My ideal workday startup ritual consists of the following steps:
Arrive to office.
Fill up my water bottle.
Light up my office candle (stays on for an hour).
Read for 5 minutes from a work related book (finished reading “To sell is human” like this, currently reading “The motivation manifesto”).
Scan my annual and quarterly work goals and weekly tasks sheet.
Do the 10-minute check-in as mentioned in the amazing book Start Finishing by answering:
Has anything significant changed between now and the last checkout? The key word here is significant. Some events do change the course of your day. For instance, your kids might get sick and you’ll need to change your plans to be able to take care of them.
What did you plan for today? This is where you review the plan you made for yourself the day before.
What’s one thing you’re going to start on right now? This step is all about setting the intention to focus on this one thing for your next time block.
Time block my day using my passion planner. I learned this productivity method from Deep Work book, and I believe this is a very important step to keep me focused during the day and mindful of shifts in my schedule and outside interruptions and self-initiated distractions.
Austin Kleon beautifully quoted his friend on twitter saying “We expect too much from January, and not enough from February” and said we need to change this perception. I thought this was so accurate.
This year, however, I’m already expecting a lot from February after I designed January 2021 around quiet reflection and past year review. I’m planning to start working on my goals and implement the insights I had in February. Winter break for kids is going to be over very soon so my morning and evening routines will change with this and the end of online schooling (for now). Let’s all make the best of this lovely short month. Let’s really start walking the talk. As James Clear says in Atomic Habits quote below: Less motion, more action.
When you’re in motion, you’re planning and strategizing and learning. Those are all good things, but they don’t produce a result. Action, on the other hand, is the type of behavior that will deliver an outcome. If I outline twenty ideas for articles I want to write, that’s motion. If I actually sit down and write an article, that’s action. If I search for a better diet plan and read a few books on the topic, that’s motion. If I actually eat a healthy meal, that’s action. Sometimes motion is useful, but it will never produce an outcome by itself. It doesn’t matter how many times you go talk to the personal trainer, That motion will never get you in shape. Only the action of working out will get the result you’re looking to achieve.
After reflecting on the past we need to look forward. But wait. Hold off your goal setting eager soul for just a bit. We are going to write our goals next time. Today, we are looking forward, way forward. We are dreaming about our future. We are doing that because we need more clues to know what really matters to us. Matters enough to transform into goals that we can write in detail next time.
In her PowerSheets, Lara Casey encourages us to think about our future in the big picture. If we determine what matters most to us in the big picture we will work harder to achieve it, we will get back up from setbacks faster and keep going.
Step 1:
You can uncover your most important life mission by asking:
Where do you want to be at the age of 80?
Make 2 lists.
What will matter to you most at the age of 80?
What will not matter to you at the age of 80?
Some of my personal answers when I did this exercise were:
What will matter most to me: strong loving relationships, good health, work legacy, exploring the beauty of the world, abundance, wisdom.
What will not matter: complaining, FOMO (fear of missing out on online lives of other), owning the latest gadgets, kids’ tantrums, how I look in photos, comments and likes received on my posts, number of followers.
This question adds a sense of purpose to your goals and what you do every day. Does your to-do list today or this week serve your big picture vision of yourself? Do they match at all?
We need to be also be super clear on why we want to make this big picture happen. If our how does not work our why will help us find another how.
Add a few points stating why it is important for your big picture to become a reality for you. This would be aligned with your values and creating feelings of joy and satisfaction that you lived the life you wanted.
For example: my why for strong relationships is that powerful connections make feel alive and my heart full.
Have you noticed how your goals are getting clearer now? Your evaluation of the past and your big picture dreams are helping your heart know what it is your need to get started on.
Now for a very inspiring part.
Step 2:
What themes did you discover?
Spend some time reviewing all your answers from part 1 and the big picture answers. You will notice recurring themes of areas that make you your heart sing and areas that need serious work to be back on track. Use a marker or a highlighter to circle or star those areas and then summarize them in few sentences.
This step took me around 30 minutes to do when I first did it. Some themes that popped up were:
Meaningful connections with family and friends. Slowing down. Self-Care. Spiritual practice commitment. Moving my body. Seeking new experiences. More fun. Go back to writing. Keep teaching.
Step 3:
Transform themes into goal ideas.
It’s time to transform those themes into goal ideas that you can start working on now. They emerged as themes for a reason. They are probably those dreams that felt most important to you in the big picture and maybe those that had the lowest ratings in your life audit. Notice that maybe there is a lot to work on and that might feel a little overwhelming. This is why we worked on selecting what matters most to you. Goal ideas are easier to define after going all through the previous exercises. We’re only writing ideas and we will get into structured goal setting next post.
Some of my goal ideas:
Theme: teach moreà Goal idea: launch a podcast, revive my blog.
Theme: Spiritual practice commitmentà Goal idea: commit to the habit of meditation.
Step 4:
What are you saying No to?
What are you saying Yes to?
Lists are fun to do so now we are going to make 2 new lists of things we will say no to that hold us back from being our best selves and say yes to things that expand our happiness and joy. These things could be inner thoughts/beliefs, habits/behaviors, things/possessions and type of people/relationships that we need to release and say no to in the next year/season or keep and embrace and say yes to more often.
Personal examples:
No to: eating after 7pm, buying without replacing, sleeping less than 6 hours, meaningless outings
Yes to: planning family meals, finishing what I start, power naps.
Step 5:
Choose your word of the year
This word will inspire you when you are down, sharpen your focus, and will remind you of what is important.
How to come up with your word of the year?
Your answers to all the previous exercises will guide you, it could be a verb, an adjective or even a small phrase. What do you want to do/be/have MORE of this year?
You can google “word of the year ideas” and see what comes up and other people’s choices, it is so much fun.
Reminder: You can change your word of the year whenever you want, it does not have to be perfect and it is not final!
Write your word of the year on card and place it somewhere prominent that you will see every day.
My word of the year 2019 was Teach
My word of the year 2020 is Clarity.
Ready to learn how to set your goals in detail?
Share photos of your goal setting notebooks with me in the comments or on my social media accounts. It is especially important to write down your goals in pen and paper, and I will tell you why in the next post.
You can listen to this blog post in Arabic through episode 8 of my podcast:
We practice goal setting all the time in business settings. If you’re an employee you usually receive your goals every year or every six months, which would align with the strategic goals of the company. At the end of the semester, you review your achievements with your boss against the defined goals, you discuss what worked, what didn’t, and why.
However, we usually coast through our personal lives, letting things happen to us and reacting as necessary. We are not charting our own paths to where we want to go. We are walking pre-defined paths for us. That’s why our days and years look a lot like each other. We are not living goal-oriented lives, we are not living on purpose. This gap in goal setting between our work life and personal life was an insight that clicked for me in a conversation with a business leader and a mentor I’m lucky to have met called Iman Mutlaq. I’ll be always grateful for helping me notice this.
It’s true, many of us set new year’s resolutions, but resolutions without a plan are not goals, they are only hopes and aspirations, and that’s why they fail by mid-February.
Lucky for you, I have good news. Goal setting can be done anytime. You can do it at the beginning of each year, on your birthday, every month, every quarter, or whenever you decide to pursue something new. As Lara Casey always says: “There is nothing magical about January 1st“.
In this series, I will share with you what I have learned about goal setting from my favorite authors on the subject Michael Hyatt and Lara Casey.
This Post is part 1 of 4.
Goal Setting Starts in the Past.
Your past has only one value, learning from it. Reviewing your past will help you design the right goals for yourself. If you start goal setting by reviewing the past you’re more likely to set meaningful goals that you will invest time and effort to achieve.
First: Do a Life Audit
Our lives are multi-faceted as Michael Hyatt asserts. Our lives are not just our careers or health or families. These life domains are all connected. When we’re not doing well in one domain of our life we can feel it impacting the satisfaction we have in other areas.
We start the life audit by rating the key life areas on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means you are not satisfied and want to see a big change there and 10 means you’re happy with how you’re showing up in this domain. While at it, write a few words about the reason you selected the score for each domain. State facts and how you feel, honesty is key here because the opportunity for improvement starts taking shape now, the lowest scores indicate the bigger opportunity to make a change.
Life domains are differently grouped depending on the writer, you can add categories or remove those that don’t apply to you. Feel free to make your own life categories that work for your unique life.
The categories I recommend are:
Health: How you feel about your body.
Mental/Emotional: How you feel about your psychological well-being.
Relationships: How you feel about your relationship to:
Spouse/Significant other
Friends
Family
Finances: Your personal or family’s financial situation
Work: Your job, your 9-5, and side projects.
Spiritual Growth: Your connection to God.
Learning: Your educational development.
Personal Environment: Your home and work environment.
Fun & Recreation: Your hobbies, playtime, relaxation, and adventure experiences.
Service & Contribution: how you serve the world/volunteering.
You can also take an assessment I really like by Michael Hyatt to assess how you are generally doing in life’s different domains by answering a series of helpful questions. Make sure to save your answers so you can go back to them after a while. I guarantee you will see improvements after you commit to setting goals in areas where your satisfaction was the lowest.
Second: Evaluate your past.
Select how far you’d like to go in your past, 6 months, one year, 3 years? Answer accordingly.
I assumed you want to go back one year and wrote the tips accordingly:
Start with the positive: While our human tendency is to remember the negative first, it is recommended to start with the good. This will help us have the energy to complete the past exercise. Write a list of the wonderful things that happened to you. What are you most proud of? What worked well last year? A few ways to remember:
You can consult your family and friends to remind you of your highlights
You can check your social media posts to remember
You can go through your camera roll.
You can check your calendar or planner.
You can check your goals from last time, and celebrate what’s done.
You can check your past financial statements, this will remind you of your priorities and events.
Name the challenges: Write a list answering questions like what did not work this past year? What disappointments or regrets did you experience? What goals did you want to achieve but did not? What were some blocks you faced? What achievements did you want to be acknowledged for but were not? It is hard to write our answers here. But power through it. This list will guide your focus when you set your goals, your challenges are your biggest opportunities for improvement.
Distill the lessons: What did the positive and the negative from the past year teach you? Make them into short sentences of wisdom that you can repeat over and over to yourself.
Third: State what you are grateful for.
Gratitude time: Write the names of people who helped you during this past year. Find a way to thank them for specific things they did for you or ways they stood by you. Feeling gratitude is one thing, expressing it to those who caused it is an another level. They will be so surprised, and you are going to make someone’s day.
Bonus Step
Identify your hidden opportunity. The opportunity principle states that feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment are strongest where the chances for corrective action are clearest. Consider your setbacks this past year, and brainstorm how they might point you toward your next opportunity.
Now you are ready to move on to the next step of goal setting which is: dreaming about the future.
New post coming up soon.
I’m deeply grateful to Michael Hyatt and Lara Casey for all that they taught me about Goal Setting that I have shared in this blog post.
You can listen to this blog post in Arabic through episode 7 of my podcast:
I will be sharing my answers to the monthly reflection questions in my passion planner, highlighting all my achievements and observations about April 2020. I usually begin to answer these questions after reviewing all my journals in order to remember details and also to be inspired.
Question 1: What was the most memorable part of this month? Describe it.
When outside life slowed down due quarantine I got the chance to achieve two important personal goals that were already on my 2020 goals list, which are:
After launching my quarantine baby podcast in March 29th I managed to launch 4 episodes during April 2020. This boosted my self-confidence as I learned so much about the podcasting process by putting in hard work and learning from my own mistakes each time. The month felt like a crash course that will save me so much time in the future. I especially enjoyed researching the journaling topic using my old journals and reading about the habits of authors I admire.
2. Decluttering my home.
Decluttering was actually a big goal for me, however, I did not expect to make this much progress on it so early in the year, it needed time and I finally had the time. I covered the pain areas including my bedroom, my kids’ rooms, my multi-purpose office area. I discovered a lot about myself and my relationship to stuff has been definitely complicated. I’m improving and finding it easier to get rid of stuff that don’t add value or beauty to my life or simple taking space I’d better save for more meaningful items and activities.
Question 2: What were the three biggest lessons you’ve learned in the past month?
I love my home. I just did not have the time to appreciate it before. I finally cleared out stuff that blocked air and light and even my kids from moving freely in it and enjoying it.
I am at my best when I create. When I ship my work like this blog or a new podcast episode, I feel the best rush of energy.
When I feel uninspired and stuck at a task- which I can tell if it’s taking too long, I’m making many mistakes, or I’m restarting over and over- just PAUSE. I should leave the task for a while until recharge. This way I‘d be able to finish it faster.
Question 3: Review your planner for the past month and assess your priorities. Are you happy with how you spend your time? If not, what steps can you take next to adjust them.
Yes, I am very happy of how I spent my time creating work I’m proud of and more space at home. I also noticed that compared to the first 2 weeks of quarantine back in March, I didn’t play much with the kids in April but I’m proud that I committed to daily bedtime stories, reading 4 stories sometimes.
There is always, however, room for improvement.
In May, I want less time on my phone and to make time on phone intentional for creating, engaging with others, initiating or responding to contact. Not for mindless scrolling.
Question 4: What did you accomplish this past month? What are you most proud of?
4 Podcast episodes.
3 Blog posts
4 Instagram videos
Finished 4 books (decluttering at the speed of life, how to manage your home without losing your mind, money tree, life’s greatest question) the first 2 books helped me achieve the below tasks.
Decluttering my bedroom 100% , kids’ rooms 80%, office room 100%. I would like to change its name to learning/arts room, since kids are spending most of their time with me there during the day when I work or home school, still thinking about it.
Developing home management routines that helped make my home feel more comfortable (example: laundry day routine)
Question 7: Name three things you can improve on this upcoming month. What concrete actions can you take to work towards these improvement?
Patience during home schooling by being more mentally prepared for class, adding more silence for my child to think, expecting different (I don’t know) scenarios and practicing my response to them because I get frustrated if we already covered the material. Also to keep consistent math and reading aloud practice.
More respect for my body by going back to intermittent fasting, less chips, replace it with yogurt and cucumbers and seeds. Also observe my coffee intake.
Get in touch with parenting books to remember parenting strategies and leave the room when feeling frustrated to be able to respond wisely to kids.
Question 8: From one to 10, how do you feel overall about this past month?
7 out of 10
Other questions I like from PowerSheets Goal Planner
Question 9: In the new month I am saying no to:
Anger. Anger begets anger, just like any habit. I can break this habit by pausing and choosing a different response. Also by starting my day imagining things going wrong in advance with kids’ moods and behavior and practicing a different response (when they…. I will… ) example: when they start bickering /I will separate them kindly but firmly in their rooms until a timer goes off).
Social media in weekends and mornings. Mornings are way fruitful and weekends are more peaceful when I am off social media. I can check it after I create my own content. As Chase Jarvis always says: Create before you consume.
Question:10 In the new month I am saying yes to:
Flexibility, patience, adding 10-min strength training every other day, power naps, starting the day setting schedules with kids.
What’s Next?
After answering the 10 questions I fill the Tending List in Powersheets where I write the Monthly action items, the weekly action items and the daily action items/habits.
Example of monthly action items is launching 2-3 podcast episodes, organize summer clothes, finish chapter 3 of a course in miracles, finish contagious you book and deliver a project at work.
Example of weekly action items may be one podcast episode and one Instagram video per week.
In May my daily habits would include walking 30 minutes, writing in evening journals, having fruits and seeds.
Other funny things worth mentioning about this past month is that I finally had the time to read the dishwasher and the washing machine manuals. I found out what those little codes meant. I chose the best program for my dishwasher and I even adjusted the height of the racks, who knew this was even possible? I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I learned the correct way to set up the cutlery in the top rack. For 2 years I did it as the handyman who installed it instructed me to, without ever verifying his advice. Perhaps I’ll share a picture later. It was so funny.
I hope this review encouraged you to start this practice and make it your own. This will help you track your successes and learn from your mistakes.
Let me know if you do a monthly review in the comments, and what other helpful questions we can think about every month.
You can listen to this epsiode in Arabic through my podcast:
I prepared for this post, and the next one, researching my own personal journals, in addition to what my favorite writers said about it, to understand why I committed to journaling all this time and distill for you my personal process as an answer to a question I received many times but couldn’t seem to prove a satisfying answer before: What’s the point of journaling and how do you journal?
My goal here is to share with you what I’ve learnt and encourage you to consider this habit as part of your daily routine, maybe when you are up at 5am too.
This outcome of my findings is divided into 2 parts. This post is part 1. where I will share my personal journaling journey, while the next post is a detailed journaling guide for you to kick it off.
