I’ll think about it tomorrow…

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I happen upon an article on TimeBoxing, the simple practice of moving your ‘To Do’ list onto a calendar. It’s purported to increase your productivity quickly and effectively and, according to the author, TimeBoxing brings the added benefits of improving how you feel (control), how much you achieve (personal productivity), and how much you contribute to and achieve with your work teams (enhanced collaboration).

Dang. And here I am only discovering the secret to productivity and satisfaction at work when I’m about to leave the formal workplace.

I smile. Whew!  There’s still time to tear up my To Do List and replace it with the practice of TimeBoxing my deliverables.

Except, my work To Do list is ever decreasing in size as I get closer to my final day,  May 31. (7 actual work days left)

So, what can I do with this practice that makes so much more sense to me than creating To Do list after To Do list?

I know! Write a poem about it.

Time
all boxed up
into a calendar
tight
with deadlines looming
over activities
scrambling
to get done.

Don’t
timebox me in
to a calendar
limiting
my time to be
present
alive
and creative.

And I smile.

I dislike To Do lists. Inevitably, my To Do list makes me feel inadequate. I want to get ‘er all done in a day but interruptions, distractions, that shiny object calling for my attention pull me away from staying on task.

Maybe TimeBoxing is for me, even in my rejuvenation.

Maybe, using my calendar as a commodity that measures out my control and productivity will keep me focused on achieving the things I want to do next.

Things like,

  • Treasured time with my grandson, daughters, family, friends.
  • Time in the studio.
  • Writing time.
  • Meditating.
  • Walking.
  • Savouring the sunshine.
  • Dancing in the rain.
  • Splashing in mudpuddles.
  • Sipping a latte and sharing time with friends
  • Doodling
  • Dreaming. Scheming. Imagining.
  • Watching the river flow past
  • Watching clouds drift by
  • Taking long leisurely baths
  • Enjoying an afternoon nap
  • Luxuriating in unscripted time
  • More time in the studio
  • More time doing the things I want to do…

And I smile again.

TimeBoxing might be the next great breakthrough in personal productivity but… for the next 3 months I am purposefully living ‘Unplanned. Unscripted. Unboxed in by time.’

So, in the famous words of Scarlett O’hara in Gone with the Wind…

.

 

15 thoughts on “I’ll think about it tomorrow…”

  4. I am writing from a mountainside home in east-end of Kamloops, massive windows looking across the valley – socked-in and raining. Magnificent R&R here …

    You mentioned the ‘formal workplace’. I remember that. It is, like so many old things, about to become a museum display of how we used to work. There is no formal, and workplace is no longer a place but rather an outmoded term. We work when and where we work – technology and new divisions between work and play and creativity enable ‘work anywhere’, but the freedom to work anyHOW we want WHENever we want at WHATever we want is the now ‘work space’.

    tic toc

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Love your response Mark! Thank you. And the description of where you’re at sounds diving. It’s raining here too. Beau and I just came in from a walk, all soppy and soggy. How delightful!

      Enjoy!

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      Reply ↓

    • Except that many of us still work in a true work environment that doesn’t flex to modern terms. Hospitals don’t take kindly to working from home. Its a great concept but many, in lots of sectors, don’t truly have that flexibility.

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  5. But I do think i will explore this concept. I have learnt to embrace the OHIO principle and its helped in many ways. I am very To do List driven so perhaps now in my semi retired stage I can explore this.
    Thanks
    Bernie

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  7. Pingback: Posts that pop with authenticity and heart ( along with a little humor) | Don't Curse the Nurse!

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