Since I quit my Sunday Life column I’ve been asked by many of you what tricks and techniques acquired along the way are still part of my life repertoire. As in, the things that actually worked and stuck. In all fairness, I’ve stuck to about 1/3 of the concepts I played with. Which is not a bad stat, really. I mean, there’s only so many techniques you can take on in a day! In a lifetime!
photo via trendhunter
Here are some of my favourites, which I reckon you might like to try…a new year on it’s way and all.
1. I go Pomodoro
Developed in the 90s by an Italian efficiency enthusiast, it’s recently experienced a surge of popularity. It’s stupidly simple. You pick a task and take one of those kitschly 90s red tomato kitchen timers and set it to 25 minutes. Next, churn through your task, ignoring distractions, not stopping to make tea or stare at the ceiling. Rest for 5 minutes and repeat the cycle three more times, after which you rest for a good half hour and grab lunch or read emails. The aim is to work to these 30-minute cycles daily, building up the self-discipline muscle. Read more here.
A VA is someone you hire online to help you with stuff you’re, quite frankly, over doing. People use them to help with their kids’ homework (which I find sad), to manage their diaries, to transcribe stuff…a guy hired a freelancer to plant a stink bomb outside his mate’s place on the other side of the planet!
A VA, though, is perfect for blog help. You can hire someone to transcribe, tag, format, design, upload your posts and videos and images, copy edit (and spell check) posts, manage the comments, do all your social media interconnecting, manage your SEOs (and simply do all the stuff that you need to do to optimise traffic…which does my head in, personally), research stuff, write stuff…pretty much run the whole bloody thing…which is what a lot of corporates and doctors etc do. Read the full article here.
3. Every day I “rest intentionally”
Reading in a hammock is resting. A rare afternoon nap is resting. But since I had the time – and was completely, right-down-to-the-calluses-on-my-big-toe buggered from the year that was – I sunk into the topic deeper to find the best way to reallyrest.
Which is how I came upon Intentional Resting, a technique developed by Dan Howard after years of trying to find a simple tool “even truck drivers can use”. Howard lives in Utah and “rides mules in the mountains” and wears the expression of a toddler who’s just woken from a nap. We chat on Skype and he talks me through IR. It works like this (you can do it with me now or watch the video at intentionalresting.com): close your eyes and find somewhere in your body or mind where you’re feeling tension or pain. Me, it’s in my neck. Focus on this spot. Now try to fix it. It doesn’t work, right. Now try ignoring it. Again, the tension’s still there. OK, now try saying to yourself, gently, “I’m resting for my neck now”. Hold this awareness for about 30 seconds. Then feel into your body. Read the full article here.
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! The scanner article! That was the best one!
And resting for your thyroid of course, in fact anything Hashi’s related, and slow cooking. Anything about reveling in your non-perfectness and vulnerability. And decluttering/ not shopping always made me nod as well! And the beauty of not being right. And being thoroughly me/ you. I must say I got something out of most of them, even if it was to thoroughly disagree (like your hitchhiker article) but at least consider a different angle.
I always had the secret guilty pleasure of loving your “screw being happy, let’s relax in being sad” articles. (Of course, I am paraphrasing, and badly, but I hope you get what I mean!) It’s been a great two years Sarah, cant wait to see what you come up with next. xx
[Reply]
December 22nd, 2011 at 12:33 pm
oh, yeah. all my faves. The last one was meant to be the resting one…which I’ve now changed.
Yes, hoorah for sad! I’ll have to do a reminisce through those!
[Reply]
How do you rest/recover when you’re working on TV shoes etc.? It seems like you have a very “in the spotlight” job, just curious how that allows for the 48hrs of recovery necessary to feel well again when people are counting on you to be ready to roll.
[Reply]
December 22nd, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Maria, to be honest, I don’t cope. Or, rather, I only cope. I’ve had to pull back quite a bit lately…fact of life.
[Reply]
December 22nd, 2011 at 1:43 pm
love the honesty. that’s why i read here! we’re only human- can’t do it ALL and there’s some relief in finally realizing that:).
[Reply]
*shows*
[Reply]
I love the pomodoro – I must go buy one! Great idea!
I also have inflame days with thyroid issues – it really sucks the life out of you, again some sage advice..
thanks for the tips
[Reply]
Hi Sarah,
Just letting you know the links to intentional resting don’t seem to be working…
Merry Christmas!
Rachel x
[Reply]
As always, very interesting. Thanks.
[Reply]
I loved loved loved the virtual assistant article. It came at a time late last year when I was tearing my hair out trying to get not one but two local web designers to see what I wanted and/or do some work. In desperation, and after much thought, I went to the website where you found your virtual assistant…and I found…Aziz,who is Kenyan and who is just amazing and is now my designer. We’ve never met in person, but this guy is just awesome, young, gifted, perfectionist, nothing’s too much trouble, it’s already been a wonderful relationship and I hope to have him on my team in the years to come! Plus I actually find that the way we work together, using Gmail chat and flicking things back and forth across the ether, is something that really suits me.
Many thanks. I wouldn’t have taken the leap if I hadn’t read your article, and, as with so many things you write about, it was very timely
[Reply]
I loved, and recognised myself in the scanner piece, too. Loved the ah-ha!-ness of it, and many more of your columns/posts.
All the Hashi’s info allowed me to fit all the puzzle pieces of my poor health into a cohesive picture and finally begin to make some positive changes. So many thanks for that, too.
But by far the most life-changing information I have received through your work is the fructose/sugar issue. Giving up fructose 8 months ago is the best thing I have done for myself since giving up smoking 13 years ago. I am very grateful to you and your mentors for this gift of better health.
I’ll be sad not to be able to turn to your column on Sunday mornings, but will continue to look forward to your blog posts.
Best wishes, Sarah and happy resting! x
[Reply]
After completing two long term projects I had been working on concurrently for many years I collapsed one day about 4 years ago. Had been avoiding the fact that my health had been slipping for a long time and I underwent a series of tests that were focussed on some long standing health issues and that weren’t particularly revealing. Reading your columns has brought me to a better understanding of adrenal fatigue/burnout. It took me more than a year to muster much more than a walk everyday and a lot of work/life/social commitments fell away necessarily. What was particularly frustrating was that as I eventually began to increase my physical workload a couple of years ago I would just about always experience relapses, which goes dead against the notion that to improve physical fitness you need to ‘push’ yourself. So the idea of having to ‘listen’ to my body has become a multi layered, mind traversing journey. Tricky !
So I can relate to the need for ‘intentional’ resting .. because creating that mental space can be very difficult, particularly if you work for yourself.
So thanks ..
and all the best for 2012,
mw
[Reply]
Hi Sarah, I read this article or one of your other articles in the last few days and it talked about all the good things you do I.e Turmeric on eggs, don’t walk in the wind (vata) etc….did this disappear?? It was really good xx Merry Christmas.
[Reply]
[...] part of my life repertoire. As in, the things that actually worked and stuck. Last week I posted some techniques. Here’s some advice that’s stuck really firmly…I do all three techniques below [...]
I’m getting me a plastic tomato. Pronto. Discipline tool? I need one in every room. Ok so Im a new reader of your blog and you wrote this in December. I’m catching up slowly. Been off sugar for about 3 weeks now. Mostly don’t miss it at all. x
[Reply]