FIGHTING FIRES

PhotoCredit: FireTruck
We have an adorable almost-thirteen week old puppy in our lives. I say adorable, which he is ... for 5 minutes before and after he wakes up. The rest of the day he is either sleeping or veeeerrrrryyyyy busy. Busy with the curtains. Busy behind the mirror (that one makes my heart stop). Busy with the laundry. Busy doing unwanted carpentry on our furniture. BUSY!

So when he sleeps, we relax. We are not on active “where’s the puppy” duty. Our work is dictated by him sleeping. We get him in his crate and get him settled and creep out of the room and slowly, quietly, shut the door. We even turn the fan up to create white noise for him. We mean business.

And then, inevitably, a fire engine speeds by. Sirens blaring. Horn blasting. I have a moment of panic, and listen, but the little dude sleeps right on through it. He’s a true West Hollywood dog. When we eventually get him out to the countryside I am sure the quiet will keep him awake. We are raising a city-dog.

We get a lot of fire engines passing by our house. Sirens and horns blasting as they navigate through unforgiving LA traffic. Day and night. Sometimes way too late at night. There is a necessary communication of urgency. A warning. An alarm. They are designed to blast into the consciousness of distracted drivers. Designed to penetrate absent minds. 

Lately there have been a lot of sirens. The alarm has become alarming. As I worry less about my little guy sleeping, I worry about my city. Chipping little pieces from my heart. My mind races. Fire engines are usually first on scene; I hope no one is hurt too badly. 

It's not healthy, or helpful, to induce a state of universal worry at this increased frequency. So I have been retraining myself with breathwork and mindfulness. Trying to exchange my fight or flight reaction for awareness and ease.

There are so many places in our lives where we induce a stress response. Little sounds, certain times of day, or comments from our colleagues and loved ones that knock us from happily going about our day to melting into a state of anxiety. Anxiety that messes with our minds and our bodies. Anxiety that leads to distraction, fear and sadness. A very unproductive loop.

How could you shift your response to a trigger? Can you learn to breathe in a moment that induces anger, panic, frustration or alarm? We can take inspiration from firefighters themselves who are trained to have a non-stress response to an emergency. They know that they need to stay level-headed so they can assess and address the situation that awaits them. And while breathing works, so does putting on some noise cancelling headphones. Silencing your phone. Turning off notifications. Or, as a friend of mine suggested, mentally tell the annoying person to socially distance and “far cough” (say it out loud). Then laugh to yourself. That works too.

DAY DRINKING

PhotoCredit: Bubbles

I have been thinking a lot about habits and routine lately. Being stuck in one place for over three months will do that to you. Usually I blame my frequent traveling for my lack of routine. Right now I have nothing to blame but my inner rebel. 

A coach I once worked with said that when you are trying to adopt a new habit there are two reasons you fail. Either you are a brat - lacking the commitment and discipline for change, yikes! Or you are a wimp. I am not sure that “wimp” was his word, his point was that you were avoiding confronting the challenge.

Double Yikes.

It’s a stark contrast from one of my favorite books on habit “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work”. Daily Rituals is a book best described as delightful. It comprises a series of one-to-two page examinations of how the Greats of the past did their great things. From Immanuel Kant to Toni Morrison to Ernest Hemingway. The bite sized accounts make for a quick and inspired read. A great way to start your day.

Daily Rituals is ultimately a treatise on the importance of singular focus on your craft. None of the Greats did their work by accident. Gertrude Stein noted that while she was generally unable to write much more than 30 minutes a day “it makes a lot of writing year by year.”

It’s something James Clear speaks about in Atomic Habits. The cumulative effect of a lot of little focussed actions. It is also, as we know, the core ingredient in the power of compound interest.

Most contemporary books on productivity and vocation are harsh in comparison. Requiring stringent adherence to stated rules, to a routine of repetition, and to a level of, frankly, rather dehumanized existence. It all smacks of deprivation. And it all starts to get rather boring and joyless.

Joy feels like a hidden secret to motivation and productivity that few “modern” thinkers explore. A pursuit of the more human elements of eating and socializing and exercising could be considered a life well lived. In turn we have made all these about restriction and discipline and judgment. 

Daily Rituals instead delivers a more human wisdom. Yes, we must attend to our vocation. We also must walk daily, spend significant time with friends, ensure that we eat well (there was a lot of focus on food as routine) and, evidently, to drink quantities of alcohol. Mostly not day-drinking but this was no group of rule-followers.

Call me a brat or a wimp but previously any attempt at a routine eluded me. I was trying to force-fit endless productivity into the hours of 5am to 9pm without boundary. Without consideration of friends and food and the frivolity of life. Covid-19 enforced zoom calls with friends, baking, eating, drinking a little more wine than usual, and lots of #puppylife. It’s forced a more human existence. I like it. 

Now I make sourdough crackers at 6am while a furball plays at my feet. I answer emails while holding one end of a rope toy, with a growling mischief tugging at the other end. And I write, or think, in moments like this one. With the little dude passed out in his crate. The world whirling around us both. A moment I appreciate more because it’s a moment. It’s not a monotony of endless hours where I must be must be productive. 

And do you know what? I think I am getting more done.

For Reals.

GAMIFY YOUR LIFE

PhotoCredit: PacMan

Where does all that extra time go? It’s the most interesting aspect of the quarantine to me. I have mostly avoided over-dosing on online yoga classes. Sure I sneak in the odd biscotti-making session when no one is watching. And there has been a slight over-consumption of re-watching the great British Baking Show. But I’m not traveling, I’m not commuting and I’m not going out to dinner in the evening. Where is the time going?

I sat down over the weekend to assess my schedule. I wrote out all the things I wanted to do in a week. How much time does each activity need? One hour of exercise a day. Thirty minutes of meditation. Try to reduce email to 90 minutes a day with a couple of catch-up sessions as needed. And. And. And. I added the total...to get 100 hours of productive time a week. I knew that wasn’t viable.

Back to the drawing board. I eventually managed a schedule that kept me occupied 5.5 days a week from 6am to 10pm. That seemed reasonable. 

Not. 

Of course I didn’t follow my overachieving insanity of a schedule. For starters, who over-schedules their Sunday? Second, I just plain didn’t want to follow it. I wasn't inspired. It didn't motivate me.

Then something weird happened.

I sat down at my desk and knocked out 80% of my scheduled items in a few hours. Interesting. 

Then I went for a walk and caught up on a couple of podcasts. The second one couldn’t have been more perfect - “The Case For Being Unproductive.”

Let me start by saying this goes against everything I stand for. I love being productive. I’m not going to stop analyzing my productivity. Like ever. However I am rethinking how I do that. It feels like a great time for us to all rethink how we “do productivity.”

The podcast reminded me of my favorite productivity rule, that a job will expand to fit the available time. Parkinson’s Law. I had less available time today and I still cranked through my tasks. The interviewee, Celeste Headlee also reminded me that we are a lot happier and effective when we are task-oriented rather than time-oriented. A focus on tasks is considerably more motivating.

Many self-proclaimed productivity guru’s, I mean coaches, would suggest that a focus on your most important tasks is the better approach. Back to rocks, pebbles and sand (or nerds and cream eggs for those of you who have seen my SquigglyTube).

Except this hasn’t been working for me lately. I need more than a list. Weirdly, the schedule is helping. I find myself back on track for my day after a meeting was cancelled and other things were faster to achieve than I expected. Full circle that became rather satisfying. My under-acheivement led me to overachieving. 

Like most great things in my life, the schedule created a game. In the video game industry we call this gamification - which essentially means you build in levels of achievement and rewards to a process. Can I “beat the clock” and get my tasks done while still leaving room to be unproductive? And by unproductive of course I mean cleaning, eating, baking and ordering stuff online - not at all in that order. I have 90 minutes allocated for XX task - can I get it done in half the time? It’s why I like the sprint process so much from the software development world - it turns a to-do list into a competition. Against yourself. My favorite kind...

When gamification and Parkinson’s Law come together there are endless opportunities for you to make your schedule work for you. Rather than you working for your schedule. So what game will you play this week?

PLAN TO FAIL

PhotoCredit: Duke Chronicle

My goal this year is to make 53 sustained life changes. One change a week. I get to overachieve because it’s a leap year with an extra week as a consequence.

Well that was the theory in January. Once February started I felt like one of those wind-up toys that had de-wound itself. The pep was missing from my step.

The first thing we tend to do when we are under-performing is look for someone or something to blame. Often this is ourselves. Conveniently the astrological phenomenon “Mercury in retrograde” has been in effect over the past month. So clearly that’s what I can point to as the problem. It’s not me, it’s the alignment of the planets!

Mercury in retrograde is commonly seen as a great time to reflect, review and plan. As a rebel who is oriented to change, planning and reflection do not come naturally to me. Change is fun and exciting. Discipline is for boring losers.

But over the years I have come to learn that planning, somewhat counter-intuitively, helps me squiggle. Planning is deeply supportive of my rebellion. 

I have almost (almost) become disciplined about planning. Each Sunday I review my to do list and determine my Steven Covey big rocks for the coming week. I also set specific goals to work on. This is where I have been adding in my 53 changes. Things like read a book a week, do a daily yoga home-practice, meditate for 20 minutes, do two hours of bookkeeping a week. The bookkeeping one is kicking my butt - especially as I don’t eat sugar anymore. The one way I could guarantee I would get a hated task done was to bribe myself with candy.

As I establish my focus for the week, I also review the prior week. How did I track to my ambition? Did I achieve my priority tasks or did they get lost in the whirlwind of the week?  Reviewing and reflecting on the prior week helps me see how to navigate toward my intended outcome. 

Here is a Squiggly-Tube on how I do my weekly planning. The video is under five minutes and be sure to watch the outtakes at the end. Rugby has a small cameo and I reveal my stationery obsession.

In trying to understand my #FebruaryFail it’s been very helpful to review my weekly planning for clues. In February I had a lot of travel. That always throws me off. As a consequence I wasn't disciplined with my planning which starts to have a flow-on effect. And then the obvious issue, I am trying to do too much.

When we struggle it’s easy to be super self-critical. Our revision process becomes much more of the “oh my god I’m useless” variety. “FML”, “why do I even bother?”...”might as well give up now”. 

Finding strength in the weak moments is game-changing. Every moment that we manage to pull ourselves from the quick-sand of defeat we build resilience. Resilience layers and builds like a muscle, so from each moment of struggle we make ourselves stronger. 

Squiggling necessitates that we get things wrong from time to time. The magic lies in curious reflection. Being curious about what is working and what isn’t. Not leaping to judgment or blame. We have to allow a little space for imperfection. Or Mercury in retrograde. Plan to fail. 

ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS

PhotoCredit: HorseFly.com

I had one of those mornings last week. You know the ones. Where you wake up and realize you can’t be bothered. Like AT ALL. 

There are more things to do that you have either the energy or motivation for. 

Bottom line, you can’t be arsed. Forget Webster. Urban Dictionary defines "can’t be arsed" as seriously demotivated; disinclined to get off one’s arse; or unwilling to do something.

How about all of the above?

So what do you do when confronted by your inner three-year old? How do you move through an energy block?

I like the advice offered by this Quartz article; “When you don’t know what to do, make tea.” Making a pot of tea always helps me, a nice bit of proactive procrastination. I also put on a playlist. A little Spotify action always helps.

And then, I am ashamed to admit this, I turn to my less important tasks. This runs counter to everything I believe. I know I am supposed to do my high priority tasks first. Get my Steve Covey big rocks crossed off my list. Starting with what Covey would call the sand is the opposite of productive. It’s distractive.

But sometimes we need a distraction. Our wiring gets a bit funky and we need to reset ourselves. The big tasks, the rocks, require too much processing power; more processing power than we have.

So I turn to the sand. The lesser tasks. Doing a few of these generates momentum, gets my brain going. Tea, Spotify, organizing my photos, cleaning up Evernote, ordering some new pens. I always need new pens. Clean up my desktop files, make a hair appointment, take out the recycling, order more coffee beans.

I have been known to gamify it by setting myself 30 minutes to see how much email I can reply to. Setting time targets helps generate a little adrenaline and, consequently, a little energy.

It’s important to know when to follow the rules and when to break them. Anything goes as long as you are intentional about why you are doing it. Plus, my inner three-year old gets really bored if I follow the rules all the time.

Check out my video explaining Steven Covey’s Big Rocks here: Squiggly-Tube. I know, I’m getting all vloggy on you now. Let me know what you think and, now you know the rules, let your inner three-year old play!

SHORT & SWEET

PhotoCredit: Oleg Magni https://www.pexels.com/search/candy/

I came across this article from The Atlantic on how to email. The author, James Hamblin, sums up email 'etiquette' perfectly stating, “An email is an imposition on a person’s time.”

Austin Kleon takes this further, assessing whether you are likely crazy based on the length of your email. Kleon is fantastic, if you don't know his work you should check him out.

Email is freeform. It allows you to rave on as if your audience has nothing better to do. Email is not a text message. Or a tweet for that matter. And maybe that's part of the problem. Texts are inherently short and to the point. And most emails would be infinitely improved with a limitation of 140 characters.

Making this worse are the emails that bury the lead. It’s annoying enough in a news article. There should be no doubt from the first sentence what you wish your audience to action or consider.

I can feel you nodding as I write this.

The sad thing is that Hamblin's article is circa-2016. We should know better by now. We don’t need five images at the bottom of our email signature. We don’t need an email signature. Mine is my name and my cellphone number. Edit what you write, get four paragraphs down to four lines. Get four lines down to 4 words (I double dog dare you).

We have abused email for long enough. Be the change you want to see in the world.

TEAR IT UP

Maison Martin Margiela S/S 2008 Ready-To-Wear Collection

I am pretty fastidious about to-do lists. Obsessive is likely the better word. Most mornings I prepare a list; fresh eyed with notions of super-productivity. As the day progresses I add new tasks as items occur to me. Often it’s random things. Often it’s things that don’t really need to get done.

Get lightbulbs from downstairs, order more dish soap, send a birthday card to XXX, fix the lamp.

I still haven’t fixed the lamp and I never send birthday cards. I claim environmental virtue for the cards.

Rule number one is not to let new to-do items disrupt your productivity plan. So, instead of having them fester in my mind - or worse, forget them - I write them down. My master to-do list just gets longer and longer and longer. 

Some weeks the daily lists pile up. Last week was one of those weeks. By Thursday I had about three lists greatly in need of reconciliation. I added the “maybe later” items to my trusty Trello list and then wrote a new to-do list for the day. Which I promptly tore into pieces. Oops.

It was an accident. I now realize it should have been intentional. It was liberating. 

In meditation we are taught to put all the loose and distractive ideas from our head into bubbles. We are told to then “pop the bubbles”. Banish those busy thoughts and find peace in our mind. What if we did that with all the things we felt we needed to do? Clean the car, send a thank you note, go vegan, quit sugar, update your linkedin profile, iron anything, make cookies for the office. Yes, there are millions of perfectly valid uses of your time. That doesn't mean you have to allocate your time for those uses.

You are the boss. Well, except when your boss is the boss. (Rule number two is that rule number one is overridden if it’s your boss that adds something to your list.)

Write all those things you feel obligated to do - and aren’t paid to do - on a list. Then tear your list up. Think Dead Poets Society. Robin William’s character Mr Keating instructs his class to rip out the reductive introduction section of their poetry books. Three minutes of Dead Poets Society cinematic gold await you here. “Excrement!” he exclaims, “I don’t hear enough rip!”

Unburden yourself. Write it down and rip it up. Carpe Diem people. Carpe Diem.

BLIND AMBITION

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I spent much of 2019 working towards goals that I didn’t have clarity on. Each week I would write my goal list and each week I would dismally fail at that list. This year I have a new approach. Each week I am picking a new goal and making that my focus for the week. So far I have added dry January, a daily writing practice and now - week three - I am focussing on daily meditation.

Each week I figure out the best time in the week (or day) to do the action for my goal. I investigate how to best incorporate the activity into my life. At the end of the week I examine if it’s working and whether I keep doing it. Whether I try something different? Or decide it needs to come off the list.

So far I have kept them all. But it’s early days. 

There are 53 weeks in 2020. The overachiever in me is totally delighted by that. One more week means one more goal.

I love my overachiever self; she helps me get a lot of stuff across the finish-line. But I am learning that every day does not need to be a performance. Most of my life was spent this way. Come out conquering and firing on all cylinders, leave nothing left un-said or un-done. No stone un-turned. 

I’ve been on a journey away from this; away from the need to be busy. Away from the need to do #allthethings in an attempt to win at life. Ambition, it turns out, is rather a shallow objective. It’s rather meaningless to get to the top of the mountain if you don’t have the equipment, don’t enjoy the journey and - once you get there - don’t know why you climbed it in the first place.

My quest of late has been to dig a little deeper than mere ambition. Because, let’s face it, it can be as blind as it is shallow. 

Pushing yourself is fine until you stop to ask yourself, why am I doing this? What’s the point? What’s the point of my obsession with doing a handstand in yoga? To attempt to somehow win yoga? To look around the room and high-five myself that I am one of the few people who can do it? To get a good picture for my social feed?

Do you know your why for everything you claim to be important? For everything your overachiever puts on your list?

By the end of the year I will have investigated 53 goals. Some will not make the grade under closer inspection. Some goals will be elimination goals as I learn the art of not-doing. 

I have a new sense of what it means to be an overachiever. Let’s see where I get on the handstand. I’ll instagram it. So you know I won yoga!

PLAY

PhotoCredit: James Nares

The latest carpool karaoke has dropped. And it does not disappoint. Billie Eilish plays ukulele, raps a little Justin Bieber and shares a little of her journey as a music artist. 

Her mega-success Ocean Eyes was not only recorded when she was 13 but was written, produced and recorded in her bedroom. With her brother. 

A beautiful lesson in simplicity, raw talent and parental support. Billie comments that her mother never imposed a bedtime as long as she and her brother were making music. James Cordon cheekily asks "yeah, but what about when you were just mucking around?"

"Making Music is mucking around" Eilish replies in a wonderful reference to the creative power of play. She notes that some of the songs on her first album wouldn't otherwise exist.

It's so easy to take life seriously, to make things work rather than find the play. Maybe we can all learn to embrace our inner 13 year old and muck around a little?

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME...

PhotoCredit: The Forest, Riccardo Bozzi

Ahhhh the holidays. Nothing says peace on earth like perpetual sales and an inbox full of adver-mail. Everyone from Chewy.com (pet supplies) to Barneys (luxury everything) professing they can solve your holiday-buying needs. Buy now for 10% off (even though you know there will be a bigger discount towards the new year). Buy today to guarantee delivery by December 24th.

I mean who leaves their shopping this late? I did mine...ahem...days ago!

Let’s face it, no one is going to lose an eye if their gift is late. So here are a few gift ideas for those of you who proactively procrastinated on your gift buying. Some might arrive in time for holiday gifting, some might not. Frankly I hope they don’t. These are all my personal favorite items that I know you will love. Gifts for the most important person in your life. YOU!

Away Suitcases: These are the perfect suitcase and their customer service recently sealed the deal for me. They will replace a case without question when the airline plays hackysack with it and breaks it. A color for every travel-individuality AND they have cool stickers you can personalize your case with.

Diptyque Candles: Possibly my favorite gift to give. They do fabulous holiday fragrances but for my money the winners are the best-sellers: Amber; Rose; and Baies (who knew blackcurrant leaves smelt so good). Insider tip: they will give you a small mini candle if you go into one of their standalone stores in the month of your birthday!

RGJ The Oil: I’m obsessed with this fragrance oil. Rachel Grant Jackson has been working on her fragrance blends for years now and they do not disappoint. Oil NO.1 and Oil NO.2 (she went all out on the names) are both stunners. I own them both and can’t decide which I prefer. Guaranteed to get a “you smell great” from anyone you hug over the holidays.

Hanuman Heart Mala: Mala’s are a great gift for anyone interested in getting a little more intentional. And as an added bonus they look damn cool. Who doesn't want to be enlightened AND fabulous? I love the four different styles of mens-mala’s and they have a great range of beautiful bracelet's. This solved most of my gift-giving needs this year, everyone gets a mala!

Sans [ceuticals]: This company is amazing. Everything they do is spectacular but their Activator 7 moisturizing oil is a standout. I gave this to everyone on my list last year. It’s the ultimate “anyone” gift; my husband loves it as do my product-snob friends. It smells great, it works and it’s versatile: great for face, hair or body.

The Forest: This stunningly designed children’s book is described as “a lyrical book about the adventure of life”. I love to give beautiful children’s books to friends and this one is at the top of my list. It is as visually beautiful as it is profound and inspiring.

KEEP THROW MAYBE

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The holidays are the arch-enemy of productivity. There are so many superfluous, guilt-laden events and activities we easily get sucked into spending our time (and calories) on. On top of that, the end of the year is a veritable devil-on-the-shoulder; nagging you for what you haven't achieved for the year. 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find an ounce of reality for what you really have the time and energy for.

One of my favorite systems for this is an adaptation of the ‘keep, throw, maybe’ approach. The system pre-dates Marie Kondo’s joy sparking and comes from a US reality show called Clean Sweep. From 2002 - 2005 this show sparked much joy for this neat freak; blitzing America’s junk-drawers, cupboards and rooms while teaching the gospel of organization.

The genius of Keep, Throw, Maybe is it’s simplicity. Any overwhelming pile can be organized with a quick categorization of each item as: a definite keep; a definite throw; and a decide-later maybe pile. The trick is to categorize lightening fast, speeding up the process but also to get out of your conscious “I can justify anything” mind.

Then put the maybe’s through a slightly more deliberate process, do you really need it or just have a hard time saying goodbye? The former category you then re-incorporate back in your life, the latter you put in the back of a cupboard and look at again in six months to see if you have missed any of your maybe pile at all.

It’s a system you might want to use in the New Year for your house. I also like to use it for my to-do list. Let’s blitz that overly-ambitious and stressful list. Let’s get spark a little reality against those wishful ideas of sending holiday cards, baking for our neighbours (does anyone do that anymore) or finishing those 3 projects that have eluded you all year.

Keep, Throw, Maybe your to-do list. Go through the list and divide it into three categories without thinking. Cross off and forget about the THROW stuff, don’t give it a second thought. Prioritize the KEEP stuff and get that cranked out this week. Put your head down, skip a holiday party and be an overachiever on that culled list. Then, once you have done that, go back to your MAYBE list and reassess what you have time for.

If it waited all year, it will wait a couple more weeks. If it really needs to be done, you are better off starting it fresh in 2020.

The holidays are a time for love, celebration and family. I know that combination can be a hot-mess. Can you find ways to go a little easy on yourself? A little decluttering goes a long way.

MISSING THE POINT

PhotoCredit: https://rosesandvellum.blogspot.com/2012/11/ethereal-fairytale.html

I didn’t intend to write about Rumpelstiltskin today, but I loved this image and so I re-read the story. I had forgotten the ending. The once-poor miller’s daughter, who is now Queen, manages to wiggle out of her original deal by discovering Rumpelstiltskin’s name. She uses her messengers to search the kingdom for it. Smart use of resources! One of the messengers happens upon Rumpelstiltskin singing his name to himself and duly reports it back to the Queen. 

It’s one of the few stories I can remember where the female truly conquers being a victim. She was first potentially trapped by her father and then potentially trapped by a weirdo with an even weirder name. She escaped both times.

As an adult reading this story I want to know what happened afterwards. Was she a better Queen because she dodged all those bullets? Did the messenger get appropriately rewarded? How old was the King? Did they have a happy marriage? Did she forgive her father? 

I never thought about these things as a kid. I was far more interested in the romance of the fairy tales I read. Oh, she married the King! They lived happily ever after! Gosh, that candy house sure sounded yummy. 

I completely missed the point. I was so much more interested in the fantasy and my perspective altered my comprehension.

Now, as I think about perspective, I wonder where else I am missing the point?

Sometimes it’s purely that we can’t see the bigger picture. This can be the case with things like time spent on social media or sleep. We don’t calculate the impact. The totality of the hours in a year we spend scrolling other people’s lives is somewhat hidden. The impact on our health from the hours of sleep we skip is a future problem, not today’s concern.

I learnt a lot about perspective when I went to Antarctica in 2018. Just stepping foot on the ice was an exercise in perspective; the vastness of the white on white landscape making me feel beyond insignificant. Only to then see, up close, the fragility of our environment. The truth of the significance of my actions was suddenly in technicolor.

On returning I made a personal pledge to implement one change to be a more responsible consumer. My focus was single-use containers. I decided not to order delivery food services or use disposable coffee cups or water bottles. Cool, but meanwhile I order delivery-everything-else and don’t think about the packaging or, frankly, what I really need. It’s too easy just to click the delivery button. I think I might be missing the point. 

I have stopped patting myself on the back. It’s time I get perspective.

I’m as wired to convenience in my life as I was once wired for fantasy and romance. My actions would suggest convenience is my higher value. How can I recalibrate my actions to prioritize conscious consumption?

It’s an observation, not a judgment. But it’s one of those Simon Cowell telling you that your audition was rubbish observations. There is a judgment and it’s valid. 

It’s good to keep ourselves in check, especially where back-patting is involved. Check our perspective and be sure we are not caught up in a fantasy about our efforts. Take a good look in the Mirror Mirror On The Wall every now and then and see where we might be missing the point?

WHAT'S LEFT?

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There are 106 days left in 2019.

Need I say more? Well, I’m gonna.

There are in fact only 95 days left until December 20th. So in all reality there are less than 100 days left for you to achieve your goals for the year.

The optimist in me wants to tell you there is still time. The realist in me knows that there is not that much time.

When we start each year we get a boost of inspiration. We feel the possibility of who we might be in that year. Whether you write it down or not, whether you call them New Year’s Resolutions or not, you planted seeds at the start of the year. There was a voice inside you that said “this year will be different”. This is the year I will [insert glorious achievement here].

I dare you to write that goal down, do it now, commit it to paper. If you have multiple goals, even better, write them all down.

With 100 days left you have two options. Take urgent and immediate action or rip that piece of paper to shreds. You heard me: it’s do or die time.

Urgent and Immediate action looks like any one of (and preferably all of) the following:

• Set two hours aside every morning to work on that project. You can choose evening but I promise you that you will make up excuses as the end of the day rolls around;

• Write two actions for each goal that you can (and will) complete this week;

• Write a complete list of all actions you think you need to do to accomplish that goal and schedule them for the remaining 13 weeks in the year;

• Unschedule one day a week to work on that project (this will not work as well if you are working on a diet, exercise or wellness pursuit);

• Call a friend and ask them to be your accountability buddy that you can check in with each week; and

• Write your goal on your bathroom mirror (a recent trick that was shared with me that I think is brilliant: try and avoid that each morning).

Each week is a new beginning just as every morning can be a new beginning. The inspiration to be a better version of yourself doesn’t just have to come at the start of the new year. It is available all year long, well, for another 106 days at least.

FIND YOUR FOCUS

Photo Credit: https://thisisnthappiness.com/post/186960800289/geometry-lin-yung-cheng

There are a million little things we manage to distract ourselves with. Some days we even justify those things as priorities. Like spending hours on email knowing your inbox is not your priority but really it’s filled with other people’s priorities. Social media is a fan-favorite non priority distraction and of course the necessary time you spent online tracking down a specific pair of shoes you really don’t need.

Then there are the things that seem like priorities but they really are not. Watching three hours of Ted Talks that you call ‘research’ but you know you should really be working on the paper that is due. Reading books about sleep when you just should go to bed earlier. Or re-writing your company pitch deck for the 7th time when your time would be so much better spent doing just-about-anything-else.

Some days, and some tasks, just seem hard. There are days when the last thing I want to do is focus on a priority task. I’m tired, I’m hungry, the house is a mess, I need another coffee, my email is stacking up and my team needs me for a million other things. It’s like there is temptation in distraction. It’s like I want to do all the wrong things; anything but that task that is looming in technicolor in front of me. That task I know is a priority but I just can’t get to it.

I so get it. You know what you are supposed to be working on but for some reason you can’t get started. You have cleared the time; you are in a quiet zone; you have turned off all the distractions - but you still struggle to get started. I used to find this with writing and then I discovered binaural beat videos on YouTube which are the ultimate hack to get you through the labyrinth of distraction.

Binaural Beat Therapy is music that plays a specific frequency that your brain adjusts to sync with. Through this use of frequencies the music is actually capable of changing your mood. I am not going to pretend I understand the science but the internet tells me that binaural beats are an ‘auditory illusion’ that ‘promote optimal brainwave states’. AKA listening to them produces a specific response from your body.

Research on binaural beats suggests they improve the production of the hormones cortisol, DHEA, and melatonin in your body. The release of these chemicals, among others is the mood-altering part of the binaural beat magic. This article in Psychology Todayexplains how binaural beats can aid sleep and the reduction of anxiety.

I’m literally listening to one right now as I write. After a full day of writing and working I was hitting a wall. A late night conference call last night was catching up with me. My inner three year old was telling me to do anything but persevere with my blog writing.

Now when I feel this way I to immediately go to YouTube and hit play on one of the videos. And this blog just poured out of me. I told you, magic!

I have compiled a few of my favorites on my YouTube channel - check them out here. There is a one hour one which is great for a very specific task and then a number of three-hour ones which I love for focussed productivity.

See if they work for you. YouTube will helpfully suggest a number of other ones for you too, so make sure to browse and find the one that works for you.

Now go get on those priority tasks!