- Design a new website, write a new blog post,
schedule out your social media, file that TPS report.
How many tasks and projects on your list
are about improving your health and wellness?
In this video, we're going to cover how to use
the updated Todoist Foundations
to build healthy routines into your day.
Stay tuned.
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What's up creators, my name is Joey,
and I'm the creator of New Territory Fitness,
an online platform dedicated to helping everyone
use movement to fuel your best work.
In this video, we're going to look at some of
the new features in Todoist Foundations,
including the addition of sections, and subtasks,
and look at some ways on how we can incorporate that
into building some healthy wellness routines into our day,
including a morning routine, a mid-day routine,
and an evening routine.
Plus, we'll have templates that you can download
of all the routines we go over,
so you can load it straight into Todoist.
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If we think about all the big projects
and goals that we have that we want to get done,
and how to break it up into manageable pieces,
sections is sort of the higher level macro view roadmap
of how we get our project done.
And the subtasks are gonna be sort of
the micro level building blocks in the weeds
of how we actually execute and get that stuff done.
We'll talk about subtasks a lot more in this video,
but sections are a great way to break up a large goal
or project into manageable milestones, or chunks.
So say we wanted to train for a triathlon,
sections would be a great way to, perhaps,
split up your training week by week,
so you don't have a huge list of things that you need to do
that's a little bit intimidating, but you can break it up
into something a little bit more manageable.
Or you can use sections to group your wellness routines
into the time of day that you want to do them,
as we'll go over next in subtasks.
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I believe the biggest update to Todoist Foundations
is the addition of subtasks.
So subtasks are basically having one task,
and then beneath that one task we have smaller,
more manageable tasks.
We're basically saying, in order to get this higher level
of task complete, we need to do these smaller,
more manageable tasks first.
You can easily assign a certain task to recur daily,
and you can also assign a specific time
to when you want to do that task.
It's just a great way to organize actions and habits
that you want to incorporate into your daily life
in a more systematized and structured way.
Now, if you think putting your morning routine
as a task in your to-do list is going a little bit too far,
I'd like to point you to this interesting study
that was featured in James Clear's "Atomic Habits".
In the study they took three groups of people,
with a goal being to get them to exercise more
in a span of two weeks.
One group didn't do anything, that was the control group.
The second group, they just gave them
a motivational speech on the benefits of exercise.
And the third group, they gave them motivational speech
on the benefits of exercise, and they had them complete
the following sentence: During the next week,
I will partake in at least 20 minutes
of vigorous exercise on the day,
at the time,
in a place.
So, basically, they made them have a concrete plan
that said exactly when and where they were going
to complete their task.
So, what were the results?
On the first two groups, the control group
and the motivational group, 35% to 38% of people exercised
at least once per week.
So the motivational talk really didn't make
much of a difference.
Now, on the third group, the group that had to have
a concrete plan on when they wanted to exercise,
91% of people in that group exercised at least once a week.
So having a concrete plan, having a time,
and a day, and a place assigned to it
will greatly help you actually complete it.
So, Todoist makes that super-easy,
because you can assign a time and a place.
Then you also assign a location.
If you want to add a location in the form of a label,
you can easily add a location label,
to have a place assigned for your routine.
All right, so now that's put this into action,
and break down three routines using subtasks
that you can do right in Todoist.
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Morning routines, all right, I love mornings.
Mornings are the best way to set the tone
for how the rest of the day is going to go.
So there are tons of videos, and books, and blog posts,
and all sorts of stuff on the optimal morning routine.
But, in reality, the best one is the one
that works the best for you.
The routine we're go over here is more of a broad suggestion
of things that work well for a lot of people.
But, please feel free to customize this template
in a way that works best for you.
The first subtask of our morning routine is make your bed.
In a commencement speech by U.S. Admiral William McRaven,
who was a Navy Seal for 36 years, he said this,
"If you make your bed every morning,
"you will have accomplished the first task of the day.
"It will give you a small sense of pride,
"and it will encourage you to do another task,
"and another, and another.
"And by the end of the day that one task completed
"will have turned into many tasks completed."
Going on the theme of setting the tone for the day,
making your bed is a great way to have that easy win,
to start a ripple effect of more tasks completed
throughout the day.
Our next morning subtask is meditate.
So meditate has gotten a lot of buzz lately,
and there are tons of apps.
I personally use Calm, but there's also Headspace, 10%,
and a couple of other apps out there.
But it really doesn't have to be a structured
or formal thing, just take some time
to do some deep breathing, and take some time out
to have a little bit of stillness in the morning
before the craziness of the day starts.
Next morning subtask is stretch or move.
So you can do this in a couple different ways.
One option that I really like is just taking one movement
and doing about 60 seconds of it, or 25 repetitions.
So sometimes I like to just do 25 squats in the morning,
or a little bit of a stretch.
This is just a way to get the blood flowing,
to start priming yourself, getting ready for the day
both physically and mentally.
In the morning routine templates that you can download
in the description box below, with the movement task,
in the comments section will have links to movement videos
that you can do, so you can kind of just follow along,
if you're looking for some movement ideas.
And, lastly, in our morning routine subtask is journal.
So this is just another nice way to kind of mentally focus
what you want to set the intention of the day on,
focus what you want to get done for the day.
Having that moment where you kind of write down physically,
or just type it down, but getting it out of your head
and into something that you can actually see,
is a great way to sort of set the focus
and the intention of the day.
Both with how you want to feel, and react
and respond for the day.
But also just nitty-gritty, like,
what do you want to get done for the day?
Being that you're looking at this task in Todoist,
you're in a great spot to hammer-down and figure out
what it is that you do want to get done for the day,
because you are in your to-do list app.
And so, like I said, make this your own.
I left out coffee or tea on this,
because that's pretty subjective.
But, for me personally, my day has to start with coffee.
For mine, that's pretty high up on my subtask list
in my morning routine.
But, again, so just make this yours,
these are just some launching points to go off of.
They generally work well for a lot of people,
in order to kind of have, set yourself up
for the best day possible.
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All right, our next routine is a mid-day break,
so this is around two o'clock, maybe you've had lunch,
you're starting to feel a little bit tired,
not really thinking this clearly anymore.
So this is just a little routine to kinda get through
that mid-day hump, to get yourself refocused,
re-energized, and feeling good again.
All right, subtask one, go for a walk.
Ideally, go for a walk outside.
Getting that sense of fresh air, getting a little bit
of nature into your day is a great way
to disconnect from technology, disconnect from the phones.
So this doesn't have to be a big walk, you just go out
and walk for 10 minutes, or so.
But, it's a great way to hit pause in your day.
And building off of the walk, which in itself is movement,
do a little bit of stretching.
So that's our next subtask, stretching.
These types stretches are things that you can kinda do
at the office, or at your desk.
The spinal twist is a great way to kinda just get
your whole body moving.
Reaching out, touching down, touching your toes,
another great way to get whole body moving.
We basically want to move our muscles,
especially, if you've been sitting all day,
you kinda want to get the bigger muscles in our legs,
our glutes, our hamstrings, your thighs,
you want to get those muscles moving,
get your spine twisting, kinda everything
that hasn't been moving throughout the day.
You want to kinda get that flowing, and get that going.
All right, other subtask for our mid-day break, drink water.
Yeah, you can have some coffee and stuff,
but, drink some water.
A lot of people, I'm definitely guilty of this,
I do not drink enough water throughout the day,
and I get a little bit tired,
and I get a little bit thirsty.
But, mostly, with the tired queue, I kinda mistake that
as thinking like, ah, I'm feeling tired,
I need to get more coffee.
But, actually, if I have water, I tend
to actually feel a lot better, and it lasts a lot longer
in feeling more refreshed, and more mentally clear.
So, drink water first, and then, if you still want
to have your coffee, or your tea,
have your coffee and your tea.
And our last subtask routine is box breathing.
So this is a nice technique to get oxygen flowing
into our body, which again, will help us focus
and feel a little bit more mentally clear.
So box breathing is quite simple.
You're basically going to do inhales, holds, and exhales
on a six-second count, or a count that works well for you.
So you're basically (breathes deeply in) inhaling
for the count of six, holding for the count of six,
(exhales out slowly)
exhaling for six seconds, holding here for six seconds.
(breathes deeply in) And then, inhaling again,
and you're starting the box again.
So you've got the inhales, the holds, the exhales,
that's four steps, four sides to a box. (chuckles)
So this is a great way to get oxygen flowing into your body.
Because, again, when you're sitting
and you're kinda dormant, you tend to do
a lot of shallow breathing.
So kind of opening up our diaphragm will help
get more oxygen to our body, and help
with our mental clarity.
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And our last routine, our evening routine.
All right, so our evening routine starts, ideally,
about an hour before you actually want to go to bed.
In that hour before you want to go to bed,
this is tough, but the goal is to turn off screens
and start getting away from screens
about an hour before you go to bed.
You've probably heard tons of stuff about blue light,
a light that emits from all of our screens.
Having a lot of blue light,
which disrupts our sleep patterns,
prohibits some of the production of melatonin.
So whether the blue light stuff is accurate, or not,
what isn't really disputable is
that when you're looking at screens,
you're basically shining a giant flashlight into your eyes.
So you kinda want to dim down the lights,
start getting our entire atmosphere a little bit dimmer.
If you kinda think about, you know,
darkness and stuff outside, our bodies are looking
for those darker queues to start signaling,
like, hey, time to wind for bed.
Shutting down the screens is also another great way
for our body to mentally sort of wind down,
because screens bring a lot of stimulation,
both entertainment and work.
So you kinda just want to have that whole wind down period
before we go to bed.
Our next evening subtask is to journal,
or basically just reflect on the day.
So you can just ask yourself three basic questions
about the day.
What was good about the day?
What was not so good about the day?
And how would you improve upon the day?
So just kind of a time to reflect on what happened.
And then, also, you can kinda set the intention
and plan for what is going to happen tomorrow.
And our last subtask for our evening routine
is setting up our ideal sleep environment.
So this is about making our room very nice
and conducive to sleep.
So that would be blacking everything out,
so making sure everything's dark, covering up any LED lights
and stuff with tape.
Getting the room nice and cool,
somewhere between 67 and 69 degrees, ideally.
And, basically, just creating a nice,
conducive sleep environment.
And those are our three routines
that you can load into Todoist,
to improve your health and wellness.
You can download all of these routines as Todoist templates.
The links are in the description below.
If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs-up.
And, in the comments below, let me know
what your favorite routines are, either in the morning,
afternoon, evening, anything that you kinda like to do daily
that helps improve your health and wellness.
For more videos like this,
subscribe to New Territory Fitness.
Thank you, for watching, and I look forward to seeing you
in the next video.
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