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It’s a brand new year, and I’m trying hard to think about things in a new way. Recently I read a blog post by a fellow writer (and for the life of me I can’t find it to credit him/her here) about getting rid of your ten most aggravating everyday annoyances. The idea was that if you could get the top energy drainers out of your life, you could be more focused and productive.
When I read that, I was staring at mounds of paperwork on my desk, and some too small toast. Our spiffy four slot toaster had recently bitten the dust, and I just hadn’t gotten around to replacing it. I thought I was doing well when I found a replacement toaster in my old “office stuff” box, and I promptly placed it on the kitchen counter and felt self-satisfied.
Toast is a sacred morning ritual for me. Problem was, the replacement toaster was a two slotter, and it also had really small slots. I had to buy smaller bread, and then toast one end at a time. This took longer, and also resulted in toast that was way too brown for my taste. The whole process was exceptionally aggravating to me. And generally, it all happened before coffee.
This experience provoked me to thoughtfully examine my top ten list of annoyances. I’m right in the middle of eliminating most of them. Some require money, but most just require a little creative thinking. That original blog post I read suggested you take some time and come up with every single everyday annoyance that you can think of and write them down, and then focus on your top ten. I didn’t think I had that many until I started my list.
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I have fixed my top two (kicked my toaster to the curb and convinced my husband to fix a stuck barn door that I struggled with every day), and I’m working on my third, which is that my pens never have any ink when I come up with a brilliant idea (frustrating dilemma for a writer). Thinking of taking notes on a tablet instead, or using pencils in the meantime. Have added a decent pencil sharpener to my store list.
Sitting here at my desk writing this while enjoying perfectly large and brown toast, I have to tell you that I think there is something to this. If your chief annoyances are a lack of money or extremely aggravating people in your life, getting them off your list may be a little harder. (And no, I don’t recommend homicide J.) But if you are creative and determined, I think you will find interesting ways to adjust your life. The result is better quality of life and more pleasure, and who couldn’t use that?
Annoyances drain our energy, distract us from our primary work, and sometimes bring with them negative energy and spiraling emotions.
Sometimes the annoyances that get under our skin the most tell us a little bit about who we are. I ran across a great blog post by Stacy Claflin that goes into that a little further, in case you’re interested. Another great post by Pilar Gerasimo delves into the zen of tolerations and why we still need to remove annoyances.
Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you’ll take a moment to work on your personal list of annoyances. I promise you it will be an interesting experience. And if you take action, it might just really change your experience of 2012.
Please feel free to comment about your own take with annoyances.
Marianne M. Smith
Writer At The Ranch
Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time
http://writerattheranch.com
wordsmith@writerattheranch.com
Writer At The Ranch
Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time
http://writerattheranch.com
wordsmith@writerattheranch.com
Well, I'm going to start on that list.
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