Author: Kellsie Phillips

In my blog post, Disconnect For Maximum Connection, I made a promise that I would start my mornings by reading paper mediums. I’ve enjoyed a range between poems, fictional books as well as morning devotionals. Today I read the parable of a builder who did not take the time to sit down and plan. He was unable to finish his project to build a tower and faced ridicule for not completing it.

Who knows what this builder’s reason was for not completing the project. He could have been too ambitious and without setting a budget he was unaware of the true costs. Maybe he was distracted by too many projects he took on. But after reading this parable I realized how easy it is to lose track of projects when there isn’t a clear course of action. Every project must have structure and direction to ensure its success. 

REALIZING MY CURRENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT NEEDS

After reflecting on my devotion I realized that I had room for opportunity when it came to my many projects I am currently juggling. In a few weeks, I will be attending Manhattan’s Comic Con and I am currently creating my cosplay costume. I am also starting my small batch of homemade wine for this year’s Christmas gifts. While I’ll be ,”multi-tasking” between these two projects I will also be managing content creation for: Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter and WordPress. 

Adding two big projects to my usual workload I decided it is time to bring to life my project management systems in Asana. Since I’m only a few tasks away from completing my cosplay costume I decided to use my homemade wine project to explore with. After viewing Project Planning Process: 5 Steps To Project Management Planning by Project Manager, I began to click away in Asana. Their video emphasized that it is important for projects to have a course of action. There has to be a list of tasks that contribute to the project’s timeline that lead to its success. 

To my delight I was gifted the answer as to why I’ve always made lists. If I shared my notes app with you, you would see it is completely filled with a plethora of lists with an occasional poem here and there. Whether I am going to the grocery store to make a meal, my favorite clothing store for an event or I am grabbing items for a project you will see a list or outline created.

Asana‘s welcome asked what three tasks I wanted to complete and one hour later I had a full list of tasks divided in three lists. The first list holds my tasks that I have to initiate that are pending due to my in progress task needs:

I’ve assigned due dates to these tasks so that I can hold myself accountable for my progress. It is just chef’s kiss that I can visually see whether I need to pick up the pace or push out a due date due to my current progress. Combining the visual cues to setting reminder alarms for auditory clues supports the different motivational styles that I need to support my current pace or provide urgency to return to whatever tasks need my attention.

There’s a felt sense of accomplishment whenever I send an in progress task to completed. Asana gives little visual congratulations whenever a task is done, which is the atta boy I didn’t know I needed. It is important for morale to have these little celebrations built in as they feed the energy needed to complete the next task. Though they may seem a little silly, the 2am version of yourself that’s a bit frazzled from your work and project demands may appreciate a cute character shooting across your screen cheering you on.

My PRIOR WORK EXPERIENCE SHAPED MY PROJECT MANAGEMENT SKILLS

During my time working for Panera Bread, everyday I heard the importance of project management through this popular quote:

“Prior preparation prevents poor performance” — James Baker

Subtasks helps us understand what it takes to get a task completed. For instance, when a customer orders a broccoli cheddar bread bowl. The task is to give your customer their order, but the sub tasks would be to: grab a tray, place bread bowl on tray, fill bread bowl with broccoli cheddar soup, place utensils & side orders then place tray on counter for your customer.

I appreciate Asana’s dedication to organization, it allowed me to write descriptions for each task then add the needed subtasks as well:

In a way this project management system acts as my compass, where if I need a refresher on what is needed or what I have left to do, I can take a peak and recalibrate. Knowing that I am completing my plan in place takes away the stress that I can feel when I’m winging a project. Being able to see all of my notes, invoices, progress photos and tasks all in one place empowers me during the execution of my project.

Exploring how a project management system like Asana can assist my execution of projects has left a lasting impression. I now have a wiser approach when planning and executing projects that I am thankful in advance for the resulting growth I will experience. With the nature of wine making my update on how my small batch of Christmas wine went will be given in December!

Until then friend!

Weekends with my Auntie Judy were the best gift my mom could give me growing up. I could feel my excitement ping ponging in my chest as my mom and I would go to White Plains Metro North Station to travel to the Bronx for my visit. Every time our train pulled away from the station I watched trees whirl by and immediately I wondered what transpired in these little strips of uninhabited land tucked behind houses. Did people camp in them at night? Were the animals I saw on a Disney worthy journey? My mind created stories for entertainment until the train’s doors opened and revealed Fordham’s station with my aunt smiling at its steps. 

I loved going on many adventures in Manhattan with my aunt but when it rained I loved our at home adventures. My aunt’s desk would be covered in an avalanche of papers, post-it-notes and manuals. But what mattered to me most was her Windows 98 computer that hummed on standby mode. I enjoyed playing Mavis Beacon, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego and Madeline.

I thought my aunt’s computer only existed for her coursework and my games until one early morning I saw my aunt open a green screened program. I creeped up to my aunt’s side and saw playing cards shuffling in one by one until there were many cards facing upwards. My aunt took a big sip of her coffee and began to click away in a pattern I had yet to learn. It was exciting, it was satisfying to watch and after a few games I asked my aunt what she was doing. She told me that before she starts her work or studies she plays a few games of Solitaire to get into the swing of things. 

This memory came to me after completing my self imposed detox from Tik Tok. For five days I abstained from consuming Tik Tok and would only open the app to upload content for my page. With the help of my Screen Time app I saw that pre detox my time on Tik Tok averaged at 10 hours a day. Knowing that I have 24 hours per day, the first 6 hours of the day I’m asleep, 9 hours are dedicated to work and I fall asleep by 10pm. Reading that I give 10 hours of my day to Tik Tok made me curious as to what my relationship with this app truly stemmed from. 

If you asked me why I used Tik Tok so frequently, my pre-made mental response would be that it is due to creating content. I spend a lot of time on app editing but I also consume toks in order to keep up with current trends. 

What I discovered from my five days of data collection was a reward system that I put in place to manage the consequences of my insane work stress. Just as my aunt explained that she played Solitaire so that she can take the edge off before and after engaging with work. I followed her lead in telling myself to get through X amount of hard work tasks, I can have X amount of minutes on Tik Tok. Whenever I had a negative customer call or co-worker interaction I opened Tik Tok to see how many more likes or comments I got on my recently posted content for a hit of Serotonin to continue on as a worker drone for the day. My last observation was that after a mentally taxing day I used Tik Tok as a way to numb my mind as a reward for dealing with such a hard work day. The words, “ I earned it” would echo as the reason for the 10 hours I willingly gave up each day to this app. 

I’m thankful for my detox experiment as it offered encouragement. The days that I abstained from Tik Tok I tested whether my content would be successful even without engaging with other content or users. I was presented with the truth that my content will be successful off of the strength of what it provides my viewers. Just as Hari discovered his Twitter was fine after returning from his stay in Provincetown.

I will continue to connect with the version of me from my memory. Whether I stare out a window and make a new story or I create a new luxurious body wash or I take a hike in Sleeping Giant. Whenever I am attempting to manage my work stress, I will choose to activate my flow state so that I can recharge and add fulfillment to my life. 

Every Monday morning I pick up my battle axe and swing that thing through my week. Nothing survives coming into the trajectory of my axe whether it be insane work demands, social obligations, physical training or chores. I collapse into my bed at the end of each work day just thankful that I made it, only for my alarm to go off and I rinse and repeat. By the time I get to Friday evening my brain is a clump of grey pulp that I’m coaxing with whatever reward I assigned to myself at the beginning of the week.

This Friday evening, I closed the door to my float tank and my smile kissed my ears. I was embarking on a mental voyage with the help of Ripple Float and Wellness. All my stresses that I fireman carry throughout the week were denied access into this space. What welcomed me were soothing purple lights and an epsom salt solution that I would float in for ninety minutes. My child like curiosity was engaged as I stepped further into the solution and positioned my head cradle for myself. 

The instrumental for Dark Side Of The Moon gently began as I tilted back to float. For the first ten minutes my body fought to adjust. A relaxing environment with limited stimuli felt foreign and my mind’s body guard struggled to communicate whether there was a threat present. After some more time passed I felt my mind’s spotlight shut off and for the first time in my week I took a breath that replenished my mind. My mind’s bodyguard gave the clear and approached with the delivery of an upgraded mental CPU. My next visitor were the lyrics to Breathe which bestowed upon me the gift of kismet:

“Breathe, breathe in the air
Don’t be afraid to care” –Pink Floyd

Yes, I am alive. I must slow down and take in this moment in its entirety. Marshall McLuhan’s belief that technology has the power to numb human awareness sank in. Constantly being bombarded by technology during my work shift leaves my mind in a shut off position once I leave my work space for the day. For the first time I felt the effects of choosing to enter into a flow state after work versus choosing the screen of my phone or television to ,”relax”. That is what a lot of workers are convinced we have earned after long days of work. We have been exposed to the thought that after being numbed for an entire work day we must continue to numb ourselves to cope with its demands and our sacrifices made. 

In wandered the question whether the state I existed in the float tank was the closest I’ve been to when I floated in my mother’s womb. What a peaceful time my mind thought. I had not been exposed to the world and its expectations. All I needed was substance and to exist. I giggled at this thought and decided to shut off my purple lights and the soundtrack in my tank. If I were to go on a journey uninterrupted by my stresses and anxieties, I might as well shut off all stimuli and see what awaits me. 

My next visitors were my heartbeat and my breath. Though we are alive, these are sounds we do not hear often. My doctors hear my heartbeat and lungs to make sure my body is healthy. My significant other when he lays his head on my chest hears my heartbeat and breath. But when I thought about when have I heard my heartbeat last, it was after running a three hundred meter sprint. What a delight to hear it now without it having to be related to being under duress. How often do we get to hear our heartbeat and breaths without it being health or stress related? Do we know the natural sounds our bodies make when they are in relaxed states as much as we know them when we are maxed out? 

Ninety minutes might have sounded extreme earlier when I mentioned the duration of this experience. But once you are submerged in your tank and you have surrendered to it, ninety minutes is the perfect amount of time to allow your mind to wander and mull around the bits of life we are too numb to have the bandwidth to entertain.  

Engaging in mental time travel frees us from the pressures of thinking narrowly about what’s right in front of us. But usually what is in front of us? What is the object we see in our hands as we shuffle out our homes, down hallways, crossing streets or laying down? What is the object that we see in someone’s hand as we try to connect in conversation? It’s an interesting thought that we place the majority of what stresses us out right in front of our faces willingly. This choice doesn’t seem meniacal until the realization of the consequences of it sets in.

According to Zubari’s article regarding smartphone addiction, depression and anxiety were the most common mental health conditions reported. In our vegetative states we participate in doom scrolling not recognizing that besides abusing our phones to further numb ourselves, we also use them to address being in the state of boredom.

Holcombe’s article regarding bordeom scrolling introduced us to Dr. Pamela Rutledge’s take on boredom. You should take boredom as a signal to swap out what you are doing for a positive activity that induces your flow state. I challenge you, the next time your phone is in your hand out of pure boredom catch yourself and then pivot to an activity that will activate your flow state. Take note on how engaging in your flow state versus staying in a boredom inflicted doom scroll benefited you.

Remember friends, you will be able to wield the power to free your mind from the electronic snares set in place. You are in control, only if you decide to be an active participant and guardian of your mind! 

Godspeed fellow explorer!