Further Your Lifestyle

EP. 182 - Routines and Habits are the SECRETS to success! | Further Your Lifestyle Podcast

Your Host: Chris Furlong Episode 182

Watch here: https://youtu.be/cnYIKngslHM

In Episode 182 of the Further Your Lifestyle podcast, Chris explores the question of which habits and routines have significantly boosted his productivity, sharing personal experiences and insights. This episode delves into the importance of creating personalized systems and the role of consistency and adaptability in achieving long-term goals. Chris emphasizes the impact of sentimentally-rooted habits, such as Tuesday nacho nights, and the necessity for strategic adjustments, like shifting from running to cycling due to an injury. He also touches upon habit stacking, inspired by James Clear's 'Atomic Habits', and how important it is to establish simple, individually tailored routines to consistently further one's lifestyle. Engage with this episode to reflect on your productive habits and potentially find new strategies that resonate with you.

00:00 Welcome to Further Your Lifestyle Podcast
00:26 Introducing Today's Topic: Productivity Habits
01:59 Chris's Personal Journey with Routines
04:49 The Importance of Consistency and Flexibility
06:20 Building and Adapting Habits Over Time
08:41 The Role of Accountability in Routines
14:02 Tips for Simplifying and Personalizing Your Habits
16:18 Wrapping Up and Final Thoughts

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Speaker 1:

Yo yo yo. Welcome back to the Fill your Lifestyle podcast conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris, I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you, episode 182 today. October is here, we are getting close to the end of the year and this topic, this question that has come through and it's a great topic to talk about because it's probably one which, by nature, it just has always been a part of me and that question in itself is what habits or routines have had the most profound impact on your productivity and how did you discover or develop them. I think it's an interesting conversation. I think it allows me to share some of my own practical aspects and the way I think about things. That's going to be different for everyone, and my encouragement for you is answer this question yourself what are some of the things that work for you and what does that look like, and how do you try and make that consistently more and more in your life? Because when we do that, it will contribute to helping you achieve your goals easier. Right, when we have things that work, when we remove friction points, when we have things that work as a well-oiled machine, it does make things a little bit easier. Now, last week, we spoke about what does success look like, and I think one of the steps to getting to success is making sure that you have a path to it, and that path sometimes can be routines or following habits or systems that enable us to get there. So that's what we're talking about today. I'm going to give my own fresh perspective on this off the cuff, and if you've got questions or thoughts along the way, you can jump down below here on the YouTube version. Otherwise, if you enjoy this episode, please share it with someone else. But yeah, let's dive in. Roll the intro. I'll ask the question again what habits or routines have you had the most profound impact on your productivity? I'll say that again what habits or routines have had the most profound impact on your productivity and how did you discover or develop them? Look off the cuff.

Speaker 1:

I've always been a bit of a routine junkie. I was homeschooled for a good four years of my life and I was a bit of a routine junkie. I was homeschooled for a good four years of my life and I was a bit of a studious fella. I did my own kind of. I just like to do my own things. I've always been a bit of a person in my shell, not very outgoing, kept to myself, and I'm happy with that. I don't have a huge bunch of friends that I'm not always going out, not always doing the things. I was happy to stay home and do my own thing.

Speaker 1:

Now, what has always kept me rooted is I attach myself to things that bring in sentiment like of sentimental understanding or sentimental emotion, and I'm very loyal. I love consistency and I love to remove the need to have multiple decisions all the time. I love to just have things where I can just do and because I probably get a little bit it's not OCD, I don't have OCD, it's more around. I just like things to go their way and it helps me then manage change better because I know what I've got in place, because I know what I have in place in structure, in routine. It means I know what I can shuffle and change with ease. And a good example of this is and it has changed over the years, obviously, when I was studying at university, some of those things have been out of my control because you're at university, you have different classes, but now that I, when I started working full time and then now my own business.

Speaker 1:

The routine for me isn't necessarily about at this time I've got to do that, but having things that fall me back onto a rooted lifestyle. So, for instance, whether it's running, what days do I run, those are the days I run. I don't like running on other days. What time of the day do I run? I do that because it works best for me. It helps me conquer the day better. I do this thing called family night, nacho night. We do that every Tuesday and that's been rooted in me from when I was a kid and that has come from dad hiring a projector and we watched Star Wars. I knew Hope for the first time on the projector we had nachos and it was amazing and that has resonated with me ever since. And you ask anyone in my family or most of my close friends, I talk about that like it's like having nachos the first time every week. I get excited for it, it gets me excited and it's something to look forward to. Other things is routines around what days I do things and helps me just fall back where I like to do things, how I like to do things. And again, this has changed over the years because my life has changed, become more busy, helps me just fall back where I like to do things, how I like to do things. Again, this has changed over the years because my life has changed, become more busy, and things like that. For me, that's what enables me to be effective in doing things. It's always hard to create new routines and habits, though, because I'm so stuck in my current At the time of me filming this I'm actually filming this back on the 11th of August and we're already in October when this comes out and at this current moment, as me recording, I've just gone from running to I've started cycling because I've got a running injury, which is going to be a bit of a setback Now.

Speaker 1:

Me not running. I was happy not to do it for a period of time because I knew that I was recovering, but it started to really get me frustrated because I wasn't able to get out and do my routine of running, which is also for a mental thing, not just for exercise. So I needed to be able to find a way to replace that. So now I've bought in cycling and it helps get me the same result. I can put it into the same building block of a routine and it's a win right. It means that we're able to change things around.

Speaker 1:

No-transcript and like. A good example of this is at the start of every year. I don't like to set necessarily goals. I like to give the first 30 days to see what really starts to motivate me, really start to resonate with me and really push me into the year, knowing of what I've achieved the prior year. When I've achieved something let's say whether it was achieved a 50K ultramarathon, or maybe I achieved a certain revenue in the prior year, or you were able to achieve a certain achievement. I achieved a certain revenue in the prior year or you were able to achieve a certain achievement. Based on that, I naturally look to the next year and I continue to start that and see if I can gain some extra momentum. And then when that momentum takes off, I then start to say, okay, this is what I want to do or this is what I don't want to do. And over the years that has changed, where I've put extra attention, my focus and the love and care, and to really dig into those different habits or routines.

Speaker 1:

But habits are like a muscle memory things that you can do, that you can just. It's just routine based. You don't have to think about it. And look, if we think about when we talk about routines and habits from a cliche perspective, that's the small, consistent actions that lead to bigger results, and I think that's super important. We've spoken about this before. If you can do little things every day, that's going to get you closer to where you want to be. Then that's going to enable those big results to occur, whether it's saving, whether it's running, whether it's exercise, whether it's reps, whether it's learning, whether it's experience, all those different things.

Speaker 1:

But I think sometimes, unless you put intentional habits in place, nothing will change. Like you, cleaning your teeth, that's not going to get you bigger results, it's just going to maintain your teeth, so you don't have to have an expensive bill, potentially right. So there's that perspective, right. And then there's the perspective of how do we go about becoming a better version of ourselves, and that usually means replacing something with something else, whether it's like doing like a digital detox, or removing something from your current world, or doing to then replace it with something else so that you're growing. It might be a change of food for diet, it might be, yeah, not having as much screen time, or going to bed earlier or starting to run at a different time, or I guess it's the integration of physical to run at a different time, or I guess it's the integration of physical, mental and emotional health routines to really further your lifestyle.

Speaker 1:

And the other thing that I think maybe that doesn't get spoken about a lot is why are we doing routines and habits and I think it's easier, and we spoke about this a bit last week with the success story why are we implementing that routine or habit in the first place? What is it that you want to achieve? And I think if you can balance the challenge of instant gratification versus long-term gratification, that helps you ride out these routines or habits easier. Right, because if you know that, if I do this every day for the next 365 days, I'm going to see results. But it's usually quite hard to get into that because you might not understand the bigger reasoning why you're doing it. Are you just doing it to prove a point? Are you doing it just because you think it's going to be easy but then you realize it's hard so you stop doing it? Understanding what the longer-term play is to get the daily gratification to then get the big payoff at the end is what's going to be super important, but also for me, routines my YouTube I drop all things consistently of when I do certain types of stuff.

Speaker 1:

It's changed a bit now because I'm not running and I'm not thrifting as much, because I'm spending a lot more time in the business. But having that accountability, what are you putting in place to keep yourself accountable For me? I'm here, documenting, sharing, doing this podcast. No one else is keeping me accountable to the podcast. I've said I'm going to do an episode every week this year me recording. I said every time I record, I'm going to record two episodes minimum, so I'm always getting ahead. So it buys me back time. That is a routine, that is a habit that buys me back time and gives me the control of things later and it gives me the freedom so I don't have to stress about things and at the time I think at the moment we're about, I think we're seven episodes ahead I've done seven episodes that I have actually outsourced. That gets edited for me and again, buying back my time. So putting in those things enable you to do those things and then spend your time how you want to spend it. That's really important.

Speaker 1:

One of the other things that I think over time that has changed for me is too many tasks or too many distractions, and that's why I like, at the start of every year or if I'm about to start a new progress growth journey, is understanding what is important to me, what isn't, and just figuring out what's sticking, what isn't sticking, and then the stuff that sticks stick with it, and the stuff that doesn't, it's probably not important to you, because naturally we prioritize what is important to us. The key is finding why is that important to you? And I think that's why it becomes difficult to maintain habits in the longterm, because we don't know why we're doing it. If you're only doing it because someone says you should be doing it, then when you understand, does it actually make any difference? You probably think maybe it's not worth even doing. So. A lot of people just do things because they've always done it, challenging those different things as well, and that will help you then build new habits as well. But I think one thing which I think it's from Atomic Habits. Atomic Habits, it's got the book by James Clear and he talks about habit stacking.

Speaker 1:

When you do things, you're then able to do other things on top of that because you've got the consistency, you've got the routine, you've got the momentum. You don't have to think about that anymore. You're now able to go do it. A good example of this is like my running routine. If I have four days of running through the week, when I first started they might've been a 1K, a, 2k, a in terms of volume or effort, because your 5K becomes a 10K and your 10K becomes a 20K.

Speaker 1:

The other example of this is me in the business. Four years in, like I'm doing probably four times four times what I was doing in my first year, even more than that yeah, four times what I did in my first year. So we're getting four times the results, but I feel like I'm working as hard as I was working in my first year, and the reason why that is because I have a routine, I have things in play and I have the experience. I have the ability to be able to execute quicker because I know how to do those things. So the time that I spend doing things is quicker because I know how to do them. And then the new stuff that I don't know how to do is where the extra effort goes into, which I stack on top of, and that's why it's important. As you grow, as you get experience, as you get wisdoms, things become easier, and the stuff that you've never done before is obviously hard. But then you take that in, you learn it, you understand it and then you level up. That's stacking right. So that's another thing to really think about.

Speaker 1:

What else? And look, none of this has been set in stone. As I said, I've changed this, I've refined it, I adjust to it, I reprioritize. Obviously, once Carla and I started going out, I reprioritized time. I'm spending time with her, and what does that look like? And we need to do that. You need to be willing to adjust, and strong balance enables you to have a strong backbone to fall upon to. If you're so stuck in things not changing, then you won't be able to. You won't adjust well when things don't go as planned. But I like to have those things in play because when you have a bad day, you're able to fall back onto them. You can feel relaxed knowing that you've got little things to look forward to, even down to the types of meals that I have on a regular basis, because they're little things that I enjoy.

Speaker 1:

Look, there's so many ways we can look at this outside of my own perspective, whether it's a lot of people talk about win the morning, win the day. I'm a big morning guy. I like to get up at five, I get things done and I like to win the day that way. Not everyone's like that. So you've got to find what works for you and don't listen to necessarily productivity gurus or whatever and expect that's going to work for you. It might work for you, but it might not. Finding what works for you, learning from other people, having inspiration from other people, is going to help you, but it doesn't necessarily solve what you need.

Speaker 1:

You need to find what works for you, your habits, your routine, and that's how you can discover them. That's how you can develop them as well over time. Obviously, there's apps and tools that we can use. I don't use any. I don't even have a calendar. Maybe if I get a meeting, I'll book it in the calendar. It's all in my head because I know what I want to do every day and what I'm trying to achieve, and that's just how I run, how I operate. That day is set for this. Those days, I'm happy to do that. Those days are flexible days. If things need to change, we can flex it, that day is a non-negotiable. That is a focus on the business, all those different things. Right, when you know that it makes you stay rooted and stay true to what you're trying to achieve.

Speaker 1:

But I think at the end of the day, like if I was to wrap this up, I think some tips from myself to you is make it simple, make it simple stupid, keep it simple and make sure that the habits that you want to action on you can implement them with ease, because it's very hard to do something when you don't have things with ease. So for me, knowing that I can't run, I want to start replacing that running and I've been trying to find the best bike. I've been trying to find all these different things, getting different perspectives, and it just wasn't working out. Because I'm like I'm getting frustrated, I need to get out, I need to exercise, I need to just escape. So I just got out, purchased the bike, jumped on it. It met all the needs, met everything that I wanted, and now I'm able to just take action and just do it. And that's really what you want to do is, if you are building those routines and habits, don't make it hard for yourself. Make it easy and start small, start simple and then stack on top of that.

Speaker 1:

And the other thing is understanding the flexibility of your life, and your life won't look the same as someone else's. So when we adopt or when we take on routines, they've got to be to your individual lifestyle. Like what I do won't necessarily work for you, what you do won't work for me. But you can seek inspiration, but make sure you take the routine, apply it to your lifestyle, make it how it fits for you and then run with that and then adjust it as you need to. Yeah, so that's the biggest impacts for me. I probably didn't talk about the biggest impacts, but I think it's. Really.

Speaker 1:

The main focus is the stuff that I can fall back on. That is the biggest impact by having a rooted routine of knowing what happens what day, when we do things like nachos, and what we do Friday nights, what we do Sunday nights and these different things. If I have a bad day, I know those things are going to keep me grounded because they're things to look forward to Me. Being able to go out and run knowing what I'm doing that's my escape. I look forward to those things when I'm having downtime, when I'm playing games when I'm doing this content creation. I do this content creation every week at the same time, because that's what I've blocked out. It just keeps it consistent and then there's no, it's a non-negotiable right. That's what I'm doing and it makes my life easier. So that's really my perspective on all this.

Speaker 1:

If you have questions or you want to continue the conversation more than happy to you can jump down below into the comments on YouTube and we can continue that conversation. Otherwise, you can reach out to myself. Or maybe this resonated with you and you think someone else could benefit from listening to this and help them further their lifestyle. Please share it with them, share it with someone else, share it to your feed If this has been something that has inspired you or encouraged you or motivated you, and let me know in the comments. Give me some feedback. Are you enjoying these type of styles? I'm really enjoying them. It helps me think out of the box and really off the cuff. Yeah, I really do appreciate those that have been tuning in.

Speaker 1:

We're coming close to the end of the year. It always gets me excited as we get close to the end of the year. It's a chance to really start to brush up on routines and habits, because as we move into the new year, that's usually where most people start, but I usually try and start six weeks in advance of going into a new year, just so you get a head start. The other thing I like to do is switch off and reassess, reflect and see what's working, what isn't working, what can I add into my routine, what can I get rid of all those different things and we've spoken about this numerous times on the podcast. There's a rose-thorn bud process that I go through to review what's been working, what hasn't been working and what are some of the opportunities that we can do to continue to level up. You can apply that framework to this as well. Lots to think about. I really do appreciate you being here and hopefully we can continue the conversation. You have a wonderful day, cheers.

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