photo credit: timtom.ch

I was up early this morning with heartburn (completely new to me courtesy of pregnancy; I’d never encountered it before last week, so I can only be so whiny ) and decided it was finally time to buy the Zen To Done ebook.

I’ve been wanting it for months and am starting to feel the crunch with the impending arrival of our son, so it seemed like a good way to spend my “bonus” waking hours.

I’ve just finished reading it, and the piece of advice that really caught my attention was the repeated caution to only try to adopt one or maybe two of the 10 recommended habits at one time. Ideally I should focus on just one for at least 30 days.

It’s probably good that Leo repeated it so many times. Maybe it will help me actually do it! Focus is probably my number one challenge in every area of my life. I have diverse interests and love starting things, and then forget about all the things I’m already doing. I think I’m his exact target reader.

So that leaves me with two immediate decisions.

First, which of his habits to start with… I feel like I’m in desperate need of most of them right away, but that’s not realistic. So I’m going to spend the next 30 days focusing on the “Process” habit. Leo sums it up like this:

Habit: make quick decisions on things in your inbox, do not put them off. Letting stuff pile up is procrastinating on making decisions. Process your inboxes (email, physical, voicemail, notebook) at least once a day, and more frequently if needed. When you process, do it from the top down, making a decision on each item: do it (if it takes 2 minutes or less), trash it, delegate it, file it, or put it on your to-do list or calendar to do later.

This seems like a great place to start because one of my worst habits (productivity-wise) is letting everything pile up, particularly in my email.

If I start to deal with everything promptly, I expect that at least a few of the other habits will start to take care of themselves. For instance, if I deal with email immediately and am forced to say “yes” or “no” to new projects, that probably will help with the “Simplify” habit.

The second decision is about two productivity courses launching this week that I really would like to sign up for. One is called the 100 Day Challenge—it starts today and goes until December 31, 100 days away, and costs $97. The other is Wake Up Productive—it starts next Monday and runs for 90 days, so essentially the same time-frame, and costs $297.

Both courses include daily content and assignments. I’ve watched sample content from both and they both look like very high quality programs, which makes it both hard to choose and imperitive that I do—I want to get the most out of them, and I don’t think I can do that if I split my attention between them.

They’re both time-based, so I likely will only do one unless they’re repeated. Wake Up Productive seems more likely to be repeated, since the “draw” of the 100 Day Challenge is accomplishing specific goals before the end of 2008.

I’ve never purchased anything from either “guru” so no bias there… My business cash flow is tight, and I definitely need to get things in order before the baby is born, so should I decide strictly based on price? What do you think?

Clearly people don’t really get the whole supply-and-demand thing. Demand is still demand, regardless of what day it is or where you do your demanding. The market is not going to reduce costs of a limited-supply commodity unless demand goes down.

Though it certainly wouldn’t be popular, I think the best long term outcome for the US would happen if gas prices continue to rise. I’d be in favor of pretty drastic measures to get people to stop using so much gas. So much of what we do use is wasteful (seriously, why do you need an Expedition for a commuter vehicle?), and maybe we could positively impact one of our other “great outrages”, the cost of health care, if people actually started walking and biking more (not to mention reducing the long term effects of city pollution).

Enough ranting for me. If you’re bored, go replace your incandescents with CFLs.

I present to you, “How do you know when it’s time for a radical change?” This isn’t just about being organized—think of it as a reminder for all areas of your life.

This book is not telling you that you “should” do this or “should” do that but it explains how keeping clutter can affect you so that you can make your own informed choice about it from here on in.

“Should” is one of the most disempowering words there is. When you use it you feel guilty and obligated. My advice is to dump the word from your vocabulary forever and use the word “could” instead.

Feel the difference: “I should start clearing my clutter today” or “I could start clearing my clutter today.” “Could” empowers you, gives you choice, and later allows you to take the credit for a job well done. “Should” depresses you, makes you feel at fault, and brings you little joy on completion of the task.

I suggest you also dump “can’t” and substitute “won’t.” Then you’ll really make some progress. Again, feel the difference: “I can’t decide whether to keep this or let it go” or “I won’t decide whether to keep this or let it go.” In the “can’t” example, you are helpless and hopeless. In the “won’t” example, you are expressing your decision as a being of free choice, and if you then ask yourself why you won’t let it go, you will discover it comes down to some subconscious block you never realized you had: “I won’t decide whether to keep this or let it go because it brings up all the feelings to do with my mother/father/spouse…” and so on. Well, there’s still work for you to do, but at least you are being honest now.

I think it’s probably a good idea to take this advice. What other words should (oh, wait, could!) I be substituting?

The initial PARK(ing) intervention occurred on November 16, 2005 from noon until 2 p.m., without incident or interference from any level of institutional authority. Sort of makes you wonder what else you can do in a parking space . . .

This is definitely thinking outside the box, and it certainly improved the neighborhood for those couple of hours. It does make me wonder what other creative people could end up doing with a parking space. Any suggestions?

Instead, pick one or two desserts and two or three side dishes that are your guest’s absolute favorites and put your heart and soul into them.

They point out that you can’t seriously focus on a bajillion recipes and that you won’t get to enjoy yourself if you try. This is very much common sense advice, but it seems like common sense sometimes flies out the window when family expectations are involved. Save time, money, and sanity by choosing favorites instead of doing everything.

I came across Beth Dargis’s Simplicity Calendar through a newsletter I subscribe to (I love good newsletters!), and it really appeals to me. It’s free if you subscribe to her newsletter (which I suspect will be great).

This reminds me vaguely of several magazines I’ve read over the years. There was something, maybe put out by Focus on the Family, that I had when I was in my early teens that had a monthly calender in the back of each issue with an issue or celebrity to pray for each day (the details are a little fuzzy; am I making this up?).

A more recent magazine is Martha Stewart Living, in which Martha posted “her calender” in the front of each issue. Did she do this while she was in prison? I think it reverted to generic stuff (plant things on the 30th) or maybe disappeared entirely. I’m not faithful enough a reader to know.

Anyway, I’ve downloaded Beth’s calender and it looks great! Today’s idea is “Have the kids start to go to bed earlier”—which is, incidentally, a great idea, having them start the school routine early enough to ease into it, but I don’t have kids. Guess that makes it a free day for me!

I may use some of these as jumping off points for my blogs.

I’ve been thinking about this passage since I read it. It’s from The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, chapter 12:

Some kind of procession was approaching us, and the light came from the persons who composed it.

First came bright Spirits, not the Spirits of men, who danced and scattered flowers—soundlessly falling, lightly drifting flowers, though by the standards of the ghost-world each petal would have weighed a hundred-weight and their fall would have been like the crashing of boulders. Then, on the left and right, at each side of the forest avenue, came youthful shapes, boys upon one hand, and girls upon the other. If I could remember their singing and write down the notes, no man who read that score would ever grow sick or old. Between theme went musicians: and after these a lady in whose honour all this was being done.

I cannot now remember whether she was naked or clothed. If she were naked, then it must have been the almost visible penumbra of her courtesy and joy which produces in my memory the illusion of a great and shining train that followed her across the happy grass. If she were clothed, then the illusion of nakedness is doubtless due to the clarity with which her inmost spirit shone through the clothes. For clothes in that country are not a disguise: the spiritual body lives along each thread and turns them into living organs. A robe or a crown is there as much one of the wearer’s features as a lip or an eye.

But I have forgotten. And only partly do I remember the unbearable beauty of her face.

“Is it? … is it?” I whispered to my guide.

“Not at all,” said he. “It’s someone ye’ll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah Smith and she lived at Golders Green.”

“She seems to be … well, a person of particular importance?”

“Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.”

“And who are these gigantic people… look! They’re like emeralds… who are dancing and throwing flowers before her?”

“Haven’t ye read your Milton? A thousand liveried angels lackey her.“

“And who are all these young men and women on each side?”

“They are her sons and daughters.”

“She must have had a very large family, Sir.”

“Every young man or boy that met her became her son—even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.”

“Isn’t that a bit hard on their own parents?”

“No. There are those that steal other people’s children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more. Few men looked on her without becoming, in a certain fashion, her lovers. But it was the kind of love that made them not less true, but truer to their own wives.”

“And how… but hullo! What are all these animals? A cat—two cats—dozens of cats. And all those dogs… why, I can’t count them. And the birds. And the horses.”

“They are her beasts.”

“Did she keep a sort of zoo? I mean, this is a bit too much.”

“Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In her they became themselves. And now the abundance of life she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them.”

I looked at my Teacher in amazement.

“Yes,” he said. “It is like when you throw a stone into a pool, and the concentric waves spread out further and further. Who knows where it will end? Redeemed humanity is still young, it has hardly come to its full strength. But already there is joy enough in the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead things of the universe into life.”