The Best Minute: How to feel less busy, being a noble person, and why good habits matter
1 IDEA FROM ME
Here are five simple yet foundational habits I have discovered over the years that help me save time and feel less “busy.”
1) Sticking to inbox zero with my email (here is a blog I wrote on how I do it). In my experience, most people spend way too much time on email and do so very inefficiently. Remember, email is invited interruption. If we are not intentional with how we use it, it becomes one of the biggest time wasters in our life.
2) Removing email from my phone. The less you check your email, the fewer emails you will write and the fewer emails you will receive. Often people check email on their phones purely out of habit or boredom. In my years of recommending removing email from their phone to people, two things have happened for those who have actually done it.
1) They were all nervous about missing things and really doubted that it would make much difference. 2) They were all very surprised at how much of a difference it made, were so glad they did it, and now recommend others do it as well.
3) Turning off all notifications on my phone. Like email, phone notifications are invited interruptions, and they help drive phone addiction. For most people with most apps, there is no need to have notifications turned on. Instead, check things when you want to check things. This even includes text messages. If you don’t want to be glued to your phone, nothing will do that more than text notifications in particular. There is no rule that text messages must be responded to instantly. You can decide how you spend your time; don’t let your phone do it for you.
4) Using my phone less than 60 minutes a day. This excludes my workout app, GPS, and podcasts. This includes the times when I need to use my phone for work-related things. Even making myself use my computer instead of my phone for some of the same tasks makes a difference in wasted time; it’s hard not to click around on other apps even if my intent was to use my phone for one thing.
5) Doing my bedtime routine after dinner. For me this includes flossing, changing my clothes, picking out my clothes for the next day, and making my lunch. We all know what it is like when it’s time for bed but the thought of doing all the bedtime routines leaves us sitting on the couch a little bit longer. Doing these things right after dinner reduces the friction it takes to get to bed on time.
2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS
I. Ernest Hemingway on nobility:
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
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II. Gretchen Rubin on the importance of good habits:
“Often, when we try repeatedly to form a habit that we desire, we fail because we want to reap its benefits without paying the price it demands. I think constantly of that stark line from John Gardner, so significant for habits, when he observed, ‘Every time you break the law you pay, and every time you obey the law you pay.’
Keeping a good habit costs us: it may cost time, energy, and money, and it may mean forgoing pleasures and opportunities—but not keeping a good habit also has its cost. So which cost do we want to pay? What will make our lives happier in the long run?”
THIS WEEK ON THE CHURCH LEADERSHIP PODCAST
This week on the podcast Joshua Brown talks about how to make disciples, impacting your community through good business practices, how to minister to others wherever you find yourself, and more.
Click here to listen to the podcast on your favorite app and get the show notes for this episode.
1 INTERESTING FACT
Laughter controls our brains.
When you see people laughing, you just can’t help but smile, right? That’s because your brain makes it nearly impossible not it. That’s the result of research from the lab of Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist at University College London. When she monitored subjects’ brains while she played laughing sounds, she found that the premotor cortical region of the brain, which prepares the muscles in the face to move, was activated.
Source: RD
1 QUESTION TO LEAVE YOU WITH
Of my existing habits, which would I want my children to adopt? Which ones would I not?
