How I Am Dealing with Distraction
It Takes Up Space and Are Needless Distraction
Very recently, I took the pains of digitizing my VHS tapes, so I could get rid of them and the VCRs I had. This is just one project that took serious time, to do away with, but it all pays off in the end!
Facebook is one of the things I did away from in my quest to remove the massive amounts of distraction that have been plaguing my business since I began here. Facebook is just a drop in the bucket however...
I found two years ago that it was necessary to put my business on hold until I can clear out the many, many extensive projects I had at the time, not to mention living conditions and poisonous environment I was trying to work my business in. I realize to many here, what I have done and the way I am handling this is counter productive.
Is it really?
I have never been very good at multi-tasking and can only do a couple things at a time. There are reasons why I have chosen to go about removing the distractions of projects I have begun but never finished, decluttering my space, clearing my mind, and fulfilling things (other projects) I have volunteered to undertake.
This is to put everything with my business on hold for now and get into these projects, completing them one at a time until they are gone, or at least at the point where most of it is eliminated.
I have, at this point, cleaned up several of these but have a long way to go with what remains. At this point, I've improved my living conditions and the environment (naysayers) that have been plaguing me during the first 3.5 years here at WA, is now eliminated. I have digitized massive piles that made up my Journal and all the physical material that made it up is now gone. My VHS tapes have all been digitized and all the tapes are disposed of. My massive cassette collection is also done likewise. My DVD collection also...
At this point, I'm digitizing my massive CD collection and they will be removed. All the equipment that ran the above are now gone.
I have yet to finish personal things like this and a number of things I volunteered to do.
Not Starting New Projects Outside of My Goals!
I have not taken on anymore such projects. This means I have been removing the weights that have been making me lag in my race - that is my business.
No, it will never be perfect and distraction-free, but vastly improved so that when I do go at this again, I will get results. I will be able to put the time into it that needs be. This is why I have never closed my WA account. I have had times of sheer depression, but I get over it.
4 Things That Kill A Business You Can Live Without:
- Employment
- Unfinished obligations and projects
- Unneeded stuff taking up space. (clutter)
- Naysayers that have control of switches, such as internet connections, electricity and living arrangements.
Progress!
I am happy to report that number 4 has been eliminated. Working extensively on 2 and 3, which to me, their elimination is vital to the continuation of my business.
Number 1 is sporadic. Employment comes up when projects come up. When they don't for a long period of time, I begin having financial issues.
Comes down entirely to unfinished projects and one day the daily push to clean this up will be replaced with much more successful endeavours at my business. For a long time I tried to work my business under totally adverse circumstances and environment. I'm probably about 3/4th the way out of this mess!
The day it gets cleaned up and I have a clean slate, is the day for a success post on here! For now, it's "keep at it until it's done!" I go on about five hours sleep per night in my attempt to clean it up, thus removing distractions. I am literally cleaning up projects that took my entire life to accumulate!
An Analogy (I've Done This, It Works!)
If you double-or triple your payments on a loan, mortgage, etc, you are literally preventing the bank or lending institution thousands of dollars in interest. It's called the Accelerator Margin. I have done it and it works! Anyone that understands how loans work can see that means massive amounts of money you are not paying the bank - which you can now use for much more meaningful things!
It takes work to free up your time and energy. When this is done, payoff will be much greater than trying to do it under load (distractions.) This is my quest and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel at this point! This must be done and I won't stop until it is.
My Goal:
My goal: Clean up the projects, successfully eliminating those, the doo-dads that come with them, resume my business, and then work on being able to eliminate the physical labour that comes with the employment I am doing now, replacing that income with online income.
Recent Comments
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Great to hear you're on your way to reaching your goals, Daniel! You've done a tremendous amount of work getting things cleared out...I know that can be a time-consuming and daunting task all too well. But, once it's done things are much easier to find.
I've been trying to clear out some of our clutter in the house here as well. I don't know how we accumulated so much stuff! Piles of clothes, kid's toys, and stuff we haven't used in years that need to go! I've actually "found" some things I forgot we even had, lol. Still a long way to go though...plus, I need to get over to my Dad's and help clear things out there as well.
As for CDs though, I'm keeping my favorites since that's one thing I love to collect and I'm always listening to music anyways. As for the audio cassettes and VHS, I wish I had a way of fixing some of them so I could convert them to either CDs or digital.
Some of my cassettes work fine, but others are impossible to listen to now...they sound garbled! So frustrating since I wanted to listen to them and now I can't, unless I listen to them on YouTube or something. If I can find them there that is...many are from the late 80's and early 90s and some may be unheard of now as well.
I've seen there's a tape to CD device I could get to convert them to CD, but I don't know if it'd work if they're all funny sounding...plus, at the moment I just don't have the funds to get one either, but some day I'd like to since I have soooo many.
As Jay Gumbs mentioned below, that would probably be a great niche....you obviously know how to get things digitized and updated!
Thanks for sharing, Daniel! I'm happy to hear things are going well and you're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! Keep up the great work!
Best wishes :) ~Sherry
This is a great niche idea. I think there are people searching online on how to convert their VHS and cds to digital media to remove clutter. There should be DIY solutions and service businesses that have affiliate programs.
Since you know how, you're in the position to make money with this.
Hmm. I never thought of this. Yeah, I could even show people how to adjust the tape guides without an oscilloscope! The VCR wasn't playing some of the tapes very well and it was an auto tracking one. I didn't think this was working very well so I attempted the tape guides and really screwed up the video! I wasn't getting anywhere until I went to YouTube and watched someone fix the video without test equipment!
Once I knew what I was doing, I not only restored the video, but I had it better than it was before I touched it! That took about a half a day to get the VCR working properly! I didn't even have the right tool and that wasn't fun, but I did fix it :)
If you want to do a site about this I'd be willing to help you out getting it up. Just pm me if you want to make it a project.
Great post Daniel, and something for all of us to think about.
May you love the life you create for yourself.
Mel
Y'know Daniel, I can't help but wonder if this quest to eliminate all your distractions isn't a distraction in and of itself. It's like you're telling yourself you can't begin or finish any other project until all of your clutter is dealt with first.
Is it not possible for you to work on decluttering for a set time each day.Then set another part of the day to something else. This way . you're not multi-tasking. You stop doing one task halfway through the day, then focus on something else after lunch or whatever time you schedule the next task.
Just a thought. I understand if this isn't how you roll.
I knew this would come up at some point. Up until 2014 I was living in an aging camper. I had an extremely lengthy stomach condition that took a decade to overcome. Before this I was living in much larger homes with lots and lots of stuff. The condition cost me my home and I wound up behind the home of a doctor in that camper. Over time there, I joined WA. This is where the issues with that family getting contemptuous about my doing the work here instead of out looking for jobs. I won't go into details but they played games with me, pulling the plug on my Internet connection, etc. It was one of the lowest times of my life.
in the same year I needed to move out of there because the camper was unfit to live in. I did not have modern conveniences most people take for granted. It was there I began getting rid of stuff because it was like living in a slider puzzle all the time.
Today I live in a much nicer environment, but it is much more expensive and I do not have the storage I had on that property previously..The drawback is that it's much more expensive to live here and I have to rely on earned income. Some of my income continues to be from WA.
In the conditions I lived in, I tried to work on my business but met with failure due to the circumstances. Removing the old media and other things from my living space at this point is necessary but digitizing and the process of selling it off has been in order over the last two months, if that. It is a very small aspect compared to what I've had to do to change my living situation. As I go through the process of elimination and get most of it done, I will be doing what you suggest. It is distraction. You are right, but the way it was, there were no bounds. I like to think of it more as a "detour." The more that's gone, the easier it is to find stuff I need and everything has easy access. I firmly believe that the kind of distraction I'm going through now will result in far better consistency and optimization in my business.
I will need to engage in my writing and publishing in order to remove the one last thing that puts a huge damper on my efforts - earned income. I have tasted (and still do) what it is like to receive recurring passive income. It's awesome!
My experience has been the inability to plan things out because of my health and still trying to do hard manual labour in Florida climate. Some of my income comes from yard work and the time it takes me now to do it simply is not worth the time I put into it these days. I had to resign from it at the end of August because it is dragged out, the people are not happy and it's taking a massive amount of my time to do the work for very little pay.
I've known this but I need the income. I finally had to bite the bullet and cease operations with that. I still have to engage as a helper in construction projects provided to me by one of the elders in the church where I worship. Most any day doing that, I come home wasted and nothing else but sleep occurs. Can't plan business around that and I'm not a young pup anymore.
I am on disability because I cannot work in normal employment situations. This is a very long story and I won't elabourate here. It doesn't pay for everything and I still have to work. This can happen at any time and it is hard to plan anything and I'm under the gun most of the time with this. Whilst I'm not working at this time, I'm using the time to cram out this phase of reduction. When it's done, I will be using times not working for business.
One of my issues is that I have "very poor administrative skills." It is something that will improve as I simplify my life. I have a daily checklist system in place and have been doing this for almost three years now. It is this system that made me realize just how inefficient and inconsistent I have been and have been using this system to make the improvements. Without it I would be utterly unorganized.
In order to engage in business, it is imperative for me to go through this. I know it is not easy for some to understand this but this is how I am limited and is my quest to optimize my situation the best I can so I do have a chance at success at my business. If I can narrow down things to about two things in life and try to balance things out better, I stand a better chance.
I have been diagnosed as unable to run a business. I'm going to prove those tests wrong. Going on what has been found, it makes good sense (and is advised) that I do what I can to simplify my life so I can dedicate my life to God and my livelihood like I have never been able to do. If I have any hope of succeeding, it will be because I have everything that needs to be done in writing and does not get checked off until it is done.
I don't know how else to explain this. I appreciate your input.
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Hello Daniel
Glad to hear from you and really happy to know you are doiing well.Clearing things up takes more time than we imagine,we collect these things over years so we can not clear them in days.
Hope you will continue making good success.