How To Get Away From Your Computer.

 Discipline, How to, Productivity, Time Management  23 Responses »
Aug 012012
 

Oh Internetz, how I love you. So much inspirational material available, countless hilarious Internet memes and all these awesome people only a click away. I love it. The Internet is in my top 5 Abstract Concepts I Would Marry List*. But let’s face it: Too much Badluck Brians and brainless Youtube videos isn’t good for a person.

We spend shitloads of time on stupid websites while we could be doing other stuff. We all know checking your e-mail every 5 minutes is neither effective nor productive. We basically overstimulate our brain with a load of crap (which makes our brain less useful later in the day) as well as procrastinate on more important things as well as miss out on a lot of other way more fun, creative and awesome things we could be doing in our free time.

And I’m the worst addict when it comes to the Interwebz, so I really have to make it easy for myself to not be on the Internet. Here are some easy ways to start taking down your Web-Time and start having some more Real Life Time (I’ve heard it’s really fun, you guys).

Turn off your computer when you’re not using it. My poor MacBook is always on. I am surprised it hadn’t become a fire hazard yet. I’d like to keep it that way, so now I (try to) turn it off when I have no legitimate reason to use it. And watching a Jenna Marbles marathon is not a legimitate reason. At least not twice in the same week. 

Write down what you want/need to do on-line before you do it. When I know I only need to check my e-mail, find the route to this new restaurant and cry over my bank account balance, I can be on- and off-line rather quickly. Even if I want to read through my bloglovin’ feed I can do most of that in an hour. When I have a list of things I want to do next to me, it’s easy just to cross it off and not to wander in the Labyrinth of WiFi I accidentally create for yourself. So make a list: What are you really on the Internet for? Some blogs? Some fashion inspiration? Finding a good recipe. Make a list, go on-line, do your business, go off-line. Like using the computer once was intended.

Limit your browsing time. Set an egg-timer for 30 minutes. You can go nuts on 9gag and Tumblr in those 30 minutes but after that it’s back into the real world with your cute little butt, okay? Plus, there’s only so many memes you can see before you stop laughing. Trust me.

Browser Nannies. I use Safari and there is no Safari Nanny yet, but Google Chrome & Firefox have Nannies: These are basically apps you can add to your browser who block or limit time on websites of choice (Facebook. Gmail, Twitter) and who lock the entire Internet for you after the hours you set to have per day. I’ve heard people made great strides in terms of less Internet with this, and I like the posh British sound of having an Internet Nanny.

 

Make it less visible. Remove Safari, Mail & Twitter from your dock. Remove the shortcuts from your desktop. This way you won’t be visually reminded (at least not after a while, for the first week you’ll probably hallucinate them there) and the more effort you have to put into starting up your browser, Tweetdeck and e-mail, the less likely you’ll do it in your moments of hurry and deadlines.

Declare Internet free hours or days. Shut off your wireless network or router if you have to. Have your house or workplace be Internet-free from 9 to 11 or from 1 to 3. This way you can not be distracted. You’ll be amazed how productive you can become in those hours; when I go to Internet-free coffee places I get the most work done, no joke. This is also addictive: you’ll soon be craving them!

Literally step away from the electronics. I have the worst habit: I check everything the moment I wake up. I often attach a few Tumblr-browse minutes to that morning-routine as well, which is also quite stupid considering I have more important things to do with my morning time (getting ready for various things). Which is why I now leave my iPad and MacBook in the living room when I go to bed, just taking my phone because it’s my alarm clock. For now it’s just delay, but at least it’s progress. I strive to not touch any electronics until after breakfast at one point.

Get Internet on your phone. This is not my own tip, but I’ve seen this in boyfriend & friends: Once you have a phone to look up minor things such as movie times, important e-mails and routes, you’ll be less likely to start up your computer and be lost there for hours. Slight risk is your face being constantly buried in your phone, but that’s something you have to find out for yourself.

Things that also help is getting a hobby that does not involve the computer, such as reading, dancing, running, cooking and -you guessed it- hooping, or meditation instead of clubbing your brain to death with LOLcatz. Speaking of…Maybe we should just all get ourselves some Internet Monitoring Cats. That might work too.


*Writing, Internet, Bikram Yoga, Teaching and Coffee. Yes, still.

Use ALL the time!

 Time Management  10 Responses »
Jun 132012
 

Everyone is always short on time. “I’m so busy!”, “I don’t have time for that!” and “My schedule is so full!” and so on and so forth. The cliche is definitely true: Time flies.

Your time will leave you quicker than you will ever want. What most people fail to notice though, that all time is valuable. Even the half hour between appointments, the hour you have between work and going out for dinner, the times you wait, the times you travel: All that time matters too. All that time should matter too.

Because life is made of time. Your days are made of time. And so much of your time, so many of your minutes are wasted on stuff like waiting, on sloshing through tasks you may not like, on procrastinating and the “I’ll do that later”-attitude.

That adds up to so much wasted time Such a shame. So I decided that I would try out a little experiment I call ‘Use ALL the Time’ in my head (loosely based on Hyperbole And A Half’s: Clean ALL The Things!): I am now trying to do as much as I can in whatever time is available to me at that particular point during the day. Whether it’s productive stuff or relaxing stuff, I’m just going to use the time I have at that moment to my maximum ability.

For instance, I was at work and my class finished early. I would normally have a two-hour long break until the next one, that I would fill with talking to my colleagues and browsing the Internet. But let’s be serious, I could do so much more with that time. Changing it up, I now had a 15-minute lunch in our breakroom with said colleagues, then I printed out assignments for me to grade, got a cup of tea and went downstairs to my classroom. Without the distractions of fun co-workers and the Interwebz, I graded the assignments in half an hour and used the rest of the time to write. By using the time I had at hand immediately, I automatically freed up my evening for other activities.

Similarly, when I came home from work I still had 45 minutes until I was supposed to meet a friend for dinner downtown. I could have ploffed down on the couch and browsed Tumblr until it was time to leave (and believe me, I usually do). Now I cleaned some dishes left from breakfast with the boyfriend, folded some laundry and sent a few important emails.

I now use this technique all the time when I have breaks between classes at work. I sit in my classroom and I write or I read a book on my iPad. I drink tea and occasionally do a few yoga poses or stretch my legs in the hallway. By using all this time I manage to crank out 6 blog posts, read a third of a Game of Thrones and drink a liter of Jasmine Tea.

It’s my new favorite time effectivity technique. I am simply going to use all the time I have available to me during my day, no matter what. No matter where I am or what I am doing, I will use my time. I believe that it’s the best technique to live you life fully: use all your time. 

(Psssh: If you need ideas on how to fill time, click here!) 

The Waiting List: Things to do.

 How to, Time Management  6 Responses »
Apr 082012
 

I remember someone telling me a story about their favorite writer, who refuses to wait. He thought time was precious, waiting was a big, useless waste of  that time and so: he just never waited. He wouldn’t storm into any meeting still going on, he wouldn’t cut in line and he wouldn’t throw a fit over appointments running late, but he just didn’t spend his time waiting. Whenever he had to wait, he would write. Always. No exceptions. The moment he had to wait, he just grabbed his notebook and picked up right where he left off. That’s how he wrote his bestsellers.*

How cool is that?! Do you have any idea how much of our lives we spend waiting? Apparently it’s averaged around two to three years of our lives! Two to three years of our lives, we sit around twiddling our thumbs waiting for public transit, the doctor or our friends to show up!

So might as well do something while you wait, right?

  • A very revolutionary idea would be to practice mindfulness while you wait: really be where you are for a moment. We spend a lot of time up in our heads and not paying attention to our surroundings, it can be really centering to come back to them. So use all your senses and start being in the moment. Be in the Now. It’s an excellent relaxation technique.
  • Bring reading material with you wherever you go (I might as well cover the other revolutionary idea while I’m on topic). Believe me, all those little peeps of time in between appointments and classes can add up to a ton of literature, scientific articles or time management books you will have read after a few months. I read Spirit Junkie mostly while using public transit and waiting!
  • Write a to-do list for that day, week, month, project, birthday party. Kills time and sorts out your head all in one!
  • Write, in general. Whether it’s articles for your blog, the introduction for this course’s paper, a letter to someone, a detailed description of the day you’re having, venting frustration about a fight you had on paper. Clears your mind, lifts your mood and before you know it, the wait is over.
  • Talk to someone! Whoever is around, whether they’re waiting too or just look interesting to strike up conversation with, chat with a stranger. It’s great for your social skills and getting to know other people can be a great lesson sometimes. After a great conversation you can walk away very happy and inspired. That would be nice, right?
  • Eat or drink something, especially if you’re waiting for a no-food-allowed kind of thing. It’s good to be well-fed and well-hydrated. I always bring a banana and a bottle of water with me**.
  • Give your hands a little pampering. My hands are often neglected: I use them for everything and when I go to bed I suddenly feel how dry they are. I like to rub in a little hand cream whenever I am reminded. I love the smell of Dove, so that’s my usual pick, but Lush, Sabon and any fancy perfume brand have wonderful hand lotions as well.
  • Send love and light to someone you care about. Picture them basking in a bright white light with a smile on their face. Try surrounding them with love and positive energy. It could be to anyone; from your parents to your friends to a colleague you know is having a hard time in  their personal life. I believe this is good for your own mental state as well as how you approach your relationship with that person; by doing this exercise you’ll be more open and loving towards them. Add to that I personally do believe my energy must have some effect on the world and other people, and that by doing this exercise I make sure the effect is a good one.
  • Do some of the exercises to increase positive energy (click)! I’m guessing you’re going to do mostly the silent ones like me: I like to do the Energy Shower Visualisation!
  • And why not try your hand at some light manifesting while you wait? I have some perfect exercises for that right here!
  • Create a folder on your phone with the favorite text messages from your favorite people so you can scroll through them: declarations of love from your lover(s?), memories of a great night out with your best friend, funny things your sister said or a nice compliment of someone you don’t talk to often. It’s a great way to remind yourself of your blessings and the wonderful people in your life. On that note: Pictures from your Vision Board (hello, we heart it and pinterest!), wonderful inspiring e-mail exchanges and holiday snapshots have similar effects.

Time is so incredibly precious. How we spend out minutes turns into how we have spend our days. And our days are our lives in miniature. With that in mind, standing about idly doesn’t seem right now, does it? Don’t you want to use all of the time available to you the best you possibly can? Whether it’s waiting for the bus, in between appointments, a ten minute delay: it’s still time you could use. Why waste it?

Be like that writer. Refuse to wait. Use all the time you get in this life, and use it well.

*It’d be so much cooler if I remembered who it was about. The only thing I still know is that he wrote fantasy books with the protagonist in a moral dilemma of being able to do great things with bad powers but having bad powers. Or something. Any ideas?

**I’d be such an excellent chimpanzee.

The Importance of Being on Time.

 Important Stuff, Relationships, Time Management  14 Responses »
Mar 032012
 

Yesterday, one of my best friends in the world accidentally delivered an amazing lesson about why you should always do your absolute best to do what you say your’re going to do, or more specifically, to be somewhere when you say you’re going to be there.

I’ve known this friend for a long time, we met in early high school, she’s incredible. I’ve been coming around her place for almost ten years, and I know her parents quite well: very honest, hard-working and hospitable people. They are always happy to see me, they hug and kiss me, ask me how I am, how my parents are, and of course: why I don’t come around more often, stuff like that. They’re great, I adore them.

Last night I had some girlfriends over and we were talking about punctuality; they had arrived at my place an hour late, with only one exception. We were joking around: I was made fun of for not being the most punctual person in the world myself.

Now, I’ll make sure to be on time for official appointments like a dental cleaning, job interviews, classes: I hate being that one person that keeps everybody waiting, nor do I want to disrupt the schedule of a professional. I always make sure to be on time for stuff like that. But when it comes to social appointments, I’m not very punctual. Often I find myself running ten minutes late. If not more.

And then my friend said, laughing: “Did you know that when you’re supposed to come over and you’re late, my dad is just sitting there, waiting? He’s always supersleepy but refuses to go to bed, just so he can say ‘hi’ to you!”

And it hit home. Because I pictured that sweet, grey-haired man sitting there, yawning but looking out the window, waiting: just so he’d be downstairs when I arrived. Just so he could give me a hug. Just to ask me about my  life and my family and see if I’m okay. Just to show me he cares about me. And I had been letting him wait unnecessarily, so many times. This man, who works a tiring full-time job, sitting there, and I let him wait.

And then I thought of the other friends I have let wait for me. Of the many casual social dates I came rushing into, for no good reason other than procrastination or bad planning on my part.

And I realized more than ever that it’s disrespectful. Even if it seems tiny and insignificant, it comes across as a sign that I don’t care enough to be on time for someone. It comes across as if I don’t value their time and presence. And giving off the impression I don’t love people is not something I want to do, especially when I adore them. I don’t want my friends to ever be under the impression I don’t value their time and presence.

So I’m going to show respect by being on time for them. So we can spend the time together that we had decided upon and so they know I know their time is valuable.  They could have been doing a thousand other things that day; I should consider myself lucky when they want to spend time with me.

Of course you don’t have to be as dramatic about it as I’m being right now, and argue for circumstances for being late like public transit and lost keys. You can also say that “everybody does it” and “it’s not that big a deal”.

Well, fuck those excuses. All I keep picturing is my friend’s dad. It’s a really powerful image to me. And so is giving off even the tiniest signal I don’t value my friends as they should be valued.

I’m going to be on time from now on. Fashionably late is fucking lame anyway. Considerately on time is going to be the next big thing as far as I’m concerned.