Categories
Tools For Success

Why Calendars are Notable Tools for Success

You may or may not know it, but a calendar is a powerful tool for productivity. It may not be something flashy or exciting, but it does help you manage your time by helping you plan ahead, see what events/deadlines/occasions are coming up, and helping you plan your free time.

As kids, we learned to use calendars as a way of knowing what day of the week, date of the month, and what year it is. It’s something everyone needs to know so that we’re telling time consistently. 

Paper Calendars

Paper calendars are probably the type that we are most used to. After all, they have existed for far longer than digital calendars. 

Pros

Paper calendars have some flexibility. They can be hung and displayed on your wall, refrigerator, or any place you frequent. You can have a desk calendar that covers part of the top of your desk, which ensures that it’s always in front of you. You can also have a daily desk calendar, usually decorated with some kind of theme. 

Cons

As wonderful as they are, paper calendars have limitations. They are limited to the surface area they occupy. I just recently bought a calendar, and there I was looking at  5 x 8 in and 8 x 11 in options. Even though the smaller one would be more compact and portable, I opted for the bigger one. I wanted more space to write dates, appointments, and notes. I also write big, so that’s a factor too. For the most part, it’s very handy to have a paper somewhere at home, or at the office (wherever that may be right now). 

Digital Calendars

With more things being digital, it makes sense that calendars are digital too. They are on our computers, smartphones, and smartwatches, and more. Having the date handy isn’t something new, we even have calendars on mechanical and automatic watches before smart watches. 

Pros

With digital calendars, typically you have much more space than with paper calendars. You can add a large amount (and possibly unlimited number) of appointments, tasks, and notes. You can unleash all the things you can think of or need to remember, and it’ll fit.

Cons

Part of my issue with digital calendars is that they’re only available when I’m using my computer, smart phone, tablet, or any other electronic device. I don’t always have those available with me. If I want to look when something is, I have to take some steps to get to my digital calendar 

Up to you

It’s your choice. You can use whichever works best for you. Use a digital planner on your phone. Use a paper calendar on your desk. Use both; (that’s what I do). The important part is that you keep your appointments, deadlines, and important dates organized. The more you plan ahead, the more time you’ll be able to make for yourself.

Roderick Conwi writes at Nourishment Notes about lifestyle development. He is also the author of The Procrastinator’s Quick Guide To Getting It Done. To get powerful insights that enhance your day, join his free newsletter.

Categories
Tools For Success

Why Planners are Great Tools for Success

Using a planner is a great way to get your life organized. Think about it. You have deadlines, appointments, meetings (probably virtual during this pandemic), tasks to do, and notes that you need to remember. It’s a lot to balance.

There are so many ways to go about using a planner. There are paper planners, there are online planners, there are apps, and you can even use a scrap piece of paper. There are pros and cons to both, but the important thing is to make sure that you are planning ahead.

After years and years of trial and experimentation, I can tell you this: there is no perfect planner. I’ve searched and I’ve tried dozens. In my experience, one major reason why people don’t use planners is because it doesn’t exactly fit their needs. That’s the reason why there are so many planners out there in the market. They come in all different shapes and sizes with various features. There are simple ones and ones that are really complex. They’re made for different people with different needs and different styles. 

Paper Planners

I have a special place in my heart for paper planners. They are physical and tangible tools that help us organize your appointments, tasks, and other notes. I’ve used all sorts of paper planners over the years, and I really can’t say which one’s the best. There were many benefits of each planner, but each one also had some drawbacks. For a while, my favorite type of paper planner was a bullet journal. I know there are bullet journals you can buy, but I’m specifically talking about the “bullet journal system” where you can turn any notebook into your own planner, make it how you see fit, and adjust it to your wants and needs. Paper planners have evolved over time. There are even stickers that you can buy to add style and features to your planner; it almost looks like a fancy scrapbook. They will continue to evolve.

Digital Planners

Later on in adulthood, I started using digital planners. It seemed like the natural evolution since everything was becoming more digital anyway. At first, I tried using iCalendar, which was nice, but wasn’t great at organizing my tasks and responsibilities for the day. Then later on I tried various apps. Some were calendars (Outlook, Google Calendar, iCal), and task managers (Trello, Things, Omnifocus). They’re great at letting you list your tasks and assigning due dates. The issue I had was that since my tasks were hidden away in my computer or on some information cloud, I would easily forget about them. 

Planning

Regardless of whichever planner you use, as long as you’re planning ahead, that’s what matters. Planners, digital or paper, are tools for you to prepare for the future. They’re just one thing that you use to get the job done. The rest of it comes from you putting in the time and effort.

Roderick Conwi writes at Nourishment Notes about lifestyle development. He is also the author of The Procrastinator’s Quick Guide To Getting It Done. To get powerful insights that enhance your day, join his free newsletter.

Categories
Success Tips

Success Tip: Maintain a Consistent Schedule

If you’re like me, you’re working more from home right now during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s quite an adjustment. I’m used to working on some stuff from home, but I am not used to doing my entire work day from home.

I have loved working from home for the past two months, but I know it’s hard for a lot of people. For many of us, it was a drastic change that had to happen in a short amount of time. Within a few weeks, we had to shift our schedules and our lifestyles. One of the tips I have to share is maintaining a consistent work schedule. That consistency will help you more than you may realize. 

Having a consistent schedule helps you build a daily routine. You may need to be flexible and change it once in a while, but keep it as consistent as possible. Once you get used to it, you will develop a solid workflow. From Monday through Friday, I work from 8am to 4pm with a lunch break from noon to 1pm. That was my schedule before working from home, and that’s still my schedule, even if I’m working at a desk in the corner of my bedroom. 

My work day has always ended at 4pm, and it still stays that way, even from home. I do have a shorter commute, but I don’t use that as a reason to work past 4:00. I have a family that I want to spend quality time with, and by keeping my work day before 4:00, I’m protecting my time with them. There have been a few times I did work past 4:00, but those are rare and I only do it when I really need to. My intention is to protect my work time and protect my family time so that neither suffers.

If there are other activities you want to do, like hobbies or a side-hustle, you have to schedule time in the day for it. At least 3 times a week, I wake up at 5:30am to work on my creative writing projects before the regular work day starts. I like to do that in the morning because it’s when I’m rested, and since everyone else is asleep, I have undisturbed time to be focused. It may be early, but it works for me. If I want these morning sessions to happen, I have to make the effort to schedule them.

However your schedule may look, it needs to exist in order to set you up for success. Having a consistent work day helps you build consistent habits that will make you more effective and productive. Your schedule will help you make time for what is important, and protect it.


Roderick Conwi writes at Nourishment Notes about lifestyle development. He is also the author of The Procrastinator’s Quick Guide To Getting It Done. To get powerful insights that enhance your day, join his free newsletter.

Categories
Success Tips

Success Tip: Create Your Space

If you’re like me, and working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, you know that it comes with challenges. A lot of us had to drastically change the way we worked in a short amount of time. I had a few days to prepare and make the transition. I had to find a way to do my full-time job at home, which is a place that normally isn’t suited for it.

Since this is a huge disruption of your normal daily life (we are in a pandemic after all), it would be helpful to build some consistency. Having a set place to work at home would help with your adjustment to working from home.

One tip that will help is to make your home workspace a place just for your job. That way, you have some sort of physical differentiation between your work space and your home space, even if your work space is now in your home space. It isn’t much, but I have a desk in the corner of my bedroom that I use as my home office. I have my computer, paperwork, and a modest amount of office supplies. That’s enough to get me through my work day. As tempting as it is to work in the living room and the kitchen, it’s nice to compartmentalize my workday. When I’m at my desk, I feel like I’m at work. If I worked on the couch or at the kitchen table, I know my mind would associate those with work, so I would feel like I’m at work even if I was watching TV or eating dinner.

Another tip that will help you with the adjustment is to make your home workspace work for you. Personalize it to your needs. You know what you need to take care of your duties, so set up your work area to help you establish a workflow that you are comfortable with. It may or may not be as productive as you would be if you were back in the office, but if you’re not comfortable, you’re probably not going to be very productive (and you’ll probably have a negative experience while doing so).

It’s okay to adjust your workspace as necessary, but keep it as consistent as possible. Consistency is the key that will help you build a daily routine as you work from home.

Roderick Conwi writes at Nourishment Notes about lifestyle development. He is also the author of The Procrastinator’s Quick Guide To Getting It Done. To get powerful insights that enhance your day, join his free newsletter.

Categories
Miscellaneous

Follow @mosublo on Instagram!

Categories
Success Tips

Success Tip: Make Time for Yourself

As much as you’d like to think so, you are not a machine that can perpetually run non-stop. You are a human being, and you need to take breaks. Even race cars need to make stops. If you don’t make time for yourself, you will burn out.

You can’t just take time for yourself, you need to MAKE time for yourself. When I’ve asked many people about whether they have time for themselves, they’ve said something along the lines of, “I don’t have time now. I should have time when things get less busy.” If you wait for some free time to open up, you will be waiting a really long time. You will almost always be busy. 

In order to make time, you have to schedule it. You need to set a specific time that this “you time” will start and end. If it has to be Friday from 7-8pm, so be it. If you want/need something daily, you can set 7-7:30am every day as your “me time.” That way, you set boundaries between yourself and the rest of the world. It’s very important that you follow through with the schedule you set. If not, your time for you will shrink, keep shrinking, or not exist at all.

You need to make sure that your personal needs are met. You need to make sure that you make your doctors appointments, get errands you need done, and anything else you may need to keep yourself afloat. It’s really easy to procrastinate on the things you need to for yourself, because other things get in the way. You may need to do stuff for work, but that may wait. You, making time for you, is an active self-care.

You also need to make sure that you’re mentally and emotionally okay. If you need to see a therapist, you need to make time to do so. If you need her to see your friends, family, or anyone else who supports you, you need to make time to see them. That is a priority.

Making time for yourself is something that you need to do to optimize your overall productivity and effectiveness. It’s something that you have to set and follow through with. Keeping yourself mentally and emotionally healthy is a priority. You, your friends, your family, and your colleagues deserve to have you at your best. 

Roderick Conwi writes at Nourishment Notes about lifestyle development. He is also the author of The Procrastinator’s Quick Guide To Getting It Done. To get powerful insights that enhance your day, join his free newsletter.

Categories
Miscellaneous

Follow @mosublo on Twitter!

Categories
Success Tips

Success Tip: Define Your Vision

What do you want your life to be? What do you want for your future? Do you know what you want? If you don’t know what you want, how can you get it? The way to get what you want from life is to define it. 

Do you want wealth? Do you want to be further along in your career? Do you want a spouse and kids? Do you want to eat in luxurious restaurants around the world? It’s your vision; it’s up to you.

You need to have a vision, period. It can be a five-year plan, a ten-year plan, or lifetime plan, or any plan. It can change later. The important thing is that you need to have a plan.

Your Plan Needs a Vision to Focus It

Without a plan, you are in a river without a boat or paddle. Life is the river that doesn’t stop for you, no matter what’s going on in your life. You won’t know it’s path, and it’ll take you wherever it is going, whether you like it or not. You may get twists, turns, rocks, and waterfalls, and you won’t be ready for them. 

A plan prepares you for your journey. A plan is your boat, paddle, engine, map, life jacket, and more. With a plan you know where you’re going to enter the river, where you’re going to go, and your journey’s end. The plan helps get you towards your goal, which is defined by your vision. 

Your Vision Should Be Exciting 

If your vision isn’t something you want, you aren’t going to go for it. It needs to be something that truly excites you. When you think of your vision, you need to really feel it in your heart and your gut. It needs to be meaningful enough to motivate you to get up, get going, and push you through obstacles (because you will face them, guaranteed). 

If you choose to share your vision with others, it should excite them too. They are your support system. Your friends and family should be excited for the life you envisioned for yourself, and excited for you when you do achieve it. 

Your Vision Should Be Specific

In fictional writing, the more you brainstorm the details of your characters and the world they live in, the more engaging it is to the audience. The more sensory details there are, the more realistic the setting and characters will be. This works similarly to your vision.

The more detailed your vision is, the more thought out it is. The details make it more realistic and viable for you. The more you can envision it, the more likely you will manifest it into reality. It’ll seem more like a nearing goal than a far-fetched fantasy. 

Your Vision Should Be Flexible

Your vision may change, and that’s okay. As you go through life, you may adjust as necessary. Your interests may change based on your experiences. Your priorities may change. You may want to focus less on traveling around the world and focus more on monetary goals or vice versa. 

It’s okay if your vision changes, as long as you have one. You need your vision to be your goal that guides what you do in your day to day actions. 

I had a friend who started adulthood wanting to be a child psychologist. After traveling around the world and experiencing what different cultures had to offer, she changed her vision, and aspired to be a culinary chef. She eventually went to culinary school and became one. Now she is an entrepreneur and runs her own cookie business. 

Like the adage says, “if you don’t have a plan, you plan to fail.” You need a defined vision to help you plan where you are going in life. 

Roderick Conwi is the author of The Motivation Mindset: Train Your Brain To Get Up and Get Going and the Executive Editor at Nourishment Notes.

Categories
Success Tips

Success Tip: Take Initiative

Success is complex. There isn’t one single tip that I can give everyone that will guarantee success. It depends on each person, their situation, and their goals. Each person has a unique path to their own version of success. Any successful person can give you many tips of how s/he got there, and those tips may or may not apply to you. One tip for success that is worth exploring is the concept of taking initiative.

Taking Initiative Helps You Be More Productive

Most people know when you have a job, you  get paid for the time that you put in. Consider the hours that you put in and all that you do within that time frame. The more you were able to get done the market productive you are. To be more productive, you have to take more initiative.

Being more productive doesn’t happen by accident. It’s an active choice you make every day. When you take initiative, you’re actively making the decision to do more. You’re also making the effort to take on either more responsibilities or more important responsibilities. You are deciding to make better use of your time, which in turn, makes you more productive.

In every job I’ve ever had, I hated being bored. I didn’t want to be busy; I wanted to be productive. Call it my competitive nature, I wanted to accomplish more than everyone else. I wanted to maximize my time. My productivity depended on not just the time I put in, but my effort, which stemmed from taking initiative. 

Make Your Vision Known

One thing that you should do is take the initiative to let people know what you want. Talk to your supervisor, friends, colleagues, and family members. Tell them what you want to do in life can you tell him your vision. That way, they can help hold you accountable. Keep in mind, as much as they can help, it’s ultimately up to you to keep yourself accountable. 

At work, tell your supervisor what you really want: a raise, promotion, different responsibilities, or a different project. Your supervisors aren’t mind readers. You have to tell them what you want in order for them to know what you want. If you want more responsibility, you have to show them that you not only deserve it, but there is a need for you to do it. Also, you need to make it clear to them that you can handle the responsibility that you want.

Before I worked in professional development, I was an employee who wanted to be a trainer. My supervisors didn’t see me in that light. All the meaningful and high-profile responsibility was given to someone else who was much less experienced than me. Eventually, I told my supervisors that I wanted to get promoted into the professional development department as a trainer. They may not have given me more opportunities to advance, but when I took initiative to participate in professional development related events, they stood out of my way. Eventually, I earned a promotion to trainer. 

Take Initiative To Get an Active Advantage

Being proactive gives you an advantage over being reactive. When you are proactive, you are taking the initiative to start something that needs to get done. Instead of waiting for someone to tell you to do something, you are doing it yourself. If everyone else is waiting to be told what to do, you get a head start by being a self-starter. 

When I worked in professional development, I created a lot of training protocols. When staff had to be trained on new procedures or using new software, I usually volunteered to create the training. Why did I do that? I knew that I was going to have to do the training, and I wanted it to be good. The best way I knew how to make the training practical, informative, and engaging was creating it myself. I took the initiative to make it happen.

Lasting Thoughts

If there is something that you’ve been meaning to get done, you need to take initiative to get it done. It’s up to you. No one else is going to do it for you. It’s up to you to get started, it’s up to you to put in the time and effort, and it’s up to you to get it done. If you don’t take initiative, it’s never going to get done.

Roderick Conwi is the author of The Motivation Mindset: Train Your Brain To Get Up and Get Going and the Executive Editor at Nourishment Notes.