Joanne Mallon's Opposable Thumbs

Guest post: 4 easy ways to deal with procrastination

When I am coaching freelancers, there's one issue that pops up more than any other - procrastination.

Everybody thinks they waste too much time.

Everybody thinks that other people must be far more in control of their time.

Everybody thinks it's only them who has big chunks of the day fall into a black hole consisting of looking at pictures of strangers on Facebook and arguing with that guy about that thing on Twitter.

So, procrastination. I think it's a diease we've all got to one degree or another. My theory on this (which you can read more about here) is that it's part of the dance we do, and as long as you're still getting your work done then in some cases it can even be beneficial.

But what if getting distracted is stopping you from doing stuff you need to do? What if your to-do list has its own postal code?

Here are some expert tips to help from Grace Marshall, author of 21 Ways to Manage the Stuff That Sucks Up Your Time:

"I sit down to write and turn on the computer.

I check my emails first. Someone’s mentioned me on Twitter. Reply to that. Wow, that’s a fantastic quotation. Share that on my Facebook page. Fantastic, some feedback on my last post. Thank them and answer questions.

Back to writing. Get my notes out.

There’s a reminder here to introduce a networking contact to my Web designer. That’s easy; they’re both on LinkedIn. While I’m there I’ll add my new contacts. Five a day. It’s all about regular and consistent action, right?

Done. Where was I? Ah yes, writing. But my tea’s gone cold. Better make a new one. Tidy kitchen counter while I’m there. There’s that receipt I was looking for. File it before I lose it again.

Back to the desk, hot cup of tea in hand. Oh look, an email. Fantastic, I've been waiting for him to get back to me. Now where’s that file I need to send him?"

- excerpt from 21 Ways to Manage the Stuff That Sucks Up Your Time

 

Grace says:

In this day and age, distractions are rife, but they seem all the more irresistible when you’re putting something off.

Is procrastination putting your distractions on steroids? Here are four quick tips to help you  get them under control:

 

1. Ask yourself: what’s the point?

First of all - what are you trying to achieve here. What’s your purpose? What matters most? True motivation comes from knowing why something matters to you, not why you think you ‘should’ be doing it.

If there is no point, and you can get away with not doing it, I suggest you take great pleasure in crossing it off your list.

Or if the point is that you can’t get away from it, i.e. “bad things happen if I don’t”, then you might as well get it out of the way and stop it from sucking up more of your time, energy and mental space.

The point is, choose where you want to spend your time instead of reacting to whoever or whatever happens to be shouting the loudest.

 

2. Unplug from distractions

Every time we turn our attention from one thing to another, it takes time to refocus. Re-read the last paragraph you’ve written. Revisit your notes. Get back into the right headspace. This takes time.

Give yourself periods of unplugged time - turn off your emails, Facebook and anything else that pings or pops up. Tell Twitter you’ll be back in an hour. Divert your phone to voicemail. Close the door. You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done in just an hour of uninterrupted time, compared to a day of flitting from one thing to another.

 

3. Make it easier

Baby steps can overcome overwhelm, bypass procrastination, sneak past fear and self-doubt and still move mountains. Writing one page or chapter, or even writing for 20 minutes, is infinitely more doable than staring at “Write book” on your to-do list every morning.

Instead of one big project or one mammoth task, how can you break it up into easier, more doable chunks? What would your baby steps be?

 

4. Sweeten the deal

As Mary Poppins said, “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

Get creative. Just as we turn things into a game, race, or competition to encourage our children to do something, how can you do it differently to make it more fun?

For example:

• Do it with company - the kind of company that will hold you accountable, race you to the finish line or simply take the boredom out of it.

• Change the scenery - do it somewhere different or get some upbeat music playing. I know a couple of directors who combined their business plan meeting with a walk through the woods.

• Turn your distractions into rewards. Get the article written, then go on twitter and celebrate. You’ll have much more fun knowing it’s done, free from that nagging guilt of “I should be doing...”

 

You can find more tips like this in Grace’s new book 21 Ways to Manage the Stuff That Sucks Up Your Time, a book designed to help you gain more time for the important things in your life, without sucking up your time to do so!

 

main image credit: Ghetu Daniel

Do you procrastinate? What are your biggest time suckers? Fess up in the comments box (this will count as professional development and not procrastinating at all).

Calling all parents with questions about technology

Are you a parent? Have you got questions about technology? Then step this way my friend, I've got the very thing for you.

Quibly is a new online community for parents and guardians launching soon. The focus is on technology and what it means to bring up children in this increasingly connected world.

Should your child use an iPad? Should you let them loose on Twitter or Facebook? Which apps are the most educational? Quib.ly looks at issues like this and more.

Over the summer I've been writing features for Quib.ly about everything from what the coolest tech toys are going to be this Christmas, to which apps are best for potty training (yes, there are apps for potty training, don't look so surprised. There's an app for everything these days).

If this sounds like your kind of dongle, then what you can do to join in is register for free priority access with Quib.ly via this link. You can also follow Quib.ly on Twitter.

The site will be opening up fully over the next few weeks, but if you register now you get to have a good nosy before everybody else. Yes! We are finally the cool kids! The geeks truly have inherited the earth. And the geek-kids want a piece of it too. We're going to need a bigger laptop.

So pop on over and register for Quib.ly here and I'll see you on the other side.

 

This is a sponsored post.

The Italian Job, Sussex style

 

So remember that bit at the end of The Italian Job, where the coach is teetering over the edge of a cliff, and Michael Caine says:

 

"Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea"

 

Well, now it's been reimagined as an art installation by Richard Wilson and it's currently teetering on the roof of the De la Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, East Sussex. We went to see at the weekend.

 

 

Part-funded by Eddie Izzard, it's swaying over the car park until 1 October 2012.

 

 

Try to pay it a visit if you're within shouting distance of Sussex. As free days out go, it's pretty amazing.

 

 

 

Guest post: Cobblers to yummy mummies

I'm pleased to say that one of my favourite bloggers, The Kraken Wakes has blown in for a guest post. A sweary, ranty tornado of a guest post. Those are the sort I like.

Now, if you've not met The Kraken before then you will have to brace yourself because she's not for the fainthearted. Gloriously ferocious rants, fuelled by anger and fantastic writing, is the best way I can put it.

Shall I tone it down a bit for your blog? asked The Kraken

Not a bit of it, said I.

What I didn't expect was that The Kraken would have anything in common with Cherie Blair. But whilst Ms Blair has been denouncing yummy mummies, The Kraken is denouncing the label itself and arguing that it does none of us any favours at all.

Take it away, Kraken...

(BTW this may be unsuitable if you're a child, easily offended or unacquainted with the business end of birthing  )

 

"Bugger me. Just when mothering couldn’t be a bigger pisser than it already is, along comes the festering, pressure-dripping, guilt-inducing label of ’yummy mummy’.

Aye, it’s no longer enough to be a mother. Now, you have to be a mother from an Estee Lauder ad and ideally with no prior knowledge of fanny farts or suppurating pregnancy piles.

What a vile fucking concept this yummy mummydom is. It's all utter cobblers, of course, and just another way of women bashing the shit out of each other rather than getting with the endless to-do list that they're already wading on with.

Why the frig does anyone want to add the burden of being yummy to the already crippling responsibility of being a mummy?

Look at it this way: we, mothers, have already grown another human being, developed size 24 arses, had our vaginas poked/ stretched/ torn, shat on the delivery table with the effort of it all, leaked milk from our tits, fed another human from said tits, gone awol to the tune of PND, survived on two hours sleep a night, wept with exhaustion over such basic tasks as getting dressed, swapped sex for Benjamin fucking Bunny and blown cosmic sized holes in our careers.

And now you want us to look pretty too?

This yummy mummy malarchy is yet another unachievable myth, of course. Worse, it makes women feel like dribbling failures if their school run shoes have anything less than three inch heels.

The thing is, I see women who have achieved this myth as the biggest victims of all. For fuck's sake, how much effort must it take? And why don't they have anything better to do with their time?

The likes of Victoria Beckham are praised for their perfect mummydom but all I see is a woman so cowed by this mythical image that she's not allowed to leave the house unless she's catwalk ready.

Who, I ask you, wants a life like that? It's amazing that VB has time to take a shit. Most mothers don't and that's when they haven't seen the business end of a mascara wand for three months. How you do it while matching your spring wardrobe with your new Laboutins is beyond me.

Funny thing is, I have a picture of myself and my kid, Kraken Junior, by my bed and the frame has the words Yummy Mummy written on it. It was given to me when my fanny stitches still meant that I had to pee with my head lower than my pelvis just to stop the stinging (you work it out).

I now revel in how the frame and picture are poles apart. It's my daily act of seething rebellion. My forcibly smiling face is hiding the rapid onset of severe PND and what would become visiting rights to the local psychiatric unit. That's about as yummy as I managed to get. And that's about as yummy as I'd like to stay, if it's all the same to you."

 

 

You can sample more like this at The Kraken Wakes, or compare suppurating piles with The Kraken on Twitter. She's lovely really.

Guest post: Confessions of a pregnant travel journalist

Today I have a guest post from the marvellous Cathy Winston, who's a travel journalist, lemur juggler and blogger at the multi award nominated MummyTravels 

Cathy's known for reporting from exotic trips, so has that been affected by her current pregnancy? Does having a plus one on board necessarily slow you down? This is what Cathy says:

"I love travel. I really really love travel, and having carved out a career as a travel journalist, I’m lucky enough to get to indulge it under cover of work, visiting over 50 countries so far (and counting). I’m also lucky enough to be pregnant. Which, according to almost everyone I meet, means I’ll have to give up the travelling. The only problem – I don’t want to.

But even as I’m putting my fingers in my ears, going ‘la-la-la I can’t hear you’ to everyone’s dire warnings, I know there’s a few concessions I’ve got to make. All right, quite a few.

For starters, large chunks of the world are suddenly off-limits because of a threat so tiny, it’s invisible to the naked eye. Malaria. I’d been so busy smugly congratulating myself on updating all my travel vaccinations before getting pregnant that I’d forgotten about the mosquitoes - until I was in the middle of making plans for one of my dream trips, visiting Burma with my Burmese sister-in-law showing me the sights.

Most anti-malarials have a barrage of side effects so horrific that the only thing that’s worse for the baby is getting malaria itself. Depending on the areas you’re visiting, there’s one which is OK ‘if you have to’ take it – but even I couldn’t convince myself that desperately wanting to go equalled having to visit. And while I’d probably have been OK, it wasn’t a risk I could take.

Also off my list was everything from tree climbing and canoeing and boat trips (as a lot of operators won’t insure you) and almost as depressingly, having to forego the almost limitless free drinks and wine tastings that seem to come as standard on press trips. My vague first trimester excuses about medication must have seemed as thin as my smile. Oh and out goes shellfish, various cheeses, rare steak and a string of other gourmet treats.

Thankfully, I didn’t get morning sickness too badly so after the first exhaustion lifted, I packed in as much as possible before the bump grounded me – racking up a respectable total including the Cayman Islands, Belfast, Israel and the Azores.

I’ve even managed to find a few mild adrenaline thrills which are pregnancy-friendly, including swimming with stingrays off Grand Cayman and floating in a geothermal pool before eating volcano-cooked food in the Azores. Maybe not quite on the same level as my previous exploits, including the world’s fastest zipwire in Italy, an Edge Walk on Toronto’s CN Tower and canyoning in Jordan, but enough excitement to keep a smile on my face.

And while my third trimester means flying and ferries are now out, cars and trains are still in, so to tackle my itchy feet I’ve found myself casting a closer eye over the best of the UK.

As for not travelling after the birth? I’m already plotting to branch out into family travel. Well, babies look fairly portable – and this one’s already had plenty of experience of planes!"

Cathy Winston blogs at www.mummytravels.com and is on Twitter at @mummytravels

How to get your garden ready for Spring

My office is next to the garden, and at this time of year I like to nip out and check if the cherry tree has survived the winter. Here it is today and if you look closely you can see little buds which are starting to grow and will eventually become leaves, flowers and maybe even a few cherries. It's like a newborn baby, it changes every day.

 

And below you can see my garden helper - Dennis the infamously grumpy cat. Yes I know he's a handsome beast, but generally his only contribution to the garden involves stalking birds and using the lawn as a loo.

 

Hopefully your family are a bit more helpful in the garden. And here's some advice from  Sarah Oxley from Tiger Sheds on getting the family involved in preparing the garden:

 

 

Spring Time Is Garden Time

Spring is here. Well, I think spring is here, although my iPhone did claim that it would snow this Sunday, and although it didn’t, it did hail on Saturday for about ten minutes. Does that count as anti-spring weather? No idea, so I will go with ‘No’.

So, spring is here, and as such it’s time to do some garden chores and get it all ready for spring. The grass will need tending to, and your flower beds will need weeding. At the moment, you’re thinking how absolutely uninspiring this sounds, but it could be real good fun. If you do it together, as a family! Yes, that’s right get your kids involved, teach them how to plant flowers and sow seeds and encourage their inner gardener. I’m expecting all of you to unlock your garden sheds and get out the tools and start the gardening fun.

The Grass
Your grass doesn’t need cutting yet (unless you completely neglected it last year, then it does), but you can:
• Remove any rotting leaves or thatch
• Rake away any moss (This is a good one for the kids, as they have permission to destroy the moss)
• Reseed where the moss has caused damages (This is another good task for the kids. Be sure that the bag of seed isn’t too heavy for them, and that they don’t pile a ton of seeds in one spot. An even distribution is what you’re after)

The Flower Beds
• Weed the flower beds (A good task to do together as you can teach your children the difference between plant and weed)
• Remove rotting leaves, twigs, thatch and stones from the bed
• Purchase some small spring plants that are in bloom such as Primroses or Pansies, and plant them in the flower beds (This is good as a team effort of digging the hole for the plant, placing it gently in, covering it up with soil and watering it. The main attraction here is the necessity to get your hands dirty)

Create A Vegetable Patch
Getting your children to eat their vegetables can be a bit of a challenge. My Mum had no end of trouble with me, but none at all with my brother. For encouragement, it can help to eat self-grown vegetables. There’s a sense of achievement and pride when the vegetables are fully grown and ready to eat, which can make them more appetizing. The operative word here is ‘can’. To create your own patch:
• Corner off a section in the garden (something between 2x3 or 2x1 metres), and dig up the grass
• Plough some small rows and plant some carrots, French climbing beans or lettuce
• Mark your rows to keep an eye on what is growing where
• Encourage regularly checks and plenty of water

Whatever, you decide to do in the garden this spring, make sure you do it together.

This guest post was sponsored by Tiger Sheds, manufacturers of garden and potting sheds.