🍣 The Sunday Spark: Discover the Power of Ginger Moments ✨

The Sunday Spark!

Hi friends,

After I finish my evening kitchen routine and on the five-foot way to my bedroom for my bedtime routine, I unlock my phone to check for updates.

After I hit the elevator button, I pull up my phone and check my Instagram messages till it arrives.

What is up with this? 🤔

Do you have similar habits?

You finish a task at work or home, so you reward yourself by taking a break, which usually means scrolling your social media feeds intending to return to work shortly, only to find yourself sucked into the digital black hole; you reply to a group text, start a chat or binge on stories. After precious minutes have passed, you lift your head from your screen feeling dazed, trying to remember what you were working on or planning to do before taking that "break."

You just wasted a ginger moment.

What is a ginger moment?

Ginger Moments is a term that author Jon Acuff created, inspired by the ginger slices served at sushi restaurants to cleanse your palate between each delectable piece. Just like you use ginger to distinguish between sushi pieces and appreciate the variety of tastes, you can use the open moments you get after a meeting ends or a task is completed to reset your brain, allowing you to mindfully transition to the next item on your agenda and approach it with intention, focus and clarity.

How do we do that, exactly, you wonder?

We start by recognizing ginger moments as they happen and choose better transition actions than checking our email, especially if we feel stuck on a task.

All my favorite ginger moment actions include leaving my workspace for a few minutes to do one or a mix of the below:

Fill up my water bottle.
Make a fresh cup of coffee or a herbal drink.
Chat with someone for a few minutes.
Take a 5-minute walk.
Go to the restroom.
Have a snack from my lunchbox.

If you don't want to leave your desk, stand up and organize your desk for a few minutes. A tidy environment leads to a focused mind.

Why stop there? You can use the habit stacking method, which I will teach in detail in my upcoming workshop*, to have better transition actions such as:

After I arrive home, I will block all social media apps to spend time with my kids.
After I stop at a red light, I will remember three things I am grateful for.
After I finish a task on my to-do list, I will take a short walk.
After my watch buzzes for staying still too long, I will stand up and stretch.

By embracing Ginger Moments, you'll harness the power of intentional transitions, ensuring that each task receives the attention it deserves. So, let Ginger Moments become your secret weapon for mindful and purposeful transitions throughout your day.

*P.S.: Irresistible Announcement Coming Soon! Stay tuned for something truly special this weekend. I can't wait to share the exciting details with you!

Here is your weekly dose of The Sunday Spark ⚡️ a newsletter listing 5 insightful things I thought were worth starting your week with:

1. 🤐 Oversharing is a real problem in some relationships, "not everyone deserves to hear your story," Brené Brown taught us in her work. In this post, the author Nedra Glover Tawwab addresses how to protect your privacy.

2. 🎧💪💼 Since 2019, my work routine pretty much consists of going over to Brain Fm, selecting deep work mode and time duration, and the rest is... focus. Celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month with 40% off your subscription. It's a great offer, trust me.

3. 🎙️🌅 This habit is more important than waking up early for your productivity, my latest podcast episode.

4. 📚📖🎓 Ten Great Books on How to Learn Better. Although I've only read one book from this list and made a start on a few others, I always find myself getting excited about this genre of books every school year. I have the intention to explore each of them eventually.

5. 💭 I loved this quote from The Daily Stoic about fueling the habits that help us become who want to be:

“ Think about your activities of the last week as well as what you have planned for today and the week that follows. The person you’d like to be, or the person you see yourself as—how closely do your actions actually correspond to him or her? Which fire are you fueling? Which person are you becoming? ”

― Ryan Holiday; The Daily Stoic

(Thank you Readwise for helping me find this quote from a book I read)

This is Sunday Spark issue #129!

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Some cool resources I personally use, love and recommend, with discounts just for you:

I like to start the day with my personalized Momentum Plus tab, which helps me stay focused with a powerful mantra, an inspiring image, a to-do list, countdowns to big dates, and world clocks where I keep an eye on time zones of friends and family living abroad before contacting them. Being a newsletter friend, you would get a special offer of a 10% discount when you subscribe to Momentum Plus with the promo code: bardees.
Enjoy a free month of the Readwise app, it is the BEST way to retain the knowledge you gain through reading. Using spaced repetition, it helps you remember your highlights from kindle books/articles you read. I am in love with their new reader feature. Reading online has become a top-notch experience thanks to Reader. Get one month free using my link.
I have been using Exist App for years as a digital journaling tool to track my mood in relation to my productivity and health choices. Try it out.
I use Rescuetime to track my digital productivity. Rescuetime tells me how much I spend on email, Excel sheets, meetings, and nonwork activities. I have been a happy client since 2014.

Note: some of the links above may be affiliate links, but always keep in mind that I don’t endorse anything I don’t use and love myself.

See you next Sunday First name / my dear friend!

Have a Brilliant Week!

Bardees

In case you missed these posts on Instagram…

Amman
Amman, Amman 11191, Jordan