Repetition Leads to Greatness One Day at a Time
Today I get to share my favorite part of the SPICER Planner, the daily planner section.Before, you may have heard that the key element to reaching your goals, forming new habits is repetition. Repetition also helps with breaking old habits and living a more fulfilled life. The daily repetitive practice of tracking, documenting, and planning out what you want your days to look like.
Today's Top Five Goals
In the daily planning section on the SPICER planner, you are given the space to control your time and determine your top priorities for the day. The first thing we have at the start of each day is to list those top 5 priorities. Now, if you are like me, you have way more than 5 things to get done in a day. The SPICER planner is meant to focus on the top items.It is suggested that you have an electronic to-do list alongside the SPICER planner that holds the complete list of everything you hope to accomplish each day. The SPICER planner isn't meant to replace that or suggest that the other items on your list are not essential. We really want you to get in the habit of reviewing your list and determining the top things you want to focus on. Doing so will help you have some direction and focus when you start the day. Once you accomplish these top five, you can turn your attention to the other items in your whole to-do list.
Today's Appointments
To the right side of the top five goals section is the Today's Appointment section. I can't tell you how many missed appointments, or I showed up late because I wasn't monitoring or focused on my calendar. If you haven't heard it before, I will say it now. When you write something down, you commit it to memory much better than when typing.Your memory of handwritten words is tied to the movements required to make each letter. This might be what helps the memory of what we've written hang around in our brains a bit longer. Meanwhile, pressing buttons on a keyboard activates fewer areas of the brain, so we forget what we've typed faster.For this reason, I recommend still maintaining and using a digital calendar and digital to-do list. But add the practice of reviewing, reflecting on, and writing down these critical details, so they don't get forgotten or missed the next day.
Meal Planning/Tracking
The next section of the SPICER planner is dedicated to your nutrition and meals. I purposely created this section to be flexible for two different groups of people. Some individuals like to plan out their meals ahead of time. While another group of people likes to eat at the moment but still track and document what they consumed.It is well known that unhealthy eating patterns can cause mood swings. Blood sugar fluctuations and nutritional imbalances are often to blame. Without a steady fuel source from the foods we eat, our minds and bodies don't function well.As women, our hormones already have the tendency to be all over the place. Between pregnancy, menstrual cycles, and so much more, it can be hard to pinpoint what may be trigger certain behaviors and reactions. Sleep and sugar levels play a huge part in this. Tracking our food intake and reflecting on it later on when we experience inevitable mood swings may help us determine what foods may trigger different responses in us. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
Gratitude
We also decided to include a section to pause and give thanks.In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.It is well known that the more we make gratitude and giving thanks for what we have, the more positive and happy we will feel. So take a moment and think of one thing that happened today that you are grateful for. Even if it is as simple as I am grateful, I am still breathing.
Habit Progress
The last section of the daily planner is dedicated to tracking habit progress. Now I selected four common habits that I have seen people focused on developing. This includes:
- Drinking sufficient amounts of water
- Exercising regularly
- Mindfulness/Meditation
- Daily Prayer
In the SPICER Planner, you are provided with a space to simply indicate that you completed your goal for that day. How much and what that commitment for each of these areas will look different for each person. Here we just track, did you do what you set for yourself.
If you have other habits you would like to track, you can write them in the space below. I would also love to hear about what those habits are. As we prepare to improve the next version of the SPICER Planner, I am looking for feedback and information on what else we could include.
As we start 2022, I hope you are creating some strong goals for yourself and have the tools and resources to track your progress. If you don't, I invite you to give the SPICER Planner a try. Until then, have a great day, and I'll see you next time.