The 30 second habit that will change your life

I recently discovered a quick habit that truly changed the way I perceive meetings & talks I have with people professionally and personally. If you give this one a shot, you will experience that you will be able to listen better, help others in a more meaningful way & ask more relevant questions - yes I believe those 30s after each meeting, talk or significant experience can truly change quite a lot.

The 30s habit in short

Let me get right into it.

The method I would like to share with you is straight forward:

Right after a meeting, talk or important event in your life sit down for 30s and write down the key take-aways in your opinion.

Yes it's short. Yes there's been a lot of stuff that has been discussed butit will change the way you perceive meetings in general.

I'm not talking about a detailed outline of the meeting - it's more the exact opposite.

I want you to focus on what really matteredin that last meeting you had. It's all about prioritising information and getting the gist of the last few moments you spent your time on.

Key take-away:Right after every meeting, call, talk or important event, sit down for 30s and write down the most important information in your opinion.

Louis, hold on a second, why would I do that?

It's pretty simple.

This little exercise/habit will train you to not just document what has been said in a meeting or take super detailed notes, no. There's a lot more happening:

Firstly, by strictly limiting yourself to just 30s of you time, you are forced to apply three very important skills: interpretation, decision-making & prioritisation.

If you find this not really valuable for yourself and you don't see a point in it, don't worry! I had the exact same thoughts at first.

That's why I want you to simply give this one a shot for the next couple of meetings or calls you have coming up!

I mean what's the risk behind it? 30s of your time? Come on buddy!

Key take-away:Simply try this exercise out to improve your skill regarding prioritising, decision-making & interpretation.

Most important tips for implementing this habit

• Perform the habit right after the event.If you wait a few hours before doing this little 30s exercise, you will perhaps not have the same success doing it than if you'd perform it right after. It's important to outline the fresh gist of the event.
• It's different than taking notes.The goal of this habit is not to create a detailed overview of an event and all its small topics discussed. Oppositely, it's about the overall gist you find important and would prioritise.
• Improve your skill to listen & ask better questions.By implementing this habit into your routine, you will quickly improve your skill in prioritising information & actions. This also leads to a better understanding of questions to ask that actually get you and your partner somewhere.
• Detail. Please forget about this one for now.In our busy world nowadays, it's more important than ever to strengthen the muscle of prioritisation. It's so easy for us to get caught up in small details that in the end to not really matter. So try to avoid this trap while writing your 30s outline of events.

Ressources I recommend:

The Pareto principle (80/20 rule) which is closely related to the skill of prioritisation: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2016/03/07/80-20-rule/

A cool video about the Pareto principle:

I originally got the idea of this habit from Robyn Scott, a contributor of the Huffington Post: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/robyn-scott/the-30-second-habit-that-_b_4808632.html

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