Proactive Practices Part 2

By Terre Short

Last week, I wrote about prioritizing wellbeing: yours, your team, those you serve (clients, patients, internal or external customers). I offered a quick exercise to tease out your priorities. Previously, I have offered a calendar template that illustrates how to block wellbeing time throughout the week. The trick is adopting these proactive behaviors. It takes 21-27 days to change or implement habits. Habits can be great proactive tactics. Think of daily habits you do for some proactive reason, brushing your teeth, drinking tea or coffee in the morning, checking email before your first meeting of the day.

We engage in lots of habits, some without even thinking about the action. I encourage you to consider the proactive value of each well-defined habit you have. For example, daily teeth brushing prevents dental issues, morning coffee wakes me up and starts my day off well, checking my email first thing in the morning enables me to re-organize my day if needed. Think of your typical day and complete the following:

Which of these habits have little to no proactive value, or perhaps even serve to derail progress towards productivity? How might you replace such a habit? For example, habits related to when you watch the news or engage in social media may distract you from other priorities. In which case, you might consider switching them out with new habits that will better serve your priorities.

In his new book, Doing to Done, Mike Williams provides a plethora of practical productivity tips. This fun, interactive book, takes you on a journey through the why, what and how of productivity. The best part might be the QR codes towards the end that offer you very specific resources, such as activating “Todoist Pro” app on your phone. I love the simplicity and creativity of Mike’s approach, and yes, we are on a first name basis. He provides some super helpful new habits.

Speaking of habits, a great way to change behaviors and save time is to habit-stack. For example, you might take two minutes of gratitude contemplation while brushing your teeth, and/or recite an affirmation each time you floss, “I will honor my wellbeing time blocks.”

The challenge is implementing, practicing, and committing – in order for a habit to serve you well. Look at all that has occurred this week, what percentage of your day was spent in a reactive state? What percentage of your efforts were proactive?? When we implement proactive practices, such as calendaring project time and reflection time, as well as building habits that create a positive flow of thought and energy, we automatically reduce reactivity. You can choose proactive resources and approaches. So many great tools, so little time…ACTUALLY – so many great tools to save you time!