Are You Your Own Worst Enemy?

What habits do you have with your speech? Time? What you listen to? Where you go? Who you hang out with? Why should you be concerned with these answers for yourself?

Because…

You are your habits.

One habit I have been mentored in developing is spending a few minutes throughout the day recording what I do automatically. What am I repeating? Do I eat the same breakfast, visit the same coffee shop, start my day the same, check emails each day at the same time, or take the same route to work each day etc.? You get the idea. Once I know what I do automatically, I ask myself these 3 questions:


1. What can I cut out?


2. What do I keep on doing?


3. What can I delegate?

I encourage you to develop this same practice. A lot of what you do can’t be cut out, so you don’t cut it out. But there could be some items on your list that could be eliminated. For example, scheduling breakfast appointments to only spend another time eating breakfast. Instead, cut out eating breakfast at home then going to your breakfast appointment. Jus eat breakfast at your breakfast appointment. This may sound like a no-brainer, but I used to eat before my appointments in order to help me stay focused and able to talk freely at my breakfast appointments. Now I do it all at the appointments and have saved myself some time. This may not be yours, but I am sure you may have some if you gave it some thought.

What do you keep on doing? You may not stop doing something all together, but maybe there are some things you are doing that you could do less. Example: I used to go to Starbucks every day but Thursday. This is something that maybe I could start doing only three days a week, which would save me the time I would normally spend there for the three extra days that I just cut out. Maybe you are a habitual email checker? Instead of checking it every time you get an email, turn all your alerts off and check it three designated times each day only.

Lastly, what can you delegate? Oftentimes, our days become very bloated because we have not learned to delegate properly. Look over what you have recorded that you do and see what could really be done by someone else. Can someone else photocopy for you? Make some calls for you? Run those errands? The list goes on.

If you will learn to make a habit of asking yourself these questions, you can move from being your own worst enemy to becoming your greatest asset.