The holiday season is upon us. For most people, it hits like a blizzard tornado, and they find themselves spit out in January dazed, exhausted and bruised. And I understand, because I was like that for many years. Now, with my focus on deliberate choices, I am looking at a different type of December. I will state outright here that…
-
-
Many years ago I saw the effect of simplifying spaces in my home. By taking away the immediate choices my daughter had for activities, she was able to settle quicker and play longer.I've used this principle in other areas of my life, always with the same result: a boost in productivity and creativity. Today we look at this and how…
-
It is really easy to get bogged down in the minutiae. We can start thinking of all the steps that need to be done to get a specific result, and lose sight of the end game: the result itself.I find that instead of writing down the next actions, it is better to write down what I am trying to accomplish.
-
I've talked about how you can take a tool that is not quite right and make it work for you. This is good if you cannot use a tool optimally, or don't really know how to use it fully. There are times, though, when you do know how to use a tool, but are forced to use a sub-optimal or…
-
Last month I did a spending freeze. I spent no unnecessary money, and it really opened my eyes. I had gotten in the habit of running to the store with the pretext of buying something necessary, only to come home with much more. When I did the spending freeze, I realized how much extra this was costing me in both…
-
The average American sits for 11 hours a day. That is outside of the time spent in bed sleeping. We are the fattest we have ever been, and our sedentary lifestyle is leading to disease. I've been conscious of these types of numbers for years now, but have been unwilling to do anything about them other than nod and promise…
-
I realized I was having difficulty sticking to my task list...because I had never made a plan. The Planning The Night Before challenge was to get me past that difficulty. The challenge was to make my plan for the next day in my bullet journal the night before. The thought was that even having written list - even if I…
-
I was working with a colleague recently, helping him through a process that was unfamiliar with a tool he had not really used. What we were doing is less important than the conversation. "Paste the item three times." I'll admit it, I was bored He moved his mouse, clicked, went to the menu, clicked a couple of times in the…
-
One of the things that I struggle with as I put together routines to support my life is meaning. It's one thing to take another person's routine and adopt it, but for me, this quickly turns sour if it doesn't matter to my life. I'm looking at this more closely as I rebuild routines. A few months ago I did…
-
For my monthly patron Q&A I was asked the question: "Do you put tasks on your calendar?" It's such a big question that I wanted to unpack that in a single episode, but I think it's also very important for people to hear.
