The blog of DAVID KOUŘIL

Scratch all that I wrote before, the two main things I want to really work on and improve are focus and discipline. Although that basically encompasses all that I said before.

Discipline

I wouldn’t say I’m an undisciplined person but there’s still a lot to improve. My problem is that there is a disconnection between my dreams and my actions. I have big ambitions but my day-to-day structure is not mirroring that. It could be a big problem in the future, when I realize that I haven’t accomplished what I set out to. In my eyes, discipline is what powers each day.

When it comes to discipline, the start of the year looks great. I am waking up early, going to the gym, working on myself. I have a deadline coming up so I need to stay sharp.

This is what I’m currently sticking to:

• gym 6 times a week (Mon-Sat, Sun is rest day)
• go hard at gym, not give myself excuses, do extra reps, extra exercises
• no youtube on weekdays
• phasing out facebook (not logged in since Dec 31)
• no reddit or instagram when at work, putting my phone away

I’ve been experimenting with social media usage in the past, for various reasons trying to quit. I think having literacy in social media is going to be a very valuable skill in the future. It’s not that they are bad, the thing is that you need to know how to use them and when they could be dangerous to you.

For me I know that looking at instagram and reddit can hijack my own values, interests, and motivations. Ultimately, my goal is to find truly my own motivations, things that drive me. I want it to come from my own core, not that I saw somebody somewhere and I want to be like them.

Focus

But being disciplined is just one side of the coin. Even if you make yourself sit down to work, if you don’t focus then it’s for nothing.

Recently I’ve learned something game-changing to me. I think that in the past I’ve misunderstood the pomodoro technique. Everywhere you find written that you’re supposed to work for 25 minutes and then take a break. But it somehow didn’t really work for me, I was always hesitating to start the second work session, and in general this tempo didn’t fit.

But then I learned about a different way to look at it. The key is to go for the flow state, and that takes some time to get into. What I’ve also learned is that it takes around 25 mins to even get into this state. So basically I’ve been stopping at the point where it’s just about to start getting productive.

But you can use the pomodoro as a starter, to get you going. The key is not to stop at the crucial moment. Since finding out about this, I’ve been experimenting with longer work sessions and it’s been working so much better so far.

What I still need to figure out is how to properly prioritize. Interestingly, this hasn’t been a problem for me so much up till now. I had just mostly one big thing in front of me. But recently I’ve been taking on more and more stuff, taking more responsibilities and working with more people. I need to learn how to give priority to activities that really make me progress, as opposed to just doing work for others.

Small Life Update

I could write a lot about the importance of time and its value. It was worrying that I didn’t have anything on my hand for a while, I don’t like having to grab my phone every time I want to see what time it is (it’s especially annoying when cooking).

I’m glad that I figured out my watch situation. Since the fitbit I got from Gabi for Christmas 2017 broke, and we got the money back, I was thinking what should I get as a replacement. I really wanted to have something tough, something I can wear all the time without worrying that it’s gonna break. Which is basically the definition of g-shock.

So far I’m extremely happy with it.

And what I’m even more happy about is that it’s basically a Christmas gift from Gabi 🙂

At the end of the year you usually look back at what happened that year. But I already summarized my year 2018 in the coming-back-to-blogging post. So now it’s maybe time to look more in the future, what are the plans for the next year.

In 2019, I have two big items to cross out:

1. write and submit the second paper (VIS 2019 deadline at the end of March)
2. do a road trip in the USA with Gabi

Because of the first point, I know that the coming 3 months will be a race, going full throttle towards the deadline. I’m a little scared but on the other hand I’ve already done it and I’ve learned a lot, so hopefully I can do it better this time.

The big trip should happen in the second half of the year, although we’re still not sure if we should do it rather towards the beginning or the end of the summer season.

Besides these two huge goals, there are things I want to keep in mind, and work on throughout the year:

• take the fitness training to another level: be more disciplined, go to the gym more often, go harder, focus on form, maintain a better diet
• get closer to what I really want to do in personal projects: creative technology applications
• keep drawing and painting, but figure out the balance between committing to it 100% and not doing it at all

On top of that I have a few “stretch goals” that I’m keeping private.

All in all, I want to continue in learning and improving myself. It’s going to be an exciting year and I think I’m ready to jump into it.

I’ve been addicted to writing things down for years. Whenever I have an idea for a project or a thought that I find worth keeping, I try to write it down in some form as soon as possible. I’m so afraid that something is going to slip through, that I’m gonna lose the thought. Any small idea has to be documented.

This also applies to books, movies and other influences. Sometimes I dream about having every book I’ve ever read noted down, with my takeaways, ratings, basically go full-on Derek Sivers. I wish to have all the things that inspire me or speak to me in some way in a list, for me to come back to and remember right away.

Lately I’m reversing on this.

I don’t want to be doing stuff just to have another record in a database. I don’t want to read 52 books in a year just to be able to say that I read one book a week. I want to just enjoy all these things, other people’s ideas and opinions expressed through books, movies, or songs.

That’s why I’m giving up documenting and tracking everything in my life recently. I let the “brilliant” moments of inspiration go.

The things that are supposed to stick with me in the end will. The ideas that are worth remembering will keep coming back.

Or so I hope.