Month: May 2021

Morning Flow

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I spent 90 minutes this morning preparing, almost studying, the notes for my new podcast episode about Atomic habits (the part about the 3rd law of habit formation). While doing that, I opened the webcam of my laptop and recorded a video of myself. In the video, I said: “Remember Bardees, how perfect you feel right now.”

I made this video as a documentation of the flow state I was in while researching and studying to share knowledge and my own experience in the podcast, which I spent 60 minutes recording afterwards (including few interruptions here and there).

It’s good to rediscover what we’re good at and enjoy doing for hours at a time. It’s so rewarding to do deep work and get to experience flow.

When was the last time you experienced flow?

Morning Flow

Work Desk Must haves

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Yesterday I shared about my whiteboard, a key element in my office that inspires me.

Today, I will share what I also keep at my desk in front of me at all times:

On cardboard paper:

  • My Work Goals for the quarter (it’s very important to keep your goals visible)
  • My work affirmations (added just recently).
    • I am committed to being a leader, an initiator, an over-communicator and fast deliverer at my job.
    • I am committed to getting better and better at my job.
    • I am committed to communicating clearly and effectively.
    • I am committed to giving generously to others, the more I give, the more I receive and the happier I feel.
    • I am committed to expanding in abundance, success and love and inspiring others to do the same

On post-it notes:

  • My mantra of the Year: Practice Focused Attention. Maybe I need to rephrase into a question: Are you practicing focused attention? Much more powerful, no?
  • My workday startup ritual steps, including the check-in questions.
  • My workday shutdown ritual steps, including the check-out questions.

Since writing my ritual steps on post-its last month I’ve been committing to them more. In addition, I set an alarm 30 minutes before workday end to remind me to start my shutdown ritual and leave on time.

I hope you find this helpful to you.

Snapshot from my work desk showing some of the above

Work Desk Must haves

Whiteboard Love

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What’s the most important thing I need to do today?

This is a wonderful question that keeps me focused. I wrote it in on the whiteboard in my office right in front of my desk. I will keep it there for a while until I need to change it again when it gets blended with the environment.

The first thing I asked for when I started my current job three years ago is a whiteboard to write inspiring quotes or questions on, like I had done in my previous job. Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I thought how grateful I really am for this space I am inhabiting 8 hours a day. It’s the first office I have with a door, a whiteboard and an evergreen plant.

I never wrote a To-Do list on my whiteboard. I have my planner for that. My whiteboard is to inspire me and whoever passes by my office or checks my social media.

In fact, my early Instagram feed was photos of my whiteboard quotes, not always taken in the highest quality, but always motivating and never boring quotes like this and this and this

I also kept all the quotes I picked and wrote on my whiteboards throughout the years in a Google doc so I wouldn’t repeat one by mistake. When I started this job, this doc came in handy as I referred to it to write quotes again.

What’s on your whiteboard?

Whiteboard Love

Power Hour for Nagging Tasks

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When I read Better than Before book by Gretchen Rubin, I learned so many helpful tips and tricks, one of them is Power Hour for nagging tasks and this is how she defines them:

With this hour, I’d tackle only tasks where I had no deadline, no accountability, no pressure—because these were the tasks that weren’t getting addressed. That’s another Secret of Adulthood: Something that can be done at any time is often done at no time.
-Gretchen Rubin

According to Getting Things Done book, if a task takes less than 2 minutes do it now. If it takes more, write it down to free up mental space and have the list accessible to you to use whenever you have some time free time or for your weekly power hour. Gretchen downsized this rule in her one-minute rule in her book The Happiness Project.

Sometimes I have no idea how long a nagging task would take, so I use a stopwatch to time it and find out and most probably laugh at myself afterwards for all the times I felt burdened by it.

A recent example is when I wanted to add a subscription option to my blog but didn’t know how, so I set the stopwatch. It only took me 10 minutes to make it happen and I felt lighter after.

Another tip is that you can set a timer and decide beforehand that if the time is up and the task is not complete yet it is perfectly ok to stop the task too, or, if you get some momentum going, keep at it until it is complete.

Celebrate the progress either way.

Power Hour for Nagging Tasks

What Friends Are For

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Sometimes, even though you know all the facts about your life, you still need someone to say them out loud to you to remind you when you get hard on yourself or drown in comparison or feel behind.

My friend reminded me:

You have a full-time job
You have a family and young kids
You have a house to run
You have a podcast that you care about most
You are writing daily
You are doing your best

I hope you have a friend like that.

What Friends Are For

Lies and Excuses

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I have this lie in my head that I need to read something new before I am able write. The lie says I don’t have anything to say today. I did not listen to a new podcast or audiobook or read in my books or any new article. It was a family day, what is there to write about?

The lie is so persistent. I feel edgy. I feel the need to go read one or 2 chapters to get inspired then come back to writing.

I know all what they say about writing, you just need to show up, set a timer and type until that timer goes off and get done with it. Just type.

Ok here I am typing. But I don’t have anything to say today and people are writing way better than I write. Why am I doing this?

I am sharing those lies with you that Jon Acuff calls Soundtracks, maybe you can recognize one of your own?

Wonder with me. How better I would feel in a few minutes when I hit “publish”, and how much worse if I wake up tomorrow knowing I missed my daily post on purpose.

That’s why I need to stop writing at night. The resistance is at its highest with too many excuses to count. In the morning this rarely happens. I need to respect my creative routines and make this process easier not harder.

I shared with you the excuses and lies my mind are telling me to sabotage my new writing habit.

I did not listen. Not only that, but I’ve been also showing up here for three consecutive month.

I’m proud and grateful.

Lies and Excuses

DIGITAL HABITS UPDATE-April 2021

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I’m happy to report that based on Rescuetime reports my digital habits have indeed improved in April where my average daily consumption decreased by 70 minutes compared to March 2021 to be 6h21m.

I have not posted much on Instagram compared to March which might be the reason my screentime decreased. Hence, my followers’ growth was the slowest so far this year.

What’s working:

  • Protecting my morning routine most days by blocking Instagram through setting AppBlock on strict mode the night before, where I can only check it once I get to the office to post something inspiring and reply to DMs and comments which I love to do.
  • Blocking Facebook, Gmail and Twitter’s web versions from phone, also via AppBlock, and only checking them on desktop. This led me to forget checking my personal Facebook account for a couple of weeks.
  • Blocking Whatsapp as I’m getting ready to leave the house because I keep sending my early morning companions and get distracted.

What’s not working:

  • Netflix’s usage has increased a bit, therefore I’m reestablishing the 20-min daily rule which is fair and entertaining enough.

In May, I want to post more while still respecting my family time evenings and my official working hours.

Let’s see how this goes. I feel hopeful that I almost found the formula that works for me and my digital sanity as a content creator.

DIGITAL HABITS UPDATE-April 2021