Find yourself wanting more time in your life? That seems like a common theme amongst people I know. Ask them why they can't or won't do something and more often than not, the answer is "I don't have enough time."
How often do you find yourself wanting to go do something and saying "it'll just be a minute". You go do it and the next thing you know an hour has passed. If you think that doesn't apply to you, keep track of things and how long you "plan" on doing something and then how long it actually takes.
This is one reason I've cut down on Facebook and am trying hard to cut down on my internet searches...even when I'm doing something related to a project. For example, I'll search for a quote about this or that. When the search engine comes up with its answers, there are many, many, many options and that ornery little voice inside of me says "yeah, this is a great quote BUT let's look at the next page - there might be an even better quote. Then at that page the same script is repeated. Eventually I've spent 15-30 minutes searching when i actually found what I'm going to use on the first try. Same with looking for "how to stuff"..."just maybe the next video will be more specific" and with videos it's worse because often you have to watch the whole thing to find out it didn't have what you needed.
When I would say "i'll just check Facebook, it will only take a minute" that was code to my brain for "yippee, a break. now i don't have to work hard on something else and I just know I can trap Terrie into scrolling just a 'little' bit more". One thing leads to another. And you know what? the "attention industry", as its called, does that on purpose.
If you spend 25 minutes a day doing something that is not helping you reach your goals, you will have essentially lost 152 hours in a year. What could you have gotten accomplished in those 152 hours? And I bet that most of us spend much more than 25 minutes doing Facebook, Instagram or engaging in some other mind and time trap.
Just think about this and its impact on your life. If you're happy with it and feel as if you have plenty of time, then that's great. If you're always hoping for more time, this might be one place to start. Do you know how many times a day you check your phone for something? Not only does that take time but it takes your attention away from other things and it takes you longer to get back on track.
The internet and technology are amazing and have brought us more education than we can imagine. But what else has it brought us? Can we balance it all and continue to extract the good stuff while keeping control of our lives?
Am I being prissy with this? Maybe but it's because I've actually started to pay attention to how my phone and the internet affect my quality of life. And based on the results of my experiments, i've made some changes. it's brought me greater happiness. My goal in these posts is to share what I learn with you. You can delete them, pay attention as nice to know or see if they apply to you. They may not apply and I would be very happy if they didn't. I just know i feel so much better without that clutter in my mind. Maybe it's because I'm old and there's more clutter in there...but i don't think so
Well, love shouldn't be limited to just one month but it's a good way to structure your month - learning to love yourself so that you can give so much more to others.
Following yesterday's post which was about reviewing the month that just ended, now we have to address the upcoming month if we want to see progress toward our goal. Remember that breaking things down into little chunks helps maintain your motivation.
I will again use my own process to show you how easy it is. It may be easy but it's also essential to keep yourself on track. If you have your own method, that's great and you could even share but my point is simply that the year (or years) is a chain link fence and in order to keep the links in line we have to address each section. No matter how good your memory is, you won't be able to remember in September what you said you were going to do or even what you did in February. Write it down. It took me 5 minutes this morning. Those 5 minutes have given me laser focus to guide my actions and decisions this month.
Here are the questions I ask: - How can I make the most of this month? - What's my goal(s) for this month? - What do I need to continue to have a better chance of reaching my goal? - What do I need to work on to ensure I reach this month's goal?
How can I make the most of this month? - Continue my morning routine - Refine my digital shutdown and evening routine - Begin to seriously train for Vol State - Optimize - Edit on a daily basis - write
What is my goal for the month? - complete this edit and then revise the structure of my book - Firm up and start my Vol State training plan
What do I need to continue doing to reach my goal? - Continue daily editing blocks of at least 2 hours - Continue my daily routine (a.m. and p.m. routines with digital shutdown)
What do I need to work on or refine in order to reach this month's goal? - Refining my evening routine - Better sleep - Improved nutrition - Begin weight program
Why don't you try this if you don't have another system? What do you have to lose? You certainly have a lot to gain and I think you'll be surprised.
Today's the last day of the first month of this year.
Use today to review this past month. Or, if you're happy just going along and letting things happen to you, then don't. But if you have set some goals for the year, this is the best way to make sure you're on the right course. It's not like autopilot yet you know. You have to install the programs in you before you can just cruise along. I think one of the biggest mistakes we make is to not look back.
This process is easy and only takes a few minutes and I will be vulnerable and share some of what I wrote down to show you how easy it is.
Start with what your intent (or goal) for the month was. If you're sitting there saying "but my goal was for the year, i didn't have a specific goal for January" then you can help yourself by breaking that big goal into chunks. That's one way that massive goals become do-able and how we can stay motivated. You've heard me talk about how thinking about 314 MORE miles on day 1 would have been intolerable but thinking about 16 miles in the next 12 hours was very doable and not frightening. Then you just rinse and repeat. Let's say you want to take off 50 pounds by the end of the year. That is ominous because your mind is going from "let's have desert" to "i'll never be able to have desert again" to "this is too hard, i can't lose 50 pounds". But what if you thought "I can lose 4 pounds this month"? Doesn't that sound more palatable? To me it does. Or maybe you just have a 1 or 3 month goal. Still break it down into the smallest possible pieces. That will exponentially improve your chances of success.
So you have your goal for the month. Mine was to continue my growth through my daily routine while working on editing my book 2 hours a day.
Then move to something along the lines of "what went well this month" - here is what i wrote: 1) I finished Across the Years and turned a somewhat disappointing experience into the positives 2) Started editing my book and have continued to do 2 hours a day every day PLUS i'm also enjoying the process and have learned to look at things differently and this will help with my next book 3) Started slowly learning spanish via Babbel practicing every day 4) Began consistently getting up at 0400 and getting at least 8 hours of sleep 5) Discovered and started Optimize coaching 6) Got my Day Runner organized finally so that I can keep track of what i need to 7) Began the chronic pain course and have practiced 30 minutes every day and am seeing results 8) i CALLED the RV company for 3 Days at the Fair using one of the "tools" I've learned. It was so empowering 9) I felt happy most of the time this month and that's a first 10) prioritized my time by asking "does this bring me towards or away from my goal" 11) I've come up with ideas for my future books and posts
See, just 11 things that tell me what happened this month and what propelled me toward my goal. and it didn't take me long to jot them down
Next I listed what didn't go well and I am happy to report that I don't have many things on this list this month. 1) I'm not getting the editing done as fast as I thought and would like. That's ok because I'm getting so much more out of than when i thought it would just be a tedious process. I am enjoying it and restructuring the book as I go. Plus I'm getting more ideas 2) I had a bit of trouble adjusting to the "cost" of prioritizing my time but quickly rebounded
Don't get into the future until tomorrow. Review January today
