2014 Motto - "Do Less Things - Do those Things Better"

2013 was a busy year and in some regards my energy was a bit fractured at times across multiple things so coming into 2014 my motto is;

"Do Less Things - Do those Things Better"

So what does this mean? For me this means prioritising the things that I am involved with a sink my energy into to ensure being successful at the things that are a priority.

One of the people I worked with a few years ago used the saying;

"Perfect is the enemy of Good Enough"

Wikipedia gives a bit of background on this proverb but for me it is focussed on just getting stuff done even it is not perfect. This is especially relevant in what can be a time crunched life at times with two little ones as part of the family. So in terms of most things day to day just getting it done to a level of good is better than obsessing with it and trying to get it to a level of perfection and either not getting it done at all or getting it done perfectly at the expense of other things.

So as 2014 rolls on have not got resolutions as such more as things to focus on from a process perspective. A lot of these things I have been working on prior to the turn of the calender however now is a good time to share them at a high level.

5 Processes to Focus On

Understanding Sleep 

Understanding sleep patterns is a complex topic. On thing I have come to believe and focus on is that devaluing sleep at the expense of other things is not efficient in the long term. So at the moment I am focussed on understanding my own sleep patterns and routines and adapting my processes and routines to make them the most effective.

For Christmas I got a Fitbit Flex and it is giving me some basic data with which to use as part of this process. The end goal for me in this space is to develop a sleep routine that allows for an effective use of time prior to going to sleep and upon waking up while still maintaining enough sleep for recovery and rejuvenation.

Understanding What I Eat and Drink When

Following Christmas I began logging what I eat and drink. More to understand how my consumption works throughout the day vs. striving for a end result. One thing I have quickly picked up is how little I eat early in the day and how little water I also drink in this time period. I have been doing this through logging via my phone and instead of always trying to perfectly estimate the calories in food have taken a more standard guess approach in situations where I am not the one cooking the food in the kitchen.

Create 30 Minute Activities

Often there are windows around home or at the office where there is only 30 minutes to do something. This is often a time zone where I can struggle to have productivity as it is hard to really dive into something. So in order to better fulfil these opportunities my idea is to create a play book of 30 minutes things I can do to make use these windows.

Whether these be work related tasks, sending a note to someone I haven't been in touch with for a while, a 20 minute run with strides, a strength workout, organising some paperwork the idea is to get some bite sized activities done in the available window.

Identify and execute 3 Critical Things to do each day

The idea here is to have some success each day so at the end of the day can look back and gain momentum going forward. These don't have to be monumental but more be defined as anchors to plan a day around. The process around this is sitting down each night before going to bed and targeting the three things for the next day

Create a Reset Strategy

One things that I am guilty of at times is letting a bad day or two turn into a bad week or worse from a confidence/momentum perspective. This applies to most aspects of things I do so the aim is here to create a go to activity or task to reset a potential slippage towards achieving goals.

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So at the risk of trying to perfect this post that is it for now. Have a race schedule planned for 2014 so will look to share that in a post over the next few days.

Have a great day and make sure to wave and say hi to fellow runners and cyclists. Especially those just starting out on an active lifestyle as 2014 rolls on!