3. morning journaling
I have never been a big journal person. I couldn’t get myself to write down a lot of things or even describe my thoughts and feelings in a journal.
But last year, I started to understand how important it is to have control over your thoughts. After reading countless books and listening to several podcasts about how to be happy and successful, I found that the common denominator is to have a basic ritual. And one of those rituals to add to your routine is to journal.
Only a few weeks ago, I found a way to make the journal process easier for me.
I am using my Five Minute Journal now that my life coach recommended to me, and it truly helps me to set my intentions for the day and raise my happiness-level by appreciating all that I have in my life.
I really like that its quick and easy to fill out and I am already starting to feel happier when I open it and start noting down a few things that immediately come to my mind.
The way it’s designed is that you use it twice per day, early in the morning and before going to bed at night.
From the first page, there are inspirational & motivational quotes that set the tone for you to start sharing your thoughts. It allows you to reflect on the previous day, and make goals for the next 24 hours.
I then journal down what I am looking forward to and affirm that I believe in myself. Affirmations are a tool that can help you shift your mindset from sadness to positivity and gratitude. When we believe in ourselves, anything is possible for us.
At night, I like writing down (in a few words) what was outstanding for me and what I could have done differently so I can make sure to improve the next day and try again.
Completing the days tasks leaves me feeling accomplished, empowered and motivated to keep following my dreams. You can even use the 5 minute journal on your phone, by downloading the app “Five minute Journal”.
4. get-to-dos and efficiency/ productivity
In our relationship, I am the one who needs structure when it comes to our work. It calms me down to know what my day will look like.
Jake never needed that, he has always been a free, creative spirit, but now that we are running our own company, having a to do list had to become part of our lives. I quickly realised that simply writing down all our to-do’s didn’t really help us to be efficient.
I would always start with the things that I liked doing the most, and not the things that need to be done ASAP. Dividing our tasks into important vs. urgent tasks has helped a lot.
We have all been guilty of postponing the annoying tasks that are actually important, because we hate doing them, like booking an insurance or filling out a big form to apply for something? That’s something we struggled with for a while.
We needed to start prioritising our tasks by level of importance. And I also wanted to approach them differently, so I started to look at them as “Get-To-Do’s” rather than “Have-To-Do’s”. Instead of thinking about what I “had” to do I started being grateful for any and every task.
We love our job, so approaching them differently made a huge difference. I was so excited when I started working with my Productivity Planner because this really helped me prioritise my tasks and allowed me to track how long it took me to complete a task.
Inside of the planner, you are working with a technique called “Pomodoro”. The Pomodoro Technique is designed to keep your focus stable and get you into your “zone“.
One circle on the journal is one Pomodoro and lasts 25 minutes. During this time, you work on one task without any distractions (no multi-tasking allowed!) and once the time is over, you can take a 5-minute break - and start all over again.
You start by listing out your main 5 priorities of the day and write out how many 25-minute-intervals you estimate it will take you to complete that task. You then fill out the circles as you go along, and finally note down how many Pomodoros it actually took you to finish it. This gives you an idea of how long certain tasks take for future reference.
5. easy yoga flow & exercise
When it comes to being active, we don't follow a strict routine. Usually, we just do whatever feels right for us in the moment.
Both Jake and I usually practice a simple flow that varies every single time we get on our mats (or towels when we are traveling :D). We love getting inspiration for new yoga flows on YouTube or Instagram. They mostly consist of light stretches, lots of deep breaths and easy-to-remember sequences.
In 2020, we aim for at least 20 minutes of movement per day, no matter if that’s a quick yoga sequence or a workout. When we work out while traveling we rarely have access to a gym. Therefore we have to get creative to exercise all the different muscle groups.
This year a major goal for us is to reach a new level of fitness and health which means we will be more consistent and work harder in our exercise routines. We will keep you updated with our progress on Instagram.
We hope you enjoyed reading about what has helped us in 2019 to feel happier, healthier and more productive. We are still optimising and tweaking things as we go along, and we certainly want to set up a proper evening routine as well.
Reflecting and unwinding at night will be a bigger priority in 2020, so that we feel our best and perform our best.
Let us know in the comments down below what your current morning routine looks like, and what you would like to read about next on our blog! ☺
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