racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Have you ever found yourself staring blankly into space, doing nothing when you’re supposed to be productive? Had there been times when you were seemingly on the verge of breakthroughs (in whatever it is that you do), but the next moment you suddenly lose your groove and have to start from scratch? Do you find it difficult to start being productive, and when you finally find your flow, do you struggle to keep it? Do you easily get distracted?

Well, I’ve been in these situations time and again. Probably every other writer trying to come up with his or her masterpiece for that day (or week, or month, or year) has, too. And it’s likely that anyone else in any field would have his or her downtimes in terms of productivity.

Whether you’re tired, burned out, stressed, sick, or simply uninspired, you would inevitably find yourself in situations where you just want to stop what it is you’re trying to do, get some rest, and pick up from where you left after a while.

But, alas! In some cases this just isn’t possible. Like for me, when I get cut from what I’m trying to do, I simply lose my line of thought and I’d have to start from square one. It’s like retracing one’s steps to find something you’ve lost. Yet instead of finding what I’ve “lost,” in many instances, I find myself arriving at a totally different scenario or perspective.

Sometimes it’s good—I get to come up with something better. Sometimes, not.

I’ve been checking out a handful of lifehacking and GTD sites earlier, for something I’ve been drafting for FG on productivity. Ironically, life happened and I had to pause for a while (a long while). So I ended up having to start from scratch, and so I come up with radically different idea. And hence I’m writing here, as it seems more appropriate for the J Spot.

Let’s cut to the chase

In the course of my reading up on GTD sites earlier, I’d picked up something share-worthy. If you want to get things done, you’d better stay focused and stay motivated!

These aren’t exactly new concepts. Still, it’s good to be reminded of the simple things—such advice usually goes a long way.

I hope you would agree with me when I say that humans aren’t built for multitasking, or at least it’s very very difficult for those in knowledge-based and artistic work to juggle several things at the same time. To do well in this regard, you would need to be focused in what you are doing. Whether you’re writing, designing, conceptualizing something, or other such activities, you need to keep your mind free from distractions.

You need to direct all your energies into accomplishing your goal.

However, staying focused is usually not enough. You’d also need to be motivated, so you will stick to what you’re doing to the end. Whether your motivation is money, love (makes the world go ‘round), fame, helping people out, or a little bit of all, it’s good to have something inside you that pushes you to do better, and that sees you through to the end.

Get things done!

There are a handful of other factors that help us get things done, such as the productivity tools that we use, whether these be high tech (PDAs, computers, the Internet) or low (pens, paper, moleskine notebooks, strings tied on forefingers). But the best “tools” are those intrinsic to us, like drive, determination and passion, and of course being focused and motivated.

Right now my mind’s still a bit too cluttered and disorganized to come up with anything else that can be useful (and I’ve probably been rambling for too long on this post, too).

So for the meantime, I leave you with a handful of resources and articles that I’ve been reading up on. I hope you also find these helpful and useful.

• The 4-day workweek from A List Apart
• 43 things
• 43 folders
• To-Done (closed, but nonetheless great reads!)
• Lifehacker
• How to accomplish anything with your words from Pearsonified

Update: How could I have forgotten to include David Peralty’s LifeSpy? Enjoy reading, folks!