How To Make It Easier To Get Things Done
Do you know what you should do, but still don’t do it?
Remember when you picked up your first personal development tip? I did, it was back in ’96 when I started devouring personal growth books like mad.
While reading about those principles opened my eyes to new horizons, a few of them I put into practice…years after I first read about them.
If those personal development tips and tricks could make me more productive, happier and more fulfilled, why wouldn’t I use them the moment I put those books down?
What’s the secret to stop procrastinating over making your life better and actually start doing it?
Make the good easy.
I don’t remember where I first read about this principle, but it really hit home after I started using the GTD (Getting Things Done) process. GTD makes it very clear that you need to define where your stuff goes and keep a trusted system for making things happen.
I started using a PDA mobile-phone for the first time earlier this year, and every single day I had my tasks and calendar laid out before my eyes on the opening screen, whether I wanted to see it or not. This constant in-my-face method made me loads more productive because it made seeing what I needed to do easy.
I started playing with setting intentions after joining Steve Pavlina’s Million Dollar Experiment. But besides reminding myself to do it, I’d sometimes forget because I didn’t make it easy, and now the practice has tapered off.
But recently I wanted to go back to using the power of intentions. I asked myself; how can I make setting my intentions easier? Following these instructions on how to display text files on your desktop in Lifehacker, I pasted my intentions on my home computer’s desktop, the place at home I spend the most time on.
(By the way, that’s not a Mac 
it’s a PC modded to look like a Mac)
If you can’t see my intentions, they are:
I am living a life of ease, joy and fulfillment.
I am blessed with more and more abundance, prosperity and success.
I am growing in wisdom, power and love.
I am a noble, vital and worthy being.
Does it work?
I’ve found myself seeing those intentions in-my-face day after day, and that has made all the difference. I’ve memorized them, and even found myself thinking about them unconsciously while I’m away from the computer; so it definitely works to help burn my intentions into my mind.
This in-your-face method of making the good easy is the simple reason why so many personal development books have told you to paste your goals, tasks and affirmations in places where you’ll always see them. Big duh! If only I’d figured this out earlier in the game.
(Actually, I did, but why I stopped and proved to myself not doing it doesn’t work is another story )
How can you make the good in your life easier to do?
Funny. A few months ago, I’ve used the very same Windows theme with ObjectDock at the bottom.
Anyway I think your desktop could be simplified even more.
- Is ObjectDock really necessary? You can use the Start menu.
- Use online calendar (like GCal) instead of Rainlendar, and open it only when needed
- Hide all tray icons
- Don’t display the date next to the clock
Hi qeek,
I love the dock because it’s a much faster way for me to get to the programs I want. After this post I set it to auto-hide though, which works much better (by the way it’s the resource-light Y’z Dock not ObjectDock).
I like having my calender on the desktop because I have to go out for events regularly and I like having the reminders there. Plus it integrates nicely with the GTD method of having only time-sensitive tasks in the calender.
I like having the date on the clock! I know it adds to the clutter but it’s just me – it reminds me of a Mac :p
Thanks for the link to desktopography – superb site and I’ve got myself a nice new desktop. The actual link in your article is wrong i think – it should be http://www.desktopography.net/
Oops! You’re right, Rob, thanks! The link has been amended.
Complexity and disorder is the natural way of things. Real life doesn’t fit into orthogonal containers. Clutter represents uncertainty, mankind’s greatest fear. Learn to accept it, appreciate it, love it!