Dancing Geek

Do note by Paul Watson

This post is inspired by a twitter friend (there’s got to be a flashy Web 2.0 shorthand for that) who posted “To-do lists make me feel guilty – out out damn to-dos!!”

To do lists are evil

I hate to do lists. I either put too much on them and feel guilty about not getting it done. Or feel bad because it looks so small when I manage to put just a good day’s list of work down.

Whatever I do with them, they sit there and every time I see them they suck my energy.

My problem with to do lists

Having read around various productivity blogs and books I realised that the only way I would do a to do item was if it took like zero effort, however I would quickly get sick of breaking down every project into tiny, tiny steps – for I am lazy. What I needed was motivation, and since I love completing projects the one thing that really motivates me is the thought of finishing something.

An alternative to to-do lists

This actually came about from trying to keep track of all the different projects that I love to have on the go. I realised that I would start to feel overwhelmed and not know where to start, so I needed a quick way to record what I had going on and what needed doing. This managed to organically turn itself into something that actually helps me get things moving without hanging around and making me feel bad.

How to make my “it’s not a to do” list

• Take a sheet of paper, and make 3 columns, one small then two large.
• In the first column write the name of the project or worry or thought that you want to capture and get moving on.
• In the last column right what it will be like when that worry has been resolved/project completed/task done – the motivation bit
• In the middle column right something that will move you forward on this and feels like something you could do right now

The last part is the key part. I found that just writing these out made me feel clear-headed and less panicky and that I then started to want to get a few of these little jobs done, not because I ought to or because I had to but because I could see that they would move me closer to what I really wanted and so I wanted to do them.

Keeping it going

This is only useful if you can turn it into a system that you can follow over time, so here’s what I do to make it work for me.

• Keep the pages and pages of ‘friendly’ to do lists in a folder. I use a nice bright yellow one, it’s cheery from the get go
• Review it when you feel like getting something done. I only look at the folder when I’m looking for something constructive to get done, I hate the idea of doing something because I ought. If I’ve done some tasks since I last looked then I’ll cross them out, write new ones, and see which I feel like doing. Fortunately, with so many projects on the go, there’s usually at least one or two that I fancy having a play with.

So what do you think? Just another to do list, or something that you might find helpful? Please let me know in the comments below.

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I’m not sure if…

1. Anyone will read this
2. Anyone will be horribly offended by this who does read it

I need to ask a question though.

Peer pressure and guilt trips

Whilst it’s not only American soldiers who are fighting in other countries at the moment, as a Brit it seems the issue of ‘supporting the troops’ is a very American one.

I got an email today from a British friend which was basically a genuinely important and serious message wrapped up in a guilt trip.  There is one thing that is really annoying me though, and it is this that has caused me to write.

Assumptions need to be questioned

There appears to be an assumption, and an incorrect one at that, that not supporting a war, means not supporting the people fighting that war.

It seems that supporting the war has been muddled up with ‘supporting the troops’; the people on the front lines and their families.  The more sceptical part of me thinks that this may not be an accident

Is the difference not obvious?

Why is it not possible to give your full support to people who are prepared to risk their safety in order to protect others, whilst at the same time criticising the decisions that led to them being put in that position in the first place?

Am I missing something?

Yoga for Geeks by kk+

We have reached the end of the Lazy People Series and this one is for people like me who want to start developing self-discipline to help with things like personal development but don’t want to give up their lazy ways.

Lazy people can use self-discipline

Having self-discipline and being lazy are not mutually exclusive! To explain: imagine wanting to keep a daily yoga practice routine going (yup, this one’s right out of my life) but finding that you often lack the motivation on days where you’ve not slept as well, or whatever. Well, self-discipline can be about remembering why you wanted to do it in the first place, thus meaning that the lazy person realises that they do want to do it really, et voila! Yeah, it doesn’t always work, but that’s ok – it helps me not have to fight the fact that I’m a lazy guy, so I thought it might help others.

Self-discipline: the basics

Self-discipline can, at it’s core, be broken into two parts:

1. Awareness
2. Choice

These two things are simple, but not easy, thus qualifying as key to personal development, and bloody annoying.

Non-lazy people can simple make the requisite effort to stay conscious and aware of a particular situation and then make the suitable choice as preferred. This guide is for lazy people however, so I’m gonna break it down into itty-bitty, easy, bite-size steps.

Awareness

There’s a few rules that will help a lazy person (any maybe anyone else too) when they are working on awareness.

1. When you realise later on that you forgot, get mad
2. As soon as you get mad, get over it
3. Think about when you wanted to remember

Notice I said when, not if. This and getting mad is the easy part for everyone. Part 2 is easy for lazy people – staying mad is a lot of effort, so forgive yourself and let it go. Part 3 is key, just think about what the situation was where you wish you’d remembered. Nothing more, else it’s too much like effort. Again, this will probably happen naturally anyway, but if not just take 2 seconds to remember.

The idea here is that slowly, over time (but with minimal effort at any one point), you will remember sooner and sooner until you remember before you go to act.

Seriously, this really works, it’s how I learnt changes to my customer service technique and is really great for something that comes up fairly often as you’ll start to see results pretty quickly.

Once you remember before you are about to act, you are now fully aware and ready for step 2.

Choice

The boring rinse and repeat part is over now and you are ready to take some very easy action. Here, all you have to do is remember the reasons you wanted to use self discipline in the first place and then choose what to do next. If remembering something feels like too much effort, write it on a bit of paper and keep it in your pocket – or just write it on your hand or forehead.

An example is called for here.

I want to practice yoga in the mornings. Some mornings I just plain forgot, but slowly over time I remembered as I was walking downstairs, and even getting out of bed, that I wanted to do this. Next I had to remember why I wanted to do this. The increased flexibility, the feeling after having had a good stretch for 20 minutes, the increased strength, the chance to show off at how much progress I’ve made at the next class (oh yes, when it comes to motivation appeal to your ego, it’s a genius at getting you motivated for no effort at all). Having remembered those things I could drag my sleepy head over to a yoga mat, do a few sun salutations and then relax into corpse pose (the lazy person’s favourite – lie flat on your back and relax).

Hey presto, two weeks later and I’m reaping the benefits from doing no yoga most days to doing a little bit most days. And, to quote Dave Navarro, sometimes shooting for OK can give incredible results.

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