“You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”

James Clear

Over the past weeks I have been walking with you to discover ways to improve self-leadership by prioritizing. We have looked at macro-priorities and micro-priorities. This week we will unpack nano-priorities.
What do you do when you wake up in the morning?
Think about it, do you look at your phone and scroll? Do you say thank you quietly and start your day? Do you spend time reading, exercising, eating breakfast, drinking coffee? The list could go on. Why am I asking? Because what we do creates a habit, and a habit is a nano-priority.
A habit is a system, and as the quote above says, our systems impact our results. So let’s look at a few systems and how we can improve them to grow in our nano-priorities.

Technology

Let’s tackle the one that can either help or hinder us the most. Awhile ago I wrote about leveraging technology to help reduce stress, but now let’s look at our habits toward technology. Specifically, according to researchers between 2019 to 2024 our mobile use for non-voice activities has risen from 3 hours and 45 minutes to 4 hours and 49 minutes daily.1
I’m not completely sure what this means other than we have a habit of being on our phones A LOT! This time could be productive and involved in communication, but we need to pause and evaluate what are our habits with technology whether a phone or the internet on our computer. Do we pick up the phone and scroll first thing?
Take time this week to track what you do on technology and then ask how you could change this habit. What if you changed that scrolling time to reading a book, working on that project you’ve been wanting to start, building a business. Small habits.

Self-Care

If you haven’t stopped reading yet, you may after this. Let’s look at our nano-priorities around how we take care of ourselves. What do we put in our mind and our body? There are many variables that impact our self-care, but two of the biggest are our mind and body.
When negative thoughts come in, we have a habit of how we respond. We may let it sit there and focus on it or we may shift our thinking to focus on what is true and stay out of the mental pit. What we do is a system and habit.
I was somewhere the other day and was offered an unhealthy treat. At first I took it, but never unwrapped it and decided to return it before I left. That was a small step for me in creating a nano-priority of eating healthier. We can create habits on how we interact with food and move our bodies. Both impact our self-care and will take time.

Communication

I’ll ease up here a little and shift to something that crosses both personal and professional. In my home I’ve noticed a way my children respond when they need something repeated. They say “what?” Not a problem, but the tone is not very respectful and sounds irritated.
Confession – they learned it from me. I have a habit of having an annoyed tone when I ask someone to repeat what they said by saying “what?” I need to change this to respond in a more respectful way to others in my family.
Maybe there is a habit in how you communicate that has unintended disrespectful or hurtful consequences. These small communication habits could be impacting the depth of your relationships or the respect you receive from those you lead. Get feedback, become aware, and make the appropriate changes.
If you read this far, you may feel a little beat up. This was not the intention. We all have habits that impact our results. Take a moment and decide which one you will focus on to grow in your leadership of yourself. (I think you know mine 😊) If you need help thinking into how to get from where you are in leading yourself to where you want to be schedule a no cost powerful coaching session and let’s get you growing into the leader you were made to be. Lead well!

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1. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-global-overview-report retrieved 12/23/24
2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1045353/mobile-device-daily-usage-time-in-the-us/ retrieved 12/23/24
3. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/smartphone-usage-stats retrieved 12/23/24