I’m going to take a break from the train scenes to recommend a couple of websites. The first is www.zenhabits.net.
I really like this time of year when I get step back and look at the previous season and regroup, look at better ways of doing things. I get to look through the photographs I’ve taken and pick the wheat from the chaff. This year, though, there seemed to be so many things to do. I’m feeling the spiritual hit of doing too much. I found myself getting irritable and ineffective. It seemed the more I did, the more I had to do and I was often in a state of what I call, analysis paralysis. I would come into my office in the morning and try to determine what to do first and end up playing a game to clear my head which led to another game and the next thing I know it’s time to get ready for my job and I have done exactly nothing. I considered removing my favorite solitaire game from my computer. It was a sucking vortex that led, not to relaxation, but to more stress.
The first thing I did was to get back to my spiritual morning time. I also made a change and now I go outside in the morning for my prayers and meditations. The early morning is so nice, so full of promise. I almost miss having a dog that forced me to get outside in the early morning. Note to self – There are a lot of things about having a dog that I do NOT miss. I like my cat. It is a relationship of equals. I handle the food and occasional vet visits. He handles his own toilet and cleaning needs. Well I do clean the kitty litter but that is infinitely preferable to picking up dog poop from the back yard.
Anyway, I shared my new routine with a friend of mine and he recommended this website. It has many writings on how to simplify your life and as a consequence get more of the important things done. At first it seemed like every task was insurmountable. What do you mean don’t multitask? Well I have been making a conscious effort not to multitask and I have gotten more done. Then yesterday I tried another suggestion. I cleared my inbox. I went through and deleted and cataloged until I am now down to two items in my inbox. One is a link to the website I will talk about next and one is a very important task I have to do. I created a couple of folders for things I need to monitor daily but everything that comes into my inbox now gets read, dealt with and either cataloged or deleted. I am amazed at the feeling of freedom of an almost empty inbox.
I really like this time of year when I get step back and look at the previous season and regroup, look at better ways of doing things. I get to look through the photographs I’ve taken and pick the wheat from the chaff. This year, though, there seemed to be so many things to do. I’m feeling the spiritual hit of doing too much. I found myself getting irritable and ineffective. It seemed the more I did, the more I had to do and I was often in a state of what I call, analysis paralysis. I would come into my office in the morning and try to determine what to do first and end up playing a game to clear my head which led to another game and the next thing I know it’s time to get ready for my job and I have done exactly nothing. I considered removing my favorite solitaire game from my computer. It was a sucking vortex that led, not to relaxation, but to more stress.
The first thing I did was to get back to my spiritual morning time. I also made a change and now I go outside in the morning for my prayers and meditations. The early morning is so nice, so full of promise. I almost miss having a dog that forced me to get outside in the early morning. Note to self – There are a lot of things about having a dog that I do NOT miss. I like my cat. It is a relationship of equals. I handle the food and occasional vet visits. He handles his own toilet and cleaning needs. Well I do clean the kitty litter but that is infinitely preferable to picking up dog poop from the back yard.
Anyway, I shared my new routine with a friend of mine and he recommended this website. It has many writings on how to simplify your life and as a consequence get more of the important things done. At first it seemed like every task was insurmountable. What do you mean don’t multitask? Well I have been making a conscious effort not to multitask and I have gotten more done. Then yesterday I tried another suggestion. I cleared my inbox. I went through and deleted and cataloged until I am now down to two items in my inbox. One is a link to the website I will talk about next and one is a very important task I have to do. I created a couple of folders for things I need to monitor daily but everything that comes into my inbox now gets read, dealt with and either cataloged or deleted. I am amazed at the feeling of freedom of an almost empty inbox.
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