The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Productivity Expert Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.

This podcast is based on a group message I recently sent to all of my Productivity and High-Performance clients. Here’s that message. You can also find this article on Medium.

(This is a group message to all clients)

Gang-

I want to share a few thoughts. Most of this will be counterintuitive to what you’re hearing and experiencing in the media and online. Keep in mind you’ve hired me as your coach to challenge you and help you perform at your best each day.

Before we dig in, I want to acknowledge a pandemic is a historical event, and this message is not intended to downplay its impact. As far as I know, each of you are healthy and your family members are virus-free. As always, if you need anything specific, please let me know.

With that said, here are some challenges:

1. I challenge you to be aware of your mindset each morning. Are you joining the chaos bandwagon or are you proactively taking steps to get centered and finding your focus and intention? How can you find a rhythm each morning that leads you to be centered, focused, and thoughtful? Could beginning your day with meditation, breathing, yoga, or some exercise help? I notice a few of you aren’t prioritizing your morning meditation like you normally do. There has never been a better time to engage in your meditation practice.

2. I challenge you to think about the energy you’re projecting to your family — you’re fully in control of this and it is impacting them. Are there things you can do to reassure them and de-escalate the situation? Would underreacting be beneficial in some ways?

3. I challenge each of you to spend more time producing work each day than consuming news or social media. This coaching is full of creatives. From a creative perspective, you can come out on the other side way ahead of the curve or behind it. I’m trying to limit my news and social consumption to under 5 minutes per day. If anything drastic changes news-wise, I’m sure a loved one will call or text me, and I’ll know about it nearly at the same time as if I would have by consuming the news in real-time.

4. A lot of clients have told me they would like to build an online business or create a secondary income stream. Seems like an ideal time to take action, since most of us can’t leave our homes. Can you create something in the coming weeks/months that positions you and your family well for years to come? For me, one-on-one coaching doesn’t scale beautifully, so I’m building and creating online courses right now that will generate evergreen revenue. Meaning I’ll receive money from them for the rest of my life. I’m also writing book #2, same deal, another evergreen revenue stream. Is it time to start building that thing or writing the book you’ve been thinking about?

Some practical tips that have helped me:

1. Create a gratitude list each day of 5 things you’re thankful for.

2. Exercise. I like Yoga With Adrienne: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFKE7WVJfvaHW5q283SxchA
and this medium’ish-intensity workout: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFKE7WVJfvaHW5q283SxchA

3. I find the below headset to be very helpful for compartmentalizing when trying to work at home. Works much better than ear-buds for me, I don’t know why. It just does.

4. I created a sauna in my bathroom using basic heaters (picture below). It’s amazing. Most of you know, I’m obsessed with going to the sauna and steam room every day, but this has been a great alternative.

5. Call your parents and loved ones if you’re worried about them.

That’s it for now.

Learn more at www.Matt-East.com

Listen to Matt’s book, The Purposeful Planning Method: