My Journey of Self-Improvement & the Tools That Helped Me Grow
Hi guys! I'm 28 years now and here I'd like to share some highlights that brought my efficiency to another level.
Time Management
At about 19 years I came across the book about time management that drove me & and my friends to a new level of productivity (though there were some bullshit plot, but anyway).
I was doing so-called Circle Of Life (framework) in my notebook that helped me to stick to my goals based on the spheres for 2 months straight. I was addicted by these immense gains with this method and after every accomplishment rate my average score out of 10 and saw the mistakes that faced, what was inappropriate and so on. My life wasn't bad before that, I did go for sports, taught the kids how to breakdance and so on, just the proper framework at the proper time. And because of this, I've become less stressed to try something new and get out of my comfort zone much more often than usually.
Running
I was the worst runner at school when I was 13. After one of the championships at school I came to the finishing line last, almost running out of breath. It was humiliating and I started running in the park from time to time. No big deal, but at the age of 17 I came second at another school championship with 1km personal record 3:17. All I can say that running in my life is a beautiful journey where you have to stick to the plan for evolving in this sport, adapting with the difficulties that you're facing (especially going for a run in the early winter morning from the warm bed) and enhancing your power of will. It feels like running is an engine fo me that helps me to grasp some cool ideas during the run & being able to support the combo of small wins throughout the day.
Vipassana meditation
Before 10-day course of meditation, I've been meditating for 3 years daily, from 10 to 15 minutes a day. After accomplishing my first 10-day vipassana course (where you meditate for about 100 hours in 10 days) It turned out that all this time before such deep practice I was just touching the glacier. Yes, it's pretty obvious that not everybody is ready for such deep-dive integration with yourself, not to be able to speak for 10 days, be with no connection with the world and just daily meditation practice.
But it was absolutely 100% benefit for myself, I got to the point what I truly wanted from this life, less spoke more listened to people, understood my inner wishes, embraced some fears that what really made me feel free. But be ready that it's a constant work with your mind, you'll have to practice, otherwise, you might get stumbled somewhere. My biggest relevation - you should train yourself both mentally and physically and vipassana is that very tool that I've been seeking for a long time.
Apps for tracking progress
Nowadays, almost everybody uses some apps that really help them to schedule the life. I personally use Notion for journalism (I'm travelling, so I just like the idea of writing my thoughts and adding a flag of the country as an emoji lol), knowledge base and a list of movies that I've seen and rate them.
But the game-changer was Timestripe that helped me to see the bigger picture because of the Horizons feature: You can drag & drop tasks on one screen divided into days/weeks/years sections. It's really minimalistic, stylish and comfy for myself to dump all the tasks, then yearly goals break into smaller tasks, schedule for proper days & just keep tracking what's been done. When I see that some goal isn't completed and just being shifted from week to week I just try to find an answer why is it happening.
And this is it, hope something was valuable for you and please share your own achievements and tools that made you better in a long run. Cheers! 🏃🏻♂️
— Vlad