A documentation of my journey to improve my life
Category: Mindfulness Month
As I sat knee’s locked and neck cramped squished into my seat on possibly the cheapest airline in the United States I had a lot running through my mind. I was returning home from our annual company trip to Scottsdale Arizona where I had just spent the last 5 days trying to find a balance between accomplishment and indulgence (not an easy balance to strike especially when the drinks are free and the peer pressure is high). I was the only...
A Reflective Run Through Toronto So there I was in Toronto Ontario; centre of the universe, home of Stanley Cup victories long passed and dreams (delusions) of new ones still fresh in people’s minds. I ventured out for a jog to clear my head after a long day at the conference I was attending. My headphones in, a smile on my face, my mind was completely engrossed in the incredible scenery around me. The buildings all had this eerie history...
Step 4: Focus On Functionality Facebook, text messages, TheChive, The Awesomer, IWasteSoMuchTime.com, Youtube, Email, LinkedIn, Geek.com, io9.com, Twitter, Instagram. These are just some of my favorite distractions and they can very quickly turn my day into an entertaining but very unproductive experience. How can I possibly be expected to get anything done when there is an entire world of geeky, awesome, hilarious, entertaining content waiting at my fingertips at any given moment? Well unfortunately the reality is I can’t… If...
Step 2: Automate to Execute To truly be effective at the important things I need to first get through the mindless things. I can’t count how much time I regularly waste on last minute grocery shopping, trying to figure out what I’ll make for dinner, paying bills, searching for information online, and on and on… To fix this issue my plan is to get as many of these things off my plate as I possibly can by implementing some of...
The Productivity Plan If you’re anything like me your biggest problem with productivity isn’t motivation; the biggest reason I don’t get anything done is because I’m either overloaded, distracted, unfocused or all 3. Besides battling constantly to try and put a dent in my endless lists of unfinished work and generally struggling with prioritization and time management (see GTD article) I am regularly fighting with personal distractions and a lack of focus. After researching for the last few weeks and...
Pretentious attitudes, long hair, man buns, Lulu Lemon, tight pants, overly bendy, over complicated, stretching disguised as a workout. This was basically my general perception of Yoga and those doing Yoga up to the beginning of this month. Was it a bit (quite) prejudgemental? Well, ya, but I’m not sure this was totally my fault. My only experiences with Yoga to date hadn’t really been the most positive. Besides my one-off encounters with the friendly but strange hippyish types practicing their...
3 hours 32 minutes, 4 cups of tea, half a box of somewhat stale Triscuits and 1 celebratory beer after we began I took a step back and I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. My girlfriend Brittney and I had just spend the better part of an evening writing down and filing every single last “need to do” in our lives. And when I say every I mean Every! “Finish installing the return-air vents, send thank you cards to friends,...
Have you ever gotten in your car, driven somewhere and then realized upon arrival that you have no recollection of the trip over? How about checking the clock at work and realizing ‘holy crap, it’s already 2:30, where did my day disappear to?’ Or how about getting into an argument and then suddenly stopping to ask yourself, ‘how did we get here?’ This happened to me all the time, I would float through my days doing my best to steer my life in the...
I never in a 100 years thought that I would ever try meditation It’s not that I’m a closed off person, actually far from it, but meditation just seemed hokey and kind of far fetched. The only people I knew that meditated were long haired hippies and equally long haired (but probably in a man bun) yoga instructors and I didn’t exactly identify with either of them. Besides, I always felt like I was a pretty intelligent and self aware person and...
‘Okay what do I have to do today? I should send some emails, finish that excel spreadsheet, call a few clients, make a Facebook post, find some images that look like clouds, and remember to message my girlfriend to make sure we’re still on for dinner at our friends house tonight. Maybe I’ll start with that Facebook post. Oh hey! Looks like Shelby had her baby. I should probably comment on that or she’ll think I’m a dick. Might as well check...
