I thought I’d mention how well I’m actually doing with my intentions to be more efficient and procrastinate less. It may not be apparent on the blog, since I skip from topic to topic as usual!

I have a loose regime of studying/writing/doing computer work before noon and paints/fibers in the afternoon, and I stick to that pretty well. I choose a topic for study, get a book on it and work through that one or two chapters a day. Or I search for website tutorials, open up a selection of tabs, and work my way through them one by one. In the evenings I read whatever or knit.

There is some going to and fro, which is perhaps also some procrastination thing, but it seems I get ideas for one subject while I’m doing another and if I ignore it the idea goes away. So I indulge, take notes or go do the thing I’m inspired to, then come back to what I was doing before. As long as it’s not an evasive behaviour I find that it works alright. So I’m a person who writes silly poetry while spinning yarn, blog posts in the shower and beget paintings in bed. Fine. I’ll most likely always have a tonne of different ideas and not enough time to work on them. My mind keeps telling me to work on something else on the list no matter which one I choose, but I don’t think it’s so much a short attention span as a wide one. Making lists and going over them regularly does help, so that I’m sure nothing is forgotten, no need to keep repeating it in my head until it gets done.

When I do my “chapters” I do try to contain myself. I’ve also managed to stay true to the goal of getting updated on the Adobe suite, saving most other bookish subjects for later. Still working on it, it’s not like I’m making a full-time job of it for now.

Sometimes I do have to discipline myself to stop clicking the interwebs or ignore the urge to clip my toenails, but other than that I feel like I fill up my days to the extent that I’m able as well as resting when I need to and not when I want to (which is hardly ever – you can always do just one more thing, right?). Thank goodness I don’t have a social life. <G>

All in all I think a pretty good improvement. I have some plant dye experiments on hold and I plan to do them all inside a week or so, doing that and just that, not on the side while doing everything else too. Reprogramming your brain and undoing more than 40 years’ worth of habits is not something you do in a month or two, but I’m beginning to trust that it is in fact possible. Perhaps by 50? 😉

So what about slow and simple living you ask? Yes – it is in fact something I ponder from time to time, and I do implement it to a certain extent. But I also think that one of the keys is how you think and feel about the things you do and not just cutting them down. The guilt. The hurry. The duties. The performance. Those are the things I want to cut out, not just my number of activities. Efficiency is not about doing more, it’s about doing it well and as easily as possible. Can you do more cleaning in a shorter time simply by changing your attitude and your method? Voila, that leaves more time and headroom for important stuff without feeling rushed. Or a nap.

Last week the lovely Raquel popped by with a link which accurately describes the kind of person I’ve always been. So now I’ve been diagnosed 😉 Not that I plan to let anyone cure me, I rather see it as a handy excuse as well as an incentive to work harder – my way. “Follow your heart and trust that the dots will connect”. Which is pretty much what I’ve been trying to tell myself the last couple of years. Maybe I wasn’t all that wrong.