Variation: Start the week on Wednesday. I usually take time off on Monday, regardless of what I intend. It's finally quiet after having the family home all weekend.
This gives Monday and Tuesday for planning, rather than Friday night (tired from the week), Sunday (requires working at home), or Monday morning (has either fires to put out or recovering from the weekend).
Hi Mel If you're comparing this to my FLEXIBLE weekly plan then I think you might have improved your odd of success with the following suggestions.
1. Because you had visitors and other outside plan, why didn't you make those your MITs?
Plus, choosing MITs doesn't mean I can't change my aims as life dictates or I simply change my mind. My MITs are what are the most important things I want to focus on. That doesn't mean that I either let the other stuff unnecessarily slide nor does it I treat my MITs with strict rules/expectations attached. It's simply a focus and reminder tool. When I commit to my daily MITs as WILL DO, I choose what I actually want to do. It sounds to me that you should have chosen your MITs to your actual plans. Maybe you were trying to unnecessarily keep up with recurring bundling. I don't hold to inbox zero, do everything everyday. It will get done in a timely manner according to it's relative priority. When I choose my MITs, they are the priority, not some bundling tasks that can safely wait. I know it goes against all the gurus advice, but I haven't suffered any fallout yet. (Of course, I chip away at the actual important recurring stuff and not let it pile up into a huge mess. LOL)
I feel bad that you set it up without realizing it's true intention. You create a flexible prediction of what you want to do in the week, only focusing on the actually important activities (to you and your responsibilities/commitments)....NOT what you SHOULD do but can easily wait if doing so would infringe on your actual plans and desires. It's not intended to make you feel guilty. It's simply a guide you set up for yourself to make sure that you focus on what's important to you and make sure that important stuff doesn't fall through the cracks (work and leisure) That's the beauty of it. You make the judgement of what you want to do and when to do it. That also suggests what can safely wait without penalty. That includes unnecessary guilt.
Enjoy your visitors and forget the stuff that can wait. Those would be my relief tasks in between the MITs. If the MITs are challenging and/or rewarding, you don't need the relief tasks.
One of the best features is to plan ahead. That sometimes requires you to also know what tasks can safely wait. This system helps me to keep to my responsibilities and aims but most of all, it's supposed to help me open up to the good stuff life offers. You can catch up on the less important recurring stuff at a later date. In fact, I only respond to the stuff that truly NEEDS to responded to today and then start my MITs. After they are done, then I can go back to swatting flies. LOL!
Bottom Line: It's a guide to enhance your satisfactions and opportunities. It would be defeating it's purpose to unnecessarily curtail any of life's great pleasures.
p.s. I try to limit my day's MIT's to 2-4 hours. It doesn't always workout that way, but that's my aim. That leaves me plenty of time to either enjoy working on a project I enjoy, stay current on other work that's not today's MIT or stop working and enjoy my life because the important stuff is current or done. That's my biggest carrot.
You decide on three wins for the day, three for the week, three for the month, and three for the year. If you get off track, you can even decide three wins in the fifteen minutes between now and dinner. (Sounds like SMEMA and ... I forget the name of "pick three, do two, pick another two".)
The wins can be anything, including (from the website): "Kill’em with kindness, draft my raving review, and have the time of her life with my wife."
The wins for the longer time-scales are larger, and some (but not all) of the daily and weekly wins are steps towards the bigger wins.
He also recommends a mid-day checkpoint and an end-of-day checkpoint to see if you're on track, Monday planning, and Friday reviews. If you realize you're off-track, you reset by picking three wins for the rest of the day. After an unproductive morning, you might change pick "relaxing lunch with friend, finish one big report, leave work on time."
Learning's right. If you can't meet today's goals because something else is more important right now, then you picked the wrong goals. The challenge happens when there's always something more important right now, and the less-urgent goals keep getting put off. My life has enough slow times that I can use them to catch-up on long-term goals (but I still review my chart every few days to be sure). Others might pick one win each day (or week) from long-term planning. Fighting fires is important, but so is ordering a new backup extinguisher.
Speaking of morning rituals, what do you do in the early weeks of a fitness program, when on exercise days you're tired for the entire day? Twice in the last ten years I've gotten past this stage, but meanwhile... Sigh.
Hi Cricket If your workout leaves you too tired to carry on for the rest of the day, you're probably rushing yourself. It takes time to build up stamina. Before I was disabled, I used to take sports vacations. If I was going to ski for two weeks in January, I'd run and do various exercises to strengthen my quads. The air is thinner so running was great for using your oxygen well. (Many a people's trips were spoiled because they didn't factor this in.) Also, if I was going to spend a couple/few grand, I wanted to be on that mountain the entire time the lifts were open or I paid for a helicopter. I'd start building up in October. LOL! Same idea with other sports. The point wasn't so much to build more muscle. The point was to build up endurance. It takes time.
Lots of people are used to worrying about muscle burn. If you want to develop endurance, you'll have to gradually build up your lung strength as well. It will naturally happen. Doing it gradually makes it easier not to miss too many days ....or...ruin the rest of the day or the next day as well. Your body will thank you if your progress is incremental. If you're too tired every day, you'll begin to resent your workouts. Doing a gradual exercise plan is similar to slowly getting a tan so you won't get too burned while you're on vacation. You can't rush these things. LOL!
Hey ladies. Just wanted to clarify that I had a week's notice that I was having a guest. Of course, getting ready took more time than I planned. And I just used a list of tasks--28 I think. It was not an MIT list at all. I agree that would have made it more effective.
I agree with learning that if you're tired all day you're doing too much. If you feel that way, you won't want to exercise. It's good to have temporary muscle fatigue but not all-day exhaustion. Are you getting enough iron in your diet?
It doesn't feel like too much when I'm on the treadmill, especially with a good audiobook. I could probably talk for most of it, except for the three 2-minute intervals. It's once I sit down that I feel tired. (Paradoxically, those are sometimes my most productive days. My usual time-wasters don't interest me, and I'm likely to say "I don't have much energy today, might not have much tomorrow, better get the essentials done," as opposed to "I have energy today and will have energy tomorrow, so I can put this off.")
However, I'll keep to the current program for another week rather than boost the speed a notch.
Iron and other supplements. Thanks! Pill box has been dusted off and reloaded for the month. Iron doesn't seem to help much, but St. John's Wort (only the pricy brand, sigh), and fish oil (fish burp!) seem to help. My bloodwork always comes back borderline for iron, which is typical for my age. My gastro says all women my age should take the lowest supplement. My GP says typical for my age means I don't need it, but it won't hurt. My thyroid also runs borderline low, but not enough for them to treat.
Today was three hours of wandering downtown delivering flyers for the guild. Sun, exercise, nice meal (with dessert), bit of socializing, doing something useful for others, and several little errands that I hadn't realized needed doing. (Order bras from the good store [they keep records so no need for a fitting this year]; ask camera shop how to make the new camera focus on craft being held up rather than the smiling face; deposit small cheque; get vacation books [real paper books!] from library.)
Now to grab a glass of water and rehearse for tomorrow's storytelling, then see if I've made progress with ear training. Yesterday I was 63% accurate distinguishing between P4 and P5. Maybe today I'll just listen.
This gives Monday and Tuesday for planning, rather than Friday night (tired from the week), Sunday (requires working at home), or Monday morning (has either fires to put out or recovering from the weekend).
If you're comparing this to my FLEXIBLE weekly plan then I think you might have improved your odd of success with the following suggestions.
1. Because you had visitors and other outside plan, why didn't you make those your MITs?
Plus, choosing MITs doesn't mean I can't change my aims as life dictates or I simply change my mind. My MITs are what are the most important things I want to focus on. That doesn't mean that I either let the other stuff unnecessarily slide nor does it I treat my MITs with strict rules/expectations attached. It's simply a focus and reminder tool. When I commit to my daily MITs as WILL DO, I choose what I actually want to do. It sounds to me that you should have chosen your MITs to your actual plans. Maybe you were trying to unnecessarily keep up with recurring bundling. I don't hold to inbox zero, do everything everyday. It will get done in a timely manner according to it's relative priority. When I choose my MITs, they are the priority, not some bundling tasks that can safely wait. I know it goes against all the gurus advice, but I haven't suffered any fallout yet. (Of course, I chip away at the actual important recurring stuff and not let it pile up into a huge mess. LOL)
I feel bad that you set it up without realizing it's true intention. You create a flexible prediction of what you want to do in the week, only focusing on the actually important activities (to you and your responsibilities/commitments)....NOT what you SHOULD do but can easily wait if doing so would infringe on your actual plans and desires. It's not intended to make you feel guilty. It's simply a guide you set up for yourself to make sure that you focus on what's important to you and make sure that important stuff doesn't fall through the cracks (work and leisure) That's the beauty of it. You make the judgement of what you want to do and when to do it. That also suggests what can safely wait without penalty. That includes unnecessary guilt.
Enjoy your visitors and forget the stuff that can wait. Those would be my relief tasks in between the MITs. If the MITs are challenging and/or rewarding, you don't need the relief tasks.
One of the best features is to plan ahead. That sometimes requires you to also know what tasks can safely wait. This system helps me to keep to my responsibilities and aims but most of all, it's supposed to help me open up to the good stuff life offers. You can catch up on the less important recurring stuff at a later date. In fact, I only respond to the stuff that truly NEEDS to responded to today and then start my MITs. After they are done, then I can go back to swatting flies. LOL!
Bottom Line: It's a guide to enhance your satisfactions and opportunities. It would be defeating it's purpose to unnecessarily curtail any of life's great pleasures.
I try to limit my day's MIT's to 2-4 hours. It doesn't always workout that way, but that's my aim. That leaves me plenty of time to either enjoy working on a project I enjoy, stay current on other work that's not today's MIT or stop working and enjoy my life because the important stuff is current or done. That's my biggest carrot.
You decide on three wins for the day, three for the week, three for the month, and three for the year. If you get off track, you can even decide three wins in the fifteen minutes between now and dinner. (Sounds like SMEMA and ... I forget the name of "pick three, do two, pick another two".)
The wins can be anything, including (from the website): "Kill’em with kindness, draft my raving review, and have the time of her life with my wife."
The wins for the longer time-scales are larger, and some (but not all) of the daily and weekly wins are steps towards the bigger wins.
He also recommends a mid-day checkpoint and an end-of-day checkpoint to see if you're on track, Monday planning, and Friday reviews. If you realize you're off-track, you reset by picking three wins for the rest of the day. After an unproductive morning, you might change pick "relaxing lunch with friend, finish one big report, leave work on time."
Learning's right. If you can't meet today's goals because something else is more important right now, then you picked the wrong goals. The challenge happens when there's always something more important right now, and the less-urgent goals keep getting put off. My life has enough slow times that I can use them to catch-up on long-term goals (but I still review my chart every few days to be sure). Others might pick one win each day (or week) from long-term planning. Fighting fires is important, but so is ordering a new backup extinguisher.
If your workout leaves you too tired to carry on for the rest of the day, you're probably rushing yourself. It takes time to build up stamina. Before I was disabled, I used to take sports vacations. If I was going to ski for two weeks in January, I'd run and do various exercises to strengthen my quads. The air is thinner so running was great for using your oxygen well. (Many a people's trips were spoiled because they didn't factor this in.) Also, if I was going to spend a couple/few grand, I wanted to be on that mountain the entire time the lifts were open or I paid for a helicopter. I'd start building up in October. LOL! Same idea with other sports. The point wasn't so much to build more muscle. The point was to build up endurance. It takes time.
Lots of people are used to worrying about muscle burn. If you want to develop endurance, you'll have to gradually build up your lung strength as well. It will naturally happen. Doing it gradually makes it easier not to miss too many days ....or...ruin the rest of the day or the next day as well. Your body will thank you if your progress is incremental. If you're too tired every day, you'll begin to resent your workouts. Doing a gradual exercise plan is similar to slowly getting a tan so you won't get too burned while you're on vacation. You can't rush these things. LOL!
I agree with learning that if you're tired all day you're doing too much. If you feel that way, you won't want to exercise. It's good to have temporary muscle fatigue but not all-day exhaustion. Are you getting enough iron in your diet?
However, I'll keep to the current program for another week rather than boost the speed a notch.
Iron and other supplements. Thanks! Pill box has been dusted off and reloaded for the month. Iron doesn't seem to help much, but St. John's Wort (only the pricy brand, sigh), and fish oil (fish burp!) seem to help. My bloodwork always comes back borderline for iron, which is typical for my age. My gastro says all women my age should take the lowest supplement. My GP says typical for my age means I don't need it, but it won't hurt. My thyroid also runs borderline low, but not enough for them to treat.
Today was three hours of wandering downtown delivering flyers for the guild. Sun, exercise, nice meal (with dessert), bit of socializing, doing something useful for others, and several little errands that I hadn't realized needed doing. (Order bras from the good store [they keep records so no need for a fitting this year]; ask camera shop how to make the new camera focus on craft being held up rather than the smiling face; deposit small cheque; get vacation books [real paper books!] from library.)
Now to grab a glass of water and rehearse for tomorrow's storytelling, then see if I've made progress with ear training. Yesterday I was 63% accurate distinguishing between P4 and P5. Maybe today I'll just listen.