one thing at a time

Sometimes I think I'll check the last item off my to-do list and then expire.  I've always enjoyed a good list and I like to travel with a notepad for jotting down inspired thoughts and to-do lists.  Now I'm experimenting with the zen art of doing one thing at a time.

I went to the library, took home a pile of books on simplicity, and then sifted through them.  I ended up settling on one of the quieter ones, 'The Power of Less" by Leo Babauta.  The book describes how to simplify everything, including one's goals or tasks.  This will improve productivity.

The idea is to take that to do list and pick the most important thing on it.  Do that thing, only that thing.  Maybe start a new list with that item only.  I tried it.

-prepare eulogy

I have a long standing joke that I wanted to create a eulogy for myself, some kind of interactive celebration of life complete with pyrotechnics and maybe even a surprise ("I'm not really dead!").  That is a job that comes with plenty of time to get around to, but we had a death in the family and I was tasked with writing a eulogy for someone else.

I still had to work, and look after my kid, and keep house, but when I found myself wondering what to do I just went back to my main task.  I became immersed in it.  I didn't do anything else and it went pretty good in the end.

I felt less stressed, even though there was grief around me.  Now I can find something else to focus on, having taken a short break.  I'll choose a new item from the list.

What is one thing you can focus on, and put everything else aside?

death

Life is so short.

After the purge: better stuff.

Sometimes minimalism just feels like another form of consumerism.