Today is a big deal in my world. It marks the occasion of the first anniversary of my podcast with 22 episodes to date and +13K downloads.
Launching مشروع برديس podcast by the end of Q1 2020 was already planned before we even heard of COVID-19; The 2020 lockdown just sped up the production where I produced 5 episodes in 7 weeks. That is why I will always cherish those days that got my creative juices going like no other times I lived before.
After the lockdown was over, and I got back to work, my podcast rhythm slowed down, until I decided I was capable of producing 1 episode a month only.
However, growing my podcast’s impact is one of my goals for 2021, therefore, I have been working on launching more episodes, and succeeded in releasing 9 episodes in 13 weeks since the beginning of the year. This was possible due to a friend’s suggestion to create a short-form episodes where I share a quick update or one idea in addition to my usual longish in-depth discussions about a certain topic. I have other ideas in mind to grow my podcast.
Podcast Growth Plan for next year:
I will maintain a weekly frequency of launching episodes (maybe one month off in summer).
I will mix between in-depth topics like atomic habits books discussion that I am currently doing (20 minutes average) and the short-form episodes (5 minutes).
I will add interviews as a more regular part of the podcast, I find editing them way easier than host-on-mic which has been my format for the past year (except for 1 episode when I hosted my dear accountability partner)
I will try batching where I record more than one episode at a time, have focused editing sessions and schedule release in advance. Still behind in this aspect.
I might upgrade my equipment and recording setup to further improve audio quality.
If you are a listener of my podcast, thank you so much for the love and the time you choose to spend with me! I do not take it for granted.
Yesterday my podcast reached a wonderful milestone of 10,000 downloads since its launch 11 months ago. The 18 episodes I created up to that point have been listened to this many times and that is such an honor.
I am grateful that my message is resonating and I’m happy to be reaching and helping many people I probably will never meet in person in my life.
Thank you for your trust.
For me, I will keep showing up, and that’s a promise.
As I’m preparing to end my digital declutter challenge I would like to share my social media mission statement and digital rules below:
My social media mission statement (draft #1):
I am on social media to teach what I learn from books I read and self-development experiments I apply in my personal life. I want to inspire people and women in particular to love themselves and take care of themselves first through goal setting and building and tracking positive daily habits in order to be able to take care of the people in their lives and meet their responsibilities with energy and love.
Here are my new digital engagement rules after I finish my digital declutter challenge on Feb 15th. I will do maintenance for these rules by reviewing and tweaking them every month to better manage my time and attention.
My screen time this week is down by almost 50% compared to my previous behavior where I only used my phone for an average of 3 hours 15 minutes daily, and that includes kindle and maps. I’m so proud.
All my rules have been working just fine. I met a friend for coffee last week and I didn’t have a book on me so I waited for her staring out the window which was a nice change.
Some friends reached out via whatsapp saying they missed me and looking forward for my return and I reminded them to check my newsletter where I have been sharing my most important updates regarding this challenge.
A friend said she just realized I was in a challenge so my insight is it takes around 2 weeks for people who regularly interact with you to start missing you on social media.
I have noticed that my email list’s growth is slowing down which is making Instagram’s value for my work clearer as it has been the key source of newsletter subscriptions. Instagram then is for marketing my work. I will go back to it after this challenge to share what I create for my core work which is my podcast and blog and hopefully future online workshops and to engage in Live sessions with my dear followers and encourage them to stay in touch with me via my newsletter.
I have also decided to extend my challenge to February 15th . One week after kids start the 2nd non-online (fingers crossed) school semester and we settle into our new routines.
You can listen to this update in Arabic in episode 17 of my podcast below:
I am happy to report that my phone usage has dropped to an average of 4 hours a day compared to my pre-challenge 6 hours average in best case scenraios.
My Whatsapp usage didn’t decrease overall, however my whatsapp scattered screentime has been optimized and I found the challenge getting easier in week 2 as I updated Whatsapp rules to the following:
Whatsapp’s hourly usage is open until 9am when I get to work due to the voice notes I love to send and receieve from my friends who wake up early especially during my walk or commute.
I block whatsapp when I start getting dressed and applying makeup to leave for work because I might get distracted by messages if I check them.
I set work profile for whatsapp as 7 minutes/hour until 6pm.
If I need whatsapp for work communciations I use whatsapp web which I don’t think is distracting at all.
I still block whatsapp between 6pm and 9pm, this step has had the most magical impact on my evening routine and impproved quality of attention to my family.
I am getting bored fast with gmail and I kept the habit of cheking it after lunch break as a transitional activity between break and work.
I have noticed that I am remebering my dreams vividly since starting this challenge. It’s like the decrease in images entering my brain is making it easier for my brain to retrieve its own creations. Interesting, no?
I am also reflecting on the importance of real-time sharing. Do I really need to stop reading and share that book quote snapshot with my groups on spot? Is it really necessary to interrupt admiring the sunset and start talking about the beauty of its image with family memebers? Do I have to share the kid’s cute game while they are playing it and thus leave them? if not physially, attentionally?
This is something I will really take into account when ending this challenge. I love to share cool things I read or photos I take or podcasts I listen to. Changing this might mean I take screenshots or photos all day and share them all at a specific time with my family and friends, or add them to to my social media stories. I will always remember what I wanted to share if I just look into my gallery. If I feel the urge I will say to myself why now? can it wait? maybe add it to my awesome weekly newsletter? Let’s see where this goes.
I have started a month-long digital declutter challenge on January 1st 2021. This is my 2nd time so my hope is I have learned from some of the mistakes of my previous challenge that I did almost 2 years ago.
As advised by Cal Newport in his book Digital Minimalism and in his course with Scott H. Young Life of Focus these are the steps I followed.
Step 1: Divide the technologies used in personal life into the below:
Optional Technologies (as in being away from them would not get me into trouble): Facebook/Facebook page manager/ Facebook business suite/Instagram/ Netflix/ Twitter.
Mixed Technologies:
Whatsapp after working ours
Gmail: not using it might cause communication hang-ups but also it’s a key source of distraction for me.
Audible/Spotify: they are not mandatory of course but they are key source of learning for me. Please note work email is not part of the challenge as this challenge is about personal life technologies.
Mandatory Technologies:
Whatsapp- during working hours: used for work and meetings updates and also by kids’ school.
Step 2: Remove the optional technologies and set rules for the others:
On day -1 of the challenge I have created the following rules:
Remove Facebook apps from my phone with plan not to check them all month.
Remove Instagram and IGTV from phone with plan to check DMs and comments once a week from laptop in order to avoid the “forbidden fruit” feeling.
Remove Netflix from from phone and only watch it on big TV screen with family or one show episode if alone.
Check Gmail once a day at a fixed time for 15 minutes
Limit Whatsapp usage time and block it between 6pm and 9pm which is family/homework/bedtime routine time.
The Actual of Week 1:
Facebook: I needed to check a replay of a webinar on Facebook that I subscribed to before starting this challenge so I opened facebook on web browser to watch it and wasn’t really the least interested to see what those red notifications were about. I’m also opening it temporarily for few days to follow up on a limited-time group for very useful decluttering challenge where I saved the Facebook group link for direct access skipping newsfeed and can’t see any notification.
Instagram: 100% commitment, at the end f of week 1 I spent 20 minutes checking and replying to DMs and comments on my posts through Facebook business suite on web which feels like an email manager without all the scrolling, Thanks to my friend Nadia for this idea. I also set up auto-reply telling friends I’m away for the month with my email address, so I am not sure I’ll log in to Instagram next week. Confession: I asked a friend to tell me how many followers I got while she was already on her Instagram. It is worth mentioning, however, that I felt relieved a bit of the commitment/pressure to post and engage regularly. I’m gaining back space and renewing my creative energy that I can use for other types of content that matter so much to me like my podcast and blog.
Netflix: 100% commitment.
Gmail: 100% commitment but noticed that I prefer to check it right after lunch break not in the morning, as a transitional leisure time back to work. I noticed also that what really wastes time is what I actually click on in my gmail not gmail itself. Clicks takes me to so many places: shopping, reading, checking statistics of my content, and guess what? Instagram missed me and sent me an email update at the end of week 1 for the number of followers I got! feeling so threatened dear IG? that was funny, i didn’t even realize instagram sends emails, or actually most of us are not giving them the chance to. Back to gmail, I’m trying to be more mindful about not opening new links without reading those opened links in my tabs from the day before. I might also consider feedly again, but not sure yet.
Whatsapp: What’s working: 6pm-9pm Whatsapp block is working so well for me. What’s not working yet: I set out to use Whatsapp 45 minutes only but that was unreasonable compared to my previous behavior of 60-90 minute average so I tried 75 minutes but time was up by 2pm then I tried 90 minutes and time was up by 5:30pm. Then, I started experimenting limited hourly Whatsapp time dividing 120 minutes by 14 waking hours (minus the 3 hours blocked), so I get around 8 minutes /hour and the app I use helps me track that so I’ll try this technique between 9am and 6pm and report back.
A funny cosmic incident happened in week 1. My smart watch galaxy e-fit-which was only allowed to show SMS/Whatsapp sender names notifications plus calls- stopped pairing with my phone! I guess/wish it is conspiring to help me in this challenge, I hope it’s a temp hiccup and that I don’t need to replace it. I’m happy it’s working fine as my steps tracker though.
Finally I am excited to report that I am enjoying my evening times the most with this challenge plus less kids’ homework load during January , so more fun time with kids. I’m putting them to bed then checking my Whatsapp which has become like a treat.
You can listen to this update in Arabic in episode 14 of my podcast below.
If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, How Will You Know When You Get There?
Lewis Carroll
We evaluated the past, we dreamt of our future and we came up with goal ideas.
It’s time to write our goals in detail and this is the juicy part you’ve been waiting for. Once you learn how to write one goal you will be able to write all goals.
My favorite teachers in goal-setting are the late zig Ziglar, one of the most amazing motivational speakers who ever lived, and the author and entrepreneur I frequently mention here Michael Hyatt, reading “Your Best Year Ever” was indeed an eye-opener for me. And of course, Lara Casey whose work helped us get to this step.
I take no credit coming up with the goal-setting methodology in this blog post, some steps were quoted as they appeared in “the 7-step goal setting process” by Zig Ziglar and “Your Best Year Ever” by Michael Hyatt whose methodologies I combined here because I strongly believe they complete each other. I’ll also leave you few references at the end.
Here are the Seven Steps of Goal Setting that I recommend:
Please dedicate one page in your notebook for each goal to cover the seven steps.
IDENTIFY THE GOAL:
Zig Ziglar says: “If you don’t identify a target you will never hit it. When you identify a goal it means that you write it down and describe it clearly. Don’t set any vague targets. If you want to have specific success you must have specific targets.”
In order to define a goal properly the goal needs to check 7 boxes and be a SMARTER goal. SMARTER is a twist from the usual SMART goals we have probably encountered in the workplace so instead of meaning Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-keyed, SMARTER stands for.:
Specific: The goal needs to be clear, writing a vague goal is a way to hide from working on it. Unclear goals will waste your time and energy. A vague goal would be: “exercise more”, and the way to make it specific is “Go to the gym 3 times a week, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday“ Another fuzzy goal could be “improve my relationship with my parents” and we can make it specific by writing “Call my parents every day”.
Measurable: A goal needs to have some criteria of achievement to know when we reach it. For example, “Lose some weight” is better than “get in shape” but “lose 6 Kilos” is a much better goal because we have made it measurable and makes success way more delicious.
Actionable: The goal needs to start with a verb of action. “Be a better parent” is not an actionable goal. “Spend evening quality time with each of my kids every day” is a goal you can actually track and will result in warmer connection with your kids. Whenever you start a goal with a Be verb, ask yourself what can you actually do to make this goal happen?
Risky: If you know for sure that you’re going to achieve the goal that means you have set the bar too low and you are not stretching yourself enough. Setting a trivial goal is another way to hide in goal-setting process. The goal needs to make you feel uncomfortable a bit. If your initial goal was “improve your sales by 10%” why not make it “improve your sales by 30%” if your goal was to “Save 1500 JDs in 6 months” why not make it 3 months instead? A study showed that “difficult goals are far more likely to generate sustained enthusiasm and higher levels of performance.” Some ways to make the goal riskier is increasing the target and shortening the deadline. Also if you make the goal grandiose that would be another way to hide. It is a recipe for guaranteed failure in goal achievement.
Time-Keyed: The goal needs to have a deadline for achievement. If you don’t set a deadline for completing your goals you will not be able to be accountable to yourself, or anyone else. If you are not accountable for your goals you will not achieve them. Not all deadlines need to be 31 Dec. Hyatt says “Distant deadlines discourage action”. If you are setting annual goals make sure to spread them out so you have two to three priorities every quarter. However, if your goal is a new habit you want to cultivate then then deadlines don’t make sense so the time frame related could be the frequency of the habit, for example you are going to meditate 10 minutes every morning at 5am.
Exciting: This attribute in SMARTER framework is my personal favorite. The goal needs to be exciting for YOU! This is the key difference between a project and a goal. Every Goal (achievement goal) is a project but not every project is a goal. We are all working on different projects at work for example, it’s when the outcome feels exciting that projects become goals. Maybe the work needed to complete a goal is not exciting like the goal of decluttering the kids’ bedroom, but I bet that the outcome of an organized and clear bedroom is pretty exciting.
Relevant : This is the final attribute of a goal, it’s like a sanity check if the goal actually makes sense. Is the goal relevant to your season of life? Are you a mother with very young children and you want to launch your own business? Maybe you can push this goal for another couple of years so you would have the energy and time needed for a new business. Maybe your goal is “travel to 4 countries during the year” while you have another goal “Achieve all objectives at your new role at work”. These 2 goals might be conflicting, and you need to decide what’s more important. The goal should be aligned with your season of your life, your other goals and your own big picture vision of yourself at age 80.
2. LIST THE BENEFITS – WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
We only do the things we want to do and are willing to do.
Zig Ziglar
This is your Key Motivations list which you will go back to when the excitement of starting a new goal fades away. We already said the goal should be exciting and in this step you define the WHY. You need to specify what you will get by achieving the goal. This is very important to pump you up whenever you read it or if/when you forget why you are pursuing the goal. The reasons need to be personal and you need to connect with them both intellectually and emotionally. You need to be clear on your gains when you get the goal accomplished and what’s at stake if you don’t. It would be great if you could define who or what will be impacted in your life by this achievement.
3. LIST THE OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME:
If the goal was easy you would have done it already, no? This time you are going to list all the potential issues that might arise as you work towards your goal. They could be external obstacles or internal ones concerning your discipline and willpower. Zig Ziglar recommends asking a trusted friend who knows you well to help you finish this step.
Michael Hyatt also recommends preparing if/then scenarios for each anticipated obstacle. Example (if it rains, I’ll use a raincoat during my daily walk), (if I am offered sweets I will say no, I don’t eat sweets anymore), (if people interrupt me during my deep work sessions, I’ll ask them to note the noise cancellation headset and come back later).
4. LIST THE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED:
“Knowledge gives us the power to accomplish things we would not otherwise be able to do, and skills give us the tools to take advantage of our knowledge. There is a direct relationship between knowing and doing, and successfully accomplishing your goals will require that powerful combination. “
Write what you might need to learn to make your goal successful, what books to read and courses to take. You might consider improving some gaps you have in soft skills like patience, time management and discipline.
5. IDENTIFY THE PEOPLE AND GROUPS TO WORK WITH:
“People do a better job when we have the help of others. They can help us with knowledge and skill and can offer valuable advice we need to be successful. So when you set your goals always consider the people and the groups you can work with that can help you be more successful. “
You might arrange a phone call with someone who accomplished a similar goal to help you get started or book a coach.
6. DEVELOP A PLAN OF ACTION:
This is the most critical step and it involves thinking through the details of how you will achieve your goal. While your goals should be in your discomfort zone, your next steps should be in your comfort zone. E.g. call someone, research this topic, pay course fees…etc.
For my goal “launch podcast in March 2020” the plan of action was:
-write podcast introduction
-record podcast introduction
-ask Yarub Samirat for permission to use his music in my podcast
– listen to his album Ya Salam again to select the music piece
-edit the music piece with intro, write a trailer for podcast
-select a platform to host my podcast …and so on.
7. SET DUE DATES FOR ACTION ITEMS:
Define whether the action items you set are short term or long term, if short term; set a time to complete each task which will help you meet your goal deadline. Add the proper reminders on your calendar and task manager application.
Final tip:
Make your goals visible so you can read them every day. You need to write the list of your identified goals (done in step 1) in one page which you can review every day. It’s best if you commit to review them in detail (esp. Key motivations) every week.
CONGRATULATIONS!
You have spent time planning your life way more than most people around you. Be proud of yourself!
Now it’s time for action.
You can listen to this blog post in Arabic through episode 10 of my podcast: