It's All A Matter Of Perspective

Often, when I'm stopped at a small, rural, roadside cafe, sipping on some Vietnamese coffee, fresh sugar cane juice, or a coconut, people will see my beat-up mountain bike, and two large, dusty bags and ask in the local language, "Where did you come from?" Sometimes, I just will give them the longer answer, just for the shock value. "Thailand", I say. Their eyes light up, and they often laugh. "What? You came all the way to Laos (or Vietnam, or Malaysia) from Thailand?!?" They honestly can't believe it. It is, after all, usually AT LEAST a few hundred kilometers from the nearest neighboring border to where I am meeting them. Their expression is usually a mix of shock, amazement, with a little bit of plain thinking that I'm a bit nuts - which I am, incidentally; but that's okay. They usually proceed to ask me something to the effect of, "How did you come so far on the bike?", to which I give my standard reply, "Ten kilometers at a time."

You see, I have come to believe that most people (myself included) tend to initially overestimate situations, mainly because that is the safest way to evaluate things. They start with a wider view of a problem, because that approach makes it less likely that they will take unnecessarily risky action. We overestimate distances, lengths of time, threat levels of people or things in our environment, etc.

So, when I tell people that I have already ridden the bike 50 kilometers from the last small town - or city - that day, they automatically assume that I just started peddling early in the morning without stopping. But since I have around 75 kilograms worth of basically everything I own in two bags - one large backpack on my back, and a large duffle bag on the handlebars - IN ADDITION to the fact that the mid-day tropical heat (and/or rain) presents quite an environmental stress challenge - that would essentially be impossible. Instead, in my eyes, a 70 kilometer trip on the bike is just simply "SEVEN 10 kilometer shorter rides". After all, what is 10 kilometers, right? That's usually a common distance between important landmarks in your hometown - a few regular errand runs. Sure, there are those occasions when the equatorial sun is beating down so hard that I can feel my BONES throbbing, or those afternoon stretches where the incessant barrage of "Hello!" calls being screamed out by local kids starts to wear me down towards the point of yelling back, and even throwing stuff in the most extreme cases. Then, of course, there are the drunks high on rice whiskey, calling me over for a quick drink; and then things get crazy, and then they want to kiss me, or fight me - or a mixture of both... But the point is that dealing with these common challenges is a WHOLE lot easier when I take it just "Ten kilometers at a time", because in the grander scheme of things the reward for perpetually exploring the world on the saddle of a bike GREATLY outweigh the aggravation which these obstacles present.

Break It Down

On Day 4 and Day 5 of this series I began laying the foundation for an effective "Steemit Productivity Strategy" which I believe can help ANYONE dig their way out of the abyss of "Steemit Stuckness". We talked about first assessing the amount of time and energy you generally spend on Steemit each day. Then from there we started to set some simple tasks, and organize the implementation of those tasks with the powerful tool of simple lists. The problem we run into at this point, though, is that we are often so overwhelmed with content to consume - and ideas to write about - that we don't know where to start setting our tasks. This is where it is vital to implement a proper PACING system for our efforts. Just like when I embark on those one-day, 70 kilometer bike rides in the hot sun, we can either look at our experience on Steemit as one overwhelming chore, or a smaller series of more digestible tasks.

Getting Our Bearings

At this point in our Steemit journey we have TONS of content coming at us from all directions. We are going down one rabbit hole after another, and often end up feeling lost and exhausted. We can't seem to manage our consumption of content. We are "content junkies", forever chasing the next fix, and pushing ourselves into a nasty hangover. What we need to do at this point is use start to ORGANIZE the mass of content we are taking in into some more discrete categories, which will then allow us to set FINITE tasks in order to begin making steady progress in consuming this content on a daily basis. But we can only make EFFECTIVE progress if we PROPERLY PACE our tasks so that we consume the content at a relatively comfortable pace. That is, if we set too many tasks for each day we will end up taking in too much information, and not be able to properly digest that content. So we need to set just the RIGHT amount of tasks so that we can proceed steadily and efficiently.

Setting The Proper Pace

Here is where we begin to COMBINE our assessment and our tasks with proper pacing. In the last homework task you experimented with setting some tasks, then creating lists for those tasks, and then using the lists to complete the tasks each day. What we want to focus on NOW is setting the PROPER NUMBER of daily tasks so that we can complete them all comfortably on a daily basis. This is when we need to prioritize. We need to make a list of as many of the tasks we WANT to do each day. In other words, out of your massive list of different categories of content you WANT to consume each day, make a list of the ones which take the highest priority. The list can be changed over time, so don't stress out about committing too much to any category. For instance, lately I have been committing to the following daily tasks :

1. browse the Steemit "photography" tag and upvote one quality photo
2. read one Steemit related tutorial post
3. read one post from my "home" page (from people I follow)
4. write one "Steemit Success" post
5. post my one daily "Steemit Success" post in all Steemit Chat chatrooms, and upvote one post in each chat room

The amount of time to complete these tasks is appropriate for the overall amount of time and energy I spend on Steemit each day. If I decide to add or subtract tasks from this list I am careful that the adjustment keeps me within the rough parameter of this daily effort limit. In this way, I am always completing an appropriate amount of daily tasks relative to the average daily time I spend on Steemit.

Today's Dreaded Homework Task

Make a list of the tasks which are highest in priority out of all the tasks you have been completing from the last homework task. Strategically choose the number, and difficulty level, of tasks so that the completion of ALL of them falls within the total amount of time you spend each day interacting on Steemit (which you determined in the first "assessment" homework task). Apply this new, properly paced, list of tasks each day for the next week.

We now have a more STRUCTURED organization of tasks which enables us to complete out daily Steemit tasks at a comfortable pace, and achieve maximum productivity as a result. Try out this new, revised system and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Full Steem Ahead...

@transcript-junky