Downsizing with the Dalai Lama

Although I didn’t get to see the Dalai Lama when he was in Australia recently, a friend of mine gave me a little scroll that she bought at his event called “The Paradox Of Our Age”. I found the words so profound, I thought I would share them with you:

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

more conveniences, but less time;

We have more degrees, but less sense;

more knowledge, but less judgement;

more experts, but more problems;

more medicines, but less healthiness;

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies then ever, but have less communication;

We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;

Tall men but short character;

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It’s a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Power tools not necessary!

I love to read business books on how I can improve my productivity – especially when it comes to saving time. A recent blog from Money Meaning & Beyond highlighted the concept of only putting in the minimum level to achieve the same result – not just at work but in life.

People are creatures of habit. After doing things the same way for so long, it can take a little shock treatment for us to stop.

However it’s important that we do, because far too many of us are chronically tired and overworked, yet are still trying harder to do more with their energy and time.

The old way of thinking and old habits can be very costly – to both the success of your work and your overall happiness.

Do you invest too much energy into tasks that aren’t worth it? Are you using a lot of time on a project that could be done with much less?

If you have a thumb tack in front of you, you wouldn’t use a power tool to put it in, right?  It would be a massive, disproportionately powerful tool to get the result you want.

This can be a difficult one, but try to develop an awareness of how to apply just the right amount of energy and resources to the appropriate tasks.

If you’re used to providing a full-fledged proposal for a client, would a two-page summary work just as well?  Do you send over five possible ideas for how to ‘redo the living room’ when three would be equally delightful to your clients?

When you write emails, do you always proofread and double-check before you send out?  If you’re doing a series of follow-up calls that are administrative in nature, could an assistant do the trick?

You get the picture. Experiment with the minimum level.

Based on experience, we estimate people waste an average of 20-30% on tasks that would be just as complete if they’d leave well enough alone.

Seeking the minimum level definitely goes against the grain at first, because we are used to working hard, and racing to keep up. But give it a go – what have you got to lose? And think of what you can gain…

To learn more go to: http://www.andreajlee.com/blog/archives/2011/01/31/feature-article-seeking-the-minimum-level-excerpted-from-the-money-meaning-and-beyond-book-chapter-18/

You are never too young to celebrate Australia Day!

Today is Australia Day – normally a day most Australians head outdoors to have a BBQ, play a game of cricket (or watch one) and crack open a tinne to celebrate being a true blue, dinky di Aussie. But Beyond the BBQ, beyond the backyard cricket, and beyond the fact that most of us get a day off work, what does Australia Day REALLY mean to us?

(For my international readers, Australia Day is commemorated each year on January 26th, the day The First Fleet (a group of ships from England) landed in Sydney Cove in 1788 to begin forming the Colony of New South Wales).

There has to be more to life than this?

As well as the Ultimate Blog Challenge, I have also joined another Facebook challenge called the 30-Day ‘Tude Challenge!  In this group we have shared our goals for the beginning of the new year and what we can achieve in 30 days, step by step.

My goal was to spend less time in front of my laptop and more time in the “real world”. Unfortunately the horrific floods in Brisbane put a stop to that as I was constantly online researching and sharing information via social media to try and help those affected (while making sure the waters didn’t get to me!)

But then lo and behold in my inbox today came my fix of Zen Habits. He always seems to nail it on the head for whatever situation I happen to be in and today was no different: Finding the elusive work-life balance. Here are the seven tips that were outlined (No. 4 was particularly important for me):

1. Set a time to shut off work. Working all day and night means you are nothing but your job. Your life belongs to your employer (or if you’re the employer then your life belongs to your employees or customers). Take ownership of your life — find variety and ways to burn off stress and find enjoyment in life! Start by setting a time each day when you shut off work. Whether that’s 5 p.m. or 5:30 or 6 or 7 or 9 p.m. Some of you can set it even earlier if you start earlier — say 4 p.m. or something like that. Set that time and make it happen. After that shut-off time you will not do work or check email or think about work.

2. Find something to immerse yourself in after work. What do you love doing besides work? Do you love to read or run or play sports or hang out with friends or play with your kids or build model ships or play games? If you don’t already have a passion then pick something that sounds fun and give it a try. It doesn’t have to be expensive — it could be as simple as hiking around your neighborhood or volunteering at a charity or helping friends with household projects. Schedule it as soon after work as possible. And while you’re doing it try to completely immerse yourself. Don’t think about work — only think about the after-work activity.

3. Learn to be mindful and present. It’s not easy to just switch your mind off work but it’s a skill you can learn over time. The way to learn this isn’t to try to block work from your mind — it’s to learn to bring your mind back to whatever you’re doing after work. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing: it could be household chores or exercise or talking with someone or taking a bath or eating. Whatever it is … that’s all you want to focus on. Your mind will inevitably slip into something else. That’s OK. Bring it back gently and without reprimand. Slowly with practice you will get better at being present. Which means your work won’t always be on your mind.

4. Take breaks at work. Not everyone will have this flexibility but it’s worth doing if you can manage it. Basically if you’re working for 8 or 10 hours you don’t want to do it non-stop. You need to find balance even at work. So at least once an hour get up and walk around. Get outside if you can and take a walk. Stretch and massage your shoulders and get your blood moving. Do some squats or pushups if you want to start getting fit. Talk to someone. Drink water. Eat fruits and vegetables. Your break just needs to be 5-10 minutes but it’s important.

5. Increase your skills while at work — to prepare for leaving work. If you are very skilled at what you do then you become worth more. In fact it’s often possible to quit your job and start your own business if you’re good enough. And it doesn’t take a lot of money to work for yourself — you can start a business with practically no money. I started mine while still working full time: my job funded my startup business. Even if you don’t go into business for yourself you’ll be worth more with a high skill level. So devote your work hours to learning and perfecting your work skills.

6. Find ways to increase your income while decreasing hours. As your skills increase your value increases. Slowly pick jobs or projects that earn more money per hour. This often means changing jobs but it might be a promotion or change in roles. It could mean starting your own business or becoming a consultant. If you already have your own business or work for yourself then you should slowly be picking jobs or business projects that pay more for every hour you spend working on them. By increasing income you can decrease hours and free up more time for yourself.

7. Learn that you are not defined by work. You can be happy without your job. Your value isn’t completely tied to your work. For example: I’m a writer but it’s not the only thing I am. I’m also a father and husband and know that those are my most important roles — not my role as a writer. I am more than that as well: I run and read and learn and help others and am constantly experimenting with life. I can do things other than my job and be fulfilled. So can you. And once you discover this you’ll free yourself to find a life outside of work. Then balance is simply a matter of logistics — you just need to make it happen by taking small steps.

Read more here: http://zenhabits.net/life-balance/

The majestic Milford Sound NZ

Seeing that today is Saturday, I thought my post should be more orientated towards pursuits of pleasure. My number one pleasure is travelling – whether that be just a day trip out around my home city of Brisbane Queensland or heading to the other side of the world to discover Turkey like my husband and I did in 2010. Hint: you MUST go to Turkey.

In February I am “jumping the ditch” to New Zealand, firstly for a Professional Organisers conference in Christchurch, then heading off on my own down south to the beautiful Fiordlands to explore Milford Sound. My husband and I were there last year after he returned from six months in Afghanistan (the contrast between brown Afghanistan and green NZ almost blew his mind) but unfortunately a snow storm hit so we couldn’t get in. As an image of Milford Sound is still on my vision board, it is imperative that I make it back.

This time I shall be on my own, travelling by bus, staying at a backpackers in Queenstown, eating two minute noodles – and I can’t wait!  Now…where are my hiking boots?

But in the instant that I realised my blog was down, my mood plummeted, I was short and snappy with people, I couldn’t concentrate on anything, I didn’t even want to leave my desk to go to the loo until I had resolved it (with the help of a techie in Asia somewhere!)

This made me think, why do we allow our laptops to rule our lives to the extent that we treat the “living” things in our world as second rate citizens? How many times has the dog not gone for a walk because you were working on your website? How many meals have you forgone because you were watching webinars or reading articles on how to improve your life? What other areas of you life have been put on hold or forgotten about because your eyes were glued to the screen and your fingers to the keyboard?

Uncorking new opportunities!

This year, I aim to take a stand against the time I spend on my laptop and not with the people I love. No more “are you coming to bed now?” as I slave away until the wee small hours. No more Saturday mornings or Sunday evenings tapping away when I could be sitting on the verandah with my husband watching the sun go down with some wine and cheese.

In fact, I am going to start right now since the sun is going down. Well, right after I post this blog of course.  Now…where is that bottle opener?

Which way should you turn?

Being that today is 1/1/11 and I was contemplating today’s blog at 11:11, I thought it should be about creating a balanced life – something this is at the top of everyone’s New Year’s resolutions.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I love Zen Habits http://zenhabits.net/. Everything that Leo Babauta writes about always seems to strike a cord with me.

In this article, Leo explains how to find your balance, and do what you love. So…what can you give up this year that can be replaced by something you would love to do, if only you had the time?

How to achieve a balanced life

The first thing to point out is that work isn’t separate from life — it’s a part of it. For some people, it’s not a fun part of life, but for others, it’s a passion. Either way, it’s a part of our lives, good or bad.

Of course, when people talk about a work-life balance, they mean that we should find a balance between work and our personal lives, which is definitely true. But it’s important to realize that if work is really something you love, you don’t need to cut it short in order to spend more time at home in front of the television.

So the key is to remember that what we’re looking for is a balance between the things we love — not just work and the rest of life, but work and family and hobbies and chores and everything else.

What Do You Love? What are the things you love to do?

That’s the question to start with. My friend Norm loves photography, but I think he also really enjoys jiu-jitsu and spending time with close friends, among other things. For myself, my favorite things in the world include spending time with my family, writing, reading and running. What’s on your short list?

One of the things on your list might be your work — or the work you want to do (as opposed to the work you’re doing right now). But others could include your favorite hobbies or other passions, ways to relax and have fun, exercise or other outdoor activities, reading and learning, shopping or eating or entertainment, volunteering, or spending time with people who are important to you. There are as many other possibilities as there are people in the world, of course.

Create your short list now, and then continue to the next section.

Creating Space in Your Life

It’s time to take a Big Picture look at your life — how are you spending your time right now? How long do you work (and how much of that time is spent on doing what you really love about your work)? What do you do before and after work? What do you do on your days off?

Now think about all the things you do, and how many of them are on your short list. For the things not on your short list, what can you eliminate? Some things might be big commitments that are hard to get out of — but over time, you can get out of them.

Learn to say no, and learn how to tell people that you can no longer commit to doing something. It’s not always easy, but remember that this is your life, and you should do what you really want to do, not what others want you to do.

Really think hard about how you can eliminate the non-essential things in your life (the non-short list stuff). Work on this over time, and create the space in your life that you need for the things you love. Be sure to allot that time you’ve created to the things on your short list — don’t just use it up with television or other space fillers.

Finding That Balance

Once you’ve created space in your life for the things you love, it’s just a matter of finding the right balance between them. You could have a life filled with all the things you love doing, but it could still be almost all work. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with that if you love your work and it doesn’t have negative consequences (on your health or family relationships, for example), for many people it’s better to have other things balancing out their lives.

Why is a balance between several things that you love better than just one thing that you love? Well, there are a number of reasons that would depend on your situation. For one thing, if you have an office job you might not be getting outdoors enough, or getting enough exercise, and your health might suffer. Another reason is that you might have family and/or friends and if you work all the time you’re neglecting them — and those relationships will suffer. You might also get lonely if you work all the time. Another major problem is burnout — working all the time (or doing any activity all the time) can lead to stress and fatigue, and could make that activity less enjoyable.

Variety is a good thing — it keeps life interesting. So mix things up a bit. For some ideas on how to do this continue reading here:

http://zenhabits.net/how-to-find-that-elusive-balance-between-work-and-life/

Ready, set, GO!

Pam Hild has been trying for years to get her holiday preparations organized. Her usual habit was to leave decorating and party arrangements until the last minute, and she sometimes forgot about gifts she had bought and stashed in closets. “I was always a raving maniac over the holidays,” says Ms. Hild of Grand Rapids, Mich.

Several weeks ago, she resolved to try a new approach. With help from a professional organizer, she started planning weeks in advance, posted a calendar of tasks with deadlines on her refrigerator and figured out how she would get back on track when she slipped up. For the first time, she is completely ready, days in advance. Getting there required going beyond just making a resolution. “You have to change your thinking and be able to maintain it.”

In one study of how emotion and cognition interact in decision-making, Dr. Shiv asked some subjects to complete a challenging mental task, memorizing a seven-digit number, while others were asked to remember only two digits. When the same subjects were later given a choice between eating a delicious piece of chocolate cake or a healthy fruit salad, Dr. Shiv says, those who had memorized seven digits were more likely to choose the cake, suggesting that the mental exertion affected their ability to repress the desire for instant gratification and make a healthy choice.

Dr. Shiv recommends a carrot-and-stick approach to a resolution: Focus most of the time on the emotional rewards you will reap for changing your behavior. If you want to lose weight, visualize yourself feeling the benefits, thinking, “If I work hard, I will look so good, and feel so good,” he says. As a stick to help you get started on your new habits, evoke the emotional consequences of failing to change. “Visualize yourself feeling fat, and think, ‘If I don’t work out, I will look like a heavy thing,’ ” and be less satisfied with yourself and your social life. Over time, your resolution “is going to get tagged with those emotions,” which will kick in automatically even when the cognitive parts of your brain are worn out, he says.

Linking your new habits to other pleasant changes can help. Kate S. Brown, a professional organizer in Sarasota, Fla., says some of her clients who struggle with disorganization do better when she has them buy new files that are aesthetically appealing. “If you like color and you create a colorful file system, it creates happy feelings when you use it,” she says.

Mary Dykstra, a Grand Rapids, Mich., professional organizer, coaches people to set specific, realistic goals, then to break each goal into small, measurable steps, with a timetable. This will help avoid the common pitfall of attempting too much, such as losing 40 pounds in two months, and setting yourself up for failure, she says. Also, line up in advance the supplies and resources you need for each new step. If you plan to organize your office, get the shredder or files you need. If you are quitting smoking, get nicotine patches and other cessation aids.

Read the complete article from the Wall Street Journal here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703581204576033824100634278.html

It’s the time of year when everyone is in a crazy rush: to shop to decorate to get ingredients to go to parties to travel to get last-minute work done to go to the kids’ Christmas pageants to go caroling to get those to-dos done.

There is a single answer to just about all your problems — Christmas or otherwise:

Simplify.

It’s the answer to your time-management problems: instead of trying to figure out how to manage your schedule try simplifying it. Do less. Say no to projects and meetings. Cut back on commitments. Have less on your schedule and you’ll eliminate the problem of trying to manage it all. You’ll also have less stress and love life more.

It’s the answer to your financial problems: instead of trying to manage all your bills and debts try simplifying. Spend less. Shop less. Do without for a bit. Reduce clutter. Have fewer credit accounts. http://zenhabits.net/always-simple/ and have less stress.

It’s also the answer to your storage problems: instead of trying to find more storage for all your stuff try simplifying. Reduce clutter. Having less stuff requires less storage (even a smaller home) and is less stressful. You’ll also save lots of money in storage and maintenance.

For more go to: http://zenhabits.net/always-simple/

The month of December is a notoriously unproductive time of the work year. Clients, vendors, and co-workers are off on vacations, attending holiday parties, or perpetually snacking on cookies and flavored popcorn in the office kitchen. Getting someone to weigh in on a decision or to complete his portion of a project can be — or at least seem like — an impossible task.

To reduce your frustrations and keep the proverbial ball rolling, try these techniques for managing your workflow during this hectic month:

• Communicate. Find out exactly when your clients, vendors, bosses, and co-workers will be available and in their respective offices. Mark this information on your calendar, and remember that many people mentally check out the day before they leave on vacation.
• Manage expectations. Let everyone you’re responsible to know when you will be in the office. Additionally, regularly update people of your work progress so they can better manage their time. If you fall behind on a project, let people expecting work from you know as quickly as possible.
• Set small deadlines. Now is not the time of year to take on the Next Big Thing. As much as you can manage, set small, achievable deadlines and save the larger projects for the spring.
• Set realistic deadlines. Double or triple your expected work times. If it usually takes you three hours to write a weekly report, give yourself six hours — especially if other people are involved in reviewing your work.

To read more go to: http://unclutterer.com/2010/11/29/managing-your-workflow-in-december/