Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - February 24th

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting. – Buddha

Do you ever have a hard time just starting something?  Once you start it, you then have no problem completing the task. 

In the last couple of weeks, the blog posts have been about Teddy Roosevelt’s daily habits of writing every day after his morning swim.  With this habit, he wrote over 30 books.  This is a great idea, but what happens when we hit a “roadblock” that prohibits us from starting and completing the task. 

While on my great European adventure, I started journaling my daily activities so I could send a summary of my adventures to family and friends when I returned.  Those days were great, but I stopped writing my daily activities when I traveled to France and I never finished it.  It is now mid-February and I FINALLY finished it over the weekend.  Two months late…REALLY???  I tried a couple times to start and when I did it was great.  I would write a day’s summary and then move on to completing other tasks.  However, I have been busy with work and at night I just did not want to do it.  I tried various ideas for helping motivate myself, but it was very difficult. 

So how did I finally finish it….I used an idea I read in James Clear’s blog called the “Two-Minute Rule”.  Writing the summary was not hard.  It was finding the time and motivation to just start. 

For anything that we need to accomplish, we will most likely accomplish it if we just start out doing the task for 2 minutes.  Once you start, the fear of starting will be overcome with the desire to accomplish it.  The accomplishment I felt when I finally completed it was well worth the time I spent on Saturday and Sunday FINALLY finishing it….

What is it that you need to complete, but just have not had the time or motivation to do….Just start with 2 minutes…

Good habits, once established are just as hard to break as are bad habits. – Robert Puller

Source

http://jamesclear.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating

Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - February 17th

As I was talking with my sister on Sunday afternoon, we were discussing a book we both read and I said, “I liked the book, but I want the action steps to make it happen.”  Theory is fine, but I am a person of action and want ideas of how to accomplish something.  Last week’s post included the action steps Teddy Roosevelt used to write about his traveling adventures...he woke up earlier, went for his swim and then wrote about the previous day’s adventures.

 

This week’s Terri’s Tuesday Tip of the Week includes ideas of how to make time in your schedule to accomplish important tasks….

• Benjamin Franklin said it best, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”  In the morning, take 10 minutes before the “craziness” of life begins and prepare a plan for the day.  Look at your calendar to determine what meetings you have and what tasks you need to do.  By planning and preparing, you are creating a path to success.  Additional ideas can be found here: https://hbr.org/2014/06/how-to-spend-the-first-10-minutes-of-your-day/.

• I love the task feature on my Microsoft Calendar.  I have recurring reminders for every day, week and month to help me remember things that I need to do such as paying certain bills, doing certain tasks for my job, etc.  I have scheduled these activities into my life.  What activities do you need to remember to do on a regular basis that you can add to a task list and allow you to think on other things?

• Harvard Business Review had a great article about those pesky 30 minute gaps between meetings.  They are short amounts of time, but a lot can be accomplished during them.  Ideas include returning phone calls, creating an outline for a presentation, reading articles, etc.  Don’t waste these tidbits of time.  These short bursts of time can provide you opportunity to accomplish things on your to-do list and help change your life!  To learn more, read this article: https://hbr.org/2015/02/dont-waste-those-30-minute-gaps-between-meetings

• I am single, but hear stories from parents at the office about the wonderful lives they have with their children.  A recent article by Harvard Business Review incorporated The Agile project management method into a family structure.  For parents, there are some great ideas that can be gleaned from it: https://hbr.org/2015/02/project-manage-your-life

• The One Thing, a great book by Gary Keller, discusses focusing on one important thing each day.  Multi-tasking disrupts our lives and does not work.  During your daily planning, determine the ONE THING you HAVE to accomplish to make the day work and do it!

• And through all of this scheduling, don’t forget yourself…take the advice of Daniel Goleman, “Scheduling down time as part of your routine is hard but worth it, personally, even professionally.”

Here is another great article to reference: https://hbr.org/2015/02/are-you-proud-of-how-youre-spending-your-time.

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK!!!

Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - February 10th

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine. - Mike Murdock

As we have seen over the last couple of weeks, Teddy Roosevelt was an amazing man!  In his life, he wrote over 30 books, read over 10,000 pages, had various traveling adventures and still had time for his 5 children (plus many more things!). 

To expound on last week’s post about priorities, Roosevelt was able to write 30 books because he decided to write first thing every morning after his swim.  During his Amazon basin expedition, he would wake up before everyone, swim and then write about the previous day’s adventures.  This allowed him to send the various expedition stories back to Scribner’s, which allowed their readers to follow along in the great adventure while it was occurring.  These written excerpts became the book Through the Brazilian Wilderness. 

Why did he do this?  First, he found it best to write early in the morning when there were no disturbances or distractions.  Second, he wrote in the morning because he felt his best and could process the previous day’s experiences.  Third, he knew once he completed the quota of pages he had to complete he was done for the day and move on to other important tasks. 

When do you work best?  Are you a morning person or an evening person?  Psychologist categorize people by what they call “morningness” and eveningness”.  Studies have shown that morning people are happier and more conscientious and night owls might be more intelligent.  Whichever works best for you, determine the best time in your daily routine and do your most important tasks then!

Have an awesome week!

You'll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. – Anonymous

Sources:

http://www.rsvlts.com/2014/09/22/productivity-hacks-from-teddy-roosevelt/

http://www.malcolmarmstrong.com/content/2012/04/creative-productivity-lessons-from-theodore-roosevelt/

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/05/daily-rituals-creative-minds-mason-currey

http://www.researchomatic.com/Psychology-Report-7668.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2844473/