Tag: productivity
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Mid-Day Habits
BY: Alan / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Daily Routine
Getting Lost in your own Life
Here’s the problem with modern life in society. (Okay, there are lots of ‘problems’ that keep life your from being what you envision it to be, but let’s just focus one one for now, ok?) The ‘Problem’ I am addressing is that you set out to make your day meaningful to you and somehow you keep getting ‘distracted’ by factors seemingly out of control, that you can’t manage to avoid, that take you off-course from living your life the way it ‘Should Be’.
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Do any of these sound familiar?:
• Projects take ‘WAY’-longer than the time you budgeted them for, throwing off the schedule for the rest of the day.
• Interruptions: – Phone calls, Email, Texts, Co-workers, Children – seem to demand your attention NOW and take you from your objectives.
• Procrastination: The fact that deep down you really don’t want to do it in the first place leads you to fill your time with other ‘fluff’ that makes you feel busy but shirks your responsibilities. Eventually, you wind up feeling guilty, overwhelmed, stressed, and unproductive.
• Distractibility: Just hopping on your phone to send a 2 minute email turns into 20 minutes of reading Facebook posts or playing that stupid game that keeps sucking your in for another round. The more stress you are under, the more easily you find yourself pulled away from the activities that would actually help resolve the stress.
• Lack of Focus: The day never really had enough of a backbone to withstand the withstand the ‘winds’ and ‘currents’ that came along and blew you off-course from the destination you were trying to sail to. You feel instant resentment to people who spout those cliches about “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail,” because no one ever taught you how to plan, or you never nurtured the discipline to learn how to steer your ship back on course.
3 Approaches that Don’t Work
Our “Surface level” reaction to the winds that blow us off course typically lie within the nuances of our personalities. The problem here is that our Knee-jerk reactions to frustrations either fail to sustainably correct the problem or cause us additional problems in other areas of life. See if your personality falls into any of the following 3 categories:
The Director
The frustration of not being able to get through the key tasks and to-dos of the day inspires a beast of solitary focus. A ‘Director’ is capable of putting the blinders on and getting hyper-focussed on his/her agenda. People who try to bring their questions or needs to this person might get snapped at, given ‘the look’, or all out ignored. They actually wind up getting things done, but leave a wake of hurt feelings and damaged relationships in their path. Others grow to see them as being selfish, egotistical, or insensitive and uncaring.
The Nomad
In ancient days, you had people who lived in cities, people who farmed the land, and the wanderers who pitched their tents wherever their flocks were grazing. They didn’t really want to be tied down to a house and all the boredom of being stuck in the same location with the same routine every day. Nomads don’t like schedules, plans, mission statements, or anything that gives an indication that there is a specific route that should be followed to get to the destination. Having a destination in the first place seems to suck all of the excitement and adventure out of life. For as much as the Director gets jazzed by a planning session, the Nomad feels all of the life-blood drained from their bodies. The spontaneity and energy of the Nomad draws people in, but after a season of adventure, others begin to get frustrated with the lack of progress and direction, and feel pulled off-course by these people.
The Free-Spirit
This person will not always identify with the term. They see themselves as being ‘adaptable’ and ‘flexible’ and able to adjust to the needs and demands of the moment. Free spirits don’t mind sitting down to lay out the perfect day, but they hate the rigidity of having the iron-clad box of a schedule descend around them every day. If another idea or opportunity comes along, it is no problem to scrap the original plan and go with the flow of the moment. The course change ‘feels’ important and significant in the moment, so it appears to be the best choice to head off in a different direction. People-pleasers are particularly susceptible to this and others love that the free-spirits can be so easily diverted to attend to their tasks and concerns. But for as much as the Directors are perceived as ‘Self-centered’, the ‘Other-centeredness’ of the Free Spirit leaves them eventually feeling drained by always getting pulled off of their plan for less important trivial concerns and the needs of others. Life begins to feel hollow and resentments towards others build, even those they love.
Getting back On Course
How then to we avoid the trappings of our personality weaknesses and adjust course when the winds and currents of the day try to blow us off course from our original heading?
Airplane pilots have a wonderful little tool at their disposal for flying to their destination. Once the destination coordinates have been programmed in, and a good cruising altitude has been obtained, they flip on the auto-pilot switch. This system automatically checks at regular intervals the current location, comparing it with the planned route. If the plane has gotten blown off course by any cross winds, it makes regular minor adjustments to maintain course and altitude to automatically guide the plane towards it’s destination. What is more, is that the pilot is freed up to relax a little, engage in conversation, attend to other responsibilities, and even take a stretch break, whilst the plane stays on course.
Finding Your Auto-Pilot
The flight is your day. The destination are your goals for the day. The cross-winds are the distractions, needs of others, and unexpected situations you have to deal with. Your altitude is the energy you have to stay up in the air. Flying without auto-pilot either means you have to pay meticulous constant attention at every moment of the day, leading to mental fatigue and exhaustion, running out of fuel, or you get blown off course and have to land at a much different destination than you planned.
An ‘Auto-Pilot’ system for your day is having a mechanism that will occasionally check your current coordinates with your plan at regular intervals throughout the day, and make the appropriate course corrections.
Personally, I have divided my typical day into 9 different “chunks” or sections of the day. Others may have only 3 (Morning, Afternoon, and Evening), or as many as 16-32 (taking a break every hour or half-hour). You will need to program your auto-pilot for whatever fits your lifestyle, paying attention to how quickly you can get blown off course.
The key component, no matter how many ‘chunks’ you wind up with, is what to do to check course and adjust your heading. First of all, in order to compare your location with your planned course you need to have a route programmed in in the first place. See the article on Morning Routines for guidance on putting a plan in place before take-off.
Get Perspective
Next, you need to draw yourself out of whatever you happen to be doing at your pre-determined intervals and review your original plan. This is like leaving the cock-pit mentally and seeing yourself from the radar screen; the big picture. This leaves you with the option of getting back on course if you have strayed, or making a conscious decision to alter the plan and head in a new direction. The Director will usually choose the former, and the Free Spirit will be more inclined to choose the latter, but at least you have moved to making it a conscious decision that leaves you in control.
Maintaining Altitude
Use these breaks to stretch the body, take a few deep breaths, reconnect with your higher purposes in life, change your surroundings, get your blood pumping a little, drink some water. A sedentary mind or body needs a little shock to the system at regular intervals and a non-stop pace of busy-ness needs an occasional down-time. This allows you to refuel your energy reserves mid-flight and keep the plane in the air. Shake off the stress of what has already been accomplished, dump any guilt, regret or pressure from what has already transpired, and hit the reset button to be prepared for what still lies ahead.
The Emotional Equation
From time to time, you need to pull out the travel brochure for your destination and remember, emotionally, why you decided to fly there in the first place. Our actions and motivation are tied to our feelings. We don’t usually wind up doing what we ‘think’ we should do, we do what we ‘feel’ we should do. The piece that connects the flight stick with the rudder is your internal motivation, and that motivation is powered by your emotions more than anything else. Distractions pull you off course because in the moment they ‘feel’ more interesting than your destination. It is an emotional trap. Trying to adjust course by sheer will will deplete your will power reserves, so you need to find your emotional drive to reconnect with your passion for the destination you chose in the first place.
Landing the Plane
There is deep sense of satisfaction of completing the day more or less according to the plan you set out, realizing that you successfully fought the winds and distractions and landed at the airport from the brochure. It brings a refreshing feeling of success and self-mastery to the end of each day. Life becomes more fulfilling and meaningful.
The video on this page lays out some specifics to identifying and utilizing the ‘chunks’ of your day, and the process of how to install a functioning auto-pilot into your life. Then, download the FREE Guide to Daily Routines to get a specific road map to not only my 9 ‘chunks’ of the day, but also a guide to laying out your day with the ‘chunks’ that make sense to you. The guide also includes instructions for designing a Morning Routine to get your day off to the optimal start, and an Evening Routine plan to end your day with the best possible set up for deep rest and an energized tomorrow.
Our lives are filled with distractions and cross-winds, but you have the ability to steer your life towards the destinations that you have chosen. Live each day Intentionally! Make the fullest use of the gift this day can be for you!
FREE Download: DAILY ROUTINES – Habits to Take Back Control of Your Life!
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Morning Routine
BY: Alan / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Daily Routine
How to Start Your Day
We all have them! If you are among the people who wake up after sleeping (a.k.a. still among the living), you have a ‘Morning Routine’. The big question is: Does the way you start your day prepare you to live the most productive and fulfilling day possible?
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The more you choose to ‘float’ through life and take it all as it comes, the more your environment and those around you will dictate for you the quality and focus of your life. It leaves a lot up to hance. Conversely, the more you intentionally set your sites on who you want to be, and what you want to do, the more your life gets molded into one that can be truly satisfying for you. The way you set your course for the day first thing in the morning is perhaps the most important component in that equation.
I don’t know a whole lot about horse racing, but i do know you want your horse to make it out of the gates clean at the start of the race. If there is trouble at the start, it becomes real challenging to catchup with the pack and finish the race strong. Every morning the wide open track of a new day lays before you, and how you spring out from the gates can make all the difference.
Not as Easy as it Sounds
Personally, I have struggled on many fronts to make my life the adventure it should be. Among those, I am NOT a morning person! What seems to make sense to me is sleeping in as long as possible, and in the shortest amount of time I can manage, roll out of bed, shower, dress, slam breakfast, and get to wherever I am supposed to be. The problem is: What seems to make the most sense to the lazy part of me, is in direct opposition to the part of me that wants to live each day to the fullest.
Filled with Opportunity
The fact that life comes pre-installed with a daily wake/sleep schedule gives us all the opportunity to wipe the slate clean every morning and get a fresh start on all that matters most to you. Whether this ‘opportunity’ is for others to squeeze out of you everything they can get, or whether it is your opportunity to advance your goals, is entirely up to you… if you head into the day with a plan. What is worse is when the day has no plan and you wind up feeling at it’s end like it was wasted because you never quite got a grip on the wheel and figured out where to go. Therefore, let’s lay out the steps to take to make each day count:
- Prime the pump
- Start your engine
- Head off in the right direction
“Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!”
Coming out of the gates strong is hard when the engine isn’t firing. While some rely on an invigorating shower or 12 oz. of a highly caffeinated beverage to get their eyes open and pointing in the same direction, relying on something outside of yourself for that jump-start keeps you dependent on things you can’t always control. It is important to learn how to tap into your own energy source without relying on anything after the alarm clock.
The Big 3
Cars have an engine to provide the thrust, but they also have cooling systems, electrical systems, suspension, and climate control. If any of those is out of whack you are in for a rough ride. To get your day off to a proper start, we need to focus on your main systems.
The Physical – You need to get your metabolism up and running, stretch the fatigue out of your muscles, and get your heart pumping. You need to have some water in the tank, and put enough oxygen in your system to feel alive.
The Emotional – You will have emotions in the morning, but the good news is that you get to pick which ones you take with you! Once you learn how to be intentional about setting your emotional temperature gauge it becomes as easy as picking out which of your clothes you want to wear for the day.
The Spiritual – Whether you are in touch with this ‘system’ or not, we all need a compass, a belief-set that guides us and gives us a reason to keep going. At some level, when you start driving down the road, you have to have some idea of where you are going to wind up, even if you don’t know exactly how you are going to get there. If some component of your day can be connected with taking your life to where you want it to go, your day will take on meaning and value to you and feel like it was worth living. To do that, you need to have a map, and look at it.
The Road Map
Once the engines are running, you need to figure out where the finish line is and the route you are going to take to get there. Daily planning should be so much more than just laying out your to-do list and cramming it all into a daily calendar. What are the priorities that matter the most to you? How do you fit that in while taking care of your responsibilities to others? What impact do you want to have on those you encounter today? What messages do you want others to get from you? What truths about yourself do you need to hold onto regardless of what messages may come your way from others?
What works for You?
In the video on this page, I lay out a plan and some specifics that I have developed that works for me to get my motor running. When I start the day this way, it takes on a different quality, a different energy, and is far more purposeful than the days when I just roll out of bed and ‘wing it.’ And I don’t just mean the work days either. The weekends are precious opportunities, and starting them without getting myself synced up is like throwing the gift of a free day away. This plan energizes body, mind, and soul and leads to putting together a daily plan that lays out prioritizing the things that matter most to me, ensuring that I move my agendas a little further down the road on a daily basis.
Your plan may or may not end up like mine. You might insist on that caffeine fix, and that’s fine, if that’s what you feel you need. But make an effort to design and refine your morning routine. It sets you in the position you need to be in to feel fully alive and intentional with your life.
The FREE Guide
The following link will allow you to download a Free Guide to designing your Daily Routines. This will provide you with my suggestions, specific time recommendations for the full routine, or shorter options for the days you are more pressed for time, and instructions and space to design the routine that works the best for you.
In addition, it contains additional information for planning out your Evening Routine to properly conclude your day and set you up for a solid night’s rest, and a plan for Mid-Day Habits to keep you on track so you don’t get distracted from the plan you set in the morning.
Download your FREE Daily Routines Guide!
Investing in You!
Remember how someone once told you that sending a little chunk of your paycheck off into an investment account would one day pay big rewards? The impulse to ignore that advice and enjoy your money now is the same voice that whispers to hit the snooze button and let the day figure itself out as it comes to you. Do you know people who never saved for retirement? Do you know people who had an ounce of discipline and are set to retire in comfort? ‘Budgeting’ a few minutes every morning pays some huge dividends later in the day if you ‘invest’ it wisely.
You only get one life to live, and this day is a part of it you can never get back. Live each one Intentionally! Make the fullest use of the gift this day can be for you!
FREE Download: DAILY ROUTINES – Habits to Take Back Control of Your Life!
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