Goals

I think this is going to be the year of setting goals one by one and attempting to achieve them. I think in the past when I've set goals I've set overwhelmingly large goals that no one could possibly achieve. As I was practicing piano tonight I realized that I don't learn something like the piano by setting a goal of playing Mozart - but rather start learning the basics and slowly moving forward. I think that this is a much better way to learn and achieve in the long term.

I've found that by writing things down I also tend to do them because I want to check them off my list. Even doing simple things like laundry seem to get done faster when it's on a list. I just like checking things off. I wouldn't say that it stops me from procrastinating - but I feel more guilty when I do procrastinate and the probability that I will get the unappealing task done significantly increases. It's strange. I think it dates back to when my mom used to leave each of us kids three chores to do each day during the summer. She didn't care when we did it during the day - as long as it was done before she got home. It was pretty ingenious actually. It got her cleaning done and it kept us out of trouble.

I think I need to institute something similar now at the age of 25. A daily 'chore' list that includes all the stuff I don't really want to do - but could realistically get done that day. Like one thing I would normally procrastinate for a very long time on - and two things I would normally put off for a day or two. It's not that difficult to get three things done in a day. And working just a bit every day on life - all of a sudden big things will happen.