Life can be lived at different speeds and many find living at a slower speed much more beneficial for physical and mental health than living at a faster speed. Speed to me is not “living life in the fast lane” and while it is related to the rapidity of task completion, it’s best measurement is how out of control or stressed one feels about what is going on and needs done. It’s a relative feeling of speed. When you’re driving at night with the lights off you seem to be going a lot faster than with the lights on. Knowing where you are going and what you have passed without having to keep it all in RAM (on the top of your mind) can greatly decrease the feeling of speed whilst increasing the feeling of accomplishment. This is part of why I see organization as so important. The rest is simply that it saves time, also increasing the rate at which tasks are completed without increasing the feeling of speed. We’re talking stress here, and how to give your body and mind a break by living life at a slower speed.
I have already mentioned one way to do this – by organizing so you quickly know where you are, what is next, and what you have done. The third and key factor for this post is lowering the relative feeling of speed by doing things when you feel like doing them. Forcing yourself to do something you do not feel like doing will generally result in higher stress levels and lower quality work. I am not talking about being lazy. Repeat: doing something when you feel like doing it is not automatically lazy. Not realizing the benefit of doing something or mistaking the benefit as more important than the cost will cause laziness and other issues, but if something is beneficial and you know it at some point you’ll feel like doing it.
Dishes, for example. I don’t particularly ever want to do dishes, but there are definite benefits and the rewards are well worth the cost of not doing them. At some point every few days I glance at my to-do list and see “do a load of dishes” has appeared on it and doing dishes doesn’t seem all that bad, so I get up and do them. Sometimes dishes are the last thing on my list I want to do. So I don’t. Making it a choice rather than simple procrastination causes it to be empowering. I know the dishes will get done, albeit not this minute, and I choose instead to accomplish another task on my list I actually feel like doing. I’m still accomplishing things, I’m not neglecting something to the detriment of myself or others: it’s okay. Repeat after me: it’s okay to do this task later, this task will get accomplished in due time, don’t stress, don’t even think about it. It’s on my list. It will get done.
I commented recently upon a dislike of due dates – I do place due dates on tasks which must be done by/on a specific date, and repeating tasks in Remember the Milk (RTM) automatically have due dates, but my RTM list in Gmail shows upcoming tasks and because I’m constantly watching and weighing what I feel like doing I often complete things before the due date (this blog is “due” tomorrow but I saw it on my list and felt like writing now) and schedule them to be posted/sent/etc on the correct date or simply ignore them – they will still be on my list tomorrow. Due dates are generally flexible in my world, applying about a week before and after the actual date. It’s pretty given that somewhere in that two-week span I’ll feel like doing any given task. I also have a list in RTM for “stale” tasks I refer to that shows me the things I actually am procrastinating on – the search to save goes something like this:
not(addedWithin:”two weeks”) AND NOT list:*Someday AND NOT tag:waiting AND NOT (dueBefore:”two weeks”) AND NOT (dueAfter:”two months”)
The not dueAfter two months keeps tasks I have repeating on a yearly basis (birthday emails, etc) from showing up…and anything I’ve procrastinated on for two months I certainly know about and should have deleted or moved to the *Someday list.
Another key beyond knowing the benefits of a task is knowing your limits. Never accept/put on your list more than you can accomplish without negative stress, and ensure you leave time for yourself. Everyone needs down time, be it watching TV, taking an extra long shower, playing a video game, or reading a book: whatever relaxes you and your brain. If you can relax while still accomplishing something (reading->learning or gaming->socalizing) all the better. This is why I’m not a fan of TV – I rarely benefit from it, and the cost of subscribing to dubiously educational channels is far more than the content is worth to me. I have never and probably will never own a TV. I rarely even watch video online, usually reserved for when I’m completely brainless (probably sick and enduring cold medicine). My lifespan seems so short sometimes and there is so much I’d like to do with it. I think everyone should feel this way – wring everything enjoyable you can from your self and your life!
In closing I would like to say that not all stress and due dates are negative – I use milestones in my work because I enjoy the pressure of trying to get everything done before that milestone due date. Working within a tight budget of any kind can make people very creative, and the visual progress and impending feeling of accomplishment mitigates the negative aspects of stress. I also don’t stress much because I understand (to the nth degree) that software development always has unexpected things that come up which are often necessary and/or beneficial but will throw schedules off. Having a milestone list for tasks might well be useful, just keep an eye on the speedometer and don’t wait for your body to start writing you tickets you can’t pay for.
Filed under: Articles, health, organization, RTM, stress
