1. Q: How many years young are you and what is your living situation?
1. 54. I live alone.
2. Q: What's the biggest challenge you faced in changing your morning routine? How have you dealt with it/got over it/are still dealing with it?
2. I work from home and no two days look the same. So, it was easy for me to wake on an as need basis. The biggest challenge for me, therefore; was reworking my mental habit of such variability and sticking to a consistent wake time daily.
3. Q: What time did you wake up and go to sleep before you started using the Morning Sidekick Journal, and what time do you wake up and sleep now?
3. Neither sleep time nor wake time were consistent prior to launching the journal as my way of operating. Now, I wake at 5:30 each morning and start my “shut down’ routine at 8:30 with a sleep time goal of 9:30.
4. Q: What did your mornings look like before you started using the Morning Sidekick Journal? What do your mornings look like now?
4. I’ve been optimizing workflow through timeboxing techniques for many years, so my days are efficient and effective. That said, my “start my day” routine was haphazard, at best. Now, my entire day is structured, from “deliberate gratitude” the moment I open my eyes to “calming my mind stream”
5. Q: In one sentence, what's your favorite thing about the Morning Sidekick Journal?
5. The journal bridges science to every day performance, making change intentional and effortless, and success inevitable.
6. Q: How long have you been using the Morning Sidekick Journal?
6. I bought my original volume when it was first launched. Since then, I’ve demonstrated its use to friends and family, many of which are now believers. At some point, I’ll be adding its use to my development program.
7. Q: How has using the Morning Sidekick Journal and doing your morning routine impacted your life overall?
7. I own and operate a business (learn2learnnow.com) and chair a foundation (steppingupforchildreninneed.org) that both train kids HOW to learn like Einstein, be organized like Marie Kondo, plan like a new-age Steven Covey and work in an optimized flow (think Pomodoro.) Every bit of instructional design behind my workshops is based on neuroscience and cognitive behavior theory. So, I already had a firm grasp on how the brain best works to process and form new habits, not to mention how hard it is to “unlearn” and break old habits. When I first stubbled across Habit Nest I was gratified to find the science built into its application. I have such respect for its creators and the brilliance of building tool that installs new way of thinking and being and doing, scientifically-proven to drive true and lasting behavior change. In my book, with my understanding of the brain, any tool with the power achieve behavior change is priceless.