A simple tool to help gain focus
A Daily Schedule
Make a schedule and keep to it
In the midst of this COVID moment right now more people are finding it hard to keep a schedule. For many, the schedule has been tossed out the window, with routine.
However routine and schedules are good for our mental health.
A schedule helps us stay focused.
A schedule helps you get up in the morning, helping with purpose.
A schedule is about being intentional with your time and resources.
A schedule lets you control your life and not others.
A schedule is how you are going to reach those goals.
Set the schedule up so that you have the life you want.
If you are going to succeed and you can. Once a day set and review the schedule, once a week review and set the schedule, once a month and once a quarter review the schedule.
Make a schedule and keep it.
But do not become so controlled by the schedule it becomes your master. A strong healthy schedule has margin in it and can be flexible.
Help with your schedule?
What are the three things you need to do in the next hour, in the next 24 hours, in the next week to get a better schedule?
Six spokes to a flourishing life
Six spokes to strengthen to a flourishing life.
To many of us go through life unexamined. We fail to see the habits we have and ways of thinking we have that have led us to where we are. As one senior lady shared with me over coffee,
“we are a result of our choices and have to take responsibility for that.“
We have a choice to who we are going to listen to.
We have a choice about how we are going to respond to our thoughts.
We have a choice to the habits we choose to form in our life.
As a follower of Jesus, I also believe because we forget God, and not listen to who he says we are, we stay stuck.
As I look at people’s lives, there are about six areas that we need to work on to help, engage, enter and experience a flourishing life.
These six (maybe seven) areas overlap and are intertwined.
They are
Relationships – First there is our family(biological and adopted), Second is close friends or community, Third is working relationships, those we encounter in different parts of life.
Mental – So much of our life is determined in this area. How we think affects more then we know in our life.
Financial – This is the resources and money of our life.
Spiritual – This one may be a challenge for some, but I carry a world view that holds this as a component of our life.
Career – We need to work and work is good for us. This area looks at our occupation and calling.
Personal and Physical – This is about physical health and what gives you energy in life.
Sometimes I have thought of each of these areas as a spoke on a bike wheel. If one of those spokes becomes weak the tire begins to fall apart.
For most of us, we can not make significant changes in all the areas at once. However, you can make small winnable habits. You want to change your life; it is one habit at a time.
Over the next 90 days, what is one spoke you need to focus on and one habit to move you in a healthy direction?
Slothness and productivity
In all of us are personal landmines that can hurt our productivity. The sooner we can face them, the quicker we can grow in life.
One such area of challenges for some is Sloth. The idea comes from the enneagram understanding of personality.
This idea is not so much a physical thing, as sleepiness to one’s owns priorities or needs. There is an avoidance of pain often connected to it, which lowers one’s risk-taking in one’s life. There can be a struggle to make decisions, and usually, one sits on the fence about things instead of commitment. In one’s experience, they can be either fully on or fully off in life.
How this could work out in your productivity is
- Ignoring your energy levels
- Fumbling to find the next task to accomplish
- Focusing on the wrong things.
- Procrastinate.
- I am only focusing on the areas I like at the expense of things I do not.
How to overcome this inner struggle in the area of productivity
- Identify it – naming it can start to give us power over it. We need to recognize it and understand why? A Few Questions to ask
Am I trying to be perfect?
What am I afraid of, and is it true?
What is the mental script you are replaying in your mind? Does it lead to life or death?
Who can help me?
2. Remove distractions in your life
3. Break your tasks or goals down into smaller steps. Quick wins can help gain momentum. Find quick wins for yourself in life. Start small things and build them up.
4. Can you delegate tasks to someone or else?
5. Consider creating an ideal workweek timesheet. In my life, it has helped me to stay focused. Yes, it may never work out full each week. But as I plan tasks and meetings, I work to develop rhythms and consistencies.
Having daily and weekly rhythms can, in time, help create wins to help keep you focused. What does your daily and weekly rhythms look like?
A Plan For A Personal 90-Day Goal Review
90-day goal-setting is one of the great tools that have helped me in my life. It is not too long to procrastinate, though that is still possible. It is also short, so I have to get going at it. 90-day goals have helped me reach my yearly goals.
Here is a 10 step plan to do your 90-day review time.
Pre-review time
- Schedule the time with a little margin on both ends
- Set the location?
During time
3. What are you most excited about from the last 90 days?
4. How did I recharge over the past 90 days?
5. Review my past 90 day goals
a)What were they?
b) How far did I get?
c)What is left to do?
6. What pivot should happen to my yearly goals? (if no annual goals skip ahead)
7. What are my next 90 day goals?
8. What are the action steps for each of those goals?
9. Calendar time – Schedule, book and review the calendar.
10. Go for a walk
What have you found helpful to you? What is your most significant obstacle in a 90-day goal review?