🧠 Brain STREAM: 1️⃣ Optimisation

Bonjour, salut and welcome, mon ami!

(4 minute read time, 876 words)

This week I have talked a lot about optimising, so this will be my topic for my very first Brain STREAM! I'd like to thank you for joining me on this journey! You are very lucky to be amongst the first subscribers. In these 'weekly review' style letters, I review what I've written and read during the previous week before looking forwards to the next.

In this newsletter:

• Three blog posts to get you inspired about optimising
• Two contrasting quotes about optimisation to get you thinking
• One planning tool to consider to optimise your own work flow

How I've been talking about and practising optimisation this week

This week I talked about an old camera I used to have and how optimising the use of that camera, and pushing it to its limits, helped me to become a better photographer.

Can you say this of your own tools? Or do you constantly feel like you are playing catch-up with the latest app, plugin or gadget? Sometimes the best creativity comes when we restrict ourselves in the tools we have available and that may mean going back to the past.

And this week, after writing the above post, I did just that. I've been looking for advice on time management as I was struggling to find a system that suited me, having tried all the usual apps. Ellane W. replied with a lovely post, recommending sticking to a simple system; one sheet of paper. Physical or digital, it doesn't matter. Start from the basics and go from there.

That got me thinking. I do like me a manual piece of paper. I love notebooks. I have too many of them. There's nothing more delightful than heading off for a walk with pen and notebook in hand, noting down what comes to mind, Leonardo da Vinci style. I'm more likely to have a notebook with me than my phone.

But I knew I needed my system to a be a bit more than a sheet of paper or notebook, because from a time planning perspective, notebooks, particularly 'off the shelf' planners, have always been too restrictive. They never had the right pages in the right places, or the right pages in the wrong places. And I will lose separate pieces of paper.

So I bought something I have had my eye on for around a year; an onplanners.com downloadable template purchase. At $11 for the whole lot it's a bargain.

So now I have the ability to create a bespoke time management planner. It will never be perfect because no system I use ever will be, but it's so beautiful being able to use such a personalised and optimised setup. It's only 23 pages long and is split up into daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly sheets with some goals and weekly review pages for good balance.

I love it so much.

What I'm reading

In aspiration to greater, more inspired thought, I'm currently reading:

... to get help into the mindset of a truly extraordinary genius. It truly is an awe inspiring book and one I would recommend you try.

Stay tuned on Medium when I talk about my time management setup and this book in the coming weeks.

Quotes to make you think

"Optimisation hinders evolution." Alan Perlis

"Your life is the summation of your decisions. Optimise your decision making to transform your life." Rosanna Prestia

Take home message

We have to move away from trying to find the perfect system and instead, work with what we have or what we know will work and we will actually stick to. Sometimes it may feel like we are taking a step back; as I have with switching from digital to manual planning. But often, what we know, have grown up with and appreciate the most, is what we should stick with because we me the most effort to optimise it for what we need.

Until next time ...