What a year, 2024

I have just started looking back over the last year and seeing how I have been able to accomplish what I have done. Something that I am very proud about this year is I was able to get a blog written each week, which at first, I didn’t think I was going to be able to achieve. It does take some effort to ensure that there is a blog available each week because sometimes it is a challenge to figure out something to write about. What I have found that works for me is to try and work ahead on the blogs so that I do have things scheduled to post and then if a current topic comes up, I can just rearrange the blogs that I have scheduled.

This year, my writing has been very important to me, and I hope to be able to continue to work on getting more things written. I have a lot of ideas for blogs and even other writing, so I just need to go into the new year knowing that I am going to continue to write my blogs and besides that I will see where my writing takes me.

As I sit here and think through what has happened during this year, I can say that this year was a little harder than I wanted, but I was able to get through it. This year, I was fortunate to be able to see my mom reach the age of 99, but we lost her just 9 days later. It has been a journey that has been a challenge at some times, but then I remember how she looked at life, and she always wanted us to do what makes us happy.

I hope everyone has had good holiday season if you do celebrate, and I look forward to continuing to get more blogs written in 2025.

Avoiding those distractions

I think all of us have things that can so easily pull us away from what we should be doing. It could be anything from someone just wanting to chat, a pop-up on your computer or an event or an email or just wanting to check out social media for “just a minute or two”.

For a lot of us that have a busy schedule we need to figure out how to avoid some of those distractions so that we can get things achieved. It doesn’t matter what you do I think we have all lost time getting distractions by checking out social media. social media, be it Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or any of the other social media platforms. You think you are going to just spend a minute or two and before long you realize it has been 15 minutes or even more and what have you accomplished. I know for me I have had to set rules for myself because for a while social media was taking over quite a bit of my time and I wasn’t getting stuff done that I wanted to do. Instagram was one of my big distractions because of course as you are scrolling through notices of people you follow there are other people suggested so that means you end up checking out some of those and then follow them. The Instagram reels are something that can take a long time to go through so what I have done now is said I can watch reels twice a day and that is it so yes it may take some time, but I have set that time aside and it helps keep me focused.

I know for a lot of people YouTube can be a major distraction because you want to wait that one video that someone suggested you want and before long you realize that an hour or two has suddenly disappeared because you didn’t just watch that one video that was suggested you then watched a bunch of videos that YouTube suggested based on the video you watched. I think all social media can become a major distraction if you allow it to be.

A lot of companies don’t allow social media channels on company devices but that doesn’t prevent people from checking out social media on their personal devices during work hours. I understand we all want to keep up to date with what is going on in the world, but we also need to understand that there is a time and place or checking out our social media channels.

For me figuring out just how to avoid those distractions during the day has meant that I have been able to get more work done quicker. Sure, there are times when I do give into the social media platforms and waste a bit of time, but I have been able to at least figure out ways that I can maintain a focus on what needs to be done and then give myself that bit of a reward. Being able to understand what your distractions are and how to manage them can make a bit difference on how you get things done.

When times get crazy

There are times when you can look at your schedule, and you think you are never going to get everything done. I know that I have those times, and what I have done is figured out a way to make it a little easier to manage the list of things that seems to be overwhelming.

I am one of those individuals that must have a planner available so that I can write done the things that I need to do, especially those things that have a deadline. Not only that, but I do manage my planner a little differently than a lot of people and that is because besides having the things that I need or want to do on a specific day, I also note down what I accomplished that day.

I started noting down the things that I accomplished in a day when I found I would look at the planner and think that I hadn’t got anything done. Now, when I look through my planner at the end of the week, I can see what got done and what didn’t get done. I do mark off each of the items as they are accomplished, if they were originally on the planner. I just black pen for the tasks to get done, and then I use blue to mark off the tasks and add the other things that I accomplished. This helps me see if I got everything done that was originally planned and also what else got completed or what prevented me from getting a planned task done.

Being able to manage the various tasks is very important for everyone, and having a method that works is good. There are also times when I will put a list of things to accomplish down on a different piece of paper if I don’t have my planner close by at that time and that is another way, I manage things when times get crazy for me.

Knowing what works best for you in assisting you in getting things done is what is important. You may not need to have things in a planner, or a list made, but making sure you know what needs to be done, and you get it all done, that is the main thing. So, when life starts to get crazy, step back for a few minutes and think about how you are going to remember everything that you need to accomplish.

 

Get your face out of your device

There are so many times that I have watched someone that doesn’t look where they are going because they are spending too much time looking at their device. The latest was on the subway and there was a guy that was walking back and forth on the subway and all he was doing was looking at his device. Well, he ended up getting off at the same stop that we did, and there are electronic gates that let you leave the station and the one he headed for was out of service. Well because he had his face in his device he was immediately stopped because the gate didn’t open for him. He wanted to quickly go into the next gate area, which is where I was, and I let him know that he had to “WAIT”. When you are in areas where there are lots of people or things that can impact your movement, get your face out of your device and make sure you know your environment.

This is just one of many situations that I have seen while commuting or even while in the car. There are too many times when I have seen someone start to cross a road because they think that the traffic has stopped, to only find out that they are the ones that are causing the issue. People have to remember that when they are walking where there are others around them, they need to pay attention to their surroundings and not think that everyone is going to jump out of their way because they are busy on their device.

Being away of our surroundings is something that is very important because you don’t know who around you might have challenges that you cannot accommodate if you are not looking where you are going. There are so many with limited visibility or mobility that making sure you are aware of your surroundings is very important.

Our devices have started to take over our lives, and we need to understand that we need to look up when we are moving around because we need to see where we are going and what obstacles are in front of us. It was bad enough when people were talking on their devices and walking, and they didn’t see beside them now with all the various games and chats that are available it has made moving around with our devices so much more of a distraction.

So next time you are moving around with your device, and you think about having that chat or play that game, remember that you need to get your face out of your device so that you don’t hurt yourself or others because you were distracted. If I chat is that important, maybe stop for a couple of minutes to have the chat, and then you can continue where you were going.