What does addiction have to do with being organised? A whole lot, read on.
Today I thought I’d look at Addiction and how the seemingly harmless things in our lives can eat away at our time.
Television
I do know of people who actually plan their days around certain television programs. Even with the introduction of video, dvd recorders, and other methods of pausing TV in it’s tracks to enable us to watch programs at a more convenient time, a story-line or reality show has them hooked to the point that they must watch it to make sure that no-one around the water cooler or in the staff room can ruin it for them the next day by telling them what happened before they’ve seen the episode themselves. For ideas on how to break the TV habit check out The 9 Step Television Diet by Tina Su on Think Simple Now.
Electronic Game Addiction
Once one of these games has it’s hooks into the human being you used to know and love, you have a serious battle on your hands. It’s time to take action when you realise that it’s affecting their social life; relationships; priorities; sleep; finances; food and personal hygiene. You may even notice some physical symptoms such as mood swings, migraines, Carpal Tunnel syndrome and back-ache affecting the gamer. When it comes to loss of ‘time’ it’s way up there! Hours pass and in some instances nights disappear. If this is an issue in your home, you will need to seek some professional advice to work out a strategy to handle it. Be prepared for things to get worse before they get better. Often is the case that gamers are avoiding other things in their lives and are hiding in the game addiction. This often results in them becoming defensive when confronted. For more information on Game Addiction check out this link on Video Jug.
Emails, Texting & Social Networking
These can be as bad as electronic game addiction in terms of time and when it comes to phones, it can also become an expensive habit. Typing a message can often delay responses when a phone call could quickly communicate important information faster and not be misinterpreted. It’s easy to get hooked into social networking and live a virtual life instead of a real one. In some cases some get lost in the ‘virtual romance’ of on-line dating or flirting where life becomes an inter-active romance novel and the addiction becomes time spent looking for a response or constructing replies. Before you know it, time slips away along with projects, odd jobs and any other commitments or priorities. When it comes to emails you might want to check out this web-site on how to answer quickly and effectively from Lifehack.org.
Phone Calls & Unscheduled Visits
These are the ones that mostly affect those running home-offices or working from home. It’s important for you to set boundaries for family and friends to not do social ‘calling’ of any kind during ‘your’ designated work hours and stick with it. For those mums who are working at home with young ones, you might want to try the trick with the two caps (or a badge). Have one cap colour for when you are working and another for when you are Mummy. Kids (big and small) understand visuals and they will soon learn when they can and can’t demand your time based on what cap you’re wearing. You may even find that your cap colour will also help you to focus during your work time and not get distracted with things like that pile of laundry. Another time this can be handy is in a home-school or home-work time setting. Wear a cap for when you are available for helping with homework and stick to a scheduled time on a visual schedule to avoid misunderstandings.
Let’s face it, all of us at sometime will let technology take hold, so get yourself a journal and note down for at least a week where you lost valuable time. Reconcile this with your ‘to-do’ list at the end of the week. If you can see that hours have been lost in one particular area, and find you are having to add your ‘to-do’s’ from this week onto next week’s list, then think about how you can work at finding a compromise to get your time and your life back into positive balance.
It’s time, to ‘make’ time.
