Grand Productivity Experiment: Phase Two, Um… Over?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned this week, it’s that Unexpected Stuff Happens. Always a useful lesson, and one which we humans are surprisingly prone to forgetting, considering how often life provides reminders.

I thought this week’s productivity experiment – using the Master List and Daily Lists – would be a piece of cake. I’ve done similar things before, and they worked ok. Well, this week’s major events were certainly not something I had on my Master List. In fact, very little that happened this week was.

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Grand Productivity Experiment: Phase 1 Complete!

Yes, I’ve finished the first week of the Grand Productivity Experiment! Phase 1 was the Keystone Habit: in my case, getting up on time. I am pleased to report that I managed to get up on time six out of the six days in the experiment.

Santiago Rusinol Before the Morphine
Handy hint for morning laggards: start slowly with a cup of tea.
And did I see results, despite the shortness of the experiment? I think so. The first day was a howling success, but after that I slowed down a bit. I didn’t seem to be getting to bed any earlier, but I did sleep better, I think, being more tired. So not as influential as it might have been, but still some positive change there.

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Getting Things Done: A Season of Experiment

Tarore of Te Waharoa. Joan of Arc. Anne Frank. Elizabeth of Hungary. Sophie Scholl. Therese of Lisieux. Wilfred Owen. Mrs Beeton.

What do all these people have in common? They all died at a younger age than I am now, all having left their mark upon the world (whether they knew it or not).

Even if I live to be a hundred (unlikely), I am still nearly a third of the way through my life. And should I happen to die tomorrow (possibly more likely than the die-at-100 scenario, albeit still fairly unlikely), I do not think I will pop off content with how I have spent my time on this wandering orb.

General Thaddeus Kosciusko by Benjamin West
What am I doing with my life?
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