Tuesday 25 May 2010

Three's the magic number

It's amazing how easy it is to get overwhelmed by best intentions. I'm a greater planner, amazing list maker and totally cutting-edge dreamer. Man of execution? Not so good...It's as if I've got way too many brilliant ideas on how to improve the way I make a smoothie or refine a press-up or work my finances out. So I've taken on board the art of simplifying things in life. In order to get a bit more focus, I've just got to cut back on a lot of the great strategies that are just proving to be a distraction. They can just wait.

So what I've been trying out over the last few weeks is the 'Rule of 3'. I think I fell upon the concept in a book or on the internet some time ago. Basically, it's all about keeping things a bit more bite-sized. Rather than write a list that goes on for ever, just target three things that you want to accomplish or at least attack today. I'm sure you can think of a thousand other things that you want to be doing but by at least getting those three things out of the way you know you've been making progress.

And it's certainly been working for me.

Monday 10 May 2010

Push it

It's amazing how time flies when you're really not doing anything of any worth at all. Earlier today at work I was writing a(nother) list of things that I really, really must sort out and realised that I'd been having these same thoughts only last week. And the week before. Etc. And it's not as if I don't want to get some of these things done but...Well, to be honest I probably don't really want to get some of these things done. But I NEED to get some of these things done.

And so here we are today looking for inspiration for getting on with stuff. A few things did come to mind, though, when I was procrastinating earlier. Firstly, doing, doing and doing again really doesn't necessarily get you anywhere soon. You're always doing something simply to complete it and never really enjoying it. So it's time to do a bit more of this "being" bit that the gurus keeping guiding us towards. Busy for busy sake isn't very healthy. On the same tip, I was thinking that by "being" more I could actually find a way to make the chores and tasks more interesting and entertaining. Put the "fun" into "functional", and all that. And by making the process more like play I can then appreciate the discipline required more as a skill that you develop and augment over time.

Well, this is all very stream of consciousness as you might or might or not have guessed. Bottom line is I know that there are things I want/need to do and I have to push myself in a way that works best for me. Okay, back now to tidying my spare room with some Marvin Gaye to sing along to in the background.