Self- Discipline is key! With so much of our schooling and training moving to online formats, time management is becoming more and more important. Have you ever sat down at your computer or opened your phone and suddenly forget what you were about to do because you became distracted? Well, this is happening to us everyday and all day, but we can defeat this problem and others with better self-discipline!
What is self-discipline? Google defines it as the ability to control one’s feelings and overcome one’s weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it. I like to simplify this and define self-discipline as simply doing what you need to do, even when you don’t want to. Other than distractions coming at us from every device, we also face the challenge of setting our own daily schedules to accomplish goals. If attending a regular school or work day, your schedule is set for you and you just follow it. But, without the structure of the school or work day, which most of us are facing, we now must create our own structure by creating a schedule and then exercising the self-discipline to stick to it.
It is okay to set boundaries to have set times to check emails, social medias, and messages throughout our day so we are not constantly interrupted while learning or completing a task. Once again, this will require us to exercise self-discipline. So, let’s summarize some tips for success!
Steps to Success
- Set a schedule for yourself DAILY. (This alone can be a task as we sort out what must be the priorities each day!)
- Set a timeline to complete goals that cannot be done in one day and pace them out daily to meet the set deadline.
- And finally, exercise SELF-DISCIPLINE throughout each day to stay focused, less distracted, and on task. Because after all, we can set schedules and make goals all day, but if we can’t stick to it, then we will not be successful!
I always like to ask myself, What are my “have-to’s”? That helps me get started and then, of course, you can always leave yourself some playtime or downtime each day to remain balanced!