Mirror of truth. How not to lie to yourself The next exercise, my friends, may become a wake-up call for you. I am so afraid of doing it every time. Anyone I suggested doing this exercise was like: "Oh, yes, it's like ... well, ok, I see, actually, yes, I ... ok, yes. It's simple, understandable, so... Phew ...". You know, it comes somehow naturally that you don’t want to do it. It is just so primitive that it becomes clear immediately that you are very reluctant to do it. So, as I said, this technique is very simple, and, believe me, one of the most brilliant, sobering and eye-opening. It clearly shows who I am, what I am, and it is perfectly brilliant in its simplicity. You have an A4 sheet of paper in front of you, and this is the only tool, except for a pencil, which you are going to need in your work. Nothing else. Every day you print out such a sheet and carry it folded in the back pocket of your jeans, along with an IKEA pencil to make notes with during the day. That's it, this is the exercise. It will take you 15 minutes per day, it is a 15-minute investment during the day, but you will make notes every time there is a change in activity. I have heard a lot of enthusiastic reviews about this practice. It is far from being new, it’s a "snapshot of the day", an old classical technique. Any consulting company issues invoices in this way, and an auditor working there, or one of the consultants, records their every action. Well, what does it look like? You fix your working day with phrases like: "I made a presentation," "I drew", "I answered e-mails", "I made a phone call", and they do it by means of a computer. For example, my wife, working in her company, had special software, and recorded every change in her activity. And her work was fixed, it was clear what it consisted of: how long she drinks coffee, how long she talks on the phone, how long she deals with e-mails, how long she talks with colleagues at a meeting, and so on. Thus to understand what your working day consists of, we divide it into different activities. Your private life should be included too. Let it be a secret document, don’t show it to anyone, but fill it in honestly. This is what makes it valuable. At the initial stage, I forbid you any analysis, any changes or cheating. And, please, don’t be ashamed of yourself discovering that you have 2 hours of watching Youtube videos, which is completely impossible to justify, plus 6 hours of surfing social networks, plus picking your nose for another half an hour, or scratching your head for 40 minutes, or spending 6 hours on getting to a place. This all is so weird. Look at this. I made a lot of discoveries when I did this practice. For example, I found out that I get up very late, and it was difficult for me to write down that I get up at 2 p.m. Then I discovered that I have 15 minutes of exercise, 15 minutes of shower, 15 minutes of breakfast, and 45 minutes of drinking tea afterwards. I looked at it and I thought: "Hmm. Curious". Then a very long way to work, then I come to work — and, not at once, as it turns out, but start working. And I, for example, spent an hour to get to my office, plus another 45 minutes on coffee, then another half an hour on working, meaning, talking to colleagues: what’s up, what’s new. Oh, it doesn’t look so good ... well, you know, somehow you do not want to fill in the timesheet the way it is. It's better to write: "work starts", 09:00 and “work finishes” 18:00 — that's my timesheet, I started at 09:00, finished at 18:00. Work — that's my schedule. No, this practice is valuable because you change an activity every 15 minutes. I will explain. What does "change in activity every 15 minutes" mean? The whole day will be divided into time slices of 15 minutes each. Imagine, you came to work and sat down to write an email to your client, and while you were actually writing it for 15 minutes, another client called. This means you mark a change in activity with another type of activity — a “phone call”. So, I wrote an email for 15 minutes, I talked on the phone for another 15 minutes, or 5 minutes, the rest of the time I was finishing the email — 45 minutes. Of course, you can allocate 45 minutes, half an hour, an hour for one and the same activity that — attention — was not interrupted. For example, sleeping. You went to bed at 2 a.m. and woke up at 8 a.m., so from 2 to 8, please combine it into one line called "sleeping". But do not combine the time from 9 to 18 into "working", and do not combine 11-13 into "having lunch". What did you do during lunch? How much time did you actually eat? Supposedly, most of the time was spent on getting there, you had some phone calls, a conversation with a friend, you read a book, and so on. So, please, fix these changes in the timesheet. This is very sobering, very exciting. And I assure you, it's enough just to do this exercise, without any analysis, just to observe, watch yourself, as if in a mirror. To finally see and admit who I actually am, what I actually am. Just look at yourself. I assure you, doing this technique, this pencil and this sheet with all the notes, focusing on the very change of activities will provide a great number of insights. Please practice it. This is the basis of this course and this is the only thing that we have — this very limited resource called "time". Many of us live in such a way, as if we are immortal, as if we will live forever. But these sheets, they are limited. And only these sheets, these 15-minute intervals we are investing, they show how much it is left for us. The amount of smile on your face, the amount of energy that you give to this world, they are embodied in these 15-minute intervals. Look at what your life consists of. Enjoy the practice. Discard thoughts like: "If I am to record every change every 15 minutes, when will I be actually working?". Work, please, half an hour, hour, do not get distracted, avoid changes in your activity. Make one note at the beginning and one note at the end. Then, what you did before and what you will do afterwards. So now — a sheet of paper and a pencil. Drain the energy from self-observation, take this power of self-awareness. There are only 2 very powerful esoteric skills: the first one is awareness, the second one is will. It means knowing where I want to go, the address, and then — following this direction, keeping the task in view. So, thanks to this technique, your self-awareness shoots up into space, this is an effective injection of awareness into your life. Embrace this awareness and the pleasure of knowing who you are, where you are going. This is the first step. Good luck!
