SISTER WISDOM : build a better life

Cynicism is a form of resistance, a walling off of the possibilities for transformation. Mary Pipher

Challenge Update (Friday): Here's an example of a typical to do list back in the days when I used one of those:

Now here's what Day 7 of this adventure looked like.

The difference I am seeing between the days with a list and the days without a list is that I am tackling bigger things on these list-free days. Previously, I would right down those little details to remember: call someone, email someone. I would get up in the morning, glance at my planner, see a list of five things to do besides my normal daily activities, and think I just don't have time for anything major today. I was planning myself out of being productive.

Details are tricky that way. I've forgotten a few details over the last week because I haven't written them down. I haven't gotten all of my daily tasks done everyday. But I have accomplished some bigger things at the expense of details and daily tasks. The priorities have shifted. The big projects now take precedence over the details. Is it dangerous to forget the details? Sometimes. It is much easier to catch up on details than it is to catch up on big projects. I can sit down and pay bills, answer emails, or return phone calls in about thirty minutes. Nothing bad has happened because I dealt with those things later rather than sooner.

Thoreau said, "Our life is frittered away by detail... Simplify, simplify." (He also said, "We should distrust any enterprise which requires new clothes," and while that doesn't apply to this discussion I think it is sound advice. No charge for that extra.)

Simplify, simplify. Some details are important, necessary, and life will suffer if we neglect them for very long. Brushing your teeth, for instance, or buying groceries, bathing your child (and yourself), talking to your spouse. Important details. Many details are unimportant fillers. We pay attention to them because they seem urgent and they give us a sense of immediate accomplishment. They are busy work, distractions, tools of the procrasinator, impediments to our larger goals. In their right place, they cause no harm. In the wrong place, they are the pebbles we trip over that cause us to fall back down the mountain.

Better Life Tip: Put your details at the end of the day. Devote a half hour to "detail clean-up." Don't let them distract you from accomplishing the bigger projects.