Month: October 2023

Did you walk today?

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The highlight of the previous week was moving my body more than the week before.

I started with a short Wednesday walk right after work. I planned this walk by bringing the appropriate shoes and socks.

On Thursday, I participated in a fantastic team-building event with my work colleagues. I played, moved, and laughed.

On Friday morning, I walked while my kids were in their weekly math class, and later in the day, I walked some more during our family trip to Ajloun Teleferic (highly recommended).

Seeing those steps add up on my watch made me feel great as I was using my body for what it was built for: movement, as opposed to the unnatural sedentary life most of us lead by working at office desks for long hours.

Last week, I distinctly felt the need to move, like I had an excess of negative energy that journaling could not help me let out. Walking was what I needed. I was right.

Walking has been a part of my life since the quarantine days. Although many things could come in the way of taking a nice walk, like the shortage of pavements, there are good places to safely walk and enjoy the beautiful architecture of houses and the splendor of trees, especially at this time of year.

I don’t walk every day as I wish, but even if I start on Wednesdays, it’s still way better than walking zero times during the week.

When will you walk this week? 

Did you walk today?

How to Overcome Note Overwhelm in 10 Simple Steps

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A good chunk of my weekly review goes to processing my handwritten notes, and this is how I do it: 

  1. During the week, I collect notes in one place. I write any task, idea, or insight on the daily pages in my planner. 
  2. As the week goes by, I process some tasks by crossing off done items.  
  3. At the start of the new week, during the weekly review, I read all my notes from the past week. 
  4. I cross off done tasks. 
  5. I do tasks I wrote that need a very short time, like sending a text or a reminder email. According to David Allen’s GTD, these actions take less than 2 minutes. 
  6. I add digital reminders to my task app with due dates where applicable. 
  7. I copy insights or good ideas, like a sentence I read and wrote or a post or a podcast idea into my task app in a proper list, such as “Instagram content” or “podcast content”.  
  8. Or I copy ideas to one of my favorite note-taking apps: Google Keep and Evernote.  
  9. As I review my daily pages and process them, I cross off every single word. 
  10.  I then write in a colored marker the word “Reviewed,” which means I will never read or even visit this page in the future, and it was successfully processed.  

I genuinely enjoy this process, and it gives me an immense sense of clarity and relief. As David Allen says: “You can only feel good about what you’re not doing when you know what you’re not doing.” 

As I wrote this post, I realized that I need to work on better processing my digital notes. I do this randomly, not systematically. I need to account for processing the digital notes, perhaps every month and see which of these notes are still relevant and which need deleting or archiving.  

How to Overcome Note Overwhelm in 10 Simple Steps

How To Talk To Your Self

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I listened to a beautiful podcast episode about self-talk, where psychologist Ethan Kross shared that positive self-talk works better when addressing yourself in the third person or using “you” instead of “I,” according to his research. So, if your name is Tala, your self-talk should go like: “You got this, Tala” instead of “I got this.” This method is called distancing, and it works better for motivation.  

Also, we can try superhero self-talk. Kids can significantly benefit from this technique when performing a difficult task. They think of a favorite superhero character and then talk to themselves like this: “Super Tala, you got this; you did harder stuff than this; you can do it.” 

We might notice we are not kind in our self-talk after making a mistake, so here is the part where we need self-compassion practice. 

The one and only Kristin Neff joined the conversation with three steps to practice self-compassion, which, unlike what you would think, makes us more resilient and confident rather than lenient. 

  1. Step 1: Mindfulness: I am having a hard time. This situation hurts. 
  2. Step 2: Recognizing our shared humanity: I am not the only one experiencing a hard time. It’s part of being human. Other people feel just like me. I am not alone. 
  3. Step 3: Kindness to oneself. Practicing kindness could be placing your hand on your heart and talking gently to yourself like you would a dear friend, and we go back here to self-talk best practices; “It’s ok, dear Tala. You will be ok.” 

I found this helpful episode this morning after having a hard time in extreme Monday morning traffic that added 30 minutes to my daily drive. I really wanted to blame someone for it, but mindfulness helped me notice the intensity of my anger. I kept practicing the psychological sigh: two breaths in through the nose and a long one out of the mouth until I felt better. 

As I listened, I noticed I was missing steps 2 and 3 from the self-compassion practice in my car this morning. Alas, I will use them next time.

Will you?  

How To Talk To Your Self

Are you ready? Your fresh start awaits.

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Today, October 1st, 2023, is the start of a new week, month, and quarter.

Do you know when was the last time this happened? It happened once this year, on January 1st, which was a public holiday. And October 1st is the last time these three beginnings coincide this year.*

To make the best of your fresh start, spend time as soon as possible this week planning the habits you will track and the most important goals you want to achieve this quarter. Decide your last 90 days of the year ambitions and the problems you want to solve. A wise person in a podcast called problems “projects.” Your problems are projects you want to work on and take action steps to improve. Brilliant, no?

Do you plan to commit to the weekly reviews in the next 12 weeks?
Do you plan to track your weekly expenses and save for the holidays?
Do you plan to sleep at a reasonable hour most nights?
Do you plan to start journaling a few days a week?
Do you plan to move your body?
Do you plan to check on the people you say you care about most?

After you decide what you want to do this month:

  • Write your habits and goals on a post-it note in a visible place to keep them on top of mind because the days will get busier, and the list of goals will be forgotten if not present in your space.
  • Track your habits on a habit tracker like the one in the spark below, or create your own. You will feel discouraged sooner than expected if you do your habits without tracking them. Tracking makes you feel great about progress before the changes in your life become tangible. Track the total number of days you commit in October to beat your record in November and be realistic in December because it would be different from October and November.
  • Open your calendar and book action steps for your non-daily habits and goals, such as a coffee date with a friend, walking times, budgeting days, and weekly review days… you get the picture. It would help if you saw them in your calendar to make sure they make sense with the rest of your commitments.

One last tip: my friend told me about a journaling exercise called Remembering The Future, in which you write how you want to feel at the end of the year like it happened already, e.g., “I am so happy I finished that project, passed the exam, and improved my relationship with my mother.” Cool, huh?

So tell me, what will you say on December 31st about the year 2023?

Let’s end it with a bang, shall we?

*P.S. I learned this when I was designing my 2023 calendar. If your workweek starts on Monday, a new week and month collided once this year; on May 1st. These small facts are a lot of fun for a goal and time nerd like me!

Are you ready? Your fresh start awaits.