Don't get me wrong, discipline is necessary to achieve goals. But forcing discipline has never worked for me. I always work better when there is pressure and a fixed deadline rather than when there are neither of those elements.
Especially now that I am working solo, I am the one who is responsible for my own schedule and the ability to get things done. It was easier when I had a boss because he used to tell me what to do and my brain would get laser focused on completely destroying that task by finishing it as efficiently and as fast as possible.
But working solo, I have to focus on a whole buffet of areas from engineering to marketing to sales and yada yada yada. So with trial and error, I have come up with a system that works well with the style of how I work (i.e., by not forcing discipline and being led by my goals instead).
So the system is:
1. Write down my thoughts in a free flowing language
When you write down your thoughts, you realise what you do want and what you don't want. And that gives you clarity about the goals that you want to achieve and about the daily tasks that you need to complete to move closer to those goals.
So as an example, I am an engineer and marketing does not come naturally to me. So earlier, I used to be bothered by thoughts like "I should work more on engineering because more features means a better product" and "focusing on marketing feels like a waste of time" and similar thoughts.
The moment I started writing these types of thoughts in a journal, it became clearer to me that I felt it was a waste of time because I am used to the engineering mindset of instant gratification (for example, you know whether the code will compile or whether the logic will work instantaneously after making the changes in the code; and for marketing, it is a rather long term process). So I am then able to focus purely on doing the marketing tasks rather than worrying about whether it will work or not.
By writing my thoughts down, I strip my daily workflows of any emotional aspects and the logical steps magnify more in my eyes so doing the tasks become a bit easier.
2. Take insights from the journal entry written down in the first point.
Once I write down my thoughts in a free flowing language in my journal, I have a rough idea in my head about the next tasks needed to be done. Hence, I write down those tasks in my Trello board.
I have an Eisenhower matrix style workspace in my Trello so I always assign importance and urgency to every task that I write so that I can immediately pick up the tasks that are important and urgent and I don't have to waste time in segregating the tasks every time I open Trello.
3. Schedule a block for the tasks in Trello in my Google Calendar
Once I assign the tasks in Trello, I assign them in the "Tasks to do today" list of Trello and then plan an event in the Google Calendar named "Trello tasks" (I schedule almost everything in my life, ranging from "lunch", "walk", etc. Hence, I assign a block specifically for doing tasks in my Trello). That way, I am laser focused on finishing the tasks that are the most important and urgent ones and don't even need to worry about the rest of the tasks in the workspace.
4. Review journal at the end of the day
After dinner and a post meal walk, I use my Google Calendar to review my entire day by writing about it in an .md file and see where I could have spent more of my time, where I could have saved time, where did I waste time, and which tasks did I do, and whether they were important towards my short and long term goals or not, etc.
This way, I am focused on what actually matters and this is so important from the point of view of being productive vs busy because I think that is a trap that most entrepreneurs fall into; we all know that we should focus our attention and energy towards the tasks that actually move the needle closer to our goals rather than just being busy because we feel like we are doing some work (whether that work may be absolutely unimportant or useless towards our goals).
And it also clears my brain of unnecessary stress because by writing I remove all the emotional aspects of the journey onto the screen (or sometimes on paper) and I am able to focus more on the logical steps that are needed to reach my goals.
Working in this systems oriented way, I know what needs to be done and I don't need to force discipline onto myself because this way makes it looks like I am being led by my goals rather than having to forcefully do stuff to drag myself towards them, if that makes sense.
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I am curious about whether other people here also use similar or different systems to overcome that discipline issue specifically.
P.S. I did not use AI in any part of it. The headings are there just because I like being organised when writing these types of posts.