This post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman.
I usually have an idea of what I want to accomplish once I get home from work. It goes something like this:
But I never seemed to accomplish all I set out to do. Sometimes I’d accomplish none of it. Other activities would get in the way, and my evening would go something like this:
An hour and a half would pass by, and I’d realize that I wasn’t going to get as much done as I had planned. I’d start to practice yoga, but with my head full of e-mails, social media posts, and random bits of information, my practice wouldn’t be as fruitful. Eastern traditions refer to this as the “monkey mind” that jumps from one thought to the next, and my monkey mind would be swinging in the trees. This led to a somewhat dissatisfying practice, which made me want to speed it up because I was unable to focus.
Then, instead of making dinner, I’d eat some yogurt and granola and flip on the TV (you know, only planning to watch while I ate dinner). Eventually I might make it back to the computer and read a couple of things pertinent to my freelance work, but then I’d be derailed by checking out that-site-about-that-thing. After awhile I’d realize it was late and decide to hit the hay.
No satisfaction
I wasn’t satisfied with this routine. I wanted a good yoga practice. I wanted to get ahead on my writing work and to spend an hour or so cooking something wonderful. I wanted to feel like I was making headway on my freelance business and to sink my teeth into a good book every night. Out of five things I wanted to do, I’d actually do only one or so, and I wouldn’t even do that one thing very well.
I figured that the problem was starting the evening with activities that were real time sucks, like e-mail, Facebook, and blog feeds. After that, it was even more likely that I’d watch a little TV or surf the net for “just a few more minutes.”
I decided to test my theory. The next day I came home and resisted the urge to “quickly check” anything online. Instead, I rolled out my yoga mat and had a satisfying practice. Afterward, all I wanted to do was to make a big salad, and that’s exactly what I did, sans TV shows. Later I sketched out an outline for an article and brainstormed some new leads, and eventually made my way to bed. I only got through three pages of a book before falling asleep, but all in all, I had my perfect evening, accomplishing what I wanted. It felt good.
Identifying time sucks
I have a lot of irons in the fire right now, especially compared to just one year ago. Juggling these things isn’t easy, and I’m sure most of you can relate. If you have kids, you’re probably 20 times busier than me. We can wish for more hours in a day, but we’re only going to get 24, so it’s up to us to decide how we want to spend them.
Everyone has a different way of wasting away the hours, but I’ll identify some common ones. In the online world, there are countless time-sucking activities, such as:
Time sucks aren’t only found on the internet, though. Offline, activities that can suck your time include:
It’s also worth mentioning that another time suck is struggling with disorganization. If I want to go for a run, but I have to spend 30 minutes looking for my other tennis shoe, that’s a frustrating waste of time that might derail the run all together. Also, I want to point out that many activities on these lists are not inherently bad, unless you’re doing them at the expense of something else that would be more satisfying to you.
Battling the time suck
If any of those time sucks sound familiar (and they do to me), there are ways to circumvent time suckage.
Number five is powerful because it focuses on the positive, letting enjoyment and good feelings affect your activities instead of making the evening one big to-do list. I know I’ll feel better after my yoga practice, and that gets me on my mat. Afterward, I’m encouraged by that success to spend the rest of the evening mindfully.
Avoiding time sucks is not something you accomplish once and for all. There will be days when you come home and waste three hours watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer re-runs. (No? Just me?) It’s a daily choice, but a worthy goal. When you are mindful with your time, you can accomplish more of what’s important to you.
Readers, what time sucking activities have I left out? What do you do to avoid them?
J.D.’s note: This really reminds me of the book I’m reading right now (The Other 8 Hours by Robert Pagliarini). It’s all about avoiding time sucks. Any interest in a review? It also reminds me of Trent’s post yesterday about meeting goals.
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Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly:
Police in West Cape May, New Jersey, are investigating mysterious knitted cozies that are appearing on on trees in the town during the night:
But not everyone is keen to stop the mysterious knitter – and the mayor and many residents admit they have been enthralled by the rainbow of colours.
Susan Longacre takes a walk each morning in Wilbraham Park, where several tree branches have been covered in the handiwork of the Midnight Knitter.
“I think it’s wonderful” she told the newspaper.
Link | Photo: US Department of Homeland Security
Makers Market seller Kevin of kaitrees has a bunch of great videos on his market blog. They range from details of the pieces themselves, to "slap tests", and works in progress. It's a neat look at the process that goes into making these pieces.
My sculptures are an effort to distill what real trees inspire in people into something one can have inside their living or working space.
This tree in the video above will require about 500 hours to complete, stand over 7 feet tall, and will use about 1000 strands of aluminum wire. It's his largest piece to date, and looks Amazing! I wonder how much it will weigh?
Quieting the mind to focus on the important can be difficult. It’s so easy to get caught up in what we “should be” doing, rather than focusing on what brings us joy and happiness. For example, some of the “should statements” that have popped into my mind lately include:
And the list goes on and on.
The “should” statements are noisy and annoying. So I’ve incorporated the following tips into my life. The actions have helped me quiet my noisy mind. I hope you find them useful.
Enjoy the little things and don’t worry about “I should” statements. For instance, I set an “unrealistic” goal of making at least $25,000 this year from writing, web design and a few side projects. I know it’s possible and I also know it’s impossible to control the future.
Instead of trying to predict the future, be a rock star for at least 5 minutes a day and focus on the moment. Rather than trying to create the perfect future, you can create art that matters. A piece of art that can change a person’s life for the better.
Walking is a form of active meditation. It’s a beautiful way to calm the mind, be present and mindful of your experiences while you walk. Look at the trees, flowers, and people you pass. More importantly, don’t forget to breathe.
You know what to do. Turn the internet off and focus on your thoughts. When the “should” statements get too overwhelming, write down all of the thoughts that pop into your mind. Getting the “should” statements onto paper will help clear your mind and move forward.
A yoga teacher told me that “Yoga reveals what was once hidden. When life gets hard, we run away. And that’s where yoga comes in handy. It forces you to examine what you’re running from.”
Yoga is powerful. It’s one way you can take care of your body, that encompass both the physical and emotional. If you aren’t practicing yoga, I’d encourage you to start. Even if you only have 10 to 15 minutes a day, it will make you feel better.
Also, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to practice Yoga. I highly recommend reading Minimalist Yoga.
Eco Factor: Sustainable developed city to be made using recycled materials.
Designed by Deric Fourie, Dan Bernos, Michael Menuet and Pablo del Amo, the Tower City in Marseilles envisions the city of Marseilles as a stacked skyscraper that sits on water. The design calls for a city to be built on water, rather than spreading out with the rise in population.
The futuristic development is conceived to be built using salvaged materials from the old city and will be powered by renewable energy. With a population of over 1,600,000 and an urban density of 3500 per sq km, the city is in need of next-gen architecture that can be built using less land.
The proposed development will allow the inhabitants of the city to be close to nature and trees in an open space rather than being completely surrounded by urban sprawl for miles and miles.
Via: Inhabitat
Senior forecaster Jeff Douel this morning suggested trees might be at risk with the squally showers due tomorrow, Friday and Saturday.
612 Breakfast reporter Anne O'Keeffe caught up with arborist Scott Kane, who concurred and had this advice:
Telephone networks have been redesigning telecom masts as trees for a while now but we were curious to notice the urban version of this camouflage strategy in New York's Murray Hill a few days ago.
I was trying to explain spam to my wife, and she said:
WIFE: Oh, like the Yellow Pages!
ME: What?? How is that like the Yellow Pages?
WIFE: Well, they drop those huge books on your doorstep, whether you want ‘em or not–
ME: Ah, you’re right. I have to throw it away, it’s paper waste, bad for the planet, and they make money on those books. That is kinda like spam. Good point. Hmm…
WIFE (smiles at her cleverness)
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Hereth Beginneth The Top 11 Spammers In History…
Yes, I’m finally tall enough not to have to sit on the Yellow Pages anymore, so I have to throw them away when they arrive. They’re bad for mother earth, trees are sad, and worst of all, it makes them money with ads that probably don’t work. (No, they don’t work- have you tracked them with a unique URL? Ok, then.)
So if you want to throw them away but you feel bad because of the paper waste, you end up keeping it- that’s Eco-Blackmail! Dastardly.
[Photo credit: Helio d'or]
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Flyer-Hander-Outers
As one comedian said… it’s like they’re saying, “here can you throw this away for me?” NO THANKS!
[Photo Credit: Kenny Maths]
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The Car Flyer People
I object. I turn on my windshield wipers, litter the parking lot, and blame the flyer spammers. Their name is on the flyers, so whoever finds them gets to see where the waste came from.
[Photo credit: E Bartholomew]
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Nazis
[they don't deserve a photo]
Everyone knows Nazis are bad, and spamming is bad- I’m not sure what they spammed, but they must have spammed something. Aryanism, for example.
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Hooters
You know exactly what they’re spamming us with. (It was actually pretty difficult to find a Hooters photo that wasn’t depressing or gross.)
[Photo credit: SQL Samson]
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Gideons
Though I sometimes find comfort in that Gideon’s Bible you can find in almost every hotel room… they’re still hotel-bedside-table-drawer spammers, aren’t they?
[Photo credit: Sidewalk Flying]
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SEO Spammers
They spam blogs, forums, each other… they even spam their own mothers. How many links are enough, you linkaholics?
[Photo credit: RomulusNR]
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Email Spammers
These guys are criminals, because there are actual laws against this, and some of them have gone to jail, which makes them really stupid spammers.
[Photo credit: genvessel]
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Mother Nature
You can’t tell me that excessive rain isn’t spam. Mother Nature is a big spammer, busy nourishing all those trees the Yellow Pages people will kill.
San Diego is the only virtually nature-spam-free area I know of, since it only rains 11 days a year there… unless you count fires as spam too.
[Photo credit: WoodleyWonderWorks]
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Commercial TV
We’re so used to these stupid commercials that come on while we’re trying to watch something on TV that we don’t think about it. But it’s really spam, isn’t it? I know HBO is commercial free, but do I get a choice to pay for a commercial-free version of House or NBA basketball?
Nope. Commercials are spam, and the DVR/Tivo a spam-management tool.
[Photo credit: Lorri37]
Image credit: Smart Log Splitter
From effective masonry heaters to beautiful Danish wood stoves, the Scandinavians know a thing or two about heating with wood. And as Collin stated in his post on wood stoves vs pellet stoves, with trees being a near carbon neutral source of energy, efficient wood burn...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Jack Nicholson made his friends urinate in his garden.
The Oscar-winning actor was showing a group of male pals around his Hollywood Hills home when he asked them to make sure they relieve themselves outside, to stop wild raccoons coming too close to his property.
According to the National Enquirer magazine, he said, “Hey, whenever you guys have to go, feel free to come out here and urinate in the yard.”
The group thought the 72-year-old screen legend was making a joke and burst out laughing.
But Jack quickly reassured them, “No, seriously, it helps keeps the raccoons away!”
The veteran movie star isn’t normally so concerned about keeping wild animals away.
He recently revealed he was considering being eaten by vultures when he dies.
He quipped, “I’ve had several ideas. Once I thought it would be nice to be buried under a large statue that is at least ten meters high. Then I liked the nature of the Indians who haul their bodies up into the trees so that they are eaten by the birds.”
The shiny black 4x4 rumbles slowly through the graveyard. Heavy blankets of snow have settled across the plains of Moscow, and either side of our track, the ground is a brilliant white. The two men in the front seat – my guards of honour – peer out in silence, squinting their eyes against the sunlight as it pours in through the canopy of trees above.
Did you know there’s a word for those stunning light beams that shoot through trees, clouds and stained glass windows? I sure didn’t, but apparently the proper term is Crepuscular Rays and Environmental Graffiti has a great collection of photos that have perfectly captured these beams of light.
Link Image by Mila Zinkova
You can learn a lot about the psyches of internet users through Google's search suggestions, as we've seen. But What Do You Suggest? lets you explore these suggestions in a much more in-depth way.
The site allows you to start with any word you want, opening up visual trees showing what words people usually type next. The lines connecting the words show how common each word combo is, allowing you to follow the popularity to the most common search phrases or going to some of the weirder ones. And at the end, of course, you get the results those people searching for these things end up with.
It's a fascinating little time-suck, if you're interested in just how people use Google and how everyone is just a little bit crazy. [What Do You Suggest? via Infosthetics via Brian Stelter]
ComEd launches pilot solar energy program for 100 customers in Chicago originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The idea is so simple: Trees produce more food than people can eat. Most of the fruit goes to waste. Get the food and donate it to those in need.
Hi, it's me Brit Zab the one week intern. Sam has kindly given me free reign of his blog for the week, which could be quite dangerous. He needs to spice things up a bit anyhow.
I'm from a little town called Mars, PA. The prom king of my high school was a farmer, and my house is surrounded by trees. Needless to say, NYC is the complete opposite side of the spectrum, but so far I love waking up in the city that doesn't sleep.
So this is where I'm interning, but in 1609 it looked like this. The Manahatta Project provides images and information for what the familiar NYC looked like before it was actually a city. If you click on specific locations you can learn what types of animals, plants and people inhabited the land. Doesn't look so familiar anymore does it?
I also have recently become obsessed with the site www.thisisindexed.com. It provides diagrams and charts for unimportant things that no one would ever really need a diagram for, which makes it perfect. I could probably browse this site for the entire day..actually I guess I have been...shh don't tell Sam! Here's one that pretty much sums up Times Square.
listening to ample trees remixed by shinobu nemoto by Owl Dreams - http://www.thesixtyone.com/s/GMQX1qTHtBq/
[Direct Link]
Assignment for Dailyshoot 107 on 2010/03/02: “Find out what those buttons and dials on your camera do. Play today! Try a new setting and make a photo. (via @dibytes) ”
The rainbow was unearthly intense at sunset after a day of rain. I'd been dorking around with the camera for today's assignment, shooting ordinary trees with the camera in "Scene mode" (I don't know what that actually does) and at ISO1600 for extra oddness. Remember, this is a point-n-shoot (Ricoh GX100), so that ISO is way out of bounds. I got a chance to stroll around and try to capture the rainbow, but I couldn't get the wires out of the view and for the first few, I accidentally left the camera all whacked-out. Well, and just possibly I may have accentuated the effects a bit in post-processing.
