3 Actions to stop "Buffering"

By Kerrie Beene, CFP®

In the last Strong Roots Blog Post and Podcast Episode we introduced the term “buffering.”  Buffering is the activity we do when we feel emotional about something, when we are procrastinating or avoiding, when we are bored, or during any time we should be addressing another issue.  We “buffer” out of habit. Some examples we mentioned in the last post were binge watching Netflix, eating, shopping, drinking, spending too much time on social media, etc.

So what can we do to stop “buffering?”

1. Recognize - the first thing we need to do when we are about to buffer is to just recognize the action.  Do not do anything else, just notice our buffering. Once we start noticing our buffering, we realize we are doing it a lot more throughout the day than we realized.  If you do nothing else over the next month, just start recognizing your behaviors.   

2. Pause - once we have recognized we are about to buffer, just pause.  Do not do anything. Do not do the buffering habit. Jane Springer recommends a wait period.  Depending on what you are going to do, wait 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or up to an hour. Often, within that time frame we no longer want to do the buffering habit that is not good for us. 

3. Inaction or Replace - once we have recognized and paused, then what do we do? Some buffering may require inaction.  For example, if you are not hungry but just want to eat or snack, then instead let time pass and most often this desire goes away. If you are still hungry, make sure the snack is a healthy one.  Another example is wasting time on social media, this is a buffering activity that we could replace with something else.   

This will be a process and will not happen overnight.  There are plenty of buffering activities we do throughout the day.  Pick one and work on recognizing it first, then pause, and replace it with a better habit or do nothing in its place. 

For me, at night I waste time watching television even when I am exhausted.  Then I do not get to sleep on time. I am going to replace this with a night-time tea and maybe some light reading.  I am already having tea sometimes and it helps a lot but the television is what I need to replace or stop doing all together.   

Good Luck on your Journey to recognize, pause, and replace!

Wealth, Habits, and How Buffering is "Ruining" Your Best Life!

By by Kerrie Beene, CFP®

Habits. Resolutions. Goals.  Being Better. Having the best year ever!

Words that inspire us to be amazing.  

However,  statistically the odds are not in our favor.  Most people do not set a resolution, and those that do, normally do not keep them.  If you are one of the few who do, Congratulations, keep on killing it! If you are one of the other 97%, I would like to introduce you to why we cannot keep those resolutions.  This is because of “buffering.” 

This is not the buffering related to technology.  This “Buffer” preys on your health, wealth, relationships, and all the important stuff.  Buffering is the activity we do when we feel emotional about something, when we are procrastinating or avoiding, when we are bored, or during any time we should be addressing another issue.  We mindlessly “buffer” out of habit.

Examples of “Buffering” - binge watching Netflix to numb our problems, eating when we are emotional, shopping when we have feelings we don’t want to address, drinking or gambling to escape reality, scrolling through social media when we are bored, etc.  We all have our own form of “buffering.”  

The goal is to recognize “your buffer.”  It can be more than one. I binge watch Netflix at night instead of going to sleep when things are on my mind, then causing me to not get up and go exercise because I am tired.  I snack on unhealthy food when I am bored. I make meaningless financial decisions when I do not have my spending plan under control.  

These activities are keeping us from the habits, resolutions, and goals that we want to accomplish.  Being able to recognize this behavior is the first step to actually replacing the buffering with something better.  

I challenge you to begin to recognize “your buffer.”  For now, just sit and do not complete the “buffer” activity.  This process will allow you to begin to recognize all your behaviors and how these behaviors are done out of habit.  If you did not set a resolution, just start recognizing when you buffer. If you did, use this to help replace “your buffer” with something better.  

I sat a resolution to exercise more.  To help I am adding a nighttime hot tea called “sleepytime” to my routine to help me sleep.  There are so many healthy things we can do in place of our unhealthy buffering habits. Do not make it too complicated, start small and pick one something easy. 

Jane Springer introduced me to the term “buffering.”  For those interested in learning more, Jane and I had a great introductory conversation on buffering during Strong Roots Podcast Episode 10.  We will also be continuing the conversation on ways to address our buffering during upcoming episodes.

Wealth and Focus: 5 Ways to Be More Productive and Maintain Focus

By by Kerrie Beene, CFP®

Are you trying to create healthy habits this year that will increase both your wealth and your focus? We'll, here are my top five suggestions to help you with those goals.

1. Plan Ahead

   • Find time in your week to see what all is ahead of you.  If your work week starts on Monday, look at your calendar on Sunday and start planning. Include everything; meetings, appointments, child events, personal obligations, doctor appointments, etc. 

   • Utilize a planner (online or paper) and choose to be organized with your time. 

   • For events with a time and date, put them in your calendar.  For things that just need to get done, write them down or use an app like google tasks.  I have gone paperless this year and am loving my google calendar and google tasks add on. Google tasks also allows you to put dates on tasks, which helps when things need done by a certain time.  Here is a quick video on google tasks.   

2. Prioritize

   • After your weekly review, go through everything and set priorities. This is to respect yourself, your time, and other people you have an appointment scheduled 

   • This is where calendars and task management comes in handy. 

3. Time Block

   • Here is a quick video on time blocking

   • This takes some time getting used to but once you get the hang of it you will get more down

   • Another helpful tool is using an app to track your time.  This is very helpful because sometimes things do not take the amount of time we thought.  We use an app called clockify on our laptops and phones.  This allows you to manually track things or just log them as you go.  

4. Exercise

   • There are so many studies that have proven over and over that we need to exercise.   This is for our overall health and helps keep our mind clear and focused at work. Just schedule it and get it done!  And if you need 10 reasons to do it, here is an article. 

5. Say “No” Sometimes

   • This comes back to priorities.  As busy adults, with jobs and families, these meetings and tasks can get overwhelming.  Just decided what is most important to you and stick to it! We no longer want to be superman or wonder woman.  It is not worth the sacrifice required to be everything for everyone. Do what you can and say “no” to some things!

Food, Mood, and Finance

The older I get, the more I realize a lot can affect our mood and bring our spirits down.  Once our spirits our down, our decision making is affected. This can affect our emotions which then affects our a lot of our daily decisions, including our financial decisions.  We may spend money on something we normally wouldn’t have simply because we want to feel better in the moment. But one simple way to keep our spirits high is to control what we eat.  When we lack nutrients from foods that are good for us, it affects our brain. When we are in a bad mood, it can affect so many areas in our lives. Below are 5 vitamins needed to improve our mood and some of the foods that contain them.  

1. Foods with Omega 3’s

   1. Fish - Salmon, Mackerel, Anchovies, Herring, Oysters, Sardines, etc.

   2. Flaxseed

   3. Chia Seed

   4. Walnuts

2. Vitamin B9 (folate)

   1. Asparagus

   2. Eggs

   3. Leafy Greens

   4. Citrus Fruits

   5. Broccoli

   6. Brussel Sprouts

   7. Nuts and Seeds

3. Vitamin B12

   1. Salmon

   2. Eggs

   3. Tuna

   4. Beef

4. Tryptophan (used to make serotonin)

   1. Salmon

   2. Eggs

   3. Spinach

   4. Seeds

   5. Poultry

5. Magnesium

   1. Dark Chocolate

   2. Avocados

   3. Nuts

   4. Seeds

   5. Bananas

6. Probiotics - Increasing probiotics in your diet can be tricky, here are a few common ones

   1. Yogurt (make sure it has active or live cultures and is not filled with added sugar)

   2. Sauerkraut

   3. Pickles

   4. Traditional Buttermilk

7. Zinc

   1. Nuts

   2. Eggs

   3. Legumes

   4. Meat

   5. Shellfish