Precious time well spent

Recently, I involved myself in a small project for a good friend. It was a time-limited task - I had a couple of weeks to come as far as I could, giving my immediate comments to a book draft. A task with which I could spend more or less time.
Why? some people will say.
And true - I could have said no. I could have done a superficial effort. Found a place here and there and written a comment, but otherwise it will be relatively quickly done. Time is valuable, as we know.
At this point, let us briefly stray out at a tangent.
Most people know the old anecdote about the philosophy professor who presents his students with a transparent container, which he first fills up with stones until the students say it's full - then he pours gravel in until the students say that now, it is really full - after which he eventually fills it up with sand until the students for the third time claim that there is room for no more in the container. Then the professor takes the exact same amount of sand, pours it into a similar container. Then there is room for the gravel, but not all of the stones - especially not the big ones - can be placed in the container.
The point is (and let us refrain from venturing too far into what I think is a particular Danish devaluation of the anecdote - that the professor in both cases ends the session by empty a full beer mug into the container, after which he, while the beer seeps through the sand, point out: "but remember: there's always room for a pint"): we should make room for the big, important things in our lives first - if we take the small indifferent things first, there will be no room for the big, meaningful things.
In this case, the comments I have written to the book draft (comments that I would describe as a piece of gravel greater than the average, or one of the smaller stones in my container) had no influence on the more significant things. I have had my sleep every night, done my duty at work and as a family man. I have had time for all the other things in the gravel category: my presence on social media (which I choose not to call procrastination) has been unchanged, I have written my daily blog posts and I even had time for my #7ThingsIReadThisWeek. I may have translated a blog post less, maybe skipped watching a TV broadcast - but that's about it. It has actually only been sand that I have not had room for.
I am writing this halfway through the time I have available for the purpose. And I'm sure I'll make it. Because I've actually seen it as a pleasure. I like it, I get this fabulous sense of flow, and I do not notice that time passes around me - and then it even serves a purpose.
So if I'm actually able to make a positive difference that way - well, I would say yes again - any time!
(Translated from Kostbar tid, vel anvendt)

That old song about the windshield and the bug

In continuation of the post of yesterday, I was inspired by another of the outstanding people I follow on Twitter. Here the problem was that sometimes you feel like you're amazingly unstoppable and other times like you're a total loser.
I believe that it is a feeling we all have. To link it to the post of yesterday, you can say that although you can go a long way doing things that are fun, you will inevitably run into days when nothing is fun and you feel that you might as well have stayed in bed.
I think the secret to making the most of something that more or less feels like a law of nature is to accept that there will be days when you feel like a total loser - the important thing on those days is to keep from self-pity and self-blame, but instead remember that there will be other days: days when it's the part of its personality that's so amazingly unstoppable who's winning - and promise oneself that when those days come, it will be time to go with the flow and forget about the time and place while the tasks more or less solve themselves. As it is written in the old song: "Sometimes you're the windshield / Sometimes you're the bug"
And then it turns out that even if you cut yourself some slack when you're in your total loser mode, you'll more than make up for the lost effort on the days when you're in flow.
(Translated from Den gamle sang om forruden og insektet)

What On Earth Should I Do Now?

Once again, I was inspired by a question on a blog the other day - basically, the question was: What should I do when I have more things to do than what I have time for?
There is of course always the old discussion: what's urgent, and what's important, and a certain prioritization will always take place due to different levels of urgency and importance - but in the end, when we have done the things we really, really need to do, we always end up with not enough time to do the things that we really, really want to do - it might not be really urgent or important, but we still like to interact with more people on twitter, write that additional blog post, read that additional book, write that additional chapter in yet another book we want to write.
When the things that really, really need to be done are done, I tend to leave it all up to a simple question: "What would I like the most to do right now?" There are of course dark sides to this - for instance, things might end up sleeping for months because there are things that just strikes my fancy better (but then, if things cannot afford sleeping for months, they all of a sudden tend to become urgent or important).
But if I do the things that I like to do the most, it also has the side effect that it eliminates the temptation from procrastination - I actually begin to do things that are useful rather than procrastinate, because I do what I like the most, have fun, find flow. And in the end - summing up over a larger period of time - I get more done this way. There might be things I would have liked to do that I didn't come around to - but I would have used my resources in the most efficient way.
And the good thing about having projects lying around in notebooks everywhere is that you will never run out of inspiration for what you could do, once the flow with a project ebbs - there will most likely always be another project to pick, before procrastination rears its ugly head.
So what is next - when all things that really, really need to be done are done - is the thing that is the most fun at the moment.
(Translated from Hvad i alverden skal jeg nu gøre?)