Have A Theme Every Week- 52 Adventures

At certain times during the course of the years boredom would suddenly hit my friends and I.We live abroad but it seemed we were doing the same thing every year- work, shop, travel, clubbing, drinking and whoring (for some).

There has got to be a way to get oneself out of that cycle. It’s up to us to consciously make life more interesting. Why wait when you have the power to spice up your life?

I remembered I had this book on celebrating different holidays everyday. Then I started thinking. Instead of holidays why not giving each week a theme? There are 52 week in a year hence I nicknamed this experiment- 52 adventures for the 52 themes. What you do is have your week revolve around a theme. For example, my ‘pimp ass ho’ friend Samgela wanted a Drag Queen Week. That means she would pummel our college hallways dolled up in sequined organza, glitter, fashion forward Lady Gaga couture and high heels. However, that doesn’t mean she has to exhaust her collection of wigs. She can do other stuff that revolve around the drag world—like lipsyncing fo’ your life, reading other queens, impersonating, voguing –you werk it girl!

Here is a list of themes that my friends and I have come up with:

• Movie Week
• Cooking Week
• Travel Week- my friend Dbau and I went toBurmafor this. I will post a future on entry about our trip — Burmese jails, naked monks and other shenanigans.
• Writing Week- this week!
• Biking Week
• Vegetarian Week – in time for Lent
• Food and Wine Tasting Week (just don’t get drunk and go to your job with a hangover)
• Fashion Week
• Personal Development Week

And some other quirky ones that we generally won’t do but fun to think about:

• Otaku Week- get obsessed with one thing for that week and commit to it. Perfect for obsessive compulsives types like me
• Ignorant Tourist Week- Oh my God, Frank. What are these bamboo thingies that people stick into their mouths? How unhygienic…
• Knock Knock Corny Joke Week – to which my pal Mama Harry said that’ll be his Ignore Kate Week
• Annoy People Week- followed inevitably by No Friends Week
• Hangover Week – followed by Look for a Job Week
• Get High Week- oh dear…
• Rave/Ecstasy Week- That’s my up to the 9^th power of craziness friend Gumbo’s week. That explains why he woke up one day with no recollection of the previous night and discovering that arranged artfully on his chest was an explosion of sakura pink butterflies).
• Porn Week (good one for guys. Buy lube. Lots of it)
• Crazy Hair Week
• No Shower Week- eew…

I would blog future posts about the 52 Adventures experiment in my other blog- Kate Yowein. The point is to experience something new and exciting to make your year different. So what about you? What’s your theme week?

How To Focus On What Makes You Happy And Get You Closer to Your Goals

I sat there finishing my application form when I noticed something. The first page was written with a different shade of black ink from the rest. I started worrying and then imagined this inane scenario that the person evaluating my application would throw it away exclaiming, “What a careless lady using two different shades of black ink! Can’t she see one’s darker than the other?”

Meanwhile the Chinese courier guy was impatiently waiting for me to put my papers into the envelope. He lifted his pinkie with its long shiny nail and proceeded to pick his nose.

I scrambled looking for the pen on my desk with the right shade of black ink.

Dial, dial, dial.

He flicked his finger. The booger landed on the envelope. It was like a play doh marble with the sheen and pallor of a 100 year old egg complete with mushy egg yolk stickiness.

A million things raced through my head. Moist towelletes. Rubbing alcohol. cotton swabs. Perfume for that smell.

Just mail that goddamned application!, the booger seemed to be screaming.

I’m sure you’re not as crazy anal as I am but we’ve been in situations where we make mountains out of mole hills. 80% of the value of that task was simply to mail my papers but I was spending most of my time searching for the right shade of ink that’s not even part of the 20% of the value of the task.

I used to follow this ABC method of prioritization.

A- important but not urgent

B- urgent but not important

C- not important nor urgent

It resulted to years about bitching and moaning that I spent most of my time marking papers and lesson plans and not doing the things that I enjoyed. The previous posts of this blog reflected that. It actually got to the point I got tired of listening to me. Hell, I’m not a complainer, honey. Snap!

But then I discovered the 80/20 rule- Pareto’s principle. 80% of the value comes from 20% of the tasks.  80% of the value of my teaching job comes from student evaluations and grade assessment which is 20% of what I do. The bulk of my time (80%) comes from creating supplementary materials and marking which contribute to 20% of the value. It means at the end of the day, my admin will only look at those score and evaluation sheets. Many PD (Personal Development) gurus espouse on the 80/20 rule like it’s the holy grail – Tim Ferriss, Brian Tracy, Steve Pavlina – because it forces you to look at the few critical few, the Big Picture and get rid of the useless stuff. It is a lifestyle changer.

So like Tim Ferriss in his book The Four Hour Work Week, I decided to 80/20 my life.

80% of what I’m doing that yields only 20% output of getting me closer to my goals:

1. marking
2. creating lesson plans and materials

20% of what I’m doing that give me 80% happiness and output to my goals:

1. writing
2. preparing my application to perhaps migrate to New Zealand
3. wake up at 7am

So I reversed it and my new 80/20 weekly goals  look like this. I added a C column for those non-essential very low priority chores:

80%	20%	C
1. Post 3 blog entries this week	1. Mark paraphrasing papers	1. Pay rent
2. Notarize copies of my diploma	2. Mark summary papers	2. Organize papers in office
3. Plan 90 Day and Monthly		3. Organize class folder
4. Wake up at 7am 5x this week

But what if you get behind your day job because you give it less priority?  For me by focusing on the 80% first, I’m more motivated to doing the 20% later because I have that good flow that comes from what makes me happy first. You can also distribute your work plan in your week so you make sure you’re on top of your game. A Time Map can help you do that. I can’t tell you how much good vibes I have to doing what I love at the end of the week and knowing I’ve accomplished something meaningful.

Tip: If you get stuck on a task ask yourself, “Would this make a difference a year from now? 5 years?” If not, cross it out. I also set a timer for doing the 20% tasks so I don’t spend more time on it than necessary. However, you are also free to do the tasks you hate to do first. Brian Tracy once said to eat a live frog first thing in the morning just so you can get it out of the way. I tried that but procrastinated instead and ended up sprawled on the couch watching RuPaul’s Drag Race. Different people have different ways to be productive. Find what works for you but make sure to focus 80% on the 80%.

So back to that Chinese courier guy with decent etiquette. In the end, I gave my papers to him because I just couldn’t do it without making sure everything was perfect.  He slid the application package into envelope and sealed it. As he walked out the door, I saw the booger was still stuck on the envelope.

Oh well.

The Circle of Goals- A New Way of Writing Them

Mom’s New Year resolutions looked like this:

1. Don’t forget dentures every time you go out (I’m sorry, Mom. But you can’t get away with just your canines. Remember our neighbor, George? He stopped you in the street with a concerned look in his face and said, “Nisa, Halloween was over six months ago.”).
2. Find a better way to decline son’s year long request to buy a ‘haute couture’- what is haute couture?- yellow gown with matching feather boas and Giuseppe Zentodi Zoneti Zanotti shoes.
3. Lose weight for daughter’s upcoming wedding. You don’t want guests to think you’re pregnant when you walk down the aisle.
4. Buy wig for wedding and not listen to daughters’ comments that a wig just makes you look like a sorry assed drag queen. Avoid pink and green. Rihanna red-optional.

Does yours look the same (of course, minus the dentures and feather boas)? Every year we make the same list style of writing our goals. Have you ever considered doing something different like this?

This idea of writing my goals this way came to me out of the blue. Why not arrange our goals in a circular shape so we could see how they connect and synergize with each other? In this way, we can see the Big Picture, the whole forest not just the trees, the whole gown and not just the sequins and embroidery.

We’re used to seeing goals as separate entities. But actually, they can also be extensions of each other. Some goals need other goals to lay the foundations like the bottom blocks of Egyptian Jenga pyramids. For example, my main goal for this year is to be able to wake up at7AM consistently (goal #1) in order to do what’s important to me (goal#2) so I can lead a happy and fulfilling life (goal#3).

So grab a piece of paper or software and start sketching. Find the hidden bridges between those goals so you can cross them. Once you know how important one is to the other, you’ll be more motivated to pursue them. Meanwhile I have to skype Mom. Apparently, she’s lost those dentures again.