Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Daily Agenda: What Are You Really Doing?

Tags

5MHW, Agenda, Focus Keeper, Freebooksy, Goal Setting, mini-habits, Scribd, Success, Time Tracking

“The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.” – John C. Maxwell

Quote credit: Brainyquote

What do you do every day? What do you really do?

I went through a Dale Carnegie course on leadership about a decade ago. During one of our initial sessions, we were given a few sheets of paper with “:30” on every other line. We were instructed to fill out these sheets for 5 days, tracking what we did every 30 minutes. This is an eye-opening exercise.

When each of us returned to the class, we had to brief the group on our sheets. Almost every person who stood up to brief explained it took at least two days just to get in the habit of tracking their time accurately. It was the same for me. After I began tracking my time I was shocked at what I discovered. I was not working as hard as I thought I was. I was unfocused most of the day, flipping from doing actual work to non-work items almost every 30 minutes. This exercise motivated me to begin looking at not only how I spent my time, but what I wanted to focus on.

Success is different for all of us. We all define it differently. I think some people’s problem with success is that they are having their ideas of success defined for them. Success to me is being healthy, happy, setting, and achieving goals. That’s it. Your definition may be different. What is it?

Think about what you want out of life. Write down the things you want to do. Just write down as many things you can think of, whether it’s learning how to do something new, improving your relationships, improving your health, anything. Your list is your list. No one else’s. Then, once you have gotten your big list, go through the list and identify three things you want to focus on first. Once you have spent some time deciding what your focus will be, write down what you will need to do each day to get yourself closer to achieving these three things.

Here’s an example: Let’s say I want to read 48 books this year. I write down getting books. I also write down reading books. I have two sources for the books I read. The first is a service called Freebooksy. The second service I use is a subscription service called Scribd. Between these services I have no shortage of books to read. Other sources I could use if I needed to are my public library and a Barnes and Noble store. The next step I will take is actually reading the book. One of the things I schedule daily is reading one chapter of a book. That’s it.

Your agenda or daily to-do list should be composed of the things you want to focus on each day. Obviously, you have a job you go to each day. This will eat up 8 hours of your life. Then you have 8 hours of sleep. That leaves you 8 hours to pursue the things you want to. This where you have to make a decision about what it is you want to do and how much time you will dedicate to it. We all have busy lives. I would recommend putting 30 minutes into each of your three things each day. If you want to exercise every day, that’s 30 minutes. If you want to read every day, that’s another 30 minutes. If you want to write every day, that’s another 30 minutes.

Spend 1 hour and 30 minutes each day on the three things you want to work on right now. To get your 30 minutes, you can use a focus timer. I use an app called Focus Keeper. It is a simple Pomodoro timer that will track 25 minutes of focused effort on each of your top three.

Track your progress for 5 days. At the end of the 5 days, did you spend your 30 minutes daily on each of these top three tasks? If not, begin looking at what happened instead. Do the 5 day evaluation of your focus for another work week. Did you make it this time? You’ll find that you may have some work to do in the focus area, if you keep missing your 30 minute times for each of these tasks over a two-week period. You can continue this exercise until you have established the habit of doing your top three things every day.

Here’s another example of what your agenda may look like:

• Read 30 minutes everyday
• Exercise 30 minutes everyday
• Write 30 minutes everyday

Let’s say you try out this exercise of monitoring your focus for 3 weeks and still struggle with putting in your 30 minutes on one or more of your top three tasks. That’s ok. Maybe that’s just too much. You can try the Mini Habits technique to help. With Mini Habits, you won’t be so focused on the time you spend, but rather a specific task that takes minimal effort to accomplish. Instead of reading for 30 minutes each day, you could opt to read 1 chapter every day or read 1-2 pages every day. Instead of exercising for 30 minutes, you could use an app like the 5MHW. Instead of writing for 30 minutes you could write 250 words each day. You see how flexible this can be? This hack is used to establish habits and help you move a little closer to your goals each day.

Try this out, folks. If you struggle with setting and achieving goals, find out what you really want to do, set aside some time for these things each day, and then do them, even if you start out only doing 5-10 minutes of work toward each one of your goals initially. Even this small time commitment will generate results.

Remember, success is what YOU decide it is. Your definition will change over time, but remember success is self-defined. Don’t try to make success what other people define success as, even your favorite self-help guru. Success is yours, no one else’s.

I hope each of you has a terrific Wednesday!

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Consistency, Exercise, Learning About Yourself, mini-habits, Saturday, spirituality, Weakening Neural Pathways, Wiring Your Brain

Happy Saturday!!

It is hot today in Michigan. The heat index is above 100 in most parts of southeastern Michigan. Today was an indoor day of reading, coding, writing, exercise, and spiritual study.

I was pondering consistency today. Why can we do certain things consistently and other things inconsistently? I have no problem reading, coding, writing, and my spiritual studies and exercises. I have always had trouble with consistent exercise. Why is it so hard?

I didn’t have any trouble with exercise in the Army. We exercised Monday – Friday without fail. Why do I have trouble now? I don’t have someone else telling me to do it every day. I have to tell myself to do it. That’s the part that is difficult.

Self-management is hard. It is hard because no one cares whether we do something, unless it is something we obligated ourselves to. Did you miss a workout? No problem. Did you miss a workout with your trainer or workout buddy? Big problem.

 

So how do you solve the problem? You solve it by making the self-management task so easy that your mind doesn’t fight it. You start with a mini-workout to get yourself into automatic mode. Once your mind expects to do something, the workout gets done because you trained your mind to expect the workout to occur. It has automated the workout task in its wiring. Once this rewiring occurs, the mind expects it to happen, and it solves the problem.

What I learned recently is we can undo this wiring. Fail to workout for a few days or weeks, and the wiring, which was strong initially, fades. You lost the habit, the neural pathway supporting this habit deteriorates, and BOOM—no more habit.

So now, I’m going back to the mini habit foundation phase. This requires doing something small every day so that your mind doesn’t resist it. One exercise for a few reps and that’s it.

If you are struggling with your exercise routine or need to establish one, here’s a great book for you to read, which tells the tale of Stephen Guise and how he started a healthy workout routine and diet by doing 1 pushup a day. The title of the book is Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results. Click on the link if you’re interested. I am not an affiliate. I enjoy recommending good books to my readers.

 

Well, that’s it for today, folks. I hope all of you have a terrific Saturday.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Moving Mountains

Tags

change, Consistency, Focus, habits, mini-habits, Moving Mountains, Resistance

Image by Frank Winkler from Pixabay 

“The man who moves a mountain begins carrying away small stones.” – Confucius

This is a great quote for anyone that is trying to do big things in their life and tries to do too much or is trying to do too many things at once. My wife and I had a quick chat yesterday, and she is focused on two things and nothing else. The first is a bodybuilding competition she’s headed to in 6 days; the second is a test she has to take for a teaching credential. The rest of her day is eating, maintenance, errands, and sleep. She knows that focus and consistency are important when accomplishing one’s goals. She also knows that you can’t do everything. You have to decide and execute.

Learning how to make a choice and sticking with something has always been a challenge for me. I like variety in my day. I like the spontaneity of the moment. Unfortunately, you can’t get anything meaningful done that way. So I began a search for information on how to get more focused, decisive, and consistent. During my search, I discovered a book called Mini Habits by Steven Guise. He suggests doing something very small each day will build a habit over time. The key is something small, but not too small. For example, Steven’s first Mini habit was doing 1 pushup every day.

I have used mini habits for a good 5 or 6 years now and it works. The trick is not to overwhelm yourself or expect yourself to do more than necessary. You really want to stick with small things until they become habitual. Each of us is unique. The time it takes for you to form a habit may be much shorter than it is for me or someone else. The key is to keep it small, so your mind doesn’t catch on that you are making a change. The mind gets overwhelmed very quickly, when taking on new things. If you try to start too many mini habits at once or your mini habit is too much (like I will write 1000 words today), the mini habit will not take hold.

I have had to learn this lesson more than once. Trust me. The mini habits work because they avoid overwhelming your brain, which will resist change if you hit it with too much. Start small. The key to the mini habit system is consistency. Reading for 10 minutes each day may not seem like a lot, but over a year that is 3650 minutes of reading. It may not seem like a lot, but if you are not reading at all right now, trust me, this is a lot of reading (60 hours).

You can apply mini habits for anything. You can use it for exercise like Steven did, you can use it for reading, writing, learning a language, learning to code, anything. You just have to use a little creativity, carve out a few minutes of your day to do the mini habit, and then track it. I use a repeating to-do list for mine using Google Tasks, but whatever you use, even a wall calendar and a marker will do. Try this out if you are having a hard time starting something you’d like to start working on. Resistance is psychological. It is your brain telling you this is too much. Some folks have very resistant brains, while others do not. It is very individual. Experiment until you find your own sweet spot.

I hope each of you is having a terrific Wednesday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Drive, Goals, H.G. Wells, habits, mini-habits, Movitation, Stephen Guise

“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” – H. G. Wells

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/h_g_wells_163592?src=t_motivational

How many times have you set a goal for yourself, only to give up or screw up within a few days? (I raise my hand). It happens to all of us, right? Change is hard. The brain’s wiring is hard to overcome.

We get ourselves fired up and charge into the fight, only to fizzle out within days or hours. How do we overcome this cycle? I asked this question, searching for the answers and finally found the answer a few years ago. The answer is this: Create “stupid small” habits.

These habits are mentioned in Stephen Guise’s book: Mini Habits. You can find it online for $5.99. In his book, Stephen explains what “stupid small” means and why creating these stupid small habits are so effective. Imagine an exercise program consisting of one pushup. Imagine writing 50 words a day. Imagine creating a habit where you are only required to read 2 pages in a book or even 1 page if 2 is too much. You see the pattern here.

The beauty of these mini habits is they don’t require a lot of motivation and only tap minute levels of your willpower, which science has shown to be finite. Interestingly, they have also found that willpower can be exercised like a muscle and the more we train our willpower, the stronger it gets. Persistence is key. If you screw up today, you get back on the horse again tomorrow.

If for some reason you continue missing days or “screwing up” reduce your requirements even more. Ultimately, the goal of these mini habits is to create the ability to do something you want to do every day or every week and stick with it until it becomes second-nature. Once your internal wiring accepts the new habit, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to keep it going. The next step in this process is the bonus work you’ll get each time you use your newly formed habit. Think about reading a page in a book. If you are reading a great story, it’ll be hard to just read one page, right? The same goes for writing 50 words or doing 1 pushup. Each of these habits is so minimal, it would be easy to add to them. Just realize your only requirement is the mini habit you created. The bonus work you do is cool and will add dramatically to your self-esteem, but they are not required. Only the mini habit is. This is really important to remember: Only the mini habit is required. The bonus stuff you do is bonus stuff.

If you want to build some new habits get this book. I am not an affiliate of Amazon or Stephen Guise. I just like to pass on life-changing books that come into my life. It has had a huge effect on me and I hope it helps you attain your goals.

This week:

• I’m leading a book discussion today at a monthly meetup
• I’m healing from a hurt back (so workouts are minimum and low intensity)
• I’m continuing to work on my non-fiction book
• I’m learning a new game called Masters of Orion 2 (introduced by a buddy of mine)
• I am cooking some meals that will keep me satiated during my intermittent fasting
• I am going to finish a book I’ve been working on this week, called Armor
• I will be moving back into the non-fiction reading arena by starting a book by Immanuel Kant

I hope each of you has a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Francesco Cirillo, Mignon McLaughlin, mini-habits, Pomodoro Technique, Small Steps, Stephen Guise

“The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.” – Mignon McLaughlin

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/mignon_mclaughlin_161632

It’s another Monday!

What do you have planned this week? Anything overwhelming?

The key to moving forward on your projects is nothing more than taking small steps. It is very common to feel a little stress or a lot of stress when looking at a project. You can relieve much of this stress by sampling breaking these projects done into “stupid small” (Guise, 2013) steps.

Applying Mini Habits to Your Project Work

I’ve read the book Mini Habits by Stephen Guise and completed this book’s companion course on Udemy. It is so powerful. You can benefit from this power as well.

1. Look at your project
2. Brainstorm all the things you’ll have to do to get the project to your visualized end-state.
3. Refine the list by putting these things in order
4. If any steps seem to be too much, go back and break that task down even smaller
5. Once you have your list of things to do, start knocking them out day by day.
6. Finish your project!

It really is this simple.

The Importance of 25 minutes

The next time you are looking at accomplishing something, use the above list of action steps to get this thing written down, brainstormed, and organized for action. The best action steps will take you 25 minutes or less. Schedule this into your to-do list as “Project Name” and schedule work on this project every day for 25 minutes (or 1 Pomodoro). What is a Pomodoro?

The Pomodoro Technique

A Pomodoro is derived from the Pomodoro Technique. This technique involves periods of 25-minute, total-focus steps, separated by 5-minute breaks. I try to schedule reading a book for 25 minutes, writing projects for 25 minutes, and any project work I do to 25 minutes. I know that I’ll be done in 25 minutes. I know I can check that action off my list in 25 minutes. It is gratifying, zero-stress, and it gets you one day closer to finishing (Cirillo, 2018).

I cannot stress how important it is to focus on your tasks for finite periods of time. 25 minutes will be over with before you know it. Heck, the writing of this blog post took me less than 25 minutes. But, if you remember that any project you do can be broken down into 25-minute increments, then take 25 minutes of action against your step, you’ll get it done and be that much closer to the finish line.

I’ll provide you links to the Stephen Guise book and the Pomodoro Technique for you to use later if you are interested.

Here’s what I’m up to this week:

• Reading the book Armor and my Bible, The Shariyat Ki Sugmad (Translation: The Way of the Eternal)
• Continuing my workouts using Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Size
• Working on my non-fiction book
• Posting to this blog
• Learning CSS programming
• Learning Mindfulness
• Voting in the Mid-term Elections in the U.S.
• Watching Netflix
• Skyping with my buddy in the evening
• Meditating

I hope each of you has a great week! Remember, smaller is better when you are working through your projects. You’ll be effective, productive, and you’ll feel great knocking out a little more on your work each day.

Until next time…

Dave

References

Cirillo, F. (2018). The Pomodoro Technique. Retrieved from https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique

This is Francesco Cirillo’s business site. Check it out. It is really good and has had a dramatic impact on my productivity since I began using this technique over 10 years ago.

Guise, S. (2013). Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results. https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Habits-Smaller-Bigger-Results-ebook/dp/B00HGKNBDK/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1541453458&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=mini+habits&psc=1

One of the great books I read every year in December before kicking off the new year. It is worth a read!

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

7 habits, Accomplishment, Achievement, Big Accomplishments, Getting Things Done, mini-habits, Small things

“The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.” John Burroughs

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_burroughs_120946?src=t_wisdom

Consistent Small Actions Lead to Huge Results

Sometimes taking the smallest action can lead to greatness. How many pages will you read in a year if you dedicate just 10 minutes a day to reading? How many pages could you put toward your book if you wrote one page a day? How many miles could you run if you ran a half-mile each day? How many books could you read, classes could you take, languages could you learn, if you only did a little each day?

I asked you all these questions to drive home a point. It’s the small actions, compounded over time, that deliver results. Not only do these small actions build upon one another, but they also build your confidence, improve your self-esteem, and give your brain a good dose of pleasurable neurochemicals.

I don’t care how big your goal is. Break it down into tiny, discreet, steps that you can accomplish in a short time. After a few months, you’ll see progress. That progress is motivating.

Another benefit of tackling these small steps is that you can work on multiple fronts and still accomplish a great deal. Read a little, write a little, exercise a little, pray a little, learn a little. Over time you will have accomplished a great deal, not to mention avoiding the stress of trying to take on projects that are too big, goals that are too big, or jobs that are too big.

Three Books

Consistent action, moving forward methodically, and just chipping away at something works. I learned all this reading a book called, Mini Habits by Stephen Guise. It is one of those books that you read again and again.

In fact, there are three books I read each year in December, right before kicking into the New Year. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen, and you guessed it, Mini Habits by Stephen Guise.

Each book contributes to my new year differently. 7 Habits contribute by refreshing my drive to improve my character. Getting Things Done helps me refresh my desire to be organized and productive. Mini Habits helps me revisit the power of creating life-long habits by doing “stupid-simple” tasks each day that transform into powerful habits over time.

I really enjoy reading and learning new things and always on the lookout for that next, great book that will have a real impact on my life. I haven’t found any new ones but I’m still looking. If you are having difficulty in your life and you want to take charge of yourself, these books are a great start. You may not get everything that I have gotten from them, but you will learn something and that “something” will alter your current glide path.

There are so many personal stories I could tell you about failure and disappointment but who wants to hear about that? Take my advice: Read these books. In combination, if you buy the Kindle versions, they’ll run you less than $30. Thirty dollars is two large pizzas, a Starbucks coffee for six days, or a trip to the movie theater. If you’re tired of failing, lost control of your life, and have lost track of where you want to go in your life, read these books. They are life-changing.

For those of my readers in the United States, I hope you had a nice Halloween. We had plenty of Trick or Treaters visit our home yesterday.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

Action, Intention, John Burroughs, mini-habits, Stephen Guise, wisdom

“The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.” – John Burroughs

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_burroughs_120946?src=t_wisdom

First off, I totally screwed up timing this week and posted my Thinking Thursday yesterday (oops 😊). So, here’s Wisdom Wednesday on Thursday to make up for my date mix-up.

We all have intentions. We intend to do good. We intend to do right. We intend to think about others before we think of ourselves. But…

Intentions like dreams mean nothing if they lack action. Actions are much more meaningful, even if they are small. Serving someone, even slightly, will have an impact. Taking one step on that walk will have an impact. Reading one page in your book will get you closer to the end.

This is one of the greatest challenges that face us as individuals. This is why I really enjoyed the book Mini Habits by Stephen Guise. This book truly changed my life. It showed me how to get started—how to execute. The price for the Kindle version is $5.99. I highly recommend this book to you if you are having difficulty sticking to anything.

Stephen emphasizes starting small. He began his exercise program doing 1 push-up a day. He began his writing career writing 1 sentence a day. All of this is backed by some studies on willpower, habit formation, and how the brain works. I hope some of you pick this book up and read it. It is easy to read and not too long. When I read it for the first time, I finished it in a day.

After finishing the book, I started putting his suggestions into action. I started my routine with 1 push-up a day. I started writing 1 sentence a day. I read 1 chapter a day. I meditated 5 minutes a day. One thing I would like to be clear about is that I did not start all of these at the same time. Stephen suggests starting out by creating one habit. You can do more if you wish but if you’ve been living a life of intending to do something and never getting around to it, starting with one habit will be a huge leap for you.

Get this book. I am not affiliated with Stephen Guise or Amazon. The book is just that good and will help you if you give it a chance. I hope this helps some of you get “unstuck” and gets you moving towards your goals. I wish you a great Thursday. The weekend is only two days away!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Diary – Habits

Tags

Exercise is the key habit, habits, mini-habits, Return on investment, Stephen Guise

Today’s workout in the books!

I weighed in at 231, another 2lbs. I’m enjoying the intermittent fasting routine now that I’m finally used to it. The routine today involved a lot of cable work and single arm and leg movements. Cable workouts are nice because I feel a consistent tension in the muscle group.

We’re finally getting some cooler weather in Michigan. This is the time when discipline will be required, particularly when the roads get clogged up with ice and snow. I don’t drive that far to the gym, but it is still treacherous.

My posting in my daily quotes section discussed habits. This is one of the best habits you can establish for yourself. Exercise improves flexibility, cardio vascular health, muscle tone, appetite, and even the quality of your sleep. I had my blood work done at the doc a few weeks back and it was flawless. For a 54-year old, that’s great news! I attribute this to my exercise routine and diet. Two habits that did not come easy.

The only advice I can give you in respect to this is DO IT. This is one habit you don’t want to ignore. Exercise improves every aspect of my life. It is the cornerstone of my habits because it brings the best return on investment. For just little over an hour of my time each day the benefits I reap are awesome.

Remember to start small. Small habits become bigger habits. Bigger habits become rituals in your day. These rituals fill your time and contribute to a great life. A life that is healthy and happy.

If you are having a really difficult time starting a health habit, read this book: Mini Habits by Stephen Guise. This book helped me establish some life-long habits that will always be a part of my day-to-day. Once you get some momentum, you’ll find creating other great habits will follow.

I hope you are all having a great Thursday!

See you tomorrow…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Confucius, mini-habits, self-improvement

Today’s Quote

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

The wisdom of Confucius continues to bless us to this day. This quote means so many things to me when I read it. It means that we are not in a race but in a marathon. It means we can continuously improve or degrade, the choice is ours. This quote also suggests that we can make small, little steps and achieve anything.

I read a book a year or so ago called Mini Habits by Steven Guise. The book discusses the challenges related to creating good, productive, habits. The book suggests that it is much easier if we create ridiculously small changes to our daily lives instead of trying to invoke a big change. These small changes are the “mini habits” that allow us to create bigger habits later by building upon the small ones.

Example Mini Habits

Exercise: 1 pushup a day

Diet: -1 sodas per day

Meditation: 1 minute per day

Writing: 1 sentence per day

Executing Your Mini Habit

Let’s say we want to pick up a reading habit. Something truly intentional, not just reading random stuff on the web, but an actual book. We look at our day, and figure out we can start our new reading habit before we go to bed. So, in and around the rest of our evening ritual we decide to read 1 page of a book 30 minutes before we turn out the lights.

Is there any doubt you could read 1 page of a book per night? The key to setting up a mini habit and making it work for you is to pick something that is so small that even if you were sick you could still do it. In other words, there is no excuse for failing to do the mini habit you’ve set for yourself.

Steven Guise also suggests only dealing with one habit at a time. This is purposeful so that you will truly remain focused on the one habit you want to create. I’ve run across several “life-changing” books like this. I highly recommend this book. The $6.00 cost for the Kindle version allows you instant access and it is a really easy read. It will be worth your while—promise.

Well, that’s it for today folks!

See you tomorrow…