PP 357: The Reward System

Kim Sutton: I have a really addictive personality. And what I mean by that is when I get into something, anything, whether it be work, or my hobby, or watching a show, I get hooked a lot faster than I would like to admit. But here I am admitting it. 

If this is the first episode that you’re listening to, you may not have heard that my husband is a video game developer, and there’s a lot of video gamers in my family. I have five children, and the oldest two love to play video games, as does my husband. And although I don’t think I’ve ever admitted it here on the podcast, so do I. But when I get myself into a game, it’s often very difficult to find my way back out. 

Recently, however, I realized that just as I have reward systems for our older children, meaning when they do their chores, they can play. Or when they go outside and spend time with the first year, then they can earn time on their computers. I realized I need to be doing the same for myself. 

In the past five years, I’ve struggled quite a bit with being addicted to my work and never giving myself a chance to relax. However, on the flip side, I’ve also found myself in those time periods when I was playing too much and not working enough. So now, I’m working on finding a healthy balance. And the way I’m doing that is by using a reward system for myself. The way it works, at least for me, is that when I do a certain amount of work or reach certain goals during the day. And remember, goals need to be realistic. We can’t be putting our goals way beyond our reach for any given day. But when I reach those goals, then I can play, or I can knit, or I can binge watch whatever TV show I’m watching. But I want to make sure that I hit those goals, those business goals, or health goals, or whatever before I indulge in the other activities. 

It’s really important to me that I emphasize though, again, that we need to make sure that we are giving ourselves a chance to relax. We cannot be working 24/7. We need to make sure that we’re sleeping, we need to make sure that we’re getting proper exercise. And that’s my biggest issue right now, I do not exercise enough. We need to make sure that we’re eating healthy and socializing with our friends and loved ones. And often finding that healthy balance can be really difficult. But let’s gamify our day, let’s gamify the balance between our personal life and our professional life and find a way that we can reward ourselves for a job well done each and every day. 

If you haven’t already picked it up, I want you to pick up the 7 Day Free version of the Positive Productivity Planner, because you will see in the planner that I am putting a spot for three professional items and three personal items. These should be small tasks, or maybe a little bit bigger tasks. They should not be the whole project, and set a goal for yourself. When you accomplish those tasks during the day, then you can reward yourself. You can binge watch something on Netflix, you can go out for a night on the town. Or like me, you might spend a little bit of time in a video game with your family, but make sure that you’re getting done what you need to so that at the end of the month, you’re not looking at your bank account and wondering what where’d all the money go. 

I would love to know what types of rewards you are putting into your life. I want you to head on over to thekimsutton.com/pp357, and let me know what your rewards will be. You’ll also be able to find the 7 DAy Free version of the Positive Productivity Planner on that page. 

Now, with all this said, go forth and make it a positive and productive day.