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by Emma Fogt
 18 Minutes- Find Your Focus … by Peter Bregman When I was writing the Having Your All book with Nisha Shah- this was the mantra I had pasted above my computer…”There’s No Hocus Pocus in Focus”. Why? Because I had to see this saying to keep me reminded that I needed to just simply focus. I knew that my number one barrier in writing that book was distraction. What’s to prevent me from throwing in a pile laundry into the washing machine, emptying the dishwasher or walking the dog instead of sitting down in my chair to write?
I also found Peter Bregman’s book extremely helpful in planning my days. It’s called:
18 Minutes, Find Your Focus, Master Distraction and Get the Right Things Done(2011). Peter Bregman’s 18 minutes imply that it takes that amount
of time to plan your day. He encourages us all to take 18 minutes out of our day and make it a ritual to help become clear on what to focus on for the day. He divides those 18 minutes into 3 sections as follows : 5 Minutes in the morning- 8 minutes every hour through out the day and then 5 minutes at the end of the day. Here are those tasks divided into 3 Steps.
STEP 1 (5 Minutes)- “Your Morning Minutes”: Take your to do list and decide what you will work on that day. Remember if a “to do” has been on your list for 3 days- make sure to tackle that first.
STEP 2 (1 Minute Every Hour)- Have your phone or alarm ring or beep on an hourly basis. That “beep” or “ring” will be a checkpoint to assess how you are doing and then re-assess if necessary what needs to be accomplished to get your goals done.
STEP 3 (5 Minutes)- At the end of the day, after you shut down your computer take time to assess how the day went. Ask: How did the day go? Who do I need to contact next? What needs to be done?
Peter promises if you practice this 18 Minute Ritual you will feel more productive and successful.
I do realize that this ritual does not work during the day if you are running around from meeting to plane to train…but I believe having a ritual or system in place can help people like me get more things done in less time and then have more time for self care , friends and family.
No, I didn’t make a mistake with the title. This blog was inspired be a response to an e-mail requesting everyone to share their pictures payday 2 dodge build from an extended family trip over the summer. It was a great memory that included staying together in a rented home with an incredible view and going all together to an outdoor concert in an even more stunning location. It was to be the first concert for my two children and their three cousins in memory of my niece who passed away from leukemia. The singer was her favorite and this was a special trip for
all of us.
As I was payday loans online appreciating all the pictures that others in the family were sharing via e-mail, I sheepishly replied that I didn’t take any pictures throughout the weekend. I consciously wanted to enjoy every moment fully with all of my senses and not through my phone lens, so I kept my camera in my payday 2 wiki bag during the concert and didn’t even use my phone to take pictures the entire weekend.
Now I knew I wasn’t making any kind of bold statement. I knew everyone else in the family, http://paydayadvanceusca.com/ including the kids, were capturing all online payday loans of the special moments and I knew I would forever have proof of a great weekend. But, I was making a new kind of choice for myself. I was telling myself that my personal experience of this experience was more important to me than the documentation of it. The full feeling of being in the moment http://paydayloansusca.com and experiencing every sensation of a beautiful sun setting in a majestic payday loans online sky, the warm and welcome slight breeze, the smells (the concert was in Washington State), and listening to music with family direct lender payday loans around me would never be captured in a picture, so I’m not even going to try. payday loans las vegas Instead, I am going to fully ‘experience the experience’ and never forget the long term payday loans meaningfulness of that moment.
-n
Recent studies suggest yes, stress is contagious. It travels in social circles- if we are stressed, it can affect our friends, our families and even strangers near us.
I remember being on a BOLT bus getting ready to leave to NYC. Suddenly the driver went A-wall on a poor passenger who placed his bag on an empty seat. The driver was flailing his arms,swearing at the passenger
and screaming at the top of his lungs for the passenger to get off the bus. I was so stressed out, I felt sick to my stomach … As the passenger got off the bus – so did I. I had absorbed that second hand stress and my body and mind were feeling it.
Post Doc, Sarah Waters, Tessa West from NYU and research scientist Wendy Berry Mendes Mendez from the Emotion Health and Physiology Laboratory at the University of San Francisco have studied how mother’s stress levels affect their babies . In their study, mother’s stress levels were measured payday with an EKG to see if
their babies absorbed their stress signals. As it turned out, their baby’s sympathetic responses did match their mother’s stress levels. If mothers were more stressed, their heart rates went up fast payday loans as did the payday the heist baby’s. Link: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/272085.php
Imagine, there are even some occupations such as counseling, medicine, massage therapists and bar tending that have to deal with second hand stress on a daily basis.
Three ways to handle second-hand stress instant payday loan is to:
- Avoid stress and stressful situations (easier said than done).
- Determine
how you will react to stress- Instead of letting stress stick to you like Velcro, imagine it payday loans in pa sliding off of you. Yes- imagine, you are made of Teflon!
- Take care of your stress through self-care such as meditation or other coping mechanisms which work best for you.
Next time someone mentions “Hey, that person stresses me out! ” take them seriously- as the research shows this is
a very true statement!
-Emma
Ref: Water, S.F., West T.V. payday loans online no credit check and Berry Mendes,W., (January, 2014). Stress Contagion: Physiological Covariation Between Mothers and Infants, Psychological Science. Retrieved from: http://wendyberrymendes.com/cms/uploads/mother_baby_stress.pdf
Okay, I have to admit that it wasn’t just the three of us chatting over a glass of wine after a day’s work last Thursday evening. Add about 2,799 other people in a large venue in downtown San Francisco and you’ll get the real picture. Yet, I have to admit the feeling was the same as Sheryl interviewed Arianna about her new book, Thrive and her belief that today’s world needs to redefine success beyond power and money to include the third metric—what personally gives your life meaning and purpose. In Thrive, Arianna emphasizes well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving as components of this Third Metric.
This is the conclusion I had determined after spending almost 20 years working with executives who may have ‘made it’ as far as money and status, but were some of the unhappiest and unhealthiest people around. Something was missing in their lives, but they couldn’t see beyond the two elements of money and power because that is what is so valued in our society. They figured they just needed more of it to feel better, happier and more successful.
So here is Arianna—I feel like I can be on
a first name basis with her since we share a similar philosophy—talking about things like:
Wow! Although there is a part of me that is a little envious since we talked about all these points in our book, Having Your All, but more than that, so relieved and excited that the conversation is going strong. Arianna’s voice and reach is far more powerful than mine and she has no doubt perfected speaking in sound bites and all with an exotic accent, of which I have neither.
Both ladies have
more than enough money and power that allows them to play with the ‘big boys’, but here they are taking their time and energy to remind us that meaning and purpose cannot be bought. It is accessible to all and it’s the great equalizer when it comes to defining success. We all can be successful when we define our own version of success and determine what is meaningful to us in our lives…and imagine what the world would look like.
So, thank you ladies for
re-charging me and reaffirming our message and anytime you want to get together again on a Thursday evening, let me know…the drinks are on me!
-Nisha
As January starts to wind down, most people are to the point of either still “making it” or more likely “breaking it” with their new year’s resolutions. It’s the nature of the beast—change is not likely to happen overnight. Motivation shifts like a pendulum back and forth between both extremes and most people are left heading towards the indulgences of February’s Valentine’s Day with the optimism of a healthy new year quickly
fading into the distance. Have we already accepted defeat and are going to wait around until we have
to get into a swimsuit during the summer months to “restart” our health priorities?
President Obama, yesterday in his State of the Union speech, declared 2014 “a year of action”. White House aides are talking up how the president is “redefining success” based not on what can get through Congress, but on what actions he can take on his own. The Republican response from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash, said that “We hope the president will join us in a year of real action, by empowering people…” Shouts of “do it” rang out from members of the audience during the speech.
Outside of politics, what does this mean for you and me and our goals of bettering our health, well-being, and success in life? It’s the reminder that motivation, optimism, and the drive to make changes doesn’t have to be limited to the first of the year. Even if our motivation is weak in one moment, all it takes is the next moment for us to start anew. “Do it”. “Redefine what success means to you” in the very next moment. That is how we can make 2014 “a year of action” for ourselves.
Borrowing from the toolbox of strategies we use with our clients in achieving behavior change and as further discussed in our book, “Having Your All”, momentum is something that can be far more important that momentary success. What
good is it to move two steps forward toward your goals only to fall 2-3 steps back when things don’t go according to your intentions. It takes far less time and physical and emotional energy to move forwards with baby steps or with periodic pauses than with big swings forwards and back. It might just be wiser to maintain where you are at for a period of time until life and your motivation cooperates to take you forward again. Redefine success to not be perfection-focused, but rather toward making the best choices possible in every given moment. That is feeling empowered and is the meaningful and doable focus you want to make 2014 your year of action!
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