Every Company Needs a Good Map

We all get busy. We feel stress and pressure to accomplish something. We try to fill our time with tasks that give us the feeling of achievement. We want to feel we have done our job each and every day. With this in mind, we put off exercise, filing, and reading. Self-improvement can wait; there is work to be done. Yet, self-improvement is valuable. It actually helps us to do our work better. Consider it an investment in your ability. Consider it a payment for a longer life. As you learn to take time to improve your skills, you can also reduce your stress, improve your health, and improve your relationships.

I know that reading reduces stress (it's on the list of 100 things that reduce stress!), and I believe it also stimulates thinking well after the reading is done. I sleep better when I can take time to read for 30 minutes or so before going to bed. I have quite a pile of books to be read. I have a large number of books I have read. I keep most of the business and history books so that I can refer to them again. I keep many of the others because I like to loan them to people who I believe will enjoy them. I know that if I just tell them about a book, then they may not quite get around to reading it. In the case of fiction books, if I don't get it back it is not a problem. In fact, it's just fine because now I have more space on my shelf.

There is a treadmill in our home office. I should use it more often, but I don't. I love listening to music or books on tape while I walk but the motor on the treadmill is so loud it is hard to hear things clearly without damaging my hearing by turning up the sound. Instead I try to go out in the yard and do some work with a headset or ear buds. The time goes by much faster, and I hardly notice it. I tend to get more done that way. In fact, if I didn't have something to listen to then I start to think about all of the things I need to write, respond to, or create. At that point, I go back inside without getting much done in the yard.

Organization is a key element in the quest to reduce stress. As things pile up around the office a sense of futility begins to develop. You know where everything is; you just can't get to it quickly. As the piles grow the feeling that you could not find a place for everything begins to increase. I find that I often have to make a few piles of things. Things go in the easy to file pile, and the not so easy to file pile. After filing away the easy things, I split the not so easy files in two piles as before and repeat until I have most of it put away. It is amazing what you find as you do this. Of course, later I can't find where I filed something but that is rare. More often, I find that I never again need most of what sat on my side table for months.

What do you do to improve the quality, quantity, and enjoyment of your life?

I am a big fan of Marcus Buckingham's approach to success - Do more of what you are good at.  I think it is appropriate to apply that here. Find things you are good at, that you enjoy, or that improve your life, and do more of them.

BTW - this is post #200. I would like to thank everyone for the support and comments. I very much appreciate the opportunity to share my views and to discuss them with others.