Being mindful of what isn’t important will give you the space to focus on what is.
3,647,821,509.5 — That is my guess of how many times “7 habits of highly effective people” by Stephen R. Covey has been summarized, ripped off, or simply plagiarized by wannabe bloggers like me to produce content. I am doing it anyway:
I started journaling a while ago and I have been using MindJournal products for two reasons:
aesthetics — I simply like the look and feel
prompts — they have great prompts to help you journal and keep you engaged
In the middle of my second journal, I found the small prompt at the bottom:
Being mindful of what isn’t important will give you the space to focus on what is.It made me stop, then smile and think. Honestly, in the next instant, my mind was racing with answers. Sometimes it is not that easy to figure out. Hence, I want to give you some of the ways that work for me:
One of the I learned of was Tim Ferriss’s Past Year Review. Now you can do this instead of new year resolutions or whenever you feel like it and it is very simple to do:
Grab a piece of paper and make columns for positive (+) & negative (-)
Look through your past, the best way is to click or look through your calendar week by week.
For each week note what triggered peak and bottom emotions. This could be activities, people, etc.
Once you are done, go through the columns and circle 20% of what triggered the absolute peak emotions, positive and negative.
Based on this go to your calendar and schedule activities with your positive peak people. Book and pay in advance for your peak positive activities.
Make it real by putting it in the calendar.You are not done yet. There is a second column left. Take the circled items and put them on a not-to-do list. These are people, activities, etc. that make you miserable.
Keep this list somewhere you can see it at first and then where you can find it. It is meant as a reminder and since we are all human we need those reminders.
Do not worry if your not-to-do list grows.Just make sure to not do these things again. It is very similar to the concept of not repeating mistakes.
If you have read “7 habits of highly effective people” or have seen one of the very entertaining Youtube Videos explaining habit 3, i.e. “Put First Things First” you know that you have to start with the big, important things.
You can only fit everything in the bucket if you start with the big rocks. The things which are important.And only then all the little, small things, that usually accumulate and fill your life can be added so everything fits. If you let the clutter come first there is not going to be enough space.
With my backward approach, I want to help figure out what the little things are. The things that clutter your life. The things that drain your energy. The things that annoy you. Obviously, there are habits, books, etc. that can help you with this, but here is my recipe:
Use your digital device not only for social media and other time wasters but use your calendar and use it to not only plan your time.
Keep a journal to find out when you were feeling down and especially when you are feeling up.
Check both regularly and keep track. This will help you analyze it in a way similar to the Past Year Review.
I hope this will help you find out what is not important and focus on what really is.
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