Tony Schwartz<\/strong><\/a> in the Harvard Business Review:<\/p>\nWho has struggled with this one? Any tips for others?<\/strong><\/p>\nNow back to Tony Schwartz\u2026<\/p>\n
Over the past decade, I\u2019ve built a series of rituals into my everyday life, in order to assure that I get to the things that are most important to me \u2014 and that I don\u2019t get derailed by the endlessly alluring trivia of everyday life.<\/p>\n
Here are the five rituals that have made the biggest difference to me:<\/p>\n
\n- Abiding by a specific bedtime to ensure that I get 8 hours of sleep. Nothing is more critical to the way I feel every day. If I\u2019m flying somewhere and know I\u2019ll arrive too late to get my 8 hours, I make it a priority to make up the hours I need on the plane.<\/li>\n
- Work out as soon as I wake up. I\u2019ve long since learned it has a huge impact all day long on how I feel, even if I don\u2019t initially feel like doing it.<\/li>\n
- Launching my work day by focusing first on whatever I\u2019ve decided the night before is the most important activity I can do that day. Then taking a break after 90 minutes to refuel. Today \u2014 which happens to be a Sunday \u2014 this blog was my priority. My break was playing tennis for an hour. During the week it might be just to breathe for five minutes, or get something to eat.<\/li>\n
- Immediately writing down on a list any idea or task that occurs to me over the course of the day. Once it\u2019s on paper, it means I don\u2019t walk around feeling preoccupied by it \u2014 or risk forgetting it.<\/li>\n
- Asking myself the following question any time I feel triggered by someone or something,: \u201cWhat\u2019s the story I\u2019m telling myself here and how could I tell a more hopeful and empowering story about this same set of facts?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Obviously, I\u2019m human and fallible, so I don\u2019t succeed at every one of these, every day. But when I do miss one, I pay the price, and I feel even more pulled to it the next day.<\/p>\n
A ritual, consciously created, is an expression of fierce intentionality. Nothing less will do, if you\u2019re truly determined to take control of your life.<\/p>\n
The good news is that once you\u2019ve got a ritual in place, it truly takes on a life of its own.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tony Schwartz in the Harvard Business Review: Who has struggled with this one? Any tips for others? Now back to Tony Schwartz\u2026 Over the past decade, I\u2019ve built a series of rituals into my everyday life, in order to assure that I get to the things that are most important to me \u2014 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Getting things done: the secrets<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Tony Schwartz in the Harvard Business Review: Who has struggled with this one? Any tips for others? Now back to Tony Schwartz... Over the past decade,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting things done: the secrets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Tony Schwartz in the Harvard Business Review: Who has struggled with this one? Any tips for others? Now back to Tony Schwartz... Over the past decade,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-24T18:24:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-06-04T02:26:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/\",\"name\":\"Getting things done: the secrets\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-24T18:24:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-06-04T02:26:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"By Tony Schwartz in the Harvard Business Review: Who has struggled with this one? Any tips for others? Now back to Tony Schwartz... Over the past decade,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Getting things done: the secrets\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Getting things done: the secrets","description":"By Tony Schwartz in the Harvard Business Review: Who has struggled with this one? Any tips for others? Now back to Tony Schwartz... Over the past decade,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Getting things done: the secrets","og_description":"By Tony Schwartz in the Harvard Business Review: Who has struggled with this one? Any tips for others? Now back to Tony Schwartz... Over the past decade,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2011-06-24T18:24:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-06-04T02:26:38+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/","name":"Getting things done: the secrets","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-06-24T18:24:35+00:00","dateModified":"2011-06-04T02:26:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"By Tony Schwartz in the Harvard Business Review: Who has struggled with this one? Any tips for others? Now back to Tony Schwartz... Over the past decade,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/24\/getting-things-done-the-secrets\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Getting things done: the secrets"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}