العربي في الأسفل 👇👇👇
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Dear Sunday Sparkers,
 
Notice the craving.
Notice how much power it has over you.
Notice when you can’t stand regular conversations, and you want to be alone with it.
Notice the eagerness for the new, the funny, the shocking, and the fascinating when you look at it.
Notice how rude using it with others is making you look, but you don’t even care anymore.
Notice how it is stealing your life hours and your life energy, because you don’t have much of either after being with it for a while.
 
If you think it is your willpower, it is not.
It is a battle, and you are always the loser.
Who is the winner, you ask?
It is them.
The attention managers who are plotting against you.
You don’t even have a chance.
Unless…
 
Unless you don’t use it as an alarm clock.
Unless you stay apart for the first 30 minutes of the day.
Unless it is literally out of reach while you are working.
Unless it is in the other room when you are with your kids.
Unless it does not live on your nightstand.
Unless it is not the last thing you see before you turn in.
Unless you use tools, rules, and accountability to use it responsibly. 
 
This is how you win.
This is how you don’t miss it.
Your one beautiful life.
 

Personal update:
 
After 7 weeks of sending you best of editions of The Sunday Spark I am here again to send you fresh sparks (last week’s were fresh BTW) and out-of-the-oven writing and personal updates. It was an experiment that I will definitely repeat next summer. It brought so much ease to my life and lightness to my already packed Sundays. Not only that, but it also taught me the art of batching and how to do it effectively. As I was sending you best ofs, I was preparing new sparks for the coming few weeks, which will continue to make sending you this newsletter easier. A goal I have had for over a year!
 
I have so much to share with you, so many reflections, and the podcast is coming back soon! Stay tuned 🤩
 
أصدقائي
 
لاحظوا الشوق
لاحظوا سلطته عليكم
لاحظوا كيف لا تحتملون المحادثات العادية وتريدون أن تختلوا به
لاحظوا انبهاركم بالجديد، بالمضحك، بالمثير والمذهل كلما نظرتم إليه
لاحظوا كيف يجعلكم تبدون غير لبقين عندما تستخدمونه أمام الآخرين، ومع ذلك لا تكترثون
لاحظوا كيف يسرق ساعات حياتكم وطاقتكم، إذ لا يبقى لكم منها الكثير بعد أن تقضوا معه فترة
 
إن كنتم تعتقدون أن الأمر يتعلّق بقوة إرادتكم، فليس كذلك
إنها معركة، وأنتم دائمًا الخاسرون
ومن الرابح إذاً؟
إنهم مديرو الانتباه الذين يخططون ضدكم
ليس لديكم أي فرصة نجاة

…إلّا إذا
إلّا إذا لا تستخدمونه كمنبّه للاستيقاظ
إلّا إذا ابتعدتم عنه أول ٣٠ دقيقة من يومكم
إلّا إذا كان خارج متناول يدكم (حرفياً) أثناء عملكم
إلّا إذا كان في غرفة أخرى عندما تكونون مع أطفالكم
إلّا إذا لم يسكن الطاولة جانب سريركم
إلّا إذا لم يكن آخر شيء ترونه قبل النوم
إلّا إذا استعنتُم بأدوات وقواعد ومساءلة كي تستخدموه بوعي ومسؤولية
 
هكذا تفوزون
:هكذا لا تفقدون أجمل ما تملكونه
حياتكم الوحيدة الجميلة

أخباري
 
بعد ٧ أسابيع من إرسال نسخ 
Best Of من The Sunday Spark
 ها أنا أعود إليكم بشرارات جديدة وكتابة طازجة من الفرن على طول، وأخبارشخصية تحبون السماع عنها مني
 
 كانت تجربة سأكررها بالتأكيد في صيف العام القادم فقد جلبت لي الكثير من السهولة والخفة في أيامي، خاصة في أيام الأحد المليئة أصلا، ليس هذا فحسب بل علمتني أيضا فن التجميع 
batching 
وكيف أطبقه بفعالية، وبينما كنت أرسل لكم أفضل الإصدارات كنت أجهز الشرارات
 الجديدة للأسابيع القادمة مما سيجعل كتابة وإرسال النشرة أسهل بكثير وهذا هدف كنت أعمل عليه منذ أكثر من عام
 
لدي الكثير لأشاركه معكم والكثير من التأملات والبودكاست سيعود قريبا جدا ترقبوا
 
هل أحببتم القسم العربي الجديد؟ هل أستمر هكذا؟؟ رأيكم مهم جدا جدا
 
Image item
Snapshot from my week: Back to evening walks! Look how big Basil got?

Here is your weekly dose of The Sunday Spark ⚡️a newsletter listing 3 sparks that I thought were worth starting your week with. 
 
1. My dear friend Maysoun Saadi wrote a brilliant Arabic article for Ummahat.net about procrastination titled:وداعًا للتسويف: هكذا يكون التخلص من التسويف واستعادة الشغف! You will enjoy it a lot. Oh, and after you read it, please do me a favor and share it with one friend.
 
2. Speaking of Ummahat website, a collective celebration is in order! The founder of this brilliant platform, my dear friend and former classmate, Mira Hourani has written her first book! خيروني ما بين الأمومة والطموح فاخترت الاثنين . This is a significant achievement worth celebrating and supporting, so you should consider getting a copy. Order it from her website: Ummahat.net now.
 
 3. 💬 An excellent reminder when you get hard on yourself, just like I do sometimes:
"When I start sabotaging my self-worth, this statement is very helpful, “I did the best I could with what I had.” I believe this statement, now…but when I started saying it, I would think, “But did I really do the best I could with what I had? I knew better. I knew it was a bad choice, even as I made it!” Yes. I knew better. But I still did the best I could. Here is why. I am not just my mind. It is common for our mind to argue with us as we make decisions. “You shouldn’t do this…it won’t be good.” Yet, we still do it. Why? Because our subconscious and emotions are just as involved in our decision-making as our mind is.”  
― Jonathan Heston, The Unlimited Self

P.S. Let’s chat if you are considering hiring me to guide you towards your goals and positive habits in 1-1 sessions (1 spot available for the month of September and it could be you!) or to train your team about the science of effective planning through goal setting, building habits, mastering time management for better performance and productivity, or the art of  beating burnout. 
Reply to this email, and we can start from there.

Before you go, here are some cool resources I personally use, love and recommend:
  1. PRODUCTIVITY HACK 🎯⚡Tired of opening 12 tabs every morning just to get your day started? I've been using Momentum Plus as my browser homepage - it's like having a personal assistant that shows me my mantra, weather, to-do list, and even tracks time zones so I don't accidentally wake up my friend in Australia at 3 AM. Newsletter readers get 10% off with this link.
  2. 📙 Can you believe I have been using this amazing gratitude journal since 2017? Here is a link to an Instagram highlight I did about it so you can see it from the inside. You get 10% off when you order using my code: Bardeespodcast10.

This is Sunday Spark issue #250
 
Are you seeing it for the first time? Here is the archive of the first 100 issues. 
 
Was it forwarded to you by a friend? Receive your own by subscribing here, and don't forget to thank your lovely friend for me!
 
Calendar love: This is week 38, day 257 of the year. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Remember:
September is the Other January 🚌
What will you start? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In case you missed these on Instagram…
 
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.
 

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Amman
Amman, 11191, Jordan