Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Mini days

Tags

4-hour increments, Efficiency, Mini day, Monday, motivation, Productivity, Variety

All, I read a book about 10-15 years ago. I can’t remember the name of it, but my brother passed it along. Anyway, it discussed a topic called mini day. What is a mini day, you ask? A mini day is section of your calendar dedicated to something you typically do as part of your job or personal day.

Here’s how my day looks in a nutshell:

Mini day 1: reading, writing, learning, spiritual disciplines, physical exercise, socializing, eating, 20-minute nap.

Mini day 2: reading, writing, learning, spiritual disciplines, physical exercise, socializing, eating, 20-minute nap.

Mini day 3: reading, writing, learning, spiritual disciplines, physical exercise, socializing, eating, 20-minute nap.

Mini day 4: reading, writing, learning, spiritual disciplines, physical exercise, socializing, eating, 20-minute nap.

Each part of my four mini days involves reading one of my books, watching some courses, reading the Bible, Spiritual Journaling, exercising a particular body part (legs, abs, shoulders, arms, chest, or back), socializing here and on my other social networks, writing for my blog, my book, and anything else I want to write for the day, etc.

I run each mini day for four hours. So, 16 hours of effort across a myriad of activities. I just started it, and I’m pretty happy with the results. I was prompted to do this because I was falling behind on my reading and wanted a way to keep all of my goals moving forward in bite-sized chunks.

If your calendar or to-do list is getting stale, try this out. How you break out your mini days is up to you. You may want to have a writing mini day, drawing mini day, learning mini day, and an exercise mini day. I enjoy the variety of tasks in each mini day because I don’t get bored, and I also get a lot of little things done. These little things pile up to big things, which I’ve learned since retirement.

Well, that’s it for today, folks. Have a great Monday!!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – The Right Tools and Delegation

Tags

delegation, job, Monday, motivation, Productivity, Responsibility, tasks, Tools

Ever try to do something with the wrong tool? It’s frustrating isn’t it? Not only does it anger you while you are doing the task, you either avoid or dread having to do that task again. Having the right tool for the job is critical to motivation.

When I was working, I loved my job, but also loved the tools I used to do my job. I love a good tablet, phone, computer, and office gear. There’s nothing like digging into your work with a favorite tune playing on your phone with earbuds in, of course. There’s nothing like having a second screen with great apps on your tablet.

Regardless of what you do, there are tools available to complete the job. If you have the right ones–tools you really look forward to using–the job is even easier and actually kind of fun. It’s even more important when you are doing a new job or task. Investigate the tools others use to do a job. You’ll find that they use specific types of tools that make the job super easy. This combination of both fun and easy make the jobs or tasks ahead an absolute breeze.

Obviously, there are some jobs you just dread doing. They are boring, tedious, and do not take a lot of mental effort to complete. If you have staff working for you, delegate some of these tasks so that they can learn some of your job. It is your job as a leader to train your replacement, right? So, lighten your burden and pass off those tasks that others can do just as well as you can. This frees you up to focus on what you love to do, and gets the other jobs completed. Just remember: Delegation does not give up responsibility.

Recently, I had to put together some posters with QR codes for an event in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My organization was running a booth at their annual Art Fair. I did not have the tool to separate the first page of an e-book (PDF), but my sister did. She needs it for her job as a loan officer. She knocked out 7 PDFs in about 2 minutes. A last-minute request required me to do one more poster. Only this time, my sister was too busy to get it done in the time I had to get it done. Did I throw my sister under the bus and drop the ball? No. I found the tools I needed, and got the job done. I was responsible for getting this done for the event, not my sister. You see? I needed the right tool, and although I delegated the task to my sister, I was ultimately responsible for getting this done.

Well, that’s it for today, folks.

Have a great Monday!!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Scribd

Tags

Goodreads, gratefulness, Gratitude, Happy, Kindle, Learning, Productivity, Reading, Scribd, self-improvement, Studying

Today, I’m thankful for the Scribd app. If you aren’t familiar, the Scribd app gives you access to tons of books, magazines, and audio books. I read a bunch of books each year, and this saves me a lot of money. I am reading two books right now that retail for $15 each on Amazon right now. So the $8.99 I pay each month is well worth it. I like reading a few books at a time, so this service is terrific. Here’s a link if you’d like to check it out. https://www.scribd.com/

If you are an avid reader, who wants to save a few bucks, I’d highly recommend Scribd. I read about 60 books a year, and most of them are on Scribd. I am not an affiliate and get ZERO dollars if you join up, but trust me, this is a terrific service. You can also download this app to your tablets and phone. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten my reading done sitting in a dental or doctor’s office. For a really good combination, you can listen to a song or two on Apple Music or Spotify, if you get these music services. I enjoy reading with either a focus or some other purely instrumental genre in the background. From time-to-time I’ll listen to classical, but for the most part, calming instrumentals that aren’t too “busy” work great for me.

Another great companion to reading is the Kindle and Goodreads apps. Most of my friends and colleagues use both of these, and it’s a great way to track what you’ve read, and share it with friends and like-minded folks, who enjoy the same genres you do. If you have a Goodreads account, it’ll automatically track what you read on the Kindle, but you can add books manually, particularly those you read on Scribd if you choose to try it out.

Well, that’s it for today, folks. Happy Reading!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of March 9, 2020

Tags

Consistency, Exercise, Learning, Monday Motivation, Productivity, Reading, rituals, Social, Spiritual, Writing

I had my monthly book discussion today and fell a little behind schedule, so I’m scrambling a bit to get caught up and knock out my daily tasks. Here’s my weekly schedule:

Read daily – chapter a day

Write daily – Blog postings, any homework assignments, and work on my book.

Exercise daily – Gym, diet, sleep, meditation

Learn daily – Computer Science Path (Codecademy), Algebra course, NLP course, Course on Autism Spectrum Disorder

Spiritual daily – Read Bible daily, Journal daily, Spiritual exercises daily

Social daily – post quotes daily, share articles daily, get out into the community daily, hang out at the coffee shop on Saturday, hang out at a library on Friday

That’s all I got for today, folks. Have a great week!!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Mistakes

Tags

Grateful, Mistakes, Perfectionism, Peter Drucker, Procrastination, Productivity, Thankful

People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.

Peter Drucker

Do you procrastinate? If so, one of the reasons may be that you are a perfectionist. A perfectionist wants everything to be perfect. They want their work areas to be perfectly set up, their project plans perfectly in place, their final product perfect. Guess what? These are all unattainable. Perfection will never happen–ever.

I used to be a perfectionist. It is a bad way to be. When I realized this, I began to look at how to get things done and not worry about the end result. There will always be something else you can do. There will always be another opportunity to improve. So give yourself a break. Get to work, make your mistakes, fix them, and get the job done.

When I stopped praying to the perfectionism gods, my life got a lot easier. I no longer worry about making mistakes. When I discover I made one, I fix it and move on. If the mistake is something I can avoid in the future, I note it, develop a mechanism to prevent it in the future, and get back to work.

If you are a perfectionist and want to escape the perfectionist-procrastination cycle you might want to check out this article by Web Standards Sherpa. I’ve read it and it’s pretty good. You’ll be amazed how freeing it is to just get to work and deal with the mistakes as they come.

Today, I’m thankful for leaving perfectionism behind.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Finding Your Dream Job

Tags

Focus, Investigate, Love the work, motivation, passion, Paying the price, Productivity, Resistance

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four-hour days.”― Zig Ziglar

One of the biggest challenges in life is to figure out what we will do with our lives. I remember contemplating this question when I was about to finish high school. Many of my friends already knew what they would do. Not me. I did not understand what I wanted to do.

Looking back, I would have told myself to choose an area of interest and try it out. As I have matured, I realized that every profession requires a certain price to pay. If you choose a particular area, investigate this area by reading about the people that exist in that field and excel. Learn about what they have to do to be on top of their fields. When you see the price, they are paying you can decide about your willingness to pay the same price. You can do this over several career paths to find the role or roles you will pay the price for.

Once I discovered my desire to be a writer and pursue my dream of learning computer programming life smoothed out. I felt a congruence in my life I had not felt before. When I wake up in the morning, I have a sense of purpose. I know what I will do and I look forward to it.

Once you realize that you’ve made a good choice, you have no resistance to learning, or the work involved in your profession. Writing and programming are a joy. Each day I write, or work on a programming project, it feels like fun rather than work. This was the final confirmation for me. When I realized that my work was really more like play, my efforts in both areas took off.

Like the above quote suggests, focus is the way to productivity and achievement. When you observe people that love what they do for a living, you sense a joy of purpose. The work they do seems effortless. They will work harder than their peers. You can see the joy they experience when they do this work.  You can also see people who are in the wrong position. You see them procrastinate, complain, and do the bare minimum to earn their paycheck. There is no love or purpose behind their work.

This is the key difference between people who are engaged in meaningful work they love and people in the wrong role. Their passion overcomes the price they pay to be in that profession. This passion provides the drive to be the best in their field because it is not work to them. They embrace the training and outside learning the job requires. They work longer and harder. Their work is of a higher quality.

If you are in a position you consider work, maybe it’s time to look at other roles. Research. Investigate these fields. Find out what the top people in these fields do and the price they pay to be the best. If you believe you can pay the same price, try it out. You will never know until you do. The average worker spends roughly 75% of their time at work. Why not do something you love?

This week, I’ll continue my regimen of working on my book, working through my current programming project, reading the five books I’ve selected, and hitting my daily exercise routine. I’ll continue to journal and meditate. I’m making good progress across all areas. I hope each of you has a terrific day!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

4 Areas, Building, Contributing, Freedom, Learning, Productivity, Wasting Time

“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.” – Albert Camus

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/albert_camus_105894

Have you ever thought about the freedoms that you enjoy? Have you ever contemplated all of the opportunity and advantages we have over previous generations? Have you given any thought to the amount of time-saving technology that we now have access to?

I used to have to use a Thomas Guide to figure out where I had to go when I worked in Los Angeles. Now, I simply type in an address to my phone and it tells me where to go. I used to carry my daily plan, hand-written, and barely legible. Now, my to-do list is on the cloud, accessible by any device I can get onto. I used to carry around a bulky notepad to the gym. Now, I enter all my lifts into an app on my phone. The time savings that these applications provide are staggering when I consider what I used to have to do.

Think about the access you have to books, magazines, radio, music, movies, television shows, and sporting events. If you wanted to, you could literally own a phone and be able to get everything was done that used to take so much time. Think about your contacts. Your phone never forgets a phone number, an appointment, or what you must do today.

But there’s a dark side. With so much entertainment at our fingertips, it is easy to get carried away with video games, movies, and all the social media apps that are available. We must make conscious decisions about what we will do and what we will not do. For some, this is challenging. They waste their lives playing video games for hours and get nothing done. They surf YouTube for hours without reading, writing, or learning. They watch hours of television and for some reason can’t squeeze in 30 minutes of exercise. The list goes on and on.

We have the freedom and access to pursue whatever goals we set for ourselves. We also have the freedom to waste untold hours of time, doing absolutely nothing but staring at a screen.

Take some time today to really analyze what you do. Seriously. Write down what you do today in 15-minute increments. I think you’ll be shocked by the amount of time that you waste daily. How do you turn it around? The first step is setting goals.

Set a few goals. Your goals could be in four areas of your life. Set a spiritual goal. Set a learning goal. Set an exercise goal. Set a social goal. Don’t go crazy, just pick one goal in each of these areas. Then, figure out how you will attain the goal. Start small. Pick something you can dedicate time to each day. Maybe you’d like to pick up meditation. Perhaps learning a new language would be something you’d be interested in. What would you like to do for exercise? Is there a relationship you’d like to cultivate?

Start with these four areas and pick something you’d like to do. Schedule the activities you have for improving these four areas into your calendar or time-planner. Don’t miss a day pursuing small amounts of progress for each one. You will be absolutely amazed at the results.

With the freedom we have, we can either do great things or waste our lives. The more freedom we have; the more rope we have to hang ourselves. Don’t be a social media addict. Don’t be a binge watcher. Don’t be a video game addict. All of these will result in a wasted life. Instead, pursue something that will build a great life. Read, write, meditate, spend time with loved ones, exercise. Learn something new each day. This is your life. Make it a productive, service-oriented, fulfilling one.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thinking Thursday

Tags

Accomplishment, Choices, Decay, Productivity, Slovenliness, Waste

“The condition of health that we suffer is actually a tool to raise us another degree in our state of consciousness.”—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Anytime we have an issue with our health, God is trying to teach us something. Maybe it’s something we are eating. Maybe it’s something we are not eating. Maybe it’s something to do with the amount of exercise we are doing or not doing.

Each of us is a unique being. My mother has all kinds of food allergies. So, does my brother and sister. I am one of the few in the family that can eat what I want. Each member of my family that has an issue with some type of food deals with it. That’s the way life is. We are hit with a problem. We either learn to solve the problem or live with it.

I find it interesting when I run across people who complain about their life but do nothing to change it. This tells me they are either happy with their situation and just complain because it has become a habit, or they are too lazy to get off their butt and do something about it. This leads us back to the previous sentence—they are content with the way their life is, despite their complaints.

Each of us is on a trajectory in our lives. This trajectory offers a full life with rich experiences, adventures, and accomplishment or it offers a life of mediocrity, slovenliness, and decay. Life never stays in one place—it moves forward, or it moves backward.

I am beginning to learn a terrific lesson. A lesson about people. Some people enjoy their suffering. Some people enjoy living a life of waste, a life of accomplishing little to nothing, a life composed of laziness, a life of inaction. These same people complain, are bitter, and have lost any ability to improve themselves, expressing jealousy when they discover someone who is better at milking the system than themselves.

We all have a choice. We can choose to fight for our goals, set our sights high and strive for them, step out of our zones of comfort and take risks to do more, be more, and achieve more. It is all our choice.

I choose to live a life of accomplishment. I choose to live a life that strives for better. I choose to live a life that exposes me to new challenges, new skills, and wonderful experiences. I choose.

Here’s what I’ve done this week:

Exercise Program:

Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Size – (www.bodybuilding.com) – I’ve done this workout before and returning to it because it is just a good all-around weight routine. It’s 8 weeks in length, a 4-day split with 3 rest/cardio days mixed in.

Books:

Armor, Steakley – Recommended by an Army Buddy. A terrific book so far.

The Shariyat Ki Sugmad, Paul Twitchell – This is my bible. I finished it and will re-read again. This book is a permanent fixture on my reading list.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe – This was a terrific book. Now I know much more about the abolitionist movement during the 1800s. HBS really digs hard into the evils of slavery by depicting the horrors of slavery in this book. The separation of families, particularly for the women were absolutely heartbreaking. I highly recommend this book.

Classes:

Web Development Path – Codecademy – Currently learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and REACT. – Completed the HTML course. Now, I’m working through the CSS tutorials and projects.

De-mystifying Mindfulness Course – Coursera – I’ve completed all the coursework so far and waiting until Nov 4, 2018, for the course to continue. One drawback of Coursera is the scheduling. Udemy allows you to buy the whole course, complete the whole course on your schedule and provide a certificate at the end.

Documentaries:

Movies:

Fun:

Ozark – Netflix (in the cue) – Re-watching Season 1 to remind me what’s going on. I’ll kick into Season 2 when I’m back on track with this one.

House of Cards – Netflix – Final Season. I can’t wait to dig into this one. It just started today!

Interesting Apps:

Codecademy – This app is a companion app to the Codecademy website. For $19.99/month you can learn quite a few languages, work on projects, and a whole bunch more. It is terrific! This app has daily quick lessons (<10 minutes) followed by practice quizzes to test your knowledge. It’s a great app. I highly recommend this app and the companion website for anyone looking to learn how to code.

I hope all of you are having a terrific week! See you tomorrow for Funny Friday!!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Journal Series – The Planning Journal

Tags

journaling, Planning, Productivity

The Planning Journal

This week’s posting will discuss the planning journal. You’re probably asking yourself, what is that? Well, Davis (2007) describes the planning journal as a place to brainstorm, to outline, to list out, or any process or tool you use to figure out how you are going to accomplish something or capture ideas about what you are going to do in the upcoming week, month, or year.

I don’t keep a planning journal but do go through these steps when I am looking at tackling a project. The steps I use are what David Allen (2015) calls the “Natural Planning Model” (p.60). Here’s what it looks like:

1. Defining purpose and principles
2. Outcome visioning
3. Brainstorming
4. Organizing
5. Identifying next actions

Defining purpose and principles is about deciding what you want to do and why you are doing it. Outcome visioning is what you see as the “product” of your efforts. Brainstorming is when you list out as many ideas about how you will accomplish something without judging them. Organizing is when we go through all our ideas, group them together, and get rid of the things we brainstormed that won’t work. Once we’re organized and all the tasks we have in our project are put into a defined order of items to accomplish we can identify what to start with first or what is called the next action.

It’s hard to brainstorm, organize, and put all of this together without having something to write in or on. I like using an app called Toodledo, which has a list and outline function. You can use pen and paper in your journal. In the list section, I brainstorm. I literally try to capture anything and everything I will need to do to get something done. This is important for research papers, complicated projects, and writing books, articles, or blog posts. I try to capture anything and everything I will need to do and just list it out in whatever order the ideas come to me. Once I’m done with that, I organize by putting them in an outline, putting these ideas into an order of execution. Then you can take your outline with your ordered tasks and put them on your to-do list or your productivity tool.

You can also write down the things you want or need to do. Maybe you must get a birthday gift for someone. You can brainstorm and research what items you think they need and start getting prices and stores that have these items. Maybe you are looking to begin going to the gym. You can flesh out your ideas on how to get started. Maybe you want to take a vacation or trip or maybe begin working on establishing a new habit you believe will be beneficial.

Anything can go in your planning journal that has to do with ideas, upcoming tasks, projects to accomplish, big projects, anything. Have fun with this idea. One other thing. A planning journal can track your process of idea generation, brainstorming, and ideas of what you’d like to do. It is a great place just to put all of those random ideas that pop into your head about what you might want to do like to do or need to do. It is a great tool to look back at and see where you were and where you have come.

One other best-practice I’d like to introduce you to is the idea of time stamping everything you put into a journal. This way it’s easier to see your growth in action. You can see what you were thinking about in a given period. I’ll pass on all my best-practices in my final article in this journaling series.

I hope this was helpful. Feel free to pass along any ideas you have here if you’d like.

Until next time…

Dave

References

Allen, D. (2015). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Davis, K. (2007). 15 types of journals to keep. Retrieved from https://www.darktea.co.uk/blog/15-different-types-of-journals-to-keep

 

Daily Ramblings – Workout Diary

Tags

Chores, Doing good, Efficiency, Exercise, Improvising, Productivity

Cardio was the focus of the day today.

Instead of doing my 7-minute workout, I decided to improvise. I shoveled snow off of our front driveway, our front porch, and our back deck walk area so my Mother can access her greenhouse. After about 30 minutes I had a good heart rate going and felt pretty accomplished because I helped out the family with a chore. Since my parents are both in their late 70s, this is one of those things I have to do, to help out around the house.

So, I knocked out two birds with one stone. I got my cardio, helped the family, and got a nice dose of Dopamine for doing something nice. Don’t be afraid to assess your day and utilize a little improvisation to achieve what you need to get done for the day. Now that we are in the New Year, exercise will be a daily priority. Doesn’t hurt when that exercise can be a job that needs to be done anyway.

I hope you are having a great New Year so far!

See you again, tomorrow.

Dave