Set up rules of engagement to remind you of how you should take care of yourself, your body, and your work. They serve as reminders of what you are doing wrong and how to slowly correct things.

Rules of Engagement

Evaluate your sleep, nutrition and exercise. <ul><li>Do you have regular sleeping habits, even over weekends? Is it sufficient for you?</li><li>Do you fill your body with junk food? If so, fix it now. Clean out your pantry and start anew.</li><li>Look at exercise, both physical and mental. Are you on a strict dopamine-rushed diet of clicks to divert your attention?</li></ul>

Sleep + Nutrition + Exercise = Focus

A personal mission statement reminds you where you're coming from and puts your life in perspective. When you feel frustrated, you can go back and read how much you've progressed over a specific time.

Putting Things Into Perspective

Some distractions are more difficult to spot because they look a lot like work. Email is one of them. Nobody cares if you achieve inbox zero.If a task doesn't contribute to your vision, then it's a distraction. Only work on tasks that accomplish something.

Playing Long-Term

It consists of thinking long and hard about your life and work. Write down everything that is on your mind, then consider what is most important.<ul><li>You want to know where you want to go.</li><li>Consider the steps you need to take to get there.</li><li>Find what hinders you from achieving it.</li></ul>

Personal Mission Statement

Progress can sometimes feel like endless staircases where you climb and climb, but can never see the end.A personal mission statement allows you to look back and see how far you've climbed.

Acknowledging Progress

Work on the right things, even if you are doing it imperfectly. As long as you are working on the right things, your skill and knowledge will compound, and one day the output will become better.Focus on the process rather than the output. Don't worry about perfection.

Working On the Right Things

Money is not wealth. Money is a freedom currency. Use it to create wealth, not more money. If you do that, more money will come.Hire people to do tasks you've mastered or buy software to automate tasks. It will help you to free up your time.

Money and Wealth

You will always have thousands of tasks demanding your time and attention. Prioritize the tasks that will help you progress towards your vision and goals.

Prioritizing

Look at everything you do from big projects to small tasks and remove anything that doesn't add value. Outsource projects or drop them altogether. Unsubscribe from email newsletters.If you have a "brilliant" new idea, save it for the beginning of the new year. For now, learn to say no to yourself. Delay your ideas for the new year.

To Add, Subtract

Deadlines are the latest time by which something needs to be completed. A "deathline" is if you do not complete a task by a specific date, it doesn't get pushed back but deleted entirely. "Deathlines" are useful to rid yourself of what you thought were obligations but were really suggestions.

The Power of “Deathlines”

One of the best return-on-time-invested exercises I have been doing in the last few months is writing a personal mission statement. It's been 18 months since I've embarked on the journey of self-employment. It's been hard, but rewarding. And just when it starts to get easier, it gets harder again.

Playing Long-Term

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