Sit up a Tree

Here’s an interesting upcoming programme on the BBC as well as articles on the science and politics of happiness and the happiness test which you can take. What score did you get?

The main trick with being happy though is being happy with your life – as Tony Robbins calls it living with an ‘attitude of gratitude’.  So next time you realize you’re feeling low about your life, smile … and remind yourself what you HAVE got – not what you haven’t!!

Over the years I’ve thrown a lot of technology at journalizing – I’ve tried using my desktop PC, a laptop, PDAs, cell phones, digital recorders and a whole lot more.  I found that any new system works for a few days but then just becomes too cumbersome to keep up with.  Mobile devices have the additional headache of a limited battery life which restricts journalizing time.

For this year I decided to take a new approach.  I bought a Moleskine page-a-day journal and decided to give that a go.  Why Moleskine?  Just because I wanted something a little special. 

I started on Jan 1st and initially found the process painfully difficult – I either found that a page was way too much space while other days it seemed far too little.  I persisted with it and after a few weeks I found that I could strike the perfect balance and enter in the highlights of the day (what I did, what I accomplished, what I didn’t get around to, how I felt …).  I augmented my page-a-day with Post-It notes which I stick to the pages - these are great for running tasks because I can move them from page to page.  I also use the sticky notes for weekly/quarterly planning and also goal setting.  Spare Post-It notes are stored in the pocket at the back of the diary.

After a few weeks I was so pleased with my Moleskine that I decided to get a few more.  I bought a reporters notebook and a standard notebook.  These are used for general note-taking and in-depth goal setting respectively.  The fact that all three share the same width and height dimensions mean that they make a handy, easy to carry block that I can take with me.

Oh, an in case you’re wondering, by writing implement of choice is a Fisher Space Pen, black, bullet style.  I’ve always been a sucker for these pens because of the reliability.  Problem is that I tend to lose them before they run out!

Is there any point to it all?  You bet!  I’m already seeing huge results from having all my goals and plans in one place.  I’m already achieving much more that I was using any other system that I’ve come across.  There’s something that just so customizable about a blank sheet of paper!

I think that I’m safe in saying that the unwrapping a new Moleskine diary on Jan 1st has become a tradition – I’m already looking forward to 2007!

The perfect way to relax at the end of a busy week – download one of the restful and atmospheric free ambient music podcasts from Ultima Thule to play on your computer. Then download the beautiful and hypnotic G-Force visualisations from Sound Spectrum free for your Windows Media Player.

Turn out the lights, listen, watch and relax…

Technorati Tags: music, relaxation, Personal Development, Chill Out