When we deal with the trivia in our daily life, we are often interrupted by sudden events. Here are some ways to help you get your shirt together. But you should not try all these at once, otherwise you may lose your mind and your shirt. However, you can select one and scroll with it until you are comfortable with it, and then continue to the next one.
Table of Contents
Keep the Main Space Clean and Tidy
For me, if the kitchen is messy, I just don’t have a good headspace. So is my desk. I spend most of my time in these two places. If they look like bombs exploding in them, I will subconsciously observe the fragments carefully all the time there. Not to mention spending so much time looking for the lost paper. Color home office, rainbow mural, white IKEA desk, X4 chair now, when I work inside, I have no problem with the space becoming more and more messy – I won’t take the time to immediately put everything back in place during the creative process – but quick cleaning after I finish means that I won’t face dirty things when I sit down next time.
Use Planner
Missing meetings and appointments are typical signs of not being together. No one will look at a person who is always late and think that their life is in order. Find yourself a planner, no matter how simple it is, or start using the calendar app on your phone and get into the habit of entering dates as soon as you hear them. Knowing where you should be at any given time and never double book or over expand yourself will greatly help you clean up the mess in the war.
Use Timer
If you’ve been putting off a task, set a timer that only takes a few minutes, and then try to finish it as much as possible. If you need to concentrate, set a longer timer, and then let your brain work, safely knowing that you will rest soon. Things may become unstoppable because we think they take too long or too difficult, or we’re just not sure where to start, so we don’t have to bother. However, the timer set to 5 minutes has little resistance. There is no reason why you can’t try in such a short time. I use the timer on my mobile phone, but you can also pay attention to the “natural” timer – the advertising break time (emptying and refilling the dishwasher) in your favorite TV program, the time when your microwave makes a bang (sweeping the floor), and the time when you wait for tea or coffee (clearing the counter). In fact, you will be surprised at how much you can accomplish in a very short time.
Prioritize To-do Items
You can be as busy as you want and work hard until you lie face down in bed, but if you don’t do important things, it’s all in vain.
Of course, praise yourself until the cow comes home, your inbox is empty, all your social media notifications have been checked, all your clothes are arranged in rainbow order, or you have arranged your recipes in alphabetical order, but if there are bills to pay and your clean underwear is running out, you can’t fool anyone. Take a few minutes to look at your list, find out which tasks are the most urgent and important, and then get everything else done.
Plan Ahead
If you are not sure where to start, this is the advice I recommend to most people.
Sit down at night and see where you have to be and what you have to do the next day.
Make sure you have enough time to finish everything, make sure your tasks are prioritized, so that you don’t feel “busy” all day, and make sure you have everything you need (packing, preparing snacks, selecting and ironing clothes, etc.). If you don’t spend the first five minutes frantically searching for your keys, your day will be much smoother.
The perfect day started the night before!
Regular Exercise
This is an area I often encounter, but the fact is that regular exercise is one of the best ways for overall health. It doesn’t even require you to go to the gym for an hour every day. You don’t even have to “feel burned”. Regular exercise (even just dancing in the kitchen) will pump blood to all parts of the body, expel some toxins and prolong life. Adding some strength training and exercising muscles is a good way to keep your body strong and feel energetic. Every good tonic needs to be “shaken well before use”, so let this be your morning motto.
Start With the Difficult Things
As I mentioned above, it’s easy to “fake busy” and make no progress on more important tasks or goals. In order to really collect your shit, bigger work should be deleted from your list as early as possible in the day, because let’s face it, you can be full of great intentions, but when the day begins and ends, the last thing you want to do is face a big task. I don’t mean you have to finish it, but set a timer of 10 or 15 minutes to see how big you can finish, and then start the rest of the day. The added benefit is that it makes you feel energetic and motivated, which means that the rest of the day should be relaxed.
Decomposition Items
Unless this is something you really like, the larger the task or the greater the uncertainty of where to start, the less likely it is to be completed. It’s meaningless to put things like “redecorating the house” on your daily to-do list, because in fact, it’s not a task that can be completed in an afternoon.
Break it down into smaller, more manageable parts, and then do it step by step. You don’t have to break the whole thing down, but the first few steps will generate some momentum, and once you start acting, the rest will show up.
If you’re really not sure where to start, go anywhere. You’ll know as soon as you leave. Or set aside some specific time to do some research, or ask insiders.
Always Bring Snacks
Eating snacks is not an enemy! When preparing meals and snacks every week, you can eat them all day, bring them to work, when you run errands (the hunger feeling in the grocery store is so real), or when you know you are not here for a long time of the day. You don’t have to add bagels or sweets to your 2 p.m. Starbucks trip, so you can save money and achieve any health goals. We all know that those mothers who always eat snacks are really the best. Like those mothers.
Slow Down
If you are ready to clean up your mess, slow down first. There is a common misconception that being busy means you are successful. “I don’t have time” is like a badge of honor. In fact, it usually indicates poor time management and lack of clear priorities. If you exhaust yourself, you will do no good to anyone, especially yourself. If you are always busy, it is difficult to have a “global” view and identify your priorities. Stopping to smell the rose is not a sign of weakness. It clearly shows that you attach importance to yourself and health. You give yourself time to reflect on what is effective and what is ineffective, so that you can adjust your route, not just continue to paddle desperately.
Gratitude
What’s the point of living a life you don’t appreciate? You can combine this with the above, but no matter what you do, spend some time every day thanking you for everything you have. This may not be your best day, but you are still alive and breathing. We take many things for granted – not everyone in the world can get them – so every morning we should start from a positive point of view and remind ourselves of all the blessings. You may get stuck in traffic, you may spill coffee on your shirt, and you may have a hard day at work… But please pay attention to the fact that you have a car, or you can afford coffee and clothes, or you have a job. Even if you don’t have these things, you will still have others willing to pay everything for them. Every breath is a miracle. Never take it for granted, because someone, somewhere, is taking their last.
Don’t Be So Concerned About the Future
It’s a bit old-fashioned to say “live in the moment”, but that’s because it needs to be repeated.
I’m not suggesting that you should stop aiming, nor that you should stop setting the goals you are trying to achieve. However, as a wise man said, “the pace of life is very fast. If you don’t stop occasionally and look around, you may miss it.” If you really want to concentrate, don’t focus too much on the destination and forget to enjoy the journey. The best story is not about where you are, but about how you got there.
Check Your Bank Statement
At the end of the day (or the first thing in the morning!), Check your bank account or statement one by one. This not only makes you responsible for every little thing you swipe your card (the $5 fee adds up!), But it allows you to fully understand and track everything you spend on your hard-earned money. This also ensures that you capture anything that has not been completed correctly and manages the time it takes for your transaction to complete on the statement. This is not to become a financial master overnight; It just looks at how you make your money move.
Don’t Lose Yourself
You can do all the above things, but you will still lose your way in life. There are many organized bastards outside, so don’t think that a complete Filofax and a gym membership will make you go far. Of course, you can build an empire by yourself, but having a team can complete the task faster, and the kick-off party with more than one team is more interesting. Just remember, you can walk around everyone, but at the end of the day, you must clean the soles of your shoes by yourself.
