8 Resolutions for Improving Your Health and Happiness When you have to work over 10 hours a day on the multiple tasks it takes to establish a business and keepRead More
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]]>When you have to work over 10 hours a day on the multiple tasks it takes to establish a business and keep one on track, the one thing many entrepreneurs tend to neglect is their own personal health and happiness. From one hard worker to another we all need to slow down a little and consider what we can do to make our lives better. Considering it’s that time of the year when everyone is making new resolutions, why not set some personal goals?
Here is a solid list of resolutions for improving your health and happiness:
Just as the brain signals your facial muscles to smile when you are happy, the flexing of these muscles sends signals to the brain that there must be a reason to smile. And it starts to feel happy. And a smile brings out the best in you. A laugh can put your life in perspective too.
An entrepreneur has to deal with high levels of stress, and regular exercise helps you reduce this. It also fights health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis. And it greatly boosts energy and aids sleep. And exercise also lifts your mood and helps you face the challenges that come your way.
A bagel and a cup of coffee don’t exactly count as breakfast. If you don’t have time, at least have a bowl of quinoa or oats before you start your workday. And instead of munching on fries and gulping down smoothies, opt for nuts or sprouts and fresh fruits. Fat and sugar slow you down; cut down on those.
Margaret Thatcher may have done with 4 hours of sleep a day, but it isn’t the best idea for most. Make sure you get ample shuteye to make sure you feel fresh and energized for the workday. Otherwise, you will just end up as a lousy entrepreneur, and may be a cranky boss.
Don’t let your work eat up your entire day. Set aside some time when you can be on your own, doing whatever you feel like. It may be catching up on your sleep, reading your favorite book, or just chatting with your mates. It will help you get a mental recharge, one you will need once you are back to being an entrepreneur.
Saying yes, or even maybe, when you know in your heart that the best answer is no is a bad idea. It will mess up your life, work and relationships. Cannot deliver an order on the required date? Say no. Cannot go out with your best friend this Thursday? Say no. And you’ll see that things get much better.
While it isn’t always easy to do it, it really is your best bet to work out your life and work. It is tempting to check your email at the beginning of the day, but if you have set your heart on working on a difficult project, stick to your routine. And while it is fun to be spontaneous at times, it is better to keep it in check.
It is easy to make big proclamations; but often it isn’t easy to keep them. Just taking them won’t do, you need to maintain them too. If you fear that you won’t be able to do it, pin the list down on a board and keep it somewhere you’ll always see it.
Once you do it, even a busy entrepreneur such as yourself will have a happy and healthy life.
Limitless Energy by Brandon Epstein
The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon
Unstoppable by Pete Wilkinson
Habit Stacking by Steve Scott
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]]>A summary of things you should know about The Now Habit according to Neil Fiore: Introduction In this episode Neil Fiore takes a deep dive into his book, The NowRead More
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]]>In this episode Neil Fiore takes a deep dive into his book, The Now Habit, where he reveals all his insights on one of the most effective programs to combat procrastination.
In his book Fiore offers a comprehensive plan and actionable strategies to help you lower your stress and increase your time to enjoy guilt-free play. The goal of the book is to help any busy person start tasks sooner and accomplish them more quickly, without the anxiety brought on by the negative habits of procrastination and perfectionism.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who are struggling to get things done in a timely manner and are looking for an effective strategy to become more efficient when it comes to large projects.
The other books come from what I call a puritanical view where you have to work harder and longer. My book works more strategically and psychologically in shifting around motivation and how to talk to yourself in a voice that is a voice of an affective but compassionate manager.
You can jump in where needed.
Focus your mind specifically on a time to start for about 5 to 15 minutes. This will replace the usual getting things done idea or I have to finish idea.
One of the reasons we procrastinate is that we have created a since of a burden that our life is just a long list of to-do’s. The typical way of trying to solve our problems in this society that we live in is to create greater pressure which only creates more rebellion. So one of the big psychological concepts here is that choice is a third place, it’s neither have to or want to. When you look at chapter one, Why We Procrastinate, you are probably going to identify yourself about having a long list of have-to-do’s and being unrealistic about your time.
In chapter two we talk about how we procrastinate. I have a schedule there which is you taking a few days or a week and writing down how you spend your time and where it goes. You will hopefully find some productive time but you will also get a sense of what your default habits are that take you away from focusing on the top priority issues.
In chapter three we go over a major concept of how you talk to yourself. If you are saying you have to, want to or need to, you are not telling your mind and body when to start or what to do.
From there I’ll skip to chapter six which is titled The Unscheduled. This chapter is called the unscheduled because it has two parts. In part one I give you a blank schedule that is 168 hours and you start off by not filling in work but play, meeting time, commute time, and sleep time so that you get down to a possible maybe 60 hours to work on your projects. From there you schedule in more play time so that it’s on your schedule and therefore it’s legitimate. In part two you use your schedule like a time clock and you begin to punch in and out every time you need at least 15 to 30 minutes of quality focused uninterrupted work.
The last chapter in this book is dealing with the procrastinator in your life and it has some very specific recommendations on gaining someone’s commitment rather than forcing them to comply.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 10:40
“Procrastination is not your problem; procrastination is your attempted solution. It’s your attempted solution for dealing with the stress and anxiety of starting or completing a task that is overwhelming or boring” – Neil Fiore
I was born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey and that’s relevant because coming from a working class family without a lot of money I started working fairly young. By the time I was in high school I was working 15 hours a week at a local supermarket and in college up to 20 hours. I had to learn how to be a lot more efficient than my fellow students and I learned to start writing right when I was assigned an assignment and flesh it out on the bus going to work and finish on the bus coming home. So without realizing it I started to develop those skills very early.
The Now Habit was written while I was on a new job at the University of California. I was working 40 to 45 hours a week, enjoying California, and putting in 15 to 20 hours a week to work on my dissertation so I was extremely focused while busy. I was attempting to work with doctorial students and graduate students and noticed that they were procrastinating. So I realized that I had something valuable that I had taken for granted and wanted to help other people by sharing it in this book.
Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Buy The Now Habit by Neil Fiore on Amazon today
Visit NeilFiore.com to learn more about Neil and all his books
Follow Neil Fiore on Twitter and YouTube
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Habit Stacking by Steve Scott
SCRUM: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland
Relevant advice and tips:
7 Productivity Tools For Entrepreneurs To Make Life Easier
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
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]]>A summary of things you should know about Stuff I Wish I’d Known When I Started Working according to Fergus O’Connell: Introduction In this episode Fergus O’Connell takes a deepRead More
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]]>In this episode Fergus O’Connell takes a deep dive into his book, Stuff I Wish I’d Known When I Started Working, where he provides the tips and tools you need to work faster.
In his book, O’Connell teaches you how to avoid the common mistakes of other aspiring business goers and skip a few rungs on the corporate ladder. The goal of the book is to help you be more effective, more accountable, more visible, and less afraid.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who want learn from the mistakes of other successful people and need a fast-track guide to getting more done in less time.
We looked and found that there were no other books out there that came at work from this particular angle.
This is a jump in and jump out kind of book.
It’s not talent that gets people where they want to be its commitment and perseverance.
In the book we have identified 24 areas where I have written the kind of stuff that I learned along the way. A couple of the chapters are about things like aiming high and a second chapter is about appreciating life. It’s all right to have very ambitious dreams but you have also got to live in the moment. There is another chapter about why it is good to be creative and another on why it’s good to fail. There are 8 to 10 chapters that take an idea and try to sell the reader on that particular idea.
In one chapter I talk about the four things that I have learned about bosses. The first thing that I learned is that bosses are actually human and since they are human they will make mistakes. A second thing about bosses is that they like to have their problems solved. I’ve also learned that bosses tend to be delusional. And lastly bosses seem to think that long hours are productive which is not true.
We have chapters in the book which are how-to chapters and for example there is a chapter on common sense. The seven principles of common sense are firstly that many things a simple. The second principle is the importance of knowing exactly what you are trying to do. The third is planning and figuring out the sequence of events in advance. The fourth principle is that stuff doesn’t get done if there aren’t people to do them. The fifth principle is that things rarely turn out as expected. The sixth thing is that things either are or they aren’t. And the last principle is the golden rule of looking at things from other people’s point of view because if we did we would get a much clearer understand rather than just seeing it through our own eyes. I encourage the reader to spend a week or two applying these ideas and seeing the world through this prism.
“Commitment gets you started and perseverance keeps you going.” – Fergus O’Connell
I graduated with a degree in mathematical physics and then I went in to software development and worked in that for about 10 or 12 years. In 1992 I started my own project management consulting and training company and that’s one of the things I’ve been doing ever since as well as writing books in the area of project management and time management. I have this alternative life as a novelist as well.
I was thinking one day about how I’d like to be 19 again and to have all the knowledge and wisdom I have now. I was thinking of it in terms of life generally but then I thought a book which thought from the perspective purely of business might be a good thing to do.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
Buy Stuff I Wish I’d Known When I Started Working by Fergus O’Connell on Amazon today
Visit FergusOConnell.com to learn more about Fergus and all his books
Follow Fergus O’Connell on Twitter and Facebook
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: Getting Things Done by David Allen | People Tools For Buisness by Alan Fox | Habit Stacking by S.J. Scott
Relevant advice and tips: 7 Productivity Tools For Entrepreneurs To Make Life Easier
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
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]]>A summary of things you should know about Habit Stacking according to Steve J Scott: Introduction In this episode Steve Scott shares his book, Habit Stacking, where you will discoverRead More
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]]>In this episode Steve Scott shares his book, Habit Stacking, where you will discover 97 quick habits that can instantly change your life.
In his book, Scott teaches you to discover how to manage a simple routine that you can repeat on a daily basis along with a few tools that will keep you motivated and consistent.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs like you who want to make giant leaps forward in business, strengthen personal relationships, stay on top of finances, get organized, and improve health and fitness.
Most books talk about huge habits and not too much attention is paid toward the small habits that will improve your life.
The first part sets up a framework that is important the reader read. This book is very short so it shouldn’t take long to read.
I would say you can put a bunch of small habits into a single routine and you don’t really need a bunch of fancy processes to get them done.
The start of the book I introduce the idea that little hinges swing big doors and the idea here is small changes produce a significate lasting change to your life. You can add these small life changes to all the different aspects of your life such as productivity, relationships, finances, organization, spirituality, health and leisure and when added together they can do a lot for self-improvement.
The next section of the book is the introduction of the habit stacking and the mindset behind it. It is important to know that you can actually add dozens of small habits to your life with one single routine. Generally most people rely on multiple triggers to do all sorts of different habits and I teach you to do all these things for one specific trigger.
After that I go into the difference between small changes and mini habits. I set the framework between what a small change and mini habit is. Mini habits have a chance to grow and small changes are individual habits that have a start and finish that you really can’t improve on.
Next I go into the eight elements of habit stacking routine. I basically talk about how to take only five minutes or less and for a complete habit the total routine should be about 30 minutes or less.
A good substantial part of the book I go into the individual examples of habits that you can develop. There are 97 examples I include in the book that that includes the examples for productivity, relationship, finance, organization, spirituality, health and leisure. I give the framework for the habit stacking routine and talk about picking a time and location to focus on one routine at a time. I talk about the importance of putting everything into a logical checklist, having a good solid reason why you’re doing each one of these habits and using rewards to keep you going to follow this routine.
The next section talks about triggers and why they are important. A trigger is an outside event where you don’t have control and acts as a catalyst for following the habit stacking routine.
I then go into two examples of a habit stacking routine. I give an example of a productivity and morning routine. And I end with disruptions and challenges. We all have stuff that just happens in our lives and I explain how to overcome these distractions.
“Big doors swing on little hinges.” – W Clement Stone
I have been self-employed for the last 10 years in a variety of internet businesses specifically the last two years I have been into Kindle publishing. I got into habit development because I wanted to improve my own life and now I write books that come from my personal experience and things I have talked about with other people.
To be honest it came from a position of frustration. I wanted to figure out a way to put the little habits into a single routine and for a year I did this every single day first thing in the morning. One day I was trying to come up with a name for a book and I figured that this might be something that others find valuable.
Crush It! By Gary Vaynerchuk
Buy Habit Stacking by Steve J Scott on Amazon today
Visit HabitStacking.com to learn more about Steve’s book
Visit DevelopGoodHabits.com to read more of Steve’s exclusive content
Follow Steve J Scott on Twitter and Facebook
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: Smartcuts by Shane Snow | People Tools For Business by Alan Fox | Work Smarter by Nick Loper
Relevant advice and tips: 10 Bad Habits That Successful People Avoid | 7 Productivity Tools For Entrepreneurs To Make Life Easier
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
The post A Preview of Habit Stacking with Steve J Scott appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
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