Mind Like Water

Try this.

Pick 3 tasks that are large enough to procrastinate over.

I picked writing a speech, cleaning my flat and writing a specification for a piece of work.

Write on a bit of paper the 3 tasks and a 4th which is just called relaxing.

Get your stopwatch and set it for 10 mins.

Start with relaxing for 10 mins. Start to read your book or watch a film.

Once the 10 mins is up make a mark next to relaxing on your list and move on to the next.

The do 10 mins of the next. Make a mark next to the task on your list then move to the next. Etc.

If you do 2 rounds you will find that you have effortlessly done 20 mins on each of the tasks that have been difficult to start and you will have probably felt pretty chilled out in the meantime.

I got a ton of work done and completed the lions share of all 3 tasks and read a chapter in a book.

Try and make one of the tasks physical like tidying up your work area or home.

Enjoy.

Giving up the lie and the timer experiment

Ok I have to give 43folders props.  One of the best posts ever about why you should tell the truth and keep peoples expectations in line:

http://www.43folders.com/2008/12/09/pretending

Ive been getting a lot of banter in my work coming my way for having my timer (see post below) on and timing everything.  I am using it all the time to make sure I’m not spending too much time on tasks. 

For example someone phones up to sell me something.  I give them 5 mins tops to hear them out assuming Im not in the middle of something.  I give myself 15 minutes to update a document and send it out.  I set it to 2 mins when I’m running through my in-tray and email inbox to process stuff that can be done there and then. 

Its great.  Im much more focused.  I feel the tension of getting the thing done and out the way rather than procrastinate over it and indulge myself in other easier to do tasks. 

I have even used it to time my lunch hour and I can pause it when someone comes up and asks me about work.  Boy am I getting ribbed for that one!  But I stand by it.  I have found that my lunch hour is really long!  I didn’t realise how much interruptions I was previously getting.  I also don’t resent having to pause and do some work if I happen to be at my desk. 

The key thing though is that Im leaving the office at the right time.  I have been more productive so I will leave.  When I was living in the procrastination bin I didnt get the sense of fulfillment of having done stuff so I stayed late and pissed about some more.  Its not the magic bullet of productivity but its helping me overcome the nasty mental habit of procrastination.

Here is the link again:

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/

Timer for the 2 minute rule

Ive been avoiding doing the 2 minute tasks that often clog up my system.  Dave Allen suggests getting a timer to make sure that you plough through those small actions (rather than spend time tracking them).

I found this and have been using it all day: 

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/

Nothing fancy really but pretty good as well for timing your phone calls and limiting yourself from spending all afternoon on a reasonably simple task.

In fact I have it running now as I have promised myself not to spend more than 1 hour online after work.

Enjoy.

Travel

I’m just back from a champagne-soaked 21st birthday party and I need to comment on a popular saying: Travel broadens the mind.

In this slightly tipsy state I will try to celebrate travel but argue that travel does not necessarily broaden the mind.  Health warning:  I may rant.

I have met some people who treat travelling (in the sense of travelling for pleasure and education) as a means to an end.  A gap year must do thing.  Inevitably they have some cool anecdotes for the pub but it doesn’t seem to loosen up their fixed views they downloaded from their parents.

Does travel need to make you some sort of sandal-wearing, veggie liberal?  No not at all.  But any view held needs to be challenged and upset by the light of awareness from others and more importantly oneself.  I don’t always see this from people I have met who have done the big travelling experience.  Quite often they associate with cliques of fellow travellers who share similar views and just get on with their sight-seeing.  Mistakenly their belief system is kept like the family heirlooms far from questioning.  They are merely voyeurs watching a performance rather than improv actors unafraid to make it up as they go along and in some sense they are afraid to CHANGE!

Anyway Im not going to trash people as I have no idea sometimes what they are thinking. I want to celebrate travel as an end in itself.  An opportunity to let loose from our fixed views of ourselves and bring back some of the youthful optimism that gets lost in the 9 to 5. 

Every day I get the opportunity I get the chance to re-make myself but I often choose not to to avoid criticism from the stable relationships I have developed.  When I travel its a different story.  Free from pre-conceptions and bullshit self-created roles I can be free to meet new people and see them and myself through fresh eyes.  It doesn’t always happen.  Sometimes I just want to hide away and read a book.  Although my loose objective when I travel is to make at least one more friend than I had before.  I usually succeed.  Its frighteningly easy when you just open your mouth and start talking. 

So why dont I do this in my usual day-to-day world?  I have fear of looking weird.  Thats pretty much it.  Plus I dont have an objective. 

What would happen if I had the objective of making a new friend every day? 

Speakers Club

Just back from a visit to a speakers club.  Average age 63 I think.

What a laugh.  Some very charismatic speakers there.

Im going to get more confidence at the old public speaking thang. 

I will report on my progress.