advice

How to not let a new idea ruin your good-enough old ideas

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Last month I decided to try batching in recording two to three episodes at once for my podcast in one sitting, especially since the topics were ready due to consistently writing on this blog. Afterward, I thought, I could try batching sessions for editing. 

When it comes to creating podcasts, Michael Hyatt always advocates batching : 

“Batch processing is the grouping of similar tasks that require similar resources in order to streamline their completion.”

Amy Porterfield agrees, John Lee Dumas swears by it in his interview with Hala Taha, and my consistent content creator friend swears by batching for doing reels. That is why I was so excited to try it.

One month later, however, I created zero podcast episodes instead of the usual target of two. This mishap was a juicy topic in the recent weekly review call with my incredible accountability partner. When she checked- in with me about the reason, my answer-read “excuse”- was: “I did not have enough time for a long recording session.” So, she shared this gem of advice with me: 

“You don’t need to implement a good idea right when you hear about it or think of it or like it.”

She added, “Your normal podcast process worked well enough, and now because you want to try this new “better” process, you halted your good enough process and ended up with nothing to show for it”. 

Aha moment, yes? 

I thanked her so much for turning on the lights for me one more time. I did not realize it was that all-or-nothing mentality again, stopping me from my best work. Therefore, I decided I will try batching soon enough by properly scheduling it and hopefully live the ease it promises of sharing more consistent podcast content. Meanwhile, I will keep my existing process of working on one episode from start to finish.

So there you go; if you get a great idea, write it down and put a date to try it in your reminders app to ensure you wouldn’t forget about it like you are so afraid to. But, don’t stop your good-enough ideas or processes (in my case) until you first try the better idea! Waiting to try a new tool or software or an app or a process for your creative work could turn into a trap for not shipping it to the world. 

I fell for it, but now I know better. You do too.

How to not let a new idea ruin your good-enough old ideas

Don’t Wake Up Early: Advice for 5 AM Club Wannabees

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Waking up at 5 AM since late 2016 is the keystone habit that has turned my life around. Waking up early, however, is not for everybody. I meet many people who complain about not being able to wake up early, and after a bit of probing, I discover that one or more of the behaviors below applies to them. 

If you still have not conquered the waking up early habit yet, you might realize the reason now.

  1. You go out almost every night and do not come home before 11 PM.
  2. You like to keep your options open for nights out with your partner or friends, and you pride yourself on being the first to say yes if someone makes plans on the same day.
  3. You like to spend an hour or two every night on your phone scrolling social media or binging on Netflix.
  4. You hate your day job and believe that nighttime is the only time to chill, so you sleep late or enjoy what the Japanese call bedtime revenge.
  5. You don’t have a big enough why to get you out of bed while it’s still dark outside. You don’t have something to look forward to doing in the morning. 
  6. You have plenty of time for self-care habits such as meditation, journaling, and reading during the day, so you don’t need the early hours to do that. 
  7. You are organized and don’t feel rushed in the morning; you usually arrive to work ready to kill it. 

If the above applies to you, stop kidding yourself by saying I wish I woke up earlier. You really don’t want to. Life, as it is now, is working out fine for you. You don’t wake up early by choice. Your daily actions reveal your priorities. There is nothing wrong with waking up at the time that suits your lifestyle. Embrace your reality.

However, if you want to get up earlier and think it’s the best time to give attention to yourself first before giving it to your world, to reflect, to move, to enjoy the quiet, and plan the day, then, could you tell me which of the above behaviors is blocking you? 

Defining the problem is the first step to solving it.

Check my 14 tips to wake up earlier here.

Don’t Wake Up Early: Advice for 5 AM Club Wannabees

Reminder to Mid-Day Self

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When you timeblock your day first thing, you don’t have to think or decide what you should do next; the decision has been made by a saner, calmer version of you already. You simply need to look at your schedule and start working.

I needed this reminder today, did you?

Reminder to Mid-Day Self

Tips to Make the Most of Your Weekends

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A rejuvenating weekend is key to a productive work/school week ahead.

Here are some tips to prepare for your weekends.

  1. Check the weather; sunny weekends call for different plans than rainy ones. 
  2. Keep your partner or family members updated on your upcoming weekend plans at least two days ahead of the weekend and check in on their plans. I talk with my husband about the weekend on Wednesdays and let him know what I have in mind or already planned. If I have a morning of appointments or a night out with girlfriends planned out, he will make plans too. The same goes the other way around. 
  3. If you’re in the mood to go out somewhere nice as a couple, explicitly ask your partner and not leave it to chance. 
  4. Check IMDb ratings before watching a movie to have a pleasant movie night experience. 
  5. Check the expected homework load for the kids, which could impact family outings. In our household, we try to do most of the homework on weekends to have more leisurely evenings on school nights.
  6. As much as possible, run your errands and appointments and shop for groceries on weekends, preferably in the morning. This way, you’ll get done faster and relieve yourself from wasting precious evenings during the workweek. 
  7. Make sure visiting your parents, if geographically possible, is accounted for in your weekend plans. 

Weekends constitute 29% of your week. A well-spent weekend can renew your family bonds and help you make significant progress in your personal or home projects. 

Plan wisely.

Tips to Make the Most of Your Weekends

Self-Trust

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As I reflected on the last year, a theme that I had not anticipated emerged.

It’s self-trust.

  • I now trust that when I set powerful intentions, they come true, even if the how is not clear yet. By setting the intention to monetize my work at the beginning of the year, opportunities I never heard of presented themselves, and I got hired for the first time to teach my work.
  • By launching my first workshop at the end of the year, I now trust that I can generate income if I leave my job and start my own business.
  • I now trust that when I believe my work is worth so much, the universe agrees and I receive from sources I do not expect. For example, someone paid me back some money I gave a year ago on the same day of the workshop launch.
  • Now that it’s finally a habit, I now trust that meditation helps sharpen my intuition.
  • I also now trust my intuition more than ever; my gut feeling told me someone was bad news, and it was right.
  • I now trust that affirmations work, specifically repeatedly writing them in the morning.
  • I now trust that when I respect my menstrual cycle and rest more, I achieve more.
  • I now trust that when I start typing, meaningful words will appear, eventually.

Self-Trust

Overcome Friction to Master Habits

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Coming from an Industrial Engineering background and an excellent experience in Six Sigma projects, I like to catch defects in processes and improve them. Likewise, I enjoy noticing friction points in my day-day life and solving them. Studying and teaching Atomic Habits, in my podcast and videos lately, helped me hone this skill even better.

Here are some examples of solutions I implemented to friction points I had personally faced:

Friction PointSolution
I want to walk during working hours, but I wear heels.Bring running shoes with me and use them in breaks.
Nobody wears running shoes at work; it will be weird.Get comfortable all-black shoes suitable for walking and work like this one, keep them at work, and put them on for walks (my accountability partner’s suggestion). Or get over myself and the discomfort, maybe soon.
Not listening to podcasts on my new Airpods while taking a walk because I’m used to Bluetooth neckband headsets and fear Airpods would fall out.Use a cheap Bluetooth headset for walks.
Getting hungry at work, eating unhealthy food, and the hassle of ordering the food.

If I’m ordering food from a small place nearby, I don’t like thinking about what to eat, making the call to order it, or paying cash on delivery.

If I’m ordering from an app, I don’t enjoy browsing to decide my meal, verifying my credit card using a one-time password, getting contacted by the delivery man to double-check the address, or receiving my meal at varying times.		Bring a lunch box of fruits and veggies to feel less hungry.



Automate the food ordering process by subscribing to a healthy meals delivery service where I pay monthly, order weekly, and get contacted by the driver daily at about the same time to receive my meal.
Forgetting my phone charger at home or office.Buy a second one.
Noise outside my office disrupts my focus.Invest in a noise-cancellation headset and music.
Feeling sleepy and craving coffee after lunch, ordering coffee hassle, my favorite coffee not nearby.I magically found this instant drip coffee option from one of my favorite coffee places. I buy a box of 10 packets every two weeks. 
A 90-minute weekend class for my daughter, and the location is not near enough to return home.Prepare a list of errands to cross off during the class or take a walk in the nearby area.
Looking for stuff around the house, losing stuff, getting late asking about stuff.Have less stuff, less clothes, less socks, less toys and less paper. To do that, I need to turn decluttering into a habit, not a yearly project, which is my current focus.

Did this list remind you of solutions you too can take action on?

Many times, the reason you are not committing to your habits is not that you’re not disciplined enough or too lazy. Instead, the habit is not easy enough, and that’s perfectly okay. 

Embrace this simple law of habit change; make it easy. You are not too high-maintenance if you remove friction points. On the contrary, you are re-engineering your environment to improve your life. 

As James Clear says:

The less friction you face, the easier it is for your stronger self to emerge. The idea behind make it easy is not to only do easy things. The idea is to make it as easy as possible in the moment to do things that payoff in the long run.

Find the friction points then solve them. 

Overcome Friction to Master Habits

Why should you choose a Word for the Year?

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I have been choosing a word of the year since 2019, and I’m not planning to stop. Today I want to encourage you to pick yours. 

The Word of the Year is an exercise where you choose a theme or a priority for you in the new year. It could focus on your inner world, like a feeling you want to experience, or your outer world, like your behavior and choices, or it could be a quality you want to cultivate in yourself. 

This word would help you filter the decisions you make. It would encourage you if/when feel down and remind you of what’s important. It should make you feel alive and inspired. This word should represent an evolution for you. It declares what you want more of in your life. It’s important to remember to choose your word out of self-love, not due to the shame of your past mistakes. 

If you feel inclined, you can pick a mantra instead of a word to guide you throughout the year, just like I did last year, or one main word and two supporting words. 

Ryan Holiday also encouraged us to choose one word of the year in his Daily Stoic Challenge earlier this January. He says:

“What is important is that the word is not chosen for you in retrospect, by the course of events, because you couldn’t decide. You can see what that looks like if you reflect on where we have found ourselves as a culture these last few years. A lot of us have been calling 2021 “abnormal.” 2020 was “unprecedented.” Search 2016 stories on Google and it isn’t long before you run into the phrase “worst year ever.” In this way, every year seems to end up with its own word. The idea … is we choose the word for the year, instead of letting the year choose the word for us after it’s all over.”

The word of the year is the most fun exercise I do every year during goal-setting and my friends agree, and shared this with me: 

My friend Dina said:

“I have been applying the word of the year method for 3 years in a row. I like It because it is pretty simple but also sophisticated at the same time. The word of the year sets a momentum and an intentional theme for my year to design my professional and personal objectives around it and keeps me focused.”

My friend Diana said:

“Because of you, I picked my word for the year, which was courage, and God oh God, how much that affected me this year, I feel like a different person, mature and confident, so much changed and so much improved. I thank you for that and for your impact on my growth journey.”

A quick guide to help you choose your word of the year:

  1. Keep your ears and eyes open to words that catch your attention in songs, quotes, conversations, and books.
  2. Keep collecting favorite words and checking them against your goals of the year.
  3. Check #wordoftheyear hashtag or my latest post on Instagarm.
  4. Your word of the year is not a quick exercise; give it a few days, use time to narrow your list of words to your favorites.
  5. Your word of the year will speak to your heart and provoke powerful feelings in you.
  6. Your word of the year could come to you while walking or driving or right after you wake up. It will find you.
  7. I found out about One Word work by Jon Gordon recently, and it’s pretty interesting, check the resources here.  

When you finally choose your word of the year, share it with your friends! Keep it visible on your desk or on a whiteboard, on your phone, and even on your body as a piece of jewelry, if that’s your thing. 

To stay connected to it, incorporate your word of the year in your weekly/monthly/quarterly reviews using questions like: “How did I live my word —– last week?” 

So, have you picked your word yet?

It’s not too late. Start hunting. 

Why should you choose a Word for the Year?

Starting a New Job? Here is Some Advice.

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My friend is starting a new job soon, so I sent her this list of helpful reminders; maybe they will help you too:

  1. Starting a new job is uncomfortable; you are used to being the expert in your previous job, but now you will be the newbie. Not knowing all the answers is uncomfortable.
  2. Sit with the discomfort and accept it, realizing it is a temporary phase.
  3. Those first weeks are your golden opportunity to ask questions. You are expected to. Your new team will not look to you for answers for a while. Don’t act as if you have them; you don’t.
  4. It’s time to practice listening and hold off jumping to conclusions. Just listen.
  5. Set clear boundaries about what’s OK and what’s not OK, especially jokes and personal questions.
  6. Some employees will try to win you from day one. It’s nice to feel welcomed, but they are not your friends yet, let time show you who they are.
  7. Some employees will try to plant seeds about other employees. Please don’t take their word for it. Even if they trust or like another employee, that does not mean you should too. Let your own experience determine your relationships.
  8. Some employees would be so insecure that they will see you as a threat and try to sabotage you, keep your eyes open, and listen more than you talk.
  9. You have always said you want to leave work at work, so it’s time to walk the talk. Changing your job is a chance to change your work style. You may be used to taking work home and getting work done after your kids sleep, but people at your new job do not know that. The first step is to leave at 5 pm on day one, right when the official working hours end. You don’t stay late to prove anything to anyone. Instead, you become so efficient during working hours to shut down work entirely until the next day. If you stay late, on the other hand, you will set that as their normal expectations from you, while leaving at 5 pm would be abnormal.
  10. Changing your environment is a great way to start new habits and get rid of negative ones. Try taking your lunch box instead of ordering takeout, bringing your coffee with you instead of buying it, taking walks during lunch breaks instead of staying glued to your screen, listening to a new podcast in your new route, or changing your attire or hairstyle.
  11. Read the book The First 90 Days.

Happy probation!

Starting a New Job? Here is Some Advice.

How to ignore provocations?

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“Epictetus reminds us that we need to pay attention to what matters and to learn how to ignore so many of the relentless provocations that come our way.”

-The Daily Stoic Journal

Here is a current list of personal triggers:

  1. A phone call from that particular co-worker.
  2. Some sticker messages in WhatsApp group chats.
  3. Explaining something for the second time because someone was not paying attention the first time.

Here is how I will ignore my petty provocations:

  1. A phone call from that particular co-worker: Do not answer the call (until I remember their good intentions, which is getting their work done). 
  2. Some sticker messages in WhatsApp group chats: Delete them. 

Here is an insight about the third one:

  • Explaining something for the second time is probably necessary, not because the other party was not paying attention; it’s probably because they did not understand me the first time, which means I was unclear. Clear communication is my responsibility. Interesting, yes?

Here is how I will ignore this provocation:

3. Explaining something for the second time: Take a breath and use this as a chance to get creative in my communication style. 

Provoactions ignored!

How about you? Are you aware of your triggers? 

If you can’t change them, for now, how will you ignore them?

How to ignore provocations?

Senseless Waiting

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I’m waiting for a shipment to arrive from abroad.

I’ve checked the shipping application several times, even though experience taught me this app’s delivery estimates are never accurate. Yes, the application is good for telling me something is on the way and to pay for shipping charges, but that is about it.

Why am I still checking it?

It’s desire.

Once the shipment is here, I’ll open it in 10 seconds, admire it for 2 minutes, start using it a few days later, and then my life will change. Right?

Of course not.

That’s what my mind wants me to believe, though.

My mind wants me to live in the future where I own that item, and I feel better about my life. It wants me to escape the present, the ordinary, a bit dull, present. My mind nudges me to grab the phone, one more time, and open that useless application as if it can speed up that fantasy future.

Wanting is resisting the present, and I choose to love my life as it is now, shipment or not.

Senseless Waiting