Just Seven Things

Exploring why and how we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Archive for the tag “Habits and Routines”

12 Jul 2008

Simple Feelings of Control

As mentioned in a previous post on the simplicity of the human brain in certain respects, I loved David Allen’s Getting Things Done from the moment when he identified that the foundation stone of effectiveness was a trusted system.

Since then, I’ve remained aware of the simple things that give a sense of control and a form of happiness because of that control.

Technopolis in the FT is a regular ‘(normally) expensive gadget’ review feature in the How to Spend It supplement magazine by Jonathan Margolis. Last weekend he featured two items which triggered my thinking again about the aspects of control.

One was a box called ‘The Sanctuary’ and the other, the less mysteriously named ‘Trekstor Datastation Microdisk’. Now this isn’t turning into a gadget review blog. Mr Margolis said they did their business. The business of The Sanctuary is to be a smart/ modern version of the bowl/ dish/ plate/ little area on the kitchen surface/ bookshelf/ bedside where you put your bits: keys/ money/ wallet or purse etc. It’s a £100 box. But it connect to the mains and has adapters for most mobiles/ PDAs and other battery-powered personal gadgets. So you come in and put your stuff into one place.

The Trekstor data station is a hard drive the size of a thick credit card. But up to 120gb (enough for about 100 films). No external power and high speed transfer via USB 2.0.

Mr Margolis rates them as two of the best things that he has come across in his 20yrs of ‘gadgeteering’. And why?

The Growing of the Conscious Mind in Children

To celebrate the birth of my third child yesterday, a brief (bottles/ baby and child #1 & 2 to focus on at this time…) couple of thoughts as the seed of something bigger.

What struck me was: is it any wonder that we have a constant challenge with concepts of ‘ourself’ or ‘me’. Why is it a surprise to us that we find it hard to ‘manage’ ourselves (if that is what we try and do)?

I sit and see a homosapien offspring aged 1 day. A beautiful bundle of potential; at this stage though just a bundle of nerve endings and other-than-conscious reactions. Initial genetic pre-set programmes around food and reaction (crying) to more extreme sensory inputs (noise/ light) – I’m sure there are a lot more listed by experts.

And then the conscious overlay begins. Thoughts and knowledge. Habits, beliefs, states and behaviours. Sets of reactions and responses based on our map of the territory.

I can’t shake an image of layers of ‘material’. Like strata in a rock; residues from the ‘time and tide’ of life compacted by the heat and pressure of the moment/ that moment.

And then initially apparently so hard to mine out those conditioned layers in order to change.

Posted in Conscious and Unconscious, Control, Habits and Routines, Mindfulness and tagged Conscious and Unconscious, Control, Habits and Routines, Mindfulness | Leave a comment

30 Jun 2008

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How the Brain Loves Simplicity

I had been looking for a while how to bring into a post reference to a column by Ed Cooke for the Times a few weeks ago. Called Mr Memory, How not to forget your keys, there were a number of things I loved:

1. Paragraph 2: ‘Almost everyone finds it difficult to recall where they’ve left their keys. There’s no doubt that it’s just much more difficult than recalling where, for instance, you last wrestled a bear or spanked a nun’

2. It re-highlights David Allen’s comments at the start of Getting Things Done which question how sophisticated the workings of the brain can be if the best way of remembering to take something to work the next day is to leave it by the door

3. Because of the simplicity implied in 2. above, it aligns with my current thinking/ theme about change coming from the application of simple things to ‘nudge’ action as opposed to top down (mind-led) command and control

4. The imbuing of the keys (or any other object which you are attempting to avoid losing) with human traits is the main topic of the short column (apparently ‘imbue your keys with character and life’). This made me think in a different way about other snippets I’ve been reading about brand, brand ‘personality’ and the avoidance of brands ‘behaving badly’ and consumers ditching them as being misaligned with their values. It leaves me with the question about how simple we really are

5. OK, it was the nun thing really……