This is the twenty-seventh in our series of emails called “How I Monk.” In this series, we will be highlighting + celebrating members of the Monk Manual community as they’ve meaningfully applied our tools and resources to find peaceful being and purposeful doing in their everyday lives. If you’d like to be featured in a future “How I Monk,” share your information with us here… #HowIMonk
Name: Aaron Hansz
Occupation: Pastor and Coach
Location: Huntsville, TX USA
A bit about who you are and how you spend your days:
What originally drew you to the Monk Manual?
I have a tiny issue of remembering that I have a call at 2pm or that I have to pick this or that up. I also value my daily practice of reflection. When I stumbled across the Monk Manual, it had all of that in one place rather than journals and agendas. One place to keep it all.
Practical Monk Manual Tip:
I use highlighters to color-code goals or activities I want to see grow. For example, my family activities are orange, and at one time, I noticed that I was seeing less and less orange, so I created a theme that I focused on and very quickly saw more orange.
When you were first getting started, what part of the Monk Manual did you struggle with most?
It was hard for me to transition information/ideas from monthly to weekly to a daily planning and thought process. I always wanted to jump to the daily and would forget to look at the bigger picture, which kept me in reactive mode.
Do you have a favorite prompt or section?
Out of all of them, I value “the ways I can give” on the daily pages. It is not necessarily “my favorite” as some days I want to get, but it puts me in a peaceful and purposeful state. Serving others is the goal, and it is the “I want to get days” that makes the question so powerful.
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How has your life changed since using the Monk Manual?
I am more organized with my life than my to-do list. I am making decisions in much less reactive ways.
What suggestions would you give to new Monk Manual users?
Don’t try to improve it; read the instructions, watch the videos, and stick with it. The Monk Manual (PAR Method) works, but I have to use the tool to reap the benefits.
If you’d like to be featured in a future “How I Monk,” share your information with us here.
