Something I keep learning over and over again

Yesterday I read my journal from two years ago. I was looking for clues to what I did that had made me so much more productive during that time. I was surprised to learn that it wasn’t something I did, but something I avoided.

When I browser through my journal, I kept finding thoughts and projects that I was recently working on or thinking about just a few months ago. This shocked me. Was I stuck in a rut? Just rehashing the same ideas over and over again, never shipping and moving on?

For the past two years I’ve been working full time as a consultant. I’ve done some good work, but I’ve also worked with big corporate customers and apparently, that has rubbed off on me. I’ve been so caught up in the stressful day to day, that I haven’t made much real progress. Comparing to my journal, I’ve made maybe 3 months worth of progress in the past 24 months…

This must change. Life is too short.

So borrowing some ideas from Julian Shapiro’s excellent kick in the ass Mental Models article, I will apply some real strategy and discipline to my work. Starting yesterday. I sincerely hope I don’t need to learn this again.