83: Seven Ways to Stop and Think

7 Ways To Stop and Think

Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, posted an article this past week titled The Importance of Scheduling Nothing. Here are seven ways that you can also stop and think:

1) Stop telling yourself the lie that next week/month/year will be better

2) Book time to think each day, especially if you are a scheduler

• Dedicate time each day to think
• If you really want to discover what’s important to you, check your calendar and your bank account
• Check out this advice from Ursula Barnes, the CEO of Xerox

3) Brainstorm with yourself before brainstorming with others

• Check out the interview with Leigh Thompson on the most recent HBR Ideacast highlighting the truth about creative teams

4) Turn things off

• Turn off the phone and email
• Here’s a recent New York Times article citing research on the importance of freeing our brains

5) Write stuff down

• Check out David Allen’s book Getting Things Done
• Michael Hyatt produced a podcast on the Lost Art of Note-Taking on episode #47 of his show, This Is Your Life
• I use the Moleskine notebook for Evernote for all my note-taking…but it’s more important you have and use a system, than what the system is

6) Put things into “later” buckets

• I do this most actively for physical mail, bills, and online articles
• I use Pocket to save things to read later
• I use Buffer to queue posts to my social networks

7) Start saying no to more

• Start with something small
• Are you getting at least as much as your are giving? (financial, enjoyment, love, contribution to the world)
• I’ve left some professional organizations where the above wasn’t the case

Bonus) Eliminate choices that may seem sacred

• Get rid of TV?
• Do you need to always be tied into the internet?

This week, I’m taking 15 minutes every day to stop and think…please join me. Connect online to discuss your results!

Thank you to Carmel Purdey, Mad Oo, MIchael Oneski, and Emad Aladawee for either liking our page on Facebook, following me on Google+, or following me on Twitter.

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