Decrease Friction
To better managed stresses
Decreasing the friction around taking action goes long way to decreasing day to day stress. Transitions are often places in the day where stress often increases. When going from one area of life to another any amount of friction to shifting focus can derail us.
One transition time for adults is going from work behaviors to home behaviors.
Waiting for motivation to strike can reliably fail leading to even more stress. Motivation often comes after we start something and carries us to continue. We do have to set an intention for change. For example, if you tend to get mired in work life and have a hard time shifting focus to home life you will need to set an intention to make the change.
How do we create a better transition and/or become unstuck and get more productive in our day to day tasks and transitions?
Decrease friction.
What do I mean by decreasing friction? Any issue/behavior that gets you hooked into either non-action or non-transition.
I struggled a lot with this and had a hard time ending the work day. The way I shifted this for myself was first to observe where the work day tended to quiet down and where I tended to resist ending the day. I noticed that my efficiency really started to decline at a certain point. Tasks that typically went quickly and easily started to get more difficult and this happened at reliably about the same time in day. I pegged this as my goal and worked to wrap up before that time.
Once I had the goal it was a matter of finding the places where hinderances to meeting the goal were slowing progress.
One major friction creator is phones especially for those who have a lot of work functions on the phone. This can make it very difficult to transition from work to home. Other sources of friction can be ill-defined endpoint to tasks, not adhering to set endpoints, and/or lumping so many tasks together that you feel overwhelmed.
Shrinking the Mountain
When we feel stressed and overwhelmed we may be engaging in creating a mountain out of a molehill or maybe even a group of molehills. Learning to separate out tasks and create smaller piles of things can go a long way to decreasing the amount of friction around these tasks.
Plan Ahead
Planning can also go a long way to decreasing the friction we encounter by setting clear priorities for tasks. Taking a few moments to look to the coming day and sketch out the top priorities can set the stage for a more productive day. I also recommend setting an alarm for end of day if you tend to get mired in work.
Trust Yourself
Lastly trust yourself to set clear intentions and priorities and allow the process to move forward. At first it may seem odd, but as you continue things will begin to feel more relaxed. The point is to allow stress to come down so you can live your best life. As you move forward you may find other places where friction can be reduced. Soon you’ll be sailing long quite nicely.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes.