Time Archives - Page 55 of 65

A Crazy Busy Week

Posted on February 7, 2021

Ever had one of those? I am sure you have. Trying to jam in so many things. Some were booked, some were not. Regardless, a crazy busy week was had.

Many people will start out with a good plan. Well paced workloads will have a certain set of expectations around them. We might even add in some contingency time for unexpected items that pop up onto our radar. Despite all that good planning, sometimes things go south. Or great opportunities arise.

Either way, we can find ourselves up against the clock and burning the candle at both ends. Not the best situation but sometimes you just have to make hay while the sun shines. (I couldn’t resist an old farming reference).

How do you deal with a week like that? Do you re-book meetings, delegate workloads, drop things or recalibrate the priority list? Perhaps you do something completely different. Let me know in the comments below as I am genuinely interested in hearing the myriad ways that different people navigate a busy week.

I think I did a combination of all of the above. In addition, some things were simply forgotten in the mad rush. It is not ideal but sometimes life is just like that.

Hopefully next week is not such a crazy busy week.

Action Gratitude Observe Progress Reframe your thoughts Time Video

It Is Done!

Posted on February 5, 2021

That feels so good. That moment when you have completed the task. You cannot control it anymore. It is out of your hands. It is done!

It is an exciting and glorious feeling. When all the tension and build up can drain calmly from you, it is a tremendous feeling. Some feelings will be of relief and some will be of pride, confidence or joy.

Think back to when you have completed a big project. Or even think of a little one that you felt was important and worthy of your time. Maybe it was after completing an exam, driver’s licence test, or first overseas trip. For many, the feeling of relief is large after a public speech.

There is often an adrenaline rush and then a calming moment of satisfaction. In addition, you know you do not have to do it again soon, so there is peace in your heart.

I felt the calm satisfaction on Wednesday evening when I completed my first YouTube Short. Thanks to Alex, Roxane and Jaime for guidance on technical aspects. Thanks also to the many people in the YouTube and social media rooms in Clubhouse who gave great information. Also, a thank you to the How To content creators on YouTube. In particular, Sean Cannell’s comments in Clubhouse and his videos at Think Media. Naturalvita Tutorials also had a good tutorial.

It is done!

Action Health & Fitness Time Weight loss

Get Good Sleep

Posted on February 2, 2021

Staying up too long can be devastating. You can start to weave, get the head nods, fall asleep and feel pretty bleh. Get good sleep. It is very important though often the first item to let go.

I do love sinking into bed after a long or tiring day. It could be physically tiring or it could be mentally tiring. Either way, it is nice to lay back, dream away and then get some good shut eye.

Keeping someone awake for too long can become a brutal weapon of torture. It doesn’t even take that long. Sleep deprivation is a real thing and can lead to unfortunate and even severe consequences. Be smart with the amount of sleep you get.

You generally need 7-8 hours of sleep per night. You should aim to get to bed earlier than later. Sleeping hours before midnight seem to be rated higher than those after midnight. In addition, try to get to bed at the same time every night. This is assisted by having a consistent bedtime routine. This winding down routine should not involve any screens (tv, phone, computer).

Drink your eight glasses of water earlier in the day. It will help you stay hydrated but also keep you from waking up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. No one needs that kind of unnecessary sleep disruption.

Get good sleep.

Action Progress Reframe your thoughts Time

Give That Extra Push

Posted on January 31, 2021

You’re exhausted. It is the end of the day. Your bed is calling out to you. You want nothing more than to collapse. Give that extra push at this point. Take 10 more minutes to get one more thing done.

Push through and get that tough task started so tomorrow morning it is already underway. Or write out the goals, key elements and times for tomorrow. Alternatively you could get that one extra, easy item off your to do list. It shows up everyday and you never really notice it or find the time to do it. Tonight is that time.

Do this extra 10 minutes of effort five nights a week for one year. That will get roughly 250 items off your list. Or it will help streamline your life.

You will also feel much better for having got it off your list. It will lighten your mental load. As you get 4 or 5 done next week, you will feel like you’re making progress. The pride in doing that little extra will shine through. You will stand a little taller as you build goodwill with yourself.

This tactic will also help you push through further in other areas of your life. Your resilience will grow. Your determination will strengthen.

Give that extra push. It will be worth it.

Action Progress Think About It Time

Be Obsessive

Posted on January 29, 2021

This is a great way to approach things in life. Why do anything half-hearted? If you are going to undertake anything, be obsessive.

It has been awhile since the last time I heard this phrase. However, I heard it the other day when I was on the new Clubhouse App. Mr Beast, the young YouTube sensation with over 50 million subscribers was using it to note how to gain success. He told the person in question to be obsessive. It is a philosophy that he uses too.

Essentially, he gets up and spends every waking hour being focused on improving his craft and planning or creating content. Then he goes to bed. That seems fairly obsessive to me.

It makes me think about the book, The Zulu Principle. The premise of the book is that you can learn anything and become a world class expert in anything pretty quickly. If you focus on one topic and read three books on it, you’ll be well ahead of 96% of people on that topic. Then if you network around people who are experts in that field, you will rapidly absorb their additional knowledge.

So in a few months, you really could be world class in just about anything.

And I get it. I don’t want my brain surgeon to have just read a few books and gone to a few Medical wine and cheeses.

But for most things, just be obsessive.

Financial Gratitude Progress Think About It Time

How Do You Give Back?

Posted on January 26, 2021

Do you do something for charity, your community, people coming up behind you? It’s good to reflect on this. How do you give back?

I am trying to add more of this into my days. I do it sporadically and I would like to do it in a more structured way. It starts with giving my time to people who are building their careers or businesses. Then, Money for charitable causes and effort for good causes.

Getting clear on how to apportion time and money, and setting those aside for good causes, is a useful exercise. It makes you stop and think about what you do now, what might be good and even how it makes you feel. Should you set aside more time and money? To whom and how should that be done?

Some people are very good with structuring their thoughts around this. I’ve known people to set aside x amount of money and y amount of time. Then they gift that away through the year. Other people simply donate a lump sum and that’s that. All requests after that are denied.

Some people will give money freely but not their time. While others do the opposite. There are those that give 1% of their income while others give away most or all of it, like the incredible Chuck Feeney.

How do you give back?

Action Observe Progress Reframe your thoughts Time

Looking Back

Posted on January 23, 2021

Did you spend your day well? What about your week? How well did you spend your time in 2020? Or 2019 for that matter? Looking back is a useful exercise, especially if you do it well before the final curtain.

There are days that seem to slip through my fingers. Like yesterday. I had planned out the whole day before going to bed the night before. From my alarm ringing in the morning, until my head hit the pillow in the evening, I was scheduled.

But some random events threw me off course in the morning. Then the afternoon was all playing catch up. But then a couple of other unexpected situations arose. Some of these I could have averted with slightly better communication and time management. However, the others were just a little dose of, “That’s life”.

I really only got back on track at 7pm. Yet, I had missed so much in the day. Even with decent planning, you can be blown off course occasionally. But try to resist. Set your environment up in a better way. Then you can stick to the plan and make great progress.

This is a good analogy for life. You don’t want to get to the end of a time period and wish you had been more efficient with your time and more focused with your intent.

Looking back helps us look forward.

Action Health & Fitness Reframe your thoughts Time

Get Moving!

Posted on January 22, 2021

We all need to move in life. It is very good for our bodies and minds if we get the heart rate up. The blood in our bodies needs to circulate. Get moving!

I can sit on a comfy chair for hours. In addition, I find lying in a comfy bed very relaxing. And some mornings I can find it a little more difficult than others to get up and out of bed. This has almost nothing to do with my body and nearly everything to do with my mindset in that moment.

There are days that I slowly get my running clothes on, secretly hoping for a torrential storm to give me a reasonable reason not to go. However, I can’t recall a time that I wasn’t delighted with going, once I was seven minutes into the run.

The physical and mental health benefits of exercise are many. Going for a walk or run, or doing some press-ups, star jumps or squats all have beneficial qualities at zero cost to participate.

I know it’s easier to stay under a blanket and in a warm house. However, your mind and body don’t get the true benefits for doing that.

Start today. Do something for five minutes. And commit to doing that same thing for seven days straight.

Get moving!

Financial Observe Time

Education V Entertainment

Posted on January 18, 2021

This battle for our minds was brought up a few times in a room I was in on Clubhouse on Saturday. Education v entertainment was a good way to express the point.

How you spend your time is important. What you do with it is your business in a free society. So you can choose to educate yourself further or you can decide to enjoy the vast array of distracting fun things to do.

Fun things satisfy our desire for that moment. Though it takes longer to get a result when learning. So which one will you choose? Which one is more important overall?

The great thing about education is that you get to keep the knowledge. With entertainment you keep that memory of fun. Though sometimes we forget about the fun we had.

I believe the folks talking about these two words would like more people to be educated. That’s a great ambition. Though it can be difficult. Being entertained is so nice. And it is usually easier than trying to learn and become educated.

We, as the adults of the world, need to help children getting accostumed to learning. Hopefully they will enjoy it most of the time too.

Education v entertainment. On balance, which one are you focused on?

Action Financial Observe Progress Time Uncategorized

Clubhouse Changes Things

Posted on January 14, 2021

Are you looking for the next big thing? You need to checkout this new app. It has the potential to really shake things up. Clubhouse changes things.

It is a fascinating platform. For those that don’t know, imagine a virtual radio talk show format. Anyone can create a room and speak on their favourite subject. Then, anyone can enter that room and either listen to the host or speak with them. Meanwhile more people enter the room and listen. Some may also join in the chat, or leave to go to another room they just heard was starting.

So, like talk radio or a conference, someone is the host. On this platform, they are called moderators. You can have one or many. And when people join the room, you can tap their photo and read their bio. This way you know more about the person who is there, whether they speak or not. Then you can follow them if they are in a space you are interested in.

It is a fascinating mix of speed dating, conferences, talk radio and social media connections. It looks like it has the opportunity to change everything. If you have something to say, that others are interested in listening too, you can gather a large audience and build your brand. It totally levels the playing field for everybody everywhere.

There is no investment in technical kit like a podcast or YouTube. You can have exposure to 100’s or 1,000’s of people in just a couple of hours. What is exciting, is it is with voice only. No distracting text messaging or over-sensory video. Just listen and speak. It may be much more effective as a communication tool.

Clubhouse changes things.