Awareness, Finitude, Groundhog

Hello. Not catching up, not falling behind. On Blogs at least. Back in the heat of the School semester, with way more I want to do than I have time to do. The solution is simple and in fact, inevitable: do less.

But I guess the question is, do I do this with acceptance and understanding, that I simply don't have time to do all the things I want to do in a day, that expectation is unreasonable, or with guilt and the feeling of pressure, that I SHOULD be doing more, somehow.

Clearly the former sounds better.

But there is at least a little bit more to it. While I definitely can't do all the things I want to do, there is still choice in WHICH of the things I do.

If I pretend that I can do them all, then I tend to do the more interesting or enjoyable things first, or just whatever feels good to do in the moment, with the assumption that I'll get to the other things 'later.' (and of course I don't).

If I accept I can get much less done each day than I expect, which things I do first becomes much more important, because it's not about which things I do first, it's about which things I do, at all.

The acceptance and awareness of that very finite reality, means I can make better choices, and better plans.

But I keep forgetting this reality. I need to remind myself somehow. Maybe a sticky note?

In other news: still have the groundhog. One of the too many things to do, is try moving the no-kill trap somewhere I've seen it come out of, so it can just walk right into the trap in the morning.

Good news: I got an internship site! Woo! And it seems like a good one! Triple woo!

Also, the weather is really nice. Good tempratures, and nice fresh smelling air. Also lots of fresh fruit from all the fruit tree's around.

Also, I'm reading the Sai Satcharitra in 7 days. One of my friends said that's a traditional thing to do when you're asking God for something. So I'm giving it a try. It's a fun book to read too. At least for me. Strange and wonderful. The miraculous stories of a saint.

OK, I should go to bed now.

May your life be full of light and joy and peace,

Isaac.

If you have less time to do something, you'll do it in less time.

 I do a weekly review, most weeks, where I go through my email, archive it, and make tasks out of the ones that have tasks related to them. And then do a similar thing with my calendar, physical inbox (where papers and mail and such go) my digital notes (from classes and projects and such) and my task manager.

It's really nice in that it makes sure nothing important falls through the cracks and I know what tasks and projects are coming up, and my various inboxes stay empty or manageably small. It's great, but it often ends up taking 2-3 hours. sometimes even more, if I've been traveling or super busy and things have built up. I also had all sorts of other nice things built into the review, where I'd go over my big goals and visions and core values and important reminders.

But I was feeling like I was spending too much time organizing my tasks etc. and not enough doing them, so I spent a while trying to make these weekly reviews take less time. I was getting it a bit faster, from an average of 2:30 hours to maybe 1:40, but couldn't get it below that.

Then I had the idea to MAKE myself do it in an hour. I set a timer, and rather than trying to do it "faster" I thought in terms of "I only have an hour to do this, so how can I do that?"

This approach won't work for all things, but it apperently works great for projects that tend to expand to take the time allotted to them. The last two weeks in a row, I've gotten them done in an hour. Makes me want to do a happy jig.

There are downsides. I have to be hyper-focused, so I don't get distracted by anything, and I create a lot of additional tasks, because instead of just doing it while I do the weekly review, I'm filing it away for later, so I can get the review done in an hour. So it's not perfect, but it's a lot better, and I'm pretty happy about that. Often, I finagle and try things out, hoping to save time and get more efficient, only to find it didn't make much of a difference, and I wasted a bunch of time, trying out something new.

This actually worked, and it has me wondering where else I can apply this principle. Where else can I set an artificial, doable but tight time deadline, to make myself do something much more efficiently?

Probably reading textbooks. Household chores. Maybe even my various projects in general. I'm looking forward to trying it out, but it's also exhausting, so I need to pace myself when doing it. It means I'll sleep well at night though.

I think there are some situations where that is not ideal though. When I'm being creative, or thinking deeply, or solving a hard problem, I don't want to be taking shortcuts or feeling time-pressure. Time pressure is more fight and flight systems, which leads to narrowed vision, less creativity and flexibility. Probably also why it can be exhausting. But perhaps like weightlifting, you need to exhaust yourself at least a little bit, so you can get stronger. As long as you also have enough rest factored in.

In any case, when quality and depth are not important, this seems like a pretty great tool.

-I Out

Shorts when it's cold

This is a short, because there is much to do. A story I shared with my volunteer class the other day, on the topic of making good use of your time. A devotee was sitting with a spiritual master, and asked how they could fit into the day all the things they were trying to do, when it constantly felt like there wasn't enough time. (I can relate, obviously, so this story is for me most of all, thus why I remember it, perhaps.) The Master asked, "did you eat today?" student/devotee "yes..." "did you use the restroom?" "yes...?" 'so then, you do have time, for the things that are really important to you. It is not a matter of not having enough time, it is a matter of priorities. If you really feel something must get done, it will get done.'

I don't know if those were the exact words, but that was the jist. It's making me reflect for myself: what are my actual priorities? Am I acting on them? Is there something I really should prioritize, that I'm not, and instead doing something easy or fun or that has a false sense of urgency or importance? An interesting question to ask oneself. 

(And yes, I know it's important to have fun, play, and rest sometimes as well. I do plenty of that, I don't need help with that, so I'm not focused on it. Though I could probably stand to focus on more high-quality forms of rest and play, that give me more bang for my time buck.)

And that's my short for the day, though it is conversly time to pack up my shorts for the season, since it's finally getting cold now. Though it's in that transition period, where it goes from the 40's and 50's at night, to the 70's during the day, so it does get hot by the afternoon, in the sun. But I'm not going to switch to shorts partway through the day.

Oh, did I mention the groundhog? Suzannah set a trap, but no luck. It triggered it the first night but didn't get caught, and has left it alone since then. We may need a different approach, like the groundhog stinkballs to discourage them from hanging out under our shed.

Wood, Willpower, and Warmth

I'm listening to a fantastic book, "the willpower instinct" by Kelly McGonigal. She's a Stanford university professor and collects a lot of useful research about willpower, much of which I hadn't encountered elsewhere, and packages it in an easy to read and implement way. Highly recommended if you are interested in having more willpower. (And who wouldn't like that?)

The weather really feels like fall now, though it's still getting warm by the afternoon.

There is SO MUCH to do. The surfaces of the house are getting covered in more and more clutter, a visual representation of not having the time to do basic maintenance activities. Normal grad school, I suppose.

I'm convinced that just 'doing it faster' is not the solution to having too much to do. I think more likely it is a mixture of doing less stuff, prioritizing important stuff, and doing stuff with more focus. Maybe also time-limiting stuff to make sure I'm doing it efficiently. However, the maintained focus and awareness need for changing how I do things is also another energy (and somewhat time) input, so it's the catch 22 of needing to put in MORE time and energy to fix the problem of not having enough time and energy.

The cats are getting cuddly again, muddying the waters of if they really love us or just find us convenient sources of warmth.

It's wood gathering season. Suzannah has her eyes on some fallen tree wood for our wood burning fireplace, and may enlist me to help cut it up with the promise of getting to use a chainsaw.

OK, time to get back to work. Hope you are all well and sending my love.

-Isaac

Groundhogs, pink tips, and internships

Back home, hitting the ground running fast. First SSE class (teaching children good values) starts this weekend, Master's classes in full swing with the uncompletable amounts of readings, and a need to start reaching out to counseling centers ASAP to find a good internship location and supervisor. Weekly review, house upkeep tasks, etc. I'd forgotten the feeling of having so much more to do than could possibly be completed. Summer was just having a lot more that I wanted to do than I could ever complete. I wonder how much of a difference that really is?

Anyhoo, it's busy. Also we have a groundhog in our backyard, digging up the ground under our shed. The weather is nice and cool. I had a dream with one of our cats in it. The hydrangeas are starting to go pink at the tops of the flower balls. I'm just spouting off random things because I want to finish this quickly and still give you some idea of what my life is like. The weekend trip was also super busy, but really rewarding. Great to get to see fellow SSE teachers and students current, past, and future. Lots of really great and good people.

OK! The end for now. Good night, and good luck out there!

-Isaac