After my post a couple weeks ago about 5 more minutes, I relistened to Mel Robbins book, The 5 Second Rule. Each time I listened to it, I catch more and different things than before. I feel like when you go through something, or listen to something (book, podcast, friends advise) you focus on what you are able to digest and what is applicable to you at that moment. If you try to catch it all, you will go insane with information overload and where do I go from here.

My biggest takeaway this time….. leave your phone in another room. Take note of yourself – how many times in an hour do you grab your phone and scroll… it didn’t ping, it didn’t give you a notification. Instead you were just bored and picked it up, opened a random app (facebook, snapchat, Instagram, google news, stock market, insert your poison here) and just scrolled.

Just

Randomly

Scrolled

Out

Of

Bordom

Or

Needing

To

Do

Something

Just

Scrolled

And

Scrolled

Now, think of all the hours this week that you have wasted mindlessly scrolling and think about what your goals and aspirations are. Do they line up? If you’re answer is no, maybe your goals and aspirations really aren’t that important to you. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you took these hours back and did something productive? Read that book that you have on your bookshelf and ‘have always wanted to get to’. Make a grocery list and start meal prepping. Start that side hustle that you are scared to dig into. Pick up the phone and make that call to an old friend that you have lost touch with.

(if you read or listen to Mels book, trust me, you will find the courage to do all of these things and more – maybe that is a great place to start)

What are my action steps this week after relistening? I’m glad you asked. I moved by phone charger to the spare bedroom. I still set the alarm on it – crank it up on high. When it goes off in the AM, I walk to the bedroom (hello, accountability to get up when I tell myself at night what time I will get up) and turn it off – I don’t let myself go back to bed.

Now, this next step is important…. I LEAVE IT THERE!

I brush my teeth and make my coffee, then I either read a book and do my journaling – OR – I dig into another module of B-School that I am taking. Fun fact: your brain is at its best thinking state the first three hours from the time you get up. So, I’m making it a priority to get my own goals and workload checked off first, right away in the morning. I still haven’t checked my phone for texts, snaps, emails, social media… as soon as I do, I know that my to-do list will immediately go to what’s on the other end of those conversations. I fully understand and appreciate and respect that those conversations/emails/customers are what pay my bills and they will be addressed – after MY stuff is done. You know why??? If I don’t make MY work a priority, my day will get away from me and it will NEVER get done.

Okay, cool, I have a few hours (and several cups of coffee) of ME time under my belt! Now I can get my phone or launch my email program and see what my afternoon looks like. Maybe it appears slow and I can get client work done quickly and back to more of my stuff, or maybe (usually) I make another list and prioritize what I will focus on for the afternoon – and when that happens, 1) I am grateful for my customers that keep me busy and 2) I am thankful that I took the time to work on me, because otherwise it probably wouldn’t have happened.