With the conclusion of each week, month and year, I am hit with a sense of, “Hmph, life sure is flying by. Did I make the most of that time?”

And as much as I enjoy motivational sayings and quotes, my goal is provide you with specific actions and steps that help you live and perform better.

One of my mentors stresses the importance of bullet points. “People like bullet points,” he says. And what he says, goes (at least for me). So in conjunction with his advice and some recent feedback I received from a loyal friend and reader (THANK YOU ALL for the comments on www.charlie-brenneman.com/blog!), I decided to highlight some key strategies used by myself and others that help improve performance.

Let’s focus on 2 things: utilizing our time by getting up earlier and improving our personal organization/management systems. Here are a few simple, useful strategies:

  • Set your alarm 1-minute earlier each day until you reach your target wakeup time. What’s one minute?!? One month later, you’re up a half-hour earlier. If it gets tough, hit pause for a few days. Incremental change yields HUGE results. (Read The Slight Edge!)
  • Hold yourself accountable – Schedule some sort of action at your target wakeup time that 1. Is a service to someone/something else or 2. Simply holds you accountable to another person. I take my dog for a walk every morning. She loves it. I feel like dog poop if I’m not downstairs by 6 AM. She’s depending on me. Or schedule an “I’m awake, are you awake?” call with a friend or family member.
  • Research/implement a personal management system – I use Evernote. It takes the clutter from my brain and puts it in writing; it frees up brain space/energy.
  • Hone your habits – Make one little positive change (diet/exercise/attitude/etc.) and watch it compound. Need an example? Drink a glass of water every morning. Or don’t complain for 7 days. Start tomorrow!

I hope these help, and if you have any other suggestions, please click on the link and comment below. I’d love to add them to my collection!

Yours Truly,

El Español