Why Good Habits Make You More Effective & Productive

I’m not the best at being organised – I’m very very rarely late collecting my kids, I get a dinner on the table at roughly the same time every day, I’m on time for most meetings but I hate being constrained by time.

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed the kids so much as toddlers was because time didn’t matter – it didn’t matter if a baby spent hours in my arms feeding or if all I did all day was cook a dinner and get out for a walk with them. If I fit in a visit to a toddler group or a grocery shop, I felt I was really going for it!

I’ve been told that I must be organised (by some people – others who know me better see me as a hopeless case) as I get my kids fed and to activities, I run a business, I help out on the farm, my house isn’t the tidiest but it’s not quite falling down around my ears. I’m actually feeling fairly organised at the moment, the living room has been hoovered, the dishwasher is on, the kitchen is reasonably tidy, my notes and files for teaching a blogging course tomorrow are ready, I’ve even sorted out what I’m going to wear to save myself a few minutes in the morning. However, seeing myself as organised just makes me squirm – for some reason, organised people seem straight-laced, boring, preoccupied with time and schedules, let’s face it – anal! Now, I know that’s ridiculous – people are constantly striving to be more organised, to use time more effectively (and yes, I was one of them by going on ‘Not Enough Hours), using the app Pomodero to manage time better plus those you are organised and effective time managers tend to be admired.

I admit it – I have a strong love/hate relationship with being organised!

Charismatic EdgeI’m reading a good few books at the moment and with not much time for reading at the moment, I’m making slow progress through each of them. Reading The Charismatic Edge the other evening, I was struck with something that Owen wrote. I’d heard before that it takes 21 days to create a habit, to keep doing something so that it becomes easier and automatic. ?While my time management isn’t too bad at the moment, I have so much going on that I feel I’m barely keeping all the plates in the air. The blog awards nominations will be opening soon and we’re working on contacting potential sponsors and the website at the moment. ?While I’m not doing a huge amount of social media training at the moment, ?a nice amount is coming in plus I’m doing regular ghost blog post writing. Amanda, Marie and I are working on We Teach Social which will deliver social media training online and I’d really like to have the website ready by mid May. I spend 1.5-2 hours a day helping Brian on the farm. I’m in the middle of trying to write something (more on that if it comes off). I had made a huge decision recently and heaved a sigh of relief but events have changed which means it all has to be re-considered so my brain is melting over that too.

According to Owen Fitzpatrick, we have too many decisions to make in our lives which can be exhausting. If many of those decisions can become habits, we can do them automatically and use our energy for the important decisions. Apparently Barack Obama limits the colours of his suits so he doesn’t have to think about which colour suit to wear! ?I seem to have to make a ridiculous number of small insignificant decisions in the day. I know lots of people now plan their cooking and meals for a week in order to shop more efficiently and save money and while I’m more than capable of cooking roast chicken on a Sunday and creating pasta or fajitas from the left over chicken on the Monday, and I don’t spend a long time considering what to cook on a daily basis, I can see why planning it out eliminates decision making. But gosh, do I really want to know on Monday what I’ll be having for dinner on Thursday!! ?However, reading about it struck a chord and it makes sense. ?Owen describes habit building in attempts to stop smoking ie in that smoking provides the reward of relaxation if you are stressed so you need to find another method of relaxation as a reward.

I know that once the kids are in bed and I return downstairs, I feel drained. My reward and my energy pick me up is a cuppa and some chocolate – not the best thing when I’m supposed to be losing weight. Yet, I know that it’s a habit. It makes sense that when I’m tired (whether it’s from being a mum or from decision fatigue) my willpower to resist temptation is really at a low ebb! Now to work out what I can reward myself with when I hanker after sweet things which happens way too often!

What has all this to do with charisma? I hear you ask! ?Ah, wait till the next time I write about it 🙂

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