Personal Habits for Daily Fulfillment

Daily practices to facilitate adding the most value each day.

 
Every day we have many opportunities, decisions,  and actions that lie ahead of us.  The way we react to life is completely within our control and can have a great affect on many people. These are methods to make the most out of each day.

Get Ready

• Check in:  Start your day by checking in with how you're feeling.  Be compassionate with yourself.  Clear out any negativity so that you come to the table ready to go. 
• Give thanks:  The best way to raise your vibe is to think about what you are grateful for and to focus on it for a few minutes.  Expressing gratitude is scientifically proven to make you feel happier and increase progress toward your goals.  
• Fill your cups:  Set yourself up well.  Have your coffee and/or fuel yourself in whatever way makes you feel best.  Do what it takes to have a good attitude as you step into your day.

Show Up

• Have an intentional presence:  Be open, present, and ready to engage with others.   Think about what you can do to add the most value today and focus on that first.
• Sharpen your tools:  Do your homework and research multiple angles about whatever topic you're working on or thinking about.  Make sure you set yourself up with all the tools needed to perform your best, that they're polished up, and that they are within reach.
• Fully participate:  With each interaction, do your best to completely focus on the current topic and figure out how you can improve the outcome.  Ask yourself the question, "What can I do to positively impact the current situation as much as possible right now?"  Speak up and share ideas.  Be open to learn and be inspired.

Follow Up

• Collaborate and elevate:  There are many people invested in the same things as you.  Connect with them, align efforts, and collaborate together to elevate your plans and achieve the optimal outcome together.
• Monitor progress:  Visibility into key metrics is critical to ensure you take the optimal approach.  Awareness of progress is a huge motivator for continued growth.  Set up systems so that key information is captured, developed, and well organized.  Everyone needs to easily see that progress is being made consistently and give feedback on how to improve the approach.   
• Keep it moving forward:  Have a weekly habit of reviewing progress on your priorities and planning actions to keep them advancing.  Block out regular time to dedicate toward taking steps forward each week for your top priorities.  

What works best for you?

Meditation

The past year I have dealt with anxiety more than ever before.  As a young child remember feeling anxious before school, but it wasn't something that I often dealt with.  Then, in my late 30's, it became something I struggled with daily.  I'd find myself regularly feeling that sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach.  In moments where I felt at peace, I'd notice my mind wander toward thoughts that would trigger worry.

I understood the concept that I should focus on what I want, not what I don't want.  I battled with myself to stop worrying and "out think" the worry.  However, I'd continuously find myself struggling - to the point it was deeply affecting my well-being and impacting my relationships.  I started to feel desparate for change.

One day while scrolling through Instragram, I felt the urge to check out workshops by one of my favorite authors.  Although she's usually conducting workshops around the world, she had one in San Diego within a couple weeks. I took immediate action and went by myself to her workshop.  Within an hour I felt a great sense of connection and deep inspiration.  The strongest message she had to convey that day was the importance of meditation.  She reiterated how much it impacted her daily life and that she could not recommend it enough.

I had always been resistant toward meditation although I had read about the benefits: stress reduction, self-awareness, brain function improvement, reduction of memory loss, and even improved brain structure.  Well, ever since that workshop, for the past 8 months, I've been meditating most days.  I usually meditate for just for 10 minutes first thing in the morning (but for as little as 3 minutes if that's all I have that day).

I quickly found that I enjoy the meditation sessions.  Each time I notice that I feel better afterwards.  Within just a few sessions, I started noticing that the time I spent worrying and the physical impact of it was reducing.  I felt an overall stronger grounding that made me feel more calm and peaceful in general.

It was very interesting to see how busy my mind was at first - to directly observe my desire to constantly analyze everything.  Now I have more awareness and control and I am more effective with my thinking.  I typically use Headspace's guided meditations.  They have a free set you can try which helped me build strong habits.  More recently I've been meditating without the guidance and enjoying that - but at first I found that difficult to do.

With the recent COVID-19 changes, my habits have been in flux and I've noticed some of that anxiety coming back.  Making sure to prioritize the daily meditation is the single most impactful habit I have.

Wishing you peace and harmony.



Reference:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/meditation-mind-body-spirit_n_5291361

Filling Your Cup

There are things that make you feel deeply excited or renewed.  They can be anything from cars to massages to games.  There are specific instances of these things that fill your cup.

Notice what they are and prioritize them in your life.  Balance out the things that drain you.

Make sure your cup is full enough to share.

A Well-Organized Inbox

Most of us get hundreds of emails per day across multiple email addresses. It is hard not to lose messages in the shuffle. How can you stay on top of so much information without missing key details? Believe it or not, you can not only keep your inbox organized, but you can also actually use it as a key tool to help you stay on top of critical to do’s. 

 It is not as difficult or time consuming as it may seem. It requires a simple technique to quickly filter the information and organize it in categories so that what you need is where you can easily find it when you want it.

How to Best Organize Your Inbox

When you utilize this method, your email becomes a tool for prioritization as well as a useful database of information you need.

Empty it Out

First, you must commit to only keep items that require action in your inbox. If you that have 15,000 old emails sitting in your inbox, this can sound like the last thing on Earth you want to do. Hear me out. Start with taking all those old emails and putting them into a folder called “Archive”. Move EVERYTHING into that folder. There you go. You have got a clean inbox.

Sort Incoming Items

For all new incoming emails, the first time you read through them, quickly determine what where they need to go. The goal is to move each email on the first touch:

If no action is needed, read through it, and archive it or delete it.

• If you never need to see the message again, click delete. If you have emails that you repeatedly get from a source that do not provide value, unsubscribe or mark as spam. It will give you peace of mind.
• For everything that you may want to refer to at some future point in time, move it to your Archive folder. Make sure to make this folder a favorite so it’s very easy to put emails into quickly.

If action is needed, keep it in your inbox.

• For any item that requires action, give it a category. Categories are helpful so that you can quickly navigate the list of emails you have pending. Staring at these few remaining emails will prompt you to act.
• On your calendar, carve out a period of time for each category to focus and progress on these items as a batch.
• Determine the maximum number of messages you are willing to keep. I recommend keeping the minimum possible; no more than 25-50. If you have more than that, delegate or let go of the least meaningful pending items.

That's It! Helpful Tricks:

• Follow Up. If you send an email out that you want to make sure you get a response on, BCC yourself and keep it in your inbox.
• Templates. If you send emails repeatedly now and again create a “Templates” folder and save a copy there. From time to time you make improvements.
• Posts. Try using the posts feature to leave yourself quick little notes in your inbox where you will see them. I LOVE them! They are great because they are easy to find, you can edit them, and they stay right in your inbox for action until you are done with them.
• Employees. If you have employees you manage, you can create a folder with each person’s name to keep track of assignments. Keep a copy of the request and any useful information that you'll want to see when I review her work. This will remind you of all the things you have asked that person to do that you want to make sure you see progress on. Prior to your weekly meetings, scan it to see if there is anything in there you want to talk about.

Your inbox could be a tool that empowers you to be unstoppable. When partnered with timeboxes, you have a place for everything, and everything is in its place.

My Passion Project: The Seed Planner

Birthed out of an obsession to be organized

People often admire my ability to organize information and stay on top of so many details.  They ask how I do it and I share little "how to's" or best practices I've created.  The reality is that I have a relentless need to sort things out, understand the best next steps, rapidly drive forward, and consistently see real progress.

I am slightly OCD when it comes to organization.  I feel really happy when I can easily see that everything is organized, it all has a time and place, and I can focus my efforts on the key next step.  So much so that I ended up my creating my own organization system.

I created a The Seed Planner because I get really excited to plan out my day on a sheet of paper.  I've made various versions of this since 2005, testing different techniques and exploring what made the greatest impact on the quality of both my output and my daily experience.

I enjoy getting to work.  The Seed Planner helps me identify how I can add the most value, allows me to empty the details out of my mind, and guides my focus on the most important work to be done at the time.  I love adding color and character to my pages.  I use this tool to help me stay aligned throughout the day, adding to it as things arise, and checking items off as I finish them.  I appreciate knowing where to focus and making sure I get to everything that I want.

The real "trick" to being organized is constantly reviewing progress, sorting information, and taking action.  I check in on things often.  I have strong habits built around processes that I follow daily, weekly, quarterly, and annually.  The Seed Planner helps facilitate and improve those processes, while capturing the results of them in a keepsake.

Consciously Select Your Influences

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn

Whether we realize it or not, our beliefs have a great impact on directing and influencing our lives.  Research shows that we subconsciously collect data from our experiences which forms into emotional memories.  These emotions amplify in our brain to create feelings, which transform thoughts, and form beliefs to help us make sense of our experiences.  Over time we identify patterns.  These emotional memories create an unconscious lens through which we view our world.

We form beliefs around all types of things such as food, relationships, politics, religion, etc.  Sometimes our beliefs can interfere with our ability to grow and learn.  Through relationships with others we can see our beliefs from various angles, allowing us to re-examine and re-evaluate our opinions and feelings.

When we change our thoughts, we change the way we are affected by them, and can create more positive experiences.  By being selective of what situations we put ourselves in, we can reduce unwanted emotions and thought patterns.

Whatever we focus our attention on and invest our energy into has a great impact on what we experience.  The environment you surround yourself with can greatly alter the information that you consume, the attitude that you take, and the beliefs that you form.

Suggestions:

• Be selective of the people that you spend most of your time with.  Increase the time you spend with those that inspire you to be your best self and lift you up.  Decrease the time you spend around people that bring you down or reinforce negative behaviors.

• Be selective of what you focus on.  Think about the outcome you want, the current "gap" between reality and your ideal goal, and how you can get there.  Review progress often and refine your approach.  Striving for a goal is what Frankl believed was the greatest "meaning of life". :)  When you notice yourself focusing on worry or negativity, redirect your attention.

• Be selective of the information that you consume.  It can be very easy to believe what we hear, even when it's not true.  The best of us can start to believe false information when we hear it repeatedly.  We are living in a time when "fake news" is a common phrase and many people aren't even aware of it when they see it.  Be critical about what you read and/or listen to.  Find unbiased sources that highly vet information before they publish it.  Below is a picture that was created by Nicholas Gwynne based on the methodology linked below.

Click on the picture to enlarge

References:

• Feeling is Believing - Psychology Today
• 5 Ways to Get Your Unwanted Emotions Under Control - Psychology Today
• Methodology behind checking media bias and level of factual reporting