I'm settling back into being back in Ubud, Indonesia after the stress of getting here (from my European Adventures). I really needed the time away to reassess a lot of things in my life. I am starting to feel as though I'm on the right track towards the person I'm aiming to evole into next.

Something that inspired me (other than travel as transformation) was reading the book The 5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity recently from FranklinCovey organisation.

It focuses on Decision, Attention and Energy Management + being a more effective leader.

Here’s the 5 Choices:

• Act on the Important, Don’t Reach to the Urgent.
• Go for Extraordinary, Don’t Settle for Ordinary.
• Schedule the Big Rocks, Don’t Sort Gravel.
• Rule Your Technology, Don’t Let it Rule You.
• Fuel Your Fire, Don’t Burn Out.

I got the most out of the first section on Decision Management, and anyone I’ve seen here in Bali has heard me talk about the Thinking vs Reactive Brain, and pausing the Reactive Brain long enough to clarify the task at hand, and decide if worth your time and energy.

The Moment of Choice process has really helped me - in particular with not eating desserts and my downtime - to work out whether or not something is truly important. The three steps are:

1. Pause
2. Clarify
3. Decide

There’s a Time Matrix model that is divided up into four quadrants, focusing on whether something is important or not, or urgent or not. As most people’s time is in the Distract & Waste quadrants, it’s imperative to focus on conscious choice about where we spend out time, and trying to get to the Extraordinary Productivity & Necessity quadrants more. I’ve have also been talking about not sorting gravel since reading the book!

This book continued to helped me focus on the necessary changes needed in my life (which have been germinating for most of this year, especially with My European Adventures), and I would suggest it to most people who want to live a more productive and conscious life!