Moving On

I don't want this blog just to be about no Facebook.  That's not the point really.  I've been letting distractions get in the way of action.  I've been reading a fair bit of self help type books, yes, another form of distraction, but today I was reading about resistance.  How even a positive change in life, something that we want to happen, can be met with all forms of resistance from within ourselves.  Distraction is a major one!  I am sure we all do it, there is nothing like a big assignment due to motivate you to to do housework you've put off for months!  Resistance can look like fear, procrastination, self comforting, anything other then actually doing what you want to do.  A big bucket load of excuses!

But this resistance is how we grow, become strong.  You can't build muscle without some form of resistance!  And so I must learn to overcome this resistance even though I fear it may exert more force as I get stronger, there will be a point at which my strength is greater then any resistance.  While it may still be there, I will relish in it rather then succumb.  And then I will be ready for the next chance to grow.

I've ridden myself of two forms of distraction so far, Facebook and Candy Crush!  But some distractions from my Phd are not negative and I can't just get rid of them!  Doing housework, budgeting, exercise, this blog, doing stuff with kids and the big one - organising!  I do lots of organising, list making really, as a way of delaying the inevitable actions that must take place!

But it is the negative ones that I am working to eliminate.  Smoking, excessive eating, having another cup of tea (and three cigarettes with it), watching tv, and more, but by just being aware I can begin to take control back from my mind and let my higher (or authentic) self guide me instead.

I'm already making some great changes.. I've cut out coffee, increased water intake, I was having green smoothies but I've started getting resistance to that and haven't had one in a few days.  I've been spending time with the kids, doing a bit more housework, and more work on my paper.  If I keep going I will be progressing to an awesome life!  Awareness is allowing me to continue progressing and highlighting those areas that need change, and how to change them.

I am doing well!  But I need to face up to the fact that right now, the single most important thing I can do is to quit smoking.  I have done it before, it's not too hard, but I fear that I will not work on my paper if I do.  That the physical and psychological withdrawels will create a distraction.  Is that just fear raising it's ugly head, resistance?

Day 2 without Facebook

I certainly achieved a lot more today then I have in a long time.  I spent a few hours on my current paper - which I've been avoiding for about a month!  I made pancakes with the kids this morning.  I put my spending into my budget and I took some time for some self-help book reading.

 

And of course I took some time to take a photo of the gorgeous flowers in my front yard.

I didn't end up going for a walk - I thought about it but settled on getting some unhealthy take out and chilling out instead.  Well, I cant change in a day and did make some great progress so its a win for me!

I am really enjoying this process - things are coming to me, the right words are finding me to inspire and help me move forward on my path.

All is good!

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

“To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”

One day I will see the meaning behind those words, truly understand them.  For now, I will just say, "Best movie ever!"

My life without Facebook

I've been doing a bit of self reflection over the Christmas and New Year period.  My life is not working for me right now, and I'm distracting myself with everything!  I would have missed out on seeing this gorgeous display of almost burst flowers in my garden if I had of allowed myself to remain distracted!



Gorgeous flowers about to bloom in my front yard!

It's time to eliminate distractions and focus on what I want from life.  Even more, to be excited by my life.  I want to move toward a life where I am achieving goals, in my work, my health, as a wife and mother.  I want to achieve success as a scientist, I want to be financially successful, I want to be fit and healthy, I want to take care of my body, I want my children to know I love them, I want my house to be a home that I feel good being in.

I want to be good person, with high ideals and to live by the principles that are guided by my spirit.

I'm not expecting to change overnight, not a huge change anyway, but I have already shifted my mindset.  I will only surround myself with 'inputs' that support my life.  

And that means Facebook has to go.  Yes, it had some positives - keeping up with my family and friends, and also a wonderful group of people who have supported me and kept me entertained!  But after trying my best to limit the negatives, removing liked pages that no longer interest me and getting out of a few groups, I was still inundated with negative messages.  I didn't want to start removing friends just for sharing or liking images that were negative for me.  

Even then, it dawned on me that the bigger concern wasn't what I was allowing myself to be exposed to, but the fact that I was 'checking in' all day, everyday.  I tried a few days off, but still, I would pop in and read.  I would get upset at posts, I would react to images... I'm an emotional junkie and Facebook was just where I was getting my fix!  It's so much safer then life.  

Facebook lets me hide behind a self created image.  I can be a good parent on Facebook so long as I can take a decent picture and spout off a post on how much I love my kids.  No actual parenting required.  I could be fit and healthy, so long as I liked fitness pages and posted the odd photo of me in exercise gear.  I could be anyone I wanted to be.. I just had type the right thing.  It didn't have to be true.

And so I hid.  I focused my attention on my pretend life, my Facebook life.  And hid with all my might from reality.  Because reality sucks.  Reality is ignoring my kids while they play computer and I have my head stuck in my iPad (on Facebook) posting about how awesome my kids are.  Reality is smoking and Facebooking how important health is instead of exercising and cooking healthy meals.  Reality is not organising childcare over the holidays while posting about my awesome career.  Reality is my budget being ignored while I post about my most recent purchase or what I want to buy next.  Reality is a messy house - well, every part of the house that I didn't just take a photo of to post on Facebook!  

This will be my journal of how I reclaim my life from technology, how I stop being a mindless numb participant in a false reality of my own creation, of the creation of my new life.

I have a long way to go.  But I will make progress.

In just a few hours I have played a game of monopoly with two of my children and gone for a 4km walk with them as well.  Small things but it is these small things that create memories for my children. Happy memories!  My kids are so full of life and easily impressed!  It doesn't take much to ensure they feel loved and are happy!  It will be a bit of a mission with the eldest - almost fifteen years old - he's a tough one to crack, and always has been!  But I will continue to find ways to connect with him and help him on his own journey through life!

Boy2 and Boy3 kicked my butt in Monopoly!

And no more hiding from my health!  That 4km walk got me over my 10k steps.. my goal is to match that everyday for seven days!

I will think about my priorities, and what exactly my principles are and let that guide me in my decision making - not my emotions.  I will be self-aware, aware of the thoughts that pass through my mind and how I react to them emotionally.  I will focus on the thoughts that serve me.

The coming months will be the beginning of a journey of self-discovery that will no doubt last a lifetime.

FlyLady Control Journal: OneNote lesson 1

I've done my Flylady Babysteps, but really, I haven't been doing as well as I could.  I am fluttering, just not flying!  I thought I would re-invigorate my passion by starting my control journal, and just to make it interesting, starting it in OneNote!  I'll do a series of lessons, which are actually just "This is what I did" blog posts, on how to use OneNote as a Control Journal.  It will be a shared learning experience - comments and suggestions are always welcome!

First we need to Start a new notebook.

When you start Notebook you will open into a default notebook.  Click on the down arrow next to the name of the notebook (to the right of "Control Journal" though it will be named something else as your default notebook) and it will open a drop down list - the top option is to add a notebook.

So you go through the motions of the set-up - make sure you save to either Skydrive or Dropbox if you want access at other locations or on your smart-devices.  I use Dropbox but Windows 8.1 makes it really inconvenient to set-up - you have to go hunting for it!

Next we will do a basic Inbox set-up. 

I love using an Inbox for each of my Notepads as it just makes it so easy to send stuff to each one.

So what is an Inbox and why use it?  Just like on your desk, an inbox lets you put stuff somewhere until you have time to get around to processing it.  By setting up an Inbox tab, it's like have a folder slip in the front of your notepad to keep post-its, notes, receipts, cut outs from magazines etc that you collect through out the day, and get then decide where to put them later when you have time.

This is great for cutting back on clutter, and for while your setting up your Control Journal and might not have a place for everything yet!  Everything that goes into the inbox needs to be either deleted or put somewhere - so it's kind of like de-cluttering before it gets into your Control Journal!

 

**Disclaimer: the Inbox tab wasn't my original idea - I was reading up on a productivity technique called "Getting things Done" and came across a few tutorials on how to set up OneNote using those concepts.

 

So lets get to it!

 

Change the title of your first Tab to Inbox (I've already done it in the picture up above.  You can delete the other stuff on the page though you may want to read it first if you are new to OneNote!

Now we are going to go into the "File" tab - the big purple one at the top left!  Go down and click on options.  You can change some of these if you like - I changed my font in general to New Times Roman 12pt, changed my display around so my page list is on the left, and I recommend just having a look through all the options to make sure they suit you.  Try a few things out and see what happens!

 

The big deal here though, is the 'Send to OneNote" section!

I have my Inbox set up in a Notebook called 'getting things done' - it is my entry Notebook and I use it to process any 'incoming' information. Anything I send to OneNote goes to that Notebook - and in particular - the Inbox.  I do this because I use OneNote primarily for processing my information at work.  I may end up changing this so that it asks where to send to it on my home computer so I have more options at home! (But work is work!)

So click on 'Send to OneNote' and take a look.  This is what mine looks like:

Yours will most likely have something different!  Just click on the little arrow down for each one and select 'set default location…'.  You will then have a box come up with a directory of your notebook (very pretty too I might add!).  Choose the Tab you labelled Inbox for your Control Journal Notebook.  Remember to do this for each of the items!  This gives a quick idea of just how many ways you can quickly and easily send information to OneNote!

Now anything you see on the web, or emails or anything really you can use the little OneNote add-on button (you'll see it on your browser tab, in Word, Excel, Outlook - by right clicking, or even printing to OneNote!) - and send it to this Inbox page!

 

Setting up our "Control Journal Project"

Here is the fun part!  We will use this tool to quickly and easily create a Journal page for making our Control Journal so we don't have to try and find the webpages each time.

 

So let's head to the Flylady Control Journal Webpage.  Can you see the OneNote add-on in your tool bar?  A purple cube with the letter N and an arrow underneath?  That is your 'Send to OneNote' button.  Hit that button.  If all goes well, your OneNote program will leap to the top of your screen and you will see a new page in your Notebook!  Now, click back to the webpage, hit the link for the first step and when that page opens up, hit that 'send to OneNote' button again, back to the webpage, hit the 'next step' link, send to OneNote - and yes, you need to keep repeating until you have all 15 pages! 

If someone is adventurous and tech savvy they might see if there is a way to select all 15 steps (with their links) on the Control Journal page and "send all target links to OneNote" at once!

If you are just starting out you can do this for the 31 Baby Steps as well.

Once that is done I want you go to the second Tab, the one next to Online, and call it Control Journal Lessons or something along those lines. 

Next head back to your inbox and check out those 15 pages of Control Journal lessons sitting there!  Isn't is amazing that you can get that much info at your fingertips so easily!  Now we want to move all these pages into the right section - EASY!  Click on the top one to highlight it then move your mouse to hover over the last one, hold shift down while you left click to select them all.  Now right click on the list (or Ctrl+Alt+M) and select 'Move or Copy..'., select the right tab from the list and hit Okay!

Go to the Control Journal tab and check out your handiwork! 

But.. I hear you say - there is a whole bunch of webpagey stuff on there and its just not very pretty!!  I say go for it.. make it pretty, edit it, add to it, play with it.  Make notes, draw on it - use every feature you can find and have some fun!  You can even re-name the pages so you don't have see "Control Journal" 15 times in a row!  Get it pretty, but most importantly "Brainstorm"!  Get all your ideas out of your head - set your timer for 15mins and spend some time on each page jotting down thoughts about how you envisage that part of your control journal - do you need it, have you got other ideas of what could work, where might you find some information, is there anything you might want to do now to get ready for it?  And most of all HAVE FUN!

 

I did a basic clean up and this is what I had before my brainstorm!

 

 

 

If you are up for it, go do the same for those Babystep lessons!

 

If you are an Outlook user as well... Go to the first step page.. Highlight the heading text and right click, selecting the flag in the top right corner of the edit box that pops up.  This flags the item as a task.  If you go to Outlook you can add a reminder to the task at a certain time, or throw it into your calendar - which ever way best works for you to remember to get back into it. I'll be explaining this in more detail as I go.  I'm really enjoying Outlook and OneNote as a productivity team and they should work well with Flylady!

I hope this gives you some idea of how powerful the OneNote software is and how it can really simplify things and help cut back on clutter!

I will link to the next lesson here once it is done!