Module nine setting your ritual. For most people the word ritual typically conjures up an image of a boring, repetitive life with every moment controlled and managed and no room for spontaneity. rituals and routines, however, can actually help increase the spontaneity in funding your life. Because routine tasks are already planned for you have more energy to spend on the tasks that will bring you closer to your goals and bring more joy to your life. What is the ritual? The Random House dictionary defines a ritual as any practice or pattern of behavior regularly performed in a set manner.
In fact, you can build any type of ritual in three easy steps identify the task, let's say you want to build an exercise ritual, identify the time and or trigger. For example, perhaps you normally exercise After work, identify the sub tasks for you. Perhaps your ritual involves going to the gym getting changed, stretching, doing 45 minutes on the treadmill, performing three reps of weights and doing a lap around the pool to finish things off, then you shower and go home. Remember, a ritual shouldn't be set in stone. Once you establish your ritual, it can be modified at any point in time depending on what works for you. With our exercise example, you could easily decide to exercise before work or even at lunch and still use the basic tasks and subtasks ritualizing sleep meals and exercise.
These three items are essential to ritualize Here are some ideas sleep. Establish a ritual for half an hour before you sleep. This might include filling out your productivity journal for the next day, enjoying the cup of tea, taking a warm bath and or performing some stretch All of these activities will help you wind down and sleep better. It is best to try to go to bed at around the same time every night to meals. Take a half hour each weekend to plan meals for the next week including lunches and suppers. Then make a grocery list and get everything you will need.
Appliances like slow cookers and delayed start ovens can also help you make sure supper is ready when you are exercise. Try to exercise for one hour three times a week for half an hour each day. One easy way is to go for a brisk walk at lunch or do yoga in the morning before work. Example rituals, here are some rituals that many people find helpful in maximizing their time. Instead of checking email, news and websites throughout the day, set aside one or several periods. For example, morning, noon and at the end of the day, then batch and sequence your activities.
For example, email News in Facebook. You can batch many types of tasks in this way for maximum efficiency. set up a system for maintaining your productivity journal. This can be as simple as 10 minutes in the morning to update today's list 10 minutes at noon to update what you have done already, and 10 minutes at day's end to evaluate today and create a starting list for tomorrow. In the morning, perform your tasks in an organized routine manner. You can also lay out your clothes and prepare your lunch the night before for maximum efficiency using rituals to maximize time.
Once you have been using your ritual for a while, you may find that you have bits of extra time here and there. For example, you may find that by establishing an exercise ritual, you finish five or 10 minutes earlier because you know exactly what you're going to do at the gym. At the end of the day, you may find that you have half an hour or more of unexpected time. This is where the trigger part of ritual can come into play. Instead of setting a specific time of day you choose a situation or an event that will cause a ritual to come into play. Some examples during a break at work or at home read for 10 minutes.
Take one minute to do some deep breathing and stretches. Take five minutes to clean off your desk or some other small area. Take 10 minutes to update your personal productivity journal. Set aside one lunch hour a week to do personal errands or make a list at the beginning of each week and do one a day