[trx_quote cite="#" title="Mandy Green"]It's been really surprising to me how this one change can be in creating control and balance in your life.[/trx_quote]

Championship Morning Routines Part 5

 
 
Ok, it’s finally here, the last and final step to the Championship morning routine that I talked about at NCRC 2017.
Step 6 of the Championship Morning Routine is that Champions Quit.
Here is how you are going to do it. In the morning, before you leave for your day, you're going to give yourself a quitting time. Yep, you heard me right, you're going to decide when you're actually going to quit working.  You see there's a concept called Parkinson's Law, which I have talked about many times before, that says work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
I'm sure you've seen this play out in your own life. In college, maybe you had all semester to write a huge research paper.  Are you guilty of wasting the whole semester and waited until the last 24 hours to get started and then you turned it in at the very last minute?  I know I was guilty of doing that.
The same thing happens with your recruiting phone calls. You know you have all of these phone calls to make in order to grow your program.  The call itself will take you 10 minutes but what do you do? You think and strategize about it and the next thing you know, you've wasted 45 minutes thinking about the call and you haven't even made it yet. The more time you waste tweaking, perfecting, thinking, and stressing, the less time you have to work on things that matter or to make more phone calls. The worst part of all of this time wasted, is that nobody even notices the extra 80% effort and time that you wasted putting into it.
Every single day, I’ve gotten into the habit of giving myself a deadline whether I'm at home or on the road. I determine what time I am going to stop working and when I stop, I go hang out with my family or I do something to rest and recharge.
This has been such a powerful and drastic change in my life. Before I set a deadline, I would just work, work, work and then I would go home and I would be half on my phone or half be working, and I wouldn't be present with anything.  And then when the kids would go to bed, I would work some more. By setting a deadline, it keeps me honest with myself.  It keeps me focused on what I need to get done and more importantly, it helps me create a boundary between work and home.
I'm not going to lie to you, there are lots of days where I have to set an alarm on my phone to remind me to quit. Sometimes I even need to force myself to step away and stop working for the day. I am addicted to work just as much as the next coach and when the demand in my life intensifies, my pattern had been to hunker down and push harder.  Not anymore.
It's been really surprising to me how this one change can be in creating control and balance in your life. Setting a deadline puts a time pressure on your so that you accomplish more with less stress.
If quitting for the entire night is not an option because you have recruiting calls to make, at least plan an hour of free time EVERY NIGHT!  Get off the grid.  No recruiting emails, no phone calls, no checking your phone during this hour or two.
Play with your kids. Take a 30 minute walk outside. Meditate. Workout. Watch your favorite show.  Enjoy the time with the ones you love. Call a friend. Go to a movie.  Do whatever it is for you that you love to do and makes you happy.
After you take this rest and recovery from work time for yourself, you are going to feel so much more mentally clear, present, and so much less stressed.
So there you have it.  To recap the Championship morning routine.

1. Make a plan the night before so you can start the day on purpose.
2. Don’t sleep with your phone.
3. Let your mind wander instead of getting sucked into your phone or to-do list.
4. Focus on making progress, not to-do lists
5. Spend 30 minutes working on your goals.
6. Set a quit time before you leave the house.

I hope that this information has been helpful.  If you have decided to try this, please let me know how it goes.  If you have your own morning routine that you have found sets you up for a great day, I’d love to hear about it.  Email me at [email protected]
If you've ever struggled with productivity, keeping your to-do’s organized and prioritized, I have a great tool you can now check out for free.  Right now, I am giving you a chance to try my Busy Coach Game Plan Daily Planner for 30 days.  Just click on the link to check it out.