…girl.

Podcast link: https://soundcloud.com/user-110817248/tcfblog-week-5/s-baJ04

Podcast transcript:

I’d like to take this week to reflect on motivation.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week the office was closed due to the holiday. Because I needed to keep up on editing, I decided to head to a coffee shop to work. Monday I visited Stauf’s in German Village, and I met up with Megan, another Columbus Fellow and a newfound friend. After catching up on our weekends, I was able to start a new video and I made really good progress. Probably better progress than I would have been able to do in the office. While we did somewhat distract each other, I felt so much more productive in this environment.

Tuesday, I went to a really small local place, you’ve probably never heard of it, it’s pretty underground. Starbucks? Yeah, I didn’t think so. At school I do most of my writing and other work at Starbucks’ around campus, so I’m very used to this atmosphere. And I think I have their soundtracks memorized.

Especially that damn Christmas playlist.

Anyway, I pretty much finished up that video I started Monday. I didn’t have any friends present, but there were plenty of people around me working, chatting, and merely existing. I think it’s beneficial for me to coffee shop work for a few reasons, but one of them is that I cannot be distracted by other tasks. I can really focus in on one thing, and in this case, that’s the video I’m editing. By nature I love to help others, so when I’m in the office I can get distracted by other projects and caught up in helping my coworkers. I love being able to help others, but sometimes it’s really nice to just keep my face shoved in my laptop and focus on one task at a time. I also think that I feel like I have more to do when I’m in the office, even though my workload doesn’t change based on my location.

Why is it that I’m more productive around other humans being productive, even if they’re strangers? Especially if they’re strangers? Is it their energy? It could be a competitive thing, but I really am not a competitive person. Are they just being a good influence? Is it peer pressure? Am I easily influenced? I don’t think so.

I am a very self-motivated individual, but external motivators are also really good for me. For example, if I’m meeting someone at the gym, I am much more likely to go. I think that has more to do with accountability, but it’s still relevant. I’m self-motivated in the way that if I don’t want to do something, I’m not going to do it–and if I do really want something, I’ll make it happen.

I’m not sure if I’m more motivated by the need to finish a task, or the fear of it not getting done. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself, which is good…to an extent. Sometimes it can be suffocating though, and I confuse the expectations others have for me with the expectations I have of myself. I know that holding myself to a high standard is important because I know what I’m capable of, and I always want to be in a growth mindset, but sometimes it’s just too much and I stress myself out for no reason.

If there’s one thing I know about what I need from my workspace, it’s that there has to be some type of external stimuli. I need noise! I need there to be music and other people talking and shuffling and espresso machine whirs. When there’s noise happening, my brain has to really focus in on what I’m doing, and I’m even more focused than when there’s nothing happening around me. It seems counterintuitive, but if there’s no external stimuli, my brain will create INTERNAL stimuli and then I’ll just start trailing off. But….not too much. Don’t expect to put me in a Skyzone and expect me to get work done.

I STAY seeing rainbows.

Any RPDR fans up in heurrrr?

That’s all for this week, but next week holds some exciting projects. See you then!