My takeaways from Lifehacks Time Bootcamp

LifeHack has some really amazing courses and workshops. I suggest you check them out here.

I recently completed the time Mastery bootcamp and found it amazing. Here are my key takeaways.

Notes from Lifehack Overcoming procrastination workshop

I completed the overcoming procrastination workshop on Lifehack. I have been really enjoying the courses and recommend them. The videos are short and actionable.

Here is my canva infographic on my notes from the workshop.

Replenish your energy with an energy week.

Plan a week a month to be a energy week. A week where you are focussed on replenishing your energy.

Some things to include in your plan.

• Drink water
• Get enough sleep
• Move your body
• Go for walks outside. Be in nature
• Breathe and have mindful moments
• Detox from devices – no movies or shows for the week.
• Read for pleasure.
• Spend focussed chunks of time.
• Have power naps
• Increase magnesium and vitamin B
• Have light meals and no sugar.
• Journal to process stress and anger.
• Reset your expectations and set an energy focussed morning and evening routine.

Preventing limiting beliefs

When identifying your limiting beliefs, from your thoughts ask yourself

• What can these thoughts tell you about your beliefs in this situation?
• What kind of beliefs would cause these thoughts.

50 ways to cope with stress.

1. Get up 15mins earlier
2. prepare for the morning the night before
3. avoid tight fitting clothes
4. avoid relying on chemical aids (alcohol, sugar, etc)
5. set appointments ahead
6. don’t rely on your memory – write it down
7. practice preventative maintenance
8. make duplicate keys
9. say No more often
10. set priorities in your life
11. avoid negative people
12. use time wisely
13. simplify meal times
14. always make copies of important papers
15. anticipate your needs
16. repair anything that doesn’t work properly
17. ask for help with jobs you dislike
18. break large tasks into bite size portions
19. look at problems as challenges in which you can learn new skills
20. imitate strong people.
21. unclutter your life
22. smile
23. be prepared for rain
24. laugh or hug a friend.
25. pet a friendly dog/ cat
26. don’t know all the answers and be ok with it.
27. look for the silver lining.
28. say something nice to someone
29. practice gratitude
30. take a bubble bath
31. be aware of the decisions you make
32. believe in yourself
33. stop saying negative things to yourself – take the words out of your vocabularly
34. visualise yourself winning
35. develop your sense of humour
36. stop thinking tomorrow will be better – enjoy today
37. have goals for yourself
38. dance
39. accept what you can’t change.
40. imitate strong people.
41. look up at the stars.
42. practice breathing slowly
43. rely on your inner compass (values )
44. listen to music
45. watch a show
46. read a story
47. do a brand new thing
48. stop a bad habit
49. buy yourself flowers.
50. find support from others.

Confront your fears – do more of it but do it slowly. – Most importantly find a way to change your state and your story.

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There are 3 phases in copying with stress ( Sely e.)

• Alarm phase – when you react to the stressor
• Resistance phase – when you copy with the stressor and deplete your resources.
• Exhaustion phase – eventually worn down.

How stressed we feel depends on how out of control we feel and how we meet the threat with our resources.

Stress is when we believe we don’t have the time, resources or knowledge to handle a situation (emotional, capabilities, energy )

You will handle stress better if you become more confident in your abilities or are able to change the situation to take control or feel you have the help and support needed to do a good job.

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Managing stress approaches

1- Action orientated – manage your time, priorities and boundaries.

2- Emotion orientated – change your thinking through ABC technique, cognitive restructuring, positive thinking. (useful if the stress is from how you perceived the situation.)

3- Acceptance orientated – mediation, physical relaxation, support networks. (useful when you have no power to change what happened.

Become aware

Become aware of your depleters and energisers so you can make sure you have the most energy and resources to handle any situation.

Insight

Find ways to response rather than react to the stress triggers.

Understand what level the challenge is feeling like for you.

• are you relaxed about the challenge and understand we need this for our growth.
• are you actively seeking out the challenges
• are you pushing through at all costs (depletes resources quickly)
• are you stretched past effective performance (at exhaustion)

How often do you spend at each level on the following scale and where is your natural homebase state.

Some warning signs.	Some ways to bounce back
confused state of overload.	delete, delegate, short lists, select one goal
disengaged loss of attention and worry	recognize it, stretch, coffee break, eat protein, get sun
withdrawn loss of energy, isolation	talk to someone, connect, shop, play sport, have me time.
vulnerable indifference, self neglect, fatigue	sleep, long weekend, wellness initiatives, massage
distress stress symptoms, sleep problems, illness.	get help, counselling, coaching, exercise, mediation
depression loss of interest, sadness.	get help, exercise, sleep, lifestyle, medication etc.

Self regulation

The way we think, influences how we are feeling, find a way to change your state physically and then change your story. repeat your new story every hour.

Practice heart breathing coherence. (heartmath)

Take action.

Elevate the quality of your life. Decide what is a non negotiable for you.

how will you live and what will really matter. – get clear on your priorities in your life, to create that compelling future you have for yourself.

create positive rituals, exercise, learn, meditate or pray, connect and be conscious at an emotional level.

This will enable you to build all 4 dimensions of your energy (spiritual, mental, emotional and physical )

Visualise how you will handle a stressful situation that may be coming up, roleplay with a partner ways to cope with and manage the situation.

Reflect and analyst to decide what to do next time. decide what to keep, what to stop and what to do more of. The practice of reflection opens a door to change, growth and transformation.

an example:

• run a chunk of the day through your mind like a movie, flagging areas you would like to change.
• think about what you would change if the opportunity came up again.
• run the mind movie again with the desired changes as your new experience. the next time you have the opportunity it will be easier to practice the new way.

Can’t remember where I got this from sorry to give the credit.

Feedforward. The best approach to feedback.

I was introduced to the feedforward process for feedback when I was struggling to understand the feedback I was getting from colleagues. I didn’t understand what they were saying. I had made changes yet was still getting the same feedback.

My coach at the time introduced me to feed forward as a way to gain a better understanding and clarity around the feedback I was getting with actionable steps to make changes.

I love the process for the way it focusses on the future and not the past. how it asks for specifics and actionable steps.

I asked 3 of my colleagues to give me 2-3 ideas I asked for specific things that I could do that could help me get better at collaborating.

I thanked my colleagues and said I would come back and let them know which ideas I would be implementing.

From there I took the ideas and came up with 1-2 of the most important behaviours and went back and said this is what I will be working on.

After 2 months I went back and asked what else I could do to be better at collaborating. I was amazed. No one had any more ideas for me. They all found that on reflection and with the small changes I had made. It wasn’t something they felt needed work anymore.

By gaining the clarity around what it meant to people when they gave me specific feedback and following the process I was able to action it and achieve change. It was hugely beneficial to the way I approach and handle feedback.

One was to do this with a team would be to ask. How well are we doing now in a scale of 1-10.

Then ask. How well do we want to be doing on a scale of 1-10.

Tally the results and share. Then each team member uses the feedforward precession to close the gap. Talking to each of their other team members to get the ideas on how to improve.

Each team member would then choose 1 thing to work on. And the whole team would choose 1 thing to work on.

At the end of the month or quarter we review and go round again.

To do list challenge.

Notes from various papers I have collected over the years.

When writing your to do list consider doing it at the same time and the same place everyday – Much like a daily standup.

Immediately schedule in 2-3 activities in your day that will help you achieve the items on your list.

Break big tasks into smaller manageable tasks – so you don’t get stuck procrastinating.

Then keep your list with you at all times.
Review and revisit your list often. Anything that didn’t get completed the day before, challenge if it needs to be done and if so schedule it in.

When starting to write your to do list, start with your priorities. What are all the things that are important to you. – then circle your top 5 and list them out in order of priority. – these are what you want to make sure you are spending most of your time and energy on every single day. Review these every time you write your to do list.

For each of your priorities imagine what the ideal for you would look like in that area in 5 years time. Write it down and then refine it into a SMART goal. – These become your long term goals.

Now you need to close the gap, what can you do for each of your long term goals that will take you one step closer to that goal in the next month. This is your short term goal.

From your short term goal everyday create the tasks to create your to do list with these goals in mind.

Remember when working out which task to do first – pick the hardest one first, then the day will only get easier and better.

A handy reminder on prioritising.

https://www.justagirlblog.com/ has a great sheet that you can use with your goals.

And finally every week or month – check in on your progress. Reflection and self evaluation is the key to long term success.

Ask yourself where have I seen success, what has been most difficult, what goals have I reached, where have I been most productive, what can I change to make the systems I use better.

Stress- change your view of it.

Storytelling – be able to show that the insight is there.

One options for structuring your storytelling.

• Set the stage
  • Current situation in insightful coherent manner
  • Define basic tensions and relationships, what capabilities and objectives do we have and which do others have. what do we believe others will do and how do our key success factors compare with our competition.
• Introduce dramatic conflict
  • what challenges do we face in this situation
  • what critical issues stand as obstacles to success.
• First, second, third stages of the plan.
• Reach resolution in convincing manner.
  • Plan just tell how the company can overcome obstacles and win.
• Conclusion requires a logical concise argument that is specific to the situation and leads to desired outcomes.