3 Things That I Learned This Week

Happy Sunday!

Each and every Sunday I spend time reflecting on my week and planning for the week ahead.

So I wanted to share some of my top wins, lessons, issues & thoughts from this past week.

1. Put Your Phone Away!

This is a hard one — lol. You can do so much with your phone and it can be used in a way that is incredibly efficient, it can also get you sucked in down a rabbit hole that isn’t productive.

Here are some things that work really well for me (but I still catch myself struggling with this from time to time):

• Put Your Phone on Do Not Disturb 24/7. If you have an iPhone, Apple introduced Focus with the latest iOS version this past year and you can set up custom times to shut off or limit certain apps, etc. I have been playing around with those lately — but my go-to is just straight do no disturb — so only calls that I want to come through come through
• Set up Downtime on Your Phone & App Limits. Again another Apple thing — but super useful. Set time limits (especially on weekends and evenings when you shouldn’t be working or looking at your phone). I currently have my phone scheduled everyday during the week from 5pm on to limit apps, so that way I am not just picking up my phone and endlessly scrolling through Twitter or Instagram (not the best use of time — lol)
• Put your phone in another room. I am a big believer in being present with what is going on around you and when you are working you are working, when I am with my kids — I am with my kids. At 5pm everyday — my phone goes into downtime and only calls from my wife can come through and my phone goes into another room, so I am not tempted to pick it up.
• Remove Apps. When I go on vacation or on the weekends — I remove Slack, FB and a few other apps completely off of my phone. That way I am not even tempted to pull up slack on my phone and check messages. This allows me to not be distracted and spend time with my fam. Hard to do — of course — but sooooo worth it.

2. Drink Water

At the beginning of the year — I restarted 75 Hard again with my team. I am on day 58 out of 75. And it has been really good, but also really hard. Brief background for everyone that doesn’t know what 75 hard is. For 75 days you are committing to: 2–45 minute workouts (1 of them has to be outside — which is hard in the middle of winter — lol), Drink 1 gallon of water daily, read 10 pages of a book, follow a diet, no alcohol or cheat meals and take a progress picture. All very doable. The one that I struggle with the most is drinking 1 gallon of water per day. That is a lot, especially at first. BUT here is something that I noticed — Drinking enough water is probably one of the easiest ways to improve your productivity. In fact, not drinking enough water leads to feeling sluggish and losing focus (aka, brain fog) — which negatively impacts your productivity.

So try it out. You can thank me later

3. Keep Toxic People Out Of Your Life

Other people’s energy is infectious. The habits, mindset, and beliefs of the people in your social circle rub off on you. This is why the most effective people keep toxic people out of their inner circle.

As Tim Ferriss said, “You are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn’t making you stronger, they’re making you weaker.”

You can have big goals and push yourself to practice good habits, but if your social circle is not supporting you — or worse, ridiculing your ambition — this will make things so much harder. Of course, you don’t have to drop everyone in your social circle who isn’t striving for big goals or thinks the same way as you. I mean, you might have a long history together.

You might love these people and want to see them regularly. The point is not to cut them out of your life — but to become mindful of the effect your social circle has on you. If certain people are truly getting you down, it might be time to say goodbye.

Yet, the right people can push you to greater levels than you could ever do by yourself. Surrounding yourself with people who inspire you, keep you accountable, and support you is a powerful competitive advantage.

Have a great rest of your Sunday!

Talk Soon,

Dan

P.S.

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