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Keeping it simple to overcome procrastination
675 Plays4 days ago
Welcome to this week's episode of General Musings, where I talk about how, when I'm struggling to do something, I try to find the easiest path to getting started. It can be hard just diving in, and if something is hard, even if you start, you might not want to continue!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'General Musings' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, my friend and friend, and welcome to my podcast, General Musings. My name is Kevin. and Here at my podcast, I talk about whatever is front of mind for any given week.
Embracing Minimalism & Simplicity
00:00:08
Speaker
And this week is going to be a bit of not really a classic episode because i've sort of changed how I've done this podcast a few times, um but I guess more of an off the cuff one, we'll say, where I'm going to embrace minimalism and simplicity a little bit.
00:00:23
Speaker
And that's sort of because it's Friday right now and this should have already been recorded and edited and posted and it hasn't been. And I'm in just a major procrastination mode because I also have my newsletter, which should have already been written and put together and scheduled. And I haven't done that either.
00:00:41
Speaker
And once I get to Fridays, it's always a little hard for me to actually do stuff. I find i just I'm I don't know, I hit that wall by Fridays and I try to reserve it like on my content calendar or not my content calendar, my planning calendar ah where I sort of time block stuff on what I should be working on.
00:01:00
Speaker
i put things that I know I can actually achieve. But this week, my schedule has been off a bit and I didn't get through everything I needed to. So i'm anyway, it's it's been me going. I need to do these things that I don't particularly feel like doing for my entire morning so far. I'm like, OK, let's record something.
00:01:16
Speaker
And I'm embracing the idea of simplicity a little bit right now in doing this and just like, OK, let's hit record. Let's do something, because I think that's at one point something we just need to do, not necessarily just doing the thing you need to do.
00:01:31
Speaker
But if you are struggling to do something to find the easiest way to actually do it, right, because like a lot of the time, but part of it, I think, is this if it's something you don't want to do, it's easy to procrastinate and not do it.
00:01:43
Speaker
So that's one thing. But if you are in that, finding a way to like get past that procrastination is usually in trying to find a simple way to do it. There's not always that option that you have ah that you can do. But when that's available to you, I think it's a good idea to actually go ahead and do it.
00:02:03
Speaker
or find a way of doing that to to
Kevin's Weight Loss Journey
00:02:05
Speaker
help out. and And one of the reasons that I was even thinking about that at all was actually because i'm on a bit of a weight loss journey right now and like a getting healthy journey just because i hit a high point in my weight a few weeks ago. um i hit 220 pounds, which would be about 100 kilos.
00:02:24
Speaker
And I'm five eleven which I think I don't know what that is. We're going do some good podcasting here. where I'm actually going to Google something on the fly. 5'11 in centimeters, probably, oh, it's 180. I was gonna say 200, but that doesn't make sense because I'm definitely not two meters tall. So 180 centimeters tall ah to give some context there.
00:02:44
Speaker
And it's just been like this slow thing where I've been gaining weight. i promise I'll tie this back into what we're talking about. I'm not here to give any advice when it comes to weight loss or being healthy or anything like that. It's not something I'm an expert in at all. So we're not turning this into that type of podcast or anything. So don't turn off... if if you're worried about that.
00:03:04
Speaker
But I'm bringing it up just because for me doing that, part of it is I got a kick in my the butt from my wife to do it. Not that she told me I should. It's because she was wanting to lose weight herself and was going to be embarking on on doing that herself. So I said, i I'm going to do it with her because it's easier when there's you know you're doing it together, especially as a couple ah when you're living together and eating the same food and everything else.
00:03:29
Speaker
And for me and for both of us, definitely like we're we're generally relatively healthy anyway, in terms of what we eat, I cook most meals that we eat at home, almost everything we don't do take out very often at all, like maybe once a month.
00:03:45
Speaker
Restaurants like actually going to a restaurant might be once or twice a month. And everything else is cooked at home. i know it's going in. I cook healthy, lots of vegetables. um I probably don't eat enough fruits through throughout the rest of the day. But anyway, but again, I don't want to go into this health thing. I just sort of set some context of the main issue just being that not being careful enough, I guess, and also drinking too much on my side anyway. It was definitely is definitely a bit of a thing.
Incorporating Enjoyable Exercise
00:04:12
Speaker
there. And so for me, like I knew if I was going to be embarking on trying to lose weight, the only way I'd be able to do it is just to do it as simply as possible. Cause I, I'm not going to be doing anything that like intermittent fasting. I'm not going to be, I don't know. There's what are the other trendy stuff that you can do? Like, I'm not going to be doing something that takes too much effort.
00:04:34
Speaker
So I'm still going to cook all my meals. And I know for a lot of people, like that's hard because cooking food is, is something that takes time. And if you're not comfortable in the kitchen or you just don't enjoy cooking, uh, for me, it's my de-stressor. Like i I bake bread and do other things like that. And I enjoy at the end of the day cooking,
00:04:58
Speaker
And at the end of the day, I enjoy cooking meals. Like for me, it's my distressor where I get away from the computer, go to the kitchen, put my podcast on, make dinner. Uh, and yeah, I enjoy that. So that side of things does make it easier for me.
00:05:12
Speaker
um
00:05:15
Speaker
So the point of of saying all this is the only thing I'm doing is I am tracking my food, which for some people is a pain in the butt. ah But I'm just tracking what I'm eating and the calories in the calories out. And that's it. And it's working so far.
00:05:28
Speaker
And i I don't think I could do anything more than that. I find even now that I've gotten it's been two weeks I've been doing it and I've lost I think it's about six and a half pounds. So I'm pretty happy with that.
00:05:39
Speaker
um It's also been in combination with exercise, but I was already exercising previously. So um but doing a bit more walking as well in the days when I'm not ah doing other exercise, which would be mostly bouldering, which
Simplifying Content Creation
00:05:53
Speaker
is fun. I enjoy that. And I talked about that in a previous one about like finding things that are enjoyable to do to like break habits and things.
00:06:00
Speaker
And so the other part of that now is the simplicity of it and finding things you enjoy doing for the stuff you don't like to do. So like, I don't like exercising for the sake of exercise, but I enjoy bouldering and it's become my exercise.
00:06:11
Speaker
So that's one of them. And then the other side is just like the simplicity of of just keeping track of what I'm doing. And the easiest part, well, easiest slash hardest part for me is cutting out the booze where, ah you know, it's a lot of empty calories and it's just not good for you in general.
00:06:26
Speaker
That will be 100% cut it out for now just to sort of kickstart things. I'm not saying i'm going to stop forever. i make my own beer, so I'm definitely not stopping forever. I do enjoy an occasional pint, um but that's the thing is to make it an occasional pint instead of a ah regular pint, right?
00:06:43
Speaker
But it's the same for other things as well. So in terms of me making content, a lot of the time i get stuck on things where I'm not getting through on something because it's if it's not something that's fun and weight loss is not fun, that getting stuck on it. So like I have a thing, a problem I'm actually working on on another project and it's just I'm not enjoying that that side of things. If I was just making some fun CSS stuff, that'd be fine as part of that project. But I'm doing the parts like back end stuff that I really don't enjoy and that I get confused by.
00:07:16
Speaker
And so what I find myself doing is like, oh, I'm going to make this part look prettier instead that I'm working on. And then I'll get back to that other thing later ah And so like part of it's been breaking down the parts I don't like as much into smaller pieces to make more achievable goals because it always feels good when you're making progress.
00:07:36
Speaker
And that's what I'm doing right now in recording. This is let's just make some progress, hit record, start talking and do an episode. And it makes it a bit easier for this podcast for me because the idea with this whole thing is to be a little bit more tangentially related to things and I can just talk about whatever is front of mind for me in any given week. That's sort of the purpose of this podcast in a way, though I do want it to be things that are useful for the people that are listening, obviously.
00:08:02
Speaker
For you, I guess I should say. And ah so and if you're still here and still listening, I do appreciate it. And hopefully, you know, And it's one of those things where i was saying, hope I don't know why I said hopefully there. i don't I guess hopefully it does hit home and help you vote with something.
00:08:19
Speaker
um But now I know I need to do my newsletter. And normally my newsletter the thing that I enjoy doing every week because it's a change of pace. But the problem is now there's, okay, I need to get it done.
00:08:31
Speaker
I don't know what to write about. And so it becomes a little bit more... of something I don't want to do because I know I have to do it. It's you know, that's how things are, I think, in general.
00:08:42
Speaker
ah But the first thing I do whenever I'm stuck on my newsletter is I start with the parts of my newsletter that are easy to give myself some momentum. So as soon as I'm done recording this, I'm going to go into it. I have a template set up for my newsletter.
00:08:56
Speaker
And one section is the things that I've been up to this week. So I just take the links and do a little short description of what the videos were. That's nice and easy. Gets me going. I don't even have to think about it. I'm just copying and pasting and then the short description of each one.
00:09:08
Speaker
Then there's the other awesome links so from around the web or whatever I call it. Resources, something from the rest of it. That's easy too because i bookmark stuff. I have it or I don't bookmark things, but I have like tabs.
00:09:20
Speaker
a tab group. That's what I was looking for. I have a tab group where I just anything interesting, I try and remember to keep it in there. And I also look on blue sky about the things I've retweeted, ah because those are generally things that I think are cool, good resources or articles or whatever else.
00:09:34
Speaker
And then just go and grab those links and throw them in the newsletter. And then I get to the point where I need to actually write the introduction part of the newsletter, which is a little bit more like this podcast in terms of it being I even in my template, it's my general musings section, but I do try and make it more front end related than I do here on a regular
Approaching Development Tasks
00:09:56
Speaker
basis. Like it's I'm trying to think it's always musings of with general musings of my general musings.
00:10:04
Speaker
But here I will make things that are CSS related or front end related. But sometimes I do episodes like this one that are more generic in terms of what I'm talking about, I guess. And yeah, just that there I do try and keep it a little bit more front end CSS related, and I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to talk about.
00:10:24
Speaker
But usually by going through those other things, it just sort of gets me going to then dive into the the part that I'm stuck on a little bit. And so the same thing happens when I'm doing development work as well on the parts that I don't like is by finding the little simple things that I can make progress on that might not even be exactly related to what I'm trying to achieve, though I usually is in some way.
00:10:46
Speaker
But then that just sometimes this gets you into the right mindset and the right flow to be actually able to work on the other parts of the thing where you're a little bit more stuck or you're not really interested.
00:10:56
Speaker
you know, when when you're procrastinating from something or you don't feel like working on something, I find that it's just having to go in. Sometimes you just have to. You just have to go in and start doing it. But once you're into it, it's usually not so bad because you sort of get into the flow and and everything else. It's the starting that's usually the hardest part.
00:11:13
Speaker
And so if you can find the simple things that get you into that mindset without the pain, like, okay, I can do this part. It's not gonna be too bad. And then that sort of sets the stage for getting through the rest of it, I guess is the main thing I'm trying to say. And the main advice I have for you today.
Reflections & Closing Thoughts
00:11:28
Speaker
So um yeah.
00:11:30
Speaker
Hopefully you enjoyed this episode. It was a little bit different from a normal one. ah Don't take health advice from me. I'm just letting you know what I'm doing. i And for that, i just in case you are listening, you're like, oh, I have some tips and other things for like losing weight or being healthy or whatever else.
00:11:48
Speaker
Like unless it's what I'm already doing, I probably won't do it. Like I'm not doing any weird diets. I'm not doing anything about watching, like tracking my macros. I'm not... There's nothing else. I'm i'm calories in calories out. That's it. I'm not testing. I'm not doing anything else because anything else.
00:12:04
Speaker
I'm not worried even about like how fast it's going. as long as I have a general trend line going downward, like right now, actually, it's gone faster than I expected it to. And I think a big part of that was just.
00:12:15
Speaker
I haven't changed very much at all, actually, in in what I'm eating. um The biggest things. ah Sorry, we're going back to the food thing. But if you're still listening, that means you're you're you're in it. You're in right now. Right. So if you're still sitting now, i'm assuming you're going to get to the end of this.
00:12:28
Speaker
And the big things for me are my breakfasts were way too many calories. um which is just generally bread with peanut butter and some sort of sweetener. So it could be jam. It could be banana.
00:12:40
Speaker
Like I would eat that seven days a week easily. And like five to seven days a week was my bread, ah usually sourdough because I make, I said I make own bread. I do sourdough and regular bread because my kids don't like the thick crust on a sourdough.
00:12:54
Speaker
ah So, but yeah, that my breakfast this morning, even I tracked it and it's Friday and I've been doing really well. So I'm like, I'm just going to have my regular one and when I was like looking at how much peanut butter I was putting on I'm like oh that's a lot of calories I don't remember what it was but it was ridiculous and even I actually ended up doing half regular peanut butter and half the powdered peanut butter to try and bulk I don't like the powdered peanut butter it's not the same as real peanut butter if anyone's ever tried that it's like dehydrated peanut butter that doesn't have the oils in it so it's actually really low in calories but it without the oils and the fat in the It's not the same flavor.
00:13:29
Speaker
It would be probably good if you were doing like a recipe that needed that peanut buttery flavor in it, because it has that flavor, it doesn't have the texture. and The flavor without the fat, obviously, is not quite the same.
00:13:40
Speaker
um So I did half peanut butter and half um the the powdered stuff mixed together with the water with the powder to make that work. And it still was like over 700 calories just for the breakfast. And I'm like, normally, i think I'd probably like, I don't know, i should I should look at what one of my normal ones would have been because I put a lot of peanut butter um on my toast usually um because now i'm doing like three tablespoons and it's a lot of calories. i don't remember off the top of my head, but yeah, reducing or lower calorie breakfasts have been the big thing and just cutting the booze. I think if I just cut the booze, um it would probably be a big thing and it's a healthy thing to do. So ah yeah, I'll just have to be careful once I eventually reintroduce that.
00:14:20
Speaker
And I'm actually, my wife has been telling me I should start a brewing channel for when I homebrew. And I'm just like, I can't do that because that's going to encourage me to brew more beer. I don't think that's a good idea because she also tells me to drink less. So um It goes, you know, you can't have both.
00:14:39
Speaker
ah But anyway, i but this is rambling on. This is not where I was planning on going with this, but I told myself I'm doing this as simple as possible. We're not editing this. I wanted just to get something out. And as usual, when I find myself rambling on about things, it's usually a time that tells me I should stop recording, though I will say that if you like it when I just go on tangents and talk about stuff, leave a comment ah if you're listening on YouTube or just let me know on Blue Sky or somehow else if you're listening to this in the podcast form.
00:15:08
Speaker
just so I know in the future, if that's the type of thing, know, do you like this general rambling thing or do you prefer more focused episodes that have a purpose? I did a poll a little while ago to where I was actually surprised. I was expecting more people. There was quite a few votes for having more guests on.
00:15:24
Speaker
um But people seem to like the solo shows, which is good. It makes it easier for me because then I can just do these quick ones like this. But I don't know if people like these that are just way off topic from what you'd normally expect from me.
00:15:36
Speaker
ah If you're coming from my other YouTube channel or you're just really into CSS and all of front end stuff, this is clearly I try and tie it in where I can. And but, you know, it's much more just general me talking.
00:15:50
Speaker
as the name of the podcast does imply. So maybe it's fine. ah But yeah, that's it for this week. Thank you so much for listening. And of course, until next time, don't forget to make your corner of the internet just a little bit more awesome.