Say No Now to Move Forward

Do you have looming deadlines? Now is the time to say No! You don't have to be mean, you just have to be firm. Say no to the unnecessary and the unneeded. You can also say no to the much later and not required now.

Focus on what is needed now. Don't look for new projects or let them find you. When you have looming deadlines it is just the nature of the beast that exciting shiny projects will come charging in. This is always the time they will come looking for you, they really will. Be prepared.  Don't let them in your head. Don't put them on your desk or desktop to distract you from your deadline.

Are you about to finish up the school year? Are you almost three weeks away from deadline? This is truly the time to take the words above in the top two paragraphs to heart. Say No now to move forward.

This is a best of post from 2014

Time for a Calendar Review!

Have you reviewed your calendar lately? A calendar review is a great way to get insight into your productivity. To do this helpful exercise, open up your online or paper calendar and review your past 12 months of listed activities.

• Do you have significant and functional social time with friends, family and loved ones?
• Have you included physical exercise and healthy activities to reach your health and fitness goals?
• Are you including enrichment and life long learning activities into your schedule?
• Are the associations and organizations that you belong to and attending fulfilling your needs?

Your calendar can give you valuable data into how you are spending your time. It can also flag activities that you list but do not attend. Take some time to review your calendar, it will be time well spent.

This is an earlier 2012 post from my Terry's Thinking Blog, well worth revisiting this time of year.  

Say No Now to Move Forward

Do you have looming deadlines? Now is the time to say No! You don't have to be mean, you just have to be firm. Say no to the unnecessary and the unneeded. You can also say no to the much later and not required now.

Focus on what is needed now. Don't look for new projects or let them find you. When you have looming deadlines it is just the nature of the beast that exciting shiny projects will come charging in. This is always the time they will come looking for you, they really will. Be prepared.  Don't let them in you head. Don't put them on your desk or desk top to distract you from your deadline.

Are you about to finish up the school year? Are you almost three weeks away from deadline? This is truly the time to take the words above in the top two paragraphs to heart. Say No now to move forward.

Look at "Shoulds" and "Coulds"

Are you failing to listen to the should and the could's in your life? By transforming our shoulds into "do's" and "will"s we may accomplish many things.  However, sometimes our should and coulds are things we might want to avoid doing entirely.

1. Take a look at your shoulds and coulds

Spend some time over the next few days listening to your inner talk and your external communications. Take note of the number of times you express or think the word "Should" or "Could". If you have a high frequency of shoulds or coulds, (Perhaps 5+ a day) you may want to spend some "thinking, development and planning" time around them.


2. Delve into the shoulds and coulds

After you have listened to yourself over the last few days, you may find some frequent shoulds and coulds. Take time to jot them down in sentence form.

I should get more sleep at night
I wish I could keep my desk clear
We could buy a new car



3. Analyze your should and could's for future work and change.

Let's say you want to get more sleep. How can you go about making it come to fruition? By brainstorming you may come to some possilble solutions.

For example:  

I should get more sleep -  To get more sleep, go to bed earlier or stay in bed longer. The should becomes a will when you decide to go to sleep earlier or set your alarm for a later morning wake up.

We could buy a new car - Deciding to buy a new or different car, is a process and project. You may choose to get a new car when your current car reaches a certain mileage, or if maintenance fees exceed the cost of a monthly payment. Your new car might be more advantageous when you have to start driving to your new company's office (which is further away) to keep fuel costs down. A new car might make more sense after you have paid off other debts or saved a certain dollar amount. The could becomes more of a strategy and plan development when you look at the when and why components.


4. Transform your should and could's to wills, when's, why's or later decisions. If you formalize and bring these shoulds and coulds  to the next phase you will allow more space for things to happen.

5. Erase your negative should and could's from your mental and verbal vocabulary.  Sometimes we have stuck should and could's which can not be easily transformed into action or do not warrant further thought about.

For Example:

I should have said  ..... instead of ......
I could have read the directions three times and caught my mistake (after improperly assembling a complex piece of furniture)


Spend some time working on your should and could's and you will likely transform your life.


This is a best of post from 2009.

Choose Happiness Over Stuff

A special guest post from Going Forward author MoreenTorpy. 

 

Why is it that as a society, we seem to have tumbled into the mindset that to have an abundance of stuff ensures happiness?

I wonder what other holes in our hearts we’re trying to fill by accumulating more than we really need. Did we lack something as children that we’re trying to compensate for now? Or are we trying to protect ourselves against future lack?

Or, are we thinking we're not "enough" without "stuff"? A wise person said that to not want something is as good as having it. What an amazing concept!

Can we actually be losing ourselves by adding more “stuff” to our lives? Material goods require maintenance which takes time away from important activities such as spending time with our friends and families. Over time, by neglecting what is of real value—people, they're gone because we’ve pushed them away. When acquiring and holding onto "stuff" becomes more important than people, we're in trouble!

Once we realize that abundance does not have to be material possessions, we can appreciate and enjoy what we do have. Health, family, friends, having enough to eat, something to look forward to in life, and much more to be grateful for that bring happiness.

So let’s make room for real happiness in our lives that includes more people and less stuff.

© 2012 Moreen Torpy. You may reprint this article. If you do, please include the resource tagline below with the hyperlinks intact.

Moreen Torpy is the De-Clutter Coach, a Trained Professional Organizer, Author, and Speaker. Her new book is Going Forward: Downsizing, Moving and Settling In. See www.goforwarddownsize.com for more about the book including where and how to purchase it. 

The Gift of Full Attention

In today's world of technology we often slide into the slippery slope of too much multitasking,  not enough granting of our full attention. Paying attention means consciously making good choices to focus solely on the task at hand.

Being a single-tasker can bring lots of pleasure to your day as well as prevent accidents, misunderstandings and mistakes.

Here is a list of things to consider not doing:

• Driving and talking on the cell phone
• Reading email and eating
• Playing with your children and talking on the phone
• Working with a client or on an assignment and checking email or text messages
• Reading emails while we are on the phone (other than while being "on hold" or collaborating on the e-mail)
• Walking the dog and talking on the cell phone

Being fully present in many of your daily actions is a gift. Give your gift of full attention to the things that count.


This is an earlier post from my other blog - Terrys Thinking. You might also enjoy my last post - Enjoy the Present!

Small Steps to Getting Things Done

Getting started is often the hardest part of any task. Think about some "small steps" you can do to get part of the process or project done.

One of the ways to view the task in today's modern world is to decide if your task involves Electronic Communication Activities or Non-Electronic Communications Activities.  By determining this you can set the stage to begin your task. You can also steer yourself away from the electronic distractions which are more of a tendency to increase procrastination. 



Electronic Communication Activities 

• Turn on the computer or phone
• Mentally draft an outline of the conversation or email/test before you actually begin
• Look up a phone number or email in your files
  
• Get into a blank document  (if you have to draft a letter) or set up an email or text
• Start typing or speaking

Conversly if you don't have a "screen" or electronic task at hand, you can consider using this list of steps:

Non-Electronic Communications Activities

• Turn off the computer
• Turn off the cell or mobile phone
• Visualize or decide what needs to be done first
• Get out the tools you need to do the job
• Go to the needed location 
• Begin your process

 

Stop Procrastinating

Procrastinating, we all do it from time to time. I just spent some "extra time" surfing the web and came across this fun site. Of course I took the time to create my own wordle - here is what I anonymously created.



If you really are procrastinating, think about visiting my website at www.terryprince.com

600 Days at Sea

The last time I posted about the 1000 days at sea adventure was on day 300. Now over 600 days have passed. A lot has changed, and some things have not.

Soanya has departed and given birth to a son, so the adventure is now a solo trip with Reid sailing on alone.

Reid posts on the 1000 days website quite regularly with interesting tales, daily pondering and photos of the schooner, the seas, occasional birds and fish.

I still follow the sail path using Google Earth and go on mini geographic searches of the current area.

There is a lot to learn from the perspective of people who do things differently. Even when things don't have to be done, it can be amazing what can simply be learned from those who undertake the unnecessary, the unfathomable adventure.

Being Your Own Best Friend

This is a post repeated from last September 27, 2007 - but is well worth rereading in the days around the December holidays. Enjoy!


You can be your own best friend by:

Taking care of your mental, emotional and basic physical needs

Taking time out for yourself when you need it

Removing and extracting yourself from stress and overload

Being able to say no when you have had enough

Treating yourself as well as you treat others

Work on improving who you are on a daily basis

Asking for help and support from other friends when you need it

Being patient with yourself