Tag Archives: balance

A little courage

Posted on by acrystelle
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Courage. I think that is what the coming year will need. A little here, a little there, and a dash of belief in everything. Oh, and not forgetting to smile and relax every so often.

Today was my first day back at work for the new year, so I’m guessing now is a good time to share what lies ahead.

In the small steps I took towards establishing some sort of balance in my life last year, I learnt a thing or two.

1. I still don’t know where my happy balance point is. But that’s okay. It’s a work in progress.

2. My partner and I communicate more. I don’t mean just the ‘how was your day, Dear?’ conversation over the frying pan in the kitchen of an evening. We’re both professionally driven and every now and then we need to be honest about where we’re at in terms of professional pursuits. Communicating what I’d like to achieve and what I need to say ‘no’ to keeps me to my word, and vice versa. We pull each other in line.

3. I can craft.

4. I get an itch to write if I haven’t in a few days.

5. I can have Twitter-free weekends….and it’ll still be there when I return.

 

While I have a few goals I’d like to achieve this year, and they’re big goals, I’ve identified areas of focus (apart from my job).

1. Research

I have at least two research projects to complete this year as part of my LIS Masters. I extended my course to include the extra research units so I could gain experience as a researcher and perhaps take a step forward in pursuing a career path that is managing research data. Yes I’m crazy. Yes I’ve thought it through. Except now I feel anxious about the little time I have to complete them – less than 12 months. Plus travel. Plus fieldwork. Plus working full-time. Plus….

I’ll definitely need more than a little courage here.

I’m looking forward to it, but the pressure I have is that I’d really like to graduate this year. People have started the course and have graduated before me. Surely the academic staff are tired of me hanging around :)

I have set up a private space in which to journal my progress, work through ideas, so I can hopefully gain an understanding at the end of it of how I experienced and have learnt about the research process. I’m looking forward to participating in the research circle at QUT and finally be involved in a space I’ve been longing to be a part of.

I may love it. I may hate it.

2. Reading

I acquired a Kindle last year. I’ve found my reading mojo and reignited a joy I hadn’t experienced since I was a teenager. I seek to explore new reading horizons this year by reading out of my comfort zone. I look to reading to feed me inspiration for writing and the direction in which to take it. My goal is to read 20 books this year. I think this is aiming rather high given my research commitments this year.

3. Writing

Last year I recovered something that was absent from within for a long time. I enjoy writing. Something clicked last year, or something triggered. I have awakened a passion. Or maybe ‘passion’ is too strong a word, but I’ll go with that for now. I’d like to write more.

I don’t claim to be a fabulous writer by any means. But I may be a writer who is just out of practice. Before I became increasingly competitive at gymnastics, I loved to write. I was good at it. I’d jump at writing assignments. As a nine year old, I wrote poems and made them into a little book. I wrote short stories. I now wonder how different my professional life might’ve been if I kept this up. Somewhere along the way of training, depression and senior high school study and uni, I’d lost my passion.

This year I’d like to explore where writing could take me. I need to practice, practice and practice. I’ve started a writing journal to keep me in touch with my writing projects. I record my word counts, my inspirations, my ideas and work through them. I’ve noticed I get irritable if I haven’t written for more than two days. I’ve also found I experience less anxiety about writing if I allow myself the freedom to explore an idea, brainstorm, and by not placing undue pressure on myself to produce something perfect every time. Through the journalling process I can put more consideration into my thoughts before publishing them. I’m really looking forward to my own writing projects this year. Let’s just hope my writing requirements for my research projects don’t kill what I’ve recently found.

I read a book called ‘Writer with a Day Job’ that kicked started some strategies to fit in my writing where possible. I have plans to do a short writing course with the Queensland Writers Centre and have picked out a few seminars and workshops I’d like to attend too. QWC have a writing morning on the first Friday of every month in the Library Cafe for an hour. I could do this before work. I’ve placed the time and dates in my diary.

4. Fitness

Health and fitness will continue to be a priority this year. I’ve increased my goal to exercising four times a week. A little trick I do to myself to ensure I get to the gym is changing before I leave work. I have no excuse then, I’m dressed. I’m looking forward to the new fitness centre at QUT opening this month. I’d like to add swimming as an alternative cardio.

5. Friends

I made a conscious effort last year into placing my relationship and family above my professional commitments outside of work. I’ve done really well with this. What I’ve noticed though is that I spend a lot of time at home. My focus for this year will shift outward and ensure I can relax and hang out with my friends more often. A tipping point occurred a couple of months ago when I froze during a night out for a best friend’s birthday. I shut down, stood there. I realised I need to exercise the ‘relax and having fun’ muscle more frequently. This surprised me. But I only need to look at my last few years to find where I went wrong.

 

So they’re my areas of focus for the year. I fear I may need to reduce these to two or three but it’s a starting point. I received a lovely gift last year of a well-being journal that I’ll certainly put to good use in documenting my path.

Other plans and goals include completing fieldwork placements, a requirement for my LIS Masters; attending IFLA in August, and travelling to South America if it is confirmed my partner is sent there for work. I’d love to do a placement over there, if I can. I also continue to progress my three-year plan for an overseas work contract. I’m keeping an eye on possibilities.

Wow, so a big year, and an exciting one too. A little courage is needed to get through it. A little belief is needed so I can finish it. Throw in a smile and I’ve really got something.

Happy New Year!

 

Dreamlike

Posted on by acrystelle
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Last year I bought my very first piece of artwork – a painting. It hangs on the wall in my study where I can look up to it from my desk. I’ve waited a long time for an artist to strike me. I wouldn’t say I’m fussy with artwork, but it needs to really say something to me, connect with me in a powerful way for me to want to commit to a purchase. After all, I’m the one who has to see it everyday in my home.

Strangely enough, my partner bought a painting from the same artist a year earlier. The artist is from South Africa, her name is Katherine Wood.

When I bought my painting, my partner and I were lucky enough to attend the exhibition opening at Red Hill Gallery in Brisbane and met Katherine and her husband. It was fabulous to not only have a conversation with them, but also to discuss her interpretation of the artwork I had chosen to buy and to let her know why I had chosen it and what it will mean to me. Katherine and one of the gallery staff made the observation that my partner and I were part of a minority at the exhibition, that being we were a couple of the young ones there. We took that as a compliment.

I guess you can read into some paintings as you will, but especially with Katherine’s.

The painting I bought is called Dreamlike.

Unfortunately I can’t seem to find an image online and my photo just won’t do it justice.

Dreamlike isn’t big, but just enough for me. She let me know that she usually doesn’t do small paintings, so mine could end up being one of only a few.

I believe that if you want to buy a piece of artwork, you have to commit to it; it needs to be meaningful to you (and if only you then its extra special), and it needs to be a pleasant constant in your everyday life. I absolutely adore my painting. I may not gaze it at everyday, but I do see it and I know it’s there when I need it to remind me of a few things. Those few things of course, are between my painting and I. No one else.

Gathering up the pieces

Posted on by acrystelle
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About a month ago…..my goodness, it was THAT long ago?! Let’s try this again. About a month ago, I went on a holiday. *gulp* Yep, a real holiday and my first overseas trip in over three years. As the Boeing 777 aircraft accelerated towards take off, I couldn’t help but think about how much my life has changed in three years. Not that I had a fear of flying and my life was flashing before my eyes. But the fact that it was my first, real holiday that extended over a week struck excitement, relief and a little fear within myself. I was so excited to be travelling again, if only for a short while. I love exploring, and now I have the best of travel buddies as my partner. I was relieved that I was eventually able to tear myself away from my work, yet I was afraid of being disconnected for such a time.

Wow.

Three years ago I was contemplating a future as an information professional, having completed a graduate certificate in business information management. I was entering a new phase of my life, I knew that for certain, but I didn’t think I would be where I am today. And I definitely didn’t think I’d be so involved in my profession and loving it! Much to my detriment in some respects, indicated by my fear of doing another thing I loved to do – travel. Not to worry as I’ve learnt a lot from this experience.

Being passionate about my work and involvement in the profession tends to lead me to taking up opportunities and projects. Therein lies a (developing) ability of striking a delicate balance. It’s like I had all these balls up in the air, then I left and they all fell to the ground. I did not anticipate such a long time to gather them back up again after my holiday. I came home completely overwhelmed by what I had to catch up on. I mean, far out, I’ve only just booked myself in again for pilates class and set up my membership for a rock climbing gym.

So far this year I’ve done well in working on balancing my personal and professional lives, but arriving home again just made it all too clear how far away I am from achieving and maintaining this balance. The planning I did at the beginning of the year, as well as my task manager, certainly helped me to identify where I was at with things. These are strategies I’ll stick with, but did not completely relieve me from a cluttered mind in getting things done quickly upon my return. And I hate clutter. In the last few weeks, I’ve often felt frustrated about not being able to finish tasks….completely. Like down to the small things such as filing and keeping my document files tidy on my computer.

Returning from my holiday has instigated a couple of things. Firstly, my wanting to start a travel blog. I’ve been planning and meaning to do so for years, since my last overseas trip. I believe I’ve now got the confidence to just do it, to share my experiences, reflective thoughts and tips about travel. There is so much information out there about how to be a great travel writer and blogger that it has actually discouraged me from doing it. So screw it, I’m going to do it my way. My Twitter followers will see more of my sharing of travel articles and posting my travel blog posts. Details of my travel blog will be revealed soon. I’m really excited to be dedicating more time on my travel interest and finally living up to the “share my travel adventures” part of my Twitter bio. :)

Secondly, my holiday made me think about the importance of making time for hobbies, and not just reading about them, actually doing and practicing them! A refreshing and seemingly backwards way of thinking about a schedule comes from the book ‘The Now Habit’ which describes using an ‘unschedule’ for fitting in work, rather than a ‘schedule’ for fitting in leisure. Just thinking about time differently has me starting to feel more focused and eager to complete my work. My current work habits and patterns will have me running the risk of losing passion and enthusiasm for it, despite my efforts in planning everything (but we all know things never go according to plan), so by literally turning work schedules upside down, the aim here is to sustain passion, not drain it.

One step at a time. One day at a time.

This is now my mantra for the next few weeks at least. After the university semester, I’ll be de-cluttering again, having a review of things and away I’ll go again.

Planning Sessions – a summary & final thoughts

Posted on by acrystelle
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For my final ‘Planning Sessions’ post, I’d like to share some final thoughts, benefits I’ve experienced and describe how my planning tools come together in the form of the ‘Weekly Review’.

In my first planning session, I identified five tools to use to assist my planning and keeping on track.

  • Diary
  • Task manager
  • Year Planner
  • Quarterly Planner
  • Checklist

At this point, I haven’t completed the quarterly planner, I’m feeling little need to do so. Perhaps I don’t need one? Though I suspect I’ll do a planner for the university semester.
For the other four tools, they’re serving their purpose beautifully. And I’ve been strict with myself to stick to the purpose for each tool. The result is not only minimising clutter, but I also know which tool to go to retrieve information about something. For example, I don’t record my exercise in my diary, it goes on the checklist. When I’d like to know how I’m tracking with my exercise goals, I don’t need to sort through appointments and due dates to find this information. I can view my progress with a glance at the checklist.

Possibly the single most important part of maintaining my capturing and processing system has been the ‘Weekly Review’. Last week I had a brief thought to do away with my ‘weekly review’ because I had other things calling for my attention. My recommendation is to ignore those urges. I kept my ‘weekly review appointment’ and glad I did. The ‘weekly review’ keeps me on top of my commitments and provides me with a clear idea of what I need to do. I’d fall behind and induce feelings of being overwhelmed if I missed a ‘weekly review’. It is a process where all the tools and their functions come together. The general process involves going through each ‘inbox’ and deciding each item’s next action (or inaction). Tasks are input into the task manager. I identify, from my year planner, which projects I’m currently working on and their next action. I then go through each task and assign a due date.

A challenge I’ve faced in developing trust in the system is recording tasks, ideas, etc as soon as possible, when it comes to mind. If something is on my mind, my mind isn’t clear and restricts thinking and ideas. When something is on your mind, before it starts to bug you, write it down, capture it in the system. Even if it’s a scribble on a piece of paper and placed in a physical in-tray. Come to the ‘weekly review’, the item will be dealt with.

By going through the process of planning and setting up a system, I’ve certainly honed my personal learning environment (PLE) tools used for capturing and processing – naturally I’ve stuck with what’s handy and meshes with how I like to record and retrieve things.

So here’s an idea: Record or pay attention to what you grab when writing down an idea or task. Do this for a week or two. Do you always have Evernote open? Do you grab whatever scrap of paper you find? This exercise will help determine which tools work for you and will be handy to incorporate into your processing system.

Final thoughts….

Plans and planning is guided by a direction or goals. I’ve discovered two approaches to planning. One is to plan to prepare for opportunities, the other is to plan towards set goals. So it doesn’t matter if you have set goals or not, planning is useful to everyone.

Planning doesn’t mean to imply being rigid or taking a rigid approach to following plans. Instead, I believe planning is key to being flexible. By knowing what projects are happening, commitments, essentially the big picture, at any one time actually allows for flexibility. Since implementing my planning tools and system I’ve identified an opportunity I’d like to take on. I can refer to my year planner, be reminded of my priorities and focus areas, and perhaps find a way I can work it in. Or I won’t be able to. But by having a planner, I can save myself from, well, myself and re-affirm where my energies are to be directed.

Remember, the only constant in life is change.