Upsizing Your Life: The Wheel of Life Exercise

Upsizing Your Life: The Wheel of Life

For those who are unfamiliar with the exercise, the Wheel of Life has 8 categories:  career, health, family and friends, money and finances, fun and recreation, romance and loving yourself, personal growth, and physical environment.  If you’d rather substitute other categories, please do so–this wheel represents your life.

Each of these categories are assessed on a scale of 0 (unsatisfied) to 10 (highly satisfied).  When you are done rating how you feel about each area of your life, you then plot the numbers on the spokes of the wheel and then connect them together.  When you’re done, you will have a picture of how your life is working in each of the different areas.  

If you’re like most people, your wheel is lop-sided.  Some areas are 10′s or close to them; some could be 0′s or close to that.  If you do the exercise you’ll notice that some areas need some attention and there will be some areas that are going well for you.  

No matter how good things may seem now, there is always room for improvement, and looking to improve every day is what the spirit of personal kaizen is all about. It’s not about how far you have come or how far you have yet to go, it is only about this moment and being open to seeing the lessons around you, and possessing the capacity and willingness to learn and improve.

There are many small things you can do to increase your mindfulness and skills over time. Here are 15 tips in no particular order.

(1) Keep an analog scrapbook. From napkins to paper cups to business cards and brochures, flyers, pictures and posters — whatever you find remarkable (good or bad) and fits inside a folder, a box, or a scrapbook. From time to time, review the contents of your analog examples and reflect on what works (and what doesn’t) and why. This activity is even better in a group where people occasionally come together and share their scrapbook contents with others in a kind of “show and tell”.

(2) Keep a digital scrapbook in the form of an online photo blog — either private or open to anyone to view — where you log all the examples of things you find of interest. Usually you can take a snap and then upload it to your blog right from your phone.

(3) Get out of your comfort zone. Participate in something creative that others may think is out of character for you. If you’re always comfortable, you probably are not growing. Dare to be daring (at least sometimes).

(4) Keep stimulating the "right side" of your brain by learning a musical instrument, or rediscovering the instrument you used to play. Playing music is one of those creative “whole mind” activities that will enrich your life (and work). You are never too old to learn to play an instrument.

(5) Learn to draw by taking a class using the methods of Betty Edwards (or buy her books and videos). Get Dan Roam’s The Back of the Napkin and learn how to draw and talk at the same time at the whiteboard.

(6) Take an art class at the local community college or university. Don’t worry that it may not have “obvious applications for work.” The art — whatever it is — will teach you lessons about seeing and communicating through form. All you need to do is practice and enjoy the journey. You’ll find, perhaps unexpectedly, that there were indeed lessons in there that you later applied to your own work or personal life.

(7) Go for long walks alone (with ability to record your observations). As you walk, if an idea snaps into your head or you notice something that stimulates your imagination, use the voice recorder in your phone (or other device) to record the idea. It may seem odd, but I often even go jogging with my iPhone just in case I need to take a snap of something remarkable or an idea comes to mind that I need to record instantly. Besides relieving stress and keeping you fit, exercise seems to stimulate ideas. Record those ideas when possible in a way easiest for you.

(8) Get completely unplugged and off the grid — no iPhones or BlackBerrys, etc. — and go for a walk, a hike, a bike ride, or whatever it is that allows you slow your busy mind. And what if that brilliant idea hits you and you can’t record it in any way or take a picture of a remarkable example? Don’t worry about it. Getting off the grid and freeing up your mind (and pockets) is necessary too.

(9) Make it a point to watch TED videos on line. Subscribe to the TED RSS feed or follow TED on Twitter.  Many presentations have been translated.

(10) Go for walks in nature with a keen eye for the balance and the colors, lines, shapes, etc. that most people never pay attention to. What lessons can you get by stopping to look both at the whole and then zooming in to look at the particular? There is much to be learned by careful observation of nature. Artists already do this, but we can too.

(11) Teach others what you learn. One of the best ways to deepen and solidify your new knowledge is to teach it to others. Give a presentation, run a seminar, teach a class, or volunteer to run a small internal workshop to teach others in your organization what you are learning. Real learning occurs when you share it.

(12) Share your new knowledge and passion in a short presentation at your local Pecha Kucha Night, Ignite night, TEDx conference, Users Group meeting, or even your local Toastmasters meeting, and other associations. The more you share and the more you get out to these events, the more you learn.

There are many more things you can do to continuously improve and grow over the long-term. What are some of the things that work for you?

Tip: Imagine you have a magic wand. If you could use this magic wand to change anything in your life, where would you begin? What could you do right now to gain control of the situations in your life that frustrate you? 

What WILL you do immediately?

The Spirit of Personal Kaizen

The Spirit of Personal Kaizen

Now that so much has been decluttered and everything has a home, your main job is maintenence, that is, keeping everything neat and organized.

Or is it?

Kaizen, which in Japanese means ‘continuous improvement’, is a management technique developed in Japan to bring about continuous improvement in operations of an organization, with widespread involvement of employees at all levels of organization. Application of kaizen improves organizational performance through many small improvements rather just a few major improvements. Kaizen aims to improve all the processes in an organization and it involves everyone in the organization.

The core of the kaizen system is organizing almost the entire work force in teams and empowering them to become effective tools for improvement in the organization. These teams, in addition to performing their routine jobs are expected to do the following:

• Identify problems and opportunities for improvement in the current working methods.
• Develop and suggest ways of overcoming problems and improving performance.
• Implement improved methods.

Change does not have to happen through instantaneous breakthroughs, or through desperation or inspiration.  It can occur in small steps, doing the little things just a little bit better, and doing away with ineffective habits and behaviors over time.

1) To start your own kaizen process, make a list of things you would like to be, do, and have.  

2) Next to these, write down one step you can take, starting today, that will get you closer to these goals.

3) Next, make a list of those things you are tolerating in your life but don’t want.  Bad coffee at the office?  Nasty mother-in-law?  Friend who uses you?  What do you whine about?  

4) Now, next to each toleration in your life, note if you can control it or if you’ll have to change your thoughts about it–is there a better, more empowering way to think about it?  Are there some positive aspects you aren’t seeing?  With each toleration you can change, take one small step today to make the change.  Stop complaining, and act on them.

5) What are some bad habits you have?  How can you change them through small steps?

Don’t just maintain – get even better!

The Impossible Dream – my home office gets decluttered

The Impossible Dream – my home office gets decluttered

I have been working on this project for over four months yet still am not even close to being „finished“.

After taking on my clothes, I am ready for „The Impossible Dream“ – my office. Even though I allowed myself thirty minutes this morning to take a tiny step (I played hooky from my Italian class.), I got caught in the guts of organization chaos. Disorganization causes fragmentation in thought and actions and I was jangled.

Even though I try to avoid placing things on the floor while cleaning & organizing, I get stuck every time. The best plan would be:

1) organize the large surfaces first (like the desk and floor)

2) flat surfaces need to be decluttered, everything has to find a home

3) THEN is the time for the interior surfaces like drawers, shelves and containers.

So, going back a step, I shall work in this order:

1) the desk

2) my worktable (Who can work on that thing?! It is always cluttered. Bwah…)

3) the floor

4) the shelves

5) the containers still left after my first purge

The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. Proverbs 14:1

I am definitely becoming a master in the “art of wastebasketry”. Even though my worktable is a cluttered hodgepdge, I am undaunted. Somehow, my tossing skills are getting better each day. It doesn’t “hurt” anymore!

One new rule I’ve set for myself is: Never have to move something to get to another thing! If something is not easy to put away, it generally gets put on some free surface until I have time. Yeah right. Like I have time for that. (We all know I don’t want to sacrifice the time!)

For those who are overwhelmed by their clutter, here are some great ways to get started, five minutes at a time:

1) Throw out any useless scrap pieces of paper lying around or on top of your desk.

2) Start clearing a starting zone. What you want to do is clear one area. This is your no-clutter zone. Put everything in its place. Now, keep this area uncluttered! Extend your NO-CLUTTER-ZONE daily. Clear off flat surfaces first.

3) Pick up 5 things, and find homes for them. These should be things that you actually use, but that you just seem to put anywhere, because they don’t have easily-reached locations.

4) Finish Each Task -- Completely. Of course you will need to sort things into categories (e.g., toss, recycle, donate, give to friend, put in storage). But here's the crucial part: Once you have decided where something is going to go -- take it there. Never keep bags for charity or boxes for friends in your home to deliver later. Do it now. Finish the process.

5) Put away files that aren’t being used every day.

6) If possible, position your desk so that it’s close to a window, away from a door.

7) Keep a file on your desk separated by the dates of the month (from 1 to 31). Underneath the relevant dates, slot in your to do’s, paper messages of calls to return, letters to type out, etc.

8) Try to limit the personal items on your desk. These can be one framed photograph of your family, a pot plant (NOT two), etc. Whatever keeps you motivated and feeling happy. Just be sure that it doesn’t take over the majority of your working space.

9) Keep your desktop folders organized. Set up and name folders on your desktop for each new project that you’re working on.

10) Try to stay paperless. We live in a world today where most things are electronic. If you don’t need to print something out – don’t.  Rather, save it on your computer under a desktop folder for easy access.

Get into the habit of clearing your desk at the end of each day. It will make the idea of coming in to work the next morning a pleasure.

Create a 30-day list.

The problem with decluttering is that we can declutter our buns off but it just comes back because we buy more stuff. So fight that tendency by nipping it in the bud: don’t buy the stuff in the first place. Create a 30-day list, and every time you want to buy something that’s not absolutely necessary, put it on the list with the date it was added to the list. Make a rule never to buy anything (except necessities) unless they’ve been on the list for 30 days. Often you’ll lose the urge to buy the stuff and you’ll save yourself a lot of money and clutter.