Emma Cragg

Bookmarked What your days look like

“What do you want your days to look like?” is a question I ask myself whenever I’m trying to make a decision about what to do next. In fact, I believe that most questions about what to do with one’s life can be replaced by this question.

What career should I choose? Should I go back to school? Where should I live? Should I get married? Should I have kids? Should I get a dog? Should I take up the piano?

“What do you want your days to look like?” forces you to imagine the day in, day out realities that making such choices will present you with.

#question #bookmark #quote

New Project? Every time… by @bryanMMathers is licenced under CC-BY-ND

I need this reminder constantly. The only way to overcome the fear is to start and break down the big scary thing in to small achievable pieces.

#procrastination #fear #projects #creativity #image

Bookmarked The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman (via Laura Hilliger)

If you find yourself asking:

• why you’re doing what you’re doing
• what the end goal is
• whether what you’re doing will actually help you to reach your goal

… then read this.

#perspective #purpose #bookmark

Every time you ship, you plunge your sword into the dragon of resistance and you silence the fear.

Source: How to Build an Audience of 1000 True Fans in a Noisy World

For the next time you pause when pressing publish or send.

#fear #procrastination #quote

Time to read is seen as a luxury, a flower broken by the storm. The first thing we lose under pressure is discretionary time, and yet without this investment in ourselves, we are destined, forever, to be ourselves. To deny the opportunity to become the person who we have the potential to be. To grow is to thrive. If we lose ourselves in the busyness of the everyday, we are simply surviving.

Source: On Reading

#busyness #time #growth #JulianStodd #quote

Bookmarked Rest Isn’t Always Fun (and Fun Isn’t Always Rest)

fun activities that we enjoy and find pleasurable can be depleting, leaving us happy and appreciative–but not well-rested.

It’s the ‘fun isn’t always rest’ element of this article that interests me most. My partner and I were planning holidays recently and discussing where we’d like to go. We ended up categorizing the locations by the type of holiday: relaxation (rest) or adventure (fun).

Our choice of destination will be determined by what we need at what time of year. For example after the busy summer retail period and financial end of year in August, my partner needs to relax. Whereas in Spring after we’ve hibernated all winter, we’re looking for adventure.

#rest #EdBatista #bookmark

Time and quiet should not be luxury items.

• Tim Kreider

Source: Time Off

At the end of the Time Off episode 10 Actions From 2018 there’s some bonus content, Tim Kreider’s audio essay on busyness. It’s similar, although not identical to his 2012 opinion piece in The New York Times.

This quote stood out to me. He’s right, time and quiet, space to think, should not be luxuries. We need to be able to build this into our daily lives. It’s a theme I’ll be thinking and writing more about this year.

#busyness #TimKreider #quote

Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done.

Source: The ‘Busy’ Trap

#quote #gtd #busyness

If the last year went awry and the supply of new ones is not unlimited, here, at least, is one more.

Source: Begin Again

The poetry of this post from Martin Wroe struck a chord. The sentiment too, of taking time to pause, reflect, and then, begin again.

Tags: #bookmark #reflection #pause