The Systems We Keep
SloDo • Mindful Communication
Has it been a crazy week? Feeling a bit overwhelmed and discombobulated?
Here, have a SloDo.1
SloDos are an invitation to mindful communication, an opportunity to open channels of awareness within ourselves, between each other, and with the divine. Grab your favorite note-taking tools, pop in some background music (or not!), and take a few minutes to turn aside from all the busy noise and listen for the clear signal. Here’s this week’s prompt.
Think about the last time someone asked how you stay organized. Maybe it was a casual conversation, someone commenting on your planner, or a colleague asking about your schedule. How did you respond?
This week, attend to how you talk about your systems—both to others and to yourself. Do you find yourself:
Apologizing for your methods or downplaying them?
Making excuses about why your system isn’t “better”?
Overselling their effectiveness when you know they’re barely working?
Comparing your approach to someone else’s and finding yours lacking?
What does your relationship with productivity systems reveal about how you view your own limitations?
Use this worksheet to take notes!
This week, notice moments when you feel the urge to “fix” yourself through your systems versus work with yourself. Pay attention to the stories you tell about your capacity, your energy, your ability to keep up. What would it look like to speak about your systems—and yourself—with the same kindness you’d offer a friend?
Let’s be hopeful, creative, and wise—together.
Shalom,
SLODO noun THING (📢 slow-dough): a reminder to slow down, pay attention, and practice mindful communication.
Being formed into the person we want to become asks that we get to know ourselves, and allow ourselves to be truly known by others. SloDos provide a short break to help you gain some perspective on interactions and conversations from the last few days.
Also: I work from within the Christian tradition, and understand the divine as the trinity of father, son, and spirit. That said, I know we all have different ways of understanding the divine, so if you wish to insert [other] when I use that phrase, please feel free to do so.