Simple Strategy Better Habits

1. The Productivity Battle
2. The Punch Line – It’s All About Timing
3. Easy Strategies for Daily Habits

The Productivity Battle

Over the last 12 months I’ve struggled in making meaningful progress toward some new skills I’ve wanted to learn & goals I set. I couldn’t figure out how to “fit them into my day”, kept feeling like “there wasn’t enough time”. I was failing at creating the necessary habits to make meaningful progress over and over again. So, I decided to start keeping track of daily habits & routines that were working and figured I’d start trying some new strategies. Finally, some simple changes emerged that are really moving the needle. And I’m going to do my best to keep the share concise…explanations in three lines or less. This one is about timing & rigidity.

The Punch Line – It’s All About Timing

In one line: If you’re struggling to form a new habit necessary for achieving a goal/learning a new skill, change the time of day you’re doing it and see if you engender better results.

In one more line: If it’s a top priority, do it before you do anything else when you wake up each day.

Easy Strategies for Daily Habits

It starts with changing your perceptions around your schedule. In the two goals I tested recently, I realized I had been extremely rigid and inflexible in how I was scheduling my time. It was almost like I was being suffocated by my calendar structure and each day if I didn’t follow it perfectly, I felt like I had a “bad day”, even when I had accomplished a lot. It was frustrating and exhausting.

I was trying to learn Spanish and working toward a fitness goal. I set a goal of 15-30 minutes of practice/day to start learning the basics. I initially blocked time at the end of my day once all the “important stuff” was done–an average hit rate below the Mason Dixon Line. Then I tried doing it during a mid-day break…more trial & error. At that point, I recalibrated my essentials and acknowledged that this was a top priority. I also brought awareness to windows of 20 or 30 minutes throughout the day that I was allowing my attention to be drained by things that didn’t even make it to the bottom of my priority list. With that, I decided to start each day with 20-30 minutes of practice before doing anything else and voila, it fits right into my day like a Lego block.

With my fitness goals, I was having the opposite issue. I had convinced myself that I “had to workout in the morning” or I would never do it. I have a vigorous morning routine and was constantly feeling rushed through my workouts, cutting things short, or anxious about starting the day “from behind”. Having seen the auspicious results from a minor shuffle in the order of the days activities with learning Spanish, I decided to try it again. And, I did it with an accountabilibuddy to add to the discipline and enjoyment of the activity.

By simply moving my workouts to the afternoon, I am able to have more complete sessions and do everything I want vs. cutting it short or starting my day late. My morning routine has become far more joyful and I can move through it at my own pace without stressing about starting the day in catch-up mode. I had accepted the limiting belief that I didn’t have time in the afternoon to workout so it had to happen in the morning but that was clearly just a rigid box I had (and so often do) put myself into because that’s how I’ve always thought. Constantly challenge your belief systems and mental models that are dictating your life’s behavioral patterns.

My days and quality of life have materially improved since making these simple changes. I am getting more done in the same allotment of time with little to no stress. I am excited to keep treating my body and my life like a rat in a lab, undergoing endless experimentation.