I have worked a lot this weekend. Through all that work I am finally... hmm. at par? Not sure the right word. I've caught up with the various weekly life-admin tasks, organizational tasks, etc. Not entirely, but to within a reasonable tolerance. I've also made progress on some longer term goals. Figuring out appliances and office set up for the new house I'll be moving into soon. I've also taken care of some weekly tasks that were do imminently. I think the main person feeling this aside from myself is my wife, who is probably rather upset to be getting significantly less time with me this weekend than normal. I'm going to try to minimize this by making this a shorter post.
There are limited hours in the day. There is also variable levels of energy. Energy can be modified via technique. For example, by spending a bit more time clarifying and staying in touch with my motivating, overarching goals, I give myself more energy. By reading/listening to inspiring material, I give myself more energy. By spending quality time with people I love, I give myself more energy.
However, time is not so flexible. I can only accomplish so much in the given time, and so in order to get the most important things done, I must identify and prioritize them, and be willing to give up on the less important things.
Example, I tend to collect notes, to-do's, etc., on various slips of scrap paper. Many of the todo's are unimportant, but they take up mental space, and also physical space, acting as a camouflage to the truly important things that need to get done, because I can't quickly differentiate them.
So, for example, this weekend, I sat down and wrote out a short list of the most important things that I wanted to get done, from the larger list of everything that I wanted to get done. It gave me focus and a sense of satisfaction when those items were actually completed. I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that, despite my yearning for a few months off to get caught up on all the little things, it may be an unknown length of time before I have that luxury. If I want my time and life to feel spacious, I have to figure out a way to do so, within my current constraints. To do that, I cannot manufacture more time, despite how much I may want a time-turner. The only other option is to prune. This is something true of design as well: if you have lots of things in a space, none of them are important. You don't notice any of them. They all become background. If you want to highlight a few of them, you have to remove the rest.
With life, if you want to excel at some things, if you want to put in the time necessary to do them well, you (I) may have to not spend time on other things.
Not all things are equally important, and if you don't consciously choose the things that matter, your environment will often dictate what you do, in a somewhat random manner, of what is calling at you loudest, or perhaps what is easiest.
It's nice having a pristine office, without distractions, but what is essential is a clean mind. A mind that can focus on what is important and ignore what is not. I'm learning this skill intentionally right now, because I don't have the luxury of setting up my physical space in an ideal way. Things are crowded... Though perhaps I can make my space less crowded as well. In any case, functioning under these less than ideal circumstances was kind of debilitating, until I took the time to refocus on my motivations, my goals. From that place of alignment and dynamism, the debilitations are becoming more like training weights. This is always an option, when you are presented with obstacles and challenges: take them as opportunities to learn, grow, improve, and they become assets to your ultimate development.
As the saying goes, if you want something done, it's the busiest people who are most likely to get it done. Busy meaning active, engaged in doing stuff full throttle, not full of busy-work. Getting stuff done breeds more getting stuff done, it's like a momentum you start to build up. I suspect it has to do with the inertia of getting started. That's the hardest part. But if you're already going, it's less work to just keep going.
School is continuing on, I'm slowly improving myself, my teaching and interacting. The house is moving towards closing. About two weeks until that's done (!). The cats are being cute. The wife is being wonderful and loving and keeping me from burning out and getting miserable as I tended to do when I was working hard by myself. Life is good, but quite challenging. I feel like the pandemic situation has been going on long enough that it's started to normalize.
That's dangerous. Don't let your guard down yet. Winter is coming. Stay safe and alert, especially when you notice complacency creeping in.
Love, wishing you all safety and health,
Isaac
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