Discardia_ More Life, Less Stuff - Dinah Sanders [101]
Once you do that bit of thinking, it’s a lot easier to put your effort into adjusting to make the new circumstances function better rather than merely treating the symptom of a bigger shift.
Moving the big changes forward
What is slowing you down or getting in your way? Draw a bull’s-eye on it in your mind and start looking for ways to purge it from your life. What's the first thing you can do to chip away at it or minimize its impact on you? Write that thing down on your planner on the first day where you have a free hour and do it.
To get a better job, update your resume. Deeds are better. Back up your claims and use examples rather than claiming general skills. “Revised plan and achieved successful delivery by 10-person project team when deadline shortened” will sell you more effectively than “Flexible and organized.” Once your resume reflects your current strengths you can start searching for an opportunity and spreading the word among friends about what you're seeking.
To get a better place to live, write down your minimum requirements and nice-to-have's. Take a good hard look at your budget and see what you can really afford. Start to save for the first month and security deposit. Weed out stuff you don’t want to take to your new place.
To achieve more progress on your side projects, make sure you’re set up for success. Pull together your support materials and create an always-ready workspace. Eliminate distractions.
Start, every day—even if it’s only for 15 minutes’ progress.
Concentrate on a big goal and find one thing that you can do to bring it closer to reality.
Trust yourself
You are already smart. Step back from the noise and listen to yourself. Increased progress toward your goals often comes more from better tools and processes than it does from new data. When you make it a regular habit to take time out, think about your commitments, and organize your ideas, the logical next steps will reveal themselves. When you know what your potential next steps are for each of your projects, it becomes much easier to find one to fit your present context and energy level. When you can easily find something satisfying to do in any given moment that moves you toward one of your goals, you will more rapidly achieve more of your goals.
Align the moment with the big picture
A best practice that can pay off more than any other is to stop trying to keep track of everything in your head. These days we've all signed on for more stimulating input than any one person can fully engage with in a lifetime.
“You receive too much information, and it’s not your fault. Just accept that there is more information than time, and that it's increasing every day,” said Mark Hurst in his book Bit Literacy. The essential trick in the face of this daily onslaught is to think in advance and to respond appropriately in the moment acting in accordance with your priorities. This is as true for a creative professional as it is for someone who works with structured plans in an office.
Comedian and actor Rob Corddry said, “The randomness of my job is one of the most interesting things about it, but that randomness feels less chaotic if I have all of that disparate clutter out of my head and categorized.” By learning the tools and techniques to regularly clear your head and review your goals and projects, you free yourself to act on new input in ways that help get you where you want to go.
Distractions are transformed into opportunities or their negative impacts are minimized. “In truth, I've found that any day's routine interruptions and distractions don't much hurt a work in progress and may actually help it in some ways. It is, after all, the dab of grit that seeps into an oyster's shell that makes the pearl, not pearl-making seminars with other oysters,” said author Stephen