My experiments with “Self-Discipline”
The entire world is fighting a pandemic because one fine day, a person in China decided to have a bat for lunch. Howzzat. Countries are under total lockdown, everything is shut as if the entire world was on a giant strike. We are back to basics. Only Mother Nature is open 24 X 7. Delivering on timely sunrises, sunsets with plants in my balcony showing a positive growth each day. And all the man-made things are shut. What an unprecedented incredible time to be living in.
Quarantine has meant that we all can’t do the things we do to ground ourselves. I miss my walks in the park the most. I started my experiments with ‘Discipline’ a few months ago before Covid hit. It was much less daunting then. But working from home and not being able to go out makes it even more important. I am documenting a few experiments as a reminder to self.
But first things first.
What is Self-Discipline?
Discipline can be a very loaded word. A very regimented military-like repetitiveness.
I am in no way an expert but I want to cultivate Discipline in myself. For me, it is a form of self-love. It brings me joy when I see myself accomplish more things from the day and see a change in myself. I am much lesser critical of myself. It is the best antidote to imposter-syndrome. No amount of motivation works better than seeing proof of how much we can accomplish in a single day!
Plus, I can make sure nothing I love gets missed out.
Leisure Activity:
I list down activities I want to accomplish in the morning. Besides listing the usual work for the day, to keep things interesting I list atleast one activity I do which I would totally do in my free time. For example, grooming. (Even as small as removing/changing nail polish counts). It helps me break the monotony.
Personal Mantra: Lots of small breaks.
I don’t just do 1 workout per day. I love walking around and I can’t go out. So some of my breaks just consist of organizing and tidying up my room. Sometimes cleaning up other rooms too. And that is some calories burnt right?
Procrastination?
I generally try to keep my spirits up. I try to see and feel my own vibe to see what I would like. Focused study, roaming on YouTube, having a chat on phone. If I have written down all the things I want to do, there would be some mood in which that can be done. So other times, I could be procrastinating for a given task but this time, I just go on to do other things. There are few times that I would tell myself to just cut it and get off my ass. I am still learning.
Designing the day
This is pretty usual. I experiment and see what kings of things I like to do in the morning, afternoon, evening etc. I shift things here and there until I find a good schedule. Having a good schedule is THE best. Adding predictability helps a lot. It can stick for a few days or it changes making way for better one after some days. I am flexible.
Don’t let your unproductive day haunt you
This is by far the best learning for me. There is no dampener of our spirits than guilt and regret. So ironic I can just start doing it right now instead of hating myself.
The times I have not accomplished anything and sat around all day eating and Netflix-ing are the worst kind of days emotionally afterwards. So I better get going.
As James Clear says,