Cleanliness is next to Godliness
It’s the last day of March, the end of the first quarter of the year, and the ideal day to evaluate how my New Year’s Resolutions are going. Since my life is only getting more complicated as time goes along, my major resolution this year was to bring more structure to my workdays. I work from home and can set my own schedule and since I’m not generally a morning person, my workday would usually start around 9:00. I was determined to set that back to 8:00 for 2014. So I’ve got the first part of my day fairly scheduled. We get up at 6:00, make the bed, get the workout gear on, drink a quart of Kangen water, check the i-Phone for texts and new e-mails, rebound/walk/run for up to 30 minutes, drink another quart of Kangen water (half a gallon in before 7:15 a.m.), then shower.
If all works out as planned, I’ve got the house to myself by 7:30 and I’m in the recliner by 8:00 reading a book (usually personal development or sales training). One of my top 10 goals for 2014 is to read 50 books. I knew if I didn’t schedule this in, it wasn’t going to happen. So my workday starts off with 30 minutes of reading. This week I’m finishing up Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. Next week it will be The Sandler Rules. We’ve got hundreds of books to choose from so who knows what it will be the week after.
After that it’s off to my office (the 10 step commute). I start working through the list of things that need to be accomplished. Every evening before I go to bed I write down 50 things I intend to do the following day. It sounds like a lot but some things are as simple as sending an e-mail or text, booking plane flights or making a quick phone call. The list always starts out with my morning rituals including writing out my top 10 goals for 2014, visualizing my perfect customer, or studying my dream board. Some days I work methodically down the rest of the list, other days I pick the easiest things and do them first to create some momentum.
There’s seriously something so satisfying about marking something off the list when it’s completed. I’ve got this great set of highlighters and my best days are when the majority of the items are highlighted by the end of the day (which can be anywhere from 5:00 until midnight). Before I turn off the office lights for the night, I put everything back into place (as shown in the picture) so I can start out fresh the next day. My days may sound long but there’s a lot of laughter and some down time thrown in, so it never gets old. I love what I do for a living (writing/marketing/connecting with people). No two days are ever the same and my schedule is really flexible, which is super important for me.
I’m usually pretty wiped out by the time we go to bed and I dream about work a lot but I can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning and hit the ground running. I’m loving this stage in my life!