by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
If you have been following me long enough, hopefully I have convinced you to start each day with a plan of attack.
Every now and then, you may have a day where things started out well but for whatever reason, you stopped doing what you were supposed to be doing. You either got distracted, interrupted, or had to put out a fire or two.
At this point you have a couple of choices.
1. You could just concede that the day is lost and continue to run around being busy, distracted, and not really accomplish anything.
2. Or, you can push the restart button and get your day back on track.
Sorry if this is blunt, but a lot of people don’t have the resiliency to restart in the middle of the day and so they lose those last couple of hours and are ineffective or unproductive for the rest of the day.
Coach, when we continue to lose hours of the day being unproductive, it could be costing us time to spend on making progress with our programs and with our goals, or worse (for me at least), it will cut into family time.
So, what can you do if you want to get back on track?
I recommend having a restart plan. Here is the process that I go through when I realize I need to restart.
1. I first make sure that I don’t continue to keep doing the same thing I was doing. When I realize the day’s all gone to crap, I will immediately stop everything and take a step away. For me, this usually means that I get out of my inbox.
2. I stand up, leave my office and find a place to stretch or I go outside and take a walk to clear my head. Before I get back into my office, I get some water.
3. When I sit back down, I first revisit my vision page and review what I am trying to accomplish.
4. I make a list of three things that must be accomplished still for that day?
5. Then I decide on a reward if I accomplish those three things. For me, it usually has to do with my kids J Your rewards need to be something that you connect with. Could be social, food, exercise, etc.
That is what I found works best for me. You could also try meditation. Exercise. Self-talk. Go for a drive.
Try it. Test it. Keep trying things out until you find a good reset method.
I hope these strategies help you get through a day that has gone bad in a more resilient, strong, and productive way. A day that turns bad doesn’t have to finish off bad. Just restart and finish off the day strong. Good luck!
I would love to hear what your restart procedures are. Please email me at mandy@busy.coach.