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Disconnect Yourself from Distractions and Notifications

One problem with the modern world is that it’s almost expected that people are supposed to multitask. The problem is no one can actually do it. It’s actually impossible for over 99 percent of humans to multitask. If you don’t believe me, you’ll need to look up the studies because it’s not something that is disagreed upon among social scientists.

 

Humans Cannot Do Two Things at Once

 

In reality, instead of true multitasking, you’re just splitting your attention between tasks – and not always evenly either. Trying to multitask is a productivity killer and also a mood killer. There are rare humans with superhuman ability who can multitask, just like there are rare humans who can perform superhuman athletic feats; some people are born with brains that are different from the norm.

 

More than likely, you are not one of those people. More than likely, you also cannot actually multitask. Trying to multitask is not just killing your productivity it’s probably even making you feel bad about yourself because you can’t live up to your own expectations, much less anyone else’s.

 

Multiple Studies Show People Cannot Multitask

 

Studies conducted by universities around the world have concluded that multitasking is not possible. Imaging shows that it takes most of us an average of 15 minutes to switch tasks and become reoriented to a primary task once distracted. There is no scientific argument that these things are true. After 50 years of research, scientists agree that trying to multitask is poorly affecting our productivity and our memory and, sadly, creativity.

 

Make The Commitment to Give Up Trying to Multitask and Start Focusing

How And Why You Must Remove Distractions

So, try this out for yourself. Turn your notifications off and stop being available 24 hours a day. You don’t owe it to anyone to be available to them at all times of the day and the night. And honesty, can you really be that much help at all hours of the day and night? When you don’t sleep enough, is your work done to a high enough standard?

 

Set specific times and block out your schedule for each activity and task you want to do each day. Whether it’s surfing Instagram or watching YouTube or commenting to your friends on Facebook Groups – or going for a game of Tennis with friends – get it in the schedule so that you can focus on it 100 percent.

 

When you get good at scheduling and actively shunning the idea of multitasking, you’ll feel so much more satisfied with your life and feel as if you have more time for doing all the things that make you happy and successful in life.

 

 

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Learn and Practice the Philosophy of Stoicism

There is no way for you to learn everything you need to know about this life philosophy from one blog post or article. However, if you’ve never even heard of the idea, just being exposed to this idea and what it really means can help you live a better and more successful life.

 

Live a Good Life of Virtue and Good Character

 

Firstly, a stoic believes that living a life of virtue and good character is the answer to living a happy and fulfilled life. To live this type of lifestyle, it takes introspection and an understanding of your own personal values, principles, morals, and willingness to live them.

 

You Are Responsible for Yourself

Are You Really Being Accountable?

 

Secondly, a stoic believes it’s within your power to be who you are and who you want to be and that you are fully 100 percent responsible for your own life and how you feel about it, but you cannot control what you cannot control. Therefore, a stoic will focus on controlling what is controllable.

 

Want Less Experience More

 

Thirdly, a stoic puts more stock in having experiences and learning new things over having more stuff or buying the most popular thing. That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily a minimalist, but they don’t just buy things for no reason or status purposes and actively focus on wanting less.

 

Accepting of Reality

 

Finally, stoics understand that they will not live forever. They are accepting that they’ll die at some point and live their life with that in mind. For example, if statistics show that walking fast 45 minutes a day extends life, and the stoic can make that happen because they have legs and the time to walk, they’re going to do it without struggling about the why or what-ifs surrounding the stats.

 

If you’re not sure who you are yet, or how you want people to think of you after you’re gone, take the time to discover who you are and how to become the person you want to be. If you are often considering the legacy you’re going to leave behind, it’s a lot easier to make the right choices when you have an options. Suppose you are fully accepting that you control your own reactions to the things that happen to you and not the other way around. In that case, it becomes a lot easier to make good choices minding your own personal ideals over what other people might think about it right now.

 

You can learn more about stoicism by reading books about philosophy like:

 

 

 

But you can also join groups about stoicism on Reddit, Facebook, and other social media sites that offer communities. There are also many useful YouTube videos about the philosophy of stoicism that you can get a lot out of.

 

 

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Ask Open-Ended Questions

One of the best ways to stand out at any event is to let other people talk. The best way to get other people to speak is to learn the art of asking open-ended questions. When you do that, the people come away from the event feeling heard, understood, and as if they like you a lot.

 

When people talk about themselves to someone truly interested and listening, it means so much more, as demonstrated by their actions. It is much more valuable and memorable to them.

 

To focus on asking open-ended questions, you’ll ask them what, how, and why often as they talk, using their own words to ask the questions.

ask question

Keep some of these phrases in mind to keep the conversion flowing:

 

  • What was it like to experience that thing you’re talking about?
  • What was the best part of that thing you’re talking about?
  • What was the hardest part about the thing you’re talking about?
  • How did you feel about the thing you’re talking about?
  • What brought you to this conclusion about the thing you’re talking about?
  • How is this thing you’re talking about similar to this other thing?
  • Tell me more about this specific aspect of the topic you mentioned?
  • What was the best part of your day today?
  • What’s been going well for you today?

 

Open-ended questions are useful because they allow the respondent to include more information than a yes or no question. You’ll get to know the people more deeply as you delve into their answers and the reasons why and how and what they’re doing.

 

It may seem almost contrary advice to listen and let others do all the talking at networking events, but this is how you get remembered as an interesting person. It’s just a little part of human nature that if you learn to exploit for your own purposes will teach you more about others while also allowing you to fit in more at every event you attend while reaping the benefits of the goodwill of others.

What 3 Key Questions to Ask about Online Marketing

As you start experimenting with asking open-ended questions at the events you attend, you’ll begin to notice that people respond to you differently because of it. Over time you’ll learn new ways to ask the questions that get even more profound answers allowing you insight into the people you surround yourself with that you may never have had if you didn’t ask more open-ended questions.

 

Even if you never go to events and are only around your family, spouse, and children, asking them open-ended questions can open communication to you all in a big way bringing you closer to each other in every way over time. Doing it every day after school or other events is a great way to check-in and learn a lot while simply listening.

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Daily Habit for Health: Stand Up At Least Once Every 30 Minutes

The smallest action, when done regularly, can make all the difference. If your life or job is sedentary, you can improve your health substantially simply by adding just one thing to your day. Add movement every 30 minutes and do it by making it a habit.

Exercise For 5 Minutes Each Morning

This micro habit of movement can make all the difference in your chances of developing cancer or having circulatory issues like blood clots, and even improve your mental health – and all you have to do is stand up, get up, and stretch your legs once every 30 minutes.

 

No special equipment or clothing is needed. Just get up and stretch and then sit back down and continue working. This habit will improve your circulation, help you maintain your weight, cut down on anxiety, and make you feel more awake and productive all day long.

Weight loss

To lesson your chances of blood clots or other cardiovascular issues:

 

  • Take a break to stand up every 30 minutes – All you have to do is stand up, stretch for a few seconds, and then sit back down—no need to go on a stroll or anything like that. Just get up, stretch, and sit back down every 30 minutes. Set up a reminder to get up and move.

 

  • Stand and move while watching Television, YouTube, or Movies – Instead of sitting to start with, don’t sit. Stand up and get moving while you watch your favorite shows. You can stand up and march in place while watching just as easily as you can lay down and watch.

 

  • Work at a standing desk – Invest in a sit and standing so that you can either sit or stand during different periods of activity. The change will really help you avoid problems.

 

  • Use a desk treadmill – One way to beat the system entirely is to invest in a desk treadmill that fits under your desk so that you can keep moving as you work. Peddling away while you work at your desk in a sitting position will help a lot.

 

  • Start fidgeting – If you really cannot get up and sit back down due to work policy or flow, start learning to wriggle while working. Fidgeting by moving your legs back and forth can keep the blood flowing, so you’re less likely to develop a blood clot from being sedentary.

 

Even if you are a person who exercises every day, if you don’t get up every 30 minutes or so when sitting, you could be putting yourself at greater risk of poor health outcomes. According to studies conducted by the Mayo Clinic, sitting even 90 minutes at one stretch without moving could be detrimental to your health even if you regularly exercise.

 

 

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Daily Habit for Success: Manage Your Money

A daily habit that will propel you to success is learning to manage your money. This isn’t really about investing. Although you should definitely set up regular investments and plan for your future, this is more about the idea that you should always know what’s coming in and what’s going out (and from and to whom) any moment of any given day.

 

To manage your money every day, you’ll want to:

 

  • Develop Plans for Your Money – What you do today with your money has everything to do with the plans you’ve created for the money you have. If you are not planning for big expenditures, you may overspend, or you might even miss opportunities that you would have taken otherwise.

 

  • Track Your Spending – Even if you spend a buck on a candy bar at the checkout, you need to track what you spend your money on. If you make it a habit to track every single day, it makes it easier than having to do data entry later after the fact. Use apps to help you automatically track your spending.

 

  • Track Your Income – It’s also important to track what is coming in on a daily basis. Don’t worry. This is not hard if you’re using a good online bank that offers the ability to categorize your income as it comes in. When you habituate glancing at the results once a day to stay up to date, it becomes easy.

 

  • Know Your Income Streams – Most wealthy people have about seven income streams on average. Knowing how each of your streams is working out, whether investments or something else daily, is imperative. What you track grows.

 

  • Create a Realistic Monthly Budget – If you are having issues sticking to your plans, redo your budget. If it’s not realistic, you won’t stick to it. Make your budget work for you by using real numbers and deciding what to do based on reality. For example, if you work until 9 pm, the idea that you’re going to cook from scratch every day is a pipe dream.

3 step plan

  • Pay Your Bills on Time Every Time – Paying your bills late accounts for billions of dollars in income to corporations that charge these fees. Don’t give them more of your hard-earned money for nothing. Instead, set up automatic payments and then double-check by using text alerts when the money comes out of your account so you don’t ever miss a payment.

 

  • Kept Consumer Dept Reasonable – The fewer payments you need to make, the less work you’ll have to do keeping track. Consumer debt has a place, but it should be used to buy appreciating assets over depreciating assets and kept to a minimum.

 

  • Track and Manage Recurring Payments – Everyone has recurring payments set up these days, but it’s important to be mindful of them and not just ignore the money coming out. Please pay attention to it coming out of your account so you can check whether you really need that item or not based on how you feel about the payment in comparison to the value you receive.

 

  • Save For Emergencies – Having fast cash available in case of an emergency, whether something tragic or an exciting opportunity, is a great way to cut down on decision paralysis. Try to have at least six to nine months of emergency money available in cash at all times.

 

  • Build Your Future Long-Term Savings and Investments – Using many automation methods, start investing in your long-term future using automatic payments or benefits to clubs or cards, or jobs.

 

When you know what you have coming in and going out, it’s a lot easier to make judgment calls when opportunity knocks. Paying close attention every day to your expenditures and keeping track of savings as you plan for your future will ensure your success in the future.

How to Be Realistic About Time

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Daily Habit to End Clutter: Throw Stuff Away

The daily habit of getting rid of things you’re not going to use will help you cut down on clutter, ensure you think twice before buying something new, and make you feel light and free. Holding on to old stuff just because you hate to get rid of it is just clogging up your home with dust magnets, making your office look cluttered, and it might even be causing brain fog which cuts down on your productivity.

communication

It really doesn’t matter what any guru or so-called expert says, if your 1000 book collection brings you joy, even though you have to dust it, and you rarely read the books again – it’s not wrong to keep them. However, don’t let an illogical attachment to stuff keep you trapped in an environment that is not conducive to reaching the goals you’ve set for yourself.

 

So, if you read this title and thought, “Not another lecture on minimalism,” don’t worry, it’s not. In many ways, the ability to even call oneself a minimalist is pretty privileged to start with, and minimize is really in the eye of the beholder. This is more about keeping your spaces less cluttered and doing it by simply making it a habit to clean up right away. Practice throwing away, giving away, and ending clutter on a schedule to help turn it into a habit.

 

  • Set Up a System – Everyone has paperwork and mail coming in. The best way to handle this is to set up a system. Try only to touch the paperwork once. Get the mail, open it by the trash and organize each piece. Every year when you do taxes, toss out the tax year that no longer needs to be saved per your accountant’s advice.

 

  • Trash, Process, or File – If you got a medical bill you need to pay, process it, and file it. If you got a letter from your congress person, you could throw it away; if you got a letter from the IRS and there is no need to do something, file it. The idea is when you do what needs to be done immediately, you have less clutter around.

 

  • Get Rid of Those Clothes – If you have clothing you’ve not worn for a season, socks with holes, and other things you never use, don’t save them. All they are doing is attracting dust and taking up space. Make this easy by keeping a donate bag in your closet that you fill over time and donate when full.

 

  • Throw Away Old Electronics – You may need to find a safe way to dispose of these through your city offices, but there is no reason to keep old electronics forever collecting dust and taking up space. Instead, find a place to donate them and make it a habit to do so yearly.

 

Keeping these things causes dust and clutter in your home or office, but studies show that physical clutter in your space causes anxiety and even depression. People who keep their environment less cluttered tend to get more done and report feeling more successful. You don’t have to be perfect but make it a habit to toss things you’re not using every single day.

 

Stay More Focused with These Five Simple Steps

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Organize your Environment for Success!

When it comes to daily habits that breed success, being organized can’t be understated. Getting your environment organized and keeping it that way will pay off in big ways.

 

Some people experience issues with being organized isn’t due to having some organizational block, but it’s more about not really understanding that there are better ways to get organized for success than just putting things away and being uncluttered.

Your Lack of Focus Is Getting in Your Way

Here are some ways to think about organization so that your entire environment is set up to make success easy for you, whether at home or work.

 

  • Use Your Planner – Whether you use electronic or paper versions, you can’t beat incorporating the habit of using a planner into your daily life to help you be more successful. When you have it all in one place, you can easily look at your days, weeks, months, and years and make the best use of that time. Don’t rely on memory. Write everything down you want to do and block out the time to do it.

If you know your Goal

  • Set Goals Properly – Make it a habit to set up your goals properly to what steps are necessary to be successful and how long it will take to do them. For example, if you want to start making money from your podcast, don’t just start podcasting; take the time to plan your podcast, plan your marketing, and plan each action you need to take to make it all work.

 

  • Make Daily Lists – From your planner the night before take a look and make a list of actions you will take tomorrow to achieve what’s in your planner. Organize the list with the top 3 priorities on the top and be willing to move anything after three to the next day.

 

  • Create Activity Zones – Whether home or office, the best way to organize is to set up activity zones. Putting everything away every time is a roadblock that will stop you from doing more. If you want to bake cookies, you shouldn’t have to redo your entire kitchen for an hour, and you should be able to go over to the baking zone and start within five minutes. The same thing if you’re writing a novel, if you have a writing area set up and ready to go, you can simply move to that writing zone and get it done during the block of time you set aside to do it.

 

  • Have a Place for Everything – Spending time creating the right storage and space to do the things you want to do will help a lot. It’s hard to get motivated to do much when the tools you’re using aren’t right, or the space you’re doing it in isn’t set up right. Spend the time and money investing in setting up your space to do what you want to do in it.

 

  • Be Consistent – No one wants to spend four hours cleaning a cluttered room and area on Saturday. Instead, make it a habit to consistently pick up and clean as you go so that you never have to do that. If you set up routines for each time of day where you habitually do certain behaviors, you won’t need any willpower. Check out com for some prewritten cleaning and organizing routines you can copy.

 

If you make it a habit to clear up right away and set up things for the next time, right away – you’ll experience a lot less procrastination and get a lot more done. Your productivity will increase exponentially just by simple organizational practices each day. The great thing is that most of it will become a habit quickly because the payoff is fast.

 

 

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Start Investing in Experiences

As we embark on careers to earn money, most of us don’t consider what really makes people happy or successful? Do things make people happy, or do experiences make people happy? According to science, experiences make people happier than possessions because experiences make us who we are.

 

Don’t worry, all the things you experience don’t have to cost a lot of money. Still, for those things that carry a higher price, you should start planning for them now by putting a little money aside so that on a future planned date, you can enjoy the experience without going into debt.

 

Experiences are important because:

 

  • Your Experiences Make You Who You Are – The compilation of experiences you have throughout your life makes you who you are in terms of your personalities and perception of the world. We all see things from the lens of our own life experiences, and the more experiences you can have, the more open your world view will become and the more well-rounded you will become.

 

  • You’ll Broaden Your Perspective – When you do more outside of your comfort zone, like travel to other countries, volunteer to help people in your community, take a class or do things that give you a point of view you may not have considered, before that experience.

 

  • You’ll Build Fabulous Memories – When you do more things and have more experiences, it gives you more memories to draw on to help you feel happy and satisfied. When you get together with family and friends, do you really show off your new expensive furniture, or do you show off your memories?

 

  • You Can Learn New Skills – When you buy experiences, you can learn new things to draw on in other aspects of your life. For example, hiking Mt. Everest is more than a fitness challenge. It’s also a challenge to push yourself out of your comfort zone and work with others in a team. All of which will help you in other aspects of your life.

 

  • Find Your Life Purpose – If you never leave your comfort zone, it may be hard ever to feel successful. Most people never travel away from their hometown, so they just don’t know what else is out there that might better define their purpose than what they’ve been exposed to so far.

The price of Greatness

When you live a life of purpose and new happenings, you’ll be happy to rise each day because of the joy you feel in the experiences you share with others. Even if the experience is going to the zoo instead of climbing Mt. Everest, you’ll still get more out of it than if you bought a new thingamacallit instead. You’ll have things to look forward to each day when you make it a habit to do things and have more experiences in your daily schedule.

Invest in More Training and Education

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Exercise For 5 Minutes Each Morning

An important habit to incorporate into your day is to move your body more. Sitting and being sedentary is worse for your health than even being a cigarette smoker, assuming the smoker is physically active.

Walking

Short Term High-Intensity Exercise Benefits Health

 

According to a 2018 study at an Australian University, two minutes of exercise at a high intensity in the morning may be just as good for you as 30 minutes of exercise. Plus, moving boosts your serotonin levels and puts you in a happy mood the rest of the day, not to mention you’ll jump-start your metabolism and thus maintain a healthier weight easier.

 

Morning Exercise Eliminates the Need for Willpower

 

Most of us have good intentions to move more, but we often allow an entire day to go by without ever doing the intentional exercise we planned. This ends up backfiring and causing us to be less healthy and less productive due to increased fatigue and brain fog that happens when you’re sedentary.

 

Make It a Habit

 

From this day forward, right after you get up, as soon as you can move well, do a three-minute warm-up plus two minutes of high-intensity movements until it becomes a habit for you within thirty minutes of rising each day. Since it’s just five minutes, you don’t have to prepare as much as if you were going on a bike ride or a longer run.

 

Mix Up Your Movements or Just Do the Same Thing

 

Some ideas are jumping jacks, jump roping, pushups, jogging in place, jogging down your driveway, squats, running up and down your stairs. Whatever it is that you do, do it at full intensity for just two minutes. You can exercise more later, but this is just something you do upon rising each day before you have your coffee or get ready for the day.

 

The benefits of working out like this each morning are that you’ll feel more energetic all day long, you’ll be more alert, focus better, and due to all that, be a lot more effective in whatever you need to do. Making the workout only five minutes long, including warm-up and the high-intensity two-minute workout, helps eliminate any excuses because you don’t need any equipment, gym, or set up to do this fast workout. But, one thing is clear, it will set you up for a much more successful day.

Avoid Burnout: How to Exercise and Sleep More

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Say No At Least Once a Week

As you work building in daily habits that will make you more successful, one of the skills you need to practice and habituate is saying no more.

For the next month or so, start saying no to something at least once a week.

say no

The way to choose what to say no to is to check your goals, look at your schedule, and ask yourself what you really want. If an action leads you to reach your goals and fits your schedule, saying yes is fine, but if it does not provide any value to you or does not fit into your schedule right now, say no.

 

When you do say no, you don’t owe anyone a reason with few exceptions. However, here are some reasons and ways that you can say no more often.

 

If You Already Know Say So

 

Sometimes you simply know that you don’t want to do something no matter what. Instead of putting people off or saying yes just to avoid the issue, start saying no right away. For example, if you have a friend involved in an MLM and constantly asks you to come to parties or buy things, and you have but resent it, start saying no and ask them to stop asking you.

 

Say I’ll Think About It

 

You don’t have to give people answers right away about anything. This can help you reduce the pressure on yourself to say yes to anything. Start making it a habit always to say, “Let me check my schedule. I’ll get back to you by 3 pm on Friday with my answer.” This way, they can wait patiently, and you can ensure that you want to say yes or no.

 

Always Check Your Schedule

 

Even if your first thought is that it’s something you want to do, you must always check your schedule before saying yes. You may be over booked already, and even if you’re going to say yes, you need to say no. Doing this will ward off burnout. Stretching yourself too thin is bad for you and everyone else that depends on you too.

 

Offer Alternatives

 

Sometimes you can’t do what your customer or the person wants, but you can turn your no into a yes in the recipient’s mind. If you know someone who can do the thing being asked of you better, tell them about it. If you can offer some help but not exactly what was asked for, say exactly that to the person.

 

One thing to remember is that you don’t have to be part of everything in your community. Saying no allows others to step up. Suppose you’re the type that runs your PTA, a small business, and more than two or three community organizations and clubs. You’re probably doing too much. Let others shine and take your time back. Your friends and family and you will thank you.

Write Down 3 Things You’re Grateful for Each Day