January 23, 2013

Steve and I were out for an evening walk recently, trying to sort out who does the banking this week while he’s in Hong Kong and I’m racing around Singapore with all sorts of other stuff going on. Then I said hang on a minute, this banking malarkey is making our life harder and it’s been the case for two years, we need to sort it out. Steve’s been trying to get me on the case for those two years – so it’s completely my fault – but everything else has seemed more important. As such, I finally took a step back and realized how much harder our life is because of this one aspect. But my block has been our temporary living arrangements. I haven’t wanted to sort it out until we have a permanent address, so we don’t have to go back in again and change all of our records. I expected the temporary address to be a short term thing, but as it’s now a long term thing, I reckon it’s time to do something about it regardless – for Steve’s sake as much as mine. Some people consider me a control freak and maybe I am, but the truth of the matter is: I have always tried to design my life to make it as easy as possible. I like everything to have “it’s” place, so I know exactly where anything is when I need it. I HATE not being able to find what I need, especially if it hasn’t been put back in its “home.” Thankfully Steve complies. When I get ready to run out the door, I need to be able to grab and go, ensuring I’m on my way as quickly as possible. That’s how I roll. As such, anything that impedes my need-for-speed must be sorted out ASAP. Does that make me a control freak or just an organiser? I don’t know, life’s just better when it’s easy I reckon. If you’re wondering how to define what makes life harder, I’d say it’s anything that regularly makes your jaw (or bum) clench, your stomach tighten, or turns you into a screaming harpy – especially if it’s an inanimate thing. If those reactions are due to the humans in your life, well that’s another thing all together, but “sorting it out” might not be a bad idea. If it’s kids, patience and love, patience and love, patience and love.  Seriously, what makes life harder is anything that consistently has a negative impact on your day and drives you nuts – emotionally or physically. These things can build up over time – so you just get used to them – and they’re usually at the bottom of your to-do list because mostly, it’s a ball ache to resolve. As such, due to their priority placement on your list, they never get done. Super organised people suggest tackling the things at the bottom of your to-do list first if you want to be more productive. It makes sense. So my list of things to sort out to make life easier 1.       Our banking situation – one bank, all accounts, linked, etc… – sorry Steve 2.      Our Internet connection falls over several times a day and it drives me NUTS! I mean it really does generate a lot of negative emotions – i.e. frustration – and that’s not good. It also drives Steve nuts. The problem is, we can’t fix it, and when we’ve asked the IT guy where we live to fix it, he blames our provider. The provider blames the system where we live. We never seem to be able to get anyone to take any responsibility and we just want it sorted. Therefore we have agreed that we will stop at nothing until it is resolved – no matter how annoying it is. We will find an answer. To give you an example, it’s crashed five times while writing this. Not handy when uploading to a blog…. 3.      Steve’s desk is catastrophic and an unworkable space. When he’s in Singapore, he works from home, and he’s spent too much time working amidst chaos – we need to sort that out and get him comfortable. BUT he also needs to make this a priority for himself – he’s not the best at keeping his personal work space in order – right love? My desk could do with a dust and a clean-up too 4.      A getting out the door quickly issue for me is shoes. In Singapore, you don’t have closet-space for shoes, as such, you have shoe racks inside and outside the front door. It also means you don’t have mould issues, as is the case in an enclosed space – it’s the tropics. Well the top of our shoe rack features a pile of colourful Crocs, mini-human running shoes, Heelies, and everything else our lads accessorize their feet with. My shoes are jammed underneath, piled on top of each other, and well, that adds about 10 seconds to my exit. I need to find a solution, because it also looks messy, and messy is not me With that I would love to ask what is your “making life harder than it needs to be” challenge that you can resolve with a little bit of will and focus? I’d love to know. Yours, without the bollocks Andrea PS: if you’re looking for some simple tips to make life run smoother, this article has been doing the rounds in social media land recently – “50 Life Hacks to Simplify your World.” Apparently Life Hacks are the little things you can do to make your life simpler. I think my above list are more than Life Hacks, but good to keep front of mind, as a messy, disorganised life, is not the best way to be happy apparently. I do like the paperclips for cables in this piece, but one wonders – when will we be truly wireless?