Tag: efficiency

The guilt loop and how to avoid it

Posted on by philipdodson

Often, we get stuck in a guilt loop in life.

When we are supposed to be relaxing, we are feeling guilty about the stuff we didn’t do, when we were working. Therefore, we do not relax, we are not in the moment and we are stressed and feel guilty about all the things we could have done.

When we get back to work, instead of being productive, we feel resentful toward work because we did not get to relax. Thus we start putting things off again and feel unmotivated to do our work.

Then, we get to relaxation time again, and no surprise, we do not relax as the guilt comes back about not working and all things we should have done while we were meant to be working.

There are some simple ways to get out of this.

Firstly, when we are working, organise our time effectively to prioritise things that really matter, thus avoiding low-hanging easy and repetitive tasks, focusing using our very best deep work on the high-value task that makes a difference. As a consequence of our more focused deep work on high stuff, we do less, but get a greater return for that focused effort as we are doing the most important stuff.

We actually end up with more time to relax and we get quality relaxation time as we do not feel guilty, we have done the important stuff, the stuff that enables us to have relaxation time to enjoy.

Secondly, our worth as a person is never determined by anything, it is unconditional. Therefore, if we do not get something done, there is no reason to feel guilt.

Thirdly, if we do the most important stuff and stop feeling guilty and worthy instead no matter what, we not only get better at our work, but we get even better at enjoying relaxation time. This leads us to do even better work and then we are able to have even more relaxation time.

We swap a guilt loop with a joy loop.

Qwerty efficiencies

Posted on by philipdodson

Those are the 6 top left letters on an English language keyboard and all the other letters in this layout we’re supposedly placed in this arrangement so that the most used letters were in a difficult position to slow typists down so that mechanical typewriters didn’t jam or break.

We still continue with this system today yet we don’t have to as modern touch screens on our phones won’t break by typing too quickly. Well depends just how furiously you can type!

The fact is people are now looking into a different keyboard layout based on today’s users.

But why? What benefit will this have for the human race? ok, for the English speaking humans in this case.

Ok, so it might make typing more efficient.

Who says being more efficient is a benefit though?

QWERTY or not, our lives do not have to be constantly improved by meaningless changes or upgrades. We don’t have to be more efficient.

No one seems to seek improvements in empathy, kindness, compassion, love and other more meaningful things, strangely.

This could be achieved by spending less time looking to be more efficient because more efficient people tend to get given more to do not less. We’d be better off being kindly, lovingly, and wonderfully inefficient.