Use this post to discuss your feelings and ideas around using only two broad categories to explain the idea of personal geography versus using multiple specific categories to flesh out the concept.

I look forward to sharing our ideas.

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I am switching the registration of the domain name and switching my hosting services. I have mixed stories: some telling me this is an easy switch with nothing to worry about, other people telling horrible tales of broken links and general chaos. I am hoping the SNS switch will follow the plot line of the former and not the latter stories.

Sticking to what I do well.

Generally when toying around with technology I inevitably make a mistake and mess things up. I actually, for the most part, enjoy learning new tech-tricks and figuring things out for myself. However, more often than not, I miss one little step, or click on one wrong option, and it all goes wrong. Then I spend countless hours trying to troubleshoot my mistake and getting stressed out. I always fix the problem, eventually.

No eventually this time

The plan is to skip the stressed out problem solving step this time and have someone else do it for me. I am going to investigate the world of virtual assistants and see what it will cost me to have an expert help me with the switch. My business is now making money, not a lot, but it is making money, and I think my time can be used better with other business building tasks.

I am intrigued by using a virtual assistant as one of my support environments and this seems like a perfect opportunity to test the waters.

Wish me luck!

Have you ever used a virtual assistant before? Do you have any recommendations for an awesome Wordpress virtual assistant?

Two of my best friends, Mat and Jon, we have known each other since grade seven, recently brought their families out for ski vacations and a visit. It is amazing how much energy seeing my friends provided. Spending time with friends who love you unconditionally and are willing to support you in whatever you are doing is priceless. Friends who have seen you at your best and your worst. Friends you know you can still count on to be there, to catch you when you stumble or fall.

I don’t think I would be able to be doing the things I am doing right now if I didn’t have these types of friends in my life. My courage to experiment and try new things is powered by having these people in my life. Mat and Jon’s recent visit recharged my reserves and helped prepare me for all of my upcoming challenges and successes.

The friendships you have and the friendships you are developing have a huge impact on your personal geography. If you are currently experiencing success or facing challenges scan the relationship space of your personal geography and ask yourself:

What good friends do you have filling up the relationship space of your personal geography? How can these important friendships help support you in what you are doing? How can you help support them in what they are doing? What new friendships can you develop to help pull yourself forward?

You can read about how my Sunday Night Success group helps define my relationship space here.

This work around my home space drew my attention to this TED video on architecture. As I experience my own perspective shift on the importance of my home, this TED video provides an exciting perspective shift on how we build.

The scifi geek side of me finds this whole idea very cool.

Later, I was sitting in the dentist’s office, waiting again, tapping my fingers on my knee with nothing to do.

I was driving to pick up some groceries, 15 minutes each way, and listening to the horrible local radio station.

Every day I walk ten minutes each way, in silence, to the local high school to teach my math classes.

Empty minutes

What do all of these different events have in common?

In a world were time management is a constant struggle, and you are trying to fit more into the same amount of time, these are empty minutes. Valuable minutes that pass with nothing valuable being accomplished. Valuable minutes that will have to be added to another part of your day so you can get everything done.

Please don’t misunderstand. Downtime, relaxing, and just being in the moment are all important. But, there seems to be a lot of minutes in my day that I could be multitasking and getting something else done.

Filling the empty minutes

I have started to fill up some of these empty minutes by making sure I have something to do whenever I am faced with these small chunks of free time. My main tool for filling my empty minutes: my iPod touch.

Doctor’s and dentist’s office? I have a document application so I can read eBooks or white papers, as well as using the note application to write my blog posts and newsletters, or just capture stray ideas.

Driving and walking in silence? I have a huge list of coaching, business, and marketing books on my reading list. I have started downloading audiobooks and listening to them during this down time.

Fewer empty minutes, more family minutes

By filling all of these empty minutes I have been able to spend more time with my wife and son. I have managed to “read” two of the books on my list while walking and driving, and written entire articles while waiting. All of this time translates directly into time I can put into other priorities.

Small amounts of empty minutes add up. How different would your time management challenges be if you started filling up your empty minutes?

All right this picture isn’t exactly of my backyard, but it is only a thirty minute drive to get to this location on the side of the Columbia river, so I consider it my backyard. The Columbia, the mountains, the hiking paths, the ski runs, the lakes; I consider all of these to be a part of my “location environment”: the broad area where I live that has a direct affect on how I live.

I need to be IN nature to be truly happy. I didn’t fully realize this until Ashlea and I packed up and moved out of the big city to Rossland, BC. Living in Calgary, nature was always close to us, but we still lived IN the city. It turns out close doesn’t work for me, I need to live in nature, not near it.

Rossland and the surrounding area are the biggest space in my personal geography, but this space defines so much of who I am, how I live, and really provides the overall context for all of the other spaces that make up my personal geography. Shifting my life from the city to the mountains is one of the most important changes I have made and this decision continues to affect all aspects of my personal geography.

These actions are what Jeremie calls “Energy Giving” tasks.  To  practice this requires some mindfulness, to connect emotions and motivation with the items on your action list.

Jeremie has taught me that generally there are two types of actions, or tasks:   Energy giving and Energy taking.

Energy giving tasks are those tasks that give you a real sense of accomplishment. Tasks which feel good…no, feel GREAT to complete and mark of the list.  When I complete an energy giving task, I feel a bit like a super hero – chest puffed out et all.

This morning I completed a long-standing job application (the position is in Edmonton, hence my procrastination). It required me to dig deep to begin the application.  I created a way to actually have fun with it, thereby creating a energy where it was once drained.
Examples from my fellow fun girls include Crystal breaking down her goal of selling some yarn into little, manageable tasks.  Caro has a mirror to hang, and Debbie has recently completed the God Father of all Procrastinated tasks:  She disposed of an old, broken oven that was too big to remove without breaking apart.  (GO DEBBIE!)

Planning energizing actions into my day is a tool I’ve used to manage procrastination and get things done.
the delicious sense of  productivity created by knocking those hard things off the list maximizes energy that can be channeled into completing more tasks.
Another example is a few months ago I had a long list of cold calls to make.  I know I’ll receive some empathy when I say I was not wanting to do them.

These cold calls are a textbook example of an energy taking task.  I was tired just thinking about making them – they’re the mental equivalent of shoveling snow.

Don’t want to do it but it needs to get done.

I sat down to work, made a list of all the calls to make that day.  Surfed the internet, answered some email, and took a nap.   The calls did not get done.

The next day, I sat down at my desk again, intending to start those calls.  I looked at the list and took a moment to mindfully recognize why I didn’t want to make them.  There was really no sense of accomplishment from looking at that list.  Instead, I spent the morning doing some much procrastinated housework.  I cleaned the floors, dusted bookshelves, de-cat haired every last inch of my space.

I felt great when it was completed and used that sense of accomplishment to sit down and make calls.  I worked for six hours that day, and when I finished the list I created a new one.

I hope you get a sense of how using your to-do list can create energy that will help you achieve your goals and get in touch of your inner Super hero of accomplishment.  Everybody has procrastinated items on their to-do list – those long forgotten about items that seem insurmountable.  What’s on your list and how can you use it to create more energy for your self??

In the past few weeks while working with one of my clients, and just last week in my own life, an interesting challenge to this idea of work-life balance has presented itself:

Is it worth it to live your life out of balance for a planned period of time, so that your life becomes more in balance later?

Counting commitments

To give you an idea of where this post comes from, my current commitments include my private practice clients, my corporate clients in the US, and the work I do helping a coach in Vancouver. I also teach on call, usually one day a week. Did I mention I am working on a book idea?

Things have been great lately. I enjoy all of the work I am doing, I am spending some great time with my family, and having a lot of fun. However, the family finances are still in a bit of flux. I am all right with this, my wife is feeling a little insecure and would love to build up some savings.

Too much on your plate, but that’s OK

Last week I was presented with the possibility of taking on a half-time job teaching math at the high school down the street in my community.

This was not part of the plan.

Taking on a half-time teaching job while working on all of my other projects will definitely tip my work-life balance in the direction of work, something I am not a big fan of doing.

Here is the thing, the teaching job is for four months, it ends in June. The combined income from my work as a coach and my work as a half-time teacher would put my family in the best financial position it has been in the past three years. We would be able to put some savings in the bank. We would be able to buy a dishwasher (an important environment for both my wife and I with a 2 year old son). We would have some protection so that I could focus more on all my other projects without worrying about finances.

Worth it?

Can too much be a good thing, at least for awhile?

This is a tough one to answer when you are living in the situation. My first response is: yes, totally worth it. As long as you set a time limit for yourself and don’t get caught out of balance for an extended period of time, then living out of balance can be a good thing.

Living out of balance can challenge you. Living out of balance can help evolve you. Living out of balance can help you clarify what you really want out of life. Living out of balance can make the return to balance sustainable.

My second response is: nice rationalization buddy, way to convince yourself.

Living out of balance can stress your relationships. Living out of balance can stress you out. Living out of balance can exhaust you. Living out of balance can trap you so you never return to balance.

Living out of balance. Viable strategy or rationalization? What is your answer to the question:

Is it worth it to live your life out of balance for a planned period of time, so that your life becomes more in balance later?

Interested in joining me to hash out some ideas for a book? Subscribe to my personal geography newsletter and join the creative process.

When scanning the different spaces in your personal geography you are looking for the supportive environments that you already have in place, supportive environments that you are missing, non-supportive environments that you can change, and non-supportive environments that you need to eliminate.

A dishwasher falls into number two for my family: a supportive environment that is missing.

Many will argue that you don’t need a dishwasher, and for many that may be true. However, when my wife and I review the amount of time, and the amount of energy that we spend (all right mostly my wife at this point, I am working and running my business) on cleaning dishes it is huge.

Remember my two year old son Fionn, from last week?

The amount of energy and time we spend on cleaning dishes is huge.

A dishwasher will be a supportive environment that gives us this time and energy back, energy that we can use on far more important things in our life.

Now we just need to pick a brand and find someone to install it.

What is a missing environment in your personal geography? How much time and energy would you get back in your life if you filled this empty environment? Do you have a recommendation for a good dishwasher?

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