26 January 2009

Three things that make a difference

We were talking about lists. My friend has a notebook on her desk, a page for each day, and the day’s list of tasks on it. She claims she got the idea from me. I do use a "per day" list at the office – and make the next day's list the night before. But now I also have a little lined notebook that goes everywhere with me - an endless list. With a little discipline, you teach yourself to write things down immediately – and they don’t get lost. Of course you have to remember to check the list regularly.

Another thing that makes life easier is putting out clothes for the next day at bedtime. In the morning, there’s no big decision to make, first thing.

The third thing that has helped remove stress is having a timer handy, in case there's something I don't want to get started on ... setting the timer for "just 15 minutes" really works for me. Setting the timer is a signal that I’m really going to do this thing, instead of thinking about it; and when it goes PING or BRRRrrrr, that’s the signal that I can stop for now. And by then the dreaded task has lost its dread.

1 comment:

Mai-Britt Axelsen said...

Another timer person......... I thought I was alone! And it works! Anyone can do something they don't like for 15 minutes.

Actually I've got three timers preset (if we can have more than one pair of sissors?)

15 minutes for boring jobs
1 hour for less boring jobs
2 hours for jobs I want to do, but keep procrastinating