[The Sunday Spark]🧹 Make It Easy to Start

The Sunday Spark!

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Hi friends,

I am still trying to make sense of my word of the year, "Enough," considering the drastically less time I have with a 6-month-old baby. This means I need to start believing that 10 minutes is enough to do a quick weekly review or make progress in my goals.

What’s stopping me?

Decision paralysis. I want to do so many things but I can’t choose the “right” thing to work on now.

How to overcome it?

Setting the stage.

If I want to declutter: Do I have a list of areas to declutter in my spare time when my baby is down for a nap? Where do I keep that list? Is it in an accessible notes app on my phone or buried in a journal somewhere?
If I want to read during my beauty appointment: Do I have the book I want to read with me? Do I have the list of books I plan to read in the first six months of the year? Or will I just read the last opened Kindle book? Or worse—use all that time on my phone?
If I want to do some digital organization or decluttering for my phone or laptop: Do I have a list of tasks to do? Examples:
- Delete school files
- Delete backed-up photos
- Clean up last month’s backed-up photos
- Save and back up family WhatsApp group photos
- Save links to courses I bought in OneNote
If I want to improve my relationships and reconnect with family members and friends: Do I have the list of people I want to call while driving back from work, ready to go when I get in the car?
If I want to do a quick weekly review: Do I have my planner and journal ready on my desk, or are they in a drawer or a bag somewhere I can’t access?

Goals need time to grow.

We have said that here many times, but remember: Before you give your goals time to be achieved, you need to give them time to be planned.

There are high-intensity actions you can take to make progress in your goals, like spending half a day decluttering, but the reality is you won’t have more than 30 minutes most days to work on your goals. How will you make it enough? Set the stage.

The alternative? Like me, you get small windows of time to make progress in your goals, but you dismiss them because they don’t feel big enough to get something important done. Or you waste them deciding what to work on first, get overwhelmed by the decision, and end up scrolling on your phone.

Make those lists.
Then make them visible.

Next time you have the time and energy to get something done, look at your list and choose one thing you already decided is important.

Don’t decide in the same moment. Just thank your past planning self, who made the decision for you.

Premade decisions reduce friction to take action.

Make starting as easy as possible:

✔ Choose the workout video

✔ Bring the book

✔ Clear the desk

✔ Charge the laptop

✔ Find the password

Set up the stage so you’re ready when it’s showtime!

P.S. Let’s chat if you are considering hiring me to talk to your team about the science of goal setting, building habits, mastering focus to improve performance and time management, or beating burnout. Reply to this email, and we can start from there.

Snapshot from my week: My first Watar ElSharq concert

Here is your weekly dose of The Sunday Spark ⚡️ a newsletter listing 3 sparks that I thought were worth starting your week with:

1. ⏳ Greg McKeown's 1-2-3 Method is a daily prioritization technique. As Greg shares:

Identify one essential project. This is today's priority.
Identify two important and time-sensitive tasks requiring immediate attention to keep you from getting behind.
Identify three maintenance items to complete to stay organized and prevent problems. Example: Health goals could be added here.

This approach helps you focus on what truly matters. For more details, I highly recommend his podcast episode on the topic. I also recommend Greg's weekly newsletter called 1-Minute Wednesday.

2. 💗 Martha Beck's writing style is funny and actionable, here is how to apply The Empathy Workout. Her brand new book, Beyond Anxiety, is the first book I have loved and finished this year. I will be sharing some exercises from the book soon.

3. 💬 I need this week's reminder, do you?

“Making a difference in one domain requires giving yourself permission not to care equally about all others.”

― Oliver Burkeman