Life

You might have heard someone say to you, every once in a while, that the time for doing something is right. You must do it now, in order to achieve success from your actions.

Timing is a tricky, but important element in your decisions. One can never really gauge the the timing of doing something to perfection, except for listening to one’s gut. Instinct plays a huge role in figuring out the fate of your actions, and one needs to be in tune with one’s instincts to take measures that can gauge the element of timing in one’s actions.

In ancient times, man relied on his instincts to protect himself. Urban environments have somewhat detuned our ability to sense something is wrong around us, nevertheless, we still have the ability to sharpen our instincts. Which is why it is so important to meditate, be mindfully present in the moment, be close to nature once in a frequent while.

Listen to your gut. Test it, assess it, and then follow through on your plans. May time be with you in your actions.

If you find yourself taking a lot of breaks and feeling like taking off on your own without anyone around, you might be getting exhausted with either one, or both, of the spaces that you spend majority of your time at everyday – home or/and work. Both these spaces play a crucial role in your life, so it is necessary not to ignore them and try and fix the problems that make you escape as soon as possible. The holidays you take can charge you up, but your return to a debilitating environment will sap that energy from you soon enough. Also, taking more than two-three breaks in a year is unusual, and could be a symptom of a problem you need to find a solution for quickly before it escalates and you feel the pressure even more so.

Don’t ignore problems at home and work. They tend to sap your energy quickly since you spend most of your time in either of these places. Act clearly and at the earliest to find your balance.

‘Do not attach yourself to the outcome of your actions’

This famous instruction from the Bhagvad Gita is actually quite simple to follow; it has the enormous benefit of keeping you in sane space when your work is about to come to fruition. In the likelihood of excitement or disappointment ensuing from your labour, mere observation of the outcome from a distance can most likely be the best you can derive out of the expectations you have from having done something towards a goal.

Imagine yourself to be a curious onlooker of your own work. Follow the result of your work like a researcher would, keeping yourself at a rational distance from the outcomes. Analyse the end result, give yourself points on things done well and areas of improvement. Close the diary of the fruits of your result for the time being, take a break to think about the entire project or task you had set yourself out to do, and move forward towards the next milestone.

This is simpler to do than it reads. You will save your heart, and mind, from the emotional roller coaster associated with any kind of expectation.

You needn’t really build a fixed time table for yourself to perform tasks well everyday. Just two things kept in mind – priorities and deadlines- can help you structure a flexible work schedule  for the day that can ease the pressure of a minute-to-minute time table and accommodate eventualities in your work schedule.

Prioritise. Make a mental note of things that need to be done before you take on the next task. Give the tasks approximate time slots in your mind and you will see how this works as well, if not better, than planning your day on paper.

Watch the deadlines. Keep a track of the time required to finish tasks well before a deadline as a daily habit. Take the help of the structure of time we are used to measuring our days by – weeks, months, years and days – in order to make rough plans. Work your days around weekly schedules, your weeks around monthly goals, and so on.

Once you learn to plan your days this way in your mind, you will not need to sit and write out strict schedules for yourself anymore. It’ll all be where it is supposed to be – in the head. The human brain has a huge capacity for storing information. Exercise the memory muscles and keep your brain active, and alive.

Take up a challenge this New Year. Apart from making simple resolutions that you can stick to and planning the year ahead of you, do something that seems not-so-easy to you.

For example, learn a new language, or set yourself a goal to run a certain number of kilometres everyday, if you don’t exercise regularly. Start working towards initiating the activity in the New Year by gathering information about what you are going to do this month, to be able to begin next month.

Lastly, try this as an activity that does not require you to pay money. In case you are learning a language, make it a do-it-yourself task, or ask a friend who knows the language already to give you lessons. This will not only help you improve your abilities, it will also ensure that you value, and persevere, that which does not involve a financial transaction.

Learning can be fun, and challenging yourself can be very satisfying when you begin to see results. Both can keep you inspired enough to jump out of bed everyday, where money, as you will see for yourself, has no role to play.