Taking Time with Tasks

This afternoon I spent more time than I would have liked working very hard at untwisting my brand new (and inexpensive) 75 ft. hose in order to properly coil it for easy access. The task frustrated me, as I was sure that there was probably a better way to do it. A year ago I simply would have asked my very handy boyfriend for help. He probably would have told me how to untwist it, and then after a few minutes of watching would have taken it away from me and done it himself. And I would have missed an important insight.

As I became more and more frustrated – and tired since it was somewhat physically demanding – a thought from one of M. Scott Peck’s books came to me. M. Scott Peck wrote “The Road Less Traveled” among several other books in the spirituality/psychology genre. He related a story about talking with a neighbor who was fixing his lawn mower. Peck commented that it was a task he wouldn’t be able to figure out how to do. The neighbor replied simply that was probably because he wouldn’t take the time figure it out. Remembering this helped me to persevere with untwisting the hose. It is now nicely coiled. No, I didn’t figure out a better way to do it, but I did learn something about hoses and how to work with them, because I took the time.

This got me to thinking about scrapbooking and taking the time to learn new techniques or improve old ones. Or simply pressing on with a tedious task, such as sorting through piles of old photos. When I just want to get through something, get it done as quickly as possible, I could very well miss out on something. Taking the time to practice a technique, to really consider a layout, to learn something new in a thoughtful way, to plan by letting the tasks arrange themselves in my mind – that’s what I’m talking about. After a while it feels more natural, and things can actually get accomplished as quickly. Moving with a creative flow that has the intelligence to know when it’s time slow down and take more time, even if it seems counter-intuitive. It’s about listening to myself and being open. Time to figure things out.