Category: Productivity

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Dr. Wayne Dyer (Tick Tock Thursday #2)

I have really been battling with implementing my ideas about how I could create time. For instance, getting up early was easier to do then because my brain was working overtime anyway and I just couldn’t sleep. Once my brain got over itself I couldn’t get myself out of bed anymore to write. I am an owl by nature and dragging my self out of bed at that early just is not in my nature😜. In fact, it was draining me.

So what do I have to do to create time in my day for the things I want to do? Well…I read the quote by Dr Wayne Dyer and it really got me thinking. Do I need to change the way I look at my activities in order to change what I do and become more productive?

#canva #time #timemanagement #african #drdwaynedyer #productivity
Image: Canva

I have being giving this a try. When I open Facebook, for example, by the time I get to the third post or so, I say to myself: “what am I doing here? My time is finite. Is this bringing me any closer to where I want to be?” The answer is usually no when it comes to social media so I exit the app and move on to something I need to or want to do.

Essentially I am trying to change the way I look at time. When I see it as finite then I am more motivated to use it wisely. Too often I have found myself saying: “Ag, tomorrow is another day” but the truth is that tomorrow is not promised to me. Today is here. Today is now. I used to ask myself if I would regret a choice “when I am lying on my death-bed when I am 90” when I needed to make a decision. I guess instead of 90, I should be changing that to “at the end of today” when looking at the frivolous things I catch myself doing sometimes or when my son needs my attention while I am doing something. The later is a tough one of course because he must learn to respect other people’s time and needs so sometimes I have to just say “can we do that tomorrow” because I am on a deadline. More often though, I just need to say, ” Give mummy x more minutes” so that both our needs are met in the here and now.

I must admit I find this process more doable because I don’t necessarily have to plan my day too much. I just have to be more aware of how I am spending my time and make “in the moment” choices. I am also consciously working towards my goals every day.

If you are still looking for a productivity method, give this try. Let me know how it goes.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to like, follow and share if you enjoyed this post and want to see more.

Grounded African is 1 year old!!!

I cannot believe that it has been a year since I took the plunge and started my blog.  Every word written has been a joy (published and unpublished).  I had a look at my stats the other day and was floored at how inactive I have been.  I will have to remedy that ASAP 🙂 I must also say thank you to all of you for your support, your encouragement and feedback.   You have made a huge impact in my world 🙂

The past year has been quite a journey.  With tons of research on blogging, SEO and the like under my belt, I feel like I am ready to take it to the next level.  This new digital world is so fascinating.  Besides,“A goal without a plan is just a wish”.  according to Antoine de Saint-Exupery.  A plan needs action to reach that goal so enough reading and planning and time to start doing.

I have also had a few queries about blogging and how to go about it so  I thought I would share some of the learnings I have had  over the past year.

Blogging is a cool place to start getting your feet wet in the world of writing.  If you are still trying to find your voice, this is a good place to start.  I have found WordPress quite easy to use but it can be quite limiting if you are not looking to spend too much money on your blog right now.  If you don’t want to be limited, then it is best to find a host and use the wordpress software to create your blog.  It does come at a price though.

Blogs are not the only place online to practice your writing.  I have enjoyed writing on Quora and Medium as well.  You can follow me on these sites as well. No matter where you write though, if you are looking to grow a following, you need to write fairly often (no less than once a week) and interact with other writers and readers on the sites.

There are lots of writers and books out there that are worth getting your hands on.  The ones i have found most useful are:

  • On Writing by Stephen King  (a great autobiography and loads of writing tips)
  • The Elements of Style by William Stunk jr (highly recommended by Stephen King)
  • You are a writer by Jeff Goins
  • Starting a successful blog by Gundi Gabrielle  A very useful book. In fact her entire beginner marketing series is full of handy tips and tricks.  She also has a proven method of achieving “number 1 seller” status as a self publisher on Amazon.  All her books have achieved that status if I am not mistaken.

There are a few more that I have read as well but I found these to be most helpful.  By the way, a lot of good books are found on Amazon.  Don’t despair if you don’t have a kindle.  You can simply download that app on your phone or tablet and read your books on there.

The most important lesson I have learned is to devise a schedule and stick to it in order to be consistent.

There is definitely loads more to learn but, like I said earlier, it’s time to start doing.   I’ll learn as I go.  Looking forward to another year of writing and sharing my world and the lessons that come with living in it.  Thanks again for your support.

Another year older…

I get to experience “New Year” twice in one week.  The first time on the first of January like everyone else.  The second, on my birthday,  a week later.  The second one always feels more important to me.   It’s when I really take stock, decide on my goals and lay down plans to make those goals happen.

I haven’t always done things this way.  I have largely flown by the seat of my pants for most of my life.   There are goals that I had as a teen that I actively pursued but I didn’t really understand what I was doing.   Looking back, knowing what I now know,  I see why and how I managed to achieve certain things and why I didn’t achieve others. In the last 3-4 years I have gotten into the habit of creating goals and actually thinking through how I will achieve them.  I know, scary that it has taken me this long but  I still believe in “better late than never”.  I have been reading about goal setting for a while and have even written a few down but I never had the discipline to plan how to make it happen.  It became clear that setting goals was a fruitless exercise if you had no plan on how to achieve them.

I have been talking to different people and reading different books in order to find a method that would work for me.  In my last post, I shared a method that I believe in and will be implementing this year.  If you missed it, you can read more about it here.  I have come to realise that, although I may have lived most of my life flying by the seat of my pants, I am actually a creature of habit on a day to day basis so this method should be pretty easy to make mine.  Will keep you posted on how it’s going as we move along through the year.

I will leave you with a pearl of wisdom from the African continent to inspire you…#African #Lifeskills #life #groundedafrican #motivation #africanproverb

If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.

Bye for now