life crafts N° 1-Have a clear vision of what you look for
Last time “writing goals” was an issue. It is also important that you imagine it. We humans think in pictures most of the time. We see memories, experiences, but also future things in front of us in our mind’s eye. Make your goals & Co a little stronger by coloring them in the most beautiful colors.
Take your time to think
In today’s everyday life crafts, thinking is only allowed in multitasking mode. That means something active and visible has to happen and we can also think along the way. Sitting and thinking (for an “outsider” it looks like “doing nothing”) is of course strictly forbidden! Give it a try. Just thinking is really exciting.
life crafts N° 2-Prescribe a meeting diet
There are too many meetings and jour fixes. Fight for only meetings with real meaning and results to take place. Fight for meetings to be kept short. Fight for never more than five people to attend meetings. Or the big challenge: fight for meetings to only take place while standing. I know that depending on your position it is not easy and you will feel like Don Quichotte against the windmills. But everyone will thank you once it is established.
life crafts N° 3-Simplified workflow
As mentioned above, many things are too complicated. Processes in companies in particular. And honestly: management consultants and process optimizers have never been able to solve such a thing. No matter what position you are in, make it easier for you, skip instances, ignore approval processes, do not ask for every point and comma. It will probably cause you problems initially. In the long term, however, this will make many things easy for you. It’s easier as an “enfant terrible”.
life crafts N° 4-Learn to be essential
There is too much wobbling. In meetings, presentations, reports, concepts, but also in blog articles, newsletters, and e-courses. If you wrote something, shorten it afterward. And after you shorten it, shorten it again. And it’ll probably still be too much rambling, but you’re on the right track.
life crafts N° 5-Clear your Facebook wall
Every posting on your pinboard that is of no use to you and has a negative emotional impact is one too many. Delete, deferred, block, remove as much as possible.
life crafts N° 6-Learn to read faster
We have a lot of information to process these days. I pushed myself long before “Speed Reading”, but I’ve recently become a real fan of it. This ability just gives me extremely long life crafts. More on this in my podcast.
life crafts N°7-Let your time be watched
There is a small online tool called Rescue Time. This thing does nothing but monitors what you do on the PC and what you use your time for. It gives you daily statistics about which software you have been using for how long and which websites you have been on for how long. Sobering at first, then opening eyes and then very motivating to change something.
life crafts N° 8-Multitasking is Sch….
Once and for all. Even if superiors, HR managers, and job advertisements want us to believe it and see it as an indispensable skill. Nobody can do multiple things well at the same time (yes, I know women can do better than men, but I still stick to it). The result of doing a thousand things at once is just suboptimal.
You probably know that: The whole day was busy and stressful. You hardly had a free minute to breathe deeply because the day was just incredibly busy and kept you really busy. And somehow that’s part of it. You may even be a little proud that there is so much going on with you. Because when you tell others what you’ve been doing all day, you can’t just say “nothing”.
Or even: Oh, I had a relaxing day. How does that sound? As if you had nothing to do. You immediately imagine the strange looks that you get when you are not completely stressed. To count for something and to be worth something, you simply have to have a full day, otherwise, you are worth nothing to our society.
Only sometimes do you know that you were at full throttle all day, but if you are asked quickly, you no longer know exactly what you did. It actually seems to you that you were busy but did nothing. At least you can hardly remember it.
Your focus is so on the “what’s next” that you only perceive the now peripherally, so you don’t really experience your present because you are thinking about the next steps. This is a pure hamster wheel. And it doesn’t matter whether it takes place in a professional, private or personal context (i.e. only in your head). The hamster wheel has done a great job in our pear in this regard. It continues with our 20 Life crafts:
life crafts N°9-Delegate things
Great art. Because our thinking often goes in two directions: a) If someone else does that, he could do it better than me and how do I stand there? b) If someone else does that, then it could do it worse than me, and I cannot allow that. The first has to do with self-confidence, the second with perfectionism. If you recognize that, it will be easier.
life crafts N° 10-Align your goals with your values
It’s not always easy in a hamster bike job, but at least possible in private life crafts. Check if your goals are YOUR goals and if they match your values and motives, or if you simply pursue goals to impress or satisfy others. The insight is often a real “game-changer”.
life crafts N° 11-Walk for 15 minutes once a day
You already know how much I am a fan of “ walking ” or “ standing ”. In the meantime, I hold many of my coaching sessions while walking because more comes out. So not coaching sessions, but coaching walks. Make sure that no matter how busy your day is, you walk at least 15 minutes and allow your head a little rest when your body is moving.
life crafts N° 12-Take a break every 60 minutes
I say it quite openly: I let myself be forced to do it. A software tool called ” Time Out ” interrupts me every 55 minutes, darkens the screen of my MacBook, and leaves me alone for 5 minutes. Whether inflow or not, the regular 5 minutes are like a vacation. Find a way not to forget your breaks. They are just as important as the work phases. If not more important.
life crafts N° 13-Eat consciously
It’s not about following a particular diet or even being strictly “vegan” or the like. It’s about consciously consuming your food. Not by the way. Not while you’re thinking about other things or doing other things. Your body deserves to be “exclusively” dedicated to food. And if you really eat “junk”, do it in full harmony with yourself and allow yourself. If you already have a guilty conscience, it has a double negative effect.
life crafts N° 14-Inform your surroundings if you are not “free”
Block periods of time in your daily routine in which you want to work undisturbed and communicate this to your work environment. Be determined, but without being eccentric. Don’t break that over your knee if you’re in a hamster wheel job. That could cause surprise or even rejection. Introduce it step by step and extend your “undisturbed phases” slowly but steadily.
life crafts N° 15-Learn to say “no”
A high art that the hamster wheel trained us through social programming – or we never learned. Here you will find a small guide to say no.
life crafts N° 16-Balance your to-dos
There are situations when you “have to” think, plan, structure. And then there are times when you “just” have to do it. Clarify for you internally when you are in “chief mode” and when it is “Indian mode”. Do not switch back and forth too often during the day, but work on spending longer phases in one mode.
life crafts N° 17-Do routine tasks in the shortest possible time
What has to daily have to be daily. Some of it seems dreary and pointless or just energy-consuming. Call a competition with yourself and look for the smallest possible way to get the routine task done faster or easier. Just like chip developers are always working on making processors smaller and faster at the same time, you can enthusiastically turn every screw for your routines to get a little faster. So that there is time for other things. Or just time to do nothing.
life crafts N° 18-Prepare
Jour fixes, presentations, crucial discussions and much more should make you feel good when you start. The Americans have the martial expression “shoot to kill”. So don’t just go to a meeting and hope that nothing happens. Don’t just give a presentation like this and think “it will work”. It doesn’t mean that you always have to be prepared for everything and think ten ways when Plan A isn’t working. But that you do everything in your power to be good. And confident. And don’t forget the fun. It helps you to be good. And confident.
life crafts N° 19-Detect time vampires
They exist in every situation. The people who just waste time. Just a recommendation from me: Recognize them, reduce contact to a minimum and start to show them their great ability. They don’t do it on purpose and may be grateful for the message because the rest of their social environment doesn’t dare anyway. In short, don’t lay out the garlic for the time vampires, but use the stake.
