Time management Tip 13

BUNCH OF GRAPES

So - another year has slipped by! 

Was it a good one for you? I hope so.

I expect some of you think I've got the answer for making 2003 really great - I wish I had! But I do know what you can do as a start, and this e-mail is about doing that.

Was 2002 any good? When you think about that question you're probably asking yourself was it fun, and did you achieve anything significant.  Hopefully a yes to both of those, at least in patches.

So one approach to 2003 might be to try to have more patches of enjoyment, and more nuggets of achievement. So maybe the questions to consider are:

1. What little nuggets of achievement do I want to do in 2003, which I'll be able to look back on at the end of the year and think "Yes! I did that".  They don't have to be huge things, but just things that will give you some satisfaction having done them. Ideally they'd be a mixture of work, family, spare time activities, holidays etc.

2. What has made me happy this year, that I could try to do more of?.Think about the last few weeks (apart from big holidays I can't remember further back than that! Can you? That's a bit of a worry isn't it!) and ask yourself where has your happiness come from in that time? Draw each thing in a circle, with bigger circles for the bigger happiness generators. Maybe that walk when the sun actually came out, or that hilarious evening in the pub, or seeing your daughter in the school nativity play, or playing with your friends puppy - whatever. Have a look at the circles, which should look like a bunch of 10-20 grapes. Is there a pattern? Can you do more of these things in the future?

I was quite surprised to see that mine were mostly quite simple things. None of them required money beyond the price of a drink. As well as a list of things I want to do more of I also have a better idea of the underlying types of things that make me happy.

So there we are: for 2003, what are you going to achieve, and what will you do to squeeze more happiness out of each day and each week?

Final thought: vague new years resolutions are no good. "Do more exercise" is one of mine, but it's too vague. I need to have a definite picture of how and where and particularly when. If it was a 10 minute run every morning before breakfast (I don't think so! - but if it was) then I'd at least have something to go for. So: we want detail. Maybe discuss with others how they do it over that new year's dinner or first day back at the office?