Welcome Stepcase Lifehack Readers!

Quick update before we jump in: my book is finally out on Kindle - woohoo! Order your copy here. Not sure if it's for you? Check out what 77 fabulous reviewers had to say. I'm very excited to have my first post up on Lifehack.org today -- a site that has inspired my own thoughts on organization, lifehacking and providing useful content for readers for as long as I've been blogging.

My Lifehack post is about how doing a cleanse (and subsequently "going Paleo") changed my life -- and business -- for the better. It's not necessarily the fastest, magic bullet-iest (new word!), or sexiest lifehack (or maybe it is?); it requires dedication and tough choices, but I've found the rewards to be exponentially positive. I've included an excerpt at the end of this post.

Here are some related posts (a virtual welcome mat, if you will) for all the new readers this week -- hopefully this serves as a nice recap for the veteran readers as well!

On Health & Fitness: 

On Side Hustles, Leaving Google & Solopreneruship:

On Lifehacking & General Organization: 

My latest greatest (pen and paper!) organization strategy:

Jenny's Weekly OrganizerI've tried everything for daily organizing - Todoist, TeuxDeux, Evernote, Google Docs, Google Calendar, my own Weekly Activity Tracker - the list goes on.

And then I discovered the one...the only...Post-it Weekly Organizer! It's simple, it helps me map out my week, and the best part is that I can SEE it all day while I'm working.

This has also helped me ensure that work, people and health get equal billing in my life. No one category takes priority, and I made it a point to list the daily health goals first. At first I resisted only having five lines for each category, but now realize that it helps me stay focused and prioritize the most important tasks.

Intro from tbe Lifehack post: The best decision you can make for your business -- that has nothing to do with money

Imagine two people starting identical companies with the exact same resources, network, and time at their disposal (gender randomly assigned for brevity’s sake):

  • Person #1 wakes up every day with anxiety, stressed about his mounting to-do list. He immediately buries himself in reactive work -- striving to please everyone else but himself by responding to emails, taking meetings and delivering what others ask of him. He gets whipped around by his moods -- one minute he’s happy and excited, the next he’s tired, anxious, unmotivated and depressed. His productivity on any given day is completely unpredictable -- sometimes he wakes up excited to work, and on other days you couldn’t pry him off the couch with a forklift.
  • Person #2 starts her days with purpose. No matter what her mood is upon waking up, she laces up her running shoes and gets her blood pumping with a 20-minute run. She uses that time outside to reflect and plan her day, and the resulting endorphins and morning shower give her energy to launch into her best work. She works diligently on her most important projects first, while she’s feeling sharp and creative. She takes a break in the afternoon by heading to yoga class, which centers and grounds her. By the time she attacks her inbox in the afternoon she already feels accomplished -- the emails no longer assault her plans, they support them. Person #2 ends the day feeling calm, happy, confident and empowered.

Both of these people are me.

I quit my job at Google two months ago to pursue my passion as an author, speaker and coach, and during my first month of solopreneurship I was Person #1.

I wasn’t running my business, my business was running me. And as 100% of the company, the opportunity costs of operating at half-mast were extremely high.

Continue reading the full post on Lifehack.org, which includes 4 key tips for growing your business or big goal, and improving your life by putting your body first.