&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/contexter/img/bd29ca2e6da267a8d6d73973afe65547.png">
Several people asked me recently something like this (paraphrasing):
"Alex, let me know some productivity secrets in a journal to help me with my procrastination, to do more, and be effective!"
Well&hellip;
I wouldn't say I like to brag, but increasing my (as well as other people's) performance and effectiveness has been my thing for over ten years now&hellip;
I know a lot of systems!&nbsp;
And for ADHD and general systems, and came up with an approach that works for me&hellip;&nbsp;
I can even create a system individually working for a person after I know his character, habits, personality, goals&hellip;
But&hellip;
And again, but&hellip;
There is a powerful productivity secret that not so many people want to hear&hellip;
And many people say it is "too simple" or too "obvious" or "there should be something more about it!"
"Hey, Mr. Alex, you are too obvious!"
"It can't be so simple!" - they say.
"It can, and it should" - I think for myself and sometimes say.
What is interesting is I can write a 250-page book about it&hellip;
But you don't need to read a book about it&hellip;
Realy&hellip;
And this "secret" can be easily condensed into one sentence!
Even more astonishing is that many successful people consciously or unconsciously use it every day, and that's why they are successful, IMHO.
Intrigued?
Oh yeh&hellip;
And you think I will give this "gem" for free here...
No way&hellip;
It is too precious of a secret!
I will say even more&hellip;
If you think you are very effective, just reminding yourself and memorizing and internalizing this secret will be a big plus and help your further productivity.
Ok, I will stop teasing you in this post and tell you the secret&hellip;
<h1 style="text-align: center;">The biggest productivity secret I know is to love what you do genuinely!</h1>
Many systems, schedulers, journaling, and calendars can help along the way...
But when you love what you do, there is a good fundament that can withstand the storms.
But you can ask, what if I don't love it?
Well, there are 2 options: 
<ul>
<li>to start loving </li>
<li>or changing things and start doing what you can genuinely love</li>
</ul>
- Alex Zozovsky
&nbsp;

Biggest Productivity Secret

I just finished writing the introduction to one of the &ldquo;ThinkGym Journaling Method Book&rdquo; chapters called Decision Making and Problem-Solving Pillar. And I am sharing it here.
Unfortunately, these things are not taught in school (as far as I know).
And took me just half a day to write it and a few years to understand it deeply&hellip; 
So here it goes:
_____
&nbsp;<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/contexter/img/2c2458eae901c789063169ec1afcb518.png" width="296" height="200"> I want you to imagine that now it is winter and you are standing on the top of a big 10 km in height mountain covered with a lot of snow.&nbsp;
You make a small snowball the size of a football ball and push it from your place downhill.&nbsp;
It starts rolling and rolling, and in a few moments, this ball becomes bigger.&nbsp;
In just 30 seconds, it became as tall as a man, and in 1 minute, it became a house size huge snow roller that could demolish anyone standing in its way.&nbsp;
Luckily there are no people, no buildings on the bottom of the mountain, and you're small turned into a giant ball crashes facing the ground.
 Now think about this small initial snowball you dropped as your first decision. With time, this decision will have consequences and will or will not create new problems.&nbsp;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">And more often than not, the other problems that occurred on the way of the ball are the results of that first initial decision.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">And the following decisions are the results of the previous decisions.</li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">In short, we often deal with the consequences of some big decision we are unaware of, suppressed, unconscious, or even forgotten about (our brains like to play this game).</li>
</ul>
 Here are a few crucial points about consequences to hold in mind when working on this pillar:
<ul>
<li>It is harder to stop a snowball (but possible) when it is already falling in the middle of a mountain. </li>
<li>Trying to protect things at the bottom of the mountain is sometimes a bad idea; your mission should be to prevent throwing balls from the top.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
Every day we make hundreds if not 1000ds of decisions.
And, of course, our life becomes what it is as a summary of daily decisions.
When you learn to make better decisions, your life becomes better.
The same goes about problem-solving: daily, we solve many small and big problems, and the results and quality of our lives depend on our ability to solve problems efficiently.
Decision-making and problem-solving are not the same, but they closely interconnect and influence each other. That's why I decided to put them under one pillar.
In this pillar, you will be able to practice a few good exercises in your journal to start training your abilities to make better decisions and solve life problems.
 And a few more important points I want you to remember practicing this pillar (they can sound simple, but I learned them from a challenging experience):
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">If you do not make a timely decision, then sooner or later, some external force (people, events, circumstances, etc.) will decide for you. This external force can even push or force you to make a decision where you likely will have fewer options or control if you do it yourself.</li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">If you do not try to solve the problem, then this problem can get bigger with time, or it can become more complicated to solve.</li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">Suppose you close your eyes to a problem or decision. In that case, it will not disappear in most cases. When you are aware of it and do nothing currently: you know you are doing nothing and not expecting change. You take responsibility for not solving the problem. This is important because it will help you remove false expectations and blame others or yourself.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
Using journaling for decision-making and problem-solving has many benefits, and some of them are: 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">You can articulate the decision/problem in a written form and understand it better. </li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">You can make better quality decisions and solve problems effectively by putting time and attention into the process. </li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">You have some tools that you can rely on that give you some starting structure and do not spin everything in your head. </li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">You can track your progress and spend the maximum necessary time on a problem or decision instead of procrastinating (spending too much time) or overreacting (spending too little time)</li>
</ul>
Next, go exercises&hellip;
&nbsp;

Decision-Making-and-Problem-Solving-Introduction

Decision Making and Problem-Solving

6-Hidden-Benefits-of-Journaling-Why-To-Journal-For-Creators-and-Enterprenurs

6 Hidden Benefits of Journaling - Why To Journal For Creators and Enterprenurs?

&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/contexter/img/f64582f5bc9a944baddace3cd3f31e00.png" width="339" height="254">
A tired bird was flying back home to feed her small nestlings&hellip;
&hellip; half a road, she saw an old tree and decided to rest a bit before the next flight.
She enjoyed some rest, thought a bit about her small children,&nbsp;
&hellip; peacefully looked at beautiful nature.
But the weather got very windy&hellip;
The wind was so strong that a tree started to shake like grass&hellip;
At any moment, the branch could break&hellip;
 But the bird was sitting calmly on a branch&hellip;
Why?
She knew 3 essential things.
The first is that she knows where she flies&hellip;
The second is that even if the brunch will break &hellip;
&hellip; she can quickly fly to the next branch of a tree.
And the third thing was clear to a bird that she could easily use&nbsp;
the power of her 2 wings and fly wherever she wanted&hellip;
&hellip;even if the tree goes entirely down.
 Same as this bird, we can fly a long way,
&hellip; withstand winds and storms,&nbsp;
Fly to our dream futures no matter what happens on the road.
While trees and branches can be temporary securities&hellip;
&hellip; we can always use our 2 wings to fly again.
There is only one thing needed &hellip;
You believe in yourself.
When you are confident in your abilities to perform&hellip;
&hellip; no matter what other people say,&nbsp;
&hellip; no matter what was in the past,
&hellip; no matter what is happening around&nbsp;
 Then you can achieve your goals, dreams, and aspirations.
As they say: &ldquo;fortune favors the brave&rdquo;&hellip;
 With that being said, I created a small, powerful journaling meditation&hellip;&nbsp;
&hellip;that can help you to boost confidence for big and small achievements&nbsp;
&hellip;by just following meditation for a few minutes a day.
It works based on a simple principle:&nbsp;
By changing internal dialog and thoughts, you can boost your confidence.
You can start your meditation here: 
<a href="../../guide/27/confidence-booster-meditation">https://mindgifts.org/guide/27/confidence-booster-meditation</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
 P.S.
This is your opportunity to boost your confidence using <a href="../../guide/27/confidence-booster-meditation">simple journaling meditation</a>&nbsp;
&nbsp;

how-to-stay-strong-and-confident-motivation

How to stay strong and confident

15 Journaling Secrets Book

Get Book Here

Warm welcome and hello!
Thanks for stopping by to read the book!
Here is the link to the book:
(it is a google doc, and you can download and export from there in whatever format you want):
<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yc5TayxEaAQzOELW3eC2cmcUVAFIBIVqE-DC34FxaN0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yc5TayxEaAQzOELW3eC2cmcUVAFIBIVqE-DC34FxaN0/</a>
Leave your feedback about the book at my email <a href="mailto:a@alezozov.com">a@alezozov.com</a>&nbsp; and share this book with others if you found it helpful!
Thanks again, and let's keep in touch, 
Alex.
&nbsp;

Gratitude Journaling Meditation

How to Stop Reacting Negatively on Events Happening To You 

Emotional reframing

This simple exercise helped me and others to understand themselves better, sleep better, eliminate anxiety, and develop self-awareness.
Reflect on when you were stressed, reacted negatively to someone else, or were overthinking.
You can take some events from Your Life Road exercise. &nbsp;
For example, some time ago in the evening, I was sitting in my rented apartment when somebody knocked on my door.
I opened it and saw my landlord with a worried face.
He said he would significantly raise the rent price without hesitation.
I felt an immediate adverse emotional reaction because I would use my extra money for more important things than paying for higher rent.
So I said something out of my emotional state and closed the door behind his nose.
Here I how I worked through this event that happened to me in my journal later on.
It has 5 stages: Situation, Why, Benefit, Limiting belief, and Lesson.
You can divide the page of your journal into 5 horizontal parts or write each step under the other vertically.
In the "Situation" section, write about the situation that happened to you.
In my case: I got angry with my landlord when he unexpectedly decided to raise the price, and I said something to him that I would not say otherwise. Why. Ask yourself questions to uncover more details about the situation:
Why did this happen to me?
Why did the other person behave in such a way with me?
Why did I behave in such a way?&nbsp;
Using these questions, try to look at yourself and other people from different perspectives and understand what is happening.
My answer: It occurred to me because I want to always be in control and for the world to work the way I want it to.
Most likely, my landlord behaved this way because he had a newborn child not long ago and now he needs more money to feed his family&hellip;&nbsp;
One of the ways to do it for him is to raise the price of an apartment.
I replied angrily to him because I was unprepared for this event and forgot that life could be unpredictable. Benefit. In everything that happens to us, we can find something positive.
In my case: First:
I could move to the other apartment for the same price or slightly higher but with better conditions. Second: It reminded me that only one thing is constant and change.&nbsp;
Third: I need to be less emotional when life fails. Limiting belief.
Write about your limiting beliefs that these situations showed to you:
1) Everything needs to be static - change is not good;
2) I need hardly protect the current state of things, and there are no better options;
3) Unexpected things happening to me are potential threats. Lesson. Make a summary of your learning experience for your future reference: &nbsp;
Everything is temporary, and everything that happens is happening for the better (because I moved to a much better apartment for almost the same price). You may like this posts

I help creators & entrepreneurs with ThinkGym™ journaling method for better thinking & performance.

Sharpen your thinking. Upgrade your mindset. Get to the next level.
Join thousands readers rising their conciouseness with new guides, videos and posts as soon as they're published.

RESOURCES

Where Do I start ?

Journal for personal growth, sharpen the quality of your independent thinking, get clarity and strength

THE BLOG

Explore new perspectives and insights.

Deep dives into mindset & personal growth for creatives and entrepreneurs.

Biggest Productivity Secret

Read Full Post

Decision Making and Problem-Solving

Read Full Post

6 Hidden Benefits of Journaling - Why To Journal For Creators and Enterprenurs?
why to journal? what are the journaling benefits?
Read Full Post

How to stay strong and confident
How to stay strong and confident no matter what happens in life and business. Story and metaphor about confident bird.
Read Full Post

ABOUT ME

Who Is Alex Zozovsky?

I help the strong to be stronger.

My mission is to help creative professionals, solo, and entrepreneurs who want to grow internally and create a more significant impact in the outside world.

📫 New guides and articles in your inbox
Join thousands readers. You'll get new guides, videos and posts as soon as they're published.