Managing your to-do list without become obsessive about your system is the key concept of this article. We can sometimes get bogged down in managing our systems at the expense of actually getting things done. I would say that holds true for even the most widely popular and decidedly perfect productivity system of all time, Getting Things Done. For the serious productivity enthusiast, I agree that there is no better system, but for me, I am decidedly anti-system.
But realizing that I need some way to manage my work, my family, my blogging, my songwriting, my landlording etc, some system is better than no system.
I’m looking for the simplest method to keep track of things and am recalibrating as I go. For me the easiest, lowest-tech way is to take a few index cards and slip a binder clip on them and off you go. This was recently popularized in the blogging world by noted productivity expert Merlin Mann from 43folders.com. The concept has been around forever but Merlin coined a neat phrase for it that took off like wildfire. He called it the Hipster PDA, but what it’s called is not as important as what it does for you.
It allows you the ability to capture thoughts and provide some order to process them.
So my minimaList set up goes as follows:
- One index card labeled @Work for any tasks related to my worklife.
- One index card labeled @Home for any tasks related to things outside of work
- One index card that contains my two highest importance tasks that I need to accomplish that day.
- One index card to track my spending
- Two spare index cards in case I run over on anything.
That’s it. That’s all I need to manage everything. I’ve previously written about several good options for managing your daily tasks, but this one still takes the cake.
While I am attempting to go paperless around my home and at work, I still have yet to find a digital version of what I get out of my minimaList set up.
Filed under Minimalism by
Each Monday I check in with my update on my 13 week experiment to transform areas of my life using small habit changes that I call Butterfly Effects. Over time, in theory, these small habit changes equate to massive transformation. My experiment is to see if this theory works, and allows me to concentrate on multiple goals at one time.
Today marks the beginning of week 5.
The Update
My normal course of action on these weekly Butterfly Effect articles is to post updates on how each challenge is going. I started this post off in the same way, but then, as I started to reflect on the last month, a pleasant feeling of calm washed over me and I had a bit of an epiphany.
I’m enjoying this process so much that I’ve stopped caring about the individual goals.
That’s not to say I won’t still strive for my goals, rather, I’ve embraced the new habit changes and each one becomes an end on their own.
I’m all about simple, and I continue to tinker with ways to make my life more simple. The big reason is, I don’t anticipate having a lot of time for myself as my triplets come home from the hospital. Life will get complicated when the babies come home, particularly as my wife and I develop our new skills of parenting. Simplifying the things that we’ve been doing for thirty (okay, thirty-six years, I admit it) reduces the effect of the more complicated new skills we have to learn.
My physical health begins to improve in a slow, manageable way, as does my mental and spiritual health. My personal efffects get simpler even though the more complicated effects of baby stuff will encroach. My finances get simpler as I follow a couple basic rules and don’t stress out about every small thing.
It’s pretty easy to write a book when you take it one day, and one page at a time and I enjoy the process of dissecting and learning a topic a few minutes every day.
So I’m not adding anything new this week except for one over-arching Butterfly Effect.
Intend It
I’ve taken to carrying a written copy of my Butterfly Effects on an index card everyday with me. It’s part of my minimalist to-do list that travels in my pocket (basically, the Hipster PDA). Each evening before bed, I will sit in a quiet place and spend a moment or two in quiet reflection, intending to complete my list of Butterfly Effects the following day.
Why before bed?
I can’t find the context for where I learned this but I know it was taught by exercise guru, Matt Furey. I first read about this as my wife went into the hospital during the twenty week mark of her pregnancy and I began a long series of days sleeping on a tiny hospital pull out chair.
The first several nights were dreadful. My back hurt all the time, I woke up more tired than when I went to bed. But once I started implementing this great concept, my whole world changed.
All I did was, before bed, I closed my eyes and set the intent that I would sleep great and wake up feeling terrific next morning. It sounds campy, but I tell you, it worked. I woke up refreshed, with no back pain, still sleeping on that tiny little pull out chair every night for more than six weeks.
When you set an intent each night and let your subconscious mind work on it as your conscious mind sleeps, amazing results can occur. And so that’s why I’m sold on setting my intents each night.
As a quick round-up, here is the list of previous Butterfly Effects that I have implemented.
Health:
- Drink a large glass of water before each meal.
- Yoga for ten minutes each day
- Meditate for ten minutes each day
- 10 Hindu Pushups and 20 Hindu Squats, incrementing each day
- Jog at least 1.75 miles 3x per week
Simplify:
- Re-purpose two items per day
- Catalog my possessions for 15 minutes each day
- Write down five things to be grateful for each day
- Edit my digital life
Blogging
- Comment on 1 post each day
- Respond to each comment received
- 15 minutes learning the blogging trade
Finance
- Track spending each day
- Save my five dollar bills
Writing
- Write 250 words each day toward my first book/ebook
Related Posts:
The Butterfly Effect – Challenge Week 1
The Butterfly Effect – Challenge Week 2
Filed under Butterfly Effect by
I’m in the middle of some pretty significant life changes at the moment. Sometimes the old is tough to push your way through, but I know I will be better for it. I am coming to peace with stuff (I hope) and am hopefully opening myself up to some big gains in actualizing the important and essential things in my life. Alot of this is cryptic-speak I know, but if you’re following along lately, you’ll understand…just try to clear out the unessential so that I can fully appreciate the essential.
This week brings another terrific list of articles that are helping me on my path.
One of my favorite blogs is Think Simple Now by Tina Su. Unfortunately for us thirsty readers, she’s been incommunicado for three months while visiting an Ashram in India. She’s come back with a new level of enlightenment and has shared her experience in this article, Living Enlightenment – A Personal Report.
Part of my process of Minimizing and getting down to the essential means that I also have to control my commitments. Learning the art of saying No is critical to that. Patrick has a nice piece at Unwrap Your Mind regarding this, called No Fu – The Warriors Way to Say No.
I am always interested in articles about reducing stress. We live in a bigger, better, faster world and it’s very difficult to unplug from all that. I like this article by Ali over at Dumb Little Man called, Kill Your Stress – 8 Stress Busting Techniques.
And back to the minimlism topic. I liked Patrick’s comment on my peace called Mnmlsm from Wednesday of this week, where he mentioned that the real key is to come to piece with stuff. This, I whole-heartedly agree with. Leo Babuata’s article on How to Let Go of Possessions speaks well to this.
And a new free eBook for everyone, thanks to Jonathan Mead over at Illuminated Mind who has written about escaping from the Rat Race with, The Zero Hour Workweek. And a blogging friend of mine, JS Dixon, has just gotten one of his articles published there. Check out, Triple Your Rate of Failure and You Might Succeed.
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Each Thursday, for the near future, I give updates on how our baby triplets are doing in the hospital. They were born May 28th at 27 weeks gestational age. Bella Marie born 1lb 14oz, Owen Charles born 1lb 14oz, and Noah Anthony born 2lb 4oz.
Owen Pissed that He's Not Coming Home
If I had written this post Wednesday morning instead of this morning, it might have a different tone than of disappointment. We were informed on Tuesday that Mr. Owen would be coming home on this Friday. We were jubilant. We worked diligently to get the room ready.
Then Mr. Owen had different plans. A single spell was all it took. He dropped his heart-rate and breathing while he was sleeping and the doctors decided he needed more time to mature before going home. So we are hopeful for next week, perhaps early in the week, as long as he does okay the next few days.
Things like this happen, I guess. It is disappointing but if he were home with us, we would never know he was having a spell without him being on the monitors like he is at the hospital. So he could fall asleep and never wake up, and we’d be powerless to stop it. So, I understand, but am still disappointed.
He’s 6lbs 2oz now. A peanut compared to the other two but he bottles every feed and is allowed to eat however much he wants. He seems to enjoy being held much more than the other two. The nurses comment that he’s quite the cuddle-bug.
Bella Wondering When She's Getting Out
Bella…I am going to try to write these next few paragraphs without having a coniption fit. She has always had an issue with reflux. She’ll typically send back a few ml’s of her food. No biggie, babies eat, babies puke. To me, she is doing great. I can get her to take her full bottle, though it typically takes several minutes longer than it does for the boys.
Well, the doctors are more worried about it, and I don’t know why. She’s growing by leaps and bounds, and is now the heaviest baby at 6lbs 14-plus oz. She is obviously eating enough to support this. They want to do surgery and put in a GI tract if it doesn’t stop. I absolutely will not sign off on such a surgery.
There is nothing wrong with her that she won’t eventually grow out of. This, I am certain of.
Noah - "FEED ME!"
Noah is actually sucking on his food tube above. Unfortunately, nothing is coming out of it. It’s connected to a Ropogo to pump out his stomach. He has an unknown infection, early indications is that it’s a form of Staph. Also, his intestines don’t appear to be working, the food just sits there. So they stopped feeding him on Friday and he is on meds for the next ten days. Which means, it will be at least three weeks before he may come home.
He’s just under 6lbs 14oz but now is getting puffy again thanks to the fluids he must be on in order to get his nutrition.
I am quite worried about the intestinal issue. They said that it’s likely not NEC, but they’re not sure why his intestines aren’t moving food along. Now we won’t know for a few weeks since, like I said, they aren’t feeding him.
Many things are up in the air right now, and I apologize for the tone of the post. It gets frustrating when you near a milestone and then fall flat on your face. While I was never short of patience, I think I am learning a new level of it as well as the value of perseverance as personified in my children.
When Owen does come home, that will cause some logistical issues that we will have to work out. We cannot bring him back in the NICU so that we can visit the other babies, so there will be a lot of visiting the other two solo while one parent watches Owen. Hopefully we won’t have to worry about it much longer and they will all be home.
Till then….
- Charley
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This post started as a comment on an article by Leo over at Zen Habits. It stuck far enough in my craw (what the hell’s a “craw”?) that I just kept going with it.
Mnmlsm
Ah, minimalism…it’s like a fantasy of an exotic beach when I’m in the middle of a Buffalo Blizzard. Sitting here, taking a break, surrounded by parts from multiple pack n plays, baby swings, baby video monitors, several dozen sets of baby clothes, over a hundred rolled diapers, two dozen or so baby bottles, etc.
I don’t know how parents do it.
I get in these modes where I just want to toss everything of mine, and start over, especially with baby stuff encroachment. It drives my wife, crazy, I know. I don’t mean to, honestly, well at least not with this topic. It’s hard to make someone understand that clutter drives you nuts when you’re not really sure why it does yourself.
So I pine to relieve me of:
The Tyranny of Stuff
But then I start to go through it and I justify that I need my Power Wheel to work my (fl)abs.
I need my yoga mat, blocks and belts to workout (the carpet works just fine).
I need all my books for ideas to write blog articles (Note to self: have to actually read the books first).
I need my CD collection because you won’t be able to buy this stuff soon and I am sure there is this really great fragment of a song that will so inspire me that I will pen the newest, bestest concept album that will make everyone forget about Pink Floyd (who?).
I need 36 shades of dress shirts to impress people at work who probably wouldn’t blink if I wore white everyday.
I need every tool imaginable though I know how to fix nothing….
It’s the same Jeckyll and Hyde every weekend. My sheer determination gets me a bit closer to my goal, but I so badly wish that I could get down to that ancient, revered:
Buddhist Law of 8 Possessions
- 3 Sets of Robes – never have to worry about what to wear.
- Begging Bowl – big enough to hold my library…wait, that’s cheating.
- Razor – umm, you don’t want to see me after a week of not shaving.
- Needle – to fix my robes I assume…gotta learn how to sew.
- Thread – ah, yes for the needle…doesn’t seem too hard
- Mala – a religious type of rosary….I don’t do religious token jokes, sorry
- Shoulder Bag – to carry all my freakin’ stuff
- Walking Staff – I am getting old.
All kidding aside, I very much revere the Buddhist Monk lifestyle. It is an ideal by which I can hold a candle to my life.
Where’s the flow to lead me toward my goal? That’s what I want to know. In all honestly, I don’t think I could or would want to live with 8 things, but a hundred is viable, especially in the digital age, and who really needs more than one pair of underwear? In fact, when I first met my wife, I was on a no underwear kick (note to self: scratch that last before Mom reads this).
I’ve spent many times journaling the “Ultimate 100 Items List” in the past. In fact, I went through it again a few weeks ago (yes, I know, I need some friends). I’ll make a point to publish that list in the next week or so. I’ll just write it on this sticky and put it next to all the papers and books on my desk.
But what if I could get to this ideal?
Honestly.
Then I could concentrate on the essential, like giving my children the attention and love that is their birth-rite, writing beautiful inspiring poetry just to express the ecstacy of the universe, writing beautiful music on the work of art that is my Alvarez guitar, writing terrific blog articles that come from within my soul as opposed to relying on inspiration from another person’s words.
I see that I am going to be wrestling with this again through another sleepless night. The baby swings can wait another day. More on the babies tomorrow, by the way. Someone’s on the radar to come home soon…
As a post-script Leo Babauta has a new site dedicated to minimalism, which is over at mnmlist.com. I also got my Buddhist list from a learned (pronounce as two syllables) commenter over at the blog for A Guy Named Dave, who was profiled in Time Magazine last year for his challenge to live with 100 Items or less.
Filed under Simplicity by
Each Monday I check in with my update on my 13 week experiment to transform areas of my life using small habit changes that I call Butterfly Effects. Over time, in theory, these small habit changes equate to massive transformation. My experiment is to see if this theory works, and allows me to concentrate on multiple goals at one time.
Today marks the beginning of week 4.
Health Update
I’m doing well with the strength exercises from last week (Hindu Pushups and Hindu Squats. I also continue to do a few minutes of Yoga every day and I meditate either before bed or during my lunch hour at work. My intent was to start cardio today, but I got inspired after seeing this video below on Chi Running, so I went out on Friday and did two miles.
Now I don’t expect everyone to start at two miles. I am a somewhat experienced runner. I’ve completed a marathon (2008) and two half marathons (2007 and 2009) in the last three years (mostly through sheer will), but I inevitably fall off the wagon after the Memorial Day (last week of May) race each year.
I typically stop running after that race till the following March when I start training for the current year’s race. As such, the pounds come on quickly and, to be frank, I have trouble walking up two flights of stairs.
What I am trying to establish here is a habit that can be maintained year round. Therefore, my only goal is to do one lap of my course every other day. That lap has been measured at 1.75 miles. If I feel like doing more, so be it.
I know that there are a great many bloggers that talk about the harm running has on your joints. That’s a big reason why I am learning Chi Running. I don’t do running just for the health values. I actually quite enjoy it, but I tend to injure my hips quite frequently. I’m hoping that Chi Running will alleviate that.
I’m also adding a couple of videos that show the Hindu Pushups and Hindu Squats respectively, since I have been getting some questions on that. I apologize for not doing this previously but I am brand new to YouTube, and quite frankly, have purposely avoided it in the past so that I don’t get addicted to another online social medium.
Hindu Pushups:
Hindu Squats:
I don’t expect to add any more exercises to this experiment, except for possibly something for my flabtacular stomach or my astonishingly weak shoulders. I even question that because the Yoga does so much to work on functional strength that I really don’t care if I ever have a six pack again (unless it’s a six pack of Guinness beer).
Simplifying
Last week I said that I would spend a few minutes each day writing down five things to be grateful for. Well, shortly there after I found a nice app for the IPhone that helps facilitate this. It’s called, “Gratitude” and it prompts you to write down five things that you are grateful for everyday.
How does this work into the process of Simplifying? If you’re not grateful for the things you have in your life now, it’s likely that you’ll continue bringing new things into your home (or new activities to clutter your schedule) in order to find something that makes you happy.
Be grateful for what you have then let go of it if it no longer serves you. Only then can you let new experiences into your life.
I’ve found this process of tracking my gratitude to be one of the best Butterfly Effect principles that I’ve implemented so far.
I’ve been bothered by my digital clutter lately. I disagree a bit with the concept of digitizing all of your paper work. It’s still clutter even if it’s not sitting out on your desk. I think that digital clutter is preferable to physical clutter, but one can get carried away with this as well. I read recently about a blogger who was trying to simplify his life down to a suitcase yet he had nearly a tera-byte of digital music. Seriously, can you listen to that much music? Ever?
For me, a small task this week is to spend time organizing my digital eBooks, cataloging them, and additionally, going through my recently digitized music and deleting those books and songs that are not either truly useful or truly beautiful to me.
That means that if I only like two songs on an album, I will delete the rest. Why have something around that you don’t love if you’re always going to skip by it when you listen to it?
Blogging
I had a meeting yesterday with some very helpful and like-minded bloggers. I have these plans to really grow the site, but like many things, my enthusiasm can over-rule my logic and I was cautioned on that call yesterday to continue working on the basics. That means writing great content and building a nice community.
So, nothing new this week except that I will work on finishing another draft of a guest post for another website. Otherwise, it’s the basics still, from the last few weeks.
Finance
I continue to track my spending, but now I have my reason why. Initially I was doing this just for the sake of knowing where my money is going. Now, I’ve realized that this is a critical component of knowing what I need to support my family in the event that I decide to turn my writing into a full-time gig.
I’ve also decided to dedicate myself to two small Butterfly Effects that I’ve haphazardly implemented in the past with success. They both are along the same lines. One is to save all my spare change, and earmark it for a Savings fund. The other is to also save all the five dollar bills that I get, for the same reason. The larger my emergency fund gets, the more comfortable I’ll be should I decide to make writing my fulltime pursuit.
Writing
I could write verbatim from last week on this topic. I continue to write 250 words per day on my Haiku Life Lessons book, and it is coming along very well. I intend to still write five posts each week, but I may open up some slots for on-topic guest posts shortly to help grow the community here, and to allow me some time to adjust as the babies come home soon.
Nothing new on this front, the status quo is yielding some tremendous benefits.
As a quick round-up, here is the list of previous Butterfly Effects that I have implemented.
Health:
- Drink a large glass of water before each meal.
- Yoga for ten minutes each day
- Meditate for ten minutes each day
- 10 Hindu Pushups and 20 Hindu Squats, incrementing each day
Simplify:
- Re-purpose two items per day
- Catalog my possessions for 15 minutes each day
- Write down five things to be grateful for each day
Blogging
- Comment on 1 post each day
- Respond to each comment received
- 15 minutes learning the blogging trade
Finance
- Track spending each day
Writing
- Write 250 words each day toward my first book/ebook
Filed under Butterfly Effect by
I’ve come across alot of very inspiring articles this week that I thought might be helpful to those of you who may be unhappy with your job or current circumstances. I think all of us have something we’d like to improve in our life, or maybe even some dreams that we may have forgotten, that we deserve to re-kindle.
My new friend, Arvind, has a great new post out this week with some inspirational advice about approaching every day as if it were a carnival. This is authentic living, with optimism and staying away from folks that will keep you down. 8 Simple Tips to Have a Carnival in Your Everyday Life.
I love this next article. Particularly the part about how children don’t over analyze their life choices. If they want to do something, they just go out and do it. Us adults, we analyze all the really bad things that could happen and then judge whether the thing we want to do is really worth it in light of that. Sometimes, we talk ourselves out of a totally awesome, life-changing experience Moving to Paris Without Quitting My Day Job – A Lesson in Becoming a Non-Conformist.
From the above guest article, I linked over to the author’s blog and found a really great audio interview with Author Pam Slim, who’s book, Escape from Cubicle Nation
Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love
I’m new to the Dumb Little Man blog. I guess that’s like saying I’m new to sliced bread, but hey, better late than never, right? The Art of Changing Easily and Gracefully is a terrific article about focusing on the change you want, and not on the results you don’t want. The scary but exciting truth is that the World seems to change faster and faster, and the true successes are those who can adapt quickly and not get all flustered when the rug gets pulled out from underneath you.
Jeffrey Tang also wrote a great article this week on entrepreneurship and the approach one needs to take to develop the proper mindset. When I write, I try to always ask myself, what can I do to be most helpful to my readers. Jeffrey takes it a step further by teaching us to take a bolder approach. The Number One Question Entrepreneurs Forget to Ask.
For the US readers, enjoy your Labor Day weekend. I’ll be returning with more articles on Monday.