Closing the loops thanks to The Happiness Project

While I was away, I found an interesting book in a charity shop called The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. It appears that this was quite a big thing when it came out back in 2009 but as I don't tend to read newspapers, go on social media, watch TV much or listen to the radio I completely missed it. I completely miss most things but I work on the basis that if they are important to me I will find out about them when the time is right, and that seems to work quite well.

Basically, Gretchen Rubin committed to 12 months of finding ways to be happier. Like all people she was ok, but she felt she was coasting a bit and had fallen into a rut. She could be a bit happier but wasn't sure how so she took an aspect of her life every month and made 4-5 resolutions to do better. I hadn't come across that idea before - normally everyone makes their resolutions in January and is over them by March.

Among the many, many resolutions I found interesting (and I will probably blog about later) was identifying and resolving unfinished projects. I always have a silly number of those but lately I had begun to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of 'open loops' that were occupying my brain. Every 'commitment' not completed is an open loop that is tracked and takes up a lot of mental energy being remembered. Then there is the damage to my self-esteem caused by beating myself up about not having done them. I'll admit, I'm not the greatest finisher in the world and I frequently suffer from being 'mentally drained' due to the ever-growing to-do list I hold in my head and the 'tellings off' I give myself over it all.

So, I sat down with a journal and downloaded everything in my brain that was an open loop. Then I started getting some of them off there. For example, this is the Technology list, and crossed off is what I've achieved since coming back off holiday:

Technology
Find an app for logging receipts and reporting spending categories DONE
Fix Macbook or have hard drive removed for storage DONE. FIXED
Fix Apple wireless keypad DONE. BATTERY LEAK CLEANED UP. NOW WORKING.
Fix iPod DONE. HARD RESET REQUIRED
Fix Black and Decker handheld vacuum DONE
Sell off handheld voice recorders that are no longer needed for freelance work DONE
Buy additional back up drives for photos DONE
Go through old phones, remove pictures and recycle phones
Donate/throw out any cables from items we no longer own.
Organise my photos across all devices and back up
Print out and display the ones we love the most AUSTRALIA PHOTOS DONE, NEXT IS OUR WEDDING PHOTOS (ONLY 13 YEARS AFTER THE FACT)
Convert vintage non-working clocks to battery CANNOT DO, WILL RUIN CLOCKS
Clear out work inbox (5.5k emails!)
Clear out personal inbox (3.5k emails!)
Unsubscribe to everything I don't want to receive emails for WORK IN PROGRESS
Transfer my Typepad blog into yearly ebooks to print on demand, a year per month ONE YEAR OF 13 DONE

I've got similar lists for Smallholding, Household and Health to work through this year. Some of the lists are long but relatively quick, such as tossing 'aspirational' clutter (cough...exercise equipment...cough), others are much more involved and depend on external factors, like repointing the barns where the masonry bees have done damage, which needs good weather.

The Happiness Project is worth a read if only to demonstrate that others have the same challenges as we do. I lost count of the number of times I thought "Yeh, I do that/think that/have that." We are not alone :)

You can read the first chapter here.