Ahh, January 1st. Maybe you were bundled up cozy in bed after an eventful New Year’s Eve. Or possibly you’re the go-getter type, and started day 1 of the year with a hike or healthy habit. Are you thinking of what made last year’s New Year’s Resolution list and is back on for a second, third, maybe even fourth time?!
With the days turning into weeks and the weeks turning into months, we’ve all looked back in shock wondering… how did another year go by in a flash?! But when you really nit pick… it didn’t. We had the same number of days, the same number of minutes, and the same chance as every other year to turn our decisions into habits.
In 2019, how will you spend your 8,760 hours?
Before you look forward, you must first look back.
- Were you constantly feeling “busy” with a long to-do list, without actually getting much done?
- Did you set goals for yourself only to find yourself falling back into the same poor habits from the prior year?
- Were you dragging every Monday, stressed that another weekend flew by?
- Did you miss out on opportunities for fear that you weren’t good enough, prepared enough, or ready for the challenge?
If you answered yes to any (or all) of these questions, I challenge you to read one of the books below.
They were among some of my favorites for 2018 and challenged me to look at how I spent my time and how I could change my behaviors in order to meet my goals.
Book #1- The One Thing by Gary Keller
Turn to your to-do list and you’ll see how you value your time. Like most of us, you probably put the easy things on the top, saving the important items for when you’ll have better energy. If you’re like my college self, you value the quantity over quality aspect, even putting on a few items you’d already completed just to convince yourself you’ve “done” a lot (Don’t lie, I can’t be the only one who has done that!)
But, like most times, you never get to the core items due to being tired from all the menial tasks that were simply busy work. Flip that model around, and The One Thing by Gary Keller teaches you to evaluate your priorities and find, “What is the ONE THING such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
“It’s not that we have too little time to do the things we do, it is that we feel the need to do too many things with the little time we have.” – Gary Keller
Most of my life I’ve taken pride in being a busy-body, a multi-tasker, someone who was always working. It wasn’t until I was on the brink of burnout with last school year that I realized how important prioritizing my time was for my health. Like too many of us in this modern fast-paced world, most of my to-do items revolved around my work, rather than seeing all of the other areas in my life I needed to give attention as well. So essentially, it is not a “What is the ONE THING such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary…” for work alone, but all the essential aspects of life as seen below:
What is the ONE THING for my…
Spiritual Life?
Physical Health?
Personal Life?
Key Relationships?
Job?
Business?
Finances?
My favorite quote from the book has helped me see why it was so important to re-evaluate my priorities in where I was spending my time and energy:
“Work is like a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls – family, health, friends, integrity – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”
– Gary Keller
This quote rung a bell. How often had I put all my time and energy into my students, my lessons, my grading (aka “work”) — only to be left sacrificing my own health and having to skip out on being fully present with my own family and friends? Like the first post of this site, Your mask first, you must first take care of yourself in order to take care of others. Work– the people, the responsibilities… it’ll bounce back. It’s just like how much time and energy goes into a sub day, only to realize that the class was able to carry itself fine without you (hopefully due to all the prep in setting up those routines and autonomy in your students! Not there yet? Go check out 40 Hour Teacher Workweek from Angela Watson)!
But your health? It’ll “shatter” due to inattention or inactivity.
Your family and friends? They’ll stop inviting you after too many times of you saying “No,” or “Sorry, I’m too busy,” (sadly had to learn this one the hard way).
Your integrity? I’ll answer that with one of my favorite quotes from the late John Wooden- “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” Your integrity matters as much as the rest of the more tangible aspects.
In closing, The One Thing by Gary Keller helped expose a lot of my misconceptions about productivity, reminded me to diversify my time with the multiple areas for goals rather than hyper-focusing on what I had spent my time on– work, and helped identify my ONE THING each day to make the rest of my to-do list easier or unnecessary.
How will you spend your January? Simply busy? Or productive?
A year later from first reading the book, I can’t say I’ve “mastered” the ONE THING mentality, but like any new habit, it takes intentional practice, which leads me to my next book…
Keep posted for Part TWO, coming soon…
Book #2- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
(Here’s a sketchnote sneak peek!)
What books/videos/experiences did you learn from in 2018?
Share in the comments below!
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