Dmitry Kalashnikov

I am going to share some of my very personal ideas on being balanced and staying on top of things. These things I figured out on my own a while back and I have been perfecting them every day. Being a software developer, I constantly trying to find an improved “algorithm” for … well, Living. I can’t give it all away because it’s too personal but here are a few practical tips and ideas:

1. Empty your concerns so you have room to think clearly!

I am starting to think GTD stole all of my ideas :) Anyway, you can’t be productive if your mind is cluttered with to-do lists, pressing events, unsolved problems and projects. There is a really simple solution for this – just write it down, get it out of your head and realize that you’ll come back to it later, on your own terms so for now it won’t bother you. I’ve always thought the mind is similar to computer RAM – it has a limited “operational capacity”. Even though you can increase it, your “effective memory” is the thought space not preoccupied by background processes, or loops such as unresolved concerns and to-do lists. These things interrupt you from focusing. They make you constantly context-switch. A Zen-like approach is much more effective.

Maintain an All-Day “Journal” Event:
I carry a PDA and a paper notepad (in case the former fails). On my PDA (iPhone) I create an all-day (calendar) event called “journal”. Inside it, I make notes of anything important that happened during a day. I like to track it in software, because later I can search it for keywords. I’ve been meticulously journaling my life this way for the past 6 years and it has worked well for me.

Write down your concerns in a Daily Recurring Event
It is very convenient to have a daily recurring event (I renamed mine to “bucket”, credits to GTD). As you go through your day, open this “Bucket” event, and write down any kind of concerns, ideas, to-dos, etc in the notes section. I also carry a voice recorder (so if I am driving I can record things I need to remember and put them into my calendar later (plus its not a bad idea to become aware of what you sound like to people)).

If you do these 2 things you’ll have the ability to (1) search through your Life journal, and (2) copy and paste your items from bucket to other software. Make sure to make monthly backups of your calendar by burning them to a CD.

2. Process your daily “bucket of concerns”

At night, I sit down and go through each item in my daily bucket list. I empty it completely every day. You can only do one of the following things with the items in your bucket:

1. If it’s something small (less than 2 minutes) - do it immediately!
2. Can someone else help you do it? Delegate it and create an event in your calendar to follow up on it later.
3. If it requires you to be in some place and time, schedule it to be done as soon as possible.
4. If it’s some kind of information that will really be useful to remember at a later time, on some specific day … put it in your calendar (and describe it in the notes section of the event).
5. If it’s not feasible at the moment, file it to review later, under “maybe/someday” folder.
6. If it’s a huge task, create a project for it. Break it down to specific “action items” and figure out what is blocking you from moving forward with it!
7. Don’t do it at all.

3. Get inspired: Reflect and Review

1. Refocus on your priorities and values. What do you want to do with your short and fleeting Life? What is important? If you don’t have a good answer for this question, schedule aside a personal time to pray, reflect, meditate etc.
2. How about the next year? What specific goals do you have?
3. How about this week? What specifically are you going to accomplish this week? Take a look at your maybe/someday list. Can you do any of it this week?
4. What specific things you’re not doing right now that would have amazing positive effect on your life only if you would do them every day?
5. Look over your schedule for tomorrow and go to sleep. When you wake up, glance over your schedule after breakfast.

I look at every day as an opportunity to grow in all of Life. If I am not learning and growing, I am as good as dead. This is how I break it down in my mind:

Personal Areas (Inner):

• Spiritual: Prayer, meditation, reflection etc. Keep yourself from being polluted by this world. Run towards the light.
• Emotional: Emotional Intelligence, Power under control (over your emotions, thoughts, desires, speech, etc). Guard your heart. Don’t be reactive.
• Intellectual: Use it or loose it! Progressing and learning something difficult, highly technical. Using your memory so your capacity increases.
• Physical: Training your body (your temple) to be in the best physical shape you can possibly be. Watching your diet. Getting enough sleep. I learned (from Aikido) on a very deep level that mind and body are inseparable. Healthy body is healthy mind, healthy emotions.

People Areas (Outer):

• Family: spending time with family
• Friends: connecting with friends and making new ones.
• Love Life: dating, etc.

To simplify all of these things above and to understand how they all work together, you can just think of them as 3 things:

• Love: Love for Your Family, Friends, Colleagues, Acquaintances, Complete Strangers. (Agapē).
• Health: Your Spiritual, Emotional, Intellectual and Physical well-being.
• Wealth: Your ability to make money (for the sole purpose of keeping Love and Health in balance. Think about it!)

Now watch how they’re connected:

Let’s say “Love” gets out of balance: you’re not in good relationships with your girlfriend – well, it will immediately take a toll on Health and Wealth. You might be stressing out, you won’t get enough sleep (Health), and you won’t be productive at your work (Wealth).

Let’s say you’re having financial problems (Wealth) – you’re not going to have any time to spend with your family, friends and loved ones. Your relationships will start to deteriorate (Love). Because of stress, your Health will be affected as well (Health)!

If you’re sick and in pain (Health), you won’t be able to work well (Wealth), or spend quality time with family, friends, etc (Love). You need to take care of your body so it takes care of you later.

All these 3 things are connected very strongly. Keeping them balanced will make you feel great!

Tags: emotional, family, get things done, gtd, happiness, health, love, spiritual, wealth