Saturday 19 April 2014

Choices, priorities and casualties of time.

This week I dusted off and revived a technique that my father taught me,when I was probably about 9, for making choices. Obviously indecision has been a lifelong affliction.
Over the millennia since then I have used this method whenever my head starts spinning with too many things to choose from. It is so simple.




You list all the 'things' numbered from 1 to however many. Out of the overwhelm I began my list like this:
1 make brooches
2 paint furniture
3 knit
4 collage........
This time my list was over 20 items long!
Next you write down the numbers like this 1/2 1/3 1/4 (1/ however many you've got).
Then 2/3 2/4 (again 2/ however many you've got)
Then 3/4 and so on till the end.
In my case the last row was 20/21.
If you haven't lost the will to live at this point you go on to choose between thing1&2,
thing 1&3,
thing 1&4
and so on till the end. Circling each number chosen and totting up your total 1's 2's etc.
It can be quite revealing. I was surprised to find that I really wanted to be exploring the ideas in this book.




I am sure there are flaws in this method. And simpler ways of making up your mind. But, I always find it helps me to settle to one idea while happily letting go of all the rest for a time.
I think they call that focus!




Anyhoo. This method works for me and today I have happily played with something new.