Mindfulness, Inbox Pause, teaching to learn and beef stew
Published: Sun, 10/11/15
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Yesterday we were off to Canterbury Cathedral as Ellie was with her church choir in a Royal Church Music Festival with about 200 other local choristers in their cassocks of many different colours singing in a service together - amazing. She gets to do such cool stuff with her singing.
Today it's been a day of mostly cooking a lovely dinner for later and making a special present (more on that next week) for Little Doddsy's best friend who I'm taking out to tea on Wednesday whilst away on a business trip. We haven't seen her for nearly a year so Ellie's gutted she can't come but pleased that at least one of us is having the chance to see her.
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Inbox Pause
I know I talked about Inbox Pause in the summer but I had such a good result with it this week that I thought I'd recommend it again. It allows you to pause your gmail inbox whilst still using email - sending emails and searching previous emails. I use it on and off but this week it really impressed me.
I paused the inbox in the morning and got on with some work. And I went to the hairdressers having forgotten to unpause it. Whilst waiting for my colour to 'take' or whatever the technical term is, I had tasks to do that I could do on my phone whilst offline but I was tempted to just check my emails and get lost in there - as is often the case! But because the inbox was paused I couldn't without working out how to unpause it from my mobile.
So, I just stuck to my planned tasks instead. And then when I got home and unpaused my inbox I powered through the emails that were there rather than refiling them in my 'urgent - to reply to later today' folder as part of a triage and job done!
So, the learning for me is to try and do that more often next week and see just how much more productive I can be. I'll let you know! Why not give it a try yourself too?
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Teaching to Learn
Little Doddsy told me this week that 'teaching is to the best way to learn', which I think was just an excuse to make Daddy sit down with her when she was supposed to be doing her piano practise. Having said that, I know it's true. And she demonstrated it very expertly! It was really interesting listening in and hearing that she was clearly 'modelling' her teacher as I heard phrases that she had obviously 'borrowed', which shows how well her piano lessons are sticking
now.
It made me think about hearing Judith Morgan say, on the 'Own It! Your Business & Your Life' podcast, that we coach what we most want to learn and that as long as we're a page or two ahead of our coachees / students then all is well. I think that speaks to my philosophy of POWER to Live More, which is that I'm n where near 'done' or an 'expert' with all this productivity, organisation and wellbeing stuff but there will
be plenty of people who I can help by being just a few steps ahead of them!
What are you teaching to learn?
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I went on a course this week about mindfulness in the workplace. It was aimed at HR people within organisations and was interesting from that perspective, especially as the upshot of the message was that ultimately you can't change other people's behaviour and things that happen around you, you can only be mindful and in control of your response. I guess the HR people may have gone away more depressed than when they arrived though! Mind you, their role really is to encourage mindfulness in the workplace and develop their leaders and employees to increase their emotional intelligence, so they aren't completely powerless!
So, what is mindfulness?
I always describe it as being 'in the moment', being aware of what is actually happening NOW. It is described as 'an ancient Buddhist practice which is very relevant for life today. Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally. This increases awareness, clarity and acceptance of our present-moment reality.'
It's hard to be mindful all the time though isn't it; we often are thinking about something that has already happened or something that is yet to happen. When I first started investigating the concept I read that yoga and meditation are really helpful in practising mindfulness. To be honest neither particularly interest me! I do try and meditate occasionally but I'm a bit rubbish and not good at doing 'nothing' for a period of time...which is of course the point!
So, I also read that singing is as good for you as medititation and yoga so I started singing in local choirs. I was a keen singer at school but as is often the case (or at least was before the internet) I didn't know how to carry on after leaving and so didn't get back into it until 2 years ago. And, really, in my experience, singing is very mindful. When you're in a choir and singing a big musical piece (we're currently practising Handel's Samson) you really can't do anything other than pay attention, count and sing! It has other health benefits too with all the diaphragmatic breathing (which is I think a big part of why it is recommended as an alternative to yoga and meditation) and the general effect of having harmonious music all around you.
The other time I feel particularly mindful is when we go to church when Little Doddsy is in the choir. I'm not really religious but I do appreciate the opportunity the service provides to do little other than sit there and either think, or when being mindful to look around at, and appreciate, the beautiful surroundings (and sing a few hymns!).
Coincidently Judith Morgan, as mentioned above, shared a quote in her newsletter this week that fits with the mindfulness theme too.
"The one thing you can control is how you treat yourself. And that one thing can change everything"
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Interesting Shares from this Week
I haven't given you a list of interesting stuff that I've shared on social media for a while, so here you go!
Yesterbox: The Weird Inbox Zero System from the CEO of Zappos
Rituals, Habits, Self-Discipline and PR
8 Ways to Grow your LinkedIn Connections
Strategy First, App Second: 5 Productivity Methods, and the Apps that Make them Work
10 Foods to Help you Lose Weight and Feel Awesome
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I've also not shared a recipe for a while. We're having this beef stew for dinner tonight; yum!
Catch you next time
PS I know I keep saying it but my podcast really is almost ready to launch. I've got 11 amazing interviews lined up for you so far!