Monday, April 9, 2012

How do I use habits. My Influence.

My Influence page helps in your general overview. Simply talking, everything that concerns you is your concern (interesting twist). Concerns are divided in those you can do something about (influence), and those you can't, that just sit there in your brain just to irritate you (concern :) ). So, now you don't have to keep them all in your brain but can rather enter them into the program. You can add optional description to each concern.

For example, the world economic crisis might be something that bothers you, so it's your concern. You have to decide - is it something you can influence or it's just something that irritates you, but you don't have much control over? After you decide, you enter that into corresponding section. I thought that it concerns me but there's not much I can do. At least, for now :). I've put that into concerns. At the same time, my own behaviour while driving a car is something that I control. I've put this into My Influences.




After some time, I might decide that I can actually influence world situation - I move the crisis to My Influences.


As you see, the idea is quite simple - to be more productive, you concentrate on what you can really influence. You should spend time on that rather than on useless thoughts that do nothing but take your time. This page accompanies My Mission page, helping you to write "on paper" what is on your mind - a technique that helps to "free" your brain of data, moving it to something in front of you, and use the brain to better categorize, visualize, analyze that data.

Editting the items is pretty simple:
1. Click on the item to open it
2. Press Edit - do your modifications (e.g., move from Concern to Influence)
3. Press Save





I don't use this page every day. I return to it when I feel like I need to do some review work. Or, just to get some motivation. Or, some guidance. Or, just to see what I've written there times ago.


What about you? How often do you use this page? Do you find it useful at all (we got some letters from people who didn't) ?
Is there anything you want to change about it?

3 comments:

  1. Sometimes I find that there are things that go into both categories. For example, my daughter's transition to adulthood is something I can influence a little, with advice and boundaries, but a lot of it is out of my hands. It is her growth, not mine, after all.

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    1. Yes, agree, there are such things. There's probably no definite rule for where to put them. All depends on how you see and feel it. You can separate them into two close, but different items and add both. Or, choose whichever is more important and add that. I'd myself go with the first one

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  2. To be honest... I think that goals are autmatically repsresented by influence. I started app today. i made my influences and then at once just copied all influence into goals needed to achieve the whole picture

    I d like you to talk on this a little. I would really love to use the software the right way.

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