Do you ever feel as if your attention is scattered to the four winds? Do you feel like you are always reacting to situations and responding to fulfil the expectations of others?

There just aren’t enough hours in the day. I’m too busy. I’d like to focus and complete one task but my time is too fragmented. What I’d like to do and what I have to do seem at odds and extremes. The things I’d like to do require focus, concentration, consideration, time, and no interruptions. My list of these things is long – some are work-related whilst others remain on my personal Wish List. Where is my time for painting, exercise, yoga, resting, music, reading blogs, writing, walking, learning French, playing the piano, and knitting?

I seem to be reacting but not creating. I’ve read the advice of others: the four hour work week; Wayne Dyer; Jonathan Fields; Zen Habits; Eckhart Tolle; Joseph Campbell; how to set goals; simplify; multitask; do less; delegate; create lists; turn off the TV; make time; etc.

This week I have finally had the chance to organise the office I inherited, and sorted through years of other people’s stuff with other people’s scrawled labels. Tick this off my list. I have been trying out project management tools and task lists to try to tame my job tasks into a domicile creature.

In reality it doesn’t matter how organised I am and whether I meet all expectations. What everyone is remembered by is how they went about their days. Was it with good will and a light heart? Or was it with a mean spirit and lack of humanity?

I know that none of this matters and yet paradoxically all of this matters. I still read the latest popular works in philosophy, psychology, physics, and spirituality. It is easy to forget these things and get caught up in the daily dramas set in motion by unseen forces. It’s too easy to react, and react, and react, until after eight hours of reacting you are mentally exhausted and need time out to regather you own wits.

Touchstones or talisman can be useful tools that instantly remind you of what is truly important in life. It might be a photo of your cat (or dog) or child at your desk. It might be a pebble, or a crystal, a cross, or a piece of jewellery that can instantly jolt you from your walking zombie-state. It could be a five minute browse at art; a quote; a dream of life in another country; meditation in a park; or all of the above.

Ultimately it is not about what you do, but how you do it and with what intention. The main goal should be JOY. I must keep reminding myself of this when I have 20 deadlines set arbitrarily by others.

“As time goes by you will see that we’re going to be free; you and me we’ll touch the sky; can you see in your mind’s eye? That we are one; we’re all the same and life is just a simple game.” ~ Moody Blues