systems

Snail Mail

September 21, 2015 By Arminda

Let’s imagine for a moment that you’ve just collected your mail for the day.

As you pull the assorted envelopes and papers out of your box, you pause briefly to flip through the stack. Your eyes light on a colorful envelope with a handwritten address and your heart rate slightly increases with anticipation because you recognize that writing; it’s from someone you love. Memories of shared experiences with that person flood your brain and everything else in your world now ceases to exist until you’ve opened that envelope and read its contents word for word.

We tend to approach our work in the same way we get the mail: haphazardly and rushed. Somedays we barely have time to collect the post at all. When we do, we cram our arms full of the papers, fliers and envelopes spilling out of the box, casually flipping through them to see if anything stands out.

What if every project is a handwritten letter from someone you love and not a stuffed box of junk mail?

Slow down.

When we slow down we see the details that being in a hurry overlooks. Seeing details enables us to create solutions, to simplify processes, and to be an owner of that process, rather than a victim of a system.

There is plenty of time to accomplish all you wish to accomplish.

When was the last time you received a hand-written note or letter from someone? When did you last write and mail one to someone else?

Write a love note and snail mail it.

See the details in your projects and simplify your systems.

Give yourself and someone you love the gift of slowing down.

Staying Focused

September 4, 2015 By Arminda

Just when you think you have a problem staying focused, ask whether that’s true.

Let’s reevaluate the systems you’re using to accomplish your life.

System Fail

February 2, 2015 By Arminda

Systems, organization, programs and checklists have always been my thing. My entire corporate career (who am I kidding? my entire LIFE) was built in and around systems and checklists. I loved the orderliness of it all; the sense of grand accomplishment at checking off my boxes as I tracked my way to another completed report, sale, achievement, or goal.

Until I hit my wall.

That wall of frustration and overwhelm and exhaustion that felt like all I was doing was living for my lists, yet never quite satisfied with me. There in the middle of it all.

Systems can be wonderful inasmuch as they are implemented and used to support us: the person using the system or part of the bigger program. The tricky part comes when we get lost in the system.

Because the minute I’m serving a system instead of a system serving me, then that is the very minute to shut it down.

At the very least, it’s a red flag to reevaluate the role of the program or guiding principle. Is there a reset button you can employ? What if you look at things from a different angle? Is there another function for that program?

I’ve shut down more than one system in my life and I’ve revamped others based on a current need. There will be more reworks in my future, as my world evolves.

Remember, there will never be a system, program or process more important than you.

Is there a system waving its red flag at you?