Middlefocus

What a difference a year makes. There you go! It's been nearly a year since the last post and the intervening period has marked the end of the freelance role and launches a new chapter in which I'm constantly thinking of ways to repurpose this blog.  I've been  here before  of course with my old improvingwithage blogspot but this time the intention is to carry on with a new (middle) focus on things that catch the senior eye - old dog, new tricks comes to mind or maybe that old Yiddish expression - Too soon old, too late smart! Retirement has been gentle so far and has offered plenty of scope for reflection. Maybe some of that thinking and new/old insights will find their way into this blog, who knows? The past year has been a time of letting some things go, holding on to others and finding new things to seize upon. A friend once remarked that retirement is so good that he wished he'd done it when he left school!  Don't know about that but I can honestl...

If you are anything like me when you use social media apps like Facebook and Twitter then you know how time somehow slips by without you realising it.  On some social media, I manage different accounts within the same platform so the problem simply gets bigger. Rather than cut out social browsing and interaction completely I decided instead to take a different approach.  I grouped the various apps into a folder on my iPad and iPhone - I'm sure this is possible to do on Android devices as well.  This hides them to an extent which means that I have to go look for the folder among other groups.  I decided also, at least for the time being, to add the clock app in the folder as well.  That means that it is readily available for setting the timer to limit how long I want to spend browsing.  An advantage is that closing the Facebook app for example brings you back to the folder where others such as LinkedIn and Instagram can be readily accessed. Then when ...

You know that moment? You see something and straightaway it reminds you of something else. There I was in a little coffee shop when I spotted a clever and so simple means of showing what the day's food offerings were.  The menu was presented on a large roll of brown wrapping paper attached to one of the walls making it easily visible and yet well out of the way.  All that's needed each time the menu changes is for someone to tear off the previous choices; pull down a clean portion and add the new.    Clever and so simple. And that reminded me of a proponent of Simplicity - Dr Edward de Bono - who in 1998 provided us a book of the same name.  He gave us many other ways to think of course, including his ground-breaking Six Thinking Hats.  In a post some years back on decision-making I mentioned his PMI technique which you might like to come back to here . Why did it remind me of Dr de Bono? I had the great good fortune to be present at one of hi...

A quiet time to doodle with the Apple Pencil and the GoodNotes app brought this result. I'm happy with that; not only with the ease of writing, pen and paper styles but also the export facility. It took only a few moments to paste the finished map into this blog post.

For the past while when reading books I've been making notes and sometimes even marking the pages. The first time I did this apart from texts studied at school was on the advice of an author who said it was his habit and since I was reading his book at the time thought there was a good place to start. Reading apps on my tablet device make mark-up very straightforward and because the highlighting is easy to remove doesn't leave the physical damage that marginal notes and underlines do. From time to time I revisit books and its nice to come across hand written notecards drawing attention to interesting anecdotes or quotes.  That happened earlier today when I came across an interesting observation by acting veteran, June Brown who plays Dot Cotton in the BBC's Eastenders. June recalls in her autobiography, Before the year Dot,  advice given on acting by Sir Laurence Olivier at the New Vic. The advice which she says that she has never forgotten was:  "We must be car...

Ever hurried back to the car park but not fast enough to avoid the charge for an extra hour?  Me too and I've noticed from previous tickets that this has been happening quite often. Just a minute! I thought, time to quicken that pace and get there sixty seconds earlier next time. And if it looks as if the extra hour charge is unavoidable then rather than paying for an empty space I let the car sit on for a while and take time out, parking myself somewhere nice for a tea or coffee and some light reading. Now that's just the ticket.

Upcoming post on my recent experience of being locked out of a house but locked in its backyard..... And some thoughts on why locks only serve to keep honest people out.

I came across this little fold-up advice leaflet and thought that its 5 key points were worth sharing.  Produced by the Public Health Agency, the five steps to wellbeing that it recommends are: 1. Give 2. Be active 3. Take notice 4. Keep learning and 5. Connect. Each of the steps has an associated symbol and explanatory comment. And they make sense. Take 5 minutes and check out an online version of the leaflet and other mental health related material at the links below.  I'm glad I did as there is plenty of stuff to think about both for ones own health and for others. The next step is to build the 5 steps into daily habits so that they become second nature. This is where the discreet portability of the fold-up is useful. Slipped into a purse, wallet or pocket it can prompt us to action each time we notice it. Follow up Read online version of the 5 Steps leaflet here and see other health related advice at www.mindingyourhead.info