This month I have been reading some interesting articles
about modern technology and finding time to relax. This seems to be a topic that is common to
many of us in our daily lives and in this months Yoga Journal, there is a
fabulous article detailing the experiences of balancing the demands of work
with finding time to be away from the constant connections. I also came across a great article on ezine an
article that discusses how to create a Zen office.
Finding time?
The past few weeks, I have been trying to put some of these
into practice and have spent some time thinking on these issues. In the yoga journal article, a Google
marketing manager with a 60hr a week schedule also is a yoga instructor and
makes time for daily practice as an important part of his working day. Instead
of finding the time to relax,
breathe and focus on the moment and practice a form of yoga/ meditation, these
elements make up and enhance your
daily work, making you more efficient and focused. By looking at it this way, instead of finding
time for something else alongside a daily, busy schedule and job, why not think
of this as an important part of the working day; as important as taking time
for lunch (away from the desk!). For these
tasks do not impede your day, they enhance it.
I liked the way these articles talked about the goals for this, instead
of trying to find the time for an hour long daily practice, start with 1
minute, or 2. As the yoga journal
article discusses, everyone has 60 seconds, this way goals can be maintained
and you are not disappointed with yourself.
When is your day off?
One thing I have noticed since moving to St John’s is how
everyone around me is constantly “connected”, by this I mean to the internet
and email. Blackberrys, smartphones,
ipads etc. mean that you no longer have breaks away from these things. Emails on an evening or a weekend while
studying for my masters degree in England would not mean that I would get a
reply there and then, and I wouldn’t have expected one. Here, it is common to have instant responses
at any time of the evening or weekend through the handheld devices that now
shape our lives. How much of a day off
can someone have if they are still checking and receiving emails? Can you spend a whole Sunday, not checking any
emails?
The connection trap
After my Masters degree, I spent 4 years living in the
Bahamas on a remote island and then living and travelling around in a sailboat. Running the science, I still had work to do,
our internet was so limited that, instead of trying to do some work, and then
be distracted by emails etc. I got much more done, and was less stressed (I
also had the benefit of daily yoga on the beach!). While I am staying in St John’s and doing my
PhD, I do feel these modern demands and I have found myself falling into some
of these “connected” traps. I have
maintained my no mobile phone ethic, so when I am not at my desk/laptop, I
cannot be contacted, no texts, nothing!
I enjoy the long pause and raised eyebrow look I often get when asked for my phone number and I reply that I do not have one. It is quiet amusing! I still do use my laptop for everything, work and play and I need to
work through the modern trappings of connectivity. So how to separate these so they do not all
become mixed in?
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| No internet while we were living on here! We had solar and wind power and a water maker too. |
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| Even if you had a phone, there was no service while we lived here! |
Switch off:
Washrooms, planes, libraries and scuba diving.
What do washrooms, planes, libraries and scuba diving all
have in common? At the moment, at least
these are places where we are still forced to switch off. Instead of becoming annoyed at the flight
attendant coming around to tell you to turn off your phone, you should be
thanking her for reminding you that you now have time to sit back and
relax. In the future there will be tv
screens in the shower I suppose, on the back of a toilet door? Underwater?
But for now, these places remind us to switch off, perhaps everyone
should have a space in the house for this to happen also. A “no wires, no connections” room.
Multi tasking or
muddling the mind?
I do agree that multi tasking has its benefits, however if
this involves starting a series of projects and tasks, but not finishing any
how is this more beneficial than fully concentrating on one task at hand? I have decided to put my yoga practice into
my daily work ethic. I made a start
today by cleaning up by desk/office space, filing away projects that I am not
working on right away, and creating a structured list for the order I want to
tackle each project. This way, I think I
will be able to accomplish more by concentrating fully on each piece without
getting carried away “google searching” or emailing when it can wait until
after. I am going to integrate this with
daily yoga and reflection to focus my thoughts.
This will be for 5 minutes each day, in addition to yoga classes at the
studio. This way, I hope that I will be
more efficient in my work, more organised, and have a calmer mind all day, not
just when I am entering the yoga studio!
8 steps to your own
November
Here are some things I am following to make November mine; I
have listed them in case you want to try any to make November yours, number 9 may be a challenge!
1 Create a
clean, tidy place to work – A Zen workspace
2 Turn off
that smartphone/blackberry if it is for work, and you are not at work.
3 Work
completely on one task
4 Turn off
email alerts and check them periodically, not constantly.
5 Dinner with
family, talking to friends? – turn off the work phone!
6 Eat lunch
away from a desk and a computer screen
7 Spend one
minute of your work day doing yoga or meditation
8 Go to a
shakti yoga class as often as you can
9 Try going phone less??!
Enjoy your phone free November! :)
Kate
Articles:
Yoga Journal
The trend toward enlightened thinking in the high-tech world
yields wisdom for all of us about how to stay connected with our inner
technologies as well as our electronics, by Andrew Tilin
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