My Little Experiment with Structured Thinking
So, I heard about this idea, maybe something like what an ‘nd coach’ might suggest? I wasn’t really looking for a coach, you know, but I read something online about different ways people think and organize stuff. It got me thinking because, honestly, my own way of getting things done felt like… well, like juggling spaghetti sometimes. Lots of things happening, but not always in a straight line.
I decided to try something. Just a small test, really. I went out and bought one of those fancy notebooks, the kind with dots instead of lines. Thought maybe the dots would give me structure without being too bossy, you know? Seemed like a good first step.
Getting Started: The Plan
My big plan was simple: try to break down my work tasks into really, really small pieces. Like, ridiculously small. Instead of ‘write report’, I’d write:
- Open document
- Write title
- Find data point A
- Write sentence about data point A
- Find data point B
You get the idea. I thought, maybe if the steps are tiny, I won’t feel so swamped and just… freeze up. I grabbed my dotted notebook and started listing things out like this for a project I had.
The Actual Trying Part
Okay, so day one? It felt weird. Really weird. I spent more time writing down the tiny steps than actually doing them at first. I’d list everything out meticulously in the morning. Then, the phone would ring, or I’d get an urgent email, and my perfect little list would just sit there, looking judgemental.
I tried time blocking too. Saw that somewhere. Like, okay, 9:00 AM to 9:15 AM: ‘Answer urgent emails’. 9:15 AM to 9:45 AM: ‘Work on Task 1, step A-C’. It looked great on paper. In reality? An ‘urgent’ email might take 30 minutes. Or I’d get stuck on step B and suddenly it’s 10:00 AM, and I’m completely off schedule. Felt like a failure by lunchtime on the first day.
Adjusting on the Fly
But I kept at it for about a week. I stopped being so hard on myself about sticking to the exact schedule or the perfect tiny steps. I started using the notebook more like a brain dump mixed with a checklist. If I got interrupted, I’d just jot down where I left off and what the interruption was. Sometimes, just writing it down helped me get back on track later.
The super-small steps? That part actually helped sometimes, especially for tasks I really didn’t want to do. Ticking off ‘Open document’ felt silly, but it was… progress? It made the next tiny step seem less daunting.
What I Figured Out
So, after my little experiment, did I become some super-organized productivity machine? Nope. Not even close. My desk is still kinda messy, and my focus still wanders.
But here’s what I learned: trying to force myself into a system that looks neat on paper doesn’t work if it fights against how I actually operate. The dotted notebook is helpful, but not for rigid lists – more for flexible notes and mind maps. Breaking things down helps, but only when I feel stuck, not for everything.
It wasn’t about finding the ‘right’ system someone else designed. It was about messing around, trying things, seeing what little bits helped me feel a tiny bit more in control or less overwhelmed. It’s more about finding your way, even if it looks messy to others. I guess that’s kind of what coaching is about, right? Helping you figure out your own path, not just handing you a map that works for someone else.
