In all areas of our lives, we strive for perfection. Every project at work has to be perfect. We look for perfection in our finances. In our marriage. When raising our kids. Even mowing the lawn – we demand perfection. And to a point, that’s a good thing. Doing a great job is something to be proud of, as long as you are reasonable.
Rather than stress over making every single area of your life perfect, choose some things where you accept that “Good enough is, well, good enough.” Spend a reasonable amount of time and effort to do a good job. Then stop. Don’t spend hours of time, and tons of energy trying to make it perfect. Not only will you exhaust yourself, you won’t succeed in making everything perfect. This doesn’t make you a quitter – in fact it makes you a brilliant human being.
Use your energy wisely, as it’s a finite resource. Reducing stress can go a long way toward helping you live the kind of life you want for yourself. Eliminating the need to be perfect is a huge weight off your shoulders. Go ahead, try it. The next time you’re working on something that isn’t absolutely critical, do a good job. And then stop. Do no more, and move on to the next task. If your to-do list is complete, then it’s time to rest and enjoy a little down time.
When designing a clean, simple home office, there’s really only one reasonable choice for the computer. That choice is, of course, the Apple iMac. Think of it as a laptop that stands up, and you’ll get the idea. The display houses all the computer internals, so there is no tower / case. Plug the mouse into the keyboard, the keyboard into the display, and a single power cord into the wall. Done. If you’re trying to reduce cables / clutter / stuff in your home office, this is the absolute best way that there is. There’s even a wireless adapter built in, so you don’t need to plug in a network cable.
But I’ve never used a Mac
Until just over a month ago, I was in the exact same boat. I’ve been a lifelong Windows user, and couldn’t have been happier. I always had cables everywhere, with dual monitors hooked up to the tower sitting on the floor. I’ll have to take some pictures one day so you can really understand. But I switched, and it has been so incredibly seamless, I was amazed.
Macs aren’t that different
When it comes to the business of Getting Things Done, Macs aren’t really any different than PC’s. You can still access the internet, get to Google Documents ( which you should be using for most of your document needs ), write to your heart’s content, pay bills, etc etc. Unless you use some *very* specific Windows software, the iMac can take care of it. And it will do so much more elegantly, taking up precious little desk real estate. Looking at an iMac is much more soothing than looking at a jumble of wires and boxes.
Mac OS X still scares me
It’s ok, you needn’t be afraid. Next week I’ll have a post about the basics of OS X, and how it can actually help you be more productive. Think I’m crazy? Check back in a week, you might be surprised.
