Crawling to speed

I challenged myself to read the entire remaining 12 pages of the 16 page research paper. http://crawlingtospeed.tumblr.com/post/40087496084/challenging-myself

I couldn’t. Why? (To my credit, I did complete half of it and learn a lot of new things.)

In one sentence - lack of a definite, single method.

I had the following strategy:

1. Read each para, aloud.
2. Write down the summary and move forward.

I found the writing down of the summary to be too slow and the reading out of the paragraphs to be excruciatingly slow.

So,

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It seems possible. I had been reading by…

1. Noting time - not by any contrived productivity system but as a means to challenge myself - of starting and finishing of a particular page…
2. Summarizing in my own words of what I had learnt
3. And reading aloud to keep my focus on everything.

Now, can I finish everything that remains - precisely 10 pages of the 14 page research article, in one hour? I have read it all before but I have lost my annotations. So, can I do that?

Let me take this as a challenge.

Here’s the plan:

1. Sit down with the PDF
2. Use Spreeder
3. Note down summary
4. Keep taking time
5. Keep listening to momentary discomfort 

Been evading Tissue Engineering since a few months now.

But today, just sat down with the papers. Long story short, being prepared and counting for the same thing to happen allowed me to focus on getting started no matter what.

There were several pangs of uneasiness. I listened to them. They spoke, if you listened, of holes in the planning of the entire project. So, I gratefully listened.

Now, I have finished four pages out of 14 pages of reading, where in I have extracted all the information that I wanted.

Done with the book revision. Did the exerxises. Seven day challenge remains.

Udacity downloaded, all notes arranged. Met reg and tissue engineering papers dl, evernotr setup. Ka lite remains. Lean launchpad copied.

I am leaving home tomorrow.

And yet, I did not finish ONE SINGLE THING that I took up.

It is just carelessness. But once after you know you are careless, you need a habit. You can spontaneously just keep doing things, and still end up nowhere.

Like I did last two days. I finished up a lot of goals and was always successful. But never really accomplished anything, never moved towards something that actually made any sense.

And then, it hit me. THAT is why we have monthly and weekly goals. To put our efforts into context.

Anyways, Lean Launchpad - I have watched it in it’s entirety (except a few videos) on my disk. I have started multiple windows out there to get a green dot.

Will FINISH the entire course along with questions before leaving home. And that includes PACKING!

I have been reading the book and really not doing anything else.

And the point is, I had a distraction and something I really didn’t intend to do.

If I had a college system for all of it, I wouldn’t really mind. But NOW, I do mind. Because when it comes to just doing it, I would really not like myself to go down against simple behavior. I wouldn’t call myself the procrastinator.

So I sat in front of Lumosity. Finished the two LOOOONG games. Breathe slowly. I could have finished them for the sake of finishing them up, but I wanted to focus.

So, I did. My BPI rose by 150 in both the games after this attempt. (Partially because there is still scope for improvement in those two games.)

Will catwalk my way till there. While I’m having tea. Got a ticket finally for tomorrow.

Did a few things well and ended up finishing the book I wanted to finish. Has so many different things in it, including a report on how Chinese POW manhandlers mentally sabotage a person’s identity without torturing him. Merely questioning him.

Wow.

Now packing. Will also try and finish up the Lean Launchpad course. A few minutes’ worth of content remaining.

Me - 4 Failure - 2

Told you, I’d be back at 8 - 30 to tell you that I finished doing my stuff.

What I’ve read so far is largely based around human behavior. Social concept of ethnocentricity which says that we inherit values from all the people around us and end up believing that is the only way to live. And from those values come rules of our lives that define whether we feel good or bad. Makes us do what we do.

An incredible tool in understanding people. Will allow me to trim away my conversations, however logical they might be, and get to the root of the situation if there is. And if you’re not making a change, all you’ve got to do is make love.

Well, I was so immersed in the work that I had forgotten I overshot my goal. Now the problem is just this, I have to book tickets and be ready for tomorrow.

I’ll have to do this.

Me - 3 Failures - Up 2. Seriously?

This thing is rising up.

Anyways, today was not a waste. Met a few people, designed the app, set up everything else.

But now, the most important thing that is left to do - Read the Book that I started and get my sad little ass out of my self made prison and into the land of the free and the brave.

Next Half an Hour: Finish up outlining the two chapters.

Will post a story as soon as I am done. 8 30!