Optimizing The Way We Spend Our Time

A few months ago I was desperate to improve my work output. I had outlined my goals and set timescales, but could tell that I wouldn't reach them with my typical daily routine. At the end of each day it was becoming more and more excruciating to find that I was no closer to doing what was needed in order to reach those goals. I just had to figure out if there was any practical way to reach them.

I started by analyzing all the ways in which my time was being spent and in what amounts. This was a crucial and extremely revealing step in understanding where my time was disappearing.

Some areas of our lives may be less under our control than we would like. There might be aspects of our lives that we're not aware of taking significant amounts of our time. If we have a situation that we hope someday might change, we might unwittingly plan for the future without taking into account that circumstance's full impact on our present activities. Understanding all the demands on our time gives us the chance to assess the realistic timescale for achieving our goals. This in itself can remove an incredible amount of frustration and pressure.

But even with circumstances that we may not be able to directly change, it may be possible to find ways to more effectively work with or around them. And once we know where our time goes, we have the opportunity to prioritize all our activities, and even eliminate those that aren't essential and don't give us the return we're looking for.

Around this time, I came across a book called: "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. It covers all aspects of setting up a personal system to organize ourselves so that we can become more efficient and productive. It was very helpful and got me moving forward in a way that has really made a huge difference.

Following David Allen's recommendations in this book, I did a few basic things. David Allen points out that a tremendous amount of energy is wasted by trying to remember tasks that need to be completed. If we write them down in a place we know we can rely on to find them, then we don't have to pointlessly keep mulling them around. We can free up our minds to think of more creative things instead.

I also understood from the book that it's important to break up tasks into one-step actions. Once we know what to do it becomes easy to do it. For example, if we write down 'organize party', it's not clear what action is needed first in order to accomplish this. Once it's broken down into a list of actions to complete, we can just do them and tick them off as we go.

David Allen also suggests, in the office framework, to delegate, or in a more personal framework, to ask others for help. This may not be an obvious option for someone to consider. If we're not used to asking for help, this can be difficult. But it's well worth considering, because this can lead to many unforeseen benefits and possibilities.

I don't think I followed strictly everything David Allen said, but this is what I did as a result of reading his ideas:

• Wrote down absolutely everything that needed doing, small and large tasks alike.

• Created categorized lists of tasks.

• Created categorized lists of projects (a project being anything that required two or more steps in order to be completed).

• Created a list of tasks that could be completed either by me or by someone else, and then asked for help.

• Put recurring tasks in the calendar on my computer so that each day a list pops up of things that need to be done that day. This is a tremendous help. For example, I no longer have to think, keep track, or rummage through random bits of receipts to find out how long it has been since the water filter was changed and when it's necessary to buy replacement filters for it. Or when the kitchen needs its next deep clean.
  

Defining all the tasks that need to be completed, both routine and one-offs, enabled me to really address how those things are accomplished and when. It also allowed me to ask others for advice on how to tackle some of the things I didn't directly have control over. This has resulted in some dramatic changes that I would never have been able to make on my own.

I keep looking for ways to change and improve and, with the passing weeks, have been able to add more to the schedule than I had previously thought possible, but that were in fact in my original set of goals for the future. Now, each day generally provides me with more accomplishment in a way that's directed towards those goals. And that's a great feeling.

I thought I'd mention this process in case you might find it helpful too. Life is a lot more fun when we can play the game with a better hand to win more victories.

I didn't realize until after this photo was on the computer that there looks to be an 8 card behind the 10... well, there's even more there than first meets the eye! :)

Revisiting DweezelJazz Blog

This is the 70th post. A small landmark. It seems a fitting time for me to stop and take a look at DweezelJazz blog. I started writing for it back on May 14th.

I've written about all sorts of things. Many of the posts I wrote directly for my benefit as I was working through things that I wanted to learn how to do better, such as communication, how to get things done, setting goals....

It has been great and I've made some friends and am very grateful to be part of a community sharing ideas and thoughts on the Internet. I read a fair number of blogs now. Before I threw myself into the world of blogging I didn't know anything about it. I'm utterly blown away by the fabulous quality of blogs that are being written. I really enjoy them.

As you may have noticed, I have artwork on my web site: DweezelJazz Art. None of the artwork is priced because I haven't started selling it yet. I hope to start my art business within a year to a year and a half from now. In the meantime, I'll work to build up a portfolio and a set of paintings for sale.

Now that we've moved into our new apartment, the art priorities are calling loudly to me. Here is a new painting in progress in egg tempera that I started recently of a lighthouse in Geneva on the Lac Leman.

I've struggled with some anguish in the recent weeks, having to make a choice about the frequency of posting to the blog and dedicating more time to artwork. Time constraints are forcing me to opt for a reduced number of posts.

There are many serious things in life, but I prefer to concentrate on fun, cheerful topics with lots of bright colorful pictures. I'm a beginner in art and have no formal training. My photographs are those of a novice. But I love and enjoy how doing these things, and talking about them, makes me think and see so much more the beauty around me.

From now on, I plan to concentrate on lighthearted, creative topics in DweezelJazz blog. The one exception to this is that I may continue now and then to post information about chemical sensitivity. It's surprising how much more information is being published lately in mainstream newspapers and magazines on this topic. I have acute chemical sensitivities and it has a huge effect on my life. I hope that in sharing information about it, it may be helpful in some way to you.

I'd love to hear from you if you have any suggestions for the blog or increasing artistic creativity, or anything else. Thanks.

Cheers,
Nat Wildish

Managing Tasks, Time and Balance

What do you do when you have more to do than you have time? Today many people live pressured lives at home and at work. If a person also has hobbies or some endeavor they wish to accomplish independent of their work, life can become very full and high-paced.

New technology was expected to reduce the amount of time people worked. Instead it has made many more things possible, and so we often spend more time on something than we would have in the past. The product of our efforts is usually more polished than its previous equivalent.

The general public is more sophisticated these days and more and more is required of businesses and employees. As the competition for jobs increases, completing work tasks often spills into what would otherwise be a person's leisure time.

A recent article in The Independent: "High-stress jobs 'double chances of depression'" illustrates the importance of managing our time and expectations of ourselves. The article reports that a "survey of young people in their early thirties has found those in high-stress jobs run twice the risk of suffering serious depression or anxiety as those in lower-stress occupations". Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London say that time pressure is the single most important cause of stress and of the illness it leads to.

When we have more to do than we feel we have time for, and this continues for long periods without being addressed, it definitely creates pressure. A person is induced to work harder and harder, becoming more and more tired, until eventually they're also less and less efficient. Things can spiral out of control in a cycle for which there seems to be no solution.

It can lead to a struggle in which the person doesn't ever seem to win: the accomplishments become less meaningful in light of the many things still remaining to be done.

In our high speed modern life, it's very important that we maximize our productivity. In addition, it's vital to know what our priorities are: in our daily tasks and also in our lives. Having a list of short and long term goals sets our sights on what's important to us. Once we actively pursue our goals, we need to regularly assess whether we've set ourselves reasonable aims and timescales.

Some things that can be done to manage our time and tasks:

• maintain a healthy balance between work, or serious pursuits, and relaxed leisure time
• get plenty of sleep
• exercise regularly
• figure out more efficient ways of accomplishing repetitive menial tasks
• prioritize goals lists and move some goals to a later time
• ask others for help
• if within means, hire help to do the tasks that don't need to be performed by you
• decide what aspects of life are most important and make changes to avoid blatant and ongoing conflicts of interest

Occasionally there are high pressure times, and these can be very beneficial for motivation. But if we find we're constantly pressured for time with no end in sight, and perhaps crotchety in the process, it's most likely that we need to figure out how to change our expectations.

Striving to accomplish our dreams can make for a fulfilling and happy life, but the joy of it needs to be in the everyday working towards it, otherwise it's not much use. For best results all round, life is best if it includes some fun most days. This largely depends on our choices in thought and action.

Managing Goals

We're moving house. Well, there aren't any boxes packed yet. But we've been working hard this week to set up the new place before we move in. I've spent the day scrubbing in the kitchen and then peeling plastic wallpaper off the walls. There's lovely white painted wall underneath that's just perfect. I've worn out a scrubbing brush this week, which I consider to be quite an accomplishment!

For weeks it has rained most days, and has been unseasonably cold. Today, however, was a glorious clear sunny day, and this afternoon I was working with the sun coming through the open window, pleasant breeze wafting over my head. It was a great feeling.

There's something very satisfying about hard physical labor - yes, that was it, when you stop for the day!

When we expect certain things from ourselves this can create a noticeable pressure. It can even turn into stress. When a set of expectations becomes impractical it makes good sense to look at the situation and figure out whether those expectations are reasonable. If it's possible to be flexible with them, then it's worth accepting new criteria and to allow ourselves to define a new goal.

This week we have family visiting. We're going to have lots of fun out and about, and in between I'll be working on more setting up of the new place. I had hoped to be able to post articles regularly as usual on DweezelJazz during this time, but I may need to adjust my expectations for the next two or so weeks. So, we'll see what happens and ride with the flow.

Do What You Like To Achieve Success

If you really want to be successful: do what you like. It's that simple. If we really enjoy something and do it often, we become better and better at it. It's a very nice thing to say, but can this approach really make us successful?

The real question to answer here is: What is success? Success is relative; it very much depends on the context. If we're talking about a hobby, success can be completing a project. If we're talking about work, it can mean bringing in enough money to sustain a family. To one person it may mean becoming rich. For another it may just be the satisfaction of accomplishment regardless of monetary return.

At whatever level we choose our success, doing what we like is a much better strategy than doing what someone else likes. It's extremely difficult to know what will please other people. And what pleases one person may displease another. If what we like to do is please other people, then this approach is perfectly suited. But, otherwise, measuring our success in relation to doing anything just to please others doesn't make much sense. It's difficult to be fully motivated when the going gets tough if we don't like what we're doing in the first place.

There are always things we're obliged to do that we may not like so much. There's a time for doing what we like. We may have obligations that require us to dedicate much of our time doing something we don't enjoy. But if we find ways to pursue whatever it is we do like, as much as possible in our spare time, we may find that an opportunity opens up in time. In the future it may become possible to more fully integrate what we like doing with our own goal of success.

I have some t-shirts that are super comfortable (which is something I like) and that I love to wear because of what they say. I discovered these a few years ago and have several different colors and designs. They're from a company called Life Is Good.There's a story about the two brothers who started this company. At first they tried to sell, door-to-door in college dormitories, t-shirts they had designed. It didn't go so well in the first years: they lived on peanut butter and jelly and slept in their van. It wasn't until they included a little character they had created with a super grin, that their t-shirts started to really sell. Jake expressed everything they believed in with his message of optimism. And this idea and passion for what they held dear struck a chord in many others. Now they have hats and shorts, shoes and all sorts of things for sale with Jake and the Life Is Good motto. Following their dream eventually made them successful, even if at first it seemed it wouldn't be so.On the front at the bottom of the t-shirt is a small patch sewn on which says: "Do what you like. Like what you do." This cheers me on every time I see it. I also have a yellow Life Is Good baseball cap.

You may remember from the Jasmine posts on DweezelJazz blog, that Jazzy chooses a lot of things she does. In fact she expresses her opinion about everything she does or is asked to do. Whenever it isn't imperative that she do something - which is most of the time - she's allowed to say no. Quite a while ago, I asked her if she wanted to do something and she clearly didn't want to. I said to her then, "Ok, Jazzy, do what you like." I didn't consciously make the connection with the t-shirts or anything else, but was just allowing her the respect she deserves.

I hadn't said it often, but it seems it meant quite a bit to the little girl, because she worked on it, practicing it herself, long before I knew what she was trying to say. Now it's her motto; it's one of the things she says most often (apart from 'shower' and the fact that she's a 'good girl'). She says it at least once a day, usually in the morning: "Jasmine, do what you like." And she says it in context and clearly knows what it means.


In my book, Jazzy's a successful character: she's happy. She gives those around her a tremendous amount by doing what she likes and being who she is.

Setting Goals to Achieve Our Dreams

Do you ever lose sight of where you're going in life?... ...what it is you'd like to accomplish? An excellent way of focusing your efforts is to write down your goals.

If things are a little hazy, creating short-term and long-term goals can be amazingly helpful. For example: 3-month, 6-month, 1-year, 2-year, 5-year and life goals. Making a list of perhaps ten things you want to accomplish in each of those time frames can generate an enthusiasm and focus that doesn't seem to occur when we haven't concretely defined our goals.

Keeping these lists conveniently available for viewing is tremendously important. There are so many things happening on a daily basis that it can be difficult to keep in mind what we really want to accomplish. It's so easy to get carried away in the flow of daily tasks and whims. This is great too, but if we have goals that we really want to reach, we need a way to regularly remind ourselves of them. Putting the lists out where they can be seen on passing, or, keeping them in a notebook ready to hand, or maybe on your computer desktop.

The energy created by doing this propels us forward much more quickly. This is most likely because our minds are that much more organized as a result. We become more aware of what's important to us, and are able to choose our activities more appropriately.

It's very likely that some of the items on those lists get done sooner than their estimated time slot. Crossing them off, after the accomplishment, is extremely satisfying and this becomes an additional source of encouragement. Every time we see that we're actually making progress, it boosts our confidence and we become even more energized.

The lists don't become stagnant because they change just as we do. As we achieve the tasks we set, new ones emerge; and as a result of our experiences and evolving ideas, the goals might need adjusting from time to time. They become an integral part of our conscious awareness, a map to help us forward.

What we achieve can have such a deep effect on how we feel about ourselves. The ramifications this can have in terms of the satisfaction we derive from our lives can be more than we might at first think. Creating these lists of goals is inexpensive and easy to do and it's a fantastic tool for moving us toward the accomplishment of whatever it is we want most.

Looking On The Bright Side

There are many things in the world that could do with improving: in our individual behaviors, our personal lives, and also in the larger society and world that humankind has created.

Sometimes the thought of this can be overwhelming if we concentrate for too long on what's wrong. It's important to think deeply about these issues and to address them, but it's counterproductive to dwell on the negative aspects of ourselves or situations.

The majority of our attention is better spent admiring and enjoying the good things, which in turn gives us more energy to work towards making improvements where we feel they are needed.

In our society, technological advancements and way of life allows us, and perhaps even encourages us, to spend much of our time indoors. It's possible to go from one concrete structure to another without really being aware of all the life there is outside. Birds, bees, insects, small animals, trees... They become abstract objects, without a personal meaning or relationship to us. It's easy to live isolated from the wonder and magic of being alive.Even taking the time to look at non-sentient and inanimate objects can give us a boost. Colors give us energy. Observing shapes and patterns can be relaxing and calming.

One simple way to enhance our awareness of the beauty around us is to look at the sky.








Watching changes take place in front of our eyes allows us to experience it intimately.





By engaging our powers of awareness on the beautiful things around us we create a positive environment for ourselves. We connect with our feelings and this generates a dynamo of enthusiasm. As a result, we have more energy and zest to make other things even better than they are.

How To Discover Our Passions

If you want to know more about someone and what they think about different things, a good way to find out is to ask them. This can also work extremely well for ourselves!

That might sound like a funny idea, but there are times when we don't know what we're thinking or feeling about a situation, a person, or even our life. There may be some niggling sensation that tells us we do have thoughts and feelings about something, but we may not have the time, or take the time, to stop and listen to what they are. They can become buried, difficult to isolate. A good approach to find out what's really going on is to ask ourselves.

A particularly important facet of our lives that can be very fulfilling is doing something we really enjoy. Becoming completely engrossed in an activity can lead to a sense of satisfaction, contentment and accomplishment.

Some people know what they like to do and they do it. They can become so involved in their passion for it that they become experts and they naturally develop strengths that cause them to excel in it. They eagerly put hours into cultivating their interest, and while it might be hard work some of the time, they have the motivation required to persevere until they achieve what they want. It can frequently follow as a simple progression that a person like this ends up pursuing their genuine interest in some form of career or employment.

For others it may not be so easy. Some of us may not even have fully figured out what exactly it is we like to do. There can be many reasons for this, but it happens all too frequently that we don't have time to investigate what we like simply for the pleasure of it. Or maybe we have the notion that it wouldn't be an acceptable way to spend time, perhaps it doesn't seem useful enough.


It is amazing though, the variety of extreme and bizarre activities people have managed to turn into a hobby and then, eventually, a means of income.


Whether it's to find a new career that is more directly related to things we love to do, or whether it's to find out more definitively how we would most enjoy spending our spare time: there's a simple set of questions we can answer for ourselves in order to begin to discover more concretely what it is that we like especially.

List three, four or more of your most favorite:

1. magazines
2. books
3. known hobbies or fun things you like to do
   
4. topics of study or reading
   
5. historical periods or events
6. people
7. legends or interesting topics
8. films

Give as many short (one or two-word phrases) of explanation that you can think of for liking each of your choices. For sure there are more questions that can be added to that list to reveal us to ourselves; answer as many questions as you can think of to get your answers.

Patterns begin to emerge in the answers and this enables us to see more clearly what is most important and appealing to us. The answers can be a real surprise and it's lots of fun to find out what we may not consciously know about ourselves. This secret life can hold some gems that might dramatically change our outlook.



Do you have unknown passions waiting for you to discover? Try it and see!

Thinking Our Way to Success

One of the most precious commodities we have in life is the ability to think. Our thoughts alone can give us tremendous freedom, regardless of our outer circumstances. They determine how we approach situations, how we make decisions; and this in turn directs and forms many of the circumstances we find ourselves in.

Habitually following certain thought patterns can continually regenerate the same, or similar, unwanted results in our lives. If the thoughts are habitual it's unlikely that we'll recognize how they are affecting our outlook and responses. They can be so familiar to us that we consider them to be part of who we are, or how life is, and we can perceive them to be inherently unchangeable.

We may rely on other people's conclusions and experiences in forming our own. There are times when it's important, even necessary for survival, to follow someone's ideas and to do what they say.




Social obligations demand that we follow a set of general predefined rules. But ideally these should be as limited as possible to maintain a positive social structure without greatly compromising the individual's personal liberty, especially freedom of thought.
It takes practice to identify and understand which thoughts are our own, and which ones have actually been formulated by our culture and social environment. Even when we are very young it is important to be encouraged to think for ourselves and experiment with finding out what happens when we make our own choices. It is possible to allow babies certain freedoms in which they gradually find their own strength.


It's unfair to dictate to or carry the young for any great length of time, because in doing so they are not being encouraged to trust in themselves and act on their own accord.

Taking into consideration other people's views allows us to add many new ideas to our own. The ability to weigh these in their relevance to our lives can accelerate the process of learning and identifying positive and helpful outlooks.

Swimming with the crowd is a great time saver on some occasions.




But, for a satisfying, fulfilling life we need to know when and how to be our own agents.Each person is unique, with their own particular set of interests and passions. In order to discover these fully we need to know our own thoughts and feelings. Once we know who we are by what we think and feel, we can find a way to express this in our lives. This is the first and most important step to real success.

Tackling a Difficult Task

Have you ever stalled when you’ve had lots of things to do, knowing that one of these tasks needs to be done before the others? This can be more of a problem if that particular task is more difficult to accomplish than many of the others on the list. The temptation is to get on with all the other things that need doing, hoping that something will occur to you about how to make a start on the first one. Sometimes this is helpful, but very often it simply puts off the moment of attack to accomplish the deed.

Before long it is no longer even possible to do the other things that are on the list because it is clear that something ought to be done about the first. This dilemma can feel a bit like being frozen in the headlights of some big truck, time ticking away, pressure building up, and the mind a complete void of thought about how to go about starting. Enough of this and fog builds up in the brain and soon nothing gets done.It is, of course, much easier to just get on and do the thing! But that’s often the real problem: waiting for inspiration about where to start. A good way to jump start the mind is to brainstorm. If it is a one-person task this can be done very effectively by writing down ideas.

The action of actually writing something, no matter how ridiculous it might seem, triggers more ideas and starts the creative juices flowing. Once that happens, it is much more likely that a solution will present itself, and much more quickly than simply waiting for an idea to pop out of the blue, or the truck headlights.

An effective way to trigger some thoughts is to ask some questions and write down the answers: What exactly needs to be done? Why? What is important about the way it gets done? What is the long-term and/or short-term goal of doing it? Why is it important to you to do it?

Before long, ideas will be flowing. After the main flurry of questions and answers, it is then possible to arrange and order them according to task flow and relevance. This can be done by creating a list of activities based on the brainstorming results, or, if the task is more complicated, it can be beneficial to create a diagram showing visually the relation of items to one another.

Often the hardest part of doing anything is starting it, jumping into the seemingly unknown and trying to move forward. Pushing a pen or pressing the keys on a keyboard to get those thoughts going, often clears the path and shows we really do know how. When I remember it, approaching things this way can save me a tremendous amount of time and hassle.

Choices

It sometimes happens that just when you think you have a plan, something gets in the way.
It's like walking round the corner of your house and discovering that the road and view you are used to, have been completely replaced by something startlingly different and unknown.

At first it might seem scary, with everything familiar having been wiped away unexpectedly. Then it could become very frustrating when you realise that what you wanted to do, or where you wanted to go, no longer appears in front of you. No matter that there is now expanse, beauty and freedom instead; that may not seem relevant in the circumstances. You might freeze, unsure what to do next. You might start running, in panic about what has happened. And if you don't understand it and think you can't, you might become disheartened and give up, sitting down right where you are, hoping that someone will either wake you from a bad dream or come to tell you what is going on. But what if they don't?

Sitting there, you might close your eyes and start imagining that you are hemmed in, and are too frightened to pass through the darkness of it; or you might even start thinking that there is no road left to you at all and that you are in imminent danger with no future left to you.

But most of the time it is simply an opportunity to look at things in a novel way. Whether the change is inherently beneficial or not, it is a good time to check out the initial goal again, the original path being followed to get to it, and assess the choices available at this point. Very often, on closer inspection, there is another way to get to the goal, and sometimes it turns out to be a stepping stone to an even better solution than the old one.
Once a decision is made and a path forward chosen, the situation is often resolved. The familiar road may even reappear and, on closer inspection, may contain greater advantages than it did before.