It’s a beautiful new day here in Costa Rica at Zen Village in Chirripo. Completed my morning routine which consists of meditation, exercise, reading, writing and wim hoff breathing + river dip , so feeling good!

Went to meet with a friend at Rio Chirripo to discuss Zen Village developments but we weren’t able to sync up on our communications and I ended up spending a couple hours by myself in quiet contemplation at the river away from any interruptions, except for a waiter asking if I want a smoothie – yes, two please 😊

Part of my work over the last few days as been to really tighten up where I want to focus my attention and how I want to work.

I thought I would share some of the key points that are now top of consciousness for me

1- Rest and Meditation: I have been exploring what it’s like to have a eye mask and ear plugs on hand nearly all the time. And because of some upper back pain if I meditate too long, I have found it easier to lay down and meditate.

The key here is to allow your brain waves to sink down from a heightened alert of BETA to a calmer more fulfilling ALPHA and even THETA.

This happens automatically just be having the eye mask on for a certain period of time and allowing the brain to relax from external stimuli. Covering both eyes and ears helps tremendously to subdue the mind and helps me focus on my breath.

2- A Cup of Water Every Hour

I have been setting a reminder to go off every hour around the :55 min mark .. to remind me to both drink a cup of water and do a 5 min meditation. I feel more energized and alive when I follow this practice, plus my skin has already started to look healthier after just a few days.

I thought I drank a lot of water before but now I am seeing with an hourly routine there was room for improvement.

3- Tone Home (3 Breaths)

Whenever I find myself in a space where I can’t meditate but I need a quick reset I have started to do 3 Deep Breaths and a HOME mantra on the exhale.

I put my attention on my heart and really try to center myself there with sound.

The name ‘Tone Home’ came from Elijah Ray who just did a concert at Zen Village and shared his practice for quickly centering before anything through sound and the practice of Toning Home.

4- Quality Time

I like to focus my time with family and friends or individual practices like surfing or soccer or making music where it really feels like my time is being used wisely and brings me fulfillment.

5- Events

In a separate category are all the events and experiences I have on my calendar.

These are not only the events created by other people but a series of events that I have also started doing and inviting others to be apart of.

6- Work

I have really spent much of my life trying to minimize the personal work I have to do through what I call LEVERAGE. Which is hiring / delegating / outsourcing and creating processes for the work that needs to be done or automating through technology.

But there are still three things I attend to in my work beyond creating leverage and that is:

A- Admin .. mostly banking or money management related. But also reports and messages to the team.

B- Optimizing .. beyond just responding to urgent things , what can I proactively improve that will make a positive impact in my businesses.

Optimizing can mean everything from bringing in new people, improving existing process or creating a new one.

Just having clarity on what ‘work’ means for me helps me to focus and work at a high level.

7- Rituals

Rituals are the habits that help me optimize my life force energy and honor what I value. I have gotten quite good at organizing and logging my ritual activities and I have shared what some of them are in previous posts and at the top of this post. Mostly they are considering the mind, body and Soul’s development.

8- Messages

Since communications can occupy most of your day and be called ‘work’ I find it’s helpful if it has its own category and you track just how much time you are spending on messages and consider the impact that use of time is having on your goals / and what you consider valuable in your life.

Ultimately anything you can do to minimize time spent messaging people from your devices is probably a good thing.

9- Games & Movies

Playing video games and watching movies still has a place on my life it’s just generally at the bottom of my list when I get through the other areas.

Maintaining discipline in this way actually makes the activity more enjoyable and really takes away the guilt I have when partaking in what might be considered a waste of time.

It’s not really a waste if you enjoy it! And you get the other more significant things done first.

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So there you have it .. 9 areas where I have decided to define and focus my time. I am curious what you got from this and what your own list might look like. Share in the comments below! 👇