Have Your Best Day in 4 Steps

By on April 17, 2012 in Health, Personal Growth

Step back for a moment from those ever-present goals, resolutions, and glorious new habits we’re bent on creating. Knowing where you want to go and what you want to do is only half the battle. Knowing how you will best use each day, will shape the rest of your life.

Try asking yourself these questions at the start of each day:

 

What thought will I begin the day with?

What happens in the first 10 minutes of our day, to great extent determines how the rest will follow. We have two choices; we can either take a few brief moments before we rise, to choose the thought or intention, which will guide our day. Or, we can jump out of bed and hit the ground running, rushing blindly through the rest of our day.

Which sounds nicer?

If your first thought upon waking is, “O Lord, not another day!” Or, “I hate my job, I hate my body, life sucks. Here we go again…” Try a new one. How would you like your day to be? What would you like to do today? Not tasks, think bigger picture.

“Today I will focus on actions, which align with my business goals.”

“I am shaping the minds of tomorrow.”

“Today, I will lead with kindness.”

“I am making healthy choices that will shape the quality of my future life.”

Whatever your thought is, make it a good one. Make it a positive one. Make it a truthful one.

 

What do I want to do today, that will improve my life, or the lives of others?

Is it a phone call? Is it an overdue task, which has been hanging over your head? Is it a bold action that you have been putting off, hoping that the courage will come?

Maybe it’s as simple as do the laundry or get groceries. Maybe it’s finish that proposal or that project. Maybe it’s work on writing that chapter. Maybe it’s ask for help. Maybe it’s look for new job or revise your resume. Maybe it’s pay the bills or balance your checkbook. Maybe it’s even volunteer to help someone else.

Sift through your list of intended goals, behavior changes, or items to achieve or complete. See if there is anything that you can do to make progress towards any of those objectives.

Highlight this action, and put it at the top of your list.


What qualities or behaviors do I need to call on today?

Even when we know what we want to do, and how we want to be, often our attitudes and behaviors undermine us. Look at how you’d like your day to be. What qualities do you need to demonstrate to make that day a reality?

  • Courage – I need to be brave and bold in my actions. My day will not be driven or derailed by my fears.
  • Patience – I need to be patient with others and myself. Things do not always happen on my timetable and people do not always move at my pace. That does not mean that the results I want will not come.
  • Positivity – I need to stay positive, and optimistic whenever possible. Criticism and complaining will get me nowhere. They only serve to keep me stuck in my own negativity and will not help me achieve my goals in any way.
  • Perseverance – I need to stay on course, and keep going, even when I no longer want to. When work or life become tedious, boring, or difficult, I need to keep pushing myself to finish what I have started.

The behaviors are qualities that you need to call on will be different from mine, and they will very likely change from day to day, according to where you are in your life and what you want to get done. The important thing is knowing which ones will best serve you in this day.

How will I determine if my day has been successful?

It’s extremely important to define what would make today successful or “good enough.” Be reasonable and realistic in your expectations. Most days, “good enough,” will be… well… good enough.

Consider both measurable and qualitative results. Clean the house, finish the project that’s due today, or make 20 sales calls, are clearly measurable. While laugh with my children, enjoy the company of others, or do the highest quality work possible are more qualitative, and therefore subjective.

The good news is, you are the only one who gets to decide.

 

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Round-up: Great Reminder Apps for iPhone

By on April 12, 2012 in Inspiration, Life Balance, Productivity, Time

Despite text messages, email and a constant stream of notifications, it’s still easy to forget things. We can all use a little help staying on track and bringing a little life back into our days. Any app that can help me do that is a wonderful thing.

I recently wrote a review for Lifehack.org on three reminder apps that I have personally found very helpful on my quest for better life management. Read the entire post…

Alarmed  - An all-in-one time app for iPhone/iPad that is packed with useful features; a pop-up reminder, timers, wakeup alarms and sleep timers available in the iTunes store.

TellMeLater – Simple and easy to use, it’s a great little app for all those times you want to remember something later. $.99 in the iTunes store.

Timeless Reminders – Timeless Reminders allows you capture your most inspiring photos, videos, music, audio, and text to create personally meaningful reminders that inspire you to take healthy and productive action in your life. It’s free in the iTunes store.

One is simple, one is multi-faceted, and the other is highly motivational. The most important thing is to choose which approach best works for you, so you will actually use it.

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5 Minutes in the Morning Will Make a World of Difference in Your Day

By on April 10, 2012 in Health, Productivity

plan

A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there. - H. Stanley Judd

Do you have a plan for how you spend your time each week? Each day? Whether you are a working in the corner office, a tiny cubicle, from your home or on the road, you need to plan how you will spend your time. If you don’t, there’s a good chance you will look back at the end of the day and ask yourself where all the time went and why don’t you have more to show for your efforts. 

I know you’re anxious to get down to the nitty-gritty task of getting more accomplished in a hurry, but quick fixes just don’t work. You have to do the prep work and set up the foundation first, and then take small steps each day. It’s very similar to the process of losing weight. If you go on a crash diet, the weight will eventually all come back. If instead you embark on a process of changing your eating and health habits, you can have significant, sustainable success.

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.  – Jim Rohn

So, how do you decide what to do each day and when to do it? Well, that depends in part on your personality and temperament. You can make this process as simple as 5 minutes each morning to quickly run through it or take 20 minutes to break everything down into GTD categories, context filters, and calendar slots. However, one thing is absolute; you must have a list to work from! No matter which approach you prefer, the linchpin of your system is your task list.

I don’t know anyone, and I truly mean anyone, who is highly productive, effective, and successful without some sort of ongoing list. You might prefer to keep it on paper, your computer or your smartphone – I discourage the use of sticky notes though, they’re too likely to get lost into that void of the “unknown tasks that fall through the cracks.”

Simple Planning

1. Start with your brain dump; quickly brainstorm any tasks you need to add to the list. If it’s a simple task add it to your master task list, if it’s a project, break it up into individual tasks.

2. Add any due dates or time constraints.

3. Prioritize those tasks that are due today or are big picture (cash flow, health, meaningful relationships) as “important.” You can rearrange tasks in order of importance if you choose – I just place a star next to the important ones, so I don’t have to keep moving the items on the list.

4. Choose 5-10 tasks to do today; depending on how full your schedule is and how much time you have available. Don’t overload your list. That’s just setting yourself up for failure and then you’ll beat yourself up, because you failed.

5. Do your top priority task first. Get it out of the way. Alternatively, you may choose instead, to do the task you’re dreading most. That will help eliminate the tendency to procrastinate and make you feel a whole lot better about crossing that dreaded task off the list.

Bonus – Schedule a period of at least 30-60 minutes of uninterrupted work or chore time. If you can do this first thing great, if it’s home chores, block out chunk of time in the evening or on the weekend to tackle them. Resist the temptation to be distracted and wander off to do something else. Make yourself focus.

 

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Why You Need to Go with the Flow

By on April 4, 2012 in Energy, Productivity, Stress, Time

The entire course of our life follows a cyclical pattern of good and bad, up and down, more then less. Everything flows this way, years, months, weeks, days, hours. High energy, then low energy, creativity, then boredom, tremendous focus, then distractibility.

The key is in understanding how to use these shifts to our advantage. We can channel these fluctuations, if we understand how they affect our moods, actions, and productivity. It can be a valuable tool lower stress and improve the quality of our lives.

How can we do this?

Analyze

When are you the most focused? The most distracted? The most tired? Energized?

How does lunch affect you? Difficulty concentrating or energized?

Are their times when you prefer to be more social? Periods when you want to be left alone?

Are there periods when you can’t seem to sit still?

When do you find it easier work on long projects?

Do you see a pattern starting to emerge?

Utilize

Look at what you do each day…each week…each month.

Shift whichever projects, tasks, or activities you can so they better match your energy?

Propose changes for activities that involve others. Altering the schedule may help them as well.

Schedule detail work or highly creative activities; designing, writing, idea development for times when you are better able to focus?

Do social tasks/activities during times when you feel the most social; meetings, calls, project collaboration.

Save tedious or repetitive tasks, like data entry, billing, reports, filing for when you can be quiet and alone.

Everyone is unique. Don’t conform to other people’s cycles or moods.

Some things are beyond our control. Manage what you can. Deal with the rest. You’ll be surprised at how flexible other people can often be once they understand why you’re making this type of request.

Big Picture

Think about what happens throughout the year. Some months are usually busier, while some are quieter and more flexible.

Consider commitments that you have in the other area of your life. If you have young children, parent who needs care, or a spouse who travels or works a lot, take that into account when taking on a new project, role, or responsibility.

Our persistent tendency to compel our brains and our bodies to conform to a schedule that conflicts with our individual energy patterns adds stress to our already unbalanced lives.

Stop fighting it and go with the flow…at least sometimes.

Your turn…Thoughts?

 

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The Most Important Skill in Life is…

By on April 2, 2012 in Personal Growth, Questions

What do you think is the most important skill to succeed in life?

There may be many different answers. And there should be.

My answer:  Reading.

I am an avid, no, voracious, no, obsessive reader. I always have been. As a child, I always had a book on my nightstand, often volumes far beyond my years. Now, it’s not unusual to have five or six on my nightstand, and probably another 8-10 on various coffee/end tables spread throughout the house.

That’s in addition to the collection on my bookshelves. It’s as if I’m fearful that I might be caught with a few moments to spare and no book to read. Moreover, it’s my normal practice to read two or three of them concurrently.

It’s the truth. I confess I’m an addict. Addicted to reading that is…

In this case, my ability to read well and quickly has served me well. It has allowed me to become knowledgeable and well versed in a broad range of topics. It keeps me interested and curious about the world around me.

Reading has also expanded my vocabulary and improved my communication skills. Being able to read, understand, and internalize information and ideas has helped me to succeed in the world. Perhaps, most importantly, it’s a skill that I can continue to use and improve upon for the rest of my life.

Moreover, I’ll enjoy using it…

Your turn…Thoughts?

 

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