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Have you ever stopped for a moment to think about who are you becoming? I am not referring to daydreaming for hours and coming back to reality disheartened. Getting lost in the future and imagining your perfect life with zero problems is not the answer to this question. Right here and right now is the only time we have got. Let´s put it this way: is what you are doing today getting you closer to who you want to become? If your answer is ¨yes¨, keep doing your thing, but if it is a ¨no¨, you might want to have a closer look at your habits.

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You might ask yourself:
1. ¨Where do I start?¨
2. ¨How can I change my old habits and implement new and better ones?¨
3. ¨How long does it take to form a habit?¨

1. My answer to this question is: change starts with awareness. If you want to put into practice a new habit, you need to be conscious about the actions you are taking every single day. This first step is crucial because if you are not aware of what you are doing, you will not know if you are helping or sabotaging yourself. In other words, if you are only repeating the same actions every day like a robot without reflecting on them, you will not evolve as a person.  Make a list of the things you do during the whole day and find your pattern. Do you procrastinate? Are you disorganised? Do you wake up late? Are your goals unrealistic? Reflecting on why, when, where and how you do all these things will help you realise what your current habits are and what strategies could help you improve yourself.

2. Prioritize your tasks and make sure your goals are realistic! One way of doing this is by making a list with the things you do during your day and another one with those you would actually like to do. Compare them and add or erase whatever task you consider necessary or not for that day. Another way would be writing down everything you need to do during your day and deciding which task is important and urgent (do it now), which one is important but not urgent (schedule a time to do it) and which is neither important not urgent (eliminate it). Set your intentions daily and create the environment that supports you in becoming the person you want to be and remove anything that does not support who you want to be.

3. Although some people might think that you only need 21 days to learn a new habit, research shows that on average, it takes 66 days for a new behaviour to become automatic, with a range from 18 to 254 days. However, this does not mean that every single person is going to change their habits in 2 months since every individual is different. Keep in mind that there is no perfect recipe that works for everyone. Use trial and error to find what works for you and be consistent.

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A wise friend once told me that it is not enough to have a nice list of your goals. Make sure your goal is achievable but challenging. Next, break it down further. For instance, set monthly goals to achieve the one-year goal, and then weekly goals to achieve the goal for the month, then daily goals to achieve the week. Every Monday, recalibrate to make sure your weekly goals are on track to achieve the month and your monthly goals are on track to achieve the year.

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Dwight Eisenhower lived one of the most productive lives you can imagine.

Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, serving two terms from 1953 to 1961. During his time in office, he launched programs that directly led to the development of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, the launch of the internet (DARPA), the exploration of space (NASA), and the peaceful use of alternative energy sources (Atomic Energy Act).

Before becoming president, Eisenhower was a five-star general in the United States Army, served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, and was responsible for planning and executing invasions of North Africa, France, and Germany.

At other points along the way, he served as President of Columbia University, became the first Supreme Commander of NATO, and somehow found time to pursue hobbies like golfing and oil painting.

Eisenhower had an incredible ability to sustain his productivity not just for weeks or months, but for decades. And for that reason, it is no surprise that his methods for time management, task management, and productivity have been studied by many people.

His most famous productivity strategy is known as the Eisenhower Box (or Eisenhower Matrix) and it's a simple decision-making tool that you can use right now. Let's talk about how to be more productive and how Eisenhower's strategy works.

The Eisenhower Box: How to be More Productive

Eisenhower's strategy for taking action and organizing your tasks is simple. Using the decision matrix below, you will separate your actions based on four possibilities.

1. Urgent and important (tasks you will do immediately).

2. Important, but not urgent (tasks you will schedule to do later).

3. Urgent, but not important (tasks you will delegate to someone else).

4. Neither urgent nor important (tasks that you will eliminate).

The great thing about this matrix is that it can be used for broad productivity plans ("How should I spend my time each week?") and for smaller, daily plans ("What should I do today?").

Here is an example of what my Eisenhower Box looks like for today.

The Difference Between Urgent and Important

What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.
-Dwight Eisenhower

Urgent tasks are things that you feel like you need to react to: emails, phone calls, texts, news stories. Meanwhile, in the words of Brett McKay, "Important tasks are things that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals." 1

Separating these differences is simple enough to do once, but doing so continually can be tough. The reason I like the Eisenhower Matrix is that it provides a clear framework for making the decisions over and over again. And like anything in life, consistency is the hard part.

Here are some other observations I've made from using this method.

Elimination Before Optimization

A few years ago, I was reading about computer programming when I came across an interesting quote:

"There is no code faster than no code."
-Kevlin Henney

In other words, the fastest way to get something done - whether it is having a computer read a line of code or crossing a task off your to-do list - is to eliminate that task entirely. There is no faster way to do something than not doing it at all. That's not a reason to be lazy, but rather a suggestion to force yourself to make hard decisions and delete any task that does not lead you toward your mission, your values, and your goals.

Too often, we use productivity, time management, and optimization as an excuse to avoid the really difficult question: "Do I actually need to be doing this?" It is much easier to remain busy and tell yourself that you just need to be a little more efficient or to "work a little later tonight" than to endure the pain of eliminating a task that you are comfortable with doing, but that isn't the highest and best use of your time. 2

As Tim Ferriss says, "Being busy is a form of laziness - lazy thinking and indiscriminate action."

I find that the Eisenhower Matrix is particularly useful because it pushes me to question whether an action is really necessary, which means I'm more likely to move tasks to the "Delete" quadrant rather than mindlessly repeating them. And to be honest, if you simply eliminated all of the things you waste time on each day then you probably wouldn't need any tips on how to be more productive at the things that matter.

Does This Help Me Accomplish My Goal?

One final note: it can be hard to eliminate time wasting activities if you aren't sure what you are working toward. In my experience, there are two questions that can help clarify the entire process behind the Eisenhower Box.

Those two questions are...

1. What am I working toward?

2. What are the core values that drive my life?

These are questions that I have asked myself in my Annual Review and my Integrity Report. Answering these questions has helped me clarify the categories for certain tasks in my life. Deciding which tasks to do and which tasks to delete becomes much easier when you are clear about what is important to you.

The Eisenhower Matrix isn't a perfect strategy, but I have found it to be a useful decision-making tool for increasing my productivity and eliminating the behaviors that take up mental energy, waste time, and rarely move me toward my goals. I hope you'll find it useful too. 3

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How to be More Productive and Eliminate Time Wasting Activities by Using the "Eisenhower Box"

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Dwight Eisenhower lived one of the most productive lives you can imagine. Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, serving two terms from 1953 to 1961.

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Research on how long does it take to form a new habit

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Research on how long does it take to form a new habit

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Do not wait for rewards, pat your own back! 

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Do not wait for rewards, pat your own back! 

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It took me a long time (years) internalising the importance of rewarding and celebrating myself first, without having expectations from others to do so. Why? I used to work hard and wait for others to ackowledge and reward me, but it happened so rarely that I ended up feeling frustrated and had no energy on starting new challenging projects. However, in time, I learned to look at this situation from another perspective and instead of focusing and blaming the external elements in my life (peers, friends, family), I started to take the responsibility and doing it myself.

What impact has this had on my life?

It helped me feel seen and loved by myself and nobody else and eventually I understood that this was enough. Now I feel valued, happier and more energised after completing any task, whether it is small or not. In psychology, this is called positive reinforcement, and let me tell you that when done properly, it definitely works.

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What type of reward works for you? Leave your comments below:

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What type of reward works for you? Leave your comments below:

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➡️ Quality time: friends, family
➡️ Watching a movie
➡️ Preparing special dishes
➡️ Going for a long walk by myself
➡️ Going for a long walk with my dog
➡️ Playing Fall Guys
➡️ Listening to music
➡️ Changing my haircut
➡️ Taking pictures

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I like practicing yoga with Adriene because she teaches me how to be gentle with myself when stretching or when trying new postures. There are days in which I do not feel like stretching and I just take deep breaths. She has videos for days like these, which I really love because her videos are a reflection of reality itself. She does not sell ideas such as "yoga solves your problems" or "buy this perfect mat to match your perfect life" but helps me find what feels good for my body.

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➡️ Practice gratitude by writing down 3 things you are grateful for every day
➡️ Listen actively to people around you
➡️ Have a healthy diet
➡️ Get 6-8 h of sleep at night
➡️ Do some physical activity
➡️ Find your own way to relax
➡️ Do not react, respond
➡️ Learn to say ¨no¨ to others and ¨yes¨ to yourself
➡️ Declutter your home

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Which habits do you want to change and why?            What are you going to do differently from now on? Leave your comments below:

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Which habits do you want to change and why?            What are you going to do differently from now on? Leave your comments below:

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My nº 1 issue right now is my sleep schedule. I used to sleep at the same hour every night, but some weeks ago, I overslept during the weekend, and it ruined all the progress I have made in the past months. I want to change this habit (again) because I know it is not healthy to go late to bed. In addition, I feel sleepy during the day, and I sometimes struggle to concentrate on demanding tasks. What I am doing differently now is to sleep 15-30 min earlier every three days to get used to sleeping again at my desired hour.

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What habits are you developing right now? Leave your comments below:

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What habits are you developing right now? Leave your comments below:

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I have started to consciously use the ¨2-minute rule¨ some months ago. This habit helps me complete my chores like making my bed or throwing the trash without procrastinating. Thanks to it, my days are more productive as I prioritise the activities I need to carry out first and I leave out other time-wasting habits. For instance, during my breaks between studying, I do no longer watch random youtube videos but I wash the dishes, do the laundry, etc. Therefore, I am able to disconnect from what I am studying and do several simple tasks that would otherwise accumulate at the end of the day.

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What caught your attention about what you have read? Leave your comments below:

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What caught your attention about what you have read? Leave your comments below:

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Hey Varvara! I found a TED-talk which you may find interesting about forming healthy habits.

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Christine Carter: The 1-minute secret to forming a new habit

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You know how resolutions often go: you set a goal and start strong ... then the motivation runs out and feelings of frustration and shame creep in. The struggle is real -- but what if it doesn't have to be?