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When life gets in the way.
I believe that most people want to do everything they can, exercise, eat healthy, read, write and anything else that makes them better. The few of us that have figured out this riddle know that it takes discipline and a strict routine. Over time we create habits to exercise, read and stay on top of our game until… Life happens and everything changes. Whether it is a life event, like a new child, new house or job. Or we just simply fall out of the routine overtime.
I have five steps to share that will put you back on track, based on research and personal experience.
First accept: acceptance is the first step at making any positive change. Research suggests that allowing yourself to understand your current situation, gives you the starting point baseline. From there you can work your way up. This is the stage when you set goals and create the milestones that will get you there. If you need help planning check out this podcast!
Take small steps: we have the tendency to take on too much at once, then we get overwhelmed or burned out. I love the marathon analogy, we finish a marathon one step at a time. So if your goal is to start an exercise routine, start by setting 10 to 15 mins a day, and just start with a walk, try not to disrupt your current flow too much. Creating a habit takes time, but most importantly it takes consistency. If you find yourself struggling in this stage, checkout this article and podcast.
Adapt to your new routine; Another popular phrase is to experience change, we have to change. As you begin your new regimen, you have to be able to compromise on the areas that are consuming your time. To me the easiest is to drop or limit the time on social media, set limits on your apps. Apple knows that people have become addicted to their devices, they have great tools that tell you where your time is going while on the phone . Remember not to fall into the hyper efficient fallacy:
- Do not lose sleep over it, sleep benefits will far outweigh
- Do compromise for a quick meal cheat
You might say then, great I found my rhythm and I am back on track, how can I stay on track? We are incentivized by reward, so the moment we feel that our routine has stopped giving us significant results we begin to relax until we completely fall off. At this stage it is important to keep the productivity guide as a reference. A tool like a scorecard will keep your motivation bucket filled, by making sure your commitments are being met. It is also important to have a support system; it can be a friend or a co-worker that is holding you accountable. Our brain chemistry makes us keep our commitment at a much greater pace when we need to report to someone. This is why everyone has a boss, even the CEO has to respond to the board of directors.
Lastly you may ask yourself what if I find myself here again because maybe you didn’t follow the previous point. Then be grateful that you are able to come back and look for ways to get back on track. In the book the 7 habits of highly effective people Stephen Covey, he uses the analogy that an airplane is off course the majority of the time the main job of the pilot is to keep shifting the airplane to get back on course continuously. That is really the magic, we need constant nudges to stay on track and fulfill our mission.
Productivity guide to a better life
If you stumble upon this page, I would assume you are looking for ways to be more effective in your work and your personal life. I believe that at the end of the day whether we achieve it or not we strive to do the best at whatever we pursue. I have read and listened to over 100 books that provide guidance on how to use time effectively. Here are the 5 practices that are essential at attaining higher levels of productivity
Becoming Self aware:
I have written articles on meditation and even produced a podcast, if there is one theme that is common amongst all productivity literature is that you need to understand your inner workings. In what circumstances do you operate at your best? What are your pitfalls? What do you crave? How do you fulfill your needs?
It is important to know your weaknesses before you can be productive. I used to get easily distracted, I had an addiction to my phone and online news. I especially felt this cravings at the highest during mid mornings, and after lunch. No matter what I did to focus, it felt like climbing a hill every time. I tried coffee or worse a cookie to bring my energy levels to the point where I can concentrate. By knowing this information, I could work on how to address the main problems. Was I not getting enough sleep? How about exercise? There are a myriad of things that can impede your progress. The first step is knowing the things that are holding you back.
Improve your health:
When we think of productivity, most people tend to undermine health, whether it is by not exercising, not consuming nutritious meals, or even not getting a good night’s sleep. Before you can embark on any journey, taking care of the basics will set you up for success. If the basics are not taken care of, your own body will cloud your thinking, your energy levels will be low, which means that your outputs will lack quality.
Making small habits, such as meditating every morning, walking, incorporating fruits and vegetables to your diet, will provide your mind with the necessary energy to go through your day like a champion. Prioritizing these changes will also make you stand out, building trust amongst your peers that you are ready for the next level of challenges.
Finding your purpose:
One of the reasons why a lot of people are not able to meet their goals is because they lack purpose. Without purpose your objectives lose relevance, and it’s just a matter of time before we lose interest and move on. The reason why I write on this blog and I do a podcast is because I find productivity as the foundation to pursue goals.
To meet objectives that don’t immediately pay, or provide rewards requires a level of grit and resilience that is very rare to find. At the core I believe I am an entrepreneur. I get excited and motivated about solving problems. I have ideas that I want to execute but find myself drowning in the clutter of everyday life. To pursue your passion you may have to learn uninteresting topics and practice exercises that may seem irrelevant at the moment, that changes as soon as your objectives are aligned to the higher purpose.
Create a scorecard:
I will dedicate an entire article on this, however this is an essential topic that needed to be included in this article. It is not enough to create goals, and key measures, you also need to be able to to track progress. Tracking your efforts gives you momentum, because you are able to determine if your efforts are producing value. Imagine you are running a 5K without any distance markers, it will be hard to tell how far you have run, which can have a negative effect in your completion time.This is why you need a scorecard: When building one make sure it includes:
- Goal: e.g read X, learn X, Do X
- Measure: create indicators that can track, how are you going to know if you are succeeding or failing e.g time per day, week or month, what is that magic number? Generate X revenue, cut X cost.
- Frequency of your reviews: Weekly? Monthly? Quarter?
Make a Routine:
What is a routine? In ordinary words a routine is a habit, something that we do continuously (i.e brushing our teeths, sleeping, eating). In terms of productivity this is the wrapper around everything we want to do. From little we have learned that slow and steady wins the race, over small sprints, that is because when we are consistent with our endeavors, our probability of attaining success is much better.
Therefore, you can have a clear purpose, you can have goals that are attainable, you can even be aware of your internal body operations; however if you are not able to incorporate your goals into a habit, you will not be able to succeed.
Wrap Up
To be a highly productive individual, you need to be organized. Your entire life has to be predictable, your work, your personal life, and your play. Once you are able to control the things around you, then you can begin to plan for the things you really want. From time to time people are prey to work, or personal life commitments that get into the way of achieving our higher purpose. Note that when planning, planning for the unexpected is as essential as to plan for the things you want to do, otherwise the unexpected will continue to hijack your progress.
Overcoming Internal Resistance
I recently listened to the “War of Art” by Steven Pressfield and watched the netflix show ” The Mind, Explained” by the way, if you are interested in getting better I highly recommend both. In these programs the author and the show provides the insight that our greatest resistance at getting things done, does not come from the outside but from within. During this podcast with Niv, we explore ways to overcome this internal resistance. How are we able to deal with it, and how can we work with it so that instead of a drag, we use it as a motivation. Let us know what you think.
Does Meditation Actually Work?
There is a lot of hype in meditation, for the folks that practice it frequently, it becomes life changing. I wanted to dive deep into this topic and listen to what Niv and Conley have to say about it. Does it actually work? Do you actually live happier? Does it improve sleep? I actually believe this is one of our best conversations. Take a listen and let us know if it helps you become a believer.
Interview with Kyle
This past week we had the opportunity to talk with Kyle about productivity, what makes him productive, which techniques work and what is the vision that keeps him motivated. We had a great time talking with Kyle about productivity and hope you too!.
Meditation Benefits
When it comes to productivity a lot of what we want is focus. Focus on the things that we believe will bring us the things we need, whether that is money, joy, or even health. Everyday we need to find the strength and motivation to wake up, do our work, exercise; however we avoid this work, and choose instead to be on social media, go to the fridge and eat whatever snacks are available. Basically, instead of us controlling our minds and body, we let our mind control us. We, as humans, are aware of this, so we make up ways to come back to the task at hand, such as building a strict routine.
People that have been able to master the art of meditation are able to control emotions, and carry on life with much less stress than the average individual. It has been proven even scientifically, where neuroscientists have performed MRIs on people that meditate and people that don’t and the difference is remarkable. People that do not meditate hold on to pain much longer than those that practice mindfulness.
How do I incorporate meditation in a busy schedule?
There is a saying that even 5 mins a day of meditation, has amazing long term effects. Follow these quick steps to get started yourself.
- Find an app that you feel comfortable using, if you don’t feel like paying, there are many free options available.
- Create a routine, what I have found is that if I want to go the distance, I have to 1. Schedule it and just do it. Do not be too strict, remember there are days when we might miss to brush our teeth; we do however come back to that task as soon as we are able.
- Start small, don’t attempt to meditate for long periods of time when you start, begin small and increase as you see fit.
Benefits:
- Sleep: For some, when it is time for bed it is either difficult to fall asleep or fall back to sleep if awakened in the middle of the night. There can be many reasons for this, even medical, but on average people have thoughts that become disruptive for the body to naturally do its thing. Meditation can help without meditation.
- Feelings: One of the core structures of humans are the feelings that we experience, such as joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust. While we enjoy the feelings of happiness, fear and sadness in high dosage can be problematic. They can take over and impede us from moving forward. Meditation allows for the feeling to happen, but does act towards it, and it does not give additional energy to it. In exchange we become resilient and are able to move on.
- Self Awareness: We are always caught up with everything happening, that we forget to enjoy the moment. The here and the now, the food that we eat, the flowers, the air. There are joys that we can enjoy now and not dwell on the past or the future.
- Increase patience: When we don’t practice mental health, our minds become overwhelmed, which leave little to no room to analyze the situation. We let emotions like anger get the best of us, to only come back and get the feeling of regret. Meditation allows us to watch the emotion, label it or for the feeling to pass before we act.
- Increase tolerance: Patience is similar but tolerance allows you to take on more without the emotional baggage. As the famous saying from the bible says “ if you are slapped in one cheek to offer the other”. Meditation allows you to see beyond the physical pain and focus on perhaps the goal that you are trying to achieve. In case of violence you may be the reason for de-escalation.
- Reduction of stress: When our minds are overwhelmed with thoughts on things we need to do, or things we should have done, we become paralyzed. This paralysis causes us to feel like we are unable to function or do anything. It is like we are always full and nothing new can be added. Meditation can help by allowing our thoughts to flow without taking any action towards them.
- Reduction of Anxiety: Anxiety happens usually when fear has taken over, we are so overwhelmed by its effect that it impacts us physically. Meditation can help, perhaps not immediately at the moment, but it can help us recover faster.
A little meditation practice.
Find your favorite chair.
- Seat with your palms at your lap, and close your eyes.
- Begin noticing your senses, such as what you are hearing, taste, touch, seeing, and smelling. Start becoming aware of these feelings without the need to change, just take notice.
- Then slowly bring your focus to your breath, how it flows from your nose, through your belly, try not to change your breathing pattern, just notice its presence.
- Gently open your eyes
And that’s it. The magic of following those four simple steps is the first step and making monumental changes for your life.
Interview with Rajdeep Saha
For this episode we had the honor to interview Raj, and ask him a series of questions regarding how he stays so productive. As a Parent, a Sr. Architect at AWS, a Professor at Udemy and Pluralsight. Here are some of the questions we asked : How do you manage a side gig, gym and working on a demanding job? What tools do you use to stay productive? How do you prioritize? Let us know what you think?
How to Develop a Grit Mindset
Grit is having persistence, when it comes to achieving your goals or tasks. It is a term that was popularized by Angela Duckworth, a UPenn Professor who has studied the subject for years. When it comes to being productive, in order to achieve our goals, it is useful for us to know how to develop a mindset that is unbreakable. Niv and I take a swing at this topic and discuss how our usual two articles breakdown the benefits of grit.
Effective Communication
So much of being productive, is the ability to communicate well, not only verbally but in writing as well. Niv and I took a look at this topic to understand more about it. What makes someone an effective communicator? What skills and experiences do you need to have? Here are the articles we reviewed:
https://www.betterup.com/blog/effective-strategies-to-improve-your-communication-skills
https://fellow.app/blog/meetings/how-to-communicate-effectively-in-the-workplace/