I’ve just finished week 4 of my Myers-Briggs trials. This week focused on judging.
I had mentioned before that I don’t have a strong preference for perceiving, so using some judging wasn’t too hard, and this was definitely the easiest of the four trials. However, it was still hard to deviate much from my natural preferences.
I tried to concentrate on the best aspects of judging: being organized and checking items off my todo list. Perceivers, particularly intuitive perceivers, tend to think up a lot of ideas that don’t get done. And I do suffer from out of control todo lists.
I have a day planner that I write some things down on, in case I get an idea when I’m not with my computer. But I mainly work from a todo list on my computer, which is 537 lines. That doesn’t mean 537 separate tasks, because some tasks have details that take more than one line, and I also have some blank lines between groups of tasks, but it’s still a lot. I have a separate todo list just for my blog, which is 1,098 lines. I also play with various todoodlists.
Anyway, with this many different tasks to choose from, it’s sometimes hard to just pick one thing and do it. This week I got into the habit of starting each day by working on a big project, and saving other stuff for later. I’m not really a morning person, so it’s not that I have more energy earlier in the day, but whatever I work on first will definitely get done.
I try to check email and read blogs later in the day, since that kind of stuff tends to expand to fill the time available. I also try to add items to the end of my todo lists rather than the beginning whenever possible. I have a hard time with that because I like to do stuff while it’s fresh in my mind, but there’s just not time to do everything.
I still find perceiving more fun because I’d rather be spontaneous than scheduled, but it’s hard to argue with the results you get from being organized.
I read Dave Navarro’s What’s Holding You Back? to get some productivity tips. I really liked it, and I’ll write a review soon. I’ll also write another post to recap this whole experiment.
Great article – I didn’t read it, but great article…
Four Pillars´s last blog post..Tenants over Dividends
Well that’s democracy in action I guess! Should have spoken up about the boobies while I had the chance…
@ Four Pillars, what distracted you from reading it? Did you suddenly have a dentist appointment or something?
@ Sarah, it’s absolutely not too late to speak up. I know a lot of people don’t check blogs on the weekend, so a lot of people didn’t have time to answer yet. I was surprised by the early feedback, but if you have a different opinion then by all means let it be heard.
The short answer is, most of the men want boobies on everything, and the women, not so much.
Even the word “boobies” bothers me. If I have to see another three posts in a row topped with photos of breasts, I’ll have to be going elsewhere.
Dot´s last blog post..Veterans Day 2008
@ Dot, that’s exactly the kind of response I was looking for. I just don’t get why so few people reacted that way.
Maybe because they like you, they know the tone of your usual posts and don’t expect this to really be what you’re about? Myself, I was thinking perhaps you’d momentarily lost your mind, or decided to drive away most of your female audience.
Dot´s last blog post..Veterans Day 2008