Week 9: Clean up the Small Things

Americans love massive displays of effort – Darren Hardy, The Compound
Effect

If you are looking for a good book to read, then I highly recommend The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.

Americans have been conditioned to believe to GO BIG with everything and overhaul their whole lives in 30 minutes. As Darren Hardy points out, it’s the little things we do over time that add up to the good or bad results that we experience.

I’ll give you an example: Staying up too late watching TV or playing on electronic devices.

Here’s what happens:
You stay up late with too much blue light
You end up eating/drinking more because you’re awake longer and most likely not paying attention to your snacking
You don’t get enough deep sleep
You wake up late and then you have to rush through the morning, you inhale caffeine, and if your energy is low then you grab a sugary breakfast or snack later in the day
You spend the whole day pounding caffeine and sugar.
The lack of sleep also leads to increased hunger signals and so you’re eating/drinking more during the day.
You’re too tired to exercise at any point during the day.
You go home vowing to get to sleep earlier
The Real Housewives of Atlanta is premiering at 10 p.m. so you have to stay up and watch it.
The Cycle starts again

You get what I’m saying. That one little thing of throws everything off.

What I did
When I was out of town, I set my phone to Airplane mode so that I wouldbe fully present for much of the conference I was attending.

I decided that life was much more peaceful that way and so now it’s my practice to turn my phone on Airplane Mode when I’m working or
studying and I make myself turn on airplane mode at 9 p.m. every night.

That one small change has led to much more productivity and also
turned down the noise!!

This week I challenge to find one small thing you can clean up to make
life flow a little smoother