productivity

Is it the right time?

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Years ago, I used to buy courses to do in summer and then feel bad about not finishing them. I thought that I was the kind of person who did not finish what she had started.

As I became more reflective and also self-forgiving, I knew better. I realized that, in most cases, it was all about timing. 

Choosing the right time to do courses matters a lot. Choosing the right time to start habits matters a lot. Choosing the right time to work on your goals matters a lot.

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Is it the right time?

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

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

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.

Insights from my latest creative endeavor

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I am writing this post feeling lighter than usual as I finally shipped my latest podcast episode out to the world about women’s productivity according to the 4 seasons of the menstrual cycle. I insisted on publishing it on a Saturday at 9:30 PM, which was too late in the day for anybody to listen, because it was time for this labor of love to take a life of its own and for people to experience it. I, on the other hand, needed to free the space this episode was renting inside me, for a new endeavor and a new week of possibilities.

The creative process behind this episode was very interesting.

I kept wondering why I was not starting, and the answer was the script. Reading, writing and editing the script took 70% of the effort put into this episode. I haven’t recently tracked time I spent working on an episode, but a quick math showed I spent at least 20 hours of hard work on this one. I edited the script too many times that I stopped counting. I recorded 40 minutes and deleted them all at one point. I felt I could study the subject for 2 more months and still not be ready to talk about it, but I persisted and reminded myself that what I learned about it thus far was good enough to be shared.

Hitting “Publish” on this one felt like a sweet relief. I am now ready to move on to the next project.

Indebted to the amazing book Period Power by Maisie Hill for all the knowledge I gained and used in preparing this episode.

Insights from my latest creative endeavor

Digital Wish List

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This could be a wish list or simply a list of digital nagging tasks that I’m dumping here, maybe to say you are not alone thinking about them, or to get my affairs in order in power hour(s) as Gretchen Rubin says.

  1. Spend time reading and enjoying all my email newsletters with no guilt
  2. Unsubscribe from content I don’t read or enjoy or open.
  3. Clean up my following lists on Instagram and Twitter
  4. Upload all my mobile photos and fix that recent memory issue in my phone.
  5. Go through all items in my downloads folder and order them properly
  6. Go through documents in my OneDrive and clear it up.
  7. Read all my Kindle books and listen to all my audible books, or simply make peace with the idea that I will never read some of these books after all, as long as I am always interested in new books.
  8. GTD old tasks on my favorite to-do app Any.do, delete irrelevant tasks, and really decide the next action for each task that I decide to keep.

I found that most of these tasks can’t be done on phone. Unless apps are properly locked, we can get easily distracted and forget the original task we started. Moreover, no matter the phone model, phone screens are too small for focus. That’s why we rarely send important emails on phones.

For these tasks to happen, I need to dedicate some time for them. Maybe none of them will directly move my goals forward, I even could be using them as means of productive procrastination on my most meaningful goals.

On the other hand, getting through them would enhance my feeling of clarity, I will have easier and more searchable digital life, in addition to making sure that the important is distinctly saved from memory fading or trash.

Digital Wish List

What do you do in low energy days?

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I did not sleep well because I stayed up too late having super quality time with my mastermind group.
I took 2 walks to boost my energy and had lots of coffee today, which made me feel more alert, but still not focused enough for the analytical functions of my job. Therefore, I switched to my administrative tasks, the low-energy brain tasks, like following up on emails, data entry work, some inquiry calls I have been postponing and so on. Those tasks needed to be done by me, and today was the ideal day to cross them off.

We don’t lose the day because of our energy level, we simply re-design it, so we would still make meaningful progress.

What do you do in low energy days?

What does an intentional day look like?

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A powerful, productive day filled with intentional action starts the night before. When you sleep with the intention of waking up early to take care of your physical, mental and spiritual life before starting your day’s work.

First thing in the day, you put your priorities on your schedule by dividing your time into blocks of focus, administrative work, communication and breaks and try your best to commit to them. When you get interrupted by an unplanned meeting or new urgent task, you check your schedule and see what you can shift to accommodate this new task. Such a day doesn’t have room for questions like “what should I do next?” Next is already planned. It does not allow for going into a rabbit hole of open tabs and app notifications.

While working, your phone is silent and only important calls can get through. You listen to great focus-inducing music, without lyrics, obviously, to avoid triggering distracting thoughts and emotions.

If you feel you are avoiding a boring but must-do task that does not need your brain power but just some time to finish, you make it more fun by playing upbeat music or great podcasts to accompany you.

You take breaks. You stretch your legs. You have lunch with your colleagues and talk about nonwork stuff, you go for a short walk and come back refreshed. You end the work day by following a ritual that makes sure you close all open loops, marking what’s next for each project you worked on exactly to get you started the next day easily.

I believe you can reset your day whenever you choose to. I always feel that a quick call with a friend and a short walk could work like a restart button for my day, especially when I get stuck in a fire-fighting mode or in unproductive thoughts.

Keeping your planned schedule in front of you can also help guard your time and get it back on track. You can begin your day anew by saying no to interruptions or new requests when possible, or by delaying your response until you are done with your most important work.

As someone smart said, other people’s lack of planning does not have to be your emergency.

What does an intentional day look like?

Reflections on GTD

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Preparing for the Live session I hosted recently about GTD, it was fascinating for me to remember the first time I got in touch with Getting Things Done methodology, when I downloaded the audiobook online and listened to it on the mp3 USB player in my car.

It made so much sense to me that our brains are not meant for storage or to be offices. Our brains are meant for solving problems and for coming up with new ideas. In this interview, David Allen said that GTD does not help you create more time. It simply allows for more space in your brain to come up with creative solutions. We can’t do that when all the to-do lists are rattling in our head.

GTD also helps us be more present, because whenever we remember something we need to do, we simply write it down instantly, or feel assured that we already had captured it in the appropriate tool. It allows us to focus for longer periods of time, knowing that we are working on the right projects. It’s about building an external brain that we can trust to carry us forward towards our goals.

David Allen says, “You are not doing GTD if you are not doing your weekly reviews“. Which, I am happy to report, I have been religiously committed to since 2018.

There is still a room for a lot of improvement in the way I work and stay engaged with my notes and to-do lists. Doing this Live, however, got me more excited to work on my systems and making them work for me.

Reflections on GTD