Hate me yet? Or did you find out that once you had a plan in place you got more done?
Because here's the secret, even getting just one thing done is a huge improvement over nothing. And if you're like me, you need to build up momentum to really start cranking out the goal accomplishing.
I put more on my calendar than I thought I would yesterday, because I have a weekly list on my calendar. Even if I wasn't sure where each item was going to fit for the week yet, I was able to sort the vast majority of my brain dump into a pile for each week.
Today you should have a task from yesterday to accomplish, and some journaling to do. Before you get started on that, pull out your schedule where you marked in your sleep and meals. You've had this schedule for a few days now. So for today's journaling we're going to make notes about that schedule.
We all have natural ebbs and flows in energy and mental capacity. Today I want you to look at your schedule and evaluate where you are the most productive for administrative tasks, creative tasks, and household tasks. And when you're not productive at all.
I honestly can't remember where I first saw the idea, but I've taken some great webinars and classes from Kelsey Browning, and tons from RWA University, so it's most likely from one of those sources.
Using this template for Excel I blocked out my time and productivity hot zones.
Because here's the secret, even getting just one thing done is a huge improvement over nothing. And if you're like me, you need to build up momentum to really start cranking out the goal accomplishing.
I put more on my calendar than I thought I would yesterday, because I have a weekly list on my calendar. Even if I wasn't sure where each item was going to fit for the week yet, I was able to sort the vast majority of my brain dump into a pile for each week.
Today you should have a task from yesterday to accomplish, and some journaling to do. Before you get started on that, pull out your schedule where you marked in your sleep and meals. You've had this schedule for a few days now. So for today's journaling we're going to make notes about that schedule.
We all have natural ebbs and flows in energy and mental capacity. Today I want you to look at your schedule and evaluate where you are the most productive for administrative tasks, creative tasks, and household tasks. And when you're not productive at all.
I honestly can't remember where I first saw the idea, but I've taken some great webinars and classes from Kelsey Browning, and tons from RWA University, so it's most likely from one of those sources.
Using this template for Excel I blocked out my time and productivity hot zones.
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I have learned the hard way that I was sleeping through my most productive time for creative endeavors. I brainstorm the best, and am most easily able to blog before 8am. Which is why moving my #Roxys7DayChallenge to 9am today has me riding the struggle bus. This is when I usually take out my household budget and pay bills, or review marketing or sales data, or even just work on line edits. Things with very black and white right and wrong answers work well for me in the 9am - Noon time.
But that's just my natural flow. I want you to look at your own. You can print out the calendar, and make notes, or journal about it in your morning pages. Take ten minutes and put some real thought into this. It's time to work with your nature and not against it. If all of your spare time is low energy, you need to pull out your "Health" list from your brain dump. Those items are now the most important, because if you're not healthy enough to work toward your goals, they are going to seem even further out of reach. If you're not finding a time when you're feeling creative, maybe try a different meal or sleep schedule, or a different place to claim as your office space. This is where we can start to tweak our schedules to better meet our needs. But the first step is to evaluate where you are RIGHT NOW.
I used to be miserable doing my dishes after dinner. I am so shattered from the rest of my day by that time that I would stall and pout, and it would take me damn near an hour to clean up after dinner. So I changed it up. I leave all the mess after dinner and let it rot on the table, counter, and in the sink. I ignore it. I moved that chore to the morning when I'm working on drinking my lemon water and shaking off the last bit of sleep. Know what? A chore that would have taken me an hour the night before is done in fifteen minutes. So it's part of my morning routine now.
What chores are you horrified at the thought of? See if moving them to a different part of the day helps.
But I want to talk about more than just clean dishes. There is a rule I've heard repeated in tons of self-help books. The 80/20 rule. It's simply the idea that 80% of our results are achieved by 20% of our actions. So for every five tasks you complete in a day, only one really makes a difference long term.
Remember your long game goal? For now that's your 20%. It might change, but that's what is going to get top priority in your schedule. If everything goes to shit, if your day is thrown off by a traffic jam, or a power outage, you throw everything out the window but your long game. Because that's what's going to help you accomplish your goal.
In your journal today, you're going to do a self evaluation. Take the time and answer the following questions for yourself.
1. What's working? Why?
What are you doing in your every day life that has you feeling like you've got your shit together? What is moving you closer to your goals? What is helping you keep your house clean with little stress? Or what is earning you the most money? Why is that action effective for you?
2. What do you need to do more of?
What is a positive factor in your life that you can build upon? Does your morning walk make you feel amazing? How can you incorporate exercise on the days it's raining or snowing? Do your ads seem to get fantastic click through? How can you find time to make more?
3. What do you need to stop doing?
This can be a hard one. If you're looking at your day to day activities with a harsh eye, it's easy to realize you need to put down your phone, delete some games, or quit spending money on expensive coffee to help your budget. Sometimes, though, you're deep into a time consuming task because of guilt, or commitment to a friend, or even a bad habit like smoking or drinking in excess. This is another example of being honest with yourself. You have your "Why" and you now have a "Long Game" goal. If you're waffling on your evaluation, look to what matters most right now. Do these habits or duties benefit your "Why" or your "Long Game", or do they pull you away from what you want to accomplish?
I'm not going to ask you to add anything new to your calendar today. But I am going to ask you to work through the three questions above and be honest with yourself. What's working? What do you need to do more of? What do you need to stop doing?
Right now, I need to get off my blog and accomplish the task I just got a reminder for on my phone. So I'll leave you to it.
Remember when I said this was going to be a challenge? I didn't lie. But we can do this. We're going to get shit done, but first we need to figure out what shit to do, and what shit to flush.
Did you find out something in your schedule that is in the completely wrong spot? Tell me what you're moving around, or changing priorities on. I'd love to hear what you've learned about yourself with this one. I had to grudgingly admit I was a morning person. It was awful.
That's it for Day 6. Tomorrow we put everything we've learned into play and put together our routine! I'm super excited.
~Roxy
But that's just my natural flow. I want you to look at your own. You can print out the calendar, and make notes, or journal about it in your morning pages. Take ten minutes and put some real thought into this. It's time to work with your nature and not against it. If all of your spare time is low energy, you need to pull out your "Health" list from your brain dump. Those items are now the most important, because if you're not healthy enough to work toward your goals, they are going to seem even further out of reach. If you're not finding a time when you're feeling creative, maybe try a different meal or sleep schedule, or a different place to claim as your office space. This is where we can start to tweak our schedules to better meet our needs. But the first step is to evaluate where you are RIGHT NOW.
I used to be miserable doing my dishes after dinner. I am so shattered from the rest of my day by that time that I would stall and pout, and it would take me damn near an hour to clean up after dinner. So I changed it up. I leave all the mess after dinner and let it rot on the table, counter, and in the sink. I ignore it. I moved that chore to the morning when I'm working on drinking my lemon water and shaking off the last bit of sleep. Know what? A chore that would have taken me an hour the night before is done in fifteen minutes. So it's part of my morning routine now.
What chores are you horrified at the thought of? See if moving them to a different part of the day helps.
But I want to talk about more than just clean dishes. There is a rule I've heard repeated in tons of self-help books. The 80/20 rule. It's simply the idea that 80% of our results are achieved by 20% of our actions. So for every five tasks you complete in a day, only one really makes a difference long term.
Remember your long game goal? For now that's your 20%. It might change, but that's what is going to get top priority in your schedule. If everything goes to shit, if your day is thrown off by a traffic jam, or a power outage, you throw everything out the window but your long game. Because that's what's going to help you accomplish your goal.
In your journal today, you're going to do a self evaluation. Take the time and answer the following questions for yourself.
1. What's working? Why?
What are you doing in your every day life that has you feeling like you've got your shit together? What is moving you closer to your goals? What is helping you keep your house clean with little stress? Or what is earning you the most money? Why is that action effective for you?
2. What do you need to do more of?
What is a positive factor in your life that you can build upon? Does your morning walk make you feel amazing? How can you incorporate exercise on the days it's raining or snowing? Do your ads seem to get fantastic click through? How can you find time to make more?
3. What do you need to stop doing?
This can be a hard one. If you're looking at your day to day activities with a harsh eye, it's easy to realize you need to put down your phone, delete some games, or quit spending money on expensive coffee to help your budget. Sometimes, though, you're deep into a time consuming task because of guilt, or commitment to a friend, or even a bad habit like smoking or drinking in excess. This is another example of being honest with yourself. You have your "Why" and you now have a "Long Game" goal. If you're waffling on your evaluation, look to what matters most right now. Do these habits or duties benefit your "Why" or your "Long Game", or do they pull you away from what you want to accomplish?
I'm not going to ask you to add anything new to your calendar today. But I am going to ask you to work through the three questions above and be honest with yourself. What's working? What do you need to do more of? What do you need to stop doing?
Right now, I need to get off my blog and accomplish the task I just got a reminder for on my phone. So I'll leave you to it.
Remember when I said this was going to be a challenge? I didn't lie. But we can do this. We're going to get shit done, but first we need to figure out what shit to do, and what shit to flush.
Did you find out something in your schedule that is in the completely wrong spot? Tell me what you're moving around, or changing priorities on. I'd love to hear what you've learned about yourself with this one. I had to grudgingly admit I was a morning person. It was awful.
That's it for Day 6. Tomorrow we put everything we've learned into play and put together our routine! I'm super excited.
~Roxy
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