I recently realised that during my waking hours, I am always doing something. There is never a time when I am doing nothing. By doing nothing, I mean just having quiet time to think, mull things over or just relax and do nothing.

What is nothing?
To be clear, what I define as doing nothing is just that – just sitting there and breathing, that’s it. There are times when I am doing nothing productive, but I honestly can’t remember the last time I was doing absolutely nothing at all.

I wake, and then eat. When I am not at work I’ll be reading, writing, watching TV, playing the guitar or working out. I think that I get edgy when I have nothing to do, my attention span is so short that I always have to be doing something.

I read recently that the human brain is chemically conditioned to respond to new stimuli. This is why as humans, by nature we slip in to multi-tasking, the inevitable procrastination and the inability to finish anything. We chemically respond to new things to do and therefore we are always doing something, as new things crop up all of the time.

There is a trend for mediation in some circles. I don’t think that you need to go that far – mediation isn’t about being a hippy.

Here’s the simplest form of meditation that I am going to start to try:

1. Find somewhere quiet to sit.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Say a mantra (something like just saying “in and out” as you breath is fine).
4. If, and more likely when, you mind wanders, let it. Just relax, say your mantra and allow your mind to empty.

Before you approach meditation, it may be beneficial to do one of the following:
a) Not call it mediation. Just have quiet time.
b) Start with just 5 minutes.
c) Make time in your schedule to do this. You will benefit from it.

I’d love to hear other people’s experiences in this area. Do you meditate, or can you not remember the last time you truly did absolutely nothing?

Image by connordowney on Flickr via Creative Commons

I work in IT and spend a lot of my time on the Internet. I love gadgets. I love new technology. The question is, does all this technology help us or is it really holding us back? Spending a lot of time messing about with technology and not really achieving anything – sound familiar? I do often have to take a step back and wonder if what I am doing is a productive use of my time. By productive use of my time I mean that I am questioning whether I am using my precious time in the best way to reach my ultimate goals (the end game)?

Whilst obviously it is essential to spend time on your interests (what’s the point of living if you aren’t doing what you want to do), it is important to review and make sure that we aren’t doing things just for the sake of doing them, and more to the point not kidding ourselves that messing around with our ‘systems’ ‘workflows’ and ‘lists’ is actually productive use of time. I have found that the more technology and systems available to me, the more information overload I have. I can’t get enough information sometimes and I often find that I don’t want to discard a piece of information until I have got the most out of it. This could be reading it, committing it to memory, filing it for possible later use or sharing it with other people who might find the information useful.

For example, at the moment I am spending quite a lot of time redeveloping my system for holding, organising, using and storing the mountain of information I come across on any given day. I’d say that over 90% of this information comes from being connected. It could be a new blog, a search that I have done on a particular topic and found 10 links I want to follow up on or something that a fellow twitterer has suggested. Whilst systems (such as GTD) are great for organising and storing information, without a execution plan (the actual doing rather than just collecting) your pile (albeit digital) of information to digest just continues to grow. 18 months ago I don’t think that I had this mountain of information to deal with. I wasn’t aware of as much about social media, blogs and productivity. I probably did have a similar amount of information to deal with but just didn’t realise that I did or wasn’t so worried about it as I wasn’t clued up on ‘being productive’.

Tim Ferriss suggests going on a low information diet. This is a brilliant Idea and I have applied that principle (at least in part) by cutting down my RSS feeds, and only going on the internet to look for information when I need it. The problem I have is that I am interested in a lot of things, as always Google and the answer to my endless questions is only a click away.

I do enjoy learning something new every day and being knowledgeable on a given topic, but sometimes I need to take a step back, not gather any new information and process the information I have.

At the moment I am trying to simplify my system to serve two main purposes therefore:

1. Efficient capture, storage and relevance of information.
2. Efficient execution of action with the information relevant to my goals and progression.

So my system is a work in progress. I don’t think I’ll ever stop tweaking it, but for now it’s back to organising the wealth of information I have whilst being ruthless with the deletes and taking action against those things that are going to make a difference.

Is productivity making you unproductive? Have you any tips to share? Let me know in the comments below!

Image by Will Lion on Flickr via Creative Commons

“Once you realize that you can turn off the noise without the world ending, you’re liberated in a way that few people ever know.” Timothy Ferriss

I was spending some time the other night catching up on some internet reading using the excellent Instapaper iPhone Application (you don’t need an iPhone to use Instapaper, I started using it in it’s web-based form well before I got my iPhone). I found one article I had saved which was an interview with an author of an upcoming book. I did not recognise either the name of the book or the author and after a quick skim over the contents of the article and I could see no reason why I had saved the article. I do save a lot of information to process later and extract anything that I think is relevant.

I tell this brief story as I am trying to overcome a personal habit of consuming too much information. I have hundreds of blog posts to read, stacks of books and magazines and a fast internet connection at both home and work which means I am only seconds away from finding the answers to any question that may pop in to my head. What the above example showed me it is OK not to consume all of the information, and if something is interesting and relevant it is very likely that it will present itself to you again in the future.

I am making a real effort to cut down on my information consumption and this will certainly help. Why am I cutting down you may ask? Well, I feel that I have reached saturation point on a lot of the topics I usually read about, so I want to focus my time more effectively on my Lifestyle Project (namely the quitting the 9-5 bit), and I think that a better use of my time at the moment is to do more writing than reading. Reading is important to inspire your writing but I think that I have gotten a little out of balance, spending most of my time consuming information and not much time producing content, which is a pretty important part of being a blogger. There is nothing wrong with this, it is just my balance is so out of whack it is not the most effective for improving my writing and my longer term goals as a blogger.

So I am training myself (slowly) to only consume the information needed to do the task at hand, and make taking action for my own projects the real priority. Therefore  please forgive me if I miss the odd post or commenting on your blog, I am keeping an eye on things and increasingly it seems I garner a lot of information from twitter. Twitter is like a river that you dip in to from time to time but can’t catch everything that flows through it – I like this approach and it seems to be working well! I am a big fan of simplicity so am on a real simplicity binge at the moment trying to simplify a lot of the elements that take up my time and attention.

It’s about selective ignorance and the art letting bad things happen. What’s really the worst that could happen anyway?

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• Hope you are enjoyed the festive period and are well on the way with your Lifestyle Projects in the New Year!
• This post should (for RSS and EMail subscribers only) contain secret password to the Muji Choronotebook competition – so I hope it works! [NB: The plugin did not work! I’ll have to post a subscriber only link again somehow – sorry!)
• If you have any requests for topics you would like me to cover on my blog please do let me know.

Image by PentaxFanatiK on Flickr via Creative Commons

“We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” Edith Lovejoy Pierce

It’s that time of year again, where you look back on what has been and gone over the past twelve months, and look ahead to what a fresh New Year brings for you. But really, why is this time of year different to any other? Well it isn’t. New Year is just a date change, and time is just a concept invented as a unit of measurement. Like many things in life we end up unconsciously following the trends of society and our culturalisation, and setting New Years resolutions as if we can’t make positive changes at any other time. “Everyone else seems to be doing it” right?

Have you set any New Years resolutions?
Yes? Good. No? Good. The bottom line is that if you know where you want to go, and have worked out how you need to get there (well at least the first stages anyway), then all the New Year should bring is another time period to work towards your goals. New Years resolutions have a bad reputation anyway, as most of them fall by the wayside in the first few weeks of January. As a regular gym goer all year round, New Year is a time that I know when I hit the gym it will be full of people who have probably been members for years but only visit in the first few months of January, can’t remember how the machines work and think that spending 10 minutes on a bike and 30 minutes in the sauna is progress.

I have worked out what my priorities are. I have taken the steps of reviewing, recording and working towards my goals. I have declared my lifestyle project and I am trying my best to take the necessary action towards getting to where I want to be (I have both come a long way, and have a long way to go). The fact is I don’t need any new resolutions, I just need to do what everyone needs to do. Stop thinking, stop dreaming and start doing.

The Action Habit
So if you have to have a New Years resolution make it this. TAKE ACTION. Don’t set a new goal (unless you are due to do that anyway), why not just make sure that you take the actions that you need to now to get to where you want to be.

2 step plan for New Years:

All it takes to get your New Year off to a good start is:

1. Record or Review your Lifestyle Project
Have you already posted your Lifestyle Project? If not do so now. If you have review it and check that it is focused and relevant.

2. Go! Take action. Stop wasting time on meaningless tasks and take the actions necessary in your Lifestyle Project to get you to where you want to be.

Remember where you are now is a result of the actions you have taken in the past, and where you will be (and want to be) in the future is a result of the actions you take now. You New Years resolution won’t fall by the wayside if you link them to your goals, and make a priority in your life of getting yourself to where you want to be.

Let me know you progress in the comments below and stay subscribed for more productive lifestyle design tips.

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Free eBook and Book Launch

As you will know from the style and postings of my blog, I am a big fan of Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. Leo has a book coming out very well timed to deal with the continued apparent downturn in the economy and the New Year resolutions market. The Power of Less will I am sure be a fantastic book (unfortunately it is not out in the UK for a few months). If you read it before me and would like to post a review of it on my blog please do get in touch with me. Whilst waiting for the book Leo has released a free eBook and a number of Podcasts. I highly recommend them, you can download them all here on The Power of Less website.

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• Don’t forget to make sure that you are subscribed to win a Muji-Chrome notebook (competition runs in January)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Image by Christopher Chan on Flickr via Creative Commons

“We shall never have more time. We have, and always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until tomorrow. Keep going… Concentrate on something useful.” Arnold Bennett

There has been a trend recently of understanding what Productivity is and isn’t, and the realisation by many (myself included) that tweaking your productivity system doesn’t necessarily make you a better worker, person or anything else.

In the last week I have seen two posts that show this trend:

1. Jonathan Mead, regular contributor at Zen Habits helping us in a tongue in cheek way to understand that we make be productivity junkies.

2. The excellent Lateral Action highlights a post by Merlin Mann on the changing route of his 43folders blog (perhaps a blog that can be ‘blamed’ in part for the productivity movement’s overkill).

I  have been there, done that and got the moleskine notebooks with the over-the-top productivity systems. I proposed a 12 Step Programme for overcoming your Productivity Addiction several weeks ago. The thing is this, productivity is not about how your work out what you have to do and organise it, productivity is about using your time in the most efficient way to create more time for yourself. I have always been more of a fan of the world efficiency over productivity. Efficiency conjures up images of doing something well and doing something in a way that doesn’t waste time or resources. Productivity makes me think of car production where you want to increase your productivity which essentially means making more units per hour. In this way productivity is about creating more things in the time you have, efficiency (the true core of productivity) is creating more time to do more things (that you want to).

This is key to the principle of my blog. Just check out my about me page (which I will be massively updating soon as it hasn’t changed since I started blogging back in April). Essentially I want to create more time to do to do the things that I want to do, and pursue my Lifestyle Projects.

What are you thoughts on the productivity movement? Do you have any examples of productivity overkill? Let me know in the comments below!

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Bits & Bobs:

• Don’t forget you can follow me in real-time on Twitter.
• I’m planning a series of competitions on my blog starting very soon. Make sure you are subscribed for more updates.
• I’ve also been reading about keeping things simple and concise so I thought I’d try a shorter post. Got another post coming your way this week.
  

Image Credit: by Spankmeeehard on Flickr via Creative Commons

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Time for Three:
Reading around the web:

• http://jayfrawley.com/2008/12/02/are-you-making-a-dying-instead-of-a-living-here-are-7-clues-you-might-be/
  
• http://www.willitchangeyou.com/so-you%E2%80%99ve-heard-it-all-before-part-4-what-next/
• http://motivatethyself.com/2008/12/05/let-us-give-your-blog-a-boost/

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Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

One of the things that has become more and more apparent in the media recently is the need to cut back, save more and be frugal for the road of recession ahead. Recession or not, I like to try and make sure that I keep my life as decluttered as possible (it’s in my genes), and always ask myself before buying anything whether I really need it or will really use it. I am only human and do have an addiction to gadgets and cool t-shirt designs but nobody’s perfect.

Here are some tips for eliminating temptations which I use to great effect. I find that what you don’t know can’t hurt you… If you don’t have the information pushed to you, you won’t want to consume it.

Healthy Eating
If you don’t want to eat as much chocolate, don’t buy it! It may sounds simple, but if you buy the foods you want to eat to be healthy and don’t buy the foods that you know you want to cut down on then you won’t eat them. When I want to loose weight I cut down on sugar and alcohol. If the chocolate isn’t in my cupboard at home, I won’t eat it.

Information Overload
As an internet savvy, social media, RSS reading blogger I do like many other people suffer from information overload in this area. I have this problem that I feel that I need to read every blog in my RSS, magazine that comes through the door and watch every episode of a TV series I am following. The best way I have found to reduce my information overload is to trim down on the blogs that I read, the information coming through my door and the TV programmes I watch. I you haven’t got it in your ‘pile’ of reading to start with then you don’t need to read it. I also have resisted joining every link sharing, social media application that springs up to avoid feeding myself with more and more information.

Products
When I buy something online I always make sure that I untick the box that says “Keep me informed of product updates” from the company I am buying from. I also regularly unsubscribe from newsletters, product info emails etc from amazon, play.com etc. These companies don’t send you emails for your benefit, it is helping them to sell more products. If you don’t know a product exists you won’t want to buy it.

People
No not temptation be consume people in any weird way. This applies more to work than social situations but if you avoid going to meetings you won’t get actions. Say no, and only interact with the people that give you the most benefit towards your long term aspirations, rather than those who give you the most information to deal with or actions to complete.

Of course to make the above tips work for you, you do need to have a certain amount of self control and discipline. We are all human and falter at times but if you want to make a change in your life for something that is important to you and for the better you should be able to have the discipline to go for it.

How do you eliminate your temptations?

See also: You Can’t do everything, get over it.

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Bits & Bobs:

• I’m not happy with the new logo. Any suggestions do let me know lifestyle [dot] project [at] yahoo [dot] com.
• As of today I think my stomach is all better!
• I’m off to New York next week (follow me in real time on twitter) and can’t wait! Hope to have a post ready before I go or a guest post if I get any submissions.
• Yes this end of blog post section is messy, I’m experimenting!

Image Credit: by Daniel Y. Go on Flickr via Creative Commons

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Time for three: Reading around the web:

• http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2008/11/12/how-to-discover-what-you%E2%80%99re-passionate-about/
• http://wisequeen.com/2008/11/13/how-to-build-a-social-media-empire/
• http://www.healthmoneysuccess.com/363/11-keys-to-double-your-productivity/

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Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

Image by bourgeoisbee on Flickr via Creative Commons

“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.” Larry Bird

In the 3 Ts (and an S) of Productivity Series, I am looking at the Tools, Techniques, Tips and Skills for being Productive.

I always want to be able to achieve the most possible, whilst doing the least possible (or spending the least time doing it). Therefore I’ve always tried to find systems or procedures to help me with my pursuit of this goal. I do however have to balance this with my, not perfectionist side, but my quality control which requires me to accept when ‘good is good enough’ and to be of a reasonable standard. These topics will be explored in later posts.

So here are the skills that I think you need to master in order to be productive. How are you getting on with these?

Objectives / Planning / End In Mind
I guess that this is a good place to start! Unless you have objectives for the task you are going to undertake and know what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there, then how can you be effective? If you are not clear on what you want or need to end up with then how can you find the best route to get there?

Know your own SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
SWOT is a simple way of illustrating that unless you know (or at least admit) your SWOT in achievements how can you carry out tasks effectively? Know what you are good at and focus on that, delegate other stuff you are not good at. You can change or influence your SWOT but it takes work and planning. Maybe these could be linked to your goals. See my post on SWOT analysis here.

Keep it Simple Stupid KISS.
This is an area that I am both good and bad at. I do enjoy keeping things simple, but I also am always seeking more knowledge on the subject at hand. Whilst a thirst for knowledge is by no means a bad thing, it is only seeking and acquiring the relevant knowledge to achieve a specific ends that is the skill of being effective. Constantly seeking new systems is actually not effective, you’ll probably revert to what you already know anyway.

Know when it is ‘good enough’ is Good Enough
I’m not saying that you should compromise quality to finish a job. Knowing what level of quality is required and when ‘good enough’ is Good Enough is a skill for productivity and knowing the correct level of standards for what you want to achieve.

Single Tasking (Multi-tasking is for whimps)
In modern workplaces many people think it is good to multi-task. This is the whimps way. Single tasking is the key. Remember the times when you were allowed to concentrate on just one thing? Without the constant distractions of the phone email, IM etc. chances are that you probably achieve more in less actual and elapsed time and it was probably better output. You probably created your own distractions and procrastination activities. Focus – find your zone.

Eliminate
There are several things you need to eliminate in order to use these principles.

• Distractions
• Unnecessary work
• Unneeded work
• Manufactured Emergencies

Become a master eliminator and learn to say NO!

Simplify
Is everything you are doing necessary? Are you taking the simplest route from A to B using the simplest method? The less complex you make things for yourself the more likely you are to achieve your objectives.

Quality over Quantity
This really applies to the amount and quality of work that you do rather than the individual tasks so it is the quality (using above points) of work that you do over the quantity (less hours) that is most important. Measure your results not the time you have spent on a particular activity. Eliminate to find that correct quality. Also know what is good enough.

This post is very much about what I have understood as skills for productivity so far. There is a lot of interrelation between the points and more detail behind all of them. There may also be other ones but these are what I came up with so far in a bid to keep it simple.

My idea for this post came from trying to design (based on research) my own principles for how to be productive. These are more habits/skills for to consciously work on, whilst Covey’s 7 habits are more characteristics. i.e. you either are or aren’t proactive.

What skills do you think are needed to be productive?

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Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

Image by Rickydavid on Flickr via Creative Commons

“If you procrastinate when faced with a big difficult problem… break the problem into parts, and handle one part at a time.” Robert Collier

Whilst on holiday a while back I wrote quite a number of posts that either have or are yet to appear here on Lifestyle Project. What I noticed as I wrote a post or two per day for the week of my holiday was that there are clear regular themes in my thinking which define how to approach actually getting things done.

I suppose my way of thinking is ultimately a culmination of my reading on GTD, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The Four Hour Work week (By the way that is the order I read them in and I would recommend that your read them the opposite way round!).

This is a quick post that I plan to expand on with a series of posts in the future.

How to Approach Anything

When you come across a task, project or challenge, no matter how big or small you can follow this 5 step process and apply it to any situation. I believe that the process is scaleable to projects of any size. For example a really small task you will spend seconds on the first three steps, whereas for a major Project it could be several days.

1. Objectives
   1. Capture your objectives.
   2. Begin with the End in mind.
   3. What quality standard does this need to be done to really? Don’t seek perfection where it is not needed.
2. Write it Down
   1. Make your self accountable.
   2. Write down your Objectives.
   3. Plan (mind maps are good for this).
3. Review, Simplify, Eliminate
   1. Will your plan achieve your objectives?
   2. Have you made this as easy as possible?
   3. Remove steps not needed to achieve the objectives.
   4. Do you need to do all of your actions and meeting all of your objectives?
   5. Will it help in the grand scheme of things? What’s the bigger picture?
4. Take Action, Just Do It
   1. Don’t procrastinate. Just Do It!
   2. Don’t complicate once you start doing it.
5. Review, Close, Move On
   1. Have you met your objectives (step one)
   2. Is it good enough? Everything doesn’t have to be perfect; does it meet your Objectives?

If you follow this process I believe that you will have good results in anything you approach. This could be work projects, personal tasks or even when looking at your goals!

Why not try it today and let me know how you get on in the comments below. Just write each of the 5 steps as headings on a piece of paper and get going.

Have a Productive Day!

Image by OrangeAcid on Flickr via Creative Commons

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. Albert Einstein

I thought I’d put a post up about implementing David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD). I won’t use this post to explain what GTD is as it is explained all over the place, but for a good explanation please look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done

I’ve been using GTD for over a year now and I have put together this list for people as a refresher (let’s face it we all fall off the GTD wagon), or for those starting out on the GTD path to productivity. Remember if you can are more organised then (theoretically) you’ll have more time to do what you want (and pursue your Lifestyle Project). So here are my top 10 ways to implement GTD simply:

1. Put everything you need to sort in one place first

Clear your desk, move all your files on your desktop to one folder, move your thousand emails in your inbox in to one folder. You will immediately feel less overwhelmed with a clear desk and inbox (even if the reality is that you have just shifted stuff from one place to another).

2. Use paper for your lists – don’t use outlook, fancy online tools etc.

Lists and the use of lists are central to the GTD methodology. I have experimented with literally hundreds of online to do management systems, excel spreadsheet designs, outlook categories etc. What have I learned from this? Paper is the absolute best place to keep your lists. It is non-linear. Sure it is fun to play around with the latest system but there is bound to be something that it doesn’t do that will mean you just look for another system.

3. Get an physical Inbox and use it from now on

This doesn’t actually need to be an inbox; it just needs to be a designated place where you put all of your ‘stuff’.

4. Make “Do it, Defer it, Delegate it” your mantra

Write it on a Post-it note and stick it on your monitor and your inbox. Make it your mantra. Whenever you designate time to processing, say it for everything that you pick up to deal with.

5. The Waiting for list is very powerful.

This is especially true if you are delegating as much as possible. You want to do less don’t you? Then you should delegate as much as possible. The unfortunate nature of human beings is that they don’t always do what you ask them to. Keep a waiting for list so you can keep on top of everything you are expecting someone else to do. Simply initials of delegate, date delegated and task are the only things you need to record. Cross it off when it is done. I find that keeping the date delegated is useful when chasing people up.

6. Set up your filing system before you start and keep it simple.

For online filing just use an archive dump folder as search tools are good enough. For physical filing David Allen suggests a simple A-Z system. Personally I find myself filing physical stuff less and less so my existing system for papers works just fine. For my electronic documents search tools make just archiving everything the easiest thing to do by a mile.

7. Resist the temptation to read too much and try out every single new to-do list application etc. for your system.

That’s part of the reason this list is about keeping things simple. You can spend weeks of your life reading up how to ‘Sharpen your Saw’ and get your system as perfect as possible. The reality is that once you know the principles the best thing you can do is simple to apply them and start getting things done.

8. Simplify your email folders

Establish a filing system for your emails and keep it simple. That way when you have an email you will quickly be able to put it where it needs to go. Base it on the mantra, and remember if your system is simple and easy to use, then you are more likely to use it.

a) Do It – once you’ve done with the email archive it. Have just one or few archive folder for your emails rather than loads of folders for different things. You can use the wide variety of search tool to find emails in the future quite easily.

b) Defer it – pop it in a ‘Follow up’ folder and make a note of it on your next actions list – easy!

c) Delegate it – pop it into a ‘Hold’ or ‘Waiting for’ folder. You could of course set up some fancy rules to do this for you when you delegate someone something by email.

d) Delete it – If something is for information only or of no relevance then delete it. Or you could actually just archive it just in case. Either way if it no longer serves any purpose then get it out of your inbox and move on. Remember every time you re-read an email you waste time.

9. Process your email in batches at set times rather than keep checking throughout the day.

You’ll find that if you set aside a time to go through all of your emails in one go then you are more likely to stick to your GTD mantra and whizz through them. I actually rather sadly enjoy seeing how quickly I can get my inbox to zero (and get out of there!). If you spend your whole time with one eye on your inbox then you’ll be constantly distracted and unproductive. Switch off email popups etc and focus.

10. Make sure you do the weekly review.

I’ll admit it; this is by far the weakest part of my implementation. Setting aside structured time to do my weekly review is sadly lacking. This is stupid of me as I know how valuable it can be. I do find that I ‘can’t be bothered’ as much on a Friday so often now find that I do an ‘informal’ weekly review on a Monday as I set out my tasks for the week. The fact is when you do a weekly review and go through everything and eliminate as much as possible you have a much better grasp of what you have to do and how you’ll get it done.

Let me know how you get on or if I’ve missed anything in the comments below! Do you use GTD? How simple is your implementation?

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We can’t do everything for everyone everywhere, but we can do something for someone somewhere.
Elder Richard L. Evans (1906–71)

I have quite a lot of content ready to edit and post, but I wanted to share some thoughts that are going through my mind at the moment.

I am the kind of person who likes to learn (a lot), likes to achieve (a lot) and likes to make the best use of my time (life is short). This means that I have quite a lot that I want to try (new things) and a lot to get through (existing things). As I’m trying to eliminate and simplify this doesn’t sit well.

I think there comes a time where I just need to accept that I can’t do everything, and rather than analyse or question this I need to just get over it and move on.

I have found attempting to single task, eliminate, prioritise and focus in my work life has helped. If 20 things to do hit you in an hour and you already have 5 things you must do today, just accept that you won’t get everything completed. If you have sound systems in place and you are able to manage peoples expectations effectively you’ll be fine. Remember most so call ‘critical issues’ at work are manufactured emergencies. Sure, some of these are genuine, but the key is learning to control these and remained focused on the bigger picture of what needs to be achieved.

From a personal point of view we have to accept that we can’t have, be or do everything that we want. But this does not mean that we shouldn’t try. However we must remained focused and aware of our relative fortunate position. Put it this way, if you are reading this then you are in a very fortunate position. You not only have access to the technology to view it, but also live in a society that allows you to view this content etc. etc. You could be starving, abused and suppressed.

Tips for getting over the fact that you can’t do everything:

1) Accept it.

2) Focus on what is really important (eliminate what is not).

3) Use your time effectively (don’t waste time on trivial tasks, out your time to best use).

4) Keep focused on the bigger picture (long term).

5) Reduce you desires (if you don’t want for something you won’t miss it) – extra tip: reduce exposure to things that create wants such as marketing, email lists, pointless window shopping, if you don’t know something exists you won’t want it or miss it.

6) Be thankful for what you have and what you can do.

Most of what we want to do comes from desire. Whilst you should strive to achieve what you want and have what you want, just put things in perspective and thing what is really important and how best to use your valuable time.