Productivity – Page 9 – Bucket List Journey

March 17, 2013

10 Questions About Your Goals

Time Management Ninja had an excellent post on friday about goal setting. It was helpful and clarifying to me as I consider and evaluate my goals. I wanted to share these 10 questions with you.

10 Questions You Must Answer About Your Goals:

Are They Written Down? – Writing your goals down is a magical act. It makes them real. It clarifies them, and helps bring definition and accountability to them.
Are They Your goals? – Before you pursue them, make sure that your goals aretruly your own. Or are they goals that have been put upon you by expectations of your family, job, or society?
Do They Have a Deadline? – Goals without deadlines are like a race without an end. You need a finish line to define your goal and when you will accomplish it by. (You can always adjust later… see #7.)
What is the Cost and Are you Willing to Pay It? – Every goal has a cost. Whether it is time, money, or sweat. Make sure you are willing to pay the price to achieve your goal.
What Help Will You Need to Accomplish Your Goals? – Truly great goals require us to go beyond ourselves. Every successful person learned from someone else. Plan in advance how you will get the assistance you need.
Are You Focused on Your Goal? – Many people fall into the trap of unfocused goals. Or perhaps, they have too many goals at once. You must have laser focus on your big goal. It must be front-and-center in your life. It must get constant attention.
Are Your Goals Adaptable? – Life changes. You can’t control that. So, your goals must be adaptable. This is not to be used as an excuse at the first sign of difficulty. Adaptable goals change, instead of break, when life throws you a curve.
Do Your Goals Stretch Your Limits? – If your goal is to do something that you have already done before, then you will get the same results. Your goals should stretch your abilities. That is how new capabilities and limits are reached.
Do Believe in Your Goals? – More than anyone else, you have to believe in your goals. There will be critics, doubters, and people who want to see you fail. Don’t listen to them. Listen to the inner voice that drives you.
What Did You Do Today? – You must act on your goals every single day. It is not an optional activity. If you truly have the determination and focus to reach your goals, you will not only think, but act on them every single day.

My reflections on these questions

I’ve already thought through most of these. When this blog was first just an idea in my head, I considered “do I have the money to make these goals happen?” and “Is it selfish to focus on these goals?” (question number 4). We don’t want to set ourselves up for failure, but we don’t want to be pessimists either.
I hope you know by now that I love, love, love question number 7. In certain areas of my life I can be a perfectionist (cleaning my house is not one of those areas) and I tend to hold myself to a standard of performance that isn’t helpful or healthy. I’m learning to be flexible and give room for the unforseen changes of life.
The last question was a big kick in the butt! It’s unusually cold this week, though the snow is gone and the sidewalks are clear for running. I told myself I would start again but I don’t want to go out in -10ºC after being accustomed to +1ºC! Sigh. Out I go for my first run of spring, reminding myself I was running in -10ºC last November.

Have you thought about these things as you first planned for your goals? Had you forgotten to consider any of these questions? Leave a comment here with your thoughts.

March 12, 2013

I’ve received a decent amount of free stuff on the internet since the burgeoning of social media. It’s actually quite surprising. Some of it was through contests, others of it was from being a huge nerd. This morning, I woke up to find an email in my Inbox from Lift (remember when I posted about that app?) asking me for my address because they wanted to send me free stuff to thank me for the nice post I wrote. That is a very smart thing to do on their behalf because now I’m writing a second post talking about how great they are. This made me reflect on how much free stuff I have received and how it usually ends up happening. Here’s how:

Use social media.

Tweet, Facebook, blog about products you love. Be honest and be generous. If you love something, talk about it. Why not? We all know no one trusts marketing, unless it’s by real people we trust, so why not help the brands we trust by gushing about them in a place where more people can hear about it (and so can the brands).

Let them know.

Tag them in your post so they know you love their product so much you’re giving it to your sibling/spouse/friend.

Don’t be greedy.

Every time I’ve received freebies it was totally off my radar. I have never intended to get free things (unless it was in relation to a poor customer service issue) I have just really loved the product so I’ve talked about it. I used to go to this coffee shop by Guy-Concordia metro called Café Myriade all the time because I worked near Concordia. I really loved them and the owner Anthony started to know me by my tweets. I would tweet about how I was bringing in my dad to try his first latte, how i was bringing any friends who came to town there, etc. I even thought about stopping there on my wedding day. It became common for Anthony to give me a free drink when he was working the cash. Those free drinks didn’t discourage me from tweeting in the least, I sent more people there because I liked the business more! Or, I talk a lot about a certain handmade journal company I like a lot, and I get a free journal for all the publicity. I never tried to get these things. I just loved them so I talk about them.

Customer service cases are different.

In those cases, we have every right to be compensated for poor service and social media leverage can get you the recognition you deserve. If you were treated poorly, tweet about it and tag their company twitter. But, don’t get in such a huff that you lie and blow the situation out of proportion. Be honest about the fact that they replied to you to try to mediate the situation (because they probably will) and give them the credit they deserve if they fix it. If they don’t, well, that’s another story. I’ve had some good and bad experiences with Rogers on twitter. Some great experiences with WestJet and Air Canada on twitter. In this day in age, using social media leverage is very wise when dealing with things like airlines and other brands. They’re often quick to compensate for fear of bad publicity. That’s where you can benefit.

March 5, 2013

If this, then that

This morning I woke up and it felt like spring in my heart. Even though it’s been cloudy and slushy for weeks, I can tell that something is thawing my heart. I am glad! I checked “craft” off my list today on Lift. Inspired by a commenter who pointed out that maybe I actually just plain like my christmas decorations, I took the printable that I had made my Christmas bunting from and made an easter version. I’ll post pictures and links to the printable once it’s done.

What I really wanted to talk about today was this glorious website I’ve been using for quite awhile. Have you ever been frustrated that the internet doesn’t do what you want it to do? “I wish I could click this button and then this article shows up in my Evernote” or “I wish that I could have an automated process to do X.” Well, folks, that’s what If This Then That does. As I’ve fiddled with it, I’ve made certain processes completely effortless because, well, they require no effort. Here are a few of my ‘recipes’ that I have on IFTTT:

each wordpress post automatically gets put into my Buffer list to be distributed on twitter at set times each day
every day at 9PM a new Daily Portfolio note is automatically created in my Evernote
(one I don’t use anymore) any time I posted a recipe on my old blog with the tag “curry” it would tweet the link to my friend Christina who likes curry!
if I star an item in Google Reader, it saves it to Pocket for me to read later (I had forgotten about this one!)
If I tag something with “buffer” in Google Reader, it will add it to Buffer to tweet and share
Every time I post a picture to Instagram, it adds it to a folder in Dropbox.
Every time I post a picture to Instagram, it adds it to my pictures in Flickr, which is attached to my AppleTV and those pictures are used as my AppleTV screen saver.

Amazing, right? And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You can do basically anything with texting, tweeting, Facebook, Google Reader, Buffer, Gmail, Blogger, WordPress, Youtube and tons of other websites. I highly recommend this website to help you streamline certain aspects of your online life and to — like their tagline says — make the internet work for you! Here are some more examples from other people who are using IFTTT.

I have to say, there are 3 that I just love. The one that adds my wordpress to buffer, the one that backs-up my Instagram on Dropbox and the one that puts my Instagram to Flickr for my screensaver. Just love.

Do you use IFTTT? What’s your favourite recipe? Is there one that has made your life a lot simpler? If you’re new to IFTTT, what will the first recipe you make be? Leave your comment here.

February 26, 2013

That familiar cycle

We’re back to that place I’m sure you recognize so well: Jess admits she still doesn’t have this all figured out and has to reboot her life a bit in order to get it all back in order. Some things are going well: I’m still reading regularly, and that’s developed into a lovely habit I’m enjoying. I really appreciate the freedom I have in the 1 book every 2 weeks system. I can easily complete a book in that time, but it gives me room for evenings off etc. Ok so really one thing is going well.

xmas

The fact that my Christmas decorations are still up is probably a sign that things are a little out of control. I’ve been thinking about the balance between doing what I want to do and reaching my goals and how I have the tendency to let other more important things be moved aside by my goals. Important daily life things like grocery shopping, laundry, and all the other things that are not exactly fun.

I just recently read The Organized Heart by Staci Eastin. I felt like I was reading a book I could have written it was so similar to where I’m at:

“So the real question is why don’t I organize my days to do what I believe is important and what I do, in fact, have the skills and training to do. The answer is that I have a motivation problem. I do what I do not want to do–and I do not what I want to do” (Chapter 1).

For me, it’s more like I’m doing what I really want to do that is important to me personally, but not what I have agreed with my husband that needs to get done and in the long-term and from day-to-day is actually more important. Groceries need to get done. Clothes need to be cleaned. The house needs to be cleaned/tidied or else we’ll both go nuts. But those things don’t feel immediately rewarding.

Maybe that’s it: I need to devise a system where doing the basics is rewarding me by moving onto the other things I want to accomplish like my reading, my running etc.

(I’m just being an external processor right now.)

So yes, my Christmas decorations are still up and I kind of don’t care! I have laundry still sitting in the dryer and it’s been there for 2 days! These last two weeks have not been the highlight of accomplishment for my year. But I vow to have those decorations down by May… I should be able to manage that, right?

Are you in the same place or are you doing better than I am at keeping up with New Years Resolutions and Regular Life? Are you managing your real priorities well? Share here in the comments.

February 19, 2013

I still love lamp!

A few weeks ago a friend asked me how things were going with my lamp since I blogged about it. Well, let me tell you: I’m a fool. I started feeling bad as early as the first week of October this year which is earlier than usual. So I started using it regularly in November. That went well. And then December came.

I stopped wanting to. My motivation went through the floor. Every morning I thought to myself, “I don’t really want to…” Then I didn’t. POOR CHOICES.

Here’s the thing: there are one of two mistakes we make when we’re feeling the winter blues (or for any other mental health related things).

I’m feeling good so I don’t need it. Wrong. We’re feeling good because the treatment is working. That doesn’t mean STOP, it means CONTINUE.
I don’t feel like it/I don’t want to. It means the treatment isn’t yet working because motivation is low. At least that’s how it is for my personal experience.

Learn to trust the data

I need to learn to trust data in front of me rather than my feelings. The data of the last few years says: you’re not yourself at Christmas and your family thinks you’re this bump on a log who doesn’t like being with people and doing basically anything but eat and play Dutch Blitz. That’s not who I am normally (though, let’s be serious, I’ll eat and play Dutch Blitz any time). This experience this past winter tells me I need to ask my husband to help me not listen to my feelings or my own head because it isn’t trustworthy.

This past year I tried to do better than the previous year. I did! Sort of!

So here’s to learning about how to function optimally, healthily and to asking for help in doing that.

Do you have a hard time reading or accepting the data that you see about your health? How can you fix that? If you’d like to share, leave a comment or leave some feedback here in the comments.

February 14, 2013

The UnSchedule

It’s Day 3 of my giveaway of The Now Habit by Neil Fiore. It’s outrageously helpful in battling procrastination. Click here for rules on how to enter the draw. Good luck!

fran — Example from the book of an Unschedule.

One of the many things I found helpful in The Now Habit was The Unschedule. Fiore developed this over about 10 years on clients until he felt it was perfected and used it in his book. It’s a concept that will surprise many because you start by filling in your schedule with your non-work activities. Why? There are a few reasons: 1) to show you how busy you actually are with other things so that when you think “oh, I can do that later” the reality is is that there probably isn’t a later because you’re busy with other life activities; 2) often procrastinators isolate themselves from other people because they aren’t getting their work done. They live in a cycle of procrastination and unintended social punishment, which generally makes life miserable. Here’s the complete guide to how to make your own Unschedule (without all the background information which is actually very helpful):

Schedule only non-work activities
This includes:
- Previously committed time such as meals, sleep, meetings
- Free time, recreation, leisure reading
- Socializing, lunches, and dinners with friends
- Health activities like going to the gym
- Routine events such as commuting, classes, appointments
Fill in your Unschedule with work on projects only after you’ve completed at least one-half hour of uninterrupted work
Take credit only for periods of work that represent at least thirty minutes of uninterrupted work.
Reward yourself with a fun activity after each period of work
Track of the number of quality hours worked each day and each week.
Schedule at least one full day for fun and small chores.
Before doing something fun, do thirty minutes of work on your projects
Focus on starting and the next action (rather than finishing the whole project)
Think small
Keep starting
Never end “down”
Never take a break when you’re stuck or ready to give up. Always stay with a tough spot for another five or ten minutes, trying to come up with a partial solution that you can pursue later.