The people you want to stay the same will change, and the people you want to change will stay the same.

Piracy is not theft, it's piracy. Theft removes the original, piracy makes a copy.

What, don't be efficient? Hopefully the title baffled you, so the only option left (other than just skipping to something else) is reading on to find out what I really mean with it. ;)

First, let me point out that I'm a really efficient person, mostly, sometimes I get so much ahead of myself in my ambition to get things done that I don't take time to plan ahead, I do things I wouldn't have needed to do, or skip things that could have made the work so much easier. Other times I plan too much, I make plans for things I don't need to plan for, things like writing an assignment or drawing a picture or posting a post or something that I already know I should do. It doesn't need to be on paper to be done, that's just unnecessary planning. If it helps, IOW makes you more efficient, do so by all means, but I find that I get less efficient when type in schedules because the schedules I make are always way too ambitious. I type in tasks for a whole week in a day and when the day is over and all the tasks aren't done I'm obviously a bit disappointed, something that brings the work level down even further, but back to the topic...

I recently replied to a client that wanted a job done, explaining certain aspects of the job. I kept the answers very objective, so I could save the message and send it to other clients who ask the same thing. This took more time this one time, yet it will save me a lot of trouble later on.

Another example. When I designed this site I based it on the Kubrick theme, a theme that was back then the default theme for WordPress, very easy to modify and with an easy structure of code. Since then I've been adding small elements of code here and there until the whole thing just became a giant mess. I can't find anything I want to find, I haven't even bothered, the site design has been on standstill for a while. That's not the only reason (biggest reason is lack of time), but if I had spent some time structuring the code, labeling different sections for one, I wouldn't have any trouble now. Same thing goes for my music collection, one I've spent countless hours cleaning up, a bunch of other directories, even my room. I just place things somewhere and that's where they are, but when stuff amounts it's no longer easy enough. So, being less efficient will increase efficiency over time.

Another example. Today I'm tired, I stayed up late yesterday trying to do useful things and I ended up playing Doom since I couldn't focus on the work but still felt like I had to do something, not just go to sleep. Today I have a blasting headache thanks to that and my efficiency level is low like a skyscraper crushed by the sands of time. The moral of the story is, spend time sleeping, and you'll get a lot more done when you're awake. Most people know all this already, I know I do, but still it's easier to post a blog about it than actually doing what I should do. Other people probably have different problems, they don't feel motivated in doing anything, they just chill, do nothing, watch TV. I can't relate to that. Wish I could just take a nap or take a walk or do something useful (like doing nothing) once in a while.

I was going to sum all of this up with a quote:

Don't reinvent the wheel.

...but that goes more with what I was really going to write about, which I suppose I'll write about now to still your curiosity (err, my need to write)... the usefulness of using things that already exist instead of making new ones. Examples. You need to design a site, get a framework instead of building the site from scratch, it will save you hours. You need to eat. Make food for a whole week at once and save a lot of future effort. You need to make a numbered list of a thousand items in a text file, find a program that will list them for you instead of doing it manually. Everything will take longer time the first time, but the next time everything will so much easier. Ok Dokey, CBDvL signing out.

There is no such thing as public opinion, there is only published opinion.
We shape the buildings, they shape us.

The author of this quote is unknown. If you know it, let me know! It's a great quote.

I find myself not doing the things I want to do.

Sometimes it feels like it's just easier to do something else, but really, it isn't. It's easier doing what you have to do and then doing something else. That's a fact, but I'm a deviant person so I don't care much for facts, I ignore the facts I don't like and take too much interest in the ones I find inspiring. I don't like calling what I do procrastination because I force myself into thinking that whatever I did instead of doing what I should have done was important. I convince myself that whatever I did to escape was something I had to do. Sometimes it is, but mostly it is not.

Things like watching a movie or playing out a game easily become achievements instead of rewards. After watching a movie I feel (or try to tell myself) that I have done something valuable with my time. I watched a movie, I accomplished something, it nurtured my mind in many ways, maybe I'm inspired, maybe I learned something, maybe the movie made me come to limitless realizations, maybe all of the above. The best movies are the ones that get me going, the ones that motivate, movies like Wanted (2008) that make me just want to open the door and run outside, just run and jump and knock down anyone in my way.

Sure, movies are a great source of many things, but they do not get top priority, not now. I know what is top priority. I don't need to analyze the situation to know what I should do first, what I should do after that, and what I should not do at all. One of the things I should not do at all is watch a movie or play a game when I really feel like doing something else. Truthfully, when I watch a movie to escape the task at hand it's not because I want to see a movie, it's because I don't want to do what needs to be done. I really want to do a lot of things, and watching a movie is seldom one of them. It's the same thing with games, mostly.

Some people sort their socks or take a walk or eat lunch instead of working on whatever they should be working on, things I consider very mild forms of procrastination. Unless they're very slow at what they do they are still doing useful things, unlike me. I don't mean I don't do useful things, duh, I just mean I'm faster. ;)

I am efficient even when I procrastinate. I type fast. I walk fast. I eat fast. I do everything fast, even when watching movies I like to skip dull scenes so I can finish the movie faster than the average viewer. Very few movies captivate me so much I don't feel any need to skip a scene. I don't waste a single minute doing nothing when I've found my pace, but is this really efficiency? Or is the speed in doing things part of the self-destructive cycle that procrastination easily spins into? Do I skip certain parts of life that are vital by maintaining speed? I don't know (actually I do know, and the answer is yes), but I like being fast, that part of me won't change... though I'd like to have time to relax every once in a while.

I get annoyed when I don't have proper flow, when I hesitate or feel like rewriting something (which I did in this post, that's why I'm posting about it) that doesn't really need rewriting. When I do what I should be doing I'm even faster, it motivates me, speeds me up. Unless I'm stuck with some mathematical equation I couldn't solve with all the brains in the world.

The reason I'm posting this right now is that I need to get two assignments done, yesterday. I could have handed them in yesterday, before the deadline, and saved me much trouble and time. I had excess hours, I read two books all day but when night started falling and I should have done the assignments, I didn't. I know that if I let it be it will grow like a plague into something much bigger than it has to be. I've done this error before, and I'm not doing it again, it isn't worth it. In school I'd usually avoid missing deadlines for a number of reasons, but now, studying at a distance, the teachers aren't physical, the lessons aren't as active, and usually if you submit something after the deadline it's OK. It shouldn't be. I could throw all the blame on that if I stooped really really low.

To escape this grim fate I easily create for myself as of late, I did what every normal person would do. I watched a Charlie Chaplin movie and then on impulse opened up five blogs on how to stop procrastinating (though I don't like to call it that). I read through half of the first blog which wasn't very helpful and then skipped to the last one on the list. It had three really inspiring quotes on the subject.

Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.

How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.

A year from now you may wish you had started today.

The first headline in the blog after that was 'Stop Thinking, Start Doing'. I've been thinking about starting, and I've started thinking about stopping with the thinking, but when I read that headline everything just snapped back into place like a dislocated collarbone. I skipped the rest of that blog, all the other blogs, and now if you'll excuse me I have two assignments to finish.

What are you waiting for? You probably have something better to do than to read this. ;)

It would start early, it would end late, it would be filled with variation and sunshine and movement and I would feel great.