I’ve got some good pro tips for you here to today in thriving in our current day situation. The name of the game is effort and cognitive tax. I believe that many people are feeling a higher level of exhaustion myself included. I’m sleeping the same and working out less but at the end of the day at times I’m smoked. Who’s with me on that?

My normal routine has been to chill at home and talk to people on the phone or videos almost entirely for the last several years and for the most part for the last seven years. The quarantine hasn’t been a big splash for me there while for others it’s been an absolute upheaval. If you’re in the upheaval category I feel for you.

We’re creatures of habit and patterns. Both of those enable us to do more with less effort. We can shut our brains off, so to speak, and put a lot of things on autopilot. We’re designed that way so that we can free up cognitive space for other talks.

I’ve got three ideas for you to think about that might offer some insight for surviving in the world we currently live in and for what could be another many months.

Demarcation. I workout when I go to the gym. It’s the thing I do there. I don’t work there, I don’t eat there, I don’t do laundry there. At home I do all of those. So when quarantine restrictions came and I started working out at home my brain had to compete with the ideas and demands of all those other tasks that I “could or should” be doing. Going somewhere to do a thing provides a container to do that thing. It supports it happening and isolates our energy to get it done. This is the opposite of multi tasking.

Rituals. I’m a pattern and ritual guy. One things leads to another in my world. When I floss and brush my teeth part of my mind knows it time to go to bed. I turn on my sleep timer on my phone and put it on it’s charger. Those are a couple things that induce my life and world to shift energy towards what comes next. It makes going to bed and sleep easier.

Self leading. Years ago I had been attending yoga classes at this place in Denver. Yoga is a great practice for me. I get to be with people but I don’t have to talk to much and it’s physical. I like that it’s often quiet or there are some good jams going. What I loved about it the most was that I didn’t have to think too much when I was there. I watched and listened and did what I was told. I didn’t have to figure out what I was doing next because that was being decided for me. When one of the instructors suggested that I become a teacher I was horrified. I didn’t want to lead anything else in my life. Not only that I think it’s good to surrender to another’s leadership from time to time as a practice.

The opportunity:

Do you have anyone that you can trade or exchange leadership duties with? (I’ll take responsibility for leading these things and you can lead other.)
Do you have life set up with cascading strategies or chain activities?
Where can you tighten up your rituals to make decisions easier?
What can you do to separate places and activities in your world?

Thanks for your time, have a good day!

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