Oh, happy day!
Just after 10 this morning, and I am off to a good start. Because of my goal setting index card yesterday, I woke up to a clean desk to work at! Boy does that feel good.
And I have although I have a scheduled brew option on my coffee pot, I rarely use it. But today, knowing I was headed out to get my walk in before the sun warms up the day, I scheduled my brew for 45 minutes later and walked back into the house to the sweet smell of coffee! YAY! I love how making just one small change in my daily routine can make it feel so much better.
I’m not quite in the routine of writing this post everyday (it is only day 2), so I did find myself distracted this morning. Not only on social media, (which is a huge time killer) but I was digging right into other work. I need to pause for just a few minutes to think about how my day is going to be different today – how I plan to grow!
Yesterday, I was often de-railed during my work to “work” on other things. And although this might not be a bad thing, I feel like the work is not intentional. I’m going to try combining a couple of techniques.
A popular technique for keeping meetings on topic, is the use of a “Parking Lot” – this is simply a list that you create as the discussion moves along. Any topic that is brought up during the meeting that is not “on-topic” is put on the “Parking Lot” list.
The idea is that you are saying – “I hear you, good point, but this is not the time or place” – so you write it on the “Parking Lot” list and move back to topic.
I incorporated this technique with my children when they were small. It is very powerful. When my son was about 3, he was in a fit of hysteria over the need for a cookie. It wasn’t a good time, either dinner was coming up or he had just had a some other treat, so I simply put his name on a tiny brown bag and placed the prized cookie in the bag. I put it in the “Parking Lot”. I told him, he could have the cookie later, and that it was HIS cookie. “Oh, okay” he said. It was like magic! My needs are not that different. 🙂
My plan is to have a “Parking Lot” list where I can write down the things that are distracting me, the things I want to or feel I need to get to. And by writing them down, I am acknowledging the task, but simply delaying the work.
AND sometimes, I actually do things that are not on my list. An email pops up and I reach to a friend, I clean the bathroom with a spark of energy at the end of the day. Whatever it is, I should get credit for doing it! I love how it feels to check things off my list! Even writing down or thinking about all that I had accomplished this morning before sitting down to write this, gave me a sense of achievement. I’m going to call it my Shiny Object List – showing off my achievements and keeping track my distractions to help keep me focused!
