Nothing drives away the Time Sickness that causes panic better than a Calendar. The best kind is big enough to show everything you hope to do for the next few years all at once. And if it’s hung on the wall as a constant reminder, you might find your panic going away.

You can make it yourself right now. Just find a large sheet of paper (or tape some ordinary-sized blank sheets together) and with a colored marking pen, divide it into six large squares, one for each of the next 6 years. Why six? Because it’s good to know you have 6 whole years to play with. Anything less could worry you by making you feel hurried. Anything greater would be hard to understand. Six years seems to be just right for Scanners.

Mark the year over each square, starting with this year. Nearby, keep a cup full of wide, brightly colored ink markers. When you get a good idea, you’ll need to have these markers at hand.

Now, stand in front of that Calendar and think of every project you really long to do (not every one you can think of!). Figure out which ones you might be able to do soon and which ones can wait. Assign a different color to each activity and draw a band of that color on the Calendar in the time you hope to do it. A bright red line for next fall might represent your trip to Rome. A blue one could represent the art class you want to take.

This is a first run only and not written in stone; you’re sure to change it frequently. But you’ve got to start with something real, and a calendar is the simplest—and strongest—reminder that you will not be cheated out of doing everything you love.

Post that Calendar on your wall where you’ll see it many times a day. That’s all you have to do. And notice the surprising calm you feel when everything you love is scheduled and will wait for you.

Did you suddenly feel as if your surroundings changed? Instead of floating in space, you just planted your feet on a road with a direction, and all because of a hand-drawn Calendar.

When it comes to demolishing Scanner panic, no piece of equipment is more powerful than a Calendar on the wall that allows you to see, at a glance, the next few years.

…

To get anything done, you need structure. That means schedules, timetables, and accountability. Without structure, we all become disoriented; we don’t know where we are. If you learn to set priorities and line up your projects in some kind of order, if you develop a sense of beginnings and endings, and if you keep a big, beautiful Calendar on your wall, your confusion will disappear, and taking the first step will become easy.

You can do one thing now and another later, or you can line them up and do a small part of all of them today. It’s simply a matter of taking your ideas out of the stratosphere and placing them in your daily life right next to your other activities, like breakfast, picking up the mail, walking the dog.

…

Are some of those dead ends starting to open up? Is the panic starting to melt away? I hope so. Because when it goes, you’re going to release a lot of wonderful energy into that creative mind of yours, and with structure, you’ll be able to use it to do one after another of the projects that fascinate you.

You must do this exercise on a large sheet of paper divided into six large squares. Tape smaller sheets together if you don’t have anything large enough. Add a band of color for each project you long to do. Fit them all into the next six years.

We would love to know what your projects are, if you care to share them, but what’s even more important is whether you found room for all the projects you actually long to do and how it felt to put them on this wall Calendar. In a new comment, tell us. Then read the rest of the comments and see if you would like to reply to any of them.

Please be sure to subscribe to future comments on this exercise or to check back here on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning for new ones. If there are a lot of comments by then, look for an Older Comments link to see any that do not fit on this page.

Use the Next link (up above the title) to continue on to Exercise 3: The Sticky Note Solution after you are done with your comments.

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When you hear the clock ticking but you just can’t get into action, what’s the reason?

1. You fear critics. You feel watched, so you’re trying to be perfect. Whatever you do never seems good enough, so you drop it and try something else, but you feel like you’re wasting precious time.
2. You’ve created a "See, it’s impossible!" list. Your list of what you want to do has everything on it but "eat breakfast" and "scratch my head." It covers many pages and proves that you’ll never get to do what you really want.
3. You’ve inadvertently made the project too big. You’ve assumed you’ll need a business plan and two Ph.D.’s, to say nothing of a huge loan from the bank and 36 hours a day to do all the marketing, selling, bookkeeping, production, publishing, and wall-painting that will be necessary—all of which you’ll have to do on your own.
4. You don’t feel entitled to just do whatever you want. You think you don’t have the right to do what makes you happy. You should be thinking of other people, not just yourself.
5. You think you’re the problem. You don’t have what it takes or you’re not really trying. Or something.
6. You’re pulled in too many directions. It’s impossible to decide which one to take. You’re desperately searching for a sign that will at least tell you which one to start with.

If you’re nodding your head as you read that list, you’ve been feeding your sense of panic like dry timber feeds a fire. Let’s see if we can get rid of those obstacles one by one and get you into action.

If you’re anything like me (Tammy), you read that list and said, "Oh, yeah!" a few times. And then you kept reading, because Barbara did not make this an exercise. So I am making it an exercise. I am asking you to give this chapter the "slow reading" Barbara called for. I want you to take a serious look at this list of top obstacles, because they are not obstacles to doing everything you love—they are obstacles to getting started on doing everything you love.

Which one (or two or more) of these is in your way? What is the remedy with the matching number in Refuse to Choose? And what are you going to do about it? Put your answers in your Daybook. Share them here, in a new comment, if you feel comfortable doing so. But whether or not you share them, tell us the effect on you of identifying and actually writing down what you will do about your greatest obstacle(s).

Then read the rest of the comments and see if you would like to reply to any of them, whether to learn something more or to help a fellow Scanner on his or her journey.

Please be sure to subscribe to future comments on this exercise or to check back here on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning for new ones. If there are a lot of comments by then, look for an Older Comments link to see any that do not fit on this page.

Use the Next link (up above the title) to continue on to Exercise 2: The Wall Calendar Poster after you are done with your comments.

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Are you keeping up with the readings and exercises? Don’t let yourself fall behind. This is a very important book, and the exercises could change your life.

This week, in Refuse to Choose! we will read Chapter Three: Scanner Panic. It’s just 11 pages, with three exercises. After we finish them, we will reflect on what we’ve learned about time from this chapter.

Chapter 3, Exercise 1: Your Top Obstacle

Chapter 3, Exercise 2: The Wall Calendar Poster

Chapter 3, Exercise 3: The Sticky Note Solution

What I Learned from Chapter 3, Scanner Panic

Problems

Need help with anything about the book club? Send an email to webmaster@barbarasclub.com.

Use the Next link (up above the title) to continue on to Exercise 1: Your Top Obstacle, or use the links above.

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