This morning, I journaled about how at the exact time of waking, I've been feeling a kind of anxiety. This feeling has been lightly creeping up more and more as I age. After a deep dive into a silent self-inquiry as to why this may be happening, something that felt quite true revealed itself.
Read MoreThe power of the words I use and the way they shape my perception of the world around me is profound.
Read MoreWhen making a decision about who to spend time with and learn from (whether it be a new friendship, a new significant other, a new client, coworker, coach, or mentor), I find that checking in on this one variable helps me to understand a lot about them quickly.
How hearty is their laugh?
Read MoreWe all know there are 24 hours in a day. If I sleep 8 hours and work 8-10 hours, I am left with 6-8 hours a day when I’m awake and get to decide how to fill that time. If I’m not mindful, there are instances when I find myself defaulting into leisure activities rather than actively deciding though.
Read MoreFreedom is a new compensation mechanism. Many companies are in this strange transition from "grit and grind earns money and status" to "do great work on time and in full then take the rest of the day to recover."
Read MoreIn my own life, I understand that one of my most precious and finite resources is time. One of my daily habits is to pay special attention to things that bring me joy. And throughout each day, I try to stack those joys in order to maximize the yield on my time.
Read MoreSay "no" more. What an easy thing to say. But what a difficult thing to do in our minute by minute experience of a day.
Read MoreOne of my secret weapons in establishing myself as a valued colleague in organizations is to never view tasks as out of my court. Unless someone is asking me for a favor, I continue to see tasks as mine even if I’m waiting on something from someone else.
Read MoreI've heard it said that in this modern world of so much comfort, so many options and unimaginable exposure to distraction, that hurried and busy has become the new stupid.
Read MoreOne of my favorite authors and podcasters, Greg McKeown, talks about how he visualizes the way people budget their time and energy. He sees the areas that we budget time and energy to as concentric circles. In the middle, the bullseye circle is self. The next ring around the bullseye is important relationships: family and close friends. The outermost ring is other. Greg observes that many people, when budgeting their time and energy, start from the outside of the concentric circles and move in. But what if we reverse the direction and start at the inside and move our way out?
Read MoreHere at Focus to Evolve, we consider the act of saying no as one of the four primary meta-skills that are required for that doubling-of-meaningful-output-in-the-same-number-of-hours-worked benefit. We call it a meta-skill, because there is no area of your life that won't improve (dramatically) when you begin to get good at saying no to the things that simply should not be on your plate.
Read MoreI have a very realistic and manageable to do list every day. On days when I overestimate the amount of time my tasks will take or if a meeting gets canceled or if it’s just one of those days when my mind is on fire and I’m completely in flow, I’ll work ahead on tasks that I don’t have planned until future days.
Read MoreIf you have taken our training, you may be witnessing the guilt of having and maintaining balance on a team or in an office where frantic show and speed working long hours is the norm.
Read MoreWhen I was in my early years of high school, I was still figuring out my time management habits. In Mondovi, Wisconsin, where I grew up, there was a TV show called TV-13 Outdoors that came on later in the evening on Sunday nights. And every time I heard that show’s theme song, I knew that my procrastination period for that weekend was over, and I had to do start my homework then or I wouldn’t get it done.
Read MoreI'm listening to an interview with one of my favorite comedians (JP Sears). For those of you who don't know him, he's got this huge red mane of hair which he often likes to make the subject of his content. In this bit, he was playing the role of the lion (with his hair all up and crazy looking like a lion's mane). With his razor sharp wit, he discussed how lions need to wake up other lions with their influence.
Read MoreIt’s been over a year since I’ve commuted to work, but one of my best practices when I did have a commute was carschooling. My commute used to be 45 minutes each way every day, which was a substantial chunk of time. Since my commute to work was something I could do without needing to pay attention to directions, I started making that time in the car count.
Read MoreI want us all to do our best to not let the one or two stressful incoming items mess up the whole wonderful day.
Read MoreWere you aware that in applications and websites like YouTube, Spotify, and Audible (heck, even Netflix sometimes), you can adjust the playback speed of the content? You have the choice to listen to YouTube videos, podcasts, audio books, and shows at their normal speed or 2, 3, or even 3.5 times faster than normal.
Read MoreWhen I find myself in a rut, I have a few go-to mechanisms, ranging from breathwork to cold exposure (cold shower, laying in snow, or cold plunge pools) to meditation. Today, I share one of my favorite little recalibrations.
Read MoreI don’t know about you, but there have been days in my life that have felt overwhelming. Finals season at school, extremely taxing days at work, early days as a new parent – there are times when I feel out of control and overloaded. During these times when I feel overburdened, a simple exercise often helps me to calm down.
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