Create Goals; Craft Routines

When I first attempted open water swimming, I was taken aback by the lack of visibility. When I was training, I had the reassuring comfort of the lane lines on the bottom of the pool. In open water swimming, you can’t see anything. My initial reaction was to pull my head out of the water so I could see where I was going; however, this is the opposite of what I should be doing. There are two keys to effectively swimming in open water.

Key 1: Don’t look up.

If you want to swim quickly and effortlessly, you need to keep your head down. The reason is when you lift your head, your body and legs will lower. This creates drag. When swimming, you want to remain as perpendicular to the direction you are traveling as possible to reduce surface area.

So when I found myself blinded by the murky water, I just turned inward. I focused on my form. I regulated my breathing. I started my practiced rhythms that would put me in flow. I trusted that I was going the right direction, and I focused on how well I was getting there.

Key 2: Look up.

Let’s face it. No matter how fast you are going, if you are going the wrong direction, you won’t get to where you want to be.

I had to integrate periodic spot checks into my swimming form to make sure I was still on target. I had to make sure they were not too frequent to slow me down but also not too infrequent that I would lose time and energy to swimming in the wrong direction. I had to lift my head, quickly make any adjustments, and then get my head back in the water and back in proper alignment.

Reduce cognitive load.

You can use these principles in how you organize your work and life.

Setting goals is important, but constantly reexamining and reprioritizing all our goals and opportunities can be exhausting. One way to reduce this cognitive load is to make the decision once and shape your life, routines, and habits to reinforce that decision.

Become a Medium member If you have ever wondered why Steve Jobs always wore that same black mock turtleneck and jeans, this is why. He was trying to reduce decision fatigue. He knew he had to make so many important decisions throughout his day, he chose to craft his day and routines to reduce the number of non-essential decisions he had to make.

Make a plan and stick to it.

There is a great book called Willpower Is Not Enough. It makes the proposition that if something is important enough to pursue, it is important enough to not leave to willpower alone. Instead, what you should do is take stock of what it will take to achieve your goal and craft your daily and weekly routine to get you there.

For example, if you wanted to run a marathon, you wouldn’t just try really hard the day of the race. You would plan out a routine that slowly intensified until you were ready for the big day.

Create spot checks.

As you are crafting your habits and routines, it is smart to build in regular check-ins at multiple levels.

Daily Review and Planning — I spend 30 minutes at the end of my day looking over my day. I review my notes. I gather my action items and add them to my GTD style to-dos. I process my email and slack messages and plan out my next day. This is my opportunity to send out reminders, make sure agendas are ready for the next day, and cancel any meetings without an agenda.

Weekly Check-in — At the end of each week, I take an hour to take stock at what I accomplished over the week and to plan the next week. I budget my time similar to how I budget my finances. I fill my calendar with both meetings and work blocks, sliding my to-dos into open time slots. It is easier to be disciplined with your future self than your present self. In addition, I look at how well I was able to stick to my schedule and what the things are that distracted me.

Monthly Check-in — These are great for taking a look at my higher level and longer distance goals. Instead of just looking at whether I wrote a blog post, I take the time to ask if writing blog posts is the most effective way to achieve my goals. Where do I want to be in one year? Three years?

Routines can be fun.

All of this focus on routines may sound dull, but it doesn’t have to be. Similar to how people think of budgets as a tool to spend less money, people think of schedules as a way to force themselves to do things they don’t want to do. But that isn’t the purpose of either.

The goal is to align your capacity with your values. There is nothing saying you can’t schedule a nap. In fact, the greatest artists never left creativity to chance. They had strict schedules that protected time for thinking and creating.

Your time is your life. What will you do with it?