Summer of Self Care – Day 19

Decluttering Your Mind

 

There is so much research on the benefits of meditation – in fact, there are over 3000 scientific studies that you can access here.

Meditation helps you focus and increases memory, brings you a feeling of calm and reduces blood pressure, enhances self-esteem and self-acceptance, and lessens anxiety.

So if meditation is so helpful, why aren’t all of us doing it every day?

I’m not sure. I struggle with a daily practice as well, especially when I need it the most! I think we just don’t put the things we need to be calm and centered on the same priority list as those things we need to make money, care for others or manage a household. We think it’s less important somehow to make self care a priority. Or maybe we picture a guru sitting on a meditation cushion for hours at a time and that doesn’t feel right for us. But even just five minute or less of daily meditation brings the same benefits as a much longer practice.

I have discovered I am more likely to meditate when I add it to the end of my morning yoga routine. It’s a natural fit for me and I just add about five minutes to the end of my practice. Some people feel that they are most successful when the meditate before ever getting out of bed.

What I do know is that it’s one of the best self care activities for decluttering our mind of intrusive thoughts which can generally make us feel out of sorts. But eliminating those thoughts doesn’t happen immediately. This definitely takes practice.

Let me tell you how easy this can be. You can set a reminder in your electronic calendar or on your paper planner to meditate at a certain time every day or every other day. You can just find a few quiet moments somewhere comfortable in your home and do it yourself. Or, if you want to take advantage of electronic apps, here are a few I have used:

Smiling Mind (which is also tied to a research project!)
Insight Timer
https://www.calm.com/meditate

Remember – using electronic versions of meditation tools may not mean your phone won’t ring or your text and email notifications will stop. You may have to mute or turn off a few things to make sure you have uninterrupted time.

Just want to spend a few moments taking some deep breaths? Try the My Calm Beat App, which lets you choose your breathing rate per minute and gives you a tone when it’s time to breathe in and another when it’s time to breathe out.

Commit to four days at first – what Martha Beck calls a Four Day Win. Once you’ve meditated for four days, congratulate yourself. Reward yourself with something small but significant. And then commit to another four days. And then another four and so on. After about seven of these small commitments, you’ll have an entire month of meditation practice!

After about 12 days, think about how you feel – do you notice any changes in your thought patterns, focus, memory or sense of calm?

Still having trouble? Get yourself an accountability buddy who will check in with you to make sure you completed your daily or four-day commitment.

I’m off to take five and make my morning meditation time a priority.

Summer of Self Care – Day 10

Ten Daily Habits 

On day one, I shared my belief that when we’re in crisis or depleted of energy from our “busyness”, we tend to be reactive rather than responsive. When we create personal energetic reserves, they help us feel as though we are connected to a place of balance and control. And creating personal energetic reserves is the best way to practice self care.

Your daily habits can be whatever you want them to be and you don’t absolutely have to do each one every day. In fact, at first, it may be hard to fit them all in. And these habits don’t have to be time consuming. On my current list, there are three things I can do in the space of 20 minutes that help me to ensure that my day starts off in a way that is optimum for me.  For example, you might decide you need daily exercise, some motivation from a favorite podcast and adequate amounts of water during the day. Three habits can be accomplished all at one time if you bring your phone, earbuds and a water bottle on a morning walk.

Here’s a list of my 10 daily habits:

1)   Morning pages/gratitude journaling.

2)   Yoga practice.

3)   Decide what three things would make today really great.

4)   Read something.

5)   Meditation or quiet time.

6)   Karma notes, texts or calls – something nice sent to someone else.

7)   Drink water

8)   Declutter – spaces, thoughts or inbox.

9)  Create at least one new thing (I might draw, paint or write. Just one little creative thing daily keeps me happy.)

10) Name the best thing that happened during the day.

Get the idea? I keep my list of 10 Daily Habits taped on one of the cabinets next to my desk so that I am constantly checking in to them, refining and refreshing the list as needed. When you first start, it helps to keep them handy and nearby.

Ready to create your 10 daily habits? Here’s a Ten Daily Habits Template to help you get started!

No More Red Bubbles

For me, and for some of my clients, it’s Decluttering Your Life time.

This is Part Two of a series of blog posts about decluttering your mind, your time and your stuff. If you have a topic about time ownership, organizing, mindfulness or whatever comes to mind, I’ll take a shot at covering it. Just comment below 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past week, I spent a great deal of time decluttering my inbox. I’d been sick with a nasty upper respiratory infection for a couple of weeks and took several sick days. Combine an inbox that has been hastily tended to since the end of January with a propensity for signing up for a lot of free downloads, classes and entries into sweepstakes, (yes, it’s a habit problem) and you find yourself with a small red bubble over your email programs that says 633. Yes.

633

Not so suddenly, there were 633 new emails in my Inbox and I felt overwhelmed. And frankly, I’ve seen that number go a lot higher. But on this day, I decided it was time to end this madness once and for all.

Maybe an hour or so later, there were 13 left. And maybe three hours later, I had the beginnings of a process.

I am NOT great at handling an email once. I’m working on it, but I will still open an email, read it, decide I need to take action on it and then leave it in my inbox for me to handle later. Which means I then handle it twice, and maybe even three times. Later turns into tomorrow or someday and I end up with…too many emails, clogging up my inbox, that are dated and no longer relevant. And an inbox full of emails takes a lot more time to sort than an inbox of 13.

So here’s what my process looks like.

Step One:  I only check emails 3 times a day (and have done for quite some time.) Checking emails first thing in the morning doesn’t suit me. I don’t start out strong when I get bogged down in emails first thing. And, I like to batch the work these days. So my first check is 10am, my second is at 1pm and the last is at 4:30 pm. I’ve turned off the email notifications on my laptop and iPhone.  Notifications in real time tempt me to go in and reply to individual emails and that’s not a productive use of my time. The only exception is if someone is late for a session or meeting and I am assessing whether they have to re-schedule at the last minute.

Step Two:  The last daily check of email is also the daily purge session. If I haven’t handled it by then , I act on it right then or mark it in my planner as a task for the following day. No more leaving it linger in the Inbox for more than two days. If it requires compiling information for a report or adding an event to calendar, I create it, flag it, bullet it and eventually handle it. Everything else gets deleted or put in a folder. I leave the office secure in the knowledge that I have no red bubbles over my email icons.

Step Three:  I am on a BRUTAL UNSUBSCRIBE CAMPAIGN. If It isn’t being read, bought or used in some way, I delete it. The ONLY exception is if I think it will be relevant to me or to a client down the road. Then I file it and set up a rule for it to always go to that folder. Useless emails are not helping me to be productive. They waste my time.

Step Four:  Even with a junk filter, I get a lot of junk. It seems to ebb and flow. Now, I make sure I mark it junk and block sender so it stops coming. I’ve even blocked those I’ve unsubscribed if they don’t stop fast.  It helps your email program remember what’s important to you. Even better? Programs like SaneBox (small monthy cost) or Clutter (free) .

Step Five:  Every email doesn’t need a response. Ryan Giles reminded me of this in a recent presentation on Time Ownership. I don’t even have to say “thanks” to every email. As I start to reply, I ask myself, “What type of response is  necessary for both me and the recipient? Or am I doing them a favor by not responding. Would I want this reply in my inbox? Does it say everything I need it to say?”

Step Six:  If I’ve filed it, I need to consume it. Some folders – like tax receipts – can sit there till the end of the quarter or tax preparation time. If it’s a class, I need to take it at some point, so I schedule it. If it’s something I need to read, I add it to my Follow Up  Friday plan. There’s no sense filing it if I’m  never going to look at it again. So purging my Folders is also a monthly event that has to happen in order to keep the email pipeline flowing freely for me.

Step Seven:  My new goal is to have no red bubble over my Outlook Icon at the end of the day. I have a sign on my cabinet next to my desk to remind me.

Seems pretty clear to me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s your process now? What could it be if you made some changes?

 

EXTRA CREDIT: Remove the Red Bubbles from your phone apps as well. The multiple red bubbles on my iPhone screen drive my kids crazy, but don’t really bother me. But if I’m going to fight the Red Bubbles on my laptop, I may as well create a rule across all devices.

Let me know what systems and processes you have adopted or that you come up with in your quest to Declutter Your Life.