“The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.”
Wellness Tip
Create a Sleep Sanctuary
You know that sleep is important. But is your bedroom a sleep sanctuary?
A sleep sanctuary is an environment that’s designed to make your nights peaceful and restful. Here are a few things you can do to create one:
- Get a good quality, supportive mattress, and pillow.
- Keep your room temperature fairly cool – between 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit is optimal.
- Make your bedroom visually pleasing by removing clutter and using a calming color scheme.
- Introduce some greenery. Certain plants may purify the air, as well as giving you the stress-reducing benefits of contact with nature.
- Use calming scents such as lavender oil.
- Keep clean, comfortable sheets.
- Install a soft lamp or dimmer switch so you can avoid harsh artificial light before bedtime.
How’s your bedroom stacking up? If it’s falling short of being a sleep sanctuary, try implementing some of the tips above. These, plus a healthy bedtime routine, and you’ll be on your way to better sleep in no time.
Productivity Tip:
Don’t Prioritize Urgent Tasks
If you read the quote at the top of this newsletter, it might have left you slightly baffled. Why should you do important things over urgent ones?
Think of it this way: urgent tasks are the things begging for attention. Emails. Report deadlines. Social media notifications.
Important tasks are the ones that contribute to your long-term goals. Writing a page of your book. Studying to learn a new skill. Putting together a proposal for a project that will contribute to business growth.
Can tasks be both? Of course. But the key point here is that we’re often too busy on the “urgent” (but unimportant) tasks to get to the ones that are truly important to the bigger picture.
That’s why we need to deliberately schedule in time for those important tasks.
Our Panda Planner gives you space to fill in your three top priorities of the day. These relate to your important projects – the ones that will give you the most long-term value.
After you fill these in, use the schedule section to make time for the important tasks that correlate to those priorities.
Try it out – we have no doubt this method will help you in the long run to achieve your goals!
Routine Breakdown
Jon Braddock, Entrepreneur, Speaker and Author
Jon Braddock, founder and CEO of the company My Life & Wishes, has a short but powerful morning routine. Here’s what he does :
- Wakes up at 5:30 am and drinks 20 ounces of water to “jumpstart his metabolism”.
- Writes a quick gratitude list.
- Sets an intention. “I set my intention for the day, determining the one or two biggest things I must achieve in order to feel I’ve positively moved in the direction of my goals and have an awesome day.”
Why it works:
- Research supports that drinking water in the morning has health benefits – and that it can, indeed, give you a metabolic boost.
- Gratitude has an impressive list of science-backed benefits , including better sleep, health, mental fortitude, and self-esteem.
- Remember what we discussed above about determining our priorities? That’s exactly what Braddock is doing by setting intentions that take him closer to his goals.
Braddock’s habit of drinking water upon waking is one that’s super-simple yet effective. If you struggle with this one, try keeping a bottle of water next to your bed. This will become the visual cue that reminds you to hydrate. There’s nothing to lose here – why not give it a try tomorrow?
