Tag Archive for: Gretchin Rubin

8 Books to Turn Your Productivity Around

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I love reading! Not just because I enjoy learning about new things or ideas, but because I find it fascinating how a book can seep into your daily mindset.

If I’m really interested in a book I will often find that the concepts within the book will appear all around me. Friends will bring up a issues that relate to key themes in the book or I’ll face a problem at work similar to issues brought up in the book.

It’s for this reason that productivity books can be so good for you. While you may not implement all the practices suggested it at least gets you thinking about the different approaches to getting things done. You might even think of a way to adapt one of the ideas in the book to be more suitable for your lifestyle. Read more

A List For Your 2015 Goals

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2015The New Year is always the busiest time for list makers. Every new year seems so full of possibilities, and sometimes we can be overzealous and try to cram too much in. So before you steam ahead with planning your 2015 goals, I would encourage you to take a look back at your goals for 2014.

Did you achieve all of them? What got left behind?

For example, one of your goals might have been to do more exercise. If you didn’t achieve this goal then maybe it’s time to re-think it for 2015. I think the more specific a goal is the more you likely you are to achieve it.

Make It Attainable 

So if you want to do more exercise, instead you can commit to going running twice a week. Or do what I did a few years ago — commit to doing yoga just 10 minutes a day.  I’ve actually kept to that. With a more defined goal it’s easier to make it happen.

Sharing is Caring

I also suggest sharing your goals with your friends.  It’s always good to be held accountable for them. Also you might find someone with similar goals and then you can work together to achieve them. For instance you could sign up for a work out class together.

Need Some Ideas?

I have a private Facebook group set up for my VIP launch team for my book Listful Thinking and we’ve been sharing our resolutions the past few days.  Some times it’s fun to see what other people are working on and it can give you a boost.

Some of the team members have some great goals:

“Plan an amazing trip to Napa Valley to celebrate my 35th birthday and my 10 year anniversary.” – Arianny

“I have an overall goal to simply NOT BE AFRAID to go after the things I have been putting off for too long. Life’s too short!” – Laura

“I’m really feeling the good vibes from making a commitment to the random opportunities in my life. Here is to 2015 being a garden of surprises and growth.” – Garette

Another great idea is to have a theme.  Sandra, one of my VIP members, said her theme is “More” — love that!  Abundance is an amazing goal to set for yourself.

I was also reading this article that Gretchen Rubin put together about making your resolutions into themes.  She suggests using words like “upgrade” “bigger” and “free time”.  I like this idea.  I think it is more fun to think of your life as a whole and how you can make it better throughout the entire year.

For my own New Year’s Resolution I think it will be to “go with the flow.”  I tend to be pretty rigid and set in my ways as many list makers can be.  But this year I will try to be more laid back.  So I guess my theme will be “spontaneity.”

What are some of your goals for 2015?

LISTFUL THINKING UPDATE

I am giving away a limited number of AquaNotes Waterproof Notepads! Use them for when you have brilliant ideas in the shower. For a chance to win, here’s what you need to do:

1.  Pre-order the paperback version of Listful Thinking by January 12th.

2.  Send a picture of your receipt or forward the email confirmation to my intern Matthew at matthew@listproducer.com.   

3.  Don’t forget to include the address (US only) where you’d like your notepad sent.