market for. I'm writing another one, but again, fits and spurts and false starts.
I'm trying to set up some habits for myself to handle things like regularly interacting with people I like and enjoy the company of. I don't keep in touch. It's no good.
posted by LogicalDash at 9:04 AM on June 26, 2011
I have a job with a small database company. I'm mostly testing, but also writing a bit of SQL, and that's fascinating. I think the skills I learn there will prepare me to actually design stuff.
I have a few hobby coding projects. One is a life simulator, like Dwarf Fortress in the whole "set up a bunch of game mechanics and see what happens" approach, but with the world model severely simplified, into something more like an interactive fiction game. Another is my contribution to someone else's open source project, a character generator for a roleplaying game. Lots of false starts on both.
I write fiction. Published one story in a tiny fanzine a while ago. Spent something like a year and a half on the story I'm now seeking a market for. I'm writing another one, but again, fits and spurts and false starts.
I'm trying to set up some habits for myself to handle things like regularly interacting with people I like and enjoy the company of. I don't keep in touch. It's no good.
posted by LogicalDash at 9:04 AM on June 26, 2011
If you're anything like me or most computer science students I know, you pour incredible amounts of energy, will, and general life force down, unused, into the drain they call "the internet" or "gaming" and you don't even know how much vitality you're wasting, or are aware of it in the back of your mind but kind of not really getting around to changing anything, because it's been so long since you lived for a day without feeling lethargic and restless while being constantly stimulated & entertained, that you've forgotten that it's even possible, or you haven't forgotten but still find it quite fucking unbelievable that the mere presence of an internet-enabled device in your vicinity could just suck everything out of you so mercilessly, and thus cannot really grok that being offline could be any different, even though you know it for a fact. So, if you were anything like us, I'd tell you that disconnecting your internet is going to be an experience on par with a drug trip, and that after a very short time you're going to find overflowing wellsprings of creativity, patience, and vigor. But you probably wouldn't believe me!
posted by mbrock at 9:42 AM on June 26, 2011 [9 favorites]
posted by mbrock at 9:42 AM on June 26, 2011 [9 favorites]
Response by poster: Damn, I've tried to game like that, but my most recent console is a ps2, I haven't turned it on in a couple months, and the last game I spent much time on is Team Fortress 2... just random internet matches. Really, when I waste time I usually do it by reading comment threads.
posted by LogicalDash at 11:47 AM on June 26, 2011
posted by LogicalDash at 11:47 AM on June 26, 2011
I think you're on the right track with intermediate goals. Maybe what you need is to set deadlines to help with your focus issue. Try a carrot and a stick for motivation; a reward for meeting the deadline, and a self-imposed punishment for not meeting it. I'd recommend depriving yourself of whatever activity it was that kept you from meeting the deadline.
posted by troywestfield at 7:13 AM on June 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by troywestfield at 7:13 AM on June 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I read somewhere once that focus is a matter of saying no. You can't focus on 12 things at once; you can only focus on one thing at a time.
In my experience, if you want to accomplish a lot of different things, you need to set aside time for each one separately, being realistic about how long specific actions will take.
In Getting Things Done, David Allen talks about focusing on outcomes. If you successfully finished each of these projects, what would the outcome look like?
Now, what are the specific actions it would take to get there?
For the things you listed, the answers might look something like this:
* good grades in college: the outcome would look like (a) knowing the material well and being able to demonstrate that in class and on exams, and (b) seeing those grades on my transcript; what it would take to get there: quizzing myself regularly on current material and reviewing past material
* learning SQL: the outcome would look like being able to create and use a database for simple to medium projects; what it would take to get there: (a) completing the work I'm doing for my job, (b) spending some time reviewing that work, thinking about what I learned, spinning related scenarios for myself about other features we could add to that database, and figuring out how I would implement those features
* fiction: the outcome would be your next finished story; what it would take to get there (depends on your writing process)
* keeping in touch with people: the outcome would be regular contact (lunches? phone calls? email?) with people you want to keep in touch with; what it would take to get there would be making those phone calls, sending those emails, attending those lunches
Whew. That's a lot of stuff.
So you might also want to ask yourself: do I really want to make progress toward every single one of these goals every single week? (or day?) Or do I just want to feel like I'm making progress toward at least one or two?
If you want to make progress toward every one of these goals, it can be done - but you might need to adjust your expectations of how much you'll be able to do each week. You only have 24 hours in a day. You can, of course, learn to be more productive - say, by reviewing your classwork while you're walking to your lunch meeting with one of your friends - but there's only so much of that you can do. If you want to make progress on each one of these goals every day (or week), you'll find that it will take longer to finish the next work of fiction, and you may only be able to meet up with one friend a week instead of three or five.
And that's okay. Some of your projects have specific deadlines (school and work, especially), but for the other things, it might just take longer than you'd like to finish. That's okay. You can still be making tangible progress.
I wonder if you might find it helpful to focus on your strengths. The Getting Things Done technique of asking yourself "What's the next action?" is a good way to keep yourself moving forward - but it's also helpful to pause once a week and evaluate how things are going. How much progress did you make on your goal? Does it feel good? What went well? It's important to look for ways to improve - is there something you'd like to change about your approach to that particular goal? - but it's also really important to identify what's working well for you (say, writing fiction in the morning first thing before breakfast, or identifying 20 minute coding tasks for your life simulator project), and to look for ways to do more of that.
posted by kristi at 10:00 AM on June 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
In my experience, if you want to accomplish a lot of different things, you need to set aside time for each one separately, being realistic about how long specific actions will take.
In Getting Things Done, David Allen talks about focusing on outcomes. If you successfully finished each of these projects, what would the outcome look like?
Now, what are the specific actions it would take to get there?
For the things you listed, the answers might look something like this:
* good grades in college: the outcome would look like (a) knowing the material well and being able to demonstrate that in class and on exams, and (b) seeing those grades on my transcript; what it would take to get there: quizzing myself regularly on current material and reviewing past material
* learning SQL: the outcome would look like being able to create and use a database for simple to medium projects; what it would take to get there: (a) completing the work I'm doing for my job, (b) spending some time reviewing that work, thinking about what I learned, spinning related scenarios for myself about other features we could add to that database, and figuring out how I would implement those features
* fiction: the outcome would be your next finished story; what it would take to get there (depends on your writing process)
* keeping in touch with people: the outcome would be regular contact (lunches? phone calls? email?) with people you want to keep in touch with; what it would take to get there would be making those phone calls, sending those emails, attending those lunches
Whew. That's a lot of stuff.
So you might also want to ask yourself: do I really want to make progress toward every single one of these goals every single week? (or day?) Or do I just want to feel like I'm making progress toward at least one or two?
If you want to make progress toward every one of these goals, it can be done - but you might need to adjust your expectations of how much you'll be able to do each week. You only have 24 hours in a day. You can, of course, learn to be more productive - say, by reviewing your classwork while you're walking to your lunch meeting with one of your friends - but there's only so much of that you can do. If you want to make progress on each one of these goals every day (or week), you'll find that it will take longer to finish the next work of fiction, and you may only be able to meet up with one friend a week instead of three or five.
And that's okay. Some of your projects have specific deadlines (school and work, especially), but for the other things, it might just take longer than you'd like to finish. That's okay. You can still be making tangible progress.
I wonder if you might find it helpful to focus on your strengths. The Getting Things Done technique of asking yourself "What's the next action?" is a good way to keep yourself moving forward - but it's also helpful to pause once a week and evaluate how things are going. How much progress did you make on your goal? Does it feel good? What went well? It's important to look for ways to improve - is there something you'd like to change about your approach to that particular goal? - but it's also really important to identify what's working well for you (say, writing fiction in the morning first thing before breakfast, or identifying 20 minute coding tasks for your life simulator project), and to look for ways to do more of that.
posted by kristi at 10:00 AM on June 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
This is only one perspective, but may be useful to OP.
posted by Wretch729 at 9:01 AM on October 20, 2011
posted by Wretch729 at 9:01 AM on October 20, 2011
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posted by jessicapierce at 7:51 AM on June 26, 2011