Daisy chain | Yttria A.

Posted by Yttria on Sunday, September 24, 2017 // 03:08 // 2 comments (+)

Another book review, this time is about productivity and happiness. As a person with meticulous and (sometimes) rather ambitious mind; I have an odd habit of making a list out of everything that comes to my mind - be it grocery shopping or a mere promise to contact him/her - which list the things that I have to do whenever I have the time. Believe me, I got more than 5 categories of long to-do list which I check regularly everyday. After all these times I just do the tasks without thinking twice, because I think I already have plenty on my plate. I was so used to it, and had never seen it as a problem.

Well, it is indeed not a problem. It's just that it's probably not the best way of living: having too many daily tasks means that you will spend too many times thinking about what task to be done next; every single time, and your mind cannot rest. And I don't even realize the importance of each of the task, I just care about ticking it off the list so that I will be satisfied. But most of the times; by looking at those long lists, my mind gets distracted while I do a task, which ended up by the end of the day I could not finish the task and felt exhausted already, and the worst is the to-do list not even ticked. The next day I will do the same attempt again, even in the weekend. It's like a never-ending loop, and it seems like 24 hours are never enough. After reading this book, I started to see it as something I have to think about.

So you got many on your plate; you must learn to do less. The simplest method that you'd better do is to categorise and filter. By categorising things or tasks, you get to filtered ones that are very important to the ones that are not. For instance; the tasks that you really love to do, the tasks you like to do, the tasks you have to do, and the tasks you hate to do (but have to do anyway). From each of these categories; you have to list all of the tasks and start marking the ones that you find very, very important to you and important to be done to the ones that you think can be eliminated. Be honest and most importantly... Be heartless. Omitting (not doing it anymore!) the task that are not important to you will free up your precious time, and so you get to do the things that you think more important.

The other method about how to do less is by making clearer objectives - or can I say 'resolutions'? - which is the part that I like the most from the book. This deep method will be useful even prior doing the method in the paragraph above. Before deciding to do less, you got to see the whole, bigger picture. What is it that you really want to achieve? What or who is it that you love? What or who is it that you have faith in? What is your purpose in life? The book has many questions that can help you see more about yourself. With these sets of question; you can reflect and start to understand what are the things that is important to you. If I may paraphrase what the author wrote, I'd say; making your own formula which you can reflect whenever you do a task. Nobody will have the same objectives, it is something completely you; because nobody is the same. When you do a task, ask yourself; does this task relate to my objective(s)? If it does not relate but you still have to do the task, ask again; how can I make this task relate to my objective(s)?

"Would I invest my precious time in this?"

After doing the analysis and reflection, the next step would be the easy one; - though may bring hard times - acceptance. You got to realize that every change comes with adaptation. You definitely will feel good about doing more of the stuffs you think the most important to you, but cannot deny that you will feel bad from not doing the not-so-important stuffs you usually did. It's a process and you will have to be persistent when doing it to feel immediate effect on your life. One thing that you know for sure is that you will be more focused by doing less. And hopefully; you will be happier. You will feel relieved that your precious time is well-spent; because you only do stuffs that are useful and important to you.

This was one of few books that caught my eyes when I first visited the (temporary) Central Library in the city. I was in the mood of reading something motivational and self-development-related. I found this useful and thought it'd be best to share it here.

As the wise people said... You will never win the race against time. So let's make peace with it.

Image was taken from Rakuten Kobo.

Labels: book review

2 Comments:


Tuesday, February 13, 2018 1:42:00 pm: You know what, this is the best article I read today! (eventhough it's only a half day in my time now) I am completely immersed reading your writing. Thank you Ytt! And I believe you're having your days better than before :)

Have a good day there!

Thursday, February 15, 2018 5:56:00 am: Alhamdulillah e kalo begituh! Seneng ada yang bacaa, terharu :') Makasih juga yah. Yep, I made my own 'formula' and reflect back to it everytime I do something. You could try it too, e.

P.S. Ditunggu postingan blog-mu juga ya :)

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Hello! My name is Yttria. Here's where I share some of my photoworks, sketches, stories and quick thoughts. Some are just doodles and mumbles. Hope you enjoy it.

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