Productivity – Page 3

Could You Be Overfeeding Your Brain?

October 31, 2016 by Camilla

Have you ever wondered why your brain feels like mush even if you’re listening to or reading good material such as personal development books, podcasts and other educational input? I mean, after all isn’t that the kind of material you want to feed your brain vs. the crap on TV?

Your Brain Is Like a Muscle

Although the brain isn’t a muscle it sort of works like one. Our brain use more energy than any other part of our body, about 20% of all your energy intake, and the more it works the more energy it uses. Just like a muscle it gets tired and needs to recharge. If you’re putting your brain through a marathon each day you need to treat it accordingly.

Your brain, since it use so much energy, is also influenced by your nutrition, just like the rest of your body. Poor nutrition leads to poor brain performance.

If you remember from biology, food gets converted to glucose, which is the energy source for the body. Now, not all glucose is good glucose. Your brain doesn’t exactly rock n’ roll if you live on junk food, sugar, caffeine and soda. There’s very little substance in that kind of food. Your brain wants good, healthy nutrition and fluids.

Can You Overfeed Your Brain Even With Good Material?

Yes.

I honor your commitment to feeding your brain good material and don’t stop doing that. Just understand that as with any kind of input, your brain still needs to think about what to do with that. That’s why, regardless of the material, if you feed your brain too much to process, it still gets tired.

As you’re now in this space of personal growth it’s easy to want to listen to all the podcasts, read all the books, do all the things. I totally get that. There’s so much to learn and now you want to know it all, preferably yesterday.

What Can You Do?

Your brain needs time to recharge. The way to do that is to reduce as much other input as possible, especially the kind of input that isn’t helping you to move forward in life, plus allow your brain some time off. Walks in nature, days off the computer, lots of breaks throughout the day, meditation, sleep, time with friends, and other non-reading/listening/studying activities.

Also, remember to implement what you learn so you follow the “Learn, Implement, Learn, Implement” strategy. Feeding your brain without putting it to use is a waste of time and energy.

Yes, I know that means slowing down learning all this great material, but you’ll retain it better by having a fresh brain, not a tired one. Just think of how your muscles feel after a hard workout. After a few days of hard workouts your body isn’t as responsive simply because it hasn’t had time to recharge.

So as you work on your personal growth, remember it still comes down to balance. Because sometimes too much good can have it’s consequences. Even when you have the best of intentions.

If you felt this post was of value to you please share with others so they too can learn how to stop spinning and start living. I appreciate you! Now go and move your life forward but do it in balance. Think long-term. You can do it!

You may also like these posts:

The 6 Foundational Habits for Productivity – No 5. Reduce Input

Take a Day Off. Seriously.

3 Things I Did to Reduce Digital Noise

Quotes to inspire you…feel free to share! You can find more quotes on my Instagram.

The 15 Minute Solution To Getting Stuff Done

October 17, 2016 by Camilla

The Power of 15™ is probably one of my favorite tools I created to show my clients and students how to get stuff done. It’s so simple, yet has an incredible impact and truly moves the needle forward.

We can easily waste 15 minutes a day doing things that doesn’t move us forward. What if you could use those 15 minutes instead for something that did move you forward? Would you be game?

Now before you go “I don’t have an extra 15 minutes a day!” let’s look at how you spend your time. On average people spend 5 hours a day watching TV, surfing the internet with no purpose in mind and being down the rabbit hole of social media.

If you don’t believe me, there’s a great app called RescueTime which tracks where you spend your computer time. You’ll be amazed at how much time you lose in a week, especially on social media.

Are you ready to stop spinning and do the things that helps you start living? If so, continue on.

15 Minutes A Day Becomes 91 Hours in a Year

What?! Yes. Do the math. Fifteen minutes a day becomes 91 hours and 25 minutes in a year. That’s The Power of 15™ in effect. If you were to do something daily for 15 minutes it adds up to a lot of time. In 10 years you will have accumulated over 900 hours.

You can use The Power of 15™ to either accumulate or to subtract. What do I mean with that?

Accumulate 15 Minutes at a Time

90% of people dream of writing a book in their lifetime. Yet few do it. Why? You guessed it. No time. But you don’t have to move into a secluded cabin in order to get that book written. Set a timer for 15 minutes every day and write. Just the practice of writing every day will help you get that book done.

Another sad statistic is that most people don’t read books after they leave high school and if they do, they usually read a fiction book. Books that entertain but hold little value in teaching you things that could improve your life. A common excuse for not reading books is that there is no time. Enter The Power of 15™. If you were to get your butt on a chair to read a book for 15 minutes a day, guess what? In a year you will have read about 12-16 non-fiction books that could completely change your life. Wow! If you don’t know what non-fiction books to start reading, check my Resource page.

Another common excuse I hear is that people don’t have time to exercise. You guessed it! What if you moved your body for 15 minutes a day? It doesn’t take much to accumulate a positive shift in your life. Imagine where you would be if you exercised for 15 minutes a day instead of doing nothing. In just one week that is 1 hour and 45 minutes of exercise!

You get the picture on how doing something for 15 minutes a day can help you accomplish some great things in your life!

Subtract 15 Minutes at a Time

Now let’s see how we can use The Power of 15™ to subtract things in our life. We all have those nagging projects we hate doing. The ones that we procrastinate on any chance we get.

Whether it’s cleaning out the garage, getting caught up on accounting, cleaning out those boxes that you never got around to, or the ever-growing pile of papers you need to file, you can get those nagging projects out of your way 15 minutes at a time.

Set a timer for 15 minutes and go to town! Don’t worry about where to start, just pick a corner of the garage, pick a box, pick anything and start tackling it. When the timer goes off, you’re done.

We can all “suffer” for 15 minutes. You do that every single day or even once a week, before you know it, that nagging project that otherwise would take hours or even weeks to finish, is done. You don’t need huge blocks of time, you just need to apply The Power of 15™.

After that you can use the same technique making sure the piles don’t take over again. What if you spent 15 minutes a day putting things away, entering in receipts and miles, organizing your workspace and more?

Now you’ve learned how something as simple as applying 15 minutes a day can create huge results! Of course, you can choose to spend that 15 minutes doing nothing of importance or you can spend a little less time watching TV, surfing the internet and social media and use that time to move your life forward. That choice is yours!

If you felt this post was of value to you please share with others so they too can learn how to stop spinning and start living. I appreciate you! Now go and move your life forward. You can do it, fifteen minutes at a time!

If you truly want to move the needle forward, check out my Get Stuff Done Accountability program.

The 6 Foundational Habits for Productivity – No. 6 Breaks

October 3, 2016 by Camilla

Do you feel defeated because no matter how hard you work, you can never keep up? And after a long day at work you come home exhausted with no energy to spare, leaving you to wonder why you’re so tired all the time. I hear you! I lived in that state too until I learned that the way society wants us to work is extremely inefficient and holds no basis in human physiology.

We live in a society where we have been conditioned to be “on” 24/7/365. You’re expected to answer emails, texts, phone calls and more immediately while also working for 8-10 hours straight and get everything done. That’s insanity and needs to stop. We are not robots!

Time has come to wrap up this 6 Foundational Habits for Productivity series with our habit no. 6 – Take Breaks. If you missed the first 5 habits, click HERE.

Your Brain Need Breaks To Function

If you start paying attention your level of focus and concentration goes down after about 60-90 minutes depending on the task you’re doing. That’s because your brain gets tired and needs to regenerate.

Your brain goes through something called an ultradian rhythm, think of it as a wave with peaks of highs followed by lows about every 90 minutes. When your brain is on a high peak you are able to focus well. When it’s coming down you start losing focus, and that is when your brain needs you to take a 10-20 minute break.

If you are not allowing the brain to take a break, you’re messing with your body’s natural oscillation of hormone exchanges. Not only does your focus and energy go down but if you are continually ‘pushing through’ operating as if you’re a robot, you’re flirting with the path to burnout.

In other words, if you want to work smarter not harder, keep a high level of energy both physically and mentally you must take breaks at least every 90 minutes.

A great tool to help you work in focused blocks of time followed by a break is the Pomodoro Technique. You can for example work in 45 minute focused blocks of time followed by a 15 minute break, or adjust the timer based on what works best for you.

But I Don’t Have Time to Take Breaks

If the thought of taking a longer break when you step away from work for 10-20 minutes every hour freaks you out because you think it’s not productive and you have so much to do, then start with taking 5 minute breaks every hour. That will make you realize how beneficial taking breaks are and you will make the time for longer breaks.

Those 5 minute breaks will provide you with a small boost of energy and help you throughout the day. You can do a quick meditation, close your eyes, maybe a walk around the building, do some jumping jacks, dance to music or just sit on a park bench watching the birds.

Then work your way up to 20 minute breaks. And no, those are not ‘let’s surf social media for 20 minute breaks’ – these are supposed to be real breaks when you step away from work! Move your body during those breaks too! We’re not built to sit all day.

And take a lunch break, will ya! Seriously! Taking breaks, including a lunch break, will help you stay energized, which will help you stay focused, which will help you get work done and will help you feel amazing at the end of the day so you can have a life too!

Breaks Are Energy and Productivity Boosters

You must manage your energy in order to stay productive! Like mentioned the way you do that is by taking breaks throughout the day, fueling your body, getting your sleep, getting your exercise and reducing input, but wait, there’s more!

You also need to schedule in longer breaks like weekend trips, vacation and days away from social media, computers and that non-stop beeping cell-phone. When was the last time you had a day off from something as simple as your smartphone or computer? Or even a half a day? Schedule in digital free days too.

If you don’t believe me on the importance of giving your brain a break, at least read the NY Times article mentioned in this post. Print that article out and remind everyone around you that it’s productive taking breaks.

Action Step: Get serious about these habits that you have now learned. Take sleep, exercise, nutrition, morning routine, reduced input and breaks serious. You may not realize that you are living in a mediocre state of energy. I want you to live an amazing life! To experience the kind of energy you have within you, if you get your 6 Foundational Habits in shape. You CAN feel amazing and have the energy to do the things you want to do. But it all starts with you and self-care.

If you felt this blog post was of value to you please share with others so they can learn how to stop spinning and start living too. I appreciate you!

The 6 Foundational Habits for Productivity – No. 5 Reduce Input

September 19, 2016 by Camilla

If you missed the first 4 habits, click HERE.

Have you ever wondered why you feel kind of tired after surfing the newsfeed or watching TV despite that you’re not really doing anything? After all, shouldn’t that rejuvenate you?

Your brain receives over 11 million inputs per second. It can only process about 40 of them. Which means, your brain has to constantly use energy making a decision on what to actually process and pass on to your conscious brain. The rest gets filed away in your subconscious brain (which is why limiting input that’s negative is so crucial).

The amount of input we are exposed to is increasing. Social media, streaming videos, games, non-stop 24/7/365 access to pretty much anything you want to learn, watch or read.

Shortly speaking, people today are exhausted and overwhelmed much due to the insane amount of input we are exposing our brain to. Your brain is dealing with something called decision-fatigue.

Instead of kicking up our feet up and day-dreaming in silence we spend hours surfing the internet, watching TV and video’s, listening to music, podcasts, browsing the newsfeed of social media and the list goes on. We’re always doing something! Even when we’re taking a “break” to relax. Because not doing something is seen as lazy.

At the same time your brain has become addicted to dopamine hits putting you in a “addicted to more input” situation making you spin in a cycle of craving more input.

It’s time to change all that.

You can’t be creative, focused and gain balance in your life if you are always doing something.

Your brain needs quiet space so that it can provide you with answers, ideas, creative solutions and much more. That’s why walks in nature, going camping and just being quiet in silence day-dreaming under a tree in a park and practicing meditation are essential to life.

You all know how rejuvenating it is taking a break doing nothing and how beneficial it is. If you’re struggling with the feeling that doing nothing is equal to being lazy think of ‘do nothing’ breaks as a productivity boosters. Think of them as essential to your well-being. Re-train your brain’s addiction to dopamine hits.

Changing a habit is not done overnight. It takes time. It’s a process but I hope by understanding a bit more on how your brain reacts to input you become more aware of how it affects you and your life. When we become aware we can choose to change things.

The 6 Foundational Habits for Productivity – No. 4 Morning Routine

September 5, 2016 by Camilla

We’ve all heard the say that the way you start your morning sets the tone for the day. Which is true if you really think of it. If you have a calm morning when you don’t feel rushed you feel differently than if you rush around. When you’re stressed the entire day seems to work against you, while if you’re calm things go smoother.

It’s time for habit no. 4 in the series of The 6 Foundational Habits for Productivity. If you missed habit 1 through 3 go HERE.

Step Number One For a Calmer Morning

If you want a calmer morning I have a very simple solution for you. NO checking email, NO checking social media, NO checking anything on the phone (or the computer) at all for the first hour.

According to a 2013 study done by IDC Research 80% of people check their cell phone first thing in the morning. I wouldn’t be surprised if that number is even higher now.

When you check your phone first thing in the morning, you end up not only wasting precious time you could use for other things, but you also end up on other people’s agenda. You may think it’s not affecting you but now you’re down the rabbit hole of busy but not productive. Your mind is focused on whatever input you just exposed it to. That also includes other media such as the news. Starting your day with the news isn’t exactly uplifting!

Studies show people check their phone about every 6 minutes during waking hours. If that’s you, then your brain has become addicted to your phone, just like someone is addicted to drugs. Your brain is craving its dopamine hits and if it doesn’t get its dopamine (aka. checking the phone) you may feel stressed. Re-train your brain by becoming “addicted” to a calm and balancing morning instead.

Mediation and Gratitude

Meditation is a great habit to incorporate into your morning routine and throughout the day too. Meditation alone can boost your focus, productivity, memory and energy. It also helps with stress relief and can have a very calming effect. Meditation is a practice so if you’re new to meditation remember it’s about progress, not perfection. There are two great apps I recommend called Calm and Headspace that have guided meditations that can help you get started.

Gratitude is the foundation for happiness and starting your morning feeling grateful definitely sets a positive tone for the day. Gratitude helps you to focus on the positive instead of the negative. Positive people handle stressful situations and detours in life better so when that person cuts you off in traffic it’s not a big deal. Remember – whatever you focus on expands!

Successful People Protect Their Morning

When I started this journey I wanted to know how highly successful people spend their time. They seemed to get so much done and I wanted to know their secrets. What I learned is that they protect their mornings and focus on doing things that nurture them. Besides getting up early, often around 5 a.m., some practiced meditation, some would exercise and others had a routine of journaling and reading. Then they would dive into work.

I remembered a time when I used to get up early to read first thing in the morning and how peaceful that was, so I decided to create my own morning routine to see what would happen. I tested different things but finally set on a routine of meditation, gratitude and journaling, positive affirmations and then reading. I sometimes do visualization after meditating. I instantly noticed a difference in how calm and more prepared I was for the day. I was hooked.

Years later I read a book called the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod that explained why I felt such a big difference. Implementing the habits from the book into your morning is life-changing. Hal set out to test to see what would happen if you did ALL of the habits that highly successful people do in the mornings instead of just a few of them. With that he created the S.A.V.E.R.S. system. I highly recommend the book. Try it out!

It can be challenging in the beginning to switch over to a good morning routine so start with one thing, then add another until you’ve created your ideal morning that sets the foundation for the kind of day you want to have. You can either live your life in a proactive mode or a reactive mode. Successful people create their day into what they want it to be instead of letting the day rule them. You can too!

*The link goes to Amazon and should you purchase the book through that link I may receive a small commission. I appreciate your support. As always I ONLY recommend books and products I’ve read and use.