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5 Minutes to a Relaxing Bedroom

Here’s the first in my new series of Five Minute Guides: Five Minutes to a Relaxing Bedroom. This guide gives you easy to follow steps so that you don’t get bogged down in organizing overwhelm. It lays out exactly what you need to do in an easy to understand format that you can read and act on quickly.

Organized Oasis

Your home or office is an oasis of calm, creativity and harmony, so you’re free to enjoy life! Overcome your fear of letting things go; that means stuff, but also people and habits. Build practices that give you focus and get things done. Increase flow, energy and clarity so you can be your best. Laugh more.

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Your Brain: Distracted

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Claire

Originally posted 2010-02-03 17:10:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Your brain craves novelty and will be distracted by it whenever it appears. Period. It's neuroscience.

In his article about why it's hard to focus, David Rock explains that attention uses up brain resources, so it's limited (although more coffee sometimes helps). Also, there is always some kind of neural activity going on in your brain and that contributes to its restlessness and distractibility.

To compound these problems, the effect of distraction tends to accelerate. That means once you start giving in to an urge to, say, check email by opening your email program, it will be much harder to keep yourself from doing it than if you nipped that pesky desire in the bud.

What's the answer? You already know. You have to turn off the distractions. Stop fighting your brain's natural tendencies and work around them instead.

The other, more subtle, answer is to develop mindfulness. Rock has another fascinating article about that topic, where he shows that the brain has two different networks to experience the world. One filters through the self (attributing meaning to events, for example) and the other is direct sensory experience (being present in the moment, for example). It's not surprising to find that people who are good at being mindful have more cognitive control and thus can manage distractions better.

Candy store from D'Arcy Norman's photostream

How Planning Ahead Can Make You Happier

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Claire

Originally posted 2010-10-20 18:29:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I talked with someone recently about planning and why he avoided it. He thought it was rigid and unimaginative. On the contrary, I replied, taking up the challenge. I’ll show you how it's flexible and creative.

Here’s the situation: it’s a warm fall afternoon. Me: Let’s go to the beach! Him: Great, I’m ready. Me: Wait, there’s some stuff I want to take. Him: Let’s just go!

Planning in advance does all these wonderful things:

It creates focus, which then inspires action. Once the beach idea came up, there were a lot of things I knew to do because I could visualize the possibilities
Visualizing foresees problems. (It could be cold)
Planning crystallizes desire. (I had the desire not to be cold, so I brought a jacket)
Keeping track of time makes positive outcomes more likely (we'll get to the place before it closes)
Planning closes the gap between wanting something and getting it (the clearer you are about what you want, the faster you can get it)
It honors my preferences. They are important to me because I know from experience that they directly affect the pleasure I get from an activity. I can’t control everything (it could rain) but I can control many things, and quite easily (I want a knife for the mayonnaise, not a twig we found on the ground).

Planning likes this requires imagination because you visualize what could happen. Not just that it might get cold, but that it might be fun to bring a book to read together. Planning is flexible because you can bring a change of clothes in case you decide to go out for dinner on the way home, for example.

You’re not planning a strict schedule that must be adhered to; you're accounting for some other wonderful possibilities you haven’t even thought of.

Picnic shelters from Ed Siasoco's photostream.

5 Minutes to a Relaxing Bedroom

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