getting rid of yesterday

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes we start a day with the previous day still in mind. We think about the mistakes we made in the previous day, how things went wrong, and how we felt bad about it. No wonder it becomes difficult to focus on the current day. And since we cannot fully focus on the day, our performance may drop and things may once again go wrong. This pattern could repeat again and again, where the burden from the previous day is taken to the current day and make it bad, which will then be a burden for the following day. The chain may be hard to break and your overall performance may drop, not to mention the difficulty to have a peaceful mind.

So it’s important leave the past day behind. Always start your new day fresh, without thinking about yesterday. This way you will be able to fully concentrate, do your best, and improve your performance.

Here are some steps on how to do that:

1. Take time to evaluate your day

At the end of a day, take some time to think about it. You should do it at the same day and not wait until the next day. You should finish dealing with your day before the next morning comes.

The purpose of this thinking time is not to regret how bad your day was, how things went wrong, or how people treated you negatively. This won’t do you any good to improve your life. Instead, the purpose of this thinking time is to extract lessons which you can bring to the following day.

2. Ask the right questions to extract lessons

To extract the lessons, you should ask the right questions. There are basically two questions you should ask:

• What have you done well?
  There should be some things you have done well. What are they and how did you do them? What can you do to make sure that you can continue doing them well or even better?
• What have you done wrong?
  Usually there are also some things that do not go as expected. What are they and how could they happen? What can you do to improve yourself and avoid the same mistakes in the future?

3. Make a commitment to apply the lessons

After you extract the lessons, you should make a commitment to apply them. To do so, find some actionable things you can do to apply the lessons. Next, remind yourself to do them. You may write them down if you want to.

4. “Close” your day

After you have spent the time to think about the day and extract the lessons, make a decision to “close” the day. Think of it as closing the door to the past day. You are done with it; don’t think about it anymore. You should close the door to the past day so that you can start your new day fresh.

Here are some things you should realize to make it easier to “close” a day:

• The day has passed; there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t change the past no matter how hard you try.
• Instead of thinking about something you can’t change, focus instead on the things you can change, and that is the present.

Having the mindset to focus on what you can change will make it easier to “close” your day.

5. Bring only the lessons to the next day and nothing else

After you “close” a day, you should not bring anything out of it to the next day except for the lessons you extract. These lessons deal with things you can do something about. They deal with the present, not the past. Instead of thinking about the past, focus on applying the lessons to the present. This way you will be able to start your day fresh without the burden of yesterday.

nuking laziness

Rest is important for productivity. Trying to work straight without recovering your energies leads to a wandering attention, procrastination and, in extreme cases, death. But when does “recovering your energies” just become an excuse to waste time? How do you draw the line between constructive rest and laziness?

I don’t believe this question has an easy answer. The most productive people I know have a high quitting point. They can put in extra energy to get big projects complete when most people would give up. At the same time, trying to work non-stop can defeat itself if you need an injection of caffeine just to keep your eyes open.

Signs You Should Be Taking a Break

Instead of a strict rule to define what are useful breaks and what are just excuses to procrastinate, I prefer a few guidelines. These can’t be perfect all the time, but by using them as a mental checklist you can ask yourself whether you are best off continuing work or taking a breather.

Here are some signs you should take a break and recover your energies:

1. You’ve just finished a major task. I’m against breaking in-between work. That breaks the flow of concentration that would otherwise be helpful in completing a task. Once you’ve completed a big task (writing an essay, emptying your inbox, etc.) giving yourself a few minutes to rest can be useful.
2. You’ve been working hard. Look back at the last few days. Ask yourself whether you have been more or less productive than your average. Taking a day off after several highly productive days can be useful. But resting after three days of accomplishing nothing will probably only make your procrastination worse.
3. You need to switch gears. I often write several articles at once, but I usually take a small break in-between. Taking a break during a task is wasteful because you interrupt the natural thinking flow of work. But if you need to start a new task, you may have to interrupt that flow anyways. Look for logical breaks in your work to plan out rest times.

Tips for Productive Rest

The more habitual you can make your resting strategy, the less you need to rely on willpower to keep working. It will be an automatic strategy to stay focused. Here are a few more guidelines you can use when trying to decide whether you need a break:

1. Plan Daily and Weekly Goals. The best method to avoid burnout and laziness is by using a quota. Simply set for yourself all the tasks you want to accomplish in the week and day. When these tasks are done, you can use any time left over to rest.
2. Keep Work and Play Separate. Although I’m not perfect in application, I strive to follow the “work hard, play hard” mantra. This means that when you allocate time for working on big projects, you focus entirely on that for a set period of time. The time you have remaining is yours to use however you like. This removes the guilt during rest periods and urge to procrastinate during work periods.
3. Keep a Varied Lifestyle. Focusing all of your energies onto just one task can be useful, for a short time. But having diversified interests can keep you emotionally balanced and your energies high. If work is your only pursuit, it can be easy to burnout. Having other hobbies, social activities and interests to occupy your time can be helpful in staying productive while resting.
4. Have “Lazy” Days. I put “lazy” in quotations because the end result is often the opposite. Having days where you try to do things as slowly as possible can keep you focused on the days when tasks threaten to overwhelm you.
5. The 20% Rule. Not to be confused with the 80/20 Rule, this is a rule that is useful for building self-discipline or overcoming your fears. Put simply, the 20% rule states that you notice when you first feel a strong urge to give up. You then commit to go 20% further before taking a long break. This helps smooth over temporary feelings of laziness and builds your internal discipline.
6. Have a Motivation Refuel. Physical fatigue isn’t the only threat to your energy. Emotional fatigue in the form of rejections, disappointments or making mistakes can all dampen your motivation. Having a motivation refuel means having a day, hour or even a few minutes where you go over your goals, listen to motivational tapes, meditate or do whatever will recharge your drive.
7. Don’t Rely on Substances. I don’t drink coffee. Occasionally I’ll drink caffeinated tea, but never as a performance drug. Yet, I see many people who rely on their triple-espresso as a crutch to just get through the day. This isn’t a lecture about heath consequences, but about productivity. Your body can’t maintain an artificial source of energy, so if you constantly use stimulants to keep yourself going, you’ll lose the natural ability to tell what your energy levels are. Try going without caffeine for a month (or cut back your usage or switch to teas) and see what effect it has.
8. Productive Benchmarks. Monitor how much work you can do over an average day, week or month. This can set a productive benchmark that can allow you to decide where to set hourly, daily and weekly goals. By lining up your quotas with a productive benchmark, you can avoid feeling guilty about taking a rest when you truly need one.

mari meng-alay bersama

walaupun minggu depan masih ada final test tapi kemaren ini rasanya lega banget, udah gak ada tf-tfan yg bikin semua anak di kelas jadi gila. apalagi si dika kemaren pas seni rupa udah kayak ayam mabok. haha.. bikin gw ketawa sepanjang pelajaran pa udi yg juga lagi stress kayaknya.. tertawa sepanjang pelajaran. it’s a great day on this week. paling cuman pas susulan bahasa inggris aja yg ngeselin. gw harus tes reading saat orang-orang solat jumat, dengan suara ceramah dan khotbah yang terdengar amat sangat jelas dikuping gw, bikin gw susah buat konsen ke reading. but, gw lega aja udah lengkap semua nilai gw..

pulang sekolahnya, gw ‘ngalay’. haha.. kali ini gak tanggung-tanggung, gak setengah-setengah lagi, tapi bener-bener ngalay. akhirnya sampe rumah gw tepar. baru bangun jam 3 pagi, langsung ambil buku math rencananya sih mau ngerjain. tapi apa mau dikata my brain need a little more sleep. gw ketiduran di meja baru bangun jam 8 pagi. mandi, makan, niatnya langsung berangkat bta. sampe condet kok macet, trus dijalan banyak polisi (tumben lho hari sabtu polisi berkeliaran sebanyak itu??), jalan ke kalibata ditutup jadinya dewi sartika macet. gw baru sampe bukit duri tanjakan jam 9. akhirnya, gw gak jadi bta. puter balik, trus pulang ke rumah melanjutkan tidur siang. it’s so useless. ngabisin bensin doank. tapi gw heran kok badan gw masih cape yah pegel-pegelnya gak ilang-ilang padahal udah tidur seharian..

rencananya hari ini mau dirumah aja bantuin nyokab nyiapin barang buat ke bali besok pagi. hmm, enaknya nyokab gw liburan. gw? seperti biasa jagain rumah. btw, gimana ya ngilangin sariawan dalam waktu sehari? sumpah sakit banget nih sariawan gw, soalnya letaknya deket bibir. dan kayaknya kok tiap saat melebar ya sariawannya??

when there’s a will.. there’s a way.. and.. there’s always a stop

this is the busiest week and a very stressful one. exam and assignment is my live this week. also my stupidity loosing all of my assignment that i’ve been doing for 1 week just in one day. so stupid. the longest time ever in my life that i can’t have a laugh. real laugh. both my physic and mental are work all out this week. it’s should stop and take a rest, like when the codon arrived at stop codon.

these are not my usual habit. i only sleep 4 or 5 hours a day, eat supplement, eat only twice, fiuuh.. it’s tiring.

but, today… i really can laugh. i can have real laugh today. i feel very relax by not doing all that tiring learning’s stuff. hahaa.. fell free.. only for today. next week? back to the real life, the exam week, without any rest, less play, less sleep, eat much!!

when there’s a will, there’s a way.

just work hard but keep relax to reach it, don’t be so ambitious.

when there’s a way, there’s always a stop.

when you got what you want, you can stop for a while and then start again to another will.

make this cyclic work to get a happiness in life, just like our cell’s cyclic. when they’ve already make a protein they stop it and start to replicate the organel and then stop it again and start to replicate the dna, then the chromosome. if this cyclic doesn’t work again, the cell will shut down. just like us.

let’s have a real laugh, happy with the life.

*sorry for my bad english

tunjahejahe

huuaaaa…….

kalo hari ini

gw masi jadi anak tk gw pasti nangis sejadi-jadinya.

gw masi jadi anak sd gw pasti lari-lari keliling lapangan sambil teriak-teriak.

gw masi smp gw bakal mukulin senpai dengan senang hati tanpa disuruh.

kalo sekarang gw lari-lari ditengah lapangan sambil teriak-teriak trus nangis, abis itu mukulin orang seenaknya…?? malu-maluin laah..

hari ini adalah hari menggila.

kalo kata kakak kelas gw dulu ‘hari rabu = hari einstein’.

hari ini gw bener”jadi orang egois, gak berperasaan, gak peduli sekitar, typical orang stres pokoknya. gimana nggak. selasa kemaren gw telat, padahal ada  tes formatif (tf) fisika, reading bahasa inggris. dan kata anak” smuanya susaah! hari rabu ini, gw tf agama + biologi+speech english+hafalan puisi jerman. dan begonya gw… gw gak belajar biologi, malah gw begadang belajar fisika. i’m doing nothing but physics

daannn… ketika keesokan harinya gw mendatangi tuh guru buat minta susulan hari ini, tau apa kata guru fis gw?? ’susulannya minggu depan aja’ sepatu gw udah siap melayang aja tuh ke muka tunjahejahenya dia.

seharian ini gw disekolah gak istirahat. apa yg gw lakukan? belajar biologi sampe goblok. gak makan. gak ke kantin. di kelas doank melototin tuh buku biologi. hasilnya? yah.. seperti yg diharapkan. belajar sampe bego=bego. tadi gw cuman bengong ngeliatin soal esai, melototin kertas kosong yg seharusnya gw isi jawaban esai yg kalo gw liat punya orang lain tuh banyak gambarnya. liat kiri kanan mengharap kebaikan hati orang-orang yg udah belajar buat mengasihani gw. berharap tiba-tiba ada roh yg pintar biologi dan merasuki gw trus ngebantuin gw dan gw dapet nilai 100. berharap tiba-tiba gw berubah jadi orang paling pinter. huuuaaaa…….

semua tes gw minggu ini GAGAL. math gw 5, bio=kertas melempem, fis=tunjahejahe, kim=nightmare.  moreover, all of my assignment and my homework are gone with the wind. sampe gw cari-cari ke tempat sampah juga gak ada satupun yg ketemu. raib begitu aja. aaaarrrrggghhh……

this is the nigthmare’s week.

imagine this…