02:19 What do we do then? Right, so don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of letting go of things that aren't important if things get busy. But when we've cultivated habits that help us to navigate our full lives with more ease i really think that those habits are worth protecting and thankfully there is a nifty trick that can help us to hold on to those helpful habits even when there's a lot going on and that is to reduce the scope and stick to the schedule So this is all about doing your best not to break the chain But making it easier on yourself by shrinking the habit into something that's manageable for you. So, for instance if you usually try and tidy your desk at the end of every day You could reduce the scope and stick to the schedule By simply taking any dirty glasses or coffee cups into the kitchen Or put your pens back in the pen pot or drawer where they live Or just put any rubbish in the bin
03:12 And that way you're still sticking to the schedule of tidying your desk at the end of the day, but it's only taking you 30 seconds and you're not worrying about it being perfect. If you can't fit in your usual 30 minute yoga session or if you can't get to the Pilates class that you'd signed up for when the time to do that arrives you could stop what you're doing and just do some simple stretches for a minute or two. If you usually go out for a walk at lunchtime put on your shoes and take a quick lap of the garden instead Now on the face of it, these small actions might appear pointless but actually far from it right because by sticking to the schedule you are sending the signal to your brain that these habits are still important and are still worthy of your attention. So you might not get the full benefit of a zen-like desk or a one hour walk in the park but you've still done something to stay on top of the mess or to shift your energy and get the blood flowing because when you stop completely is so much harder to get going again
04:09 By reducing the scope and sticking to the schedule, you can easily switch back to the full version of your good habits when things get back to normal and you're a little less busy or overwhelmed. And I find that it helps to give this some thought in advance because it can be really tricky to come up with a kind of miniaturised version of your habit in the moment when time's against you so if you do want to give this a go what I suggest doing is writing a list of the good habits that you don't want to break And then think about what you might do to reduce the scope for each of those things and write that down alongside each habit. And then just keep that list somewhere handy so that if you are feeling overwhelmed, or feeling like there's just too much to do You can grab that and see how can I stick to this but make it really small? So I hope this idea of reducing the scope and sticking to a schedule helps! And I look forward to seeing you again soon
