In the past couple of weeks, I’ve really been bogged down by what I consider to be a biggish to-do list. I don’t think that I’m unique in this and most of you too would have similar or even bigger to do lists.

My advice for getting through those to do lists? Just pick on item and handle them one at a time.

Whilst that may sound silly, I realized recently that it doesn’t help to get stressed about the things that just never disappear of the list. Instead, I wake up every morning, get to the office and simply pick the thing that jumps at out me from the list and handle that. When done, I just move onto the next one.

So whilst this may be the most stupid GTD / productivity tip you have ever heard, just consider that sitting around, trying to plan and trying to prioritize your to do list, only means that they keep piling up…

In recent months - especially since the beginning of the year - I’ve found that the more I align my passions & the things that generally makes me happy in my life, the more I tend to be productive, inspired, motivated & just content. Now this probably seems obvious & trivial, but I’ve learned (about myself at least) that there’s a little bit of a different angle to this if you look closely.

Before I get into it, I need to mention that a lot of this thinking and the tweaking & tinkering in my life is a result of the idealistic goals that I’ve set myself for this year. So on a regular basis, I’ve been referring back to those goals and making sure that I’m making appropriate progress in achieving my aims.

One of the changes that I wanted to implement in my life, was a healthier & more active lifestyle, which means beyond changing to a healthier diet, I’m also training to run a half marathon in April. On most days I would thus go for a 5 - 8km run in the afternoon in preparation for the race. But to get back to how this influences my overall “life happiness” (beyond the obvious result of feeling healthier & more fit than I have ever felt), I now go running for two possible reasons:

1. If I had a great day at the office, my afternoon run is a perfect way to almost celebrate that day; and
2. If I had a shitty day up until that point, the run is a great way to clear my head and just feel refreshed by removing myself from that shittiness.

Maybe I’m splitting hairs here, but even though I thus go running for two very different reasons, it has exactly the same result: I feel much better afterwards. In a similar vein, when I’ve had a great day I get to celebrate it with Jeanne (with whom I got engaged last Friday), but when it hasn’t been the best of days, I can talk to her about it, which allows me to get it off my chest / mind (family & friends can do exactly the same thing).

What I’m trying to say here, is that the different spheres of our lives all has an influence on each other; so if you’re not happy at home, you’re more than likely not gonna be happy at work. And if you’re being challenged & stimulated at work, you’re more likely to feel refreshed & happy when socializing with friends & family or pursuing personal hobbies.

So there’s most definitely a case for making sure that all of these things are aligned. Consider that the energy (and good vibes) generated in one sphere automatically gets transferred to the next sphere as you move between the different spaces in your life; to an extent it should thus be obvious that you need to setup those spheres in such a way as to where they can fuel each other.

I’ve been looking at my life in the wrong way.

Everything I’ve been aiming to implement in terms of my workflow, productivity, emotional well-being, happiness, ambition etc. have been within the average context of the rest of the world.

Why haven’t I gone about this in a more unique way? Simple: it ain’t that easy.

I have however decided that whilst I may not know exactly how to go about this “revolution” in my life, I won’t settle for this constant feeling of unrest & uncertainty. Having also had a generally awesome January thus far (and I’ve been dedicated in hitting most of my goals for 2010), I can’t bash my existing day-to-day life too much, but there is nothing that is not optimized just yet; something that is not quite Adii.

I think I’m past the fact that I need to steer clear of the online world every now and again, need to exercise more and all the other “become a happier you”-stuff (I’m already doing pretty well in achieving all of these). The inherent problem with all of these theories are that they were conceptualized to be generic and once again: average with the context of the rest of the world. On a certain level, this doesn’t relate to personal happiness and instead it just perpetuates this rat-race towards achieving a personal zen of sorts (which is contradictory, since most of the measures should take you away from the rat-race).

Revolution is on its way. In one form or another (TBA).