Have you ever felt that your life is running on rails and nothing is likely to derail it? Most of us have, as a matter of fact, although some of us are happy with the destination those rails are taking us, and others are unhappy because the change they are hoping for seems unlikely or out of reach. As with so many things, a regular life where everything seems to be set in stone can be a blessing and a curse.

But does it have to be set in stone?

Earlier on I was writing about communications at the workplace, but I have left the matter of private communications from this picture: I personally believe that private cell phones should be banned from the workplace. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe we are being paid for the work we do at the work place, not for taking care of private business. That does not take away that we should be able to take private calls: we all have a business phone that people can call in an emergency. Taking calls that way will keep them at a minimum as the line would be blocked for customers and collaborators.

A lot of people keep diaries, and many are custodians for diaries of those who have passed away, those diaries having been passed on as keepsakes, as a way to leave something tangible behind, or simply as a legacy. Whatever the case, diaries are a special kind of book, not unlike the kind of special that we experience these days if someone we know publishes a small volume of prose. There is something about books, but especially about those books that are somehow perceived as more personal.

Are you easily distracted at your desk? Gone are the good old days when office work meant dealing with papers: reading letters and replying to them, paying bills, writing invoices (quotes were more a thing of trust and common sense back then), and generally getting on with it and return to the REAL work.

Modern office work involves a lot of communication, and while that might be a necessity, it is also a huge distraction because someone else’s idea of ‘urgent’ and ‘the right time’ is most likely not the same as yours. That not only leads to friction and frustration, but mainly to all manner of distraction.

Summer has come and many of us have gardens that need constant attention: planting, cleaning out, clearing, watering and battling with various pests have become daily occurrences until such time that temperatures drop again and the late autumn shutdown has brought things to a standstill.

It’s a nice thing to have a garden, balcony or just a couple of flower pots along the windows, but having any of the above requires a specific set of materials and tools that need a place to live. Think hard: where do you keep all your stuff?

“In order to do it right, I need to do it myself.”

If you believe this, you might be setting yourself up for a nasty surprise. In reality, this notion is a sure-fire way to drive yourself mad with anxiety, get overworked in no time at all, and heading down the path towards burnout at top speed.

Here’s a question for you: how would you define “done right” in the first place? Is it

• “done the way YOU would do it” or
• “done in a way that produces the results you expect” or
• “done in a way that produces a good, even perfect, result”?

If you have a lounge table sitting somewhere against a wall or in a corner, you will recognise this particular issue: stuff accumulating on surfaces. Just like clutter accumulating in spots that have been assigned “free for all” in dark corners or hidden areas on the floor, surfaces will start accumulating clutter until they cannot hold any more. And eventually things will slide down and ignite a whole new level of clutter accumulation on the floor itself.

I have recently visited a home with a spotless floor – nothing at all had made its way to the floor itself – but every single raised surface had been full of things that really needed to be elsewhere.