How to increase your focus, peak performance and happiness in just 10 minutes

Most of us have a myriad of items that need executing at any given moment all with the pressure of strict time constraints to achieve our goals.  This is usually compounded with the requirement of dealing with external interruptions, context switching and the constant need to re-think about strategy and prioritization can create what feels like a never-ending list of items to complete.  A list getting longer and not shorter causing considerable anxiety, stress, and a severe loss of focus of your primary goal.  Unfortunately, this inevitably leads to small daily losses piling up instead of easy wins fostering a in a loss of mental strength and motivation ending in burnout!   

As humans we have a need for progress, it’s encoded in our DNA, it’s this journey of progress that keeps us fulfilled, not the reaching the destination.  One of the main symptoms of burnout and depression is the disinterest in doing anything that fulfills us.  This is why it’s critical to create simple structures to fall back on so we can easily stay on course to being fulfilled and happy, even in the most demanding times. 

Learn how structured journaling can really help you create a resilient structure taking only 10 minutes a day.  For many professional mental health care providers this is now a cornerstone, not only helping improve mental health and peak performance but also to provide insight and awareness of how to make these improvements.  Here are 5 simple steps to start leveraging a structured journal routine to achieve greater mental strength, motivation and move with greater speed and clarity towards your personal and professional goals. 

You are not a robot.  For many years I compartmentalized my daily thoughts and just ‘got on with it’.  Thinking I would have time to celebrate and enjoy life when I reached my next big goal.  In truth you have feelings, and along the way and you have shit days… but that’s ok!  Your human!  What’s important is to build a system around you as you are only as strong as your systems on these bad days.  Here we will take a look at how to implement structured journaling as one of the tools to achieve this for those with extremely limited time.

Step 1: Write down today’s date and start with 5 gratitude’s. 

Put that phone down!  Try to write down your gratitude’s before you look at your phone or email first thing in the morning. Before your thoughts are externally influenced.  Preferably do it when you are in a calm mental space.  Doing so prioritizes starting your day in a state of peak performance increasing your creative problem solving and productivity. This will enable new connections in your brain to be formed creating positivity.  Now write down about 5 or so gratitude’s that first come to mind.  These can be literally anything and should not require hard thought…..your breathing (ever had a cold and wished you could breath through your nose?), the sun, feeling rested, a friend you have, what you accomplished yesterday.  Doing this WILL put you in a positive state of mind and above all help you be present.  At first I was almost embarrassed as I found it hard to quickly come up with 5 gratitude’s so don’t fret if you can’t do this easily at the start.  You will see that after a few days then weeks this will come way easier and you will start doing this naturally in the morning without even writing them down.  This is the result of behavioral change, your brain connecting in new ways. You are in control of conditioning that change.  This will immediately bring more positivity, calm and self control. 

Step 2: Todays plans. 

What are your overarching plans for the day?  Don’t go overboard with super duper long lists, be realistic and don’t simply address your work items.  Include the little but very important things you need for self care, like time to go on that walk, a workout, 15 minutes of meditation or in my case to go ride my bike a few times a week.  Include the items you know you should do but never get around to doing!  At the end of the day strike off the items you completed.  Did you do everything or are you frustrated you only got half done?  If so this might be your first feedback you need to be more realistic with your daily plans? If not too many items is it integrity?  Are you doing what you say your doing or spending all your time on something else you didn’t write down that is very important?  This alone could be an immense cause of anxiety.  Rather than focus on what you didn’t do what did you get done?  Celebrate this!  Refine your list the next day.  Most of us, (me included) are optimistic of what we can do in a day or a week but don’t realize how much we can achieve in a year or more so this is actually normal and over time will help you avoid being disappointed or anxious as you refine.  Over time you will be able to set the right expectations more often than not. 

Step 3: Current Fears.

What are you fearful of right now?  Try to be honest with yourself, every human has deep seated fears that may or may not manifest themselves clearly.  Typically these tend to be the same things over and over again.  What first comes to mind?  As you see patterns over multiple days and weeks you will be able to address them first through simple awareness.  Being aware of your fears will cause them to lose their power and control over you.  Over time you will write them down multiple times ‘thinking this again’ and start to externalize them even realizing that they have probably not manifested themselves.  It’s easier said but not every thought you have is true and you can choose to believe them or not.  The first step is to write these down.  These are the deep seated roots to your feeling anxious.  They can be something in your subconscious from your past casting doubt and holding you back.  For example: Are you worried about money or don’t know how to deal with a specific problem….write down the reasons. 

Step 4: Watch out for. 

Building on the previous step what are the behaviors, thoughts, people, or situations you think you need to watch out for during your day.  Again being aware of these things by writing can be immensely powerful.  These are the things that lead to distraction from your primary goals and usually take positive energy out of your day.  For example, watch out for my phone usage or watch out for negative thoughts about x.  It could be as simple as you wanting to say yes to please other people then living with regret that you didn’t get done what you needed to!  To have bliss in daily life and success means we must be able to say NO!  Be firm but kind to yourself and others.  Having integrity towards yourself and others is the answer to building self confidence and self worth. 

As stated by Connor McGregor the famous MMA fighter :

It’s simple put in the time and you’ll get the reward

Set a time to train, train at that time

Set a time to sleep sleep at that time

Set a time to get up, get up at that time

Don’t tell yourself to do something then don’t do it.

I knew in my head I was saying get up at this time…I didn’t get up at that time

Train at this time…I didn’t train at that time

Don’t eat this…I ate that

Don’t drink that…I drank it

And all these just  infiltrate my mental strength

Just little defeats instead of wins.

And it just culminates into “ahhh”

“I just don’t want to be here”

I have just figured myself out

Hard work pays off and dreams come true

Step 5: Strive for…

What are you striving for?  Think of about both your hard material goals but also personal inner goals?  These personal inner goals will lead to living the life you want.  As the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius’ stated:  If I cannot control my inner self how can I control an empire.  When you start you will list out many many things you are striving for and many material goals.  Over time you will notice how you are homing in on just a focal points in the major areas of your life. These may become purely inner goals that are very simplistic and immaterial.  Taking myself as an example I have homed in on having Integrity to myself with a few other goals that shift a little over time depending on the season of life.  Your “Strive for” list will start to have patterns and be able to re adjust your previous journal section bullets in your next sessions as you become clearer helping you focus on what’s really important to achieve.

This journaling exercise should take about 10 minutes once you get the hang of it and shouldn’t really go beyond a page of simple bullets.  The secret is to stick to it and do it when your brain has clarity and is not cluttered.  Your first answer is usually your best so don’t overthink it.  For me it’s the first thing I do when I wake up before any interactions with people or electronics.  For you it might be out of the house in a special place like the beach or nature, or in a parked car before going to the gym.  What’s important is consistency as you will see patterns and start feeding back into your next journal entries.  Your phone messages and email is only people creating a to do list for you!  Looking through them is like looking for an emergency or fire to take care of will only set and anxious tone for the day and de prioritize what you set out to do!    

This is how you can achieve behavioral change.  If you found this useful please share!