I have often talked about the difficult time my family and I had in 2008. This was the turning point where we decided action was needed to turn our lives around. The first step was me moving to work in Munich, Germany, as a contractor. But we also decided that this change needed to be the catalyst for other far more reaching changes.
So far this blog has covered the art of Getting Things Done. We embraced the techniques in a big way having a skip outside the house for three days as we sorted out the junk built up over several years! The whole family enjoyed it. I have applied the GTD techniques to my life in Munich also, trying to keep ‘control’ of both my UK life and my German life!
This is the point where I realised that changing your life is not as easy as it sounds!
When I am in Germany, on my own, I control my time. Friday night is my focus time for updating my Getting Things Done framework, emptying my head, adding tasks to the lists and filing reference materials etc. Each night I meditate - I have found it hard to get into, but it is finally starting to work! I have control of my diet eating healthy foods. So OK so far!
However, every two weeks I go home to the UK. I love it! The thought of seeing my wife and kids, walking the dog, English food, the English language - Great! But it means a whole new routine for me.
The kids want Daddy to play, the Dog wants Daddy to play, the Wife wants Daddy … to fix the house! Family and friends need catching up with. All this is great but it breaks that routine - meditation stops, the diet goes out the window and I am also trying to keep a more complex GTD system in place and working! Not good!
When I return to Germany I am not as in-tune as I was and it then takes time to catch-up with the German routine. On top of that my job is demanding something like a 55 hour week! As a result this blog has suffered and I am not at the point I want to be with my plans.
So how to solve this? Well, I decided that although I was going through the motions I wasn’t really engaging 100% with the ideas I was promoting. I was using the book by Ingrid Bacci, called ‘The Art of Effortless Living‘ to teach me meditation and relaxation, at the same time using the GTD techniques to organise my life. But I was still trying to do too much! I wasn’t living an effortless life.
A fresh start has been made. I have re-read the techniques for both Getting Things Done and the Art of Effortless Living - this time I am understanding the techniques better. I have reduced the projects I am working on, which has reduced my tasks. Back in the UK we have completed the tidying and restructuring of the house, and I have decided that if I don’t always see friends or family then so be it!
The result? Well, it’s early days yet but I feel more relaxed. The blog is back to being updated and I have a wealth of ideas for improving the content. Each time I am home is an indicator on progress. The next visit home is this coming Wednesday!
I will update you with progress. I am hoping that the next post will be my review of the book ‘The Art of Effortless Living’ by Ingrid Bacci. A fascinating book so come back soon?!
