5 minute read
TAKING THE POWER BACK
author Corey Poirier
When I was growing up in a small town, in a small part of Canada, we actually thought we were busy. From a family perspective, between grocery shopping, working, traveling locally, regular shopping, and visiting with friends, we felt there was really no time left in the day. I say we ‘thought’ we were busy, because we had no idea what busy was. Today, between spending time on social media for business and personal use, checking our phones, making time for exercise, yoga or meditating, reading books (if that’s your thing) and listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, Netflix (or your chosen platform), in our case raising two kids and driving them to daycare, keeping them busy in the evening, supper, grocery shopping and in my case, working at the office 5 days a week, picking up stuff needed for filming, always seeming to need something new for video storage, and everything else; I feel like we now know what busy truly is. I may be wrong though – perhaps it will somehow be twice as busy in ten years’ time. Is that even possible? The bigger question is, is this healthy? I’m certain if my Grandfather was told how busy it would be in 2021 when he was a teenager in the 1940’s, he would have shaken his head and likely said aloud, “that is insane, how can they live like that?” The interesting part though is, for my generation, it, this busyness, has built up over enough time that it simply feels like everyday life now. It truly doesn’t matter whether you’re a male or female, we are all busier than ever right now.
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When I ask people how things are going, the most common answer now is … busy. At one time the answer was good, bad, okay, etc. but now it’s typically … busy. So we are all busier, but are we getting more done?
Maybe, but it seems more like we’re often busy simply to be busy.
The reason I wanted to write about this was not to say we can make the world less busy, or change our lifestyles completely around the idea of busyness (although many would argue we can), but to simply offer some simple strategy for surviving the busy while also keeping your sanity. With that, here are some strategies and habits that have worked wonders for me over the years.
Turn your phone on silent. This one won’t be easy if you’re used to having your phone ringer on at all times BUT it can truly change the way you view your life when you take the power back and become more proactive rather than reactive when it comes to your phone use. I’m not saying to shut your phone off as I’m sure that may give you heart palpitations, and instead just suggesting turning the ringer (and notifications) off so that the phone isn’t always in charge.
Give yourself a minute If you’re raising children, and juggling everything else I noted above, getting an hour to meditate may not be realistic for you. Instead, I’m suggesting that you take just a minute, or 5 minutes, to yourself. In an interview years ago, I was speaking with meditation guru davidji about meditating and how much time we truly need. He demonstrated that even 17 seconds of meditation can be powerful and yield results.
Exercise. Again, you might not be able to get to the gym for hours at a time but with the advance of fitness apps and online video, you can access workouts that can deliver everything you need in 20 minutes or less. Even doing so 3 times a week can make a massive difference. And even though you may not feel you have time to exercise, the act of exercising will make you more productive and actually give you back more time than it takes.
Block your time. Even though many people tell you that you should never multi-task, I’m admittedly, at times, a multi-tasker. That said, I get much more done when I’m single tasking and blocking certain times to do certain things. A few years back I was aiming to start a movement to try to make Single-Tasking the new sexy, because I truly understand the power of doing specific things at specific times rather than chasing every shiny new object or task. If you can simply dedicate certain times to certain tasks, and not let other ones interfere, at least until you complete the current task, I think you’ll find that you actually accomplish much more.
Prioritize. Along with setting aside specific time for certain tasks, another thing you can do in an effort to take back more control over your day and take some of the power back is to set priorities around certain tasks. Rather than tackling everything equally, assign a number to the most important tasks that need to be done (i.e. a 1), a number to the things that would be good to get done (i.e. a 2) and then a number to the things that don’t need to be done or could be delegated or just ignored all together (i.e. a 3) and tackle all the 1’s first, the 2’s second and the 3’s if you can get around to them.
These 5 strategies changed my life completely. They didn’t make life any less busy BUT they did remove a lot of stress AND I accomplish more now in days than I used to in weeks.
In the end, life will likely continue to be busy for you unless you make massive changes, BUT you don’t have to let it control you. And perhaps it’s time for you too, to take the power back?
Yours In Success, Corey Poirier
Corey Poirier is a multiple-time TEDx, MoMondays and PMx, Speaker. He is also the host of the top rated ‘Let’s Do Influencing’ Radio Show, founder of The Speaking Program, founder of bLU Talks, and he has been featured in multiple television specials and he is a Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Apple Books and Kobo Bestselling Author. A columnist with Entrepreneur and Forbes magazine, and one of the few leaders featured twice on the popular Entrepreneur on Fire show. He has also interviewed over 6,500 of the world’s top leaders and he has spoken on-site at Harvard.
