My #1 life hack 😎

I'm a huge fan of life hacks, aren't you?

Social media is filled with thousands of productivity tips to help you organize your day better or save time.

I even saw a page once that added up the time you spent over your whole life doing mundane daily tasks and told you how to do it quicker to free up whole days' worth of time.

Since that day, I take my sweaters off with one hand and peel boiled eggs in seconds by making two holes and blowing (it works, promise!😂).

At the time, I was obsessed with how much time I was wasting doing things that weren't meaningful and determined to change that.

Of course, the problem went much deeper and was that I was no longer living a life that fully aligned with my values, but that's a different story!

Now I see things very differently.

For one, I have a very different idea of what "wasted" time is.

If I'm waiting for a friend or in a doctor's waiting room, queuing or stuck in traffic, I no longer think of that time as a waste.

It's time with myself. I can choose to do nothing and just be, or practice my freediving breathing exercises, meditate, or, if I have my phone, listen to an audiobook or chat with a friend. It's a small mindset shift, but it makes me appreciate the present moment so much more.

And another is that I have a lot fewer tasks in my life that I don't think add value.

Of course, there's always going to be some. There's always going to be some level of paperwork we need to do in life, whether it's renewing a passport, filling in forms at an airport, or doing your taxes.

And even if you have the job you've always dreamed of, there's always going to be some degree of admin to manage. Whether you do it yourself or have someone to help you, you'll always be giving some attention to your calendar, your assistants, or whatever it is for you.

But you can still build a life where you spend the core of your day doing things you feel are valuable.

And that brings me to my #1 life hack that's working for me right now:

✨ Don't add things to your to-do list.✨

Sure, you might be the type of person that thrives on list-making and seeing everything on paper. I am, too, to an extent… but I try as much as I can to not add things to my to-do for two reasons.

⭐If there's anything I can do in 5 minutes or less, I do it now.

Spending a few minutes doing it right now, instead of adding it to my to-do lists, means that I avoid having a long list of small tasks that end up overwhelming me and taking up all my headspace.

Whether it's sending the calendar invite I said I would, forwarding that thing we talked about, or sending that invoice if I can avoid adding it to my to-do list, I will!

⭐Decide what's important to you, and protect it at all costs.

This is not easy, and something I've always struggled with- indeed, one of the first pivotal moments in my adult life was when I took part in Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" training at work. They asked us to look at our calendar and see if it reflected our values. And mine did not.

So often, we're focused on the small, unimportant things, on whatever other people want us to do, or just carried by the inertia of our routine. We're working so hard for our notifications and whoever screams the loudest that there's no time left to build our dreams and follow the visions for our lives.

Nowadays, before I add something to my to-do list, I ask myself why I want to add it and what purpose it serves. And if I'm not clear or don't like the answer, it's not going on there.

It's not easy to say no and stop doing something, but the only way to make room for what you want is to take things off your plate, not put more on.

And it's a massive change in perspective to get to a place where you honestly believe that to your core. I'm not fully there yet, but I'm making progress, and that's good enough!

Sending you the biggest hug 💜

Paula

P.S. I can't remember who said this, but it's a quote I've been carrying around with me over the past few weeks, and it really helps me when anxiety starts knocking on my door.

It's something like, "Apart from your thoughts, is everything else ok right now, at this very moment?"

So far, the answer has always been yes, and I find it soothing. I hope you do too!