How reminder cards supported me in my burn-out recovery

In advertising you have the “the power of repetition”. Very strong brands like Apple, Coca Cola, Lego are still spending million of dollars in advertising to keep the brand on top of our minds.

In todays world we get thousands of stimuli everyday, we have hundreds of things we need to do so our brain needs reminders to have brands or actions on top of our mind.

This is also needed when changing a behaviour or adapting a new routine (or habit).  There is a myth that it takes 21 days for a new routine to be a part of your behaviour, but multiple studies showed that it take much longer, around 66 days.

21 days or 66 days, I think the length doesn’t matter, it is the whole route to get adapted to the new behaviour and for me I needed to be reminded of my goals and the behaviour that I wanted to change.  Since I already had a busy life before my burn-out I didn’t want to fall into the get-back-to-my-busy-life pitfall and needed to think about a system how to remind myself about the ‘deal’ I made with myself to come back stronger.

I started to write a daily journal about my feelings but realised this wasn’t working and after a week I realised this is not the tool that will support me in adapting a new behaviour that is need to change my life. I went to a store that sell office supplies and found some small cards and immediately I had the idea to create some kind of reminder cards that I could take with me during the day.

I must say this was one of the best ideas I found myself, all other ideas I found online or I have read in books but this idea just came up and it turned out to be very successful for me.

The same day I bought the cards I wrote all things I needed to remind myself about and started to implement these reminder cards on a daily basis. Each day I just picked a couple of cards and started to read them out load and asked myself if I was still on track. If yes, great. If not, change and refocus. Another learning was to reward myself with small things if I have lived by my new routine during the day. Some small reward examples:  give myself time to read a book, buy a book or something small. Just to get my dopamine rewarded. This really worked for me.

Below you can find some real examples I added to my reminder cards:

• On the first card I wrote was an old manta of mine – Let’s Fucking Rock N Roll
• Eat the live frog first, which means start with the hardest and difficult action first thing stimuli in the morning, don’t wait with it until the end of the day
• 2 minutes power pose – please watch this video from Amy Cuddy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7dWsJ-mEyI
• How often did I say “No” today?
• Did I avoid a conflict today? If yes how will I change this?
• Speak up!
• I make my own chooses, also how I react on negativity
• What are my 3 most important tasks for today?
• Don’t wait for a good day; just make it a good day!
• Be grateful – count your blessings
• Enjoy good memories
• Who did I help today and what kind of positivity did I give that person?
• Focus – do one thing at a time
• Are the things I do now a part of my overall goal?
• Indecision is killing, better to take a wrong decision than no decision
• Are your goals still clear?
• I will make it a good day today!
• Are my thoughts calm? If not take a break and just breath
• Focus on what is important
• Eliminate what is not important
• Despite the fact you are a rockstar, it doesn’t mean you can do everything yourself
• You can’t change what is not in your circle of influence
• Are you following your passion today?
• It is okay to make mistakes, as long as you learn from it
• Are your boundaries still clear, if not you need to sharpening them
• Did I learn something new today?
• Did I reward my good behavior today?
• You are not a victim, you are a fighter – winner never quit and quitters never win
• Right here, right now

So in order to keep going with your new behaviour and support your behavioural change, I would advise you to implement this simple discipline tool with the reminder card. It supported me a lot so I think it is worthwhile trying for you as well.