Progress Over Perfection: A Guide to Mindful Productivity (Volume 12) (Live Well, 12)

Emma Norris guides you in setting purposeful plans that are right for you and nurturing a healthier approach to prioritizing, so you can live a more value-based life.

She’ll guide you through monotasking, batch working, productivity, and resting—not quitting.

As we face uncertainty from all directions and new obstacles at every turn, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. This state of mind leaves little room to figure out what we want to do and lots of room to doubt ourselves. We can fill up our days, but it doesn’t always mean we are being productive. Or we can have lots of plans and not know exactly where to start to achieve what we want.

Having more mindful productivity habits can combat these challenges by helping you keep track of your goals and accomplish them. You can pick the right methods to achieve things without feeling stress, anxiety, or the pressure of external factors while also improving your focus and living a purposeful life. Life doesn’t always go as planned, and when that happens, we want to be prepared to be our most productive selves.

Each chapter of this book is tailored to help you achieve mindful productivity. You’ll learn to:
  Pursue progress over perfection Embrace the chaos Set boundaries Create realistic objectives Practice mindfulness And much more
You’ll not only nurture a more stress-free lifestyle, but also learn to embrace the unexpected challenges that may come your way. You will learn how to cultivate productivity into your everyday routine, so you are able to achieve anything you set your mind to without the pressure of doing everything.

With Progress Over Perfection, you’ll find the courage and the resolve to do what you want to do without having to compromise your plans to fit the pressures of everyday society. It’s possible to be your true self and achieve anything you want, even among the chaos.

The Live Well series from Rock Point invites you to create a life you love through multiple acts of self-discovery and reinvention. These encouraging gift books touch on fun yet hardworking self-improvement strategies, whether it’s learning to value progress over perfection, taking time to meditate and slow down to literally smell the roses, or finding time to show gratitude and develop a personal mantra. From learning how to obtain more restful sleep and creating a healthy work/life balance to developing personal style and your own happy place, the Live Well series encourages you to live your best life.
 
Other books in the series include: Find Your Flow; Be Happy; Seeking Slow; Finding Gratitude; Eff This! Meditation; The Joy of Forest Bathing; Find Your Mantra; It Had to be You; Men’s Society; Genius Jokes; The Calm and Cozy Book of Sleep; Beating Burnout; Ayurveda for Life; Choose Happy; and You Got This.

From the Publisher

Overcoming Perfection Paralysis

For many high achievers, being a “perfectionist” is worn like a badge of honor.

Like being busy or stressed, it tends to go hand in hand with the idea of being a hard worker. But while holding yourself to an impossibly high standard may seem impressive or honorable, it can actually hold you back in life. Why? Because “perfection” simply doesn’t exist! You wouldn’t continue climbing a mountain if you knew there were no summit, right? That would be freakin’ exhausting and pointless. Well, relentlessly pursuing perfection is pretty much the same thing.

When you set impossible standards for yourself, it does you more harm than good. First, you set yourself up for failure. So, even when you do make some amazing progress toward your goals, you’re still left feeling like it’s never enough. Instead of acknowledging the fact that you’re stronger and fitter and wiser than the woman you were yesterday, you’re begrudging the fact that you’re still not as strong or fit or talented as that woman you see on your Instagram feed.

Perfectionism is the mountain that has no peak.

Second, it can be seriously detrimental to your well-being— both physically and mentally. Just like scaling that never-ending mountain, constantly chasing perfection is going to run you ragged. The result is that you’ll be too exhausted and depleted to enjoy all the amazingness you already have right in front of you!

Takeaway Tip

Make a list of the five people you value most in your life. Then, write down what you love about them. Chances are, it’s not because they’re “perfect” but rather because of, the little idiosyncrasies that make them who they are. Next, practice showing yourself that same compassion!

VISUALIZE YOUR GOAL. ASK YOURSELF: What can I hear? What can I see? What can I smell? What can I feel? What emotions am I experiencing?

Takeaway Tip

Try to stay aware of when the multitasking monster creeps in. Next time you catch yourself doing it, ask yourself, “Is it really necessary that I do both of these things at once?” Try to prioritize which task is more important and complete it before you move on to the next one.

Break It Down

You’ll want to break your goal into quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily chunks.

Say, for example, you want to launch an online course within three months, and it contains ten modules. Your timeline might look a little like this:

At the beginning of the quarter: Plan out the modules of your course and the information they will include. Monthly: Batch-record all the videos of the modules you have written that month. Weekly: Write one module for your course. Send a newsletter to your email list to spark interest in your course. Daily: Listen to a podcast from a marketing expert for tips on how to promote your online course.

Ditch the “All-or-Nothing” Mind-Set

Many of us get so excited about our goals in the beginning that we try to do all of them at once.

If we decide we’re going to “get healthy” (a vague goal if I’ve ever heard one!), we might try to exercise every day, drink three gallons of water, cut out carbs and sugar, and meditate each morning. The problem with this kind of all-or-nothing approach is that it’s completely unsustainable. It’s too drastic and sudden of a lifestyle change, so you fall off the bandwagon quicker than you can say, “One pepperoni pizza, please!” And because you’ve “failed” at one of your goals, you decide that the whole day is a write-off, and then the week, and then the month . . . and, well, you get the idea.

What’s far more effective is implementing just one positive change at a time. So, you might decide to start by drinking more water. You can focus on doing that and only that, until after a few weeks or months, it becomes a habit and you don’t have to think about it. Then, start layering on other positive habits, one by one.

Takeaway Tip

Pick just one positive habit you can implement today to get you one step closer to your goals. Set a reminder on your phone to ensure that you do it each day, until it becomes an ingrained habit. You can also use a habit-tracking app to send you reminders and ask you to check in.

CREATE YOUR SELF-WORTH MANTRA I love myself because of my imperfections, not in spite of them. My self-worth does not depend on my accomplishments. I am not afraid to make mistakes, as they make me wiser and braver.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rock Point (May 26, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 163106682X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1631066825
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.63 x 8.13 inches