Discardia_ More Life, Less Stuff - Dinah Sanders [67]
Cut the noise
The principle of hiding options you aren’t currently using can apply outside of the desk environment, too. Next time you’re in a hotel, reduce the visual noise by stashing all those little stand-up signs and promotion cards in a drawer. You deserve a space that is not covered in ads or obsessive admonitory notes. Make your surroundings harmonize with what you’re there to do.
Where does the time go?
I highly doubt that anyone seeking a less cluttered life is someone who finds too much time on their hands. So where is all your time going? Put up a piece of paper where you'll keep seeing it, such as on the fridge or next the computer. Then, all week write down where your time goes each day (e.g., “90 minutes reading blogs,” “30 minutes cooking dinner,” “110 minutes commuting,” “10 hours working,” “25 minutes for lunch,” or “11 hours watching TV”).
There’s even software to help with this act of observation while you’re at your keyboard. Check out RescueTime, which works on both Macs and Windows computers. At the end of the week, compare what you did to what you wish you were doing. What's the biggest chunk of time invested for the least payoff? What could you completely or mostly eliminate and then replace with something more important to you?
Cut out the low-return stuff. Not quit cold turkey, but cut out, snip away at, and remove bit by bit. Focus on these two things to change:
1. A mental habit or worry, which is eating too much of your energy or time; and
2. A project or routine, which isn't going anywhere or which distracts you from things on which you wish you'd spend more time.
Swap time that doesn't reward you for time that does.
What do you love?
Have you made what you love as obvious to you as whatever else eats up your time? Get those better options in front of you. If you magically had no obligations for three days, such as no lost opportunities or work piled up when you came back and no expectations of you, how would you spend that time? Work that into your days now. Whatever you choose, do something that makes your life happier than whatever activity is at the bottom of that mindless rut into which you keep falling. Stay amused under your own power. You’ll find yourself more energized than by consuming virtual junk food.
Don't channel-surf or link-hop just because you want something but haven't figured out what it is. Your time is finite. It matters how you spend it.
Certainly, you can consciously decide that what you really want to do is flip around getting mental stimulation and enjoying it whole-heartedly. I'm betting, though, that everyone has chunks of time spent on autopilot—and not autopilot in the useful “my mind is happily wandering while I vacuum” sense, but in the sense of failing to select that which will reward us somehow. Be where you are, doing what you're doing and enjoy it as much as you can.
Tune in to the good stuff
The rewards of focus come not only with work—whether for yourself or others—but in all aspects of life. Be more aware of what you are doing and the doing gets better. Put on some favorite music, head into the kitchen and throw together some pasta and sauce with fresh ingredients instead of robotically warming up a frozen dinner. Walk to the park and back instead of driving to the gym and trudging on a treadmill. When there’s no need for mental walls, take out your earbuds and listen to where you are instead of muffling your surroundings in a protective coating of music. Perceive.
Here's a nice Saturday morning routine you might want to start: Get up and have a little breakfast. Pour a cup of your favorite morning beverage and head out to your front stoop with the broom. Shake the doormat, pick up any trash about the place, and sweep up the dirt. If you live in an apartment building, this could just be sweeping a bit around your door and the path you take to the stairs or elevator, but I recommend even in that case going down to the street door and sweeping the sidewalk. It doesn't take long, it makes a place you see