Welcome to The Simplifier, brought to you by…

Contents:

1. A Note From Shawn
2. Our Featured Quote
3. Article: Doing it Right
4. Your Simplification Tip
5. In the News
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
7. Keep Smiling

If this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here:
http://projectsimplify.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=2
Unsubscribe instructions can be found at the bottom of the newsletter.
Check out our newsletter archive page for back issues.
Visit Project Simplify’s website at www.projectsimplify.com.

1. A Note From Shawn

Short and hopefully sweet, this note will be—just as a rain cloud passed overhead damping down the dust this morning, leaving a fresh smell in the air. No doubt we’ll soon be back to 90+ degree weather. Until then, I’m enjoying the unexpected choice of “sweater or jacket?” today. These simple changes remind me that the familiar can be different in a heartbeat.

This issue is about just that. Doing things differently to make life a little sweeter. Why? Because we can!

Enjoy,

Shawn Tuttle

Head Simplifier
Project Simplify
Co-editor, The Simplifier

 

 

 

2. Our Featured Quote

“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.”

-Arnold Glascow

3. Article: Doing it Right

By Shawn Tuttle

This article is part of a series on the 5 Core Concepts. We’ve covered creating meaningful goals, visualizing, clearing obstacles, and planning. Now it’s time to start doing!

One of the primary reasons people want to simplify or get organized is to take care of everything they need to take care of with ease. While Planning (last article’s subject) gets into what actions to take toward your goals, Doing refers to how you work. Just because we call it “work” doesn’t mean it has to feel like you’ve been slaving away all day!

You want your work to be as easy on my mind, body, and spirit as possible, don’t you? 

• It’s easy on the mind when you make decisions quickly and accomplish tasks in an appropriate amount of time.
• It’s easy on the body when you mix up your activities and stay healthy. 
• It’s easy on the spirit when you make progress on your heartfelt goals as well as your other work. 

Making it hard
The antithesis of ease is stress. Oftentimes, the work itself isn’t difficult—it’s a challenging mental environment that makes work tough. Understanding what can trip your mind up helps you identify what changes will ease your work flow.

Confusion makes you ineffective and inefficient. The two most prevalent situations that confuse the brain are trying to do too many things at one time and not providing sufficient instructions to get the job done.

Think of your brain as a computer. When you tell it to check email, work on a report, write an agenda, and answer the phone simultaneously, it jumps around from one task to the next, spinning faster and faster. Even if a task is something you’ve done many times, your brain still needs to recall the instructions. Tracking too many sets of instructions stresses your brain. Maybe it completes some of the tasks while leaving others in mid-process. Sometimes it just freezes, leaving you feeling frustrated and overwhelmed.

The other common type of confusion results from not having a clear understanding of what you are doing. I’m not talking about the situations when you figure stuff out on the fly. I’m talking about unclear parameters. One example would be “Research article topic”. It’s akin to telling your computer to “search” without giving it a search term. How will your brain know when it has completed this task? Or if it gets off-track with the assignment? It needs specific information or you may end up researching all night long. Or, your brain will get bored and start wandering the far-flung corners of the World Wide Web. 

Exacerbating confusion, procrastination plays havoc with the mind. Leaving something until the last minute when you haven’t clearly defined the task makes for frantic action on top of worries that you’ve forgotten something. 

Some people thrive on last-minute pressure. I’ll bet this has to do with the time-pressure forcing them to make decisions quickly. You can’t be wishy-washy when the house is burning down. Unfortunately, last minute work is often sub-standard to your capabilities and can prevent you from accepting more enticing offers. (Ex.: Can’t go to the movies because I have to finish this report.) 

Strategies
Understanding that the brain is like a computer enables us to understand what it needs to function smoothly. 

• Know where stuff is. The organizer’s mantra: a place for everything and everything in its place. This goes for paper and digital files, supplies, keys, your wallet, deposit slips, everything!
• Set up systems for recurring actions and stick with them. Systems are only good when they are used thoroughly. Checking messages means: check voice mail, write down messages on designated pad, identify what actions should result from these messages and put those in your action or project lists.
• Take time to take care of yourself. Be nice to you! Remember to ask: “How can I make this easier on myself?”
• Be clear on your purpose. A good question to ask yourself regularly: “What am I doing right now?” If you aren’t sure, stop and decide what is the best thing to be doing based on your priorities.
• Understand the goal of the task at hand. Identify a measurable completion point, be it time-based or achievement-based.
• Use your schedule to assist you. Look ahead for big weeks—what can you do beforehand? What’s going on tomorrow—what can you prepare tonight?

Tips, tricks, and ideas 

• Do the super-important or hard stuff first to get it off your plate and off your mind.
• Schedule activities in appropriate chunks of time. Work within the limits of your attention span.
• Make a sign to post in your work space for when your mind gets frantic: “CLARIFY: WHAT AM I DOING?” (Here’s a PDF file with this message to post on your wall.)
• Biorhythms - Just as you probably wouldn’t expect yourself to run three miles right after a huge meal, schedule mental activities at the right time for the activity. If you’re a morning person, you’ll probably want to reserve mornings for high-caliber thinking projects. If you are a night person, figure out how you can structure your day accordingly.
• Be rested.
• If you have an unpredictable schedule, use a “short list” for the ToDos that absolutely must get done today. 
• Give yourself adequate time before appointments for preparation and travel. Likewise, allow time in your schedule after appointments for processing. 
• Leave less for the last minute. Challenge yourself to make more decisions sooner so you’ll keep moving forward. 
• Take breaks to minimize repetitive actions, don’t sit in one place for hours at a time, and give your eyes a break from the computer regularly.

Taking the time to evaluate and make adjustments to your Doing strategy helps you stay in good spirits and get everything done on time. You may well find that you spend less time on maintenance and recurring activities, too. You can think of it as putting your computer brain on “energy save” mode. Take it easy on your mind, body, and spirit—you already get enough action to keep things interesting!

Freeing yourself with Doing strategies gives you more space to explore the more subtle expressions and guidance of your journey. We’ll talk about this in the next article—the 5th and final part of the introduction to the 5 Core Concepts.

—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

4. Your Simplification Tip

Magic in the 21st Century

We can talk tips, tricks and ideas until the sun goes down. We’ll consider many and then adopt the ones we think will make enough of a difference to justify the change in our behavior. As with all of organizing, wouldn’t it be cool to have a magic “Simplify Doing Wand” to wave over our lives to make our work flow easy?  

Believe it or not, there actually is a magic wand to share with you. “What?” You protest, “you’ve been holding out on me?” Not exactly holding out… I wanted you to have a strong connection with your heartfelt goals first, because that’s your motivation to change.  And the magic wand is actually quite demanding. It requires discipline to wield. And the results are beyond what you can imagine right now. This “magic” bypasses your over-analytical thinking brain and goes straight to the heart of your life.

Enough build-up! What is it?!? I’m talking about the millennia-old practices of meditation and yoga. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll still need the systems and time to invest in maintaining your systems, but it will all be easier. Guaranteed. Not only will your work flow more smoothly and easily, you’ll be more creative, respond to situations more calmly, interact with people more wisely, and find it easier to stay connected with what’s important to you.

We’ve been hearing about the benefits of yoga and meditation for years now. Let this be the final justification you needed to take the plunge.

 

——————————————————————————————————-
Spread simplicity - forward The Simplifier to your friends and colleagues!
——————————————————————————————————-

5. In the News

In the News is compiled by The Simplifier co-editor Lance Brown.

Get financial records in order (Myrtle Beach Online - FL)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/2k5hsz                
“How do you know whether you need to spend more time getting your financial affairs organized? Answer: When a professional organizer sends you her latest book on the topic - and you lose it before you get a chance to open it.” That’s the funny (and apparently true) introduction to this rather useful article on getting all your financial ducks in a row, by Tom Herman of the Wall Street Journal.

Book Review: “The 4-hour Workweek” (The Motley Fool)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/2kk4a2                                 
Timothy Ferriss has figured out how to live large and happy, with tons of travel and enjoyment time. His book aims to help you do the same. The Motley Fool aims to let you know if it’s worth reading. (Yes, if you’re interested in adventurously escaping the 40-hour workweek grind, say they.)

Organizing the Empty Nest
URL: http://tinyurl.com/2teu3c  
The kids are gone—and therefore your life looks a lot different than it has in a long time. All your stuff and space and time is probably up for a reconfiguring. This article is here to console you, and to offer tips on “deconstructing the homestead”.

If you know of something in the news that should be featured here, let us know!

 

6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com

Novamind

Mind Mapping sounds like some sort of neurosurgery prep work or something—and for all we know, it is—but the mind mapping we’re talking about is more like a modern way to plan, outline, and organize, using computer software. Here’s an example of what a mind map can look like from overhead:

As you can see, each arm of the mind map can have sub-arms, and so on. Icons can be used to help visually organize things, and just about any kind of file (or another mind map) can be attached as a supplement to any part of the map. If conventional outlines have got you down, mind mapping may prove to be the info-system that works for you. And you can turn your mind map into a conventional outline, too, for when you have to interface with old-school outline people. ;-) You may or may not find that mind mapping is for you, but it’s worth trying out.

Novamind is Project Simplify’s preferred mind mapping software. It’s easy to use, easily customizable, and there are both Mac and PC versions.

You can learn more (and download Novamind) at the Novamind page on our site. Project Simplify has an affiliate relationship with Novamind (which basically means we’re a vendor of their software.) We don’t hawk a lot of other people’s products, but we’re happy to make an exception when we find something great that we think could make your life simpler and easier.

You can try Novamind out for free via our page…or you can check out more mind mapping software via a Google search, or see what’s available at the free software site Sourceforge. There are all sorts of both free and commercial tools to help you get started mind mapping. (Though not the neurosurgical kind…sorry.)

 

 

7. Keep Smiling

Clark and Michael

Clark and Michael are two young fellows out looking for work. Specifically, they’re screenwriters trying to make it big in Hollywood. In their off-time (when they’re not making it big), they are a “Laverne and Shirley”-like pair of best friends and roommates. Clark is overconfident and abrasive; Michael plays guitar, and has awkward anger moments. Together, they comprise the funniest comedy team since whatever comedy team you think was more funny than them.

I could tell you more about this dynamic duo of enterprising entertainers and their funny and feisty online “TV” show, but the best way to find out if they will help you keep smiling is to watch an episode of their show, “Clark and Michael”. Episode 1 would be a good place to start. The episodes are short—Episode 1 is the longest at just under 12 minutes.

Those of you who are lucky enough to be fans of the superb television show “Arrested Development” will recognize Michael (a.k.a. Michael Cera), who played George-Michael Bluth, and who is possibly today’s funniest young actor. You’ll also recognize a lot of guest stars from that same show.

If all goes well, you’ll get your required chuckles just from watching the opening credits of “Clark and Michael”…that way, our job is done, and the rest is gravy! :-)

URL: http://clarkandmichael.com 

 

——-

Thanks for reading!

Publication Information
————————————————————————–
The Simplifier is published by:
Project Simplify
P.O. Box 597
Nevada City, CA 95959
phone: 530.205.5775
web: www.projectsimplify.com
e-mail: (newsletter@projectsimplify.com) newsletter (at) projectsimplify (dot) com