As a health coach, I am frequently working with individuals on meeting their goals, which vary greatly from person to person. We often get into conversations outside of exercise and diet and delve into issues related to work, stress, family dynamics, marriage, sleep and personal finances. Reason being, the other issues are commonly what caused the struggles related to diet and exercise.

Because this is something I do on a daily basis at work, I am going to try to, hit on little “life hacks” that I follow to help keep my mind in check. Let’s call it my “Mindful Monday” topics.

In health coaching we practice stimulus control as a part of behavior change, where the presence or absence of a stimulus causes a particular behavior. For example, if you always eat meals in front of the television then the television will likely trigger you to eat whether you are hungry or not. Antecedents are things that come before the behavior. In this situation, the antecedent being the television. Removing the television from meal time is “stimulus control”.

If there is something that triggers you, a way to change a behavior is to remove the trigger. This weekend, something that struck me as a major negative stimulus is that my email was flooded with last minute Father’s Day gift ideas or online sales for various websites. As I am writing this, I Just got an email forward from my dad about a Crocs sandals sale…I don't wear crocs.

I am on a mission to de-clutter my life, reach optimal productivity and remove mindless spending on things that I don’t need. What are these email subscriptions costing me? In either time wasted dealing with this junk or actual dollars? Three thoughts:

How often do we open our inbox and want to just scream because it is flooded with garbage that we have to wade through or delete?
When I am in the zone, I absolutely hate being interrupted. I also despise starting my day and opening my inbox with junk mail that is going to distract me. It’s these little things that pull us away that keep our productivity from being its best.
How often are we triggered to purchase something because an email comes through saying “Flash sale” or “New Items” or “Final hours of 20% off… Of an item that usually doesn’t go on sale”

I’m done. money spent is money gone and I have spent too much unnecessary money in the past on this junk and I am on a mission to be mindful with my time and money. The less I frivolously spend, the less I get stressed about paying bills each month and The more I can save for an emergency, a bathroom renovation or things I actually want to go do with my family.

So… How I chose to tackle this issue. Jump on www.pcmag.com to check the reviews on the various productivity apps or software out there that tackles this issue head on. There are two highly rated options, SaneBox ($7/month or $59/year) and Unroll.me (the free option). I chose to enroll with Unroll.me, for now. They describe it perfectly to say, it gets rid of “grey mail” the stuff you don’t really want but sometimes need (if you are actually in the market for a kids bunk bed and Pottery Barn Kids has a 30% off furniture sale … which rarely happens). It takes whatever emails you select and sends it through one email that you get at the time of day when you chose (morning, lunch or evening) effectively consolidating all of the emails that would have been interrupting you throughout the day into one message.

What is triggering you right now? What is keeping you from making the progress you are looking for, either in your fitness goals, your marriage, your finances or at work? give this a try; remove the trigger, stimulus control.

You have control of what enters your life and your brain. Exercise it.

In love and sweat

-IV

Exercising Control - Mindful Monday