by admin

The reverse of timeboxing – Time-Unboxing!

Time-unboxing is a good way not to make any progress on anything.

Well since “I’ll do it on Monday!” is all about not making progress or being productive, I thought I turn a productivity method on its ear. The method is called timeboxing. Timeboxing is a method of setting aside a period of time each day and focusing on one thing to make progress on that one thing. Well the obvious way to unbox it is by not setting a time period. However we need to go further than that.

With time unboxing you need a to-do list. It needs to have some items that were set aside for a period of time, also would be good for things you do every day but don’t necessarily write down because you do them every day for a fixed period of time. Instead don’t spend any particular amount of time on it. Let’s say you clean for 30 minutes every day. But today when you unbox that time, you say okay I won’t set any time limit. Alright so you’re cleaning and it’s been 5 minutes and you’re starting to get bored, tired, or sore. Then just quit. Hey you didn’t keep the house clean today; you just stopped being productive today. Maybe less productive today than you were yesterday.

Okay maybe you have a list of items and want to work 30 minutes each on them. Erase those minutes. Now put more items on the list, everything you can think of. You just created a whole host of items that may never get done! It’s just that easy. So try time-unboxing today because it may mean you never get that project done!

Until ‘Monday’

by admin

Demotivate Yourself!

Demotivate yourself! Feel apathetic, lethargic, and generally like not doing anything.

If motivation is the act of getting motivated meaning to prompt to action, then demotivation is the act of stopping action. We at ‘Monday’ strive not to be motivated to do anything. We want to become lazy and slothful. Anything that gets you moving either mentally or physically is against the whole idea of ‘I’ll do it on Monday’. Motivation can make you do stuff to be productive, to have fun, or do something meaningful. Since we’re against that, we like to propose some tips on demotivating yourself.

Don’t listen to music. Music is both motivational and inspirational, especially music you like. If you have to listen to music make sure it’s something that you hate, maybe country music or rap. (No disrespect to those who like country music and/or rap music, but these are the most commonly disliked forms of music.) Also if you have to listen to music make sure to pick a song that slow, even if you like it. In most cases the slow songs we like don’t really tend to motivate, but more to make us feel a certain way. So firstly music you hate, and secondly slow music you like.

Don’t get up and move. The word motive and move come from the same roots. Motive is motion. Don’t exercise. Just lie around the house and watch TV. While this not an article about making yourself depressed, watch TV and in particular the news (in fact that’s a good time waster, but you can read more about that in another article entitled “Waste your time for fun and profit”. There’s nothing more depressing than the news all the killings, fires, and other crimes. This will also demotivate you at the same time as it depresses you.

Pick a huge project and don’t break it into smaller steps. This is the same as you do with procrastination, but it’s also a good demotivator. With a huge project so overwhelming you can’t possibly do it, nothing can demotivate you faster than a project you can’t overcome. Make it something completely hard or that wastes a lot of time. Math for example. I almost didn’t graduate high school because of Math homework. Doing long division is pretty good at demotivating. Writing articles that you don’t want to on a subject that bores you.

Make sure whatever you do to waste time or be lazy is not fun at all. That’s right the less fun you have the less it motivates you to continue it. You can waste time with something fun, but if it’s not fun it will surely demotivate you. Nothing motivates better than something fun, and something that makes you move combined with something fun, say skiing is a no-no here on ‘Monday’. Don’t do it, or else you will be having fun and maybe being productive.

Lastly stay up late and wake up late. If you go to bed past midnight, you’ll probably wake up late and not feel that motivated to do anything. Then you can actually just lie in bed until it gets too late. Being hung over will help with that. If you partied too hard last night and you have a hangover this morning then you definitely will feel unmotivated.

There are probably more ways to demotivate yourself but I don’t feel motivated to find them. In fact I’m going to probably go and waste some time now and be otherwise unproductive.

Until ‘Monday’.

by admin

How to waste time for fun and profit

What does the word ‘waste‘ mean? Well we’re going to take the verb definition; it is an action word after all. Waste means to use or expend carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose. What is time? We’re going to use the noun definition but time is the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole. To put it a little more clearly, time is an arbitrary measurement of the passing of events. Put waste and time together and what do you get? Expending time carelessly or to no purpose. In other words doing stuff for no reason at all for a period of time.

Okay, we’re going to take that last part of the article title off. You don’t get any profit from wasting time. You can’t get your time back, and it won’t produce something useful. At ‘Monday’ this is our favorite past time. Who cares if you have bills to pay, or a loved one to pay attention to, all that matters if that you’re having fun doing nothing. Who cares if you have a presentation to make, let your boss worry about that. He’ll probably fire you, but who cares? You’re having fun. Who cares, it’s only your wedding. It’s only the funeral of the most beloved person in the state. We don’t care, we want to do nothing.

So now that we know what wasting time is, what are some ways we can waste time? Before we get to the most obvious way, I will mention the next most obvious way, which is the internet. I’m not going to get into how you can waste time on the internet because I plan on doing it in a future article entitled “Awesome internet time sinks” but rest assured, go to Google and you can start wasting time right this very minute (well at least wait until you read the whole article before tabbing into Google).

The first most obvious way that we’re getting to as the second on the list is of course the television. Here is something that hardly ever produces anything useful. Sure you have your painting shows and your cooking shows, but let’s face it do you ever paint or cook while watching one of these? Didn’t think so. Oh of course you’re going to say the news. Well you can at least trick yourself into thinking you’re being productive by being “up” on the news. Truth is the news is there for people who don’t want to get involved but would rather comment on society or whatever. Or maybe you just want to know what the weather will be like.

Another great way to waste time is coloring. You’re not learning any new significant art skills when coloring, and most likely you’re an adult reading this. As a child you would color and it might help you in some way, staying in the lines, keeping your brain fresh or whatever. As an adult you had to put away childish things. Well now I’m giving you permission to start playing with childish things again. Coloring is great. Along the lines of that is playing with toys. Go buy some transformers or GI Joe’s. Go ahead it’s okay, I won’t tell anyone you still play with dolls, er, I mean *action* figures.

Reading could be wasting time, if it’s fiction and you’re just reading for enjoyment. Don’t fall in the trap of thinking you’re wasting time by reading technical books or something that teaches you stuff, or biographies. To be sure, with those you are learning stuff. You want to choose books that don’t make you learn, and maybe don’t have any larger vocabulary than a fifth-grader. I’m not exactly advocating you read children’s books however if you follow the above children’s books might be fine. Just remember the point is not to be productive. I believe you can enjoy time wastes though.

I want to address one more that’s actually kind of iffy. That is video games. Sure they can be fun and sure they can’t really do much for your brain, especially if they contain mindless violence, however, they will assist your reflexes. Improve hand-eye coordination. With some motion controllers you can even exercise while playing games. They can also help you learn things. For the most part though video games are for entertainment purposes. So playing a game can be a time waste. Actually you might want to play a game that you don’t like because that could be considered more of a waste of time then something you enjoy.

Well I hope this has given you some ideas on how to waste your time, so until ‘Monday’ keep procrastinating!