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Tag: dailyprompt

  • // The infinite to-do list

    Daily writing prompt
    Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.
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    To be honest, I’m not sure why I chose this prompt. It feels toxic. Just as time doesn’t end there will always be something to do next. That being said, I’m done avoiding the question. I believe there are many creative pursuits that I’ve been putting off for a very long time.

    For example, I’d genuinely like to re-acquaint myself with the LogicPro software. Years ago I bought a course that only now strikes me as a bit too extensive, but at the time being an expert felt important to me. It felt necessary to take 13 hours of courses before I could start recording and producing my own music.

    It’s only with the perspective of time that I’m realizing that this is really not the case. What do I mean by that exactly? Here, I’m considering time in two ways: time past & my finite future. It’s important to remember that there will always be something on your to-do list that will never get done; one has to be OK with that. It’s really about prioritizing and choosing what we can get done with this limited amount of time and move forward. Talk back to your procrastination and paralysis, they’re only there to scare you. The cruel irony is the only monster behind the curtains is you, yourself. You’re the one who has been feeding yourself your fears and stopping yourself from starting. Analysis paralysis, as it were.

    Let’s circle back: what has been on my to-do list for years consistently, time after time? It’s been to write and produce my own music. I’m a musician: a singer and a pianist. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, in the past year I’ve been maturing and talking back to my fears. I’ve been asking myself if they’re real at all (hint: they’re not). So, this year I will be doing just that. Shortening that infinite to-do list to a key set of priorities and goals that I plan to truly accomplish in a short period of time: the year 2026. No more infinite timelines and tasks. Unfortunately, there was never really an option to live life that way.

    I’ve already started on my creative journey by delving into “The Artists Way,” which has already unblocked me in many ways. I just know there’s more to come as I continue to put in the work.

    Much love. ❤

  • // What I did differently

    Daily writing prompt
    What could you do differently?
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    I find this to be an interesting question, because I do a lot of thinking about what I “should” do. However, thinking about what should be done doesn’t mean the potential changes you’d need to implement are always actionable. I’ll take a moment to dive into a recent example of a decision to use AI to implement a change in my regular planning/decisioning process.

    When planning and doing things, I tend to get stuck in decision-making for “non-essential” long-term tasks. I have a hard time breaking down tasks or prioritizing in a way that feels like I can immediately start learning and doing. As a result, this often leads to a specific type of paralysis and procrastination.

    I have a lot of goals for this year – The Year of 2026. It’s different now, though. I feel it this time in a way I haven’t for a while. I feel ready to create, to learn. I feel focused and driven and a desire to invest in myself.

    I made a list, this time writing down everything I want to do in the next year and marking the priorities. Yet, I knew that wasn’t granular enough, and a good friend of mine confirmed it. I had to choose what of these things I wanted to accomplish in a much smaller frame of time. She recommended I use Claude AI to help me break down my tasks into a granular 3-month timeline, based on a book she had read, The Twelve Week Year.

    Initially, I had hesitation. It’s not that I never use AI, but I try not to. I really do enjoy challenging myself and doing things on my own when I can. However, how much were my principles getting in the way of getting anything done at all? For example, in an earlier iteration of this thought process, which you can see in an earlier post, I used this thinking to develop a curriculum, but I couldn’t get myself to sit down and really do it. I had outsourced the resource-finding, but I hadn’t done the internal work to figure out how necessary it was for me to go into Data Science to that depth at the time in my life. Additionally, I still wasn’t able to break it down into a schedule that guided me in a way that felt “do-able.”

    So here I am, trying again and aiming to use the tools at my disposal to help myself, preventing arbitrary principles from hindering me. If my weak point is the aforementioned task prioritization and breakdown, why not work with myself instead of against myself and accept the help?

    So, I had a short conversation with Claude to break down my 3 months with my work and my personal life in mind. I asked it to block out my days and weeks in a way that was realistic to me and my tendencies, and? I feel excited. I know I can do this.

    In short, if I did anything differently, it was to work with myself instead of against myself. It was to acknowledge my shortcomings and ask for help and to use the tools at my disposal to make things a little easier when things felt impossible.

    Much love. ❤

  • // A lesson I wish I had learned earlier in life…

    Daily writing prompt
    Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.
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    I think a lesson I wish I had learned earlier on in life is one that I’m still actively learning now – to take myself less seriously in some ways. I’m a pretty fun-loving person. I love to laugh! However, whenever it comes to my creative or intellectual endeavors, I find that I am often paralyzed by a fear that ironically keeps me from starting my practice too often – the fear of not being good enough, and, on top of that, never getting to be good enough. To refer to a book I’ve read that helped me flesh out this feeling, 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, I believe this mostly has to do with my fear of finitude. How, you may ask, does one have to do with the other? The answer is in my indecision. I procrastinate on making a decision about how to spend my time, further delaying the closure of the abundance of paths ahead of me as I keep my options open. This, of course, is only an illusion. Not making a decision is a decision in itself, and a limiting one at that. One must forge path without the worry that they’re making the wrong choice, because even in avoiding it, they’re probably making the wrong choice to begin with.