The most important thing about organizing to get things done is not what most productivity gurus teach. They say we need to align our actions with our values and priorities and use the Eisenhower Matrix to focus on what’s important.
But from a Course perspective, in a world of illusion, what does that really mean? While we do have things to do here, and I’ve tried endless productivity hacks to get them done, the only tasks the Course gives us is accepting the Atonement for ourselves by remembering who we are, and cultivating a calm and peaceful mind to produce a calm and peaceful world. And productivity hacks do notbring peace and calm.
So here’s the different approach I tried. Make a list of all things that bother you. Size, value, and importance do not matter. Why? “The properties of illusions which seem to make them different are really irrelevant, for their properties are as illusory as they are.” (M, S8, P5, L9) They are all the same. The real goal is peace.
For example, for years the colors of the trash cans provided by the trash company for my house irritated me. Important? NO. A misguided waste of mental energy? YES. But getting coordinated trash cans was as important as anything else I was doing and maybe more. Why? Because it put my mind at peace. Some may say, “that’s just giving into the illusion and making it real.“ But if we are here, breathing air and eating food because we think we need it to be “alive,“ we’ve already bought the illusion hook, line and sinker. There’s no difference between eating food and buying coordinated trash cans. It’s all illusion. And I figure it’s ok to use the illusion to bring peace.