Never Make a Promise You Can’t Keep

A couple of years ago I was working on an important report  regarding  a big and successful social media campaign that my boss was supposed to present to the client as soon as I finished it. Naturally, my boss was really eager to show the client our great work – and kept on asking me when I was going to finish.

Being good at something can make you lazy

When you’re good at something, the last thing you should do is to get comfortable.

Thoughts From My Annual Month of Unplugging

So I’m back after a month offline. It was spent with my loved ones, enjoying life and focusing on living – not documenting. This has been my best vacation so far, and a lot of it has to do with me unplugging from my digital self.

Let me explain.

Did you loose your focus? I found mine.

The key to success is to be able to focus. If you can stay focused over time, you’ll get more stuff done.

With focus you get more productive, you create a space where you can reflect and make important decisions on what to do, and when — instead of letting your inbox and the people around you set your priorities for you.

Focus is a rare fruit these days. Most of us are not able to focus at all during a normal workday — you just follow the crazy ride you’re in and see where it takes you. We no longer have work days, but work moments. That’s the new normal. People are stressed, the constantly feel they’re behind on things and most of them don’t have time or the capacity to really focus on anything.

I’ve worked a lot with myself on these things the last year. I felt strongly, like many others, that the days did not have enough hours. I would love 4-5 additional hours every day, maybe then I’d get on top of things again. Maybe then I would be able to focus.

My solution to the problem was often that I spent long hours at the office working, or even worse – spent long hours working from home. This is not the solution.

I strongly believe that it’s important with distinct mindsets between work and life. Alltho I LOVE my job, and are really passionate about all the things I do there — it’s still important to unplug and unwind.

I want to do my best at work every day, and to be able to do that I need clear lines between when I’m working and when I’m not. When you mix these to worlds together over time you’ll get tired, unmotivated and you won’t deliver your best — even tho you will not notice this at first. This happened to me, and as I got gradually more exhausted I became more distant to the people I love. I was constantly thinking about work, on my mobile checking emails and social media and was never 100% “there”. This was not a good way for anyone to live their lives.

Now, my life feels different. Because I’ve been able to create a time and space where I’m able to focus. Totally without anything disrupting me. Where is this magical place you say?

It’s called the morning.

And what a fantastic place it is! I’m all by myself, where my focus is just waiting to interact with me. The birds have not awaken, the streets are empty — just me and my focus.

I try to get up by 05:30 every morning. It’s my alone time, where I do things I normally don’t have the time, and/or focus, to do. It’s a perfect time for reflecting, thinking and just giving myself a break. In my own tempo. No inboxes, people og notifications disrupting me.

I don’t check my phone, I don’t read e-mails. I just work with whatever task I want to be focused on, I go for a run and give myself time to enjoy the silence. Then I take a shower, get ready for the office and a new day. Feeling refreshed, in control — almost zen like. I see all my co-workers getting in, tired and stressed. I get the feeling that I’m one step ahead.. an amazing feeling.

I’m not alone to feel this. There are numbers of books, articles and blog posts all telling the same story. You get more out of your day if you get up early. Our willpower is stronger and we are able to focus better. This is the shared secret between the most successful people I know.

I’ve now organized my days so that I don’t have any meetings before twelve — it’s just me and the tasks I need to focus on. After twelve I let the world in. Meetings, e-mails, notifications — but they feel different now. Because I feel like I’m in control.

I’m focused, and by being that I feel like I’m achieving something. I feel that I’m creating my own success. At work, and when I’m home.

Time-management vs energy-management

Do you obsess over getting the time to get all the stuff you want done? Well, maybe you’re doing it wrong? I was.

I’ve spent years trying to perfect my time-management. I tried to perfectly time everything, and ended up running from one thing to another — not really being present in anything. Even in my sleep I was thinking about all the things I needed to get done.

Needless to say — that’s not very good to your mind or body.

Always being stressed and behind on sleep made sure the quality of my work was never at it’s best, and that stressed me out even more. It all changed when I decided to stop focusing on time-management, and began to focus on energy-management instead.

I started to go to bed early (around 22:00), and get up earlier (around 06:00). I also started (and this is the secret sauce) doing the really hard, complicated and/or boring stuff first.

Instead of jumping into my inbox and letting people decide what I should focus on, I choose the tasks that would give me the most progress. The problem was that my subconscious usually picked the easy wins that really did not matter in the big picture. But that made me feel good then and there, before I evolved into even more bad conscience. But by doing the tasks that gave a big progress first something happened.

I discovered that it was a lot easier getting my “bad conscience” tasks done as the first thing in the morning. My willpower, energy and ability to focus was much stronger. And as I started reading up on things I realized that I was not alone. A lot of people think that we have more willpower and energy early in the day. As the day pass by, and the longer we stare into a screen it starts to sink dramatically.

It’s easier to be re-active then pro-active when you select the tasks you should be working on. Re-active gives us the feeling of small quick wins, but being pro-active keeps you ahead of the game, and gives you a long-term win instead. It takes a lot of practice to be able to do every morning, but wow — when you get the hang of it, your days feel so much better. I sleep better, I don’t stress things and I have much more energy. More energy gives me more time to do the things that matters to me. In both my professional and personal life.

So try to focus on your energy instead of the time the next few days — you’ll feel a big difference. I promise. You’ll have the energy to do the stuff you want. Instead of being half present, half asleep, when you try to do the stuff you want to, you’ll feel well rested and present in the moment instead.

And that’s awesome. For yourself, and the people around you.

The tools I use to get things done

Over the years I’ve posted hundreds, if not thousands, of thoughts online. Words, blogposts, tweets, checkins, status updates, pictures and videos. I feel really lucky that while sharing I’ve built up an audience of wonderful people how often sends me emails, tweets and messages. That’s the number one reason why I still spend so much time sharing.

A couple of months ago, after blogging about how I like to work (norwegian link), I got an email from one of my readers. He wanted to know more about the tools I use to organize and work everyday. I’ve been and GTD (Getting Things Done) fan for many years, after my friend Morten introduced me to this method. And it’s been a life changer. By having total faith in my system, I’m never afraid of forgetting things.

So. What tools do I use to accomplish this? Actually, it’s just to apps.

Evernote
I use Evernote for collection everything. My inbox for everything if you like. Here I collect clips from the web, quotes I like, facts, pictures, links. I even take a picture of all the physical mail I get, and all the business cards and archive it in Evernote. I have two inboxes in my life. My e-mail inbox, and Evernote. Everything in Evernote is indexed so I’m able to search for any word in any document or picture. Even the pictures of my whiteboard scribbles show up in search. I never lose anything.

Every day after work I browse through my inbox and add tasks of the things I need to do before the end of the week. And every  friday I go thoroughly through every item in there and process them all.

Omnifocus
While Evernote is where I collect everything, Omnifocus (on my mac, iPad and iPhone) is where I organize and decided what I’m going to spend my time on. Personal and business related stuff. I have all my active projects, all my todos and a timeline of when things need to be done.

I make sure that I have only five important things I have to get done every day. To give me the feel of accomplishing things, and after completing these tasks. I select five more. I only view five at a time, and only fridays under my weekly review I view them all – and review them all.

I start every task with a verb, and break them down to as many small tasks as possible. If a task needs more than one task  to be completed – I create a project for it.

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By sticking to my system, and being consistent of where I store and how I organize. I have a lovely feeling of always being in control. It’s a powerful thing.

En måned uten – en oppdatering

Desember var måneden i prosjektet mitt ett år uten hvor jeg skulle leve uten smarttelefon. Min dumtelefon skulle være eneste telefonen jeg skulle ha med meg. Telefonen virker kun for å sende meldinger og ta/få samtaler – så jeg så frem til roen midt i desember stresset.

Slik ble det ikke. Jeg fant aldri frem min dumtelefon, selvom jeg flere ganger leitet – så har jeg innsett at den er mistet. Etter de første dagene så bestemte jeg meg for at jeg skulle kjøpe en ny dumtelefon, dette skjedde heller aldri. Desember stresset slukte meg og jeg glemte helt å stikke innom en butikk for å kjøpe en.

Så jeg failet. Jeg har brukt smarttelefon og vært relativt aktiv på alle apper, sosiale medier og det som hører med. Sånn er det av og til. Av og til når man ikke målene sine, og av og til får man ikke ting til.

Hele desember var  litt i ubalanse for meg, men i dette nye året har jeg fått tilbake litt fokus og indre ro. Januar er måneden jeg skal leve uten søtsaker, dette går foreløpig veldig bra. Klart jeg har godtesug etter en ganske så usunn desember, men føles deilig å spise sunn mat igjen.

Tilbake til min smarttelefon vs dumtelefon. Med litt dårlig samvittighet ovenfor meg selv i hele desember pga at jeg ikke klarte å logge av som jeg ønsket, var dette faktisk den avgjørende faktoren som gjorde at jeg bestemte for mitt neste bokprosjekt. Så noe bra kom det jo ut av dette!

Denne måneden som alle andre, kommer jeg til å poste i Facebookgruppen til prosjektet fra tid til annen. Følg med der, og still gjerne spørsmål og kom med innspill.

3 little words for 2014

In 2013 I lost 17 kilos, regained focus at work — and found balance in my personal life. Right now, I’m a better version of myself. That’s an amazing feeling. Much thanks to three little words — and a whole lot of focus, determination and hard work.

Last year I decided I was done with New Year’s resolutions. I never kept them anyway. I decided to set a direction instead of setting goals. I carefully picked three words I would focus on — and use them as guidance to everything I did and wanted to do.

My three words for 2013 was: no, “quality time” and health.

I needed to say no more often, I got swamped by projects and responsibilities. Making me unable to deliver a hundred percent on the things I spent my time on. I needed to spend more quality time with my girlfriend, family and close friends. And I really needed to pay more attention to my health. What I eat, and how I treated my body.

It’s been a really good year for me, and I feel that I accomplished a lot with my three little words as guidance. I’m healthier then ever, I freed up more time by saying no more often and by that got to share a lot of precious experiences with my loved ones. I‘ve grown. And for that, I am proud.

Now, as 2014 is closing in. It’s time to reflect on this year, and decide what the next will bring. What direction should I steer myself into next year? What words will I choose as guidance?

My words for 2013 are going to stay with me, as they now are a natural part of my everyday living. But I’ve also picked three new little words (with so much meaning and anticipation behind them) for 2014.

They are.

Mindfulness
I want to be even better to live in the moment. I want to stop multitasking. I want to be calmer, in the zone. I want to meditate, unclutter and simplify. I want to be more mindful of myself, everything, and everyone, around me.

Write
I love to write, and I want to grow into a better writer. I want to finish my second book by the end of the summer. And I want to write at least 20 minutes every day. Both about my professional, and personal, life’s experiences and thoughts. I believe the more I write, the better writer I become.

Travel
It’s by traveling you grow. It’s when you get into weird situations you did not expect, meet strangers, visit places you’d never been — that’s when you learn the most. I want to travel more, in and outside Norway. Not just cities, but it’s time to explore the outdoors more then I have. I want to sleep outside, walk in the mountains and experience nature. I want to unplug from technology on my travels — and just soak it all in. As much as I want to be a writer, I want to be a traveler.

So that’s my words. Just three little ones. But they mean a lot to me. The symbolize so much more. 2014 is going to be one hell of a year.

Just me writing about this makes me really psyched to get the new year started. I’m going to grow, fail, get up, learn, evolve and grow some more. All while having fun, staying humble and being hungry along the way.

Goodbye 2013, hello 2014. I’m ready.

If you feel psyched too, please join my mailing list to get updates from me.

30 råd for 30 år

Helt siden jeg var liten har jeg følt meg voksen. Når jeg var ti synes jeg det var urettferdig at alle femten åringene kunne være lenger opp enn meg. Jeg var jo nesten like stor som dem, og jeg visste ihvertfall like mye som dem. Samme i tyveårene. Folk som var tredve og førti – jeg var minst like moden, vis og erfaren som dem.

Nå er jeg her igjen da. I morgen fyller jeg tredve år, og jeg føler meg voksen. Like voksen som når jeg fyllte ti og tyve.

Jeg er heldig. Jeg føler, akkurat nå her jeg sitter i stuen min, at jeg er den beste versjonen av meg selv. Jeg har funnet en balanse som passer meg. Jeg har en herlig sønn som jeg elsker å tilbringe tid sammen med, jeg har en fantastisk kjæreste som jeg elsker å dele livet mitt med, og jeg har min nærmeste familie som alltid støtter meg. Jeg har gode mennsker i den nære sirkelen min som jeg er så heldig at jeg kan kalle venner. Jeg har en god helse, og jobber med noe jeg elsker.

1. Jeg føler jeg har opplevd mye i løpet av mitt unge liv (jeg er ung fortsatt right?). Jeg innser også at jeg ikke lenger kan kalle meg ung, så tenkte jeg for meg selv. Hvorfor ikke dele 30 råd jeg skulle ønske jeg hadde fått som den unge meg?
2. Sett av mer tid til dine nærmeste. Familie, kjæreste og venner – det er disse øyeblikkene sammen med dem som virkelig betyr noe.
3. Lær deg å lage mat.
4. Les flere bøker. Ikke bare fagbøker, men alle slags type bøker. Ikke bare skum igjennom bøkene, men virkelig les dem. Sug til deg språk, historier og hva de ønsker å formidle.
5. Bruk den nydelige naturen rundt deg.
6. Drikk mer vann. Begynn dagen med å drikke et stort glass vann, og fokuser på å drikk mye vann gjennom hele dagen.
7. Prøv mer mat. Fisk kan faktisk smake godt tilbredt på riktig måte.
8. Aldri vær redd for å si din mening.
9. Gå mer. Gå når du har muligheten i stedet for kollektivt eller taxier.
10. Aldri slutt å hjelpe mennesker du ser trenger hjelp, selvom du ikke kjenner dem.
11. Lær deg flere språk.
12. Ta bedre vare på kroppen din.
13. Ikke kjøp så mange ting. Men finn noen få ting som virkelig har en nytte og en verdi for deg.
14. Skriv mer.
15. Alltid lytt til magefølelsen din. Den er det viktigste du har.
16. Reis mer rundt i Norge.
17. Spis flere sunne enn usunne måltider.
18. Si nei oftere.
19. Løp deg lange turer ut i naturen.
20. Ikke bruk penger du ikke har.
21. Snakk med mennesker du ikke kjenner.
22. Ikke la teknologien være en for sentral del av hverdagen din. Tør å koble ut, trekke deg tilbake.
23. Bruk mer tid alene. Lær å elske ditt eget selskap.
24. Din favoritt rødvin er Clos de l’Oratoire des Papes 2011.
25. Aldri vær redd for å feile.
26. Tro på deg selv. Alltid.
27. Det er bra å gjøre ting som er utenfor din komfortsone. Da vokser du.
28. Forvent mindre. Da blir du alltid positivt overrasket.
29. Alltid ta deg tid til å stoppe opp. Lukke øynene, og nyte øyeblikket. Ta deg tid til å virkelig være tilstede i hverdagen.
30. Alltid fortell de rundt deg hvor mye de betyr for deg.

En måned uten å kjøpe nye ting

Wow, tiden går fort. Vi er allerede inne i 4 mnd av mitt ett år uten prosjekt. Denne måneden skulle jeg klare meg uten å kjøpe noen nye ting – bortsett fra mat selvfølgelig.

Disse 30 dagene har gått fort, og jeg har blitt satt på mange prøvelser. Jeg har reist til London, Paris og hatt behov for både treningstøy og annet. Jeg har flere ganger nesten gått på en smell, men med god hjelp fra min kjære – har jeg klart å holde meg.

Hva har jeg lært?

• Man kan faktisk gå en hel måned uten å kjøpe noe som helst
• Det er deilig å ikke ha alternativet
• Man slipper ikke å gå på shopping med dama, hun drar deg med i butikker i Paris «okke som».
• Jeg har blitt mer bevisst på hva jeg ønsker å kjøpe, og hvorfor jeg har lyst på det.

I hele desember skal jeg leve uten smarttelefon. Jeg skal kun bruke min Nokia steinalder dumtelefon. Dette gjør jeg for å få ro i julestrien, jobbe fokusert når jeg er på jobb og koble ut når jeg ikke er på jobb.

Jeg kommer som vanlig til å poste fortløpende i denne Facebook gruppen for dere som liker å følge med.