My practice of Focus and Make it a number

I just read Jarkko's two articles: "Focus" and "Make it a number".
Here I am going to share with you my own experience from the opposite angle of points above. Because I am exactly the opposite kind of person from Jarkko, maybe that's what made us a couple?:)

While he is so clear about FOCUS and MAKE IT A NUMBER, for me it's always too hard to focus with my overly curious mind, and too difficult to make it a number with my overly conscious thoughts.

An editor once visited my Chinese blog and asked me: "you seem to have really broad interests, huh?"

A colleague also once said to me: "tell me, is there anything you are not interested?"

Well, none of them meant anything harm. It is exactly my broad range of topics that arouse the interests of the editor, and my colleague said it with a big smile on her face with sincere appreciation of my open-minded personality.

Indeed, I am interested in almost anything, everything. However, having interests is good, not knowing how to focus is bad. Whenever I try to pick up some most important ones to "focus", I ended up with a big list. Even when I finally decided to ONLY focus on blogging at my spare time, I ended up having over 5 different blogs occupying my thoughts and within each of them over 10 different plans and topics coming to my mind.

Obviously, I am too good at planning that I just need 120 hours a day to live. Sometimes I am also really amazed what have made of my brain!

Anyway, I have come to realise that, if I can't do anything about my overly curious mind and analytical thoughts, then what I have to do is just to set myself some simple goal and clear actions, even just for one single day.

I started from doing it at my day job: every morning I list some tasks to be accomplished and make sure they are done. I just break them into small concrete items without being too ambitious. Every week I make a to-do-list on an A4 paper, first of all dumping all the thoughts from my brain to the paper, then do it one by one starting from the most urgent or most important, think no further but finish it soonest possible so I could cross a line on the item and feel accomplished. It has been working greatly for the past few weeks!

Just today I am thinking: I should also use the same method in my important blogging activity and goal. Only make small plans, but make sure I complete them.

With day job it is easier but with blogging it is much more difficult. Because with things we really love to do, we have the tendency to be greedy (which makes people difficult to focus!)

Anyway I decided to try my best, I sat down, started to plan, suddenly Jarkko came to me: "what have you been doing lately at OURDREAMPLAN?"
"I....I am just starting to plan it right now." I said.
He asked gently, but "powerful" enough to make me feel guilty. Point taken.

Thus this article came up. I decided not to write down "next week plan: write an article at OURDRESMPLAN", instead I just write it right away. Stop planning, just doing, and see how it goes?

Now I can cross a line on my not yet finished to-do-list: one thing is already done. Too important to be waited on the to-do-list.

So, what do you say? I feel good. :)