How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything

I heard this post twice in the past few weeks, once from Tomas Svitorka and the other was from Paul Reviela at ProPhysique.com on one of his Youtube videos.

The reason why this quote hit home for me was that when you have this saying in mind when you go to do absolutely anything, you’ll find that this translates into a character trait that you didn’t know you had?

How you do anything is how you do everything.

I started to notice little things like the way that I treated my computer desktop was the same way that I treated my desk at work or at home; when I had too many things on my mind, I tended to dump stuff on there so it would be "in my field of view" so as to serve as a reminder to address it later when I wasn't so busy. The problem with this was that I seemed to constantly be busy. Things just kept piling up and my desks became so cluttered that those important "get to" things didn't stand out at all. It just became a pile of.. stuff merging into the background.

It was apparent at this point that my method ceased to serve its purpose. It was also apparent that this was a recurrent habit that I tended to preform in multiple areas in my life.

Once I was able to see this clearly, I could then make a decision to change this into how I lived and performed.

I started with a full sweep of my stuff, placing things away and filing issues to sort in my diary with a definitive deadline and reminders. What helped me with this is a book called The Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.

After this and making it a priority to schedule instead of "dump" I found myself having both a clearer space and a clearer mind. My productivity was boosted, I felt lighter, and I also felt much more fulfilled because I was getting more things done rather than putting it off.

Now, I do admit it can be really difficult to schedule in things with a hard deadline because I tended to underestimate how long something should take. If you're like me, what really helped was to create a buffer deadline. A deadline before an actual deadline that I needed to hit, no excuses. That way when something truly urgent comes up, I am not panicking to get the other task completed.

"How you do anything is how you do everything" really stuck with me from then on because I felt it spoke to me as a person: I wanted to be clutter free. I wanted to feel light. I wanted more for myself.

Now it's time to ask: what more do you want for yourself? What do you find yourself doing in one aspect of your life that carries over to the other aspects of your life?

Why might you keep old pens around that are a blotchy struggle to draw with but you feel it is a waste to throw out? Look around you and ask what else you might own that isn't serving you. Wouldn't it be amazing to have a drawing case full of only your favourite pens? Wouldn't you love to open up a wardrobe and love and feel great in every piece that you own?

How powerful the little habits and little mindsets can be! So remember: How you do anything.. is how you do everything.

The key is not motivation, it is commitment. Commit to Choose better for yourself.