Wasting Time With Micro Timewasters

We notice how and when we waste time on a large scale. We notice that we spent an hour on social media or that we watched TV for three hours. However, these aren’t the only ways we waste time. We waste time in dozens of ways each day. Wasting Time With Micro Timewasters

Many of this time wasters aren’t always obvious, but the time can really add up over the course of a day, a week, or a decade.

Don’t let your time just be frittered away! Imagine how much you could accomplish in that time! What could you do that really matters to you? Wasting Time With Micro Timewasters

Guard your time from the micro timewasters with these strategies:

1. Have a phone charger with you. How many times in a week do you need a phone charger and have to go into the other room to fetch it? Have multiple chargers and keep them handy in the locations you spend the most time.

> It’s not just the time it takes to get the charger. It’s the disruption to your thoughts and workflow. Plus, once you leave the room to locate your charger, who knows what else will grab your attention along the way. Wasting Time With Micro Timewasters

2. Internet speed. How much time do you spend waiting for a web page to load? Or a movie to stream? You might not think you’re waiting for very long, but it all adds up. If your internet is noticeably slow, your time is being wasted.

3. Checking e-mail. It just takes 10 seconds to check email, right? Hardly. That quick look alters your concentration, and there’s no telling how far down the rabbit hole you’re going to go. Wasting Time With Micro Timewasters

> You might open three emails, respond to one one them, and then remember that you have another email to answer.

> What if the email is a link to a video of a cat chasing a dog?

> There’s no telling when you’ll get back on track.

4. Beverages. How many times do you get up from your desk to get a drink? However many times it is, it’s too many. Keep a beverage handy when you’re working. Take a sip and get back to work. Wasting Time With Micro Timewasters

5. Snacks. Keep something healthy available. If you have to go to the vending machine for a snack, you can’t be sure who you’ll run into or how long you’ll be gone.

6. Get gas for your car on the weekend. You don’t want to be rushed on Tuesday morning and realize that your car needs gas on the way to work. Plan ahead. Wasting Time With Micro Timewasters

7. Meals. We spend a lot of time thinking about meals, planning meals, buying food, cleaning dishes. If you have to stop on the way to work for breakfast, go out for lunch, and then pick up something at the store for dinner, you’re wasting a lot of time.

> Go to the store once a week, at most.

> Have food that can be prepared quickly and easily and doesn’t require multiple pots and pans to prepare it.

8. Looking for “lost” things. This could be your keys, purse, wallet, a pen, your shoes, jacket, umbrella, or anything else you’ve temporarily misplaced. Keep the essentials in a particular place. Wasting Time With Micro Timewasters

> For example, don’t ever put your car keys anywhere but in the decorative bowl by the front door. Your pen should be on your desk. Your shoes should be where your shoes belong if they’re not on your feet.

After you’ve eliminated the big wasters of time in your life, start looking at the tiny wasters of time. You’ll quickly realize that the impact on your life isn’t so tiny.

Every disruption has a greater impact than just the amount of time the disruption robs from you. Consider the loss of focus and momentum. It takes time to get back on track mentally after you’ve scoured the house or your workplace for a pencil. Wasting Time With Micro Timewasters

Guard your time with your life – the life you really desire!

Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

“The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” – John C. Maxwell

What is the first thing you do after you wake up in the morning? Maybe you check your phone, or you get out of bed to brush your teeth. Whatever it is, you might not think twice about it. Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

Habits are learned behaviors that become a part of your routine over time. They can be subconscious. And habits are not always good.

Yet some of the most successful people attribute their success to their routine. Those people took time to integrate good habits into their life. Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

To change your life, you can change your habits. Habits do not have to be large changes in order to have an impact. You can also integrate small, good habits into your routine.

These habits might seem small or insignificant, but they can carry into your life in unexpected ways. Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

Implement these habits into your routine to change your life:

1. Make your bed. Starting your day by making your bed is one of the simplest habits to integrate into your daily routine. You reward yourself by starting the day off with an easy win. Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

> That simple accomplishment can subconsciously act as a domino effect as you generate other wins throughout your day.

2. Set an intention. At the beginning of your day, set an intention. You can also set intentions for the week, month or year. Setting intentions regularly guides you with a reminder of how you want to live each day.

3. Practice gratitude. Studies have shown that when we practice gratitude, our brains release dopamine. Gratitude helps shift your mind to positive thoughts, which can help you feel more positive. Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

> At the end of the day, write down three things you are grateful for to build your gratitude habit.

4. Exercise. When you exercise, your body releases chemicals that relieve stress and spark euphoria. In addition to being a natural antidepressant, exercise also builds your confidence. To build your confidence and happiness, make it a habit to exercise each day.

5. Express gratitude to others. When you express gratitude towards others, you strengthen the connection you have with them. Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

> Write a thank you letter to a mentor who has guided you in the past or to someone who made an impact on your life.

> After you spend time with someone, send them a message thanking them for their time and include one specific thing you loved about that time.

6. Read. Just like exercise builds your physical muscles, reading builds your brain’s muscles. Reading consistently builds your ability to focus, concentrate, and remember things.

7. Switch to positive language. Practice using positive language, from your self-talk to the things you say to others. Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

> Say, “Thank you for your patience,” instead of, “Sorry for the wait.”

> Pay attention to the negative things you say to yourself. Would you speak that way to a friend? Speak to yourself more positively too!

8. Take the stairs. In a digital age where most of us are tied to our computers, choose the option that gets you moving! Take the stairs instead of the elevator. When you need to run an errand, walk or bicycle to the shop. Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

Follow these tips to successfully implement new habits:

1. Make each habit timely. For example, “make my bed daily” or “express gratitude to someone else once per week.”

2. Avoid long breaks when building a new habit. If you have a habit you want to do daily and you miss one day, do your best not to let yourself miss two days.

3. Be compassionate with yourself. If you forget to exercise one day, avoid beating yourself up! Learn to be compassionate and understanding of yourself.

4. Find an accountability buddy. You are more likely to stick to your habits if you have someone holding you accountable. Find someone to hold you accountable or support you throughout your journey! Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

5. Reward yourself. Rewarding yourself as you hit milestones will help you enjoy the process.

You don’t have to make drastic changes – like starting a new career – to change your life. The small changes habits have in your routine can make a huge impact!

Change Your Life by Implementing These New Habits

You procrastinate because the thought of taking a certain action makes you feel bad. There are lots of actions that give us that “Ugh” feeling when we even think about doing them. The unpleasant action could be going to the gym, doing your taxes, making an unpleasant phone call, or scrubbing the toilet. Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

So, procrastination isn’t really an issue of laziness. It’s an emotional issue. Your brain predicts that you’re going to experience a negative emotion and does its best to help you avoid it.

However, you don’t have to allow your emotions to guide you. They’re merely suggestions you can choose to follow or reject. It’s not easy to take an action that feels uncomfortable, but it can be done. Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

Even if you procrastinate, you’ll eventually feel even worse about not taking the appropriate action! Why not save yourself some time and drama and just do it now?

Sometimes it’s okay to procrastinate, but there are other times that it would be best to take action immediately. Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

So, what can you do to mitigate procrastination?

Try these tips to overcome procrastination:

1. Focus on the physical sensation. When you think about doing the thing you don’t want to do, it creates a feeling in your body. Notice where you feel that negative sensation. How would you describe it? Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

> Focus on the area of your body where you feel the sensation and see what happens to that physical sensation. See how long that feeling lasts.

> Once you see how this feeling dissipates in a short time, it will be easier to handle it or even disregard it in the future. Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

2. Find an easier way to do the task. Maybe there’s a better or easier way to do what needs to be done. Some tasks are just so big they’re intimidating to even consider. Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

> Can you do a little each day until it’s done?
> Is there a special tool you can rent?
> Rent a dumpster?
> Hire someone else to do it?

3. Promise yourself a reward after the task is complete. Maybe all you need is an ice cream cone, a massage, or a new book to inspire you to get busy and take action. A reward can be a powerful motivator.

4. Think of how great you’ll feel after completing the task. There are few feelings better than completing a dreaded task. It’s such a relief to put it behind you. Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

> Instead of focusing on how awful it will be to do it, focus on how awesome you’ll feel when it’s done.

5. Start small. Plan to work on it for just five minutes. Promise yourself that’s all you have to do and then you’ll give yourself a break. You might find that it’s easy to continue after you get started.

> Getting started can be the most challenging part of accomplishing just about anything.

6. Get help. Do you know someone that can help you? Having some company can make unpleasant tasks more tolerable. Find a friend to help, and you’ll get done twice as fast. Better yet, find five friends and make a party out of it! Unpleasant tasks are less miserable when you have company. Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

7. Be tough. There are some tasks that simply have to be done even if you don’t want to do them. Summon your inner gladiator and overcome your resistance. Just get it done.

Everyone has the urge to procrastinate. One thing that separates successful people from the masses is the ability to overcome this urge.

We procrastinate because the thought of doing the task is unpleasant. There are ways to minimize the discomfort of performing a task. Seek out these ways. Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

Focus on the benefits of taking action, get your work done, and give yourself a little reward. You’ll feel great when it’s over. Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

1. Billionaires have a long-term perspective. Most people are focused on surviving another week or planning their weekend. It’s a short-term perspective that never results in anything in the long-term.

> A billionaire is making decisions and taking action for objectives that are often 10 years or more into the future.

> A regular person might have to scramble to survive in the short-term, but there’s no reason why he can’t spend some of his time working toward something that will make his life better five years from now. However, very few do.

2. Billionaires value time over money. For a billionaire, money isn’t really a thing anymore. Buying a $200,000 car is irrelevant when you make $10 million a month. Billionaires value time. That’s why they often have drivers, charter planes, and assistants. 6 Ways That Billionaires Think Differently Than the Rest of Us

> Conversely, many of us are willing to sacrifice too much time in order to save money. Sometimes this is necessary, but many people take it too far. As much as possible, use your time for a higher purpose.

3. Billionaires delegate. You can’t make a billion dollars all on your own. Many entrepreneurs struggle to grow beyond a certain level. It’s often because they won’t utilize other people to do the work.

> It’s better to make 1% from the efforts of 1,000 people than to make 100% from just your own effort. 6 Ways That Billionaires Think Differently Than the Rest of Us

> Delegate as much as you can. Always be looking for more valuable ways to spend your time.

4. Billionaires focus on making more money, rather than saving. The typical financial guru touts cutting expenses to the bone and saving as much as possible. That’s fine if you want to sacrifice today to be wealthy in 40 years when you retire. 6 Ways That Billionaires Think Differently Than the Rest of Us

> However, it’s difficult to save a lot of money each month unless you make a lot of money.

> Many billionaires are relatively tight with their money, but they primarily focus on making more money each year.

> Save your money but put attention on boosting your income.

5. Billionaires have big goals. Billionaires aren’t aiming for a six-figure salary, a Corvette, or week in Rome. Their goals are more along the lines of taking over the telecommunications industry or owning a million acres of farmland. You can’t achieve big things without big goals. 6 Ways That Billionaires Think Differently Than the Rest of Us

6. Most billionaires like to work more than anything else. Some people look at billionaires and wonder what’s wrong with them.

> “Don’t they already have more money than they can ever spend?”

> “Why don’t they travel, spend time with friends, or learn to play the piano?”

> “I could find something better to do than just work if I were wealthy.”

> What most people fail to realize is that really successful people love to work. That’s part of the reason they are so successful. 6 Ways That Billionaires Think Differently Than the Rest of Us

> A billionaire isn’t always obsessed with the idea of stockpiling more money – they just enjoy seeing improvement and progress in their life more than they enjoy doing anything else.

11 Tips to Maximize Your Intellectual Growth

Most people consider getting their bodies in better shape. But few people think about growing their intellect. However, a mind is a terrible thing to waste! 11 Tips to Maximize Your Intellectual Growth

Yes, it’s important to keep your body healthy and fit. But put the rest of your available exercise time toward building your intellect!

Try these techniques to build greater intellectual capacity:

1. Read. Reading is great. You can often find out more about a topic in a few hours of reading than you can in a lifetime of experimenting on your own. There are smart people that write books and condense their knowledge into a few hundred pages for the rest of the world to read. 11 Tips to Maximize Your Intellectual Growth

2. Debate. Debating with others forces you to consider every perspective and to organize your thoughts. You have to think on your feet and build persuasive arguments. Keep it friendly, though

3. Develop your memory. There are plenty of books and other resources on how to enhance your memory. All the knowledge in the world won’t help you if you can’t remember it. You’ll have less trouble finding your car keys, too. 11 Tips to Maximize Your Intellectual Growth

4. Develop your artistic talents. You can’t just cram a lot of facts into your head. There’s more to your intellectual growth than that. Work on your artistic talents, too.

5. Play a musical instrument. There’s nothing that serves as a good substitute for music. Pick an instrument that interests you and begin the process of mastering it.

6. Sleep enough and eat well. Your brain needs sleep and high-quality food. You already know that, but you’re probably not doing it. 11 Tips to Maximize Your Intellectual Growth

7. Spend time with intellectual people. Your peer group has been shown to affect your finances and career success. It only makes sense that your intellectual growth is impacted by the people you spend the most time with, too. Seek out open minded people with a curiosity of the world.

8. Learn a new language. This will really give your brain a workout and expose you to new culture, too. Consider the Japanese word “komorebi”. It means “the sunlight that filters through trees”. There isn’t a word in English that comes close. The fact that the Japanese even have a word like “komorebi” tells you something about their culture. 11 Tips to Maximize Your Intellectual Growth

9. Calculate in your head. Have you noticed that you can’t do calculations in your head as well as you used to? You can reverse that trend right now. Start at 1,743 and count backwards by 6’s. Too easy? Subtract by 27’s

10. Be minimalist. Too many responsibilities, activities, and possessions create a muddled mind. Cutting back will free up a lot of mental capacity for more meaningful things. Eliminate the non-essential from your life.

11. Follow your enthusiasm. It’s very challenging to do things that don’t interest you. There are plenty of ways to experience intellectual growth without making yourself miserable. Leverage your interests. 11 Tips to Maximize Your Intellectual Growth

You can continue to grow your intellect long after you’re unable to improve your physical abilities. A strong intellect is more valuable in today’s world. It’s the Bill Gates, Elon Musks, Warren Buffetts, and Jeff Bezos that rule the world, not the winner of the Olympic decathlon. Can you even name the last winner without cheating?

Building your intellect will enrich your life. It’s a never-ending process that you can begin today and reap the benefits from for the rest of your life.

11 Tips to Maximize Your Intellectual Growth

Why Happiness is So Important

Happiness has more importance than just feeling good. Happiness is also important to your health, longevity, success, and relationships.

The importance of happiness is often discounted in a culture obsessed with material success, but it’s hard to purchase something that will make you happy in the long-term. Why Happiness is So Important

Your happiness isn’t just important to you. It’s also important to your friends, family, and your employer.

Consider these ideas:

1. Happy people are healthier. Happier people get sick less frequently and less severely on the average. Happy people visit the hospital less frequently. A bad mood is bad for your immune system, too. Why Happiness is So Important

> Happy people are less likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia. Your physical and mental health are at greater risk when you’re not happy.

> Healthcare is very expensive. Happiness can be a great way to save a lot of money.

2. Happy people live longer. Several studies suggest that the happiest people live up to 10 years longer than those that are the least happy. Also, since happy people are healthier, they also tend to live longer, too. Happiness can do more to boost your lifespan than just about anything else. It’s free, too.

3. Happy people are more resistant to stress. Unhappy people are more easily overwhelmed when stressed. Happy people are better able to handle stress, and the effect that stress has on them is decreased. Being happy makes you more capable. Why Happiness is So Important

4. Happy people are more successful. It’s worth asking if successful people are successful because they’re happy. Or are they happy because they’re successful? It’s likely a little of both. Happy people are more productive, have better relationships, and handle stress better.

5. Happy people enjoy stronger relationships. Would you rather be around someone that was happy most of the time or someone that was not? Being happy can boost all of your relationships, including those with your partner, family, friends, and coworkers.

> Think about the happiest people you know. They tend to have great friendships and intimate relationships. They are close to their families, too. Why Happiness is So Important

> Unhappy people are often alone and have challenging relationships when they do have people in their lives.

6. Happy people get more done. Happy people are more productive and are better employees. Think about how much better you take care of your home when you’re happy versus those times you’re unhappy. If you have an open position at work, consider happiness as a factor when hiring.

7. Happy people have more friends. Of course, they have more friends. Happy people attract others. We enjoy being around people that are in a positive emotional state. We avoid those that aren’t. If you want to have more plans on the weekend, be happier! Why Happiness is So Important

8. Happy people are more creative. A happy mind is more open to new ideas and concepts. A happy person is more likely to have a useful creative idea than someone that is unhappy.

> If you’re struggling to find a solution to a problem, put yourself in a happy state first. You’ll be much more likely to find the answer you need.

We often postpone happiness for a later date. We decide that we’ll be happy after we finish school, buy a house, save a certain amount of money, or find the person of our dreams. This is a mistake. Being unhappy harms yourself and everyone else in your life. Why Happiness is So Important

Do yourself and everyone else in your life a huge favor and make your happiness a priority!

Why Happiness is So Important