Recently I have become rather obsessive about my time management and productivity, I’ve invested a lot of my time listening to recordings of Eben Pagan’s productivity course ‘Wake Up Productive’ (Which I highly, highly, highly recommend to anyone and everyone). I become engrossed in this course.
I learned a lot about myself and my habits, I realized how unproductive many of my habits were… So I created a rather extreme weekly routine, one that has my eating, drinking, breathing, meditation, working, and education all planned out. It’s so extreme it even tells me how many times I need to be chewing my food and how many deep breaths to take…
I asked myself: HOW CAN I LIVE LIKE THAT? So strict, so regimented? Well the reality is, I will only be following the strict routine for 30 days, then it will start to become new habits, eventually it will start to feel weird to not do it that way. Zac and I already have that sort of extreme structure in one area of our lives. Getting our client’s newsletters our on-time every month.
My aim is to re-calibrate my ‘default’ habits to something planned and productive, something that’s motivating and healthy. Something purposeful, not accidental.
Most of us have probably tried to stick to a healthy diet or exercise routine and know how hard it can be. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RLAGxUbp-U – this video perfectly explains my attempts at healthy eating in the past) – So you can imagine how hard it is to totally overhaul all my old habits.
What can I do to ensure that I don’t fail… How can I make my success inevitable?
The answer is accountability, reward and punishment! – using Eben Pagan’s model of inevitability thinking I have taken dramatic action to make sure there is absolutely no way I can fail. Because I know I am 100% capable of doing everything I’ve set out in my routine, it’s just my old habits that stop me most of the time.
I have written a $10,000 cheque to a political party that I don’t support and given it to a trusted friend who is keeping me accountable to my commitment. If I do not report to her about my daily results, she is to hand the cheque over as a donation.
Not to get out of bed in the morning at 6am, will cost me $10,000. Eat a greasy cheese-burger, or if I don’t do my daily exercise it will cost me $10,000. On top of this, I’m rewarding myself at the end of the month with a full body massage, plus all the health and wealth benefits that will come with establishing new habits.
This may seem extreme to some people, but it works. I know I won’t lose the $10,000 because I am confident in my ability, I know that the main reason I revert back to my old habits is because there is no short-term consequence… Now that there is a consequence I find change extremely easy!
One of the key things that I have built into my routine is doing the most leveraged thing in my business, first thing in the day, and that is writing relationship-building content for my newsletter and ezine. By writing my ezine first thing in the morning.
To take advantage of our highly regimented process for getting your monthly customer newsletter in the mail then call 1300 120 106 or email info@newslettermarketingsystems.com.au and so that you can take advantage of our highly effective system in your business – growing your customer loyalty, repeat business, referral rates and more.