Author: alankey83

Making less decisions

I am currently reading The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha. I want to make a list of the changes I want to make that will hopefully reduce the number of decisions I need to make and create more time. It’s important not to jump in too fast, so only a few to start with.

Most are stolen directly from The Happiness Equation, but I guess that is the point of the book.

Emails

Emails are my biggest distraction at work. I reply to them throughout the day, most of the time at the expense of actually achieving what I originally planned to complete. The nature of my job means some emails are urgent and cannot be ignored. However the vast majority of my daily emails can be dealt with the following day. Setting aside 30 minutes at the start and end of each day will not only allow me to dedicate time to responding to emails, but reduce the distraction they have on my focus throughout the rest of the working day.

The main hurdle to this will be how to identify which emails are urgent and which aren’t. Some people mark emails as important when in reality they really aren’t. Other don’t utilise Outlook markers and an urgent email will not be highlighted as being important.

High time ‘low importance’ tasks

Automating decisions

I’m already quite good at some of these. What shirt I wear tends to be whatever happens to be closest when I hope the wardrobe. I go to the same place to buy my lunch and buy the same thing, boring I know but it removes a decision. I walk to work the same way dependant on the weather. My aim is to identify similar decisions that really don’t make any difference to me, but I make each day anyway.

Low time low importance tasks.

Tasks that could be done there and then

I’m particular good at delaying tasks that can be completely in 15-30 minutes. They sit there and become another task that needs completing among a mountain of other tasks. This could be as simple as arranging for an invoice to be paid. Doing things when they arrive is a much needed improvement for me.

Low time high importance tasks.

Wish me luck!

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Changing life direction: 2019 goals

I look back over the past decade and the years are largely distinguishable from where I travelled. These were my achievements and I was always planning the next one.

Then it all changed. Something deep inside me had shifted. My goals for this year have for the first time little to do with travel. I want to change myself for the better, feel happier and healthier. I have a nagging feeling that for all the wonderful places I visited, memories I have created and friends I have made, travel was in part a way of avoiding reflective thinking, a way of avoiding aiming to be who I really want to be.

I really want to put my goals down in writing. It’s better late than never, but my goals for this year are as follows:-

  • Run a half-marathon: this is already booked. I am running the Oxford half-marathon in October with three friends. I have a long way to go, but I know where I need to get to.
  • Complete my second Tough Mudder Classic: I completed a Tough Mudder Classic last May and we are running the exact same event this coming May. I was close to crying towards the end, I hope to be in better shape in just over five weeks time. It’s not looking good, but doing it as a group will pull us through (again).
  • Commit to the gym: this ties in with the half-marathon and Tough Mudder. I have been good and we are over half way through March. I want to be able to say I kept my gym routine up throughout the rest of the year.
  • Attain a Coaching qualification: this one is the big one and will take time. I am studying an ILM Level 7 Diploma in June. This is a journey I have spoken about before, this is what I want to do. I’m glad it’s finally getting off the ground.
  • Reduce my alcohol intake: I’m not doing very well on this one. I acknowledge I drink far too much and I was being better in January by keeping a record of exactly what I was drinking. Unfortunately I stopped doing this, my goal is to pick this up again.
  • Being happier: I’m not unhappy and there is so much I am grateful for. But I want to learn how to appreciate the good and focus less on the bad than I currently do. Within this, trying to be more mindful than I currently am.
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Starting again

So here I am, my second blog. This is more an introductory blog post and doesn’t contain any meaningful content.

The focus of the my first blog was primarily travel, although it wasn’t a travel blog as such. It didn’t really have a particular direction. I stuck at it for nearly two years but if I am being honest it started to become a chore. Travel is something I have clearly lost my interest in, which I admit I never thought would ever happen. I was writing not because I was enjoying it but because I felt I should.

Blog number two is about my life, my experiences, my goals, dressing all of that up and putting it down into words to help me reflect. Simply put, my blog is to give me a space to write about what I enjoy writing about. I don’t know the direction I want to go in, but I don’t want to find myself in another place where I am no longer enjoying why I started a blog in the first place.

I will explain the title of this blog but that is for another blog post; it alludes to life and people as a whole being far simple, sometimes incomprehensible.

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