Do you often feel like you’re on your own personal treadmill? You hop on in the morning-you feel like you just left it not so long ago the night before and before you know it…the day is off…you’re on it…and so it goes? Where it goes no one knows. Often we’re so busy doing, we lose track of what we started out wanting to be doing. If you asked yourself right now, how much of what you do is VERY important, what would you say? Would you say 80%, 70%, 50% 30%? How much? If you were to get really sick and were only able to work a couple of hours a day, what of all the work you are keeping yourself busy doing now, would you actually NEED to do? It’s interesting to think about. You might begin to think about all those activities that you do to fill your time…that don’t really get things done?

Does any of this sound familiar to you? People step onto the treadmill for different reasons, some of us are born that way, others feel time is passing them by because we’re getting older or we’ve lost time because maybe we’ve been sick or dealt with some life altering experience. Others can’t sit still, some are unfocused and disorganized. I myself have experienced the treadmill because I’ve dealt with a serious illness and felt like I was trying to make up for lost time. You can’t really make up for lost time. Some of the best advice I heard was to think “I have all the time in the world”. Once I heard that, it didn’t take away my desire, it just took away that feeling that I was constantly trying to meet an invisible deadline. As I said, everyone has their own reasons for being on the treadmill, but the important thing is to get off. Try doing these things to hop off that treadmill:

  1. Start every day with a clear idea of what you want to do. Have a TO DO LIST. Always write that list no later that the night before.
  1. Use a square Post-it for your TO DO LIST, you don’t want an infinite list of TO-DO’s.
  1. You shouldn’t have more than two BIG things listed on the TO-DO list. You want these to be THE things you get done today, these are the things you don’t put off until tomorrow.
  1. DO NOT, DO NOT, let lots of other little things get in the way of your list things. KEEP reminding yourself not to let that happen. Print a sign in your office and hang it up “DO NOT LET MY SMALL STUFF GET IN THE WAY OF MY BIG STUFF”.
  1. Use the timer I’ve suggested in previous blogs. Devote a certain amount of time to certain things. Don’t go over that amount of time. When the timer rings, you’re done with that thing. Onward!
  1. No Multitasking. Multitasking is extremely inefficient, it’s been said that it takes 20 minutes to get back to what you were doing before you redirected yourself. At the end of day that’s a lot of wasted time. Imagine what you could do with that time?
  1. Remember to completely unplug and relax for 30 minutes a day. Rejuvenation is the basic building block to energetic focus.; more rejuvenation equals more focus. If you give yourself 30 minutes a day doing deep rejuvenation and relaxation, whether it’s going for a walk, or doing a meditation, or some yoga, it gives you back your productivity and focus for the next few hours to do your job.

Love to hear your thoughts and comments.