Working On Too Much, Or Not Enough?

[-Rowan]

Hi all,

How do you know if someone is investing too much time on a daily basis into personal development work?

I'm not feeling burnout at all, but I tend to put all of my personal development work into a daily routine. I've started to feel like this can make my days repetitive though.

Currently, I'm doing my 3rd-year Uni work, daily 1-hour meditation, learning Kriya Yoga, working on a blog, learning a language, (trying to do) the life purpose course and journalling on a daily basis. Also, I'm putting in effort into super healthy eating, setting up a healthy sleep schedule, and I'm looking into heading to the gym 3 times a week. 

 

If I'm not feeling burnout, this is good, right? Or does anyone else have the same thought that maybe each day can become too repetitive and monotonous?

If anything, I am making use of my higher than average free time to work ratio as a student.

Should I be doing my P.D work on a daily basis, or focusing on a different thing on a weekly basis?

I originally thought that doing things daily would be the most effective way of doing P.D, but now I'm wondering if you guys divide it up differently? Perhaps I should be focusing on one thing totally for one week, then some other things a different week? This would exclude standard daily habits such as Meditation + Learning Kriya. 

I feel as though I might be slipping up on the life purpose course. I've got to the impact statement bit but I can't come up with a solid answer. I am looking into maybe microdosing lsd and doing a brainstorming session on this, however.

Any thoughts on how you divide up your P.D work would be highly appreciated.

All the best,

Rowan

Edited October 16, 2018 by -Rowan
Details

[Mu_]

1 hour ago, -Rowan said:

Hi all,

How do you know if someone is investing too much time on a daily basis into personal development work?

I'm not feeling burnout at all, but I tend to put all of my personal development work into a daily routine. I've started to feel like this can make my days repetitive though.

Currently, I'm doing my 3rd-year Uni work, daily 1-hour meditation, learning Kriya Yoga, working on a blog, learning a language, (trying to do) the life purpose course and journalling on a daily basis. Also, I'm putting in effort into super healthy eating, setting up a healthy sleep schedule, and I'm looking into heading to the gym 3 times a week. 

 

If I'm not feeling burnout, this is good, right? Or does anyone else have the same thought that maybe each day can become too repetitive and monotonous?

If anything, I am making use of my higher than average free time to work ratio as a student.

Should I be doing my P.D work on a daily basis, or focusing on a different thing on a weekly basis?

I originally thought that doing things daily would be the most effective way of doing P.D, but now I'm wondering if you guys divide it up differently? Perhaps I should be focusing on one thing totally for one week, then some other things a different week? This would exclude standard daily habits such as Meditation + Learning Kriya. 

I feel as though I might be slipping up on the life purpose course. I've got to the impact statement bit but I can't come up with a solid answer. I am looking into maybe microdosing lsd and doing a brainstorming session on this, however.

Any thoughts on how you divide up your P.D work would be highly appreciated.

All the best,

Rowan

Hey Rowan, sounds like your doing a number of things, although not necessarily to much.  What is your goal with this work.  Why on this particular day did you think that maybe your doing to much?  Or has this thought been building?  IF so whats the reasoning?  

Are you not making progress along the lines of what your doing this work for?

Is it not happening as fast as you like?

 

With some more information maybe answer I can answer your question better.

[Gabriel Antonio]

Maybe you are indeed doing too much. I also get the feeling you put too much pressure on yourself. Does that ring true? 

 

9 hours ago, -Rowan said:

Currently, I'm doing my 3rd-year Uni work, daily 1-hour meditation, learning Kriya Yoga, working on a blog, learning a language, (trying to do) the life purpose course and journalling on a daily basis. Also, I'm putting in effort into super healthy eating, setting up a healthy sleep schedule, and I'm looking into heading to the gym 3 times a week. 

How long have you been doing all those things? 

 

[-Rowan]

12 hours ago, Mu_ said:

Hey Rowan, sounds like your doing a number of things, although not necessarily to much.  What is your goal with this work.  Why on this particular day did you think that maybe your doing to much?  Or has this thought been building?  IF so whats the reasoning?  

Are you not making progress along the lines of what your doing this work for?

Is it not happening as fast as you like?

 

With some more information maybe answer I can answer your question better.

6

What are my goals? Well, obviously my uni work has to be done to get this degree, although I wouldn't say it takes up a HUGE amount of time, especially if you chip away at it every day. With the Life Purpose course, I'm obviously looking for a life purpose - I like the current work I'm doing now and do enjoy it, but I'm not sure its much of a solid purpose. Meditation and Kriya for raising the quality of my consciousness.  

The thought "I'm doing too much" has only come up a couple times, I feel like it could just be a form of resistance or wanting to be lazy. Although how do I balance that with not being neurotic and repetitive?  Am I not making progress. Well, I'm doing well at uni, I feel like I need to complete the LP course and go over it again with a fine tooth comb to solidify it, I want to know that life-long direction I'll be heading in after the comforts of uni life is gone, haha. I have a solid final year project I'm working on too, sort of in conjunction with a big company in my field who are based in Sweden. I feel like if I really nail the project, that could potentially lead to something. But no guarantees there. 

The blog, I've had decent immersion into WordPress on one of my 1st-year modules and I have good writing skills, so I thought I'd make use of that. I'm also sort of testing it as possible means of making some side income. Its sort of an experimental thing, although I like where it's going. 

You make a good point though, Mu, I do consider myself patient, but maybe I'm not appreciating/seeing results just yet with things. Although for P.D stuff I've been doing for a longer stretch of time, like meditation and learning a language, I've been happy with my progress there.

I think it might be a case of me needing to prioritize what I work on. I know I can put a lot of things into every day, and that's good, but I don't want to be too neurotic and mechanical about it.  Apologies for the long reply, haha

 

@Gabriel Antonio Maybe I would say a little pressure, but that's more a positive motivation thing. I know how good life can get by doing a lot of P.D, but of course, maybe there is that side that saying "if you don't' do this, your life will be bad." I'm sure others have experienced that before. Don't get me wrong, I'm not feeling burn out or tired of the work, but I am aware that my days might just be mechanical and I might be missing out by not being a bit more spontaneous. I'm not hyper mechanical or Aspy, trust me, but I do wonder if significant results will come.

I think what a possible solution is, is just to prioritize what I want to work on. For example, I can put duolingo down for a bit.

What do you guys think? Do you guys have a fairly compact routine? Do you allow yourselves weekends to just do a little less?

I suppose the main issues are, how do you prioritize you P.D work, and space it out so that you can still be doing the same "level" of work, without grinding the same packed routine every day. Or should we be putting more into our days? It's hard to see where a good balance is. 

I'm wondering if there are more effective ways of spacing out P.D work than just "add this into your daily routine, add this into your daily routine" ad infinitum. There probably is

Thanks for the answers and for reading, it is really appreciated. 

 

[Mu_]

@Rowan

It sounds like you have a pretty good understanding of your direction at this point.  From what I can gather you feel a little bit nerotic and repetitive in what your doing.  These may be signs to cut back a little on the things that feel that way (not completely) and replace them with something that is in line with your desire/goals but just at a new angle, like polishing the otherside of a stone that needs to be refined (you are this stone).  For example if you are feeling a little burnt out on meditation, cut back a day or two and replace it with something that builds the same qualities but just from another angle.

If you want to share the thing or things in particular your burnt out on, I can maybe try and give you some perspective on what may be a good replacement (or maybe you know the answer to this if you set a little time to think about it).

The second thing is appreciation gratitude that you brought up.  While I didn't exactly point to those things its interesting that you saw the importance of these none the less.  I'm gonna take that as a little sign to put some energy and attention on these.  You see I was on what you may call a spiritual path for 15+ years and despite 100's of mystical experiences, understandings and changes to my consciousness, I had this unhealthy yearning for the next thing, for more understanding, for some ideal constant emotionally pleasing image of what I wanted my life to look like in order to be happy, that I remained dissatisfied.  It wasn't until I really saw that I wasn't appreciating and having gratitude for the journey, for my life, simply being alive with for no reason at all, was I really able to start being happy.....

Theres many gratitude practices out there, I'm sure google could bring up a big list.  Take a look and see what connects with you, and maybe add that in with what you replace.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Mu_

[-Rowan]

@Mu_

Thanks Mu, that's really helped me out. I agree, I think its about switching up the routine slightly, staying aware of the neurotic feeling, but just adapting the routine/what I work on to keep it sustainable. This has really helped. I can change up what I'm working on through the week, I don't have to do 'x' things every single day. I'll loosen up a little, but make sure to keep the essential practices. 

Once again, thank you so much, it is much appreciated,

Rowan

[Mu_]

17 minutes ago, -Rowan said:

@Mu_

Thanks Mu, that's really helped me out. I agree, I think its about switching up the routine slightly, staying aware of the neurotic feeling, but just adapting the routine/what I work on to keep it sustainable. This has really helped. I can change up what I'm working on through the week, I don't have to do 'x' things every single day. I'll loosen up a little, but make sure to keep the essential practices. 

Once again, thank you so much, it is much appreciated,

Rowan

@Rowan

Glad to hear.  If your ever getting neurotic its generally a good sign to pause and introspect, especially if its around spiritual work.  My dad used to get stressed, and then me stressed about needing to meditate with him in the morning when I was a young kid (maybe 10-11).  Then he realized that it was kinda working against part of its purpose....  Kinda like that.

[DavidK]

@-Rowan your daily routine is pretty much identical to mine ?.