Voluntary work experience is so far proving how hard it is to accomplish many things outside of work. With the demands of work, expectations of social life and the need to rest, it gets harder and harder to dedicate time and energy to the things one actually care about. It’s happened to me often in the last few months and I have been struggling to live deliberately.

It has been my observation that things have a way of coming up and demanding quality time and attention from us. These things include, but not limited to:

• Getting new responsibilities that demand more of your time and energy
• Making new friends with whom it is necessary to make time, interact and get to know each other.
• Having abnormal experiences such as attending parties or challenging moments at work/home. They basically serve to distract your plans and intentions for a day/season
• The influence of people you associate with; priorities shift depending on the company surrounding you at the moment. Some people motivate you to a better and higher version of yourself while others drift you away from what you truly want (sadly, we only realize the influence of some people when the effect of their influence brings forth some consequence. Influence may be positive or negative.
• Motivation for doing things. Feelings have a powerful influence over what you end up doing or not doing

The disruptive effects of such things are proof that you are not living in a vacuum. You are surrounded by living people and living systems that have the power to influence how you see things, or what you do with your time and energy. Good news is you too are part of this living matrix. You got power to influence how you spend your time and energy.

Life is for the living, and to live is to do. Whatever you give your time and attention to manifests itself more in your life. Similarly, give less attention to something and it will start dying or shrinking from your life.

Using my case as one so busy at a workplace and still needing to achieve more of the things I would wish come true, how do I go about increasing my productivity, hence living more deliberately?

Complaining/Blaming less and assuming more responsibility

I have now gotten used to the fact that life is not easy. You will be tired and your experience with people met in a day will leave you disrupted and disoriented. The events around you, both those within and those without your control shall interfere with your planning and with your vision. Therefore, complaining will never be of value.

And since success requires deliberate efforts, I can take responsibility and thereby determine to what degree people disorient my plans, events influence my mood and how I stay energetic to grow the things I care about.

Living on a 24-hour cycle

I will not eat simply because I am hungry or go shopping simply because some things are out of stock. I will not do anything impulsively. I must first plan and intend; I must be deliberate about what I say, where I go and what I do.

Given that I do not live in a vacuum, a day when I plan for nothing shall never end up a blank day. Other people and other systems shall utilize an idle me and I will be used to help them achieve their goals.

By living on a 24-hour cycle, I will ensure I accomplish more of the things I want to see results from. I will set intentions for my day and afterward make efforts towards actualizing my goals/intentions.

Striking a work-life balance

To read more about work-life balance, please click here to read my previous article on work-life balance.

Cultivating my Ideal Environment

Anything that drains my peace of mind will always leave me disturbed. The intoxication of my emotions is a destroyer of my productivity. Distractors are thieves of my future. It’s not possible to live without things that implicate negatively upon us.

Therefore, I will be entertaining more of people and events that are helping me become a better person than I am, or challenging in to being something bigger or better.

I hope you are leading my life to reach my goals; am living deliberately.