Step 3: Take action!

Now that we’ve done the inner work, it’s time to take action.

A quick note before we continue though; this is not about deciding whether the information you’re receiving is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

This is not about berating yourself for watching too much tv, hoarding too many books, or spending too many hours on Instagram. (‘Too much’ is, after all, a completely relative term.)

What this is, is an invitation to notice how you feel when you’re engaged with various forms of information.

It’s about working out which are nourishing and enhancing your life and which are depleting it in some way.

If you’re engaging with it frequently and it doesn’t feel great, chances are it’s being used as a crutch or that you’ve developed an unhealthy attachment.

When we’re free of the emotional and mental causes of information addiction, we can eradicate that which isn’t serving us and choose differently in the future.

So, now that you’ve taken the other steps in this series (the self-inquiry worksheet and the guided visualisation), let’s talk about practical action you can take.

First up…

It’s helpful to start by reminding yourself that email, the telephone, text messages, and social media inbox messages are nothing more than a convenient organising system for other people to engage with you about the things that matter to them.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s useful. Unless you’re allowing yourself to be hijacked 24/7 by other people’s priorities.

When you think about your phone, your email, and any other message collecting system in this way, you realise that if you truly value your own time, it’s important to start being proactive in managing the way you respond.

Here are some tips to help you along:

Remove distractions

There’s nothing more likely to see you get to the end of the day and wonder what on earth you’ve achieved other than receiving hundreds of notifications from your email and social media platforms each day.

The only way to really stay focused is to turn them off and engage with your email or Instagram or LinkedIn when it suits you. If you need assistance, an app like SelfControl, or Freedom, or Limit, or StayFocused blocks distracting sites for you for the time period you specify.

Action to take: turn off the notifications for everything you don’t need to pay urgent attention to. If you need support, harness the power of technology to manage your engagement with it. 

Email

Batching and inbox zero are two approaches that have helped me in the management of my emails.

Batching involves grouping and processing your emails at a particular time of the day. Personally, I try for one x 30 minute slot each day. I prioritise the urgent matters and when the time is up, that which is not addressed is left for another day.

I’ve also partially adopted inbox zero. Inbox zero advocates managing your emails before they even hit your inbox by creating folders and automatically sending them there so you don’t see them until you go into that box. The real benefit to this is that by sending emails automatically to particular files (i.e., I don’t see them before they are filed), I’m then free to deal with things in my own time rather than in the random order that they arrive into my email system. I also feel less under siege when I open my email because there are fewer messages in my inbox.

Action to take: start batching your emails and/or familiarise yourself with inbox zero (if you google ‘inbox zero’ you’ll find plenty of video tutorials). Take an hour or so to set it up (an hour which you’ll easily make back in your first week of managing your email in this way).

Social media

Cut out unfulfilling social media and determine your ideal return on investment with the remaining media.

Social media can be an incredible time thief.  There are social media schedulers that can help you to engage with social media efficiently, but before you decide to continue with any or all of your social platforms, go back to the worksheet from step 1 of this information clean up and see which ones actually make you feel good.

When I started my business I read lots of advice about engaging in all sorts of social media. I tried a bunch of different forms to see what worked for me. I had a Twitter account for a while but it was causing me so much stress I quickly deleted it and focused on what felt natural and rewarding.

Ultimately I focused on two – Facebook and Pinterest – and once I felt settled on those two platforms, I added Instagram to the mix.

I now approach social media in the same way I approach television – I engage for a specified period of time and no more, each day. I’ve noticed that if I engage for longer, it stops being enjoyable and starts creating anxiety.

Through trial and error, I’ve discovered my ideal return on my time investment and I stick with it. Here’s a post about taking charge of your engagement with social media which you may find useful.

Action to take: Review your worksheet to determine which forms of social media are fulfilling for you. Either hand over the accounts you don’t like to someone else to manage or delete your account with that platform. (Remember; if you’re engaging with it because you think you ‘should’ but it doesn’t feel good, it’s never going to give you the returns you’d like.) Now determine your ideal return on your time investment for each form of social media and limit your engagement to that.

Television

Selective television viewing is an activity I’ve been engaged in for years now.

When I was at university I had very little time to watch television and this helped me to develop a habit that has served me well ever since. At the beginning of the week, I’d scan the television program, decide on the 2 or 3 shows that I wanted to watch and then as the week progressed, I’d turn on the television to watch those and only those i.e., I’d turn the television off when the program finished.

This became such an entrenched way of being that when I left university, I continued to behave in this manner and subsequently, never become a ‘channel surfer’.

Of course, I adopted that habit before the days of television streaming services so it wasn’t possible to binge-watch a series or stumble across another enticing offering immediately after I’d completed my designated program. This means you’re going to have to exercise a greater level of self-discipline and discernment than I needed to in the 90s. (If you find yourself struggling, go back and use the guided visualisation in stage 2 to do the energetic work of freeing yourself from any unhealthy attachment you might have to television.)

Now that it’s the 2020s, I only watch television via streaming services and here’s how I manage things; I choose 1 or 2 shows to have on the go at any one point in time. Anything else I see that might be interesting, I put into a favourites list for another time. Then in the few hours a week that I allocate to television, I work my way through one of those shows. That saves me feeling overwhelmed by choice each time I open up a streaming channel and it frees up a good deal of time that I might otherwise spend either flipping through options on the screen or watching television that’s ok but not great.

Action to take: start to select specific programs and turn the television off when they’re complete. Consider giving yourself a goal of halving your television viewing by the end of the year.

Take the same approach with the podcast shows you’re subscribed to. I have particular times in my day which are allocated to podcast listening; when I’m walking and when I’m cooking. They’re my only dedicated times unless I really need to listen to something for work, in which case I’ll take 30 minutes after I’ve completed a task that requires a lot of focus and concentration. I’ll then sit in the sun and listen to a podcast episode while relaxing. Question to ponder; if you’re a podcast listener, which parts of your day are dedicated to which shows? 

News broadcasts

I gave up following the news about the time I became a yoga teacher in 2006 and honestly, I’ve not missed it since. I did it for a simple reason – it didn’t make me feel good. In fact, it made me feel horrible. It was either upsetting or irritating and didn’t enhance my life at all.

At the time I was working in government and it was important to be aware of what was going on in the world. Still, I found that whenever anything really significant and relevant to my job occurred, I would inevitably be told about it. Although my role often required a response to events in the media, it didn’t matter whether I was the first or third or fifth person in the office to know that something had happened.

So, I allowed others (like the media team) to take responsibility for keeping abreast of world events while I stayed focused on my core responsibilities. Such an approach enabled me to dip in and out of the media as and when it was needed. The rest of the time, I stayed blissfully ignorant of things that had nothing whatsoever to do with me.

Action to take: cut out the news entirely, or keep it to a bare minimum (consciously limiting the amount of time you engage with it). You could set up a google alert to receive news about a specific group of topics you want to stay abreast of. Alternatively, you might subscribe to a news podcast and receive your news that way. Alternatively, you could sign up to a broadcast on socials and have one of the media channels send you a DM each time they have something to share.  

Your phone

There are exceptions to this rule obviously, but on the whole, many of us are answering our phones as though we were the Prime Minister or President of our country, assuming that the world will cave in if we don’t answer immediately. In truth, many of us don’t actually need to respond to every phone call or SMS the minute the phone rings or the text arrives.

As a mother, the only calls I consider urgent are ones coming from my kids’ school or my husband. Everything else gets a lower-tier urgency rating.

Of course, you might cast a wider net than me when it comes to which calls you must take immediately. And still, so many of us are letting our phones run our lives and/or undermine our relationships. If a call comes in at a time that’s inconvenient for you; if you’re in the middle of dinner, or if you’re tired and having a rest, or if you’re working and in a flow which would be disadvantageous to interrupt, don’t answer your phone.

Voice message was created for a reason. The message will still be there in an hour or at the time that it is convenient for you to respond.

Action to take: choose times to make phone calls and batch them the way you batch emails. I schedule calls and respond to messages at specified times. This ensures efficiency and keeps me in flow rather than in a constant state of interruption. Could you do the same?

The other phone-related habit I have is that rather than having long phone calls with friends, I’ll send them a What’s App voice message. That way they can pick up the message when it’s convenient and respond when it’s convenient, as can I. Given that everyone’s schedule is different, this means we can have an ongoing conversation without inconveniencing each other and bonus, it means I can batch my conversations! 

Books

I’m a mood reader so whilst my ideal scenario vis-a-vis books would be to read just one at a time, that doesn’t happen in my world. Instead, I tend to have a few books on the go from different genres; one fiction, one non-fiction. I’ll also have an audiobook going in addition to my paperback books.

If I’ve started more books than that, I notice it’s because I’m feeling uneasy in myself. Perhaps I’m going through a phase of feeling ungrounded and/or I’m having trouble with commitment, or something else is going on. When I notice that happening, I stop and observe my nervous system. I explore the underlying anxiety or stress or fear. Then I address the underlying emotional cause rather than just piling on more books.

For example; during the early stages of the covid pandemic, I was having trouble concentrating. Everything was so uncertain and as an empath, I was finding it difficult to distance myself from the prevailing energetic winds. For a while, I just couldn’t seem to settle on a book. A pile started to form on my bedside table as I opened one and then closed it, and opened another and closed that.

Eventually, I took the time to sit with what was going on and I realised that things were so unsettled in the world, I just needed something reassuring and cosy. So I worked my way back through two book series that I’d already read (all of Jane Austen’s novels and all of Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series). I knew these would keep me engaged without adding any level of anxiety to my life. All other books went back on the shelf for a later date.

Action to take: find your happy place when it comes to books. If you find yourself starting and not finishing book after book, check-in with yourself; how does this feel emotionally and energetically? Does it feel stressful or easeful? What’s the right number of books for you to have on the go at any one point in time? 

Freebies and courses and webinars, oh my!

It’s both a blessing and a curse that the online marketing world could fill your entire week with information. When you’re starting to work online this is wildly helpful. It enables you to get up to speed with an entire industry at a minimal cost. However, there’s a point at which you have to rein in the amount of information you absorb about the industry.

Only you’ll know when that is for you, but essentially it’s the point at which you become willing to pay people for their time rather than trying to work it all out yourself via YouTube videos and podcast shows.

When you reach that point, here’s what I recommend; align your education with your business priorities. It sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people’s education and training is determined by the ads they see rather than by any decision they’ve made about their business needs.

I like to identify a budget for each financial year for education and training. Then I consider my business priorities for that same year. That gives me a very clear idea of what I need to invest in.

In other words, I try to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to the educational information I engage with. From time to time, something wonderful pops up outside of what I expected to be focused on in that financial year. I see this as an invitation to exercise discernment and I take the time to consider; is this something that’s important to pursue right now or can it wait until next financial year? The answer depends on the offering and what else I have already committed to and how much space there currently is in my calendar and life.

Action to take: develop the habit of determining your educational needs ahead of the game. Develop a proactive rather than reactive approach to learning. Remember, paying someone to teach you a skill or a system or to support you with your business growth will cost you money but it will also save you time. And your time is just as valuable as your money. In fact, it’s far more valuable. 

In conclusion

Jumping to respond to every phone call, SMS, or email which comes your way will scramble your brain. So will constantly picking up your phone to check your socials. It will create a life where you’re in a constant state of reactivity and will guarantee inefficiency. It will be almost impossible to maintain momentum with your own work or creative endeavours and it will most certainly rob you of valuable time with your loved ones.

A life that’s busy for no reason is a life absent of meaning. When you value your time, you manage it in a way that works best for you.

Managing the information that flows into your daily life is integral to that.

Now it’s over to you; which of the above options will you take action on today? 

NB: This is part 3 of a 3 part series. Access all three parts right here.