5 Positive Habits Proven to Upscale your Life and Business

Many of us are bombarded with different messages about productivity and the grind. But what happens when the gas in your grind tank runs empty? Or do you start noticing yourself slowing down?

In his book Atomic Habits by James Clear, the author explains how tiny habit changes can lead to better results over time. The main goal is to be successful over a long period rather than a quick win and eventual burnout.

Here are some tips we’ve compiled to help you focus on forming positive habits for your life and business.

Boundaries

The upside of working for yourself is that you can do it anywhere and everywhere. The downside? Boundaries for work and home life become seriously affected.

Knowing when to set boundaries for yourself is essential. The advent of working from home may be new and exciting until we realize that a house is no longer a place to ‘escape.’ The boundaries of where work begins and ends become blurred, and people soon experience burnout–fast.

This is where setting time boundaries for yourself comes in. For example, upon waking up in the morning, if you answer e-mails and make big decisions before grabbing a cup of coffee, you’re not allowing yourself the time to structure your day. The same goes for social media. Let’s face it, the news and what’s on our feeds isn’t getting any better.

If you’re someone easily affected by bad news or distracted by the latest Buzzfeed quiz, you’re losing time to do something productive for yourself.

One tip in creating boundaries is to start small. Maybe don’t check your e-mail first thing? Have breakfast first, and spend time with your family. Another tip would be to identify your productive hours and spend those time slots working on those e-mails or doing creative tasks for an hour or more. By scheduling your time, you create your daily schedule with how you want not to be overwhelmed.

By setting boundaries about what you do and choosing to consume first thing in the morning or before work, you’re creating a safe space for yourself not to get overwhelmed by news and e-mails all day.

Consume Quality Content

It’s so easy to get lost in cat videos. No shame. They’re adorable and funny, but are they adding value to your life? Sure, sometimes you need to see a kitten meowing or getting into trouble, but other than sharing it with friends, what else is there?

You can increase your productivity by researching while doing other things. If you’re faced with a long drive, why not listen to a podcast related to your business niche instead of music? You never know. It might even help you get energized to work.

Some of our favorites to listen to are by:

Gary Vee – here

Hidden Brain – here

Philosophize This! – here

When you do this, you’re cutting down the time needed in research or experience because you’ve already learned about it. That’s the beauty of quality content; you’re not pressured to understand and consume knowledge when it’s done right.

We didn’t say this to conflict with setting boundaries; you don’t have to watch all the videos or read many books. Pace yourself with one video or podcast and a few pages of helpful books. This is one way you can keep your boundaries while consuming content.

Establish a Routine

The Oxford Dictionary describes the meaning of the word routine as follows:

noun

noun: routine; plural noun: routines

1. a sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program.

adjective

adjective: routine

1. performed as part of a regular procedure rather than for a particular reason.

Here we see that routine is a set of habits we do every day. When we have a fixed pattern, good or bad, we set ourselves up for what may or may not be a productive day.

This is why setting up a system is better for long-term productivity than just setting a goal. In Scott Adams’ book, How To Fail At Almost Anything and Still Win Big, he highlights the importance of systems over goals.

“A goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don’t sometime in the future. A system is something you do regularly that increases your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal. If you achieve your goal, you celebrate and feel terrific, but only until you realize you just lost the thing that gave you purpose and direction. Your options are to feel empty and useless, perhaps enjoying the spoils of your success until they bore you, or set new goals and reenter the cycle of permanent pre success failure. All I’m suggesting is that thinking of goals and systems as very different concepts has power. Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous pre success failure at best and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their system. That’s a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction.” 
 ― Scott Adams,  How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

When you create a system that brings your energy up, you can be productive and not think about it. This allows you to go on “auto-pilot” and still be helpful because you’ve worked those good habits into your daily routine.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” 
 ― James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Meditate

When did you last take a moment to quiet things down? Do you remember when you didn’t have music playing in the background?

Being productive and working towards long-term goals means knowing when to step back and quiet it down.

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport talks about how we are going through solitude deprivation. The author explains this by saying that we haven’t allowed ourselves to stop being influenced by outside forces. A few ways to regain your solitude healthily is to meditate or journal.

Just be with yourself.

You can reduce stress with the help of meditation apps like Headspace. A clear, rested mind is a focused one.

Invest

What we mean by that isn’t marketing, although that’s important too. It’s investing in yourself. If you spend all day giving your ideas, opinions, and time to your goals, you need to return some of that to yourself.

Your health is one of the most important things when running your business. If you’re not operating optimally, how can you be sure you’re making the right business choices?

Adjusting your goals can also help. Knowing when to take a step back and get some me-time is essential. Preventing burnout is much easier than burning out and trying to make a comeback.
The thing about being a business owner is it’s about the journey and not just finishing a sprint.

“I’ll be happy if running, and I can grow old together.” 
 ― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

It’s not just your business that you should be thinking long-term. It’s also your health.

BRIGHTSAND Designs may be young, but we care about our partners’ quality of life, online and offline. Working towards a goal in life and business isn’t always about the hustle and grind. Life is a marathon, after all. We want you to be around with us for the long term.

By having us on your side, we can take the burden of complicated strategizing and executing plans away from you. Our team of professionals can help you get back on track and refocus on what’s essential –getting sales. The best part is that you get to do less and have great results. BRIGHTSAND Designs works with you to translate and transform your vision into transactions.

“The person who knows HOW will always have a job; the person who knows WHY will always be the boss.” – John Maxwell.

by Rafaela Hsu