(First posted: 2014.3.1 Last updated 2014.12.5)
A necessary process in one's personal development is retracing steps that have already been taken by others and even by oneself.
One of my main problems, however, is that I am only repeating steps that I have already taken. Despite continuously gaining valuable intuitions and observations about research methods and topics, both from personal experience and interactions with my peers, every now and then I find myself rediscovering those thoughts and methods.
Throughout my life I have had difficulty breaking the loop of discovering a method or topic, following it for a short time, then forgetting about it only to rediscover it at a later time. Every rediscovery requires a significant effort to retrace steps that I have covered and advancing further. The longer the interval from resting to rediscovery, the greater the effort needed for retracing.
There are probably several causes to this inefficient loop, but the most fundamental is my disability to concentrate on one topic for an extended period of time. This is due to both external reasons, such as priorities from work, but mainly my personality. I discover that when I work I have a tendency to switch between various tasks and contexts, usually about 3-4, in a given session. In certain circumstances, such as when I am particulary pressed in time about a certain task or am very intrigued by a subject, I find myself working on it exclusively. But just as I have expressed it now, this process is a very passive behavior. It's not because I want to switch from task to task, but rather I can't help myself.
I've reflected on this pattern a couple of times, maybe not so systematically until now, but I've determined three causes for my behavior. For one, I am interested in a wide range of topics. This also means that I may not be as interested in a particular topic as I perceive myself to be. Second, I'm just not as organized as I should be and really need to train working in a systematic manner. Also, I spend too much time trying to get organized by using a lot of different tools in a very complicated manner. Often I spend time thinking about what I should be using to complete a task rather than just starting work and completing it.
This behavior really hurts my productivity. Not only am I achieving very little because of my spread out effort, I am even more fatigued. This also increases my burden as I continuously add more tasks and topics without completing any previous tasks to a state that I feel comfortable.
I am at a state that I have way too many things on my mind which I need to finish. Progress is also very slow as I never am able to divide tasks into separate enclosed steps. In the end, I either finish tasks with very low quality or am unable to complete them at all.
There are three aspects to the solution of my problem:
First, I need to be more organized in what I do and the form and method of organization to record my tasks and my progress needs to be simple. I have chosen a single Evernote notebook with no more than three main notes. The notes will contain the tasks that I need to complete and what task I am working on. These notes are for scheduling whatever task I need to do and remembering those tasks.
Second, which relate to the first, I will record any progress on any topic in a specific notebook/note, at all times and for certain topic I will use a blog with specific purposes. Organizing this in a systematic manner that is simple to execute and effective is something I need to work on.
Finally, as time progresses I need to reduce the scope of my endeavors in general. I hope that by training this habit of recording I will be able to progress different task more effectively and by progressing them to completion I will be able to judge whether to continue them or not. Currently, I have a lot of "work in progress" but not very many achievement to build and progress upon.
I hope to change my workflow and improve my productivity in the coming months and within this year.
Update 2014.12.5
Whether it was the situation that forced me into it, I am definitely more focused on certain tasks. However, I'm still not any more organized than I was 9 months ago. I have a better idea for the direction, but I don't jot down notes, nor am I that effective in the things I do. I shouldn't be so intimidated by the tasks before me, but I can't help this feeling of not making active decisions in my life anymore.
How do I regain the harness for my life.. did I ever have a chance?
I'm pondering whether to just let life play out as it does with only a minimal direction...