Hello again! It's been quite an interesting week. As you all know, I'm juggling a few situations, it seems I'll have to focus on some unpleasantries for a while, but Steem's influence on me has been fairly solid. I was planning to post every other day, but that just hasn't happened. I can't shake my thoughts that blockchains are going to revolutionize the world — and Steem is at the forefront.
I wanted to share some thoughts — some might be useful, hopefully they'll be interesting and worthwhile.
Thoughts about burn-out: Looking inward
As noted in my earlier post, I take responsibility for my difficulties in balancing my goals. This week, circumstances have reinforced what I've already been thinking:
• It's a bad time to fade back from Steem, I should be stepping things up
• I don't have an energy, creativity or motivational problem — the root issue is efficiency
• I have enough time to hit my short-term weekly goals, but I need to have a plan in place
Step things up?
Seems counter intuitive at first, I suppose. But what are my goals? Financial and creative freedom. Where's the best potential path for these aims? It's very likely not in the same spin cycle I've been in for years. Even if Steem takes a very long time to go mainstream (I don't think it will, though), it's still a means of income in the here and now. It's outdoing my youtube earnings. It's proving itself as a potential part-time job.
Yes, there's tension between my regular work and Steem, but why prioritize the same system that has been draining the life out of me for years?
Efficiency: Planning Steem Posts
To eliminate potentially stultifying emotions, it helps for me to have a plan in place. On a more concrete level, a plan will help reign in my spastic creativity/over-attention to details — and allow it to work with time and energy constraints.
In the case of my more complicated posts, I would do well to spend 1/3 of my time planning and 2/3 creating — rather than my default of winging it — going in circles, going off on tangents, spinning my wheels or letting nebulous thinking bog me down.
Putting a Plan into Action
I was going to, as I mentioned, post every other day. But really, that should be a last resort. I'm not so loyal to the corporate system (the one that routinely betrays me) that I want to let it put a serious dent in my Steem activity. One major problem is, if I start the day by creating a quality Steem post, I get set in "Steem mode" for the day. I can't shift gears to focus on my regular work without great difficulty, as the excitement of participating in a decentralized revolution captivates me for hours with the force of white water rapids. Then, I begrudgingly go to my fiat projects and poke at them like a discontented crumb-cruncher poking at a cold piece of broccoli.
Turning Point?
I find that to fully concentrate on Steem without burning out, I need to do more of what I did today. Within under 18 hours, I've authored SEVEN posts! One was published yesterday, there's this one, and I have two art projects and three timelapse videos — five posts ready to fire off. (Today I need to catch up on fiat projects and do some self-promo type work.)
This approach may not work for everyone, but I'm going to do my best to keep this up for a few weeks. Reserving a day for most/all of my Steem posts should A) Prioritize Steem ahead of my perfunctory tasks and B) Clear up time so I can power through the work I hate doing with great clarity. During the week, I can socialize on Steemit, think of what I'll post for next week, maybe do some rough drafts, but I won't have the added pressure of complex illustration. It's possible that I can revisit my animation project to some degree as well.
While jobs, as Stella says, are dying out — and a 9-5 is “the worst thing you could do in regards to attaining financial freedom”, I still need to play that game for a while, it seems.
But I'm excited that I made a major breakthrough today. ☺
Images: Pexels.com
