Follow the process, build the habit
Let me tell you a story – a friend and I wanted to hold each other accountable to something we had been putting off for a while.
We decided to block each work day at 7AM to work on our respective activities for a month.
I wrote blog articles each day – and she painted each day. We spoke about our progress to each other every weekend.
Did I become an author or she an artist – Not really.
Did we get good at what we were trying – absolutely.
Routines help build habits.
“In the words of three-time Super Bowl winner Bill Walsh, “The score takes care of itself.”
The same is true for other areas of life. If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead” – James Clear
So here are 7 steps to a better you
Step 1 – Avoid context switching – use chunking. Each time you answer the mail or take the meeting, your attention moves away from the task at hand. For you to effectively work, design your calendar into chunks of similar activities. Check out the Chunk-the-day Template in the tracker
Step 2 – Allocate time for DeepWork & DawnWall Goals.
Much has been research about being the the state of ‘flow’ to be your productive best. Find a couple of hours on the calendar for you to do the most ‘high-value’ work for the day. Example – this is mostly my highest ROI effort required at work.
Also allocate a slot for the dawn wall goals defined earlier – ex, writing each day for 30 mins.
Step 3 – Morning and Night Routines
You maybe an early riser or not. What I have noticed though is that when I follow my morning routine, I usually have accomplished more in the first half than some people do all week. Do what makes you happy. Find time in the day where you can add these activities. Check out the Morning & Evening Routine Template
Step 4 – Gratitude Journal
I started this when I got the 5 minute journal. Now I do a ‘stream of consciousness’/’journal prompts’ and a gratitude each day. All of which takes 15 mins. Check out the Journaling template
Step 5– Work in Pomodoros’ to stay in ‘the flow’. Check out Kanbanflow.com for the pomodoro timer that can be used against set systems
Step 6 – Make it harder to be interrupted
Disable ALL notifications on your phone and laptop – you decide when to be interrupted, not the other way around.
Step 7 – Use Seinfeld’s Red X strategy to not break the chain.
Check out the Red X – Don’t Break the chain template
“For each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.”
The free pdf below provides all the templates mentioned above + a Food Log!
Here is to Happy and Productive days!