5 Easy Ways to Get Things Done Daily

Podcast Transcript

Hey Fluties! Today we’re going to discover 5 easy ways to make sure you get things done. It’s gonna be fun! Empezemos! (that means.. Let’s get started!)

I hope you’re having a very awesome October- all of you Learn Flute Podcast listeners. I’m Rebecca Fuller, your expert and instructor on all things flute, mindset, and musical enjoyment.

This podcast is in conjunction with the Learn Flute Online programs and members area where we can’t help but find friendship, motivation, purpose, and fun in our everyday life and musical endeavors.

Today we’re going to be having a fun chat that quite a few of you have asked me about. You know, there are so many options in life that we often times get a little bit lost in the trees – so many things and so little time.

So  many of you have asked me, how do you make time for all of this and how to keep striving towards and learning and keeping our goals in the forefront. 

So today, I wanted to be sure to highlight how easy it really is to make space and keep music in your life. And since you’re actively learning how to play the flute.. No matter the level you’re currently on, this information will be KEY to helping you find easy ways and easier ways to make sure you get the important things done each day, for yourself, everyone is a little different and so you get to tailor make this for yourself.

Now of course, we don’t want to feel like we have to cancel our life to get to our goals, right?  It’s really not as tricky as you think. 

Sound interesting? Great! Let’s get started.

So, this month is a busy and fun one at Learn Flute Online because we’re into another big collaboration ensemble. These are just fancy words for our LFO flute choir. Which, of course is done virtually! We have a lot of fun putting these together, and it makes us happy that we’re able to spread some good vibes around the world as well.

If you’re on the email list and, or a subscriber of the Learn Flute Online YouTube channel, the Facebook Page, and here at Learn Flute Online you’ll see the notification of these ensembles and when the flute choirs come out the same day! And each one of these flute choir videos is different, unique, and a lot of fun.

Each one, like I said, has a special flavor and skills for you to increase and enjoy your flute learning journey even more. It’s very motivational and just one way to have a lot of fun with music.

This month it’s getting darker where I live – it’s Fall. The garden has been nipped with cold and the leaves are colored and falling off the trees. So this month, like the seasons, we are speeding up a bit and playing some things and some music that sounds a bit dark and minor and intriguing… now of course we have an artistic and fun twist to it as well.

So it’s just one thing I can remind you as a part of your Learn Flute Online community to get involved, and it will help you with your motivation, and your excitement for everything that we are doing. 

And, that brings me back to our subject for today which is that we’re going to discover 5 ways to make sure you get things done. Because if you’re like me, ah you know… The to do list.

There are times in my life when I thought it would never end.. And definitely some days are still like that. But, I know that many of you, if not all of you are like me – and you’re trying to figure out how to make sure you fit in the things that you want to do, especially that are for yourself. It’s important right? Your own education,  your enjoyment, and your well-being.

We’re again going to get a little woo-woo today, because it works! And it’s how the achievers achieve. We have to keep some things at the front of our minds because part of living a fulfilled life is working on and furthering our own selves. 

So, while forming good habits is a great way to improve our life, it’s not really just as simple as saying “just do it”. Stuff gets in the way sometimes so we need a few tools in our belt to help us out – basically to put a few things on automatic because oh, it makes everything so much better!

Now, here at Learn Flute Online we talk about habits and what they are, and how we can improve ourselves right? 

A habit is something that we do daily without really thinking much about it because it’s become part of our routine like remembering to brush our teeth, drink water, etcetera… there’s a long list of them that we consciously or most of the time (once its become a real, true, habit) is unconscious. We do most days and these become part of our ‘routine’ – the combination of what we do most days basically becomes who we are as a whole.

Now, the trick comes when we try to introduce something new into our daily routine – oh we get some push back sometimes, and things get in the way, or simply we just forget. This creates feelings of ‘oops, I think I’ve failed myself today’.

Have you ever felt this before?

Well, I definitely have and I want to talk to you about this today and give you some examples that will really help out, show you some things that I do in my life, and end with a motivational feeling for you.

Let me give you an example to start with here. I do have the goal of keeping some language learning in my life. As well as music and everything else I do.

I’ve been studying spanish for quite a few years, and I love it. One day, my goal- I aspire to live in a spanish speaking community and really being able to communicate fluently. All of my boys- my children- are fluent in, well, there are several languages in our family here. Quite a few actually, probably ten combined, and I know this is somewhere in my DNA to do this. So, I keep chugging along.

BUT, I have had years go by at times when I didn’t do any studying or even any thinking about this, I just kind of let it go. And, I always felt bad about it. Like I had maybe totally ruined my goal.

Well, it’s okay – I’ve found some ways in the past few years that have changed all of this, and I can say that I’ve successfully brought around some new habits that I don’t even have to think about any more so that I get a bit of language learning done every single day – well I would say every day that I sleep at my own home anyway, that’s where my habit is. 

 So every morning when I wake up I get my phone and I press play on my voice recorder app on my phone where I have what I’m currently studying, recorded on there for myself to listen to. I prep it, and I record it, and it’s right there for me each day. I’m definitely too groggy in the morning to pick something up and read it with my eyes – my eyes are still fuzzy in the morning, and I’m a slow waker upper.

So, listening on my phone to something I’ve prepared a few days before, or however long I’m going to listen to that current lesson, is a perfect way for me to get it in.

So, when I listen to my current studies and lessons it starts my day remembering what I’ve learned previously. That’s really important for me. I don’t know about you, but i need a lot of repetition in my life to learn.

This is the perfect solution for me. It’s a daily quick reminder – and it works. I’m also currently studying Arabic- oh my goodness- and flute of course, many different styles and genres of music.

After my language recordings end in the morning, I turn on my playlist of certain styles or pieces of music that I’m currently or will be playing in the future. It’s HOW I keep these things relevant to my mind. I use my phone, the voice recorder app, and the music app, and different tools on there as my morning habit. It keeps me moving along, and really it’s so so EASY!

So, to recap here I’ll remind you that creating little simple habits like this over time makes a big huge difference in your life – especially because it keeps us moving along towards our goals. And it’s super simple. It’s really quite satisfying to have even a 10 minute study session from bed before you even get up.

Seriously – it’s so easy. I get it done before I even get up- certain things anyway. It’s a really great habit maker for me, it’s been awesome, and you should try it! 

The second thing I wanted to talk about today is that it is totally possible to change your current habits. Sometimes we try things and we end up not really liking what we thought we wanted to do as a habit. Well, no problem – just change it to your own flavor.

Just as we like our eggs the way we like them, right? Everybody has it different. We also can tailor-make our self-education habits to our own perfection. So what works for me, may not work perfectly for you, but with some preparation and some flexibility you can find the way you like it. 

Old habits do die-hard though, so prepare properly. If you want to be sure that, for example, your daily music practice session happens… You have to consciously scoot other things out of the way. And so, like I mentioned before, it was so easy for me to just reach over and push play on my phone so that I could get listening to my lessons for the day. 

Now, just taking time to organize our thoughts is often all it takes to create a new little schedule. And of course, making sure everyone in our life kind of knows about it, otherwise we will be hijacked – that’s inevitable. But of course being flexible so frustrations don’t arise is important as well.

I’ve used this analogy of running before, because it’s so good and will help set the points for today’s topic, but in my days I’ve been a recreational long distance runner. Well just as an adult anways, don’t get any ideas that you’re going to see Rebecca running in the Olympics – I have reasons I’ve learned to run, and be a runner. And of course I’m off and on but there’s an incredible amount of self satisfaction that comes from learning and doing what it takes to achieve something we previously thought impossible.

So, the day I ran one mile in a row without walking was the day I also decided I could run a marathon.

Yah – I just jumped right there. But you know, I had seen that other people have achieved this… So I assumed I could too. And, I did. Many times over. 

Was it easy? No. Absolutely not. It takes months and years to prepare and become fit enough to complete and compete in a marathon race.

It’s 26.2 miles for goodness sake. It is not something that a human can just jump into without training for. Believe me. And those of you who have learned to run, you totally understand what I’m talking about.

Well anyway, the way I did it was to first look around and see that it is humanly possible. Thousands and thousands and millions of others have done it… although it is about only one percent of the population who do. I like to think of this as the top cream of the crop type of people. You know, those who are working on themselves and always trying to be better. 

Now of course I am not saying you need to become a marathon runner, I’m just saying that not so many people have done it, and those who have, have learned a lot about themselves in the process – which is pretty cool, it’s a self improvement type of a thing. 

So, once I noticed that it was possible and that people who looked just like me could accomplish this, then I moved on to the next idea and found a plan. A plan that I know works, and worked for others.

And then, I scheduled it all out – mapped it out. Months and months of careful planning and never wavering. 

Was it as easy as this sounds? Well, no. Not really. I did a lot of successful runs, many many many, but I do vividly remember having to do my long run about 3 weeks before the marathon, and what you have to do is one really long run that’s longer than your others that you’ve been doing, in preparation. I had to do an 18 mile run, in the middle of the night when I really, really did not want to. It was hot here, so I had to do it in the middle of the night, and I’ll tell you what – I cried the whole way. It was like 4 hours of hot tears as I ran through the quiet foothills here in Utah. I did have my husband following me in the car for lights and safety. He thought I was crazy. He kept asking me why I was crying. I didn’t even have a good answer. I just said that I really didn’t want to run that night, but that I had to or I knew I wouldn’t make my goal. Well, I survived it and guess what?

I did make my goal.

I ran my fastest, most successful marathon – In fact it was my fastest 5k, 10k, half marathon, and marathon, and I did it all a couple of weeks after that run. Still proud of it today and yes, I remember that hot tears run for sure.

What I’m getting at is that sticking with a schedule definitely will point us at achieving our goals. Look around. Have others been successful at what you’re working towards as well? If so, then know it is possible, and also know that you can also follow this schedule to accomplishment.

No, you don’t need to cry hot tears as I did once. I was just having an emotional moment, and it’s been a good lesson learned. My legs had no idea that my mind was astray and that my eyes were watery. I needed to get that long run in, in order to be ready for my big event. 

What big events are you looking to place on your calendar?

Maybe not anything quite as large as a marathon, but how to get ready for something like this?

Well, take the lessons learned here and I know you can do it because learning to achieve in ANY subject is the way to learn to achieve in ANY other subject. Did you know that? It’s true, and I’ve talked about it several times here. We are achievers. I am. You are. It feels good – keep at it. You got this.

Now quickly I want to touch on something you may not even have thought about when learning and striving to become a better person, and this is that we need to set ourselves up with a habit of positivity as well.

This type of positive outlook in everyday life is how we keep motivated, and looking forward to more success coming. 

So let’s set ourselves up to live happy and healthy lives by consciously choosing good habits, schedules, and positivity.

Now I’m just going to move right on here because the last thing I want to add to our list of 5 easy ways to make sure you get things done is that when we realize that we are human, we can make this process so much better on ourselves.

I am not perfect. It’s true. I’m totally  not. 

There are days when my intended schedule does not work out. It’s okay, and it’s okay because I know that I’ll readjust, stay positive, and continue with my activities that help me create these good habits and these habits become second nature over time- much like my early morning habit of rolling over and pressing play on my voice recorder app where I have my lessons ready for me.

I have my running shoes ready on the days I know I’m going to run. I have my practice area all ready with what I need to have a successful practice session on my flute. And like I said – these habits become second nature overtime and then I get to enjoy them without even having to think about it. It makes it so easy! 

Playing the flute is right up this alley, for sure. 

Do your days get away from you sometimes and you realize it’s been 4 or 5 days since you’ve completed a real practice session? No worries, it happens to the best of us, and using what we learned here today can help us make sure we get things done.

So let’s take a quick recap again:

First, make things easy on yourself like I have done with my language learning time – it used to just keep getting away from me, and now have it all ready, right there, ready to do first thing in the morning, before everything else. I’ve created this habit, and I like it! I look forward to my mornings, it’s my time right? I’ve made it automatic and enjoyable.

We also talked about making sure to have a plan that you know works, and then it’s about scheduling in the plan, and sticking with it. You got this, remember: Positivity and developing new routines or habits create motivation to continue on the quest of finding it easy or easier to make sure you get things done. I’m working on it, you’re working on it, we’re all working on it.

Wow- what a great, quick episode today. I just love getting deep into what it takes to be a better person, and I especially enjoy using self-education and music to have good feelings and a happier life.

It’s sure has been fun having you here with me today.

If you’ve been listening today, and you’re not part of our Learn Flute Online member community, I dare say that you are missing out, and I invite you to join us! We have a great community, lots of fun, lots of flute, lots of music, and lots of friends. 

Head on over to the LearnFluteOnline.com website and get started so that you also can enjoy this wonderful journey with us from the privacy and comfort of your own home and on your own schedule.

We’ll have some more fun next time. I’m going to play you out today with a part of a beautiful Serenade written in the very early nineteen hundreds. It’s an important part of flute literature, that you will learn here at Learn Flute Online, and I can’t wait to help you play this and have the skills for yourself.  Thanks for being here y gracias por escuchar! (That means, thanks for listening).  Bye now!