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Bernie J Mitchell

Bernie J Mitchell

Engaging People in coworking since 2010

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Productivity

How To Be More Productive (And Not Lose £191,553.45 Like Me)

January 26, 2020 by Bernie Mitchell

Two Simple Productivity Tips.

In this post, I’ll share two things that have helped my productivity over the last few years, and they are NOT apps or gadgets.

Are you always wondering where your time goes?
Are you looking for an ‘edge’?

You can get helpful actionable direction like this in my ‘Sunday Scenario email‘ where I document my progress, triumphs and mistakes as a freelance consultant to the coworking industry.

It is super fun being a hands-on practitioner who is developing and working with everything I teach in workshops and uses with clients.

No theory here, the only action, which of course means a few cuts and bruises!

Back to our two productivity tips, they so are blazingly simple, so simple they might slip through your fingers and then you are back where you started.

If you have worked at either of these two below you will know the deep level of self-commitment you need to muster up to win, and when you start there is no stopping.

How To Be More Productive (And Not Lose £191,553.45 Like Me)

1. Stop That Shitty Self-Talk

First, stop beating yourself up. You must have read a pile of books where the topic of self-talk comes up.

The line is always something like, “would you talk to someone else the way you speak to yourself?“

Then there is the add on of, “what would you do if someone talked to your best friend the way you speak to yourself?”

For me, this falls into the ‘well, of course, I agree with that’, but it took me years to get it, and I am still working on it.

Back in my days of depression, most days had self-loathing on the agenda.

When I became aware of this, my self-talk and how it worked, I could see how I’d been operating in this way for years.

Talking crap to myself had become a habit; I was so skilled that it was on autopilot.

What a crappy skill to commit work on. All that time gone!

Now I did not start walking around saying beautiful things like ‘I’m a tiger’ to myself out loud.

But I did put a year’s worth of effort into nipping that crappy self-talk in the bud.

Own The Good Things You Do

Decide to own the good things you do.

Today two renowned industry experts gave me an in-person compliment.

Instead of downgrading myself with a joke, I said their acknowledgement means a lot.

They both are amazing people, and I’ve put a direct effort into the thing they complimented me on.

Jen Sincero’s book ‘You are a Badass‘ is a particularly entertaining way to get a grip on this aspect of life. I love her stuff!

This week check how many times you say a self-degrading throw-away comment.

Look out for things like ‘I’m so crap at that.’

Or ‘I don’t quite know what I am doing with this £2000 piece of equipment I brought to further my career.’

Yes, this is imposter syndrome.

We can go deeper into this another time; it is a favourite of mine in the Freelance Heroes group.

But I have zero time and energy for my imposter syndrome these days.

How do you know you have zero time, Bernie? Because I have RescueTime.

Where Did That Time Go?

Last week I clicked the button in my RescueTime app that tells me where I’ve spent time over the previous six years.

I track my ‘work time’ from 8 am – 6 pm Monday to Friday.

So the good news was I’ve spent two-thirds of my time on productive apps on my phone and computer.

But I have spent ONE THIRD on crap or ‘Total Distracting Time‘ as Rescue Time calls it.

Consider this the time I committed to working in, and instead, it became a ‘Total Distracting Time of 2,253h 57m

That’s three months, zero weeks, two days, 21 hours, 57 minutes, and 29 seconds.

If I billed that at a modest £85 an hour that means I’ve spunked £191,553.45

Ouch!

Which is the price of a brand new Lamborghini 4×4 SUV, if that’s how you like to impress your mates.

Photo by Adrian Dorobantu from Pexels

The Compound Effect and £191,553.45

How would you feel if you worked out you spent £191,553.45 worth of time on fucking Facebook and not being productive at all?

Don’t worry kids I’m ok; I’m rereading the Compound Effect book.

Darren, the author, points out not to get upset when you discover the compound effect working against you.

This insight gives you a stable place to work from; you can stop this dead and reverse it.

2. Know What Work You Are Going To Do

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

Henry Ford

The way most quotes get used on the internet makes me want to rip my knee caps off and use them as a blindfold.

In the ‘12 Week Year‘ book, every chapter starts with a quote.

I’ve listened to that book enough times the quotes are ingrained to my prefrontal cortex.

This one by Henry Ford hurts a lot. I do so love talking about what I’m going to do, and then not doing it.

So I stopped that.

Talking about what you are going to do is well-meaning hot air, fluff and no one cares, not even you. 

Most of the time, it is a time-sucking attempt to convince ourselves of something.

Your actions speak louder than words, especially for yourself.

Building A Solid Process.

This process you read about every week has got me to see how much I don’t know what I’m going to do.

Example, I know I’m going to write, but I don’t know what I’m going to write in a work session.

Last week when I emailed you I knew I was going to write this to you this week.

So it has taken me 25 minutes to write this. It will need some editing in Grammarly and Hemingway Editor App, and then I’m good to go.

In the Make Your Mark 90 Day Challenge we have a workbook, so I’m planning all my content ahead of time.

It is not easy, but it is 100% worth the effort and saves time.

Of course, you can do this on your own, but working with a group of people skyrockets your productivity.

Write More By Knowing What You Are Going To Write

If you are a writer and need to pay attention to this type of thing, read 2k – 10K by Rachel Aaron.

In her book, Rachel documents how she had to change her work pattern after becoming a mother.

Rachel had four hours a day to sit down and write.

The four hours was the ONLY time she had so she had to work out ahead what that writing would be when she got in the chair.

By working this way, she rebuilt her ability to reach ten thousand words a day.

The Pain Of Change

January has been painful for me, but don’t cry for me, Argentina.

Paying detailed attention to the gaps in my delivery and workflow is helpful.

But change is painful and inconvenient; I’m such a sucker for short term reward.

I can fix things ‘on the fly’ because of my constant ‘learn and do, learn and do’ over the last decade.

An important chapter for you in the 12 Week Year‘ book is the one about the ‘Pain of Change and the valley of despair when it comes to goals. 

It talks about ‘The Emotional Cycle of Change’ or said another way, it will go great, then go shit and you’ll want to give up.

But when you don’t give up you’ll get to the part where it all goes well and you get stronger and happier. 

Most people quit when it gets a bit shit. 

For example, as soon as I got to Lyon last week, I went for a 4.5-mile run before I even had a chance of not doing it.

It was cold, wet and in the end, exhilarating, and it was one more tiny compound effect act that kept me in the game.

Filed Under: BLOG, Productivity Tagged With: 12 Week Year, Productivity

How To Get Big Changes In Just 12 Weeks

July 14, 2018 by Bernie Mitchell

Big Changes

So I have been around a lot of change over the last few weeks, in those few weeks I have been looking for a way to deal with it all.

Or instead, accept it and work out what to do with it, change happens all the time, and I’ve got better and working out how to harness the energy and indecision that comes with it.

It still affects me, but I can recognise the different types of emotions and energy coming towards me and either discard them or embrace them.

This time I stalled out for about a week and then I was able to get back on the horse, rather than whine. Of course, whining is way easier to do

I thought I’d tie up how I skipped whining and got into action in this post, change and uncertainty have been complete showstoppers for me in the past, now I am winning.

End Of An Era

The most significant change was the closing of @Work Hubs the coworking space I have worked at alongside my freelance practice for the last three years, but more on that later, the message here is what I did with the time.

Luckily the end of @Work Hubs coincided exactly with the fantastic weather we are having here in the UK and the start of the 90 Day challenge in Content Marketing Academy community of which I am a member.

We’ll start with the 90 Day Challenge, the goal is to commit to producing a consistent amount of content every week for 90 days, this could be a post every day or a podcast every week, but you have to keep up the delivery.

Every week there is a group call where Chris from the CMA gives feedback on how the group are doing.

My first one was a car crash, my second one better and this one I am going to break through the sound barrier.

I produce a lot of content but keeping going all the time is a massive challenge for me, it is also what we talk about in London Bloggers Meet Up and Write Club most of the time.

I mean, how hard can it be? Open a google doc and write something and put it online.

Ever since I published my first blog in 2006 on Blogger I have had this wild fantasy of posting a lot of content; I love it, I mean I LOVE it.

I am crap at writing for other people, but I am great at their strategy, story and making connections between posts and projects.

BTW this is my favourite blog post ever; it is about when I cut the top off of my finger at a restaurant.

More Everything With 90 Days Of Massive Action

Then I got the video below from Jeff in an email; I signed up for Jeff’s Google Analytics course when it came through as a deal on App Sumo.

I have never known where to look for how to get the most out of Google Analytics.

I’ve been following Avinash’s blog since 2009 and get it, but I have would never dare claim about what to do with it.

Which, when you have chosen a path based around making content to make websites rock you kind of need to have a more profound grasp.

Jeff’s analytics course is easing me through the Google beast, don’t ask me anything yet I am still getting a grip on it!

How To Get Big Changes In Just 12 Weeks? More Of Everything

Here Jeff describes how many “more everything” happened after his team produced 90 videos, emails and blog posts in 90 days, of course, there was growth, but the best thing he got was motivation and pace.

At the end of the video, he talks about how it takes him three hours to make a 20-minute video nowadays, not a week.

I have this pace with podcasting, but not with blogging and that my friend is where we are going in the next 90 days.

How You Going To Do That?

Sorry to make this sound way more comfortable than it is, so forgive me for simplifying the whole thing, it has taken years to get here, and it always pissed me off when someone would write a post and say something like ‘it’s just a change of mindset and more green tea.’

You have to make your ‘own’ system, this I read about in Scott’s 2011 book Making Ideas Happen, and I have been tweaking my system ever since, there are about 100 other books, but the one I’d recommend is 12 Week year.

I’ve been following this for around three years now and have read it and read it and read it and then reread it.

We even started a meet up based around 12 Week Year called Not So Manic Monday, which will be back after the summer in September.

In the meantime, my friend Karen and I have a call every Monday to keep each other on track.

We have our goals and report back to each other on where we are and what the breakdowns are and what the intention is for the next week.

I Still Don’t Know What I Am Doing

What I found surprising is that I struggled to articulate what my intention was for the 12 weeks and what I had to do for the next week.

I get ready to go and then don’t know where I am going.

Committing to the “12 Week Year” forced me to write down and say what I am going to do every week.

I even swapped project tools to make sure I had no room for hiding, also though I am a fan of Zenkit and Kanban boards.

But I went back to Todoist because it syncs with Exist App and tracks EVERYTHING I do so I know where I am slacking off.

Exist App connects to Gmail, Fitbit, Rescue Time, Apple health and even Twitter to let me know the combination of habits to have a good day.

When Karen and I have our call, I can report back from the Todoist Karma counter and also see what is happening in Exist App.

How To Kill Writers Block And Thrive1

Planning And Execution

Another significant change for work this year has been committing deeply to Coschedule again for planning content.

Coschedule it is a content app that works online and sits inside your WordPress website.

From here you can organise, write and publish blogs, Mailchimp emails and all your social media.

I still highly recommend tools like Mindmeister and Zenkit for project planning and execution, but the edge that Coschdule has over these tools for website content is that you are planning your work and working your plan in the same app.

In this current ‘12 Week Year,’ one of my core goals is to get super fast at creating and shipping blogs, podcasts and emails.

That means fine-tuning the processes for Ouishare Radio which my partner in crime Trevor is particularly impressive at.

On my site I need to get sharper at getting ideas from my head to my website like the post you are reading now, this was where Jeff’s video touched a nerve for me.

We’ll be deep diving into “How To Kill Writers Block And Thrive” next week at London Bloggers Meet Up at The Studio in Camden, the new home for all our coworking and Ouishare London antics.

RSVP for the Meet Up here 

Photo by Peder Cho on Unsplash

Filed Under: BLOG, Freelancing, Podcasts Tagged With: 12 Week Year, 2018, Pilar, Productivity

Find Your Voice, My Plan For The Next 12 Months

September 14, 2017 by Bernie Mitchell

In this post, I’m going to share with you the next 12 months of my podcast plan for my website, before I am even ready to go.

Even just writing that hurts.

The next 12 months are about “how to find your voice” something I have been procrastinating on for years.

Leading with a “find your voice” topic is hard for me.  

I always think I should have ‘found my voice’ before talking about how you might find yours.

But both of those are wrong.

Building The Plane

All the people I deeply admire and listen to are the people building the plane as it is taking off.

All the people who look like they have it together 24/7 just arouse suspicion in me.

Are You Qualified For This Bernie?

I’m not, but I am ready to learn as I go.

After thinking about it I decided I don’t need to be qualified for anything.

I know how to write, podcast and ask questions.

Besides no one has accused me of not knowing what I am doing for a few days now.

People I collaborate with always question what I say and do, but a healthy and active part of our work together, in a seek first to understand and then to be understood kinda way.

I’m embracing the role I learnt from the online learning platform Fizzle of being a ‘leading learner’.

This way of sharing is about ‘documenting the process’ for people a few inches behind you in their journey.  

I Am Good At That

If you were walking around @WorkHubs I’d be falling over myself to show you how I am working it out as I go along and help you too.

That is the essence of what happens at Not So Manic Monday, Art Club, Write Club, Blog Club.

These are the Meetups we do weekly for people who write, are freelancers or are looking to try and flex a new creative muscle.

10 Years To Be An Overnight Success

So here is what I have been dicking around on for a decade, and even more so in the last few now few months.

I read a lot these days after I left school I hardly read at all.

When I studied catering at Vincent Square in London we hardly had to read anything.

Years later when I went to Uni I had the first dyslexia test of my life and then started to learn how to read – slowly.

Then I found audible.com, well my #supercoolwife found audible, and I was off.

I read a book a week and then read summaries of those books in Blinkist, so I know a group of books significantly well.

Where Has That Got Me?

While I don’t have a private jet on 24-hour standby, I do have extraordinarily beautiful relationships with #Babybernie, Supercoolwife and people around me.

Over the last 12 years, I have read myself out of depression, drink, drugs, self-loathing and dyslexia.

Reading has enabled me to work out how I learn, something that school never managed to do.

Reading non-stop has given me the confidence to be happy to not fit in or be obedient.

It has caused a seismic shift in my natural curiosity.

I am now beautifully comfortable asking people awkward questions and being quiet while they think of an answer.

Talking Of Awkward Questions, What Kept You?

I have been sitting on a podcast idea for ever, and I can’t say why I have not shipped it other than I have to change the text in iTunes and maybe not everyone will like it.

OK, here we go.

On February 5th, 2008 I first read 8th Habit by Covey and have never stopped reading it.

Out of everything I have this is the book I read the most.

It has signposted me to other books, most notably Cluetrain, Built To Last, Victor Frankel and seek first to understand.

The list of topics, connections and application goes on for ever.

I have watched how what Covey talks about in the 8th Habit has unfolded in the both the World and my own life.

Boys Search For Meaning

Over 2017 has my head has come back together I’ve got an impatient urge to make meaning of the what is around me.

That search for meaning needs to happen alongside everything else that is going on right now.

As much as I’d like to, I just don’t have the lifestyle to go and sit on a mountain and work it out.

I have to and want to work it out in my early mornings, in the words, conversations and workshops that make up my week.

So for the next year, I am going to work through the book and find people who I think can poke the box with me.

I am petrified I have spent ten years thinking this would be a good idea, and I’ll find out it sucks, and I suck.

So be it.

But from everything else I have done shit, I always learn from those things and bounce back.

I had to find out how to bounce back, which I learnt from this book too.

So that’s my Plan For The Next 12 Months – Find Your Voice and I’ll be able to find mine too!

One more thing… a little shout out to Colin Gray and Chris Marr for a couple of chats that helped me get my head out my arse 😉

Photo by neil godding on Unsplash

Filed Under: BLOG, Freelancing Tagged With: 12 Week Year, 2017, find your voice, Productivity

Simon Sinek, Your Phone And Deep Work

November 13, 2016 by Bernie Mitchell

You would be right if you were thinking I leapt into the 12 Week Year with HUGE success goals, money goals and I-need-a-new-iPad-Pro goals.

 

I ended up with less money than I started, but I carved a solid path out as a freelance writer and know what I need to do daily.

Time spent on courses in Fizzle, Creative Class, Collaboration Superpowers and Rainmaker deeply helped define this.

 

Where To Start?

 

Have you ever thought about something so much that when the time comes you are paralysed?

It’s called decision fatigue and I think it’s happening right now so I will write like this.

If you have ever been a bit worried, anxious or depressed you will know that deciding between tea and coffee can knock you out for the day, seriously!

While I was engaged being depressed a couple of years ago I wouldn’t wash up for three days because I couldn’t decide where to begin, of course, the pile of washing up only added to the torture of being on my own at home, #Supercoolwife and #Babybernie sought sanctuary at friend’s house for a few days because I was like a Dementor from Harry Potter, actually, I am sure they are more chirpy than a depressed Bernie.

 

This sounds a bit of a ramble Mitchell….

 

Ah, sorry.

You will have noticed it’s November and Christmas is coming fast.

Given the chance, we like to flee to Poland or Argentina at this time of year.

I hate Christmas in the UK I hate Christmas full stop. But this year my mood is stable, I am almost uncomfortable with how ‘un-pissed-off’ I am at this moment in time.

 

Mitchell, the title of this post had Simon Sinek in, I don’t see much Simon….

 

Ok mood vs focus is where I am going with this.

You will have heard our tribe ranting about Deep Work and 12 Week Year (s) and this is where we have ended up.

We sit down and focus support each other as we do, most of this year I have spent doing a daily meeting with Emily, Phil or Nils to keep going and this week started a Working Out Loud group here @WorkHubs so all get to follow a 12 step program, sorry 12-week programs.

 

I had to stop some things to make room for all the other good bits. 

 

Being a victim

Like a monk I read 12 Week Year daily, one of the lines is ‘stop being the victim’ as you can imagine this isn’t the first time I have heard this.

I am ashamed at how much of my life is other people’s fault, particularly Kenneth Baker who was the Secretary of Education in the UK when I was a child, my Grandmother for not letting me watch Rent-a-ghost because she thought the guy with the beard was Kenny Everett. Both these people affect my ability to function 30 years later, even if they were here now I wouldn’t let them apologise.

So no more victim. Ever.

Podcasts.

Yes, Yes I gave up podcasts, and inserted courses.

I have to learn a few skills at a deep level. I listened to podcasts by people I know personally because I enjoyed them, not because they were helping me hone a skill.

I couldn’t decide what to listen to so I cut them all out, yes even yours.

My Phone – this is the Simon Sinek bit…

Bernie, you gave up your phone?

No, I have gone cold turkey on pressing the buttons on it every 10 minutes. I took off ALL the social media apps, restricted email and now use it to track my progress and listen to books.

In Simon Sinek’s RSA talk from last week and the presentation talk that you can watch below, there’s a theme of connectedness and dropping your phone, this theme is also strong in both the ‘Deep Work‘ and ‘12 Week Year‘ books.

 

What Is Easier Than Quitting Your Phone?

 

I found it easier quitting smoking, drinking and cocaine than I have leaving my phone alone. You would ask me a question and I’d look in my phone instead of thinking or asking you a clarification question.

#Babybernie would look out the window on the bus and I’d check my phone or type something in – that I’d never look at again.

I leave it off most of the day now, a small amount of people who would need to call me know how to get to me or an SMS comes to my computer, I am actually a bit dejected at how unessential I am.

Result? I am doing less work, in less time and it’s much better.

This week is 12 Week Year number two AND we have a Working Out Loud group in our coworking space, and I am looking forward to my new found career.

So that is the link between Simon Sinek, Your Phone And Deep Work – but you knew that.

 

  This Weeks Links  
To Work Better, Work Less
 

 

To Work Better, Work Less

 

Between 1853 and 1870, Baron Haussmann ordered much of Paris to be destroyed. Slums were razed and converted to bourgeois neighbourhoods, and the formerly labyrinthine city became a place of order, full of wide boulevards (think Saint-Germain) and angular avenues (the Champs-Élysées). 

 

Poor Parisians tried to put up a fight but were eventually forced to flee, their homes knocked down with minimal notice and little or no recompense. The city underwent a full transformation—from working-class and medieval to bourgeois and modern—in less than two decades’ time. Read The Full Article Here  
 
Simon Sinek | Together is Better | RSA Replay
 

Simon Sinek | Together is Better | RSA Replay

Together is Better with Simon Sinek. Best-selling author and TED talk sensation Simon Sinek is fascinated by the people that make the greatest impact in their organisations, and in the… Watch The Talk Here  
 
Content Curation With Trello And Publicate #LLBS 92 -...
 

Content Curation With Trello And Publicate #LLBS 92

In this episode, a VERY excited Chris (founder of Publicate) shares how people are using the new Trello / Publicate Power Up.

 

How to use Trello, Publicate and Mailchimp in the same workflow to make resource hubs and plan content.  Find Out Here
 
A focused weekly club for writers to engage in

A focused weekly club for writers to engage in “deep work”

Our weekly Write Club ‘Deep Work’ is ideal for anyone who writes and needs a block of time to write and gain the inspiration from being around other writers.

 

Join authors, students, comedians, Doctors, freelancers, developers, musicians and people like you for a deep session on writing. RSVP Here    
created in Publicate
 

 

Filed Under: BLOG, Freelancing, Productivity, Uncategorized Tagged With: 12 Week Year, 2016, Blog, Freelancer Writer, Pilar, Productivity, Rainmaker 2015, sent from my mobile device, Simon Sinek, trello, Working Out Loud

The End Of My First 12 Week Year

November 6, 2016 by Bernie Mitchell

On Tuesday we start our Working Out Loud (WOL) group at our coworking space, it’s also the end of my first 12 Week Year.

Oddly, I feel an imposter when I write about “productivity” part of me wants to tell you ‘I did the 12 Week Year now have a million dollar start-up and run a marathon daily.’

Those of you who run marathons or become parents know things don’t happen in the flick of a switch, so I don’t know why I think you might expect me to turn life around in 12 Weeks.

It’s tempting to joke my goal for the WOL is to stop dicking around.

Becoming a Dad in 2011 and being depressed made me stop dicking around.

The horror of not being able to get off the couch and feeling suicidal followed by the gift of wanting to wash up and meet other human beings showed revealed to me the difference between depression, learned helplessness and being a spoilt brat

I Blame The Parents

Turns out I have more spoilt brat than I’d like, not Veruca Salt type spoilt – more of an inner subconscious compass with a warped take on responsibility.

I was tempted to blame my parents, after all, they brought me up.

My Dad wasn’t Nelson Mandela, George Orwell or David Bowie those guys were off doing other work.

My Dad worked with what he had, right where he was and he certainly wasn’t out to fuck me up or create a spoilt brat.

My Mother, died before she was scheduled to, I miss her but her timing was inconvenient for me emotionally.

Stopping blaming my parents – easy.

Admitting I was blaming them – hard.

I can’t even tell you what they did wrong.

I know other people blame their parents, but this isn’t something I’d stoop to doing.

12 Week Grit

As I beat depression over the last two years I realised we don’t wake up one day and immediately become free from debt and depression.  

In the last 12 weeks I have developed a level of grit and determination I’ve craved all my life. Building a tiny little bit daily is where the real pay-off is happening.

Ten years ago my friend Mike would joke about how I’d jump between extremes in my life.  

I’d start the month as a T-total juicing marathon runner and end it eating fish and chips while hoovering up a lethal cocktail of class A drugs at a music festival, the weeks in the middle were a void.

I am interested in a better use of the time I have now. I guess I attempted to speed up space and time and instead discover slowing down and being myself is a better way to live.

Make Permission 

At the peak of my break down my mate Daniel would feed me Argentine food and encourage me to ‘give myself permission to relax’.

At the time being married, being a parent and having a mortgage seemed less of a commitment than ‘giving myself permission to relax’.

The horror lay in stopping to look around, even more fucking scary was working it all out  a way forward. These days I rage about coworking and food because these two things combined made the solid foundation to getting my life back.

You Don’t Have To

Just to be clear, you don’t have to eat avocados and coworking space to prevent a shit life, this is what worked for me.

My faith in the next 12 weeks is high, I mean my faith, not my expectation is high.

I have faith I’ll be in an even better place on 26th January 2017 when the next 12 weeks ends, even with all the changes that will happen on the way.  

Next Sunday I’ll share a few simple things that worked for me on this first 12 week journey, below are a few things I have been using.


1. This Worked The Best

My Miracle Morning

 

My Miracle Morning
I have been working on this ‘Miracle Morning’ thing for ages and now I have it down to a fine art. I know the title sucks and sounds like a coked up TGI Friday’s waitress called Polly Anna, but it works.
Read The Full Post Here

2. This Also Worked Best

Productive - Habit tracker - Daily Routine

 

Productive – Habit tracker – Daily Routine
This app  is SUPER simple to build daily routine & reminders for goals & resolutions. You can see how you are doing and be honest with yourself about what is really working and where you are kidding yourself.  Beware come near me and I’ll MAKE you download it 😉
Download It Here

3. Reading This Worked Too
The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks

 

The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks

You will NOT pick this up, read it and have everything work.

I read A LOT and chose to commit to this book with blind faith, so watch out for my evangelical tone on this.
I have to stress that it is not the first ‘system’ I have ever encountered, also I am sure that everything else I have learnt makes this work for me.
It is worth pointing out that there is no cult to join, $100k cruise to go on or other wanky upsell’s to endure for following this books program.
Get Yours Here

4. I Liked This. Not Everyone Did.

The Full-Time Job Is Dead

 

The Full-Time Job Is Dead

The full-time job, used to it as we are, is not some natural state of human existence.

Before the 1800s, few people worked a structured “work week.” That conceit was dreamed up by early industrialists, who needed to bring workers together in a factory at the same time to efficiently make products. For the past 100 years, the 40-hour job has been the centerpiece of work life because there was no better way for people to gather in one place at the same time to connect, collaborate and produce.
Read The Full Post Here

5. Work Alone. Together.

A focused weekly club for to engage in "deep work"

 

A focused weekly club for to engage in “deep work”

When Philip from @WorkHubs put this on Meet Up the whole dynamic changed, every week a mixed group of people who need to write something come together for a couple of hours and write.

I have ‘grown up’ about making time to write at every session I have taken part in.
“Our weekly Write Club ‘Deep Work’ is ideal for anyone who writes and needs a block of time to write without being distracted.”
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Filed Under: BLOG, Productivity, Uncategorized Tagged With: 12 Week Year, 2016, Blog, Bowie, coworking, Marathon, Pilar, Productivity, sent from my mobile device, Working Out Loud

My Miracle Morning

November 4, 2016 by Bernie Mitchell

I have been working on this ‘Miracle Morning‘ thing for ages and now I have it down to a fine art. I know the title sucks and sounds like a coked up TGI Friday’s waitress called Polly Anna but it works. 

Every day I wake up between 5am and 6am, more often 5am and before anything can happen I start listening to an audio version of 12 Week Year, then from there I leap into the kitchen and down a pint of cold water.

After that, I make a Yerba mate (Argentine tea), pop my vitamins and medication then chill for a few minutes looking out the window sipping mate and listening to the book.

This first part takes about 15 minutes. Next up is 50 points on the Spanish App Duolingo and then 3 games on Elevate iOS. 

I make a decaf bulletproof coffee and I sit and meditate for 20 mins, move onto 750 words, shower, get dressed and off we go. (Yes Decaf!)

Then I write 750 Words – at the time of posting this I have written over 750,000 words – and I am one of the slow ones!

All this has to happen before I leave the house.

Best Way To Start The Day

Life does go on if I don’t do this but everything works better when these ‘line items’ are delivered.

The whole process wakes me up properly, of which sitting still for 20 minutes is even more amazing than you think.

The most important emotion from the whole thing is the sense of achievement that I get before I have even left the house.

When I am sleep walking into the tube later in the day, feeling tired and defeated my mind goes back to my morning and I recall that I have already had a Spanish lesson, meditated, practised some maths, grammar and whatever else the elevated app throws up that day AND written 750 words which help me sort my head out.

Another 750 Words?

Ah – the 750 words! This could be the secret to the whole thing.

Some days I just write and hope something will happen and other days I can sit down and make a whole blog on one go.

This sounds like a piece of piss but please hear me out brothers and sisters.

It is totally possible to write a blog every day but where it gets super tricky is knowing what you are going to write and one of the key tips in Rachel’s book 2k to 10k is to know what you are going to write.

Sounds super obvious when you think about it, yet, I would even be able to tell you what I am going to write and then when I sit down to begin, I am stumped.

How To Write Even More Every Day

I’ll give you a real time example.

I have this groundbreaking blog series coming on being a freelancer, I am sure it is the world first. After I hit publish it will be so popular my family will have to go into hiding and I’ll make Elizabeth Gilbert and J.K. Rowling look like Reader’s Digest guest bloggers.

It is all there and it is all done apart from the writing.

So to cut to the chase when I followed Rachel’s very short and simple framework the whole thing came together in a morning.

I had to use some special software, once you have this you’ll be fine.

Software required: paper and pencil.

 The time required: 4 – 5 minutes.

I already have the idea so spending a few minutes scribbling on a bit of paper the order it will work out in cut my writing time in half.

At this point I am tempted to say ‘whatever works for you’ – in my opinion, this is a magnolia and beige disclaimer made by authors and trainers – try a few things with deliberate intent and see how they work or probably don’t work out.

I learnt this best from food, I stopped eating bread, sugar, meat and dairy and nearly died, it was easier to give up smoking, drink and cocaine than it was to quit these three things.

One of my favourite breakfasts was a toasted cinnamon bagel with butter, ham and cheese in.

It was immediately satisfying and then later in the day I wanted to sleep,

later? I mean 15 minutes later.

I Am Bored Of Dyslexia And Depression

Being dyslexic and dealing with depression, everything can be hard. I got to the point in the last couple of  years where I was so fucking bored of everything being the same. 

Everything that happened seemed to point back to the depression, dyslexia, being too fat, too thin, too short, too tall, etc. Everything I did would hurt me, wound me, upset me and just generally cause a disaster.

Now the morning routine has me awake and kicking for longer and I don’t have brain fog and going back to the writing bit, forcing myself to think in a new way was the huge breakthrough.

I hope that my morning routine will inspire you to begin your own.

Taking the time in the morning to truly focus on what is important has helped guide and drive me and can do the same for you.

I believe in God and the internet is my religion 😉

End of Lecture 😉 

What works for you? 

Filed Under: BLOG, Freelancing, Productivity Tagged With: 2016, Blog, Pilar, Productivity, sent from my mobile device

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