Tweaking Out
“It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” ~ John Wooden
Tweaking out is one of the best things we can do for ourselves!
I’m referring to the small tweaks we can integrate into our day-to-day lives that will make all the difference.
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Last Thursday morning, I was in the middle of my self-led sun salutation routine when I was interrupted.
I had just finished stretching my left psoas muscle when my Dad arrived to pick up my son for their weekly breakfast-before-school outing.
I needed to help Julien gather his things and walk him out to greet Dad, but I hadn’t yet stretched my right side so I made a quick mental note to return to the mat as soon as they were gone.
As I walked down the long path from our front door to Dad’s car, I noticed that the two halves of my body felt completely different. My left leg felt so much longer than my right.
I hadn’t been doing any sort of hard core yoga workout, just simple stretches and only for a few minutes. It got me thinking about how…
Small tweaks in my day-to-day life have made a huge difference in improving the way I feel.
Whether it’s changing my diet up a little bit… taking the bread off my plate so I don’t feel bloated and overly stuffed at the end of my meal.
Or waking up 10 minutes earlier so that I have a chance to meditate and center myself, clearing out all the brain noise before my kiddo wakes up.
Or even choosing a different laundry detergent so that I enjoy the scent of my bedsheets more.
Small tweaks generally open our eyes to the bigger changes we need to make in our lives.
For instance, I recently took Marie Forleo’s Time Genius training, and one of the things she talked about frequently was scheduling your most important work first thing in the day, when you still have a full tank of cognitive fuel.
When I looked at my calendar, what I saw was a whole week of meetings jamming up my mornings so that by the time noon came, I was exhausted. (I’m an introvert, so meetings take a LOT of my energy.)
I realized I needed to move all my meetings to the afternoons so that I can actually have focus time for my most important work before I meet with a single other soul other than my child each day.
And so I did it.
I moved all meetings to the afternoon and gave myself my morning time back.
(In case you didn’t know, Clone’s motto is: Here to give you your time back. I’ve only recently discovered that it applies not only to my clients, but to myself as well!)
After a couple weeks working with this small tweak, I realized something huge.
My meetings go on for far too long.
I’m close with the clients I meet with regularly. I value these relationships deeply; these humans have a special place in my heart.
But what I realized is that we spend an inordinate amount of time on personal check ins, and that our meetings always end up going over the allotted time so that we can cover the business stuff, too.
I had to ask myself…
How can I shorten these meetings so that there is more white space on my calendar?
Life throws curve balls and I need that white space to deal with them. Otherwise, I’m spinning all day long trying to play catch up. I can’t do it all, and when I try to, everyday ends up feeling like I’m behind, a failure.
(I’ll give you my new rundown on how to lead a successful 30-minute meeting another time!)
The point is, one small tweak led to a bigger tweak that has allowed my productivity level to soar while also taking away time stress.
I cleared my mornings for my most important work so that I know it will get done. And I gave myself some white space outside of all these meetings. Sometimes I use that space to breathe, stretch, load the dishwasher. Other times, I’ll tend to a work task. The point is, that’s MY time to use how I see fit.
Small tweaks make a huge impact!
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If you work for someone else, designing your day may be trickier, but you could talk with your boss about what your needs are to be more efficient and to produce higher quality work.
Business owners, you DO have this flexibility! You have the choice to design your day how it’s going to benefit you best, so what are you waiting for?!
What small thing could you tweak today that could lead to bigger changes that will improve your work day or your personal life?
P.S. If one of your tweaks includes outsourcing your books to free up your time, I’m here ready for ya! I have space for two new clients this month. Schedule your 30-minute complimentary consultation now.