Can you learn what “having a good day” actually means?

by chadbrooksis@gmail.com | Feb 17, 2020 | life, ministry, productivity

I walked into my home office this morning and realized that a problem was afoot.

Literally.

I had around 4 pairs of shoes strewn about.

That is an issue because a.) shoes don’t go there and b.) it is indicative of a larger problem. You see, my home office is decently sacred. It is full of the things that bring me joy. I’ve got my great-grandfathers 110+ year old desk in there (with the matching chair), a decent amount of books, a place to play music, my reading chair and a few other things. It is the space in my home that physically builds my life and passion.

And besides shoes on the floor, I’ve got stuff piled up in my reading chair and the desk is an absolute wreck.

The bigger issue is my physical clutter represents my mental clutter. And it is stopping me from doing the things that keep me in equilibrium.

Last week I released a podcast episode where I talked about another one of these points of conflict, namely that I had not been reading this past month. In the episode I also shared about how I have been using a bullet journal to track my habits and how they relate to my own internalized well being. (check out the episode here.)

It’s hard to spend any time reading when the place where you read is covered in camera gear, loose papers, and other assorted things.

A few years ago I read a fantastic compilation book on teams from Harvard Business Review. But the best article in the book, or the best learning for me didn’t really have anything to do with teams, but was a report on research done helping people define what made a day good. Their findings were that people who had the ability to complete their tasks often had the highest self-reporting of “a good day” and that good days/bad days really didn’t have anything to do with the things we think they might. Ever since then I have thought heavy about how intentionality in time management has the greatest ability to affect us in both positive and negative ways.

So I track several different things in my life now. You can listen back to the episode to get an idea of what those are, but I will put two things out there as the most important. My Peace/Chaos scale and measuring gratitude.

I learned peace/chaos from my good friend JD Walt. It simply means rating our peace on a scale of 1-10 and our chaos on a scale of 1-10. These numbers interrelate with each other. The scale also helps us realize that it is possible to be in high levels of chaos (or stress) while also maintaining a high level of peace. It is only when those numbers get off-kilter and for a period of time that we need to be worried.

I also track my gratitude. This is possibly the biggest thing for me. I do it each day because I need to be thinking about, processing, and self-identifying thanksgiving and faithfulness in my own words. I pick one thing each day to name.

These things, combined with my habit tracking, help me understand my own contribution to my emotional health. They keep me on track because I am learning what it consciously means to avoid disaster in my own life. It makes me accountable to the way I am able to work with others, lead my churches and staff, and be the best disciple of Jesus I can be.

How have you learned you own contributions to good days and bad days?