Kat Kuan

Welcome To My Blog

Recommended Books

The 12 Week Year

By

I just finished reading this book, and it was really good!!

I’ve read many productivity books and articles over the years, and a lot of it is like “yeah, yeah I know I need to set goals and be disciplined about sticking with them.” So frankly, it was very surprising that I enjoyed this book on productivity!

While the concepts of planning ahead and executing on them are not new, I like how the authors have worked with many people and teams in practice, studied the most successful ones, and relayed common pitfalls that people encounter. I heavily identified with the pitfalls as points where I get stuck.

12 Weeks in a “Year”

The book’s official title is The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months. The whole premise is that instead of thinking about 12-month years, they recommend thinking in terms of 12-week years, so that’s four 12-week years in a calendar year.

The problem with 12-month years is that you start with lots of hopeful new years resolutions and then by February or March, you lose steam and fall off the bandwagon. You feel like you have many months to achieve those goals, so you procrastinate. As a result, you don’t make much progress on the goals all year. Then as the year winds down (like in October, November, December), you realize “oh sh*t, I need to get moving on my goals.” Then you hurry up and try to make as much progress by the end of the year. For some reason, we feel the pressure of the December 31 deadline and want to finish things before then, so our productivity peaks at the end.

Instead of waiting all year for this surge of urgency and productivity, the 12-Week Year condenses the timeline so that the “end-of-year deadline” comes up EVERY 12 weeks instead of EVERY 12 months. That’s how followers of this framework are able to get much more done in shorter, more focused periods of time.

Urgency of each day and week

The aha moment for me was when they said that within a 12-week year, a week translates to a month in the 12-month year and a day translates to a week in the 12-month year. The first week is equivalent to “January”, second week is “February” and so on. That shifted my mindset like whoa!

Because if you waste a day of work in the 12-week year, you’re really wasting a week of work in the 12-month year. And I think that a lot can be done in a week of work. Somehow, this analogy made me realize how much more precious a single day can be.

Within a single day, when unexpected distractions come up, it’s easy to say “oh well, I’ll do it tomorrow.” But that’s like postponing it one more week in the 12-month year. And pushing it off by one week sounds a lot worse.

Starting Fresh Each Year

Another thing that hinders achieving our goals is the feeling of guilt if we haven’t made progress on them. The authors emphasize how we must leave behind the past with each new 12-Week Year. You can’t feel bad or judge yourself for what you didn’t get done in the previous 12 weeks.

It’s almost like why we get so excited for the new year because we’re so optimistic and starry-eyed that we’ll be a better version of ourselves and get more things accomplished the next year.

There’s an excitement and newness that each new year brings, so that’s why having 4 mini years within a calendar year gives us 4 chances to restart again on our goals.

Greatness in Each Day

Ok there’s a quote in the book that I love.

Greatness is not achieved when the result is reached, but rather long before that, when an individual chooses to do the things that he knows he needs to do.

Brian Moran & Michael Lennington

It means that you must choose to be great every single day. Greatness doesn’t happen at some far off point in the future. It happens when you practice positive daily habits today that will take you towards your goal.

That means going to the gym today, eating healthy today, waking up at 6am today to do my daily writing (which is when I’m writing this), and so on.

Again, this book helped me realize the importance of this single day. If you have these big lofty goals, it can seem so daunting to reach them. It can feel like the progress made in a single day is insignificant and minuscule – so much so that it doesn’t even matter if you do it today or tomorrow or another day. But the authors argue that understanding this precise detail is what separates people who are great from people who are mediocre.

The people who are truly great take advantage of each single day because a great day for 7 days in a row translates to a great week, and 12 great weeks in a row translates to a great year. It seems obvious and common sense, but for me, the book laid out this connection very clearly for me to understand.

Sometimes it’s about finding the right teacher or reading the right book that explains something in a way that it finally clicks with you.

Creating the Plan

In addition to high-level theory, they provide practical steps on how to translate your goals into an action plan.

The gist is to create a 12-Week Year Plan, where you decide on a couple of big goals. Don’t pick too many they warn, otherwise you’ll be spread too thin. You can always address other goals in future years.

Another important point is that these goals should span BOTH your personal and work life. The authors believe that people can fail at their goals when they don’t take into account their personal goals because they can be at odds with your work goals. By laying everything out, you can see how all your goals work together. Their example had 2 work goals and 1 health/weight loss goal.

Under each goal, list the critical actions that are required to achieve the goal. For example, for a weight loss goal, it involves going to the gym every day. It shouldn’t be an exhaustive laundry list of all the things you could ever do to help achieve that goal. By keeping it short and simple, it makes it easier to accomplish. More detailed weekly todo lists can be made separately.

But this one-pager plan can be an easy reminder of what your goals are and the critical actions needed for them.

Common Pitfalls

Now plans are easy to make, but hard to stick with. The authors address common pitfalls in executing.

For example, if you’re not following through with the plan, it could be because your vision wasn’t strong enough. They go into a whole section on how to craft your vision and make it so detailed and tantalizing that it really pulls you forward on the difficult tasks.

Along those lines, they talk about how some of us have an action bias, where we have a tendency to just act to feel productive – even if we don’t know where we’re headed. Instead of jumping into action too quickly, the authors warn you to really think through what your vision and plan are. The upfront time spent planning can save you effort from going in the wrong direction.

Another mistake is to not have process control, which is a set of tools / events that align daily activities with the critical actions in your overall plan. This ensures that you’re spending your time on the tasks of highest strategic importance each day and not on low-value activities or busy work.

The last thing I’ll mention is that they covered the emotional cycle of change (see diagram here). Developed from psychologists Don Kelley and Daryl Connor, it talks about the normal human emotions that we go through when we try to make a change in our life such as learning a new skill. First we start off on an emotional high with uninformed (naive) optimism. As we realize more about what we’ve gotten ourselves into, we feel pessimistic. Then we plummet into the valley of despair as we go through the grueling parts of the change without seeing much results. Then if we stick through it long enough, we come out the other end with more informed optimism. We continue to rise even higher and feel even better as we reach success and fulfillment. I first heard about this model when reading an article about programming for beginners (Why Learning to Code is so Damn Hard), but I didn’t realize it is applied more broadly for any other type of skill!

Conclusion

Alright, those were some of the highlights and major takeaways from my experience of reading this book.

Hope you enjoyed this article and that you consider framing your years into 12-week years!

Since I finished reading this book in November, I decided to apply this on a mini scale by coming up with a 4-week plan for December to finish off the year strong, and start with a 12-week plan in January. I’ll see how it goes!

Check out the book The 12 Week Year here:

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.

A Poetry Book By Dean Jackson for Returning To Yourself

By

If you enjoyed my documentary Finding What’s Real (all videos out now! you can watch here), I think you’d enjoy this book of poetry by Dean Jackson called The Poetry of Oneness: Illuminating Awareness of the True Self.

I found out about this writer because I was watching Kim Kardashian’s Instagram Stories, haha! She gets a lot promotional gifts from her other celebrity friends who are coming out with new products and such. Anyhow, her friend Adrienne Bailon sent her a gift of new jewelry pieces from Adrienne’s new collection and included a note with this quote.

She dances to the songs in her head. Speaks with the rhythm of her heart and loves from the depths of her soul.

Excerpt from Dean Jackson poem

It’s such a moving quote! I started looking it up and reading more quotes from Dean Jackson on Google Images, and then I stumbled on some poetry books that he had written. Hence how I ended up buying The Poetry of Oneness!

When I first opened the book, let’s just say, it was not the most beautiful in terms of graphic design. But then I read in the forward that he intentionally designed the book with a lot of white space so that readers could write down their own thoughts and inspirations as they read the poems.

So yeah! Once I got past that part, I really enjoyed the poems! Don’t let the appearance of the book fool you about what kind of gems are inside the book.

I can’t express how deep some of the poems are. Sometimes I felt like “OMG! The poem’s talking about me!” Or you feel like the poem describes a relationship you have with someone. I found the perfect one to describe my relationship with my fiance and it literally made me cry. The jist is that these poems are about life, love, truth, and what really matters.

It’s great to read right before you go to bed – in solitude. It’s quite calming. Much better experience than looking at your phone right before sleeping.

I was thinking it’d be a nice gift idea for someone who may appreciate a good poetry book or some nice words of wisdom. Hmm *wheels turning in my head.*

Anyhow, my favorite poems in the book are “Butterfly,” “Self-Acceptance” and “Only You Know.” If you get it too, let me know which ones you like!

The Poetry of Oneness: Illuminating Awareness of the True Self

Other recommended books:
Grace Over Grind
Love Warrior
The 10X Rule
The Miracle Morning

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.

The 10X Rule Book Review

By

This book was excellent!! I was so excited to start writing a book review for ya’ll before I even finished the book. This book is called The 10x Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure. This audiobook was 7hr 30 min long, and it captured my interest the WHOLE time, and left me wanting more from this author Grant Cardone. I continue to watch his videos on his YouTube channel.

What is the 10X Rule?

The 10X Rule is about taking massive action (10X action) in order to achieve success in life, business, any area of your life. Grant says that if you want to achieve a certain goal, it’s going to take 10X the amount of effort AND time that you think it will take.

He says that oftentimes, people underestimate how long or how much effort it’ll take to finish something. So then when they put forth a little effort and don’t get the results they were hoping for, they give up. But he says, DO NOT GIVE UP. And keep funneling in massive energy and time towards it (and money if you have it). Because you have to commit and invest in something, in order for it to happen. You can’t just invest pennies and be cautious with small risks and expect a big return.

Who Is He?

Grant Cardone has built a sales training empire and a huge real estate portfolio – he’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars. His wife Elena Cardone is his business partner, and she describes him as a beast. At first, I didn’t know much about him, but after going through this book, wow Grant Cardone is a beast. He has this fire within and intense focus and ability to go after what he wants, no matter who or what is standing in his way. The way he reads this audiobook is with the same fervor he attacks life – he is very passionate and has a very urgent tone of voice that convinces you to act now. I actually listened to the audiobook when I was running on the treadmill and it really motivated me to push harder on the treadmill, haha!

Four Types of People

He talks about how there are 4 different types of people when it comes to taking action.

  • People who don’t act, and won’t be convinced to act. They like making excuses.
  • People who retreat and do what’s safe, perhaps because they tried it before and they saw that it didn’t work out.
  • People who do an average amount of action and convince themselves they’re doing enough.
  • People who take 10X massive action and are very successful in what they set out to do.

He says that the biggest trap is the third group of people – people who do normal amounts of action and convince themselves they’re doing enough. They’re in denial basically. But they haven’t created enough momentum. They haven’t committed enough. They haven’t gone all in. They’re still stoppable if some big obstacle happens, or they don’t act with the urgency they need and opportunities slip away.

Count Results, Not Effort

He says don’t pat yourself on the back for trying or for putting forward some effort. He says to focus on the result. For example, he says if you called someone 40 times and still haven’t closed the deal, it’s basically as if you didn’t call at all – in terms of results. So he emphasizes results. Sure, there are other benefits to growing and learning from putting forth effort, but he says that you need to push yourself to get the result you want.

10X Goals

The 10X rule is about putting forth 10X effort AND also having 10X goals and dreams. He pushes you to think bigger than your wildest dreams. He doesn’t want you to dumb down your dreams to make them more reasonable / achievable. He wants you to 10X your biggest dreams. Now that was a way of thinking that I haven’t been pushed to do in a long time! Isn’t it weird that we live in a world where we’re not challenged to think of the biggest, wildest possibilities for ourselves? Instead we’re encouraged to think small? Hmm that’s not cool.

His Own TV Show

Grant gives an example of how he wanted to have his own TV show. But he started with no connections in the TV industry. He details the steps that he took to get his foot in the door and land his TV show. It wasn’t like the opportunity just came to him and fell in his lap. This guy had to HUSTLE and show up at people’s offices to ask for appointments and had to invest his time and money to move things forward (even fly out for trips without a guaranteed meeting). He had to take a gamble on things hoping for the chance that it may work out. He didn’t wait for the TV networks to move forward with his show, he convinced the guys in charge that he was the one for the job and moved the timeline forward. I was amazed at his story because it took guts and such a strong belief in himself to practically create space for himself in this industry.

The Early Days

Grant also talks about his early days when he had nothing and was starting off. He was 25 and had just gotten out of a drug rehab program. He had gotten fired from a bunch of jobs, and got his start by cold calling and knocking on doors to gain customers. None of these people knew him and he kept showing up and calling them – even at nighttime and even on weekends. People started to be impressed with how persistent and how hardworking he was. And he built up his businesses from there. He still does things like that – picking up the phone and calling. So you can’t say that Grant inherited lots of privilege and that’s why he was successful. This guy literally built it all up from scratch and a lot of hard work.

The basic gist is that whatever is too much trouble for other people, he’s willing to do that and go above and beyond for his clients and for his business. He doesn’t shy away from hard work. He knows that taking incredible amounts of action is the only way to move towards your goal.

Obscurity

Another interesting point he made was that a new entrepreneur’s biggest challenge is obscurity. Just not being known by enough people. That’s why marketing is so important. Potential customers can’t buy from you if they don’t know who you are or what you’re offering!

In those early days, he didn’t have any money to spend on advertising, so he had to keep making phone calls and going to people’s offices to become known. Now he uses social media, his YouTube channel, talks, books, partnerships and more to broaden his network.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I thought this was a really good book to light some fire under me to get me to take more action. And it really depends what you need in your life right now. If you want someone who will soothe you and encourage you and tell you that you are enough as you are, then I would check out other authors / resources like Louise Hay. If you want someone who is more blunt and will tell you to start hauling a** and work harder, then Grant Cardone may be your guy. There’s a time and place for both types of methods to motivate yourself. 🙂

One Word on Massive Action

I leave you with one more thought from Grant. He said something interesting about the 3 types of people listed above who aren’t really taking much action: If you look more closely at their life, they are probably taking massive action on some other area of their life – maybe video games, or shopping, or a TV show, or some other area of their life. I can vouch for this theory. In the past, if I wasn’t taking massive action in my business, I was probably obsessing over something else that wasn’t important. Or just being extremely distracted by it and sinking a lot of time into it. SO if you’re going to take massive action on something in your life anyways, make it be on the thing that will make the most difference in your life. Make it count!!

If you’re ready to 10X your life, here’s the book. The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure.

If you enjoyed this article, sign up for my newsletter HERE!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.

Update on Miracle Morning 30-Day Challenge

By

If you remember, last month I wrote about the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Erod. I took on his 30-Day Challenge and tried to do the routines every day for 30 days. Over a month has flown by already! Below are the results on how I fared.

Quick recap first: The Miracle Morning routine consists of these 6 activities. You can do them for as long or as short as you’d like, but you’re supposed to do all of them each morning.

S – silence
A – affirmations
V – visualization
E – exercise 
R – reading
S – scribing (also known as writing or journaling)

The Last 30 Days

I tracked all of it in a spreadsheet, or sometimes on paper in my journal.

As you can see, there are a bunch of gaps in odd places. Some days, I did none of the activities, usually days when I had a meeting early in the morning. I traveled one weekend, so that was completely blank. But for the mornings when I had nothing immediately pressing to do, I was able to get through (most of) the SAVERS activities.

Another chart to visualize how many times I did each activity

You’ll also notice that my biggest weak spot is exercise. Often it’d be easy to do the 5 other tasks, but then I’d procrastinate and then not exercise.

Despite the inconsistencies in my routine, I still feel like I practiced each activity enough times to gain some new insights which I share below.

Silence

Prior to this challenge, I never had the time or discipline to sit in silence for a few minutes, but now I look forward to it! I crave that silence sometimes. It’s a moment to feel at complete peace and to be receptive to whatever God / the Universe has to offer you.

I’ve heard of it described this way. If prayer is asking God for something, then meditation (or silence in this case) is listening for the response.

Hence, I would clear my mind and try to listen. Oftentimes, a phrase or word or some sentiment would pop into my head. Then I would immediately write it down in my journal so I could remember it.

I would “hear” things like: Trust and soften your heart. I have everything I ever wanted. Let my heart sing. Unwaver. And so on. Sometimes I’d write these early morning thoughts on my Twitter account.

Affirmations

Another good habit! I initially started reading aloud affirmations from lists that other people created (Louise Hay or T. Harv Eker). I didn’t know how to come up with my own affirmations nor had the energy to do so.

But then as I started reading more self-improvement books and watching videos, I started to come across empowering sayings that I wanted to capture and keep repeating to myself. So I started creating my own list of affirmations that are relevant to my life. Things that may feel uncomfortable to say because I didn’t feel that confident about them being true yet. But that’s a sign you’ve got to keep repeating it!!

Here are some examples of affirmations on my personal list:

  • I will lead people to their destiny.
  • I will be all that I can be.
  • I have laser focus. 
  • I have immense self discipline.
  • I will never give up. 

Here’s one I heard in a video from JLo that I added to my list too. She ages backwards, so I think I’ll give it a shot! 😉

I am youthful and timeless at every age. I am ever evolving and my life is full of joy and adventure. 

Jennifer Lopez

Visualization

My Vision Board – YouTube video about it here

I do one of two things here: 1) I look at my vision board and just read it and take it all in. Or 2) I close my eyes and visualize the day unfolding beautifully. I envision the meetings and people I’ll be meeting and all of those things going smoothly.

Visualizing good things happening in my day does make the tasks I have to do that day less scary. It’s not a bad thing to visualize things working out well!

Exercise

Ahhh I just cringe when I think of this one. That’s probably the problem right there, ha! Anyhow, I have to say that I’ve exercised more in the past 30 days than before, so that’s a good start.

Other than that, I know I could’ve done better. I am just being too lazy. *Facepalm*

I did experiment with different types of exercise (dance, strength training, yoga, pilates, stretching, treadmill, stairmaster), and even different time durations. Hehe yes, I did 1 minute exercise days and that even counts. (Hal Erod says so himself!)

So if you really need some motivation, you could do 1 minute of jumping jacks or a 1 minute plank. Or you can move up to 10 minute yoga exercises that you can find online. Or sometimes I’d walk to do errands like grocery shopping. The fresh air does a body good!

I’m going to need to keep experimenting. This is something I’m going to need to conquer!!

If you don’t make time for exercise, you will have to make time for illness.

Unknown

Ouch, yes.

Reading

Oh I like this one! Reading is a luxurious time for me. Sadly, I can’t just sit there and get absorbed into a book for hours when I have a full day ahead of me. But reading a few pages picks my energy up. It makes me feel great that I’ve learned something new before even getting out of bed!

I usually have multiple books I’m reading at once, and I don’t finish all of them. And I have an audiobook or eBook on hand as well. So I choose from any of those books.

Reading books is an old love that I’ve returned to as an entrepreneur. Back when I was in the corporate world, I had no time to read books! My only advice: make time by getting off your phone! LoL

Scribing or Writing

I love my writing time as well. It’s a time to pour out all my ideas and worries and frustrations onto the page and then let it all go. Sometimes I spend a little too much time on this one compared to the other activities!

I usually start with 3 things I’m grateful for in my SELF journal. Then I move onto my notebook for freehand journaling. I like to rewrite the same list of goals on a regular basis as well.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve filled up many many notebooks with my random thoughts.

Ripple Effects

Going forward, I’m going to keep doing these miracle morning activities. I find tremendous value in silence, affirmations, and visualization and they are very quick to do. I think they made the most difference in my life because I hadn’t done them before. Reading and scribing take a little more time, so I can’t do them if I’m in a rush.

This is literally the beginning of having a routine in my life. I had no structure to my life prior to this. So I’m going to piggyback off this routine and start to add other healthy habits that I want to do. For example, writing my blog or checking my finances or anything else.

I heard that once you have ONE thing that you do every day, then you can use it as a trigger so that once you do that thing, then you immediately do a second activity. And by repeating that with additional activities, you slowly build up a whole day or whole life of healthy habits and routines that take less willpower to get through. *Crossing fingers* That’s the hope, people!

Here’s The Miracle Morning book if you want to check it out.

Other recommended books by Kat:
Managing Energy Not Time
No B.S. Time Management
The Most Soul Baring Book I’ve Read

P.S. If you found this article helpful, subscribe to my newsletter HERE.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.

No B.S. Time Management

By

If you like advice straight and blunt, Dan Kennedy will give to you. In his book, No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs, Dan does not hold back from laying down the law when it comes down to how to manage time effectively. He is such a stickler for time, and while you may scoff at his unconventional methods (i.e. using a fax machine), his numerous achievements at running multiple businesses and writing numerous books is no joke. He protects his time and gets sh*t done.

It’s a sizable book at 240 pages, I read the eBook version and found it was quite gripping. I couldn’t wait to read more. It got a little bit dry in one section – Chapter 14 where it became a rant about taming technology, but I stuck through it, finished it, and thought it was overall a worthwhile read!

If you are protective about guarding your money, you should be even more protective about your time! I am guilty of letting time slip by innocuously as I endlessly scroll through my phone, sigh.

How He Manages Time

Anyhow, he emphasizes understanding the worth of your time – even calculating how much each hour and minute of your life is worth. He talks about setting firm boundaries and not allowing “time vampires” to suck away your time. Example of a time vampire: someone who often drops by your office just to ask you something that ends up taking a lot of your time.

Even though he is running multiple businesses and has many private clients, he only has 1 staff person – his assistant who works on the other side of the country. He works from home and contacts her every once in awhile. The reason she is not in the same physical space as him is because then he would get interrupted a lot more. By being in different offices, they limit communication to the specific methods – faxing, FedEx documents back and forth, short check-ins. He used to have a staff of over 40+ people and go into the office on a regular basis. However, he found that when you’re too available to your employees/team, then they ask you for things that they could have figured out themselves. So he finds it best to work at home (no commute and less interruptions) with just one staff person on the other side of the country.

He also guards against interruptions by not having a cell phone. Yes, that’s right, he doesn’t have a cell phone. He did try having one once, but got so frustrated with it after 2 weeks that he threw it out his car window and never had one again. He also doesn’t have email. Yes, pretty crazy! He does his work through fax, FedEx packages, phone call appointments, and in-person consultations. It took me awhile to wrap my head around this that he wasn’t actually kidding.

He even has these strict communication rules with his clients, where they need to setup appointments ahead of time. His phone appointments are 20 minutes long, so that he can squeeze in 3 meetings into an hour. And once a month, he has these phone call days, to take care of all these calls. If there’s an emergency, the clients contact his assistant who will triage it appropriately. He requires his clients come to where he’s located, so he can save time by reducing air travel time and fatigue.

While I found some of his methods very strict, I do see the value in having those firm boundaries so that he can have as much uninterrupted time to do deep focused work. He describes the benefit to his clients in this way: when they’re meeting (on the phone or in-person), they have his FULL ATTENTION. Whereas if he was available 24/7 by phone, then they would only receive his partial attention because he could be in the midst of doing something else.

I have to admit, Dan Kennedy has seriously thought about the costs of everything – the cost of travel, interruption, context switching, etc.. By being intentional about how his time is used, he is able to have more time to relax at the racetrack in the evenings or spend time with family.

Similar to what I had learned in the last book I wrote about on The Power of Full Engagement, being extremely efficient with your time DOES NOT mean working all the time.

Dan Kennedy has budgeted time for the projects and clients that are important to him and budgeted time to enjoy life as well. That sounds like a good deal to me.

Quotes From the Book

Here are some of the quotes I wrote down:

“If anything, the passing of time has stiffened my resolve about safeguarding it, wisely investing it, enjoying it, and bringing upon any who would steal it, waste, or abuse it.”

“Is what I am doing, this minute, moving me measurably closer to my goals?”

“Just as the person who cannot tell you where his money goes is forever destined to be poor, the person who cannot tell you where his time goes is forever destined to be unproductive- and, often, poor.”

“One of the most significant things that you can control to a great extent, is association- your choices of whom you permit into your world, whom you give time or invest time with, and whom you look to for ideas, information, and education.”

“To get anywhere with an idea, you must concentrate ALL your thoughts on ONE task at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until they are brought into focus.” -Alexander Graham Bell

“There is only one success- to be able to spend your life in your own way.” – Christopher Morley

My Takeaways

One suggestion he made is to have clocks in every room of your house. Then you won’t lose track of hours passing by. You’ll always be conscious of what time it is, so you can know if you’re on track or need to move onto the next thing. I usually use the clock on my phone, so my action item is to buy more clocks for my place!!

I’ve also decided to use timers more often for my work. If I take an afternoon break or a lunch break, sometimes I’ll set a timer so that I don’t get too carried away. In addition, I’ve gone back to using Toggl and even downloaded the app on my phone too for when I’m not doing laptop work. (See earlier blogpost where I talk about Toggl.)

If you’re feeling frantic / pressed for time, here’s the book if you want to adopt some new time management techniques: No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs

For more thoughts on productivity and priorities, check out some of the episodes on my podcast What Kat Found Out, also available on all major podcast players.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.

Managing Energy Not Time – The Power of Full Engagement Book Review

By

I really enjoyed this book by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz called “The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.” What a mouthful to say the whole title!

I listened to it as an audiobook – about 4.5 hrs long. Here is the biggest takeaway I got from the book.

Renewing Yourself in Short Periods of Time

When the authors studied high performance athletes, they noticed that the really good basketball players had a routine of resetting themselves in between shots. Then they were able to get their energy back up again and go out and play hard. This made me realize – it’s not about the time length that you take to do self-care and go meditate / do yoga. It’s what you do in the SECONDS or MINUTES of downtime that can help you reset your mind.

They gave some examples of how one woman was able to adjust her work routine so that she could eat lunch outside at a local park to renew herself. I like that idea!

As for how I can apply that to my life, I think listening to my favorite music puts me in a good headspace. So if I needed to do an activity in a small period of time, I think listening to a couple songs can get me relaxed and also ready to get revved up again.

The authors argue that we can’t just keep going and working hard nonstop at all hours of the day, for days and months on end (cough cough Silicon Valley). They talk about ways to renew our energy and that it’s a cycle. Having more balance gets us to a good flow where we can have time for all the things that are important for us (health, family, activities we enjoy) instead of being overwhelmed and drained by everything we have to do.

So to get more done, we need to recover more often and more quickly.

Healthier Habits that Boost Energy

They also talk about other practical techniques and the other factors that are involved in managing our energy. They highlight activities that may feel good in the immediate moment (not exercising, smoking, indulging in an unhealthy meal), but can wreak havoc on your energy levels in the longer term. It helped me become more conscious about habits that I have that either drain or boost my energy.

Their case studies of people are also really interesting – one guy is overworked, his marriage is not doing so well, and he rarely has energy for his kids. Sounds like a common narrative. By working with him on building new habits, they help him transform his life so he can have quality time with his wife over breakfast, go to work, exercise, and also come home early to be with his kids and be present with them.

I like how the authors are realistic. They acknowledge that people just don’t have time these days. They’re not prescribing a ton more activities for you to add onto your TODO list. Instead, they make a convincing argument that it’s about finding activities that create more energy, not finding more time.

Check it out if you’re interested in managing your energy better.
The Power of Full Engagement

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.

The Miracle Morning 30-Day Challenge

By

I had heard great things about the book The Miracle Morning, so I finally got around to reading it and it was awesome!! I liked that it was short and to-the-point. No one needs another self-help book that goes on and on lol.

The author Hal Erod says that many people may do 1 or 2 great habits in the morning, but rarely do people combine all 6 habits, which he advocates for. By doing all 6 of these practices each morning, you can have lots of energy and motivation to focus on your goals and be your best self (as evidenced by all the people who’s lives have been transformed by this routine. ) Hal came up with a handy acronym to make it easier to remember: SAVERS. Or he calls them lifesavers, a cute name!

S – silence
A – affirmations
V – visualization
E – exercise
R – reading
S – scribing (also known as writing or journaling)

He emphasizes flexibility and customization to each person’s lifestyle. He says you can do this in an hour (10 minutes for each practice) or even in 6 minutes!! 1 minute each! See his 6-minute miracle morning guide here. I like how 6 minutes seems a lot more accessible than a new routine that could take hours.

I’ve been struggling with finding a good morning routine. I realized that I was primarily doing journaling, spending a heck of a lot of time on that, and I still felt off balance. So I realized that by adding silence, visualization, etc.. that it gave me a lot more balance and energy in the morning. Literally after I tried the whole routine for the first time, it felt like rocket fuel for my brain! I was so alert and energized!

By the way, affirmations felt awkward for me at first. To say affirmations out loud just felt weird. But I found a one page list of affirmations online that I can just read from, so I don’t have to worry about coming up with any on my own. And the more I practice verbally saying these affirmations, the more the words feel true to me.

Snapshot from my journal – tracking that I did each practice!

I’m still trying to find a good rhythm for the miracle morning routine, exercise is still my weak spot. But I want to commit to the 30-day challenge and do it every day for the month of March! I haven’t done it every day so far (oops), but I’m committed and hopeful to do so for the remaining days. I’ll update you on my progress afterwards. That’ll also give me incentive to stay accountable. (Last year, my publicly announced 30-day podcast challenge gave me lots of motivation and momentum.)

What does your morning routine look like? Share in a comment below!

If you’re interested in reading more about the Miracle Morning routine, you can check it out here:

The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.

Grace Over Grind

By

Grace Over Grind is a fantastic book for entrepreneurs who are looking for a solution to the unending hustle and grind every day without rest. This is a Christian book, where the author Shae Bynes offers an alternative solution: to work and rest in God’s grace where you can accomplish infinitely more than you ever could on your own strengths and abilities.

WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR

I was looking for resources from Christian business owners because I was wrestling with how can I build a business while also serve God at the same time. They seemed to be two opposites – to optimize for revenue $$ OR to optimize for serving God. And all the resources I had listened to up until now, were for the former option.

HER PODCAST

I stumbled upon her podcast called Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur. I listened to a couple of episodes and loved the stories that were shared. They explain how doing business and serving God can be aligned together. Hence, I was curious to check out her book.

HER BOOK

Grace Over Grind is a quick read, it’s only ~ 150 pages, and I finished it within a couple days. The author emphasizes how important it is to do the exercises in the book, so that’s what took me the longest because I was taking time to reflect and write out my answers. There were questions like what are you grinding away so hard at? If you were to dream with God on your business, what would that look like?

AHA! MOMENTS

I realized that being an entrepreneur isn’t about working until your eyeballs fall out. Too often, we get scared, try to seize control of the situation and try to do it all through our own efforts. We get bogged down in our own frustrations of why things aren’t happening even though we’re putting in all this effort. But things happen on God’s time and if we can trust in that, we can turn over our stresses and worries to him. The author clarifies that resting doesn’t mean sitting on the couch and doing nothing. It means continuing to take action but with guidance from God. It’s about surrendering control, being willing to ask God for help, and going where he leads you because it’s ultimately for your best and for the world’s best.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Too many believers in business idolize hard work. They exalt hard work over the presence of God in business.”

“Some people refuse the favor that God has granted to them because they don’t feel worthy of it. Favor isn’t all about you and has nothing to do with your worthiness; it’s about the assignment God has placed on your life.”

“You will have peace in the midst of seeming chaos, and joy, in the midst of unfamiliar levels of hardship or criticism. […] Live within the grace of one day only. That’s how we experience the sufficiency of God’s grace.”

CONCLUSION

Honestly, I also feel like the book could be applicable to people who are in the workforce, who aren’t necessarily entrepreneurs. Living in Silicon Valley, I can literally feel how stressed out people are about their jobs or where their career is headed. The book talks about working intentionally in partnership with God and taking it one day at a time. It put my heart at ease, and if you read it, I hope it does for you too.

Grace Over Grind:
How Grace Will Take Your Business Where Grinding Can’t

I actually got this book for free by signing up for a free month trial with the Kindle Unlimited plan. It gives access to tons of other Kindle books and audiobooks. Let’s see what else I can get through this month!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.

Answers to the 3 Most Important Questions in Life

By

The Three Questions By Jon J. Muth

This book has so much wisdom.

The Three Questions is about a boy who wants to be a good person but doesn’t know how to do that. He has 3 questions:

  • “When is the best time to do things?”
  • “Who is the most important one?”
  • “What is the right thing to do?”

All very important questions that I also have…

He seeks advice from his animal friends, but feels like their answers are missing something. He goes to see a wise turtle for an answer and along the way, discovers some powerful answers to his questions.

He learns:

  • The best time to do things is now.
  • The most important person is the one you’re with at the moment.
  • And the right thing to do is to do good for the person in front of you.

Those are such beautiful answers. Love this book so much!! It’s inspired off a story from Leo Tolstoy and told with beautiful pictures and a simple storyline for kids to understand.

For more info, here’s the Amazon link for the book The Three Questions.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.

December Favorites: Holiday and Winter-Themed Kids Books

By

Holiday season is in full swing! I have been checking out handfuls of kids books from the nearby libraries on anything winter / holiday themed. Here are my favorite finds of this month!

1. Tacky the Penguin

2. The Mitten

3. A Hat for Mrs. Goldman

4. Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect

5. An Orange for Frankie


6. A World of Cookies for Santa


Okay the below books are not holiday themed, but they’re so adorable, I had to include them! 😉

7. I Love You Through and Through


8. The Big Orange Splot

9. The Jolly Postman

And for my random item…

10. KitchenAid Blender

In the last few months, I have been using my blender A LOT – like several times a week. I’ve been making green smoothies in the morning for breakfast or for a snack. I have an older model with 4 speeds that they don’t sell anymore, but this one looks closest to it. I heard Vitamix is great too, but out of my price range for now, so I’ve been happy with my KitchenAid one!

Alright, hope you discovered something new in the list that you didn’t know about before! Happy Holidays and enjoy the rest of your December!!

Disclaimer: This post contains some affiliate links, but I would recommend these things regardless. I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Thanks for your support!