DownshiftingNow - the marvels of a normal life

Free "FROM" and free "TO"

2010-05-01T18:36:00.018+01:00

A fundamental concept I've been thinking about is that adopting a downshifting lifestyle just to be free "FROM" something is simply not enough to be happier. That's only half of the story, and probably not the most important.

The other half is downshifting to be free "TO" do something you can't do now, or you can't do in the way you want.

Downshifting is not the end but the mean to an end. It's simply an enabler, a way to gain more time for yourself.

You don't want to fight for more time for yourself and then not to know what to do with it. The objective of downshifting is not to do less, but to do more. More of what you love in your life, more of what you want to do but you can not, more of your passions.

So the "free TO" part of downshifting must be thought and defined before (or while) finding ways to be "free FROM" what you don't like, or don't need. The target must be clear, in very concrete terms.

Example:
What would I love to do that I can not do now?
I want to learn playing piano.
Fine.

How much time do I need for that?
2 hrs a week for piano classes and 1 hour a day of practice.
Perfect.

Where do I find that time? what do I have to cut at work, or do better / more efficiently? How? Simplifying my working life is one way:

cut all un-necessary meetings that are not strictly related to my key deliverables;
start saying "no" to requests from other colleagues that are not linked to your work;
dramatically reduce time dedicated to email management (see "5 tips to avoid email slavery" and the "No.Re.Lo.P. experiment");
delegate repetitive tasks as much as possible;
reduce the number of coffee breaks;
make clear to everyone that you will definitely leave the office at a certain time.

Easy to say, tough to do - I know.
A downshifting lifestyle requires discipline and commitment.

Next step: STOP multi-tasking

2010-04-15T22:01:00.122+01:00

Yes, I want my life back.

So after the NO.RE.LO.P. experiment aimed to dramatically reduce my sick addiction to emails, today I have decided the next move: stop multi-tasking. I'm learning every day along my journey towards a *normal* life. I've realized the multi-tasking behaviour is a big - huge - massive obstacle to my desired lifestyle.

Why?

Yesterday I took 15 good minutes to observe my boss, trying to understand what I should retain from doing in order not to be like her.

Well, in this lapse of time she managed to do the following:

talk on the phone for all the 15 minutes (while wearing a horrible bluetooth earphone);
keep on typing on the keyboard at the same speed she normally does when she's not on the phone:
go to the loo and come back... still in the same phone conversation. Yeach!
send an incomprehensible email to me;
write some instructions on a post-it and give it to the PA;
check the blackberry every couple of minutes.

All at the same time! I was feeling stressed (and sorry) for her.

Then a phone call interrupted my observation, I picked it up and started a conversation (with earphones on), I started typing on my keyboard, I replied to an email. Wait a second... I was doing exactly the same, how miserable!

And even worse... I always do that:

read email + have breakfast
brush teeth + pee
talk on the phone + send email
lunch at desk + keep on working
eat dinner + book flight
etc.. etc...

Is this normal? No.

Learning: you can not enjoy anything that you're doing if you do more than one thing at a time. Multi-tasking is an enemy of downshifting. Mono-tasking is a new rule in my (one day normal) life.

Erm... football + beer is still ok, isn't it?

How to cut 80% of your emails

2010-04-13T23:03:00.049+01:00

In my daily effort to achieve a downshifting lifestyle, an increase of my efficiency at work would play a big role as it would automatically result in less time spent at the office and therefore more time for me.

Emails are one of the main distractions at work, causing waste of time and possibly representing the biggest inefficiency of all. What if I could dramatically reduce the time I spend catching up with my emails? How much time could I save at work and dedicate to something else?

Reducing the time (and effort) spent in such activity would end up in having more time for the really important targets to achieve at work, hence increase my efficiency and have more time for me to enjoy the real life out there.

Strange to say, I've noticed only 20% (or even less) of the emails I receive every day are really important. The vast majority are just crap: no really necessary information, no actions required, not linked to my workplan and deliverables, etc.. Many emails are so un-necessary that I think they're sent with the only intent to say "I'm busy and working hard, I'm good"; pathetic!

I have also noticed that when the email is important I always receive a reminder if I don't reply after a few days. On the other hand old non-answered emails are just forgotten by the sender when the topic is of little or no importance. If I answered it would have been a waste of time!

What would happen if I just ignored all the non-important emails?
What would happen if 80% of the emails remained unread?

The advantage would be very clear (less time wasted checking emails = more efficiency at work = more time for me) while the disadvantage is uncertain: would this create problems to my work? would I really miss something important?

I think the juice is worth the squeeze so I've decided to give it a try. I created a new folder in my inbox which I called "NO.RE.LO.P." (= NOt RElevant LOw Priority) where I will move all the crap emails not directly related to my deliverables without even opening them.

The "NO.RE.LO.P." experiment is on! Will it work?
I will post updates to monitor the progress, so stay tuned.

Happiness can be so cheap

2010-04-10T18:20:00.027+01:00

Finally a beautiful warm day in London.

I'm writing on a soft green lawn, surrounded by flowers blooming on all the trees, with fresh fruit at hand and some curious squirrels more and more confident to come closer. This definitely contributes a lot towards my happiness and yet it's so normal.

Cost of all this: £ 0.00!

We don't need too much to be happy, do we?

I can't believe how much we miss in life due our full time job, being stressed and busy from 9am to 5pm, every week, every month, every year. Today is for me another proof that being happy can be so cheap.

There must be a way to downshift, slow down the pace and enjoy more the marverls of a normal life.

No more stress after holidays!

2010-04-09T02:22:00.057+01:00

Holidays are like oxigen, necessary to survive our working life. However the days before and after holidays are always a nightmare.

A couple of days off attached to Easter holidays and my inbox is stuck with an infinite number of emails and over 40MB of attachments which costed me 30 minutes of swearing! This is the opposite of the downshifting lifestyle I'm aiming at. And this happens to all of us, really, with the effect of losing the "holiday mood" much earlier then expected!

Here is what I will do the next time to avoid all this.

I will do anything to prevent this madness by:

not fixing any meetings on the day of my return - I need time to catch up with emails, get back to a working mindset and organize my work.
setting a 1-day later return date in the out-of-office message - So that people do not expect me to be in the office and hopefully are busy with someone else.
before holidays book a meeting room for the day I'm back - and lock myself in until I'm done with emails.

Prevention is key!

If you guys have more suggestions just post a comment and let me know.

5 tips to avoid email slavery

2010-04-07T17:24:00.071+01:00

Of all the activities carried out at work, reading and responding to emails is one of the most distracting and time consuming.

This has a negative impact on productivity at work, causing lack of focus on the really important things and leading to longer hours in the office. Hence less time to enjoy my life. Not good.

This is definitely an obstacle to reach my desired lifestyle, so I have decided to find a solution to this issue by dramatically reducing the time I dedicate to emails at work. How?

Here 5 tips to help escape from email slavery and gain more time:

Firstly just keep Outlook closed while working on something - In altrnative de-activate that annoying notice that pops up every time you receive an email. This will ensure less distractions, more focus, work done faster = more time for you.
Check emails only twice a day - I suggest 1 hour before the lunch break and 1 hour before leaving the office. This will give you time to reply to important or urgent emails before you break for lunch or leave. Don't worry, the company won't go bankrupt in the meantime.
Do not check your emails as first thing in the morning - I know you do it. Every one does it. But that means postponing important things to later, then a coffe break, then a conference call, then it's almost time for lunch... and the important work is not started!
Do not respond to emails if you are in the "Cc" field - If you are in copy, it's because the sender just wants to keep you informed with no action required. If an action from you is expected, then Cc is the wrong field. Educate people!
Do not open and read spam or silly non-business-related emails before you delete them - You know they are bulls**t. Just get rid of them immediately.

In summary: time saved on emails = more time for real life.

Another way of downshifting. Any more tips to add?

Why downshifting. Why now.

2010-04-06T01:40:00.045+01:00

Excluding love, 3 key conditions have a great chance to highly contribute to my hapiness - I believe:

1) health
2) spare time
3) money

In other words having the time and resources to do what I like while I'm relatively young and healthy. I realized these three things are not likely to happen at the same time in any stage of my life.

When I was a student I was young with plenty of time, but not much money. Then I started working (which I'm still doing) and getting more money but - ops - I'm experiencing a dramatic lack of time due to my full time job. Finally when I'll retire, I'll have a lot of spare time to enjoy the money I saved in a lifetime, but... too late, I'll be rather old. I think this is not fair. And this explains why "downshifting" for me.

Why "now"? Well, setting the conditions to actually achieve freedom from my job while remaining reasonably wealthy will take a loooong time (if it will ever happen!). So I (we all) must implement a strategy to enjoy life NOW while still working and progressively get more of the 3 key conditions listed above.

I'll post tricks, tips, thoughts, successes and failures (hopefully not many) along my journey towards "downshifting".