Month: October 2021

Thoughts start to fade when we can’t focus or when we’re tired. Or when there’s too much to remember at once. We try to memorize and recall the things we’re supposed to do before those thoughts disappear. But with everything going on around us, it’s inevitable that they will slip away and vanish.

It’s why we can’t help but forget things sometimes, no matter how hard we try not to. We’re just holding on to too many thoughts at once–too many things that are jam-packed in the “priority” bin of our mind. At a certain point, the bin will be full, and everything at the bottom will be forgotten.

It’s only when we do an overhaul that we discover all the things we were supposed to do but didn’t. We have to sort through the madness, organize everything into neat stacks and categories like we’re trying to put them inside of a binder.

Then we find things we forgot to do, things that were so important that we can’t believe that we forgot them. But could we really blame ourselves with the dozens of things we tell ourselves to do each hour–each minute? There’s only so much time in the day, and only so many things that we can remember. Besides, thoughts aren’t like books that we can access anytime we want. Some of them will just fade away.

Overtime at work means working beyond the normal hours of our shift. But we often work overtime on things not related to work. Things like our own projects, home/car repairs–even our hobbies.

Not everything in life goes as planned, especially the timeframe we set for our endeavors. Things can go wrong, or they might take more time than we initially thought. In addition, unexpected problems can occur, such as details that we overlooked or didn’t know about. These details can add hours or days on top of the work that needs to be done.

For most of the stories I’ve written, they took longer than the expected completion date I had set for myself. I found myself investing more time due to the fact that the manuscript needed more chapters, rewrites, and edits. The whole process felt like I’d never finish. But at some point, things started to come together, and gradually, there was less and less to edit and fix.

As aforementioned, overtime isn’t just something that occurs at work, but in many aspects of our lives. Our expectations of having something finished/done by a certain date is far different from the experience and effort that goes into completing a project/task. Sure, we can “complete” something in a rush just to be done with it, but quality doesn’t have an exact time frame.

Reading while the sunlight is dimming is sort of like racing against the clock. We read speedily to finish the chapter before the light goes out, before it’s too dark to read. And as the light gets dimmer and dimmer, our eyes adjust to the dimness, trying to hang on for just one more paragraph–one more page.

But the same could be said about a lot of things when the light is dimming. When the sun starts to fall, we try to finish up things at work, make it back home from a run/jog before it gets completely dark, or finish up doing whatever it is we’re doing outside, whether that is fixing the car or yard work.

It’s as if the sun is the compass of our day, and as the light gets dimmer, it’s the yellow traffic light before turning red. We’re racing to do or finish whatever it is that needs to be done before the night takes over. And even though we have electricity and lamps, it’s not the same as when the sun is out. It’s not the same knowing that within a few short hours, we have to go to sleep.

Sleep is an essential part of our day, but it’s something that seems elusive to us. We’re so busy throughout the day that we end up trying to do more than we have time to. Even after dinner, we’re still trying to get things done as if we were at work, which consequentially interferes with our sleep schedule.

And even when we get a chance to rest, the hours we sleep don’t seem to be enough. We’re tired when we wake up–grumpy even. We just want to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep. We feel like something has snatched the time from us, like the day is too short to get everything done and sleep.

Getting a goodnight’s sleep is something that everyone knows is important and essential for a healthy life. If so, then why does sleep seem so scarce? Why does it seem unattainable when it’s something as simple as going to sleep?

Maybe it has more to do with how hectic our lives can be, how much there is to do and accomplish within a short period of time. But if we prioritized sleep the same we did with everything else in our day, perhaps we can accomplish that as well.

When we put things off, we tell ourselves that we’ll get to them later. But then other things come up, things that will fill up our to-do list, which will push everything else to the back of the list.

At some point, the list will get so full that we’ll have forgotten about the things that we were supposed to do. Things like picking up items from the store, putting papers or envelopes away, getting gas for the car, or cleaning and doing chores around our home. And if we put them off, they’ll catch up with us later–piling up on our current to-do list. Then we’ll wonder why we put those things off in the first place.

Even if we organize our to do list, I find that it’s only useful if the list is short and the time frame is reasonable. If the list ends up getting too long, there might not be enough time to get to all the items on it. And if that happens, we’ll spend the next day trying to catch up with yesterday while working on today’s list.

On our journey through we life, we pick up new skills as we go. Sometimes it’s out of necessity, and at other times, it’s out of interest. The new skills we develop expand our repertoire of knowledge and abilities–giving us more confidence in what we can do and bring to the world.

Some of the skills we develop have nothing to do with what we majored in at college or what we do for work. It could be a hobby, such as gardening, or something essential, like cooking. The skills could even be things that we’re not even aware of, such as how to fix/repair something in the house/car, or making monthly/yearly spending budgets on the computer.

To develop our new skills, we can watch tutorial videos, read articles and books, or we might go as far as to take classes on them. But the best way to learn is by doing. Whether if the skill we’re learning is painting, writing, or a new language, we have to be engaged in the process–practice what we know (no matter how little it might be) so that we can improve and gain experience.

At apartment complexes and job sites, people will park at the same spot even if there is no designated parking spot. Occasionally, they’ll park elsewhere if their spot is taken, but if not, they’ll park at their spot as if it belonged them.

Why do people prefer parking at the same spot as if it had been reserved for them?

Is it because we’re creatures of habit, and we like routine and predictability? If we had to park somewhere different everyday, then we’d have to remember where we parked when we left, taking us more time to find our vehicle. Plus, when we park at the same spot, we know exactly where to go, and that we won’t have to spend time looking for our vehicle.

When someone parks in our “unofficial” spot, it disrupts our daily pattern–forcing us to decide where to park–taking us more time to park and head into work or our home. If we’re in a hurry, we can’t afford to look for a different spot, which might be farther from the front door.

It’d be like walking into work everyday and having a different desk. Even if all the desks were the same, we like having our space tidy and organized to our standards. Not only that, but we like knowing that the way we left things yesterday will be the same today.

When we’re barely awake, it can be hard to focus, let alone get things done. But we do it all the time. When we wake up early and get ready for work, our mind is catching up with our routine. It’s aware of what’s going on, but it’s on autopilot–functioning on muscle memory and reflexes.

All it takes is a bit of coffee or a drink of cold water to wake ourselves up. But when we don’t get the chance to, it’s like driving a car on a freezing winter day without warming it up first. It can start and drive, but it’ll be sluggish, rattling itself down the road as if it was about to fall apart.

When we’re barely awake, we force ourselves to move about, rushing to go here and there, to do this and that, without taking the time to become fully alert. But when we give ourselves time in the morning to get ready, to eat breakfast, or make coffee, we’re present in the moment–allowing ourselves to be fully awake, rather than barely.

When we’re working on a project but can’t make any headway, it’s as if nothing we try will work. Regardless of how many solutions we come up with, we’re still at the same roadblock, stuck on the same problems.

But after a short break from it (say a day or so), things suddenly click together. Progress is made almost effortlessly. It’s as if all the solutions have appeared out of thin air. We start to wonder why progress couldn’t be made the day before. Why was it so difficult to see the solutions that are so obvious now?

When we take a break from something, we reset our mind. That allows us to see things objectively–to spot the errors and inconsistencies in a project. When we’re in the moment and working on something, we become focused and driven to get the results we want. And when we’re trying to make progress after hours of work, the goal is to get it done, rather than to see the quality of the work itself.

But when we take a break, we’re not longer in that mode of trying to finish. Instead, we’re see the project as it stands–looking at it as if it were a finished product–and that’s when we start to spot the errors.