Lots of catching up with all the boring stuff over the last couple of days; fighting my way through the small mountain of admin that having all of these little businesses create. Sometimes I think its good to assign a day to ploughing through it all, but that makes for a very long, frustrating day. Sometimes I try and just do it as it comes in, but then I feel like I never stop. Ho Hum. I guess I’ll probably just stick with the half way house.

“Doing nothing that isn’t play”, how does that work with totting up your receipts at the end of the month or balancing your cheque book (in these days of online banking and debit cards does anyone balance their cheque book any more?).

So what are my options here:

• Just not doing it. I’m too much of a control freak and a worrier to be able to manage this. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at nights and I guess it isn’t really realistic.
• Getting someone else to do it. This is one I’ve tried when I’ve really got a lot on, but again I like it done a certain way. I used to spend as much time on my accounts as my accountant did, and at least now I don’t use him I know I’ll have it done on time.
• Reorgansing my life so there isn’t as much. We always have choice even if it’s not one we like, and I guess all this admin is my choice. I have done a lot of work paring it down, cutting out the dead wood and other such metaphors so not much room for improvement here, but one to keep in mind.
• Talking yourself into it. You can tell yourself all of the long term benefits of what you are doing, and just tell yourself to get on with it. Does that kind of internal argument really get you any where? I for one seem to automatically disagree if someone, even myself, tells me I have to do something. NVC says shouldn’t make any demands only requests, even of yourself. This is probably the only way to make a start.
• Go with the ‘Flow’, stop thinking about it so much and just get on with it! Buddhism says the way to be happy is to release yourself from all desires. I guess the desire to be doing something else is the problem. But how do you release yourself from that desire? Try and focus fully on the task at hand and block everything else out; try and achieve what pshchologists call “flow” where you are totally absorbed in the task at hand and time stands still?

Yeah, I’ll probably go for the ‘flow’, try and get in the zone and become one with my pile of receipts!

P.S. 11/9/9 – Steve Pavlina has just made a pertinent post that says to not bother with it, and just earn more money to pay someone else: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2009/09/a-fixed-income-is-a-sucker-bet/