Fraying Edges | Depression Help

Review Of Simpleology

When I wrote my post about The Stress Of Making A List, I was bemoaning the fact that I cannot even begin to get my life organised.

JK Swopes from Internet Marketing With Joe recommended I try Simpleology. JK is a fairly new internet marketer, but he is making excellent progress and his system of organising his time does seem to be working well for him. He is dedicated to his path and doing well in achieving his goals.

I, on the other hand, am completely disorganised. I make a living on the internet, but I know I could do much better if I organised my time. I also know that one of the reasons I suffer from depression is that I let things take over. I end up on a roller coaster ride; I go all out for something, eventually suffer immense stress from overwork, and then sink into a wave of depression which can at times be major.

Of course, whether my constant ‘highs and lows’ are the result of being disorganised, or a symptom of Dysthymia, producing this lack of concentration (as some psychiatrists have said…), or Bipolar Disorder (as one psychiatrist said…), I do not know. I do know however, that anything which makes me feel less stressed without resorting to pills is well worth checking out.

So I have been trying out Simpleology.

First of all, I have to say that the free course (simple.ology 101) which I signed up for is aimed mainly at internet marketers, but the philosophy behind simpleology is based on the prospect of defining your goals, focusing on them, and hitting your targets, so it can in some ways be applied to life in general and the later (paid ) courses do go on to work on these wider areas.

I must also say that my ‘progress’ has been slowed from the start by disruptions in my internet connection (grrr! that really stresses me out!), so I have been unable to login to my ‘webcockpit’ at simpleology as much as I should have, or even consider using the interactive tools.

But these are the conclusions about Simpleology I have come to so far:

The Pros Of Simpleology:

• A set plan which is easy to follow (some of which can be done without the internet, thanks goodness!).

• Simpleology follows a common sense approach which I like.

• Straight away, reading the ‘101virtuosity’ pdf helps to remind you why you need to be focused on your targets, how to define that focus, and why it is important to do so.

• The 101 course did make me stop and work out exactly what I want to achieve, why I want to achieve it (life benefits) and how I could go about achieving this. So it did help me organise my thoughts and plan of action.

The Cons Of Simpleology:

• If you are not connected to the internet you cannot follow the plan as it is outlined. Not a problem for most, I’ll agree (and you can still fill in some of the daily checklist and read the pdf files, and you still have your written down goals to work on), but for me it was frustrating and it did cause me to falter in my plans.

• As others have said, Simpleology is very ‘paper heavy’ (although not as much as it was, evidently). For someone who likes to do a lot of their work offline (or who has little choice at times…), then this does not seem a problem. However, the ‘Checklist’ is 45 pages long (quite a lot to print out, together with all the other printable pdfs offered). There are spaces to write in your observations and targets. But in contradiction to this, many of the items on each day’s list can only be checked off by going online to watch the videos and do the quizzes, which seems a little counter-productive…

• Throughout Simpleology 101 you are encouraged to join the (paid for) 102 course and beyond. This is fair enough, Mark Joyner (the guy behind Simpleology) has put a lot of work into this and expects to profit from it, so I have no problem here, but it can be a little distracting at times…

• To engage completely with Simpleology, you need to download a number of tools to keep on your desktop. One of my recent attempts to organise my time was to remove most of the tools from my very cluttered desktop, like the Gmail talk pop up, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, and all the other so-called ‘useful tools’ (Google Desktop junk…) which I found distracting. I only allow myself MSN Messenger now and that’s for messages from my family. So I did not download the tools, helpful as they no doubt could be to those who want reminders not to waste their time.

I will carry on a little longer with the free Simpleology course, but at the moment I have to say it does not answer all my needs, regarding the need to organise my time and the stress levels this causes. I’ll tell you why…

First of all, I was constantly aware that most people, if they had set their minds to it, could come up with the same way of organising their time without the need to join an online course. I’m sure Mark Joyner would argue that the reason we haven’t done this, while he has, is because we haven’t had a clear picture of that same target while he has been focused on it. I guess he would be right, but I feel that, now I have read through 101Virtuosity and reminded myself that I know all this already, I can just as easily sort out a plan of action for myself.

In fact I am dong this right now.

But the major problem I have with this process is that Simpleology doesn’t allow you to consider things which get in the way in everyday life. Yes, it tells you some of the things which do distract you, but it assumes that in knowing about them you can ignore them and focus on your targets. The real world just doesn’t act this way.

• If one of my children is ill, I cannot say “It’s ok love. Have a glass of water and I’ll be back to check your temperature after I’ve finished my work.”

• If my partner is upset about something and he needs to discuss it with me, I cannot say “I understand completely, but we’ll talk about it some more when I’ve finished my daily schedule”.

• And if I’m suddenly hit by a major ‘black day’, I cannot simply ignore it and ‘plough on through the tears’…

Life’s different for each of us, every day, and personally I do not think Simpleology completely acknowledges this fact.

Nevertheless, I will carry on with the Simpleology course for a while at least. I guess Mark Joyner may say that this will not work, because I am not convinced by the system. But it has provoked me into setting down my goals and what they mean to me and my family, and it has made me think more clearly about how to achieve them.

So, I’m not knocking Simpleology. I’m just saying that I prefer to adapt it to fit in with me.

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