Seven Simple Actions That Could Change Your Life

Even if I didn’t mean to, I came across the “Hollywood Diet” for organizing my life over the holiday season.

Over the course of the past three months I’ve flirted with different organization systems (i.e. how to become more effective, productive, as well as get the most out of life). I’ve tried bits and pieces here and there; yet, I couldn’t find one system that worked perfectly.

By far, the most potent piece of work came from Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Work Week. However, I believe it’s unreasonable, and undesirable for many lifestyles out there. Certain aspects of Tim’s work can easily be molded into your life; however,  following his book in a doctrinaire fashion is impractical–and more importantly–ineffective for many people.

So I’ve decided to take bits and pieces out of his book and slowly, but surely, implement them into my life.

In addition to Tim’s book, I’ve also gathered some nuggets of wisdom from David Allen’s Getting Things Done. David unveils some very specific tips to becoming more effective.

For the past couple weeks I’ve tried the following:

1. Working in Remote Locations: I’ve found myself to be 10x as productive working out of the office than in the office. I don’t think this type of arrangement can work for everyone, or every job; however, if your job involves planning, researching and executing projects, you can easily find a way to be extremely effective while working in a remote location (unless you have confidential legal doc’s) My best piece of advice would be to constantly try new locations, and settle for one that feels special to you, and allows you to do your best work without too many distractions.

2. Put on your workout clothes first thing in the morning: One of the simplest, yet most effective actions, is also the simplest. When you wake up, put on your work out clothes. That’s it. You’ll feel obligated to get some exercise done before the workday starts. Even 5 minutes is better than nothing. The purpose of this is not to lose weight; the purpose is one thing: breathing. After you workout in the morning, you’ll notice that you’ll have a different breathing pattern for the rest of the day. You’ll feel less stress. Your mind will be more alert, and you’ll also come across as more reliable.

3. Conducting Weekly Reviews of Life, Career, Direction, Long-Term Goals: Start by thinking about the end-result you desire, and then determine how you plan to get there (for reference see this post)

4. Tibetan Meditation: Unlike Zen meditation, which is disciplined, rigid and focused; Tibetan meditation is much more characterized by breathing, feel and simplicity. A simple Tibetan meditation is to set aside 15 minutes, close your eyes and focus on your breathing (it’s harder than you think). You don’t have to sit in an “indian” style, cross legged position. You can sit in a chair, or lay down (if you have the discipline to not fall asleep). It’s recommended that your back be in a straight line. An effusion of thoughts, ideas and memories will fill your mind. Your goal is to push them away and concentrate on your breathing. Think about your breath moving into your lungs and out. Think about the path that air travels through to reach your lungs.

It’s worth noting that Tibetan meditation can be implemented into whatever religion you practice. For instance, if your belief stems from Judeo-Christian traditions, you can simply reflect on a certain verse or passage while doing this. If you’re an atheist, or agnostic (don’t know, don’t care), you can reflect on a quote that inspires you.

5. Checking Email 3 times per day (and none on mobile device): This was, by far, the hardest action to implement. In the 4-Hour Work Week, Tim recommends checking your email twice a day. I think that’s hard for many to grasp (especially if you’re an email addict like myself). Still, though, I think having your email always opened up is the easiest way to lose track of time. It’s one of the biggest time wasters of this century.

If your email is always open, you sacrafice a productive mindset with email. J.R.R. Tolkien once said, “Not all who wander are lost.” However, the internet wasn’t around when he wrote that. If you wander around on the internet, or in your email, you’ll lose a laughably large amount of time.

For instance, if your email is always open, and a new email comes in that you don’t want to tackle at this time, you may end up delaying it, saying to yourself, “I’ll take care of this tonight” (as you finish surfing YouTube for videos that are barely related to your work). Moreover, what ends up happening is that the email gets pushed back further and further, and ultimately remains undone.

As an alternative, you can wait until a certain time of the day, where you enter your email inbox with the mindset of, “Let’s knock down these emails immediately,” As a result, you’ll finish off items that you would have otherwise delayed, and also free up the rest of your day so that you can focus on productive activities.

6. Doing things immediately if they take less than two minutes: This one works perfectly with the previous action. Tonight, instead of checking your email, wait until tomorrow. When you wake up, don’t check your email. Grab some coffee, work out, read the newspaper or google reader (if you have discipline to not check your email). After that, open up your email and take care of the tasks that take less than two minutes. If they take more than two minutes, either: (i) put it on your “next action” list, (ii) defer it in your calendar with a reminder, or (iii) delegate it.

7. Stop Tweeting Your Life Away: For many people on Twitter, the first thing they do when they have down-time is check Twitter. It’s become a habit like smoking. Some habits to avoid: Constantly checking the Twitter feed on your phone, or switching back and forth between Tweetdeck. What ends up happening is that you’ll stumble upon an interesting story from someone, click the link, which then propels you down a spiraling, endless hour of reading something that otherwise wouldn’t have taken place.

I love Twitter as much as other social media addicts; however, I decided to challenge myself and stop letting it absorb my life; and instead, let it complement my life. Of course, if your job revolves around Twitter or promoting your brand on Twitter, it’s okay to use a service like “Twitthat” to drive traffic to your company or blog. But think hard about your productivity when you’re surfing Tweetdeck all day.

Wrapping things up:

The title of this post may be misleading. While these actions are simple, they’re tough to actually carry out. However, the result of implementing these actions into your life is worth a try. If you’ve grown tired of being known as the person that checks their  mobile device throughout the day, reading “Tweets” while at dinner or during a conversation with someone (yes, I’ll admit I’m one of those people), then these actions are worth taking seriously.

If you’ve gone through a similiar paradigm shift with social media lately, please share below!