By that I mean what are some powerful and simple basic applied techniques or behaviors that are really useful you’ve developed or discovered in your life that makes things work or improve.
Lets keep them simple and powerful 🧙♂️
Let people on the phone know that you don’t mind if something is taking a bit longer and that you’re cool and with them whatever happens. Say something like, its okay I’m not in a rush ☺️
They’ll appreciate taking some of the pressure off and showing you are a receptive audience (you’re rooting for them) and I’ve found it to get superior outcomes since I started doing it, even tho I was always generally polite previously
Whenever I need to do something and I don’t want to note it down, I count the things I have to/bring with me. Afterwards I check if the numbers are the same.
Feels like I look crazy when you keep whispering “three, three, three” to yourself.
Don’t take the appointment card from the doctor’s office. Just put it in your phone calendar.
You might think if you take the card, you can refer to it later, or put it in the calendar later, but these are lies. LIES!!!
If it’s not on the calendar app it doesn’t exist
And have a calendar app that lets you either or both:
- enter the appointment in text and it automatically recognizes the date and processes it (natural language entry)
- has buttons for easy tweaking of the day with standard units like 30 minutes/1 day/1 week/1 month that you can press in combination to easily taptically schedule it
Just a normal alarm timer app.
Forget appointments? Lose track of time when doing things? I set timers. Most apps allow recurring timers. For example I got one going off twice each day to remind me to drink some water.
I gotta leave in 40 minutes so I got some time to read or whatever. If I don’t set an alarm I’ll lose track of time and be late. Easy fix.
In my head it does not exist. Never trust myself to remember anything, write everything down in a system you trust (TickTick for me). In the same vein when leaving tasks halfway I write myself what I had planned to do next and all the details I can quickly jot down, even if they seem obvious or like I won’t forget them.
Getting rid of as many time wasters as possible. Reddit, Instagram, etc. They never, ever end. With Lemmy, I’m done my feed in five minutes. YouTube is still a challenge though.
Since the calendar has already been mentioned, I’ll drop another of my tools.
I check my pockets every time I leave a space, and confirm I’ve got Wallet, Keys, Phone. I do this at any transition: Leaving the house, a taxi, the office, a plane.
Got kick started into the habit when I lost a big (for a kid) chunk of money. Felt so bad that I started the checks, and haven’t lost any of those three in many, many years (ง’̀-‘́)ง
Always determine the first action or step to a task/project to give you a specific, predetermined place to start on the task and get your first “win” towards completing it before you add it to your task list
You can decide on the rest later but get your subconscious working on it by making that first decision and the rest you can leave until you’ve completed step 1
Whenever I close something that locks, I touch the key that unlocks it first. This has saved me many times from locking myself out of the house and locking my keys in the car or trunk
Write it down/put on your calendar now. You’re not going to remember to do it later and then you’ll completely forget it. Even if you’re sure you’ll remember it this time, you won’t. Just write it down. And make a habit of checking your calendar frequently. Like multiple times a day. Putting it in your calendar and never seeing it again doesn’t help.
Schedule just about everything. Even the things you didn’t think you’ll need to schedule. Schedule what time you’re going to work out, or play video games. Put an event in your calendar to make that phone call to your insurance company at a specific time instead of remembering to do it after they’re closed every time.
When I’m at my doc for refill or something similar, I always book the next appointment before I leave. And every appointment is written on the calendar app with alarms. No I don’t need you to write me the next appointment on paper, your paper doesn’t have glow light and sounds so I won’t look at it.
I keep notes in a calendar entry for the appointment to so I don’t forget all the talking points or requests like refills, tests, etc)
Oh that’s not a bad idea!
Online calendar with a widget on my phone’s homescreen that shows the upcoming week’s appointments, so that I constantly see them by accident. And a habit to always put important appointments in the calendar immediately when I’m made aware of them or plan them.
And always have the calendar open in a browser on the computer.
Notifications from Google calendar - if it’s not there, I will forget.
Also, in terms of motivation - if I don’t have a purpose and a goal (however small or insignificant it may be) - then I will be stuck and won’t be able to do literally anything. So I always need something to work towards.
Making lists and time blocking