Goals and Tasks
Some people find it extremely helpful to structure their own goals and tasks better and thus integrate more relaxation and balance into their everyday lives. Various methods can be used to classify tasks. One effective method, for example, is the Eisenhower method, in which the different tasks are divided into three categories and processed accordingly:
- Urgent and important
- Urgent, but not important
- Important, but not urgent
- Neither urgent nor important
If you now sit down once a week - at best Thursday evening to start the weekend in a relaxed way - and plan your next week according to this principle, you are freed from planning the completion of your tasks on a daily basis. Finally, the order is clear. A good goal is always to complete two to three tasks a day. There is a chance that many of the "neither urgent nor important" tasks will disappear completely from the list over time, or that you will forego performing them in the first place. This scheme can be applied both in professional and private life for the organisation of projects and challenges.
In order to find out the importance of the different tasks, it is of course fundamentally important to find your own big goal. No matter whether this is the start into self-employment, the restructuring of everyday life or the improvement of nutrition. It is not easy for many people to clearly define their own goals. So sit down in a quiet moment and consider your personal goals for the next 12 months. It is helpful not to add 5 overwhelming tasks to the list, but to combine a healthy mixture of big and small goals, because you don't want to overtax yourself. Great goals could be to finally start jogging, to inform oneself about the keeping of cats or to plan a longer stay abroad. Determine when you want which goal to be achieved and divide large goals into smaller subgoals so as not to lose track and always approach the realization motivated.
Breaking down stuck patterns of thinking
Maybe taking over a new project causes pure stress for you and your colleague? He's so happy he almost jumps up in the air. So it is rarely the situations themselves that are negative per se and thus trigger stress in us, but rather our thoughts and our evaluation of this situation. In most cases, however, these are not conscious decisions, but patterns of thought that have been practiced for years and now need to be broken up.
In order to track down your thought patterns, you have to keep a corresponding diary for a few days or weeks. Whenever you feel stressed, open a new entry in this diary. At best you start with this entry as soon as the first stress wave is over and you have a clear head again. Then consider exactly in which situation you felt stressed and which mental evaluation of the situation you were present in exactly that moment.
- Your boss is handing you a new project.
- They feel stressed and under pressure.
- Your thoughts about taking over the new project were: I will never be able to do that, when should I please do that, I am not competent enough for this project.
In the second step, you now consider a neutral and positive evaluation, which can replace your frequently used negative evaluations.
- Neutral: Yes, I'll write that down in my diary right away.
- Positive: I can now improve my time management / hand in another unloved project / pray the nice new colleague for support, a good opportunity to discuss general time management with the boss, I have the opportunity to learn new skills.
And whenever you catch yourself now with one of your old, negative evaluations, put your neutral or positive evaluation in thought to this place. The more consistently you pursue this method, the more likely this way of thinking will become your new automatism. Outsmart yourself by acting as if you already believe the new way of thinking!
Revolutionizing sleep
Sleep is one of the most important restorative means available to us. Many permanently tense people find it difficult to find a relaxed and restful sleep. Don't miss the opportunity to renew your sleeping habits and optimize your recovery during sleep. How would you like to be internally balanced during the day when you lack the energy for the simplest activities? There are eight factors that are important for healthy and restful sleep:
- Regular exercise, at best 30 minutes of physical activity daily at a fixed time.
- Provide fresh air and a room temperature of 16-20°C. Under these conditions, your sleep will not be prematurely interrupted by cold, heat or stale air.
- Avoid blue light from televisions, smartphones, etc. two hours before bedtime to stimulate the formation of melatonin (the sleep hormone). Also dimmed light, quiet music and yoga help here!
- Sleep at least 6-9 hours a day, often avoiding sleeping less in a row.
- The dinner should be rich in protein, because proteins keep you full for a long time. So you are not disturbed by a feeling of hunger when you fall asleep or sleep through the night.
- If you have problems falling asleep, do not take medication but try yoga, meditation, reading or radio plays. - A regular sleep rhythm helps the body to prepare for bed. - Avoid alcohol, nicotine and sugar before going to bed. These substances prevent a restful deep sleep. Are there areas where you can improve your sleeping habits?
Closing Remarks
I very much hope that you have found a lot of new, interesting and helpful information in this book that will enrich your life and help you to get out of the stress cycle! You now know that the occurrence of stress is caused by an overload that we bring into our lives due to excessive expectations of ourselves. The reason for these exaggerated expectations is mostly deep-seated fears that without these burdens we will not be a fully-fledged member of society, that we will not receive sufficient social recognition or that we will not be able to live up to the expectations that are supposedly directed at us from outside. All this is an expression of a low self-esteem, because in this situation the expectations of other people are given more importance than one's own needs. Through the relaxation techniques, reflection methods and possibilities for changing everyday structures presented in this book, you can sustainably change your thinking, structures and actions and thus leave the stress cycle.
The result is: Inner balance. Through stronger inner balance, nothing can throw you off track so quickly, you can resolve conflicts constructively and shape your everyday life through healthy boundaries for yourself. You know who you are, what your goals are and can clearly distinguish your needs from those of other people. The inner balance gives us daily the possibility to perceive even the smallest miracles of life and to feel gratitude. And if a challenge (formerly called a problem) crosses your path, you know that this is a wonderful opportunity to improve your skills and abilities and learn new things.
I wish you much success and joy in learning and implementing the methods to strengthen your inner balance!
Minimalism - Practical tips for clearing out, for more calmness, satisfaction, success and luck in life
Dear reader, already in 551 B.C. the Chinese philosopher Confucius said: "Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated." The everyday ballast that we carry on our shoulders does not seem to go away despite much effort. By deciding to buy this book, you are embarking on an adventure. Let's follow the traces of minimalism together to get rid of this ballast in the short and long term.
The word minimalism is currently on everyone's lips. A large part of humanity has already adopted this term, but most are not aware of the strength of the orientation