Mindfulness

Enough

Merlin — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:36:24 -0500

Seth’s Blog: What Matters Now: get the free ebook

A few months ago, Seth Godin asked about 70 people to talk about a word or phrase related to their own idea of What Matters Now. He collected them all into one big ol’ file, and now you can download a PDF of all those contributions, including pieces by folks like Elizabeth Gilbert, Kevin Kelly, Steven Pressfield, and, improbably enough, yours truly.

My essay’s called, Enough.

Enough

Sometimes, I forget to eat lunch. So, 3:30 arrives, and I attack an infant-sized hillock of greasy takeout. I inhale it, scarcely breathing, a condemned man with minutes ‘til dawn.

Two minutes after stopping, yes; I feel like I’m going to die. Filled with regret and shrimp-induced torpor, I groan the empty promise of the glutton: “never again.”

What happened? How’d I miss when I’d had enough?

I wonder the same thing about folks who check for new email every 5 minutes, follow 5,000 people on Twitter, or try to do anything sane with 500 RSS feeds.

Some graze unlimited bowls of information by choice. Others claim it’s a necessity of remaining employed, landing sales, or “staying in the loop.” Could be. What about you?

How do you know when you’ve had “enough?”

Not everything, all the time, completely, forever. Just enough. Enough to start, finish, or simply maintain.

Unfortunately, foodbabies only appear after it’s too late. And, if your satiety’s gauged solely by whether the buffet’s still open, you’re screwed. Like the hypothalamus-damaged rat, you’ll eat until you die.

Before the next buffet trip, consider asking, “How do I know what I need to know — just for now?”

Then savor every bite.

Wanna read more of these? Download the PDF of What Matters Now, or view it here using this squirrely widget from that totally annoying Scribd site.

”Enough” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on December 14, 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

"Right Now, What Are You Doing?"

Merlin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:18:17 -0400

Right Now: What Are You Doing?

I've started to become a lot pickier about where my attention goes as I observe what it means to my work when it drifts. But, I still have a long way to go. Long way.

Like a lot of people I have a bad habit of CMD-Clicking tab sets in my browser, which then spawns a dozen or more new panes of potential distraction, pointless horseshit, and 10,000 excuses not to focus on what I really want to be making right now.

I whipped up this (rather plain and inefficiently coded) page this morning, and stuck it into every tab set that I tend to abuse: as the first tab I see.

It's not a new idea, it's not particularly interesting or sophisticated, and it's certainly not anything you couldn't whip up for yourself (and better) in about 30 seconds. So, why share it?

Because, your brain needs a Dad. If this can help you, awesome. If your immediate reaction is to think, "Oooo...I know how I can add way more features like a social network and procrastination stats!" hang it up; you're already screwed.

Catch the drifting as it happens, refocus, then repeat as necessary. That's it.

Happy Labor Day, friends, and may you find yourself seeing that little page as seldom as possible.

”"Right Now, What Are You Doing?"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 01, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

It means "Just Enough."

grant — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:47:58 -0400

I'm not sure how anyone feels about the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - the idea that the words we use shape the way we think or exist - but I'm much happier knowing that the word "lagom" is out there.

I am entering it into my person lexicon forthwith.

”It means "Just Enough."” was written by grant balfour for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on June 23, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Video: Jon Kabat-Zinn on mindfulness and "falling awake"

Merlin — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:58:37 -0400

YouTube - Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at U Mass, and he's highly regarded for his role in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine. He's also an illuminating writer and speaker on the ways that mindfulness meditation can improve health and reduce stress.

I really enjoyed this hour-plus talk Kabat-Zinn delivered at Google last year. It's a terrific introduction to meditation that includes a long portion where you can "meditate along," learning how to follow your breath and become more aware of being in the moment. (I doubt I'm the only one who'll benefit from that bit of help today).

I admire that K-Z's work is so free of mysticism and faux-spirituality; there's no incense or flutes needed to just be here in the moment -- you only need your willingness to give the monkey mind a break for a few minutes and remember you're here. As he says, this does get easier over time:

And the meditation practice winds up doing you much more than you are doing the meditation practice. And the world and everybody and every thing becomes your teacher. And not in any grandiose new age bullshit kind of way -- just obvious. Basic.

Kabat-Zinn also has his share of fun taking the mickey out of over-wired tech people who are obsessed with to-do lists -- don't miss his bit on mindfulness and meetings around 47:40.

No, there's no LOLcats and no one falls on their ass, and -- yes -- a huge piece of this video will feature an oblique view of a 63-year-old man's face as he speaks quietly with his eyes shut. But, who knows? Maybe that's just the thing you need today. If you're looking for a refreshingly nonsense-free introduction to mindfulness and meditation, I think you'll find this one's very much worth your time.

”Video: Jon Kabat-Zinn on mindfulness and "falling awake"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on March 17, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Ask MetaFilter on Worrying

wood.tang — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:48:23 -0500

How to Change my Worrywort Perspective | Ask MetaFilter

The thing I love about Ask MetaFilter is that it makes you feel like you're not alone. Just when you start thinking you're crazy for feeling a certain way, someone pops up with a question about the exact same thing. Over the weekend, a poor soul calling himself a "world class worrier" asked the hive mind how he could just let it go and find his inner Bobby McFerrin.

As always, the thread has a raft of helpful comments, but the best ones were along the lines of "when you realize you're worrying, tell yourself to knock it off." For all my character flaws, I pride myself in at least realizing when I'm being a jerk or obsessing over something I can't control, and whacking myself around the noggin until I knock it off.

I learned to get over this hump when I started keeping the books full-time for our small business. At first I always worried that I was doing something wrong, that I was going to forget to file some form or miss a bill. I finally threw up my hands and decided that I would do the best I could, and if it was wrong, someone would tell me and I'd fix it. That's all I could expect, and two years later (knock on wood), we haven't been audited yet. What that tells me is that as long as I give it the ol' college try, I can't possibly be the worst accountant on the block, and that's probably good enough.

Self-awareness always opens an escape route away from trouble, either via recognizing unproductive, faulty thinking (see above), or not painting yourself into a corner by overestimating your abilities. Understanding and accepting your limitations, whether it's a time constraint, dearth of resources, or a simple lack of experience, is as much an antidote to worry as the more conventional ones like meditation or positive thinking offered up in that thread.

”Ask MetaFilter on Worrying” was written by Matt Wood for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 14, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

The Seed of Mindfulness

gordonmeyer — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:55:13 -0500

Merlin's Mindful Eating and Keeping Weight Off reminded me of the best tool I've found for prompting mindfulness in virtually any situation.

It's the Powerseed, and while it is marketed primarily for weight loss, it turns out to be a useful reminder/timer for virtually any activity where mindfulness is important. It's a sleek, battery-powered pod about as big as the end of your thumb. It offers both visual and audible cues, and operates in a couple of different coaching modes. The basic idea is that it is a discreet coach that prompts you to "check-in" with yourself. It signals both short and long regular intervals, which are useful for being aware of time passing, as well as performing different routines are each mark.

I've had mine for sometime time now, long enough that I had to figure out how to change the battery. According to the product's website, it's not currently available, but my understanding is that the inventor is updating the 'seed with battery and other improvements so perhaps it will be back soon.

Another approach you might consider is computer-dependent, but more flexible. I also use Red Sweater Software's FlexTime as a handy tool for regular-interval cueing. See Merlin's early peek at it for more detail, and from a slightly different perspective.

Either way, tuning-in is a Good Thing.

”The Seed of Mindfulness” was written by Gordon Meyer for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 08, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Mindful eating and keeping weight off

Merlin — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:33:13 -0500

Reason Magazine - Secrets of Weight Loss Revealed!

This review of two recent diet books underscores what most of us already know all too well: while it's easy enough to drop a few pounds for a short while, it's nearly impossible to lose a lot of weight for a long time.

What caught my attention for anyone wishing to apply some fancy book-learning directly to the affected area was this chunk of insight on eating mindfully -- alongside a smart bit of life-hacky weight loss advice:

Wansink’s overarching point is that, when it comes to food, we’re not paying attention. “It takes up to 20 minutes for our body and brain to signal satiation,” he notes, and Americans often finish their meals in less time than that. Instead of internal signals we rely on external cues to tell us when we’re done: Is the plate clean? Is everyone else done? Is there more in the serving dish?

To counteract such cues, Wansink recommends such tactics as using smaller plates (which make portions seem larger), keeping serving dishes in the kitchen (which discourages second helpings), replacing short, wide glasses with tall, thin ones (which make drinks seem bigger), keeping food scraps and bones on your plate (which reminds you how much you’ve eaten), and dividing snacks from big packages into smaller bags or plastic containers (which discourages you from devouring the entire package).

I'm also a big-fan of guesstimating portion with real-world objects. Although, candidly, the last time I ate beef, it was less like a deck of cards and more like the whole blackjack shoe.

[via: Arts & Letters Daily]

”Mindful eating and keeping weight off” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 03, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Everything I needed to know, I learned in the 1600s.

grant — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:23:12 -0500

It's taken as a given that we now deal with more information than previous generations ever imagined, living lives in which "number of clicks" is a meaningful measure of time. As Spanish productivity guru Balthasar Gracian says:

There is more required nowadays to make a single wise man than formerly to make Seven Sages, and more is needed nowadays to deal with a single person than was required with a whole people in former times.

Except he wrote that in the 17th century.

I first heard about Balthasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom from an old friend - the mother of a girl I grew up with. Later, I went into a pretty good bookstore with a couple of college buddies and asked the guy behind the counter if they had any copies. He got very excited and said, "Gracian's Manual? Why, that's been an underground classic for four hundred years!"

I'm continually surprised at how much it remains underground, since it's really quite useful in almost every way. It's a collection of aphorisms - short little bits of advice - so maybe it's just permanently unfashionable. Gracian was a Jesuit scholar, army chaplain, philosopher, raconteur and novelist, and his most famous little book is something like a cross between D.T. Suzuki's digestible Zen Buddhism, Machiavelli's political scheming, Dale Carnegie's personal diplomacy, Schmidt & Eno's Oblique Strategies and Sun Tzu's advice on overcoming conflict.

If you're interested in increasing your mindfulness and basically putting things in order, there are worse books to keep on your nightstand. Or, you know, bookmarked for a quick glance between projects.

”Everything I needed to know, I learned in the 1600s.” was written by grant balfour for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 07, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Jason Goldman on sliding-scale obstacles

Merlin — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 10:50:36 -0500

Goldtoe Lemon.Nut: The 170-day Weekend

Goldman's back from taking a few months off, and shares a nugget that I like a lot:

When you have fewer responsibilities, those you do have take on a disproportionately larger weight. I found that no matter how little I actually had to worry about, I'd find some task or obligation that would become the "one big thing" nagging at me from void. Sometimes this one big thing would be laundry. The point is that you can always identify one obstacle in your life that, if removed, would make everything better (an annoying co-worker, a bad debt, a rash). Turns out this probably isn't true at all.

Amen, brother, and cf: 83 Problems.

[ via Nelson Minar's Linkblog ]

”Jason Goldman on sliding-scale obstacles” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on February 12, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Epictetus on baths and mindfulness

Merlin — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:26:14 -0500

Hackszine.com: Everyday Stoicism or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Enjoy the Show

My current pal and former tortured editor, Mr. Brian Sawyer, has posted a wonderful quote from Epictetus over on Hackszine.

When you are going about any action, remind yourself what nature the action is. If you are going to bathe, picture to yourself the things which usually happen in the bath: some people splash the water, some push, some use abusive language, and others steal. Thus you will more safely go about this action if you say to yourself, "I will now go bathe, and keep my own mind in a state conformable to nature." And in the same manner with regard to every other action. For thus, if any hindrance arises in bathing, you will have it ready to say, "It was not only to bathe that I desired, but to keep my mind in a state conformable to nature; and I will not keep it if I am bothered at things that happen."

Reminds me we're probably about due to pick up on our discussion of mindfulness (Previously on 43f: Mindfulness: The practice of being “here”). I know I'm due for a refresher course.

”Epictetus on baths and mindfulness” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on February 09, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"