It seems that structure has pushed its way into my thought processes recently. I had feeds (blogger speak for input) from several sources including: my personal desire to get more focused, a post on having a strategy, a news item on sleep, my boss, and my own training. Sometimes it takes a lot to get me on track.

Over the last few weeks it seems I have had lots to do but did not feel I was making much progress. One of my bad habits is to be presented with several things that might be done at one time, get stuck on selecting the one to focus on, and end up doing nothing because I am held in some trans-like state of indecision. That is like coming to a fork in the road, not choosing, and wrapping your body around the tree in the middle of the fork in the road. If you are traveling very fast it is really painful.

Taking a more structured stance toward blogging presented itself to me in this way. I “know” that a tried and true way to increase my reader base or “blog presence” is to comment on other blogs. Pro Blogger re-emphasized this pointed in a recent post and noted Caroline’s success with her comments. So I visited Caroline’s site and see that she has an organized strategy (structure) for posting that has worked well. Being a strategist myself, sometimes I wonder how I miss so many strategic opportunities, but that is another subject.

I saw a warning in the news that obesity in children is related to sleepless nights. Staying up late and getting less than 9 hours of sleep are described as a serious problem. Having a structure that supports a regular bedtime is a reliable way to avoid the problem. Any parent of course has learned the value of structure for their kids. As a parent of long standing (adult kids), I seem to forget at times the value of structure for myself.

I was doing a routine case review with my clinical supervisor and she suggested that if I did not create some structure with this particular client he will run right over the top of me. Actually, the way I was taught, counseling fosters a very strong structure. The overall counseling process as I have posted can be described as a sequence of exploration, insight, and action. Said differently, the counseling process has a beginning, middle, and end.

Each session in counseling also has a beginning, middle, and end (more structure). If these are not kept in mind it is possible to get stuck at the beginning and never get out of wandering around looking for a subject. If the middle goes on and on there is lots of talk about one subject but when the client walks out the door it seems that the conversation is just starting rather than reaching a conclusion. If the end segment is not done well the beginning and middle may seem disconnected or even wasted. A good ending wraps up the content of the session, sets the stage for work between sessions, and may spark the beginning of the next session. In a counseling session, structure does matter. That is how I was taught. Sometimes I need to be reminded.

So this morning I was thinking about building a more specific schedule (structure) of activity for the week. I decided to include a fixed block of time for writing each morning. This post is being written in that first block of time. Sans the decision to create structure I might be pacing my living room wondering what to work on next rather than finishing this post.