So you’re wanting to get more done during the day, but you are done listening to all those people that say, “Well, you’ve gotta be out grinding. You’ve just gotta be out working, slaving, and grinding every moment of every day” because you’re exhausted, and you go, “I don’t want to have to do that.”
Today I want to dispel some interesting misconceptions about that and teach you what I call the Ultimate Productivity Formula.
First and foremost, it’s not about how busy you are. It’s not about how many hours or days you go without sleep. It’s not about how many hours you’re working, it’s about how much you get done those hours. Does that make sense?
There are people that get way more done in a single hour than some people do in an entire day. What I want to share with you today is what I call my Ultimate Productivity Formula, and if this is the first time you’ve ever heard this, this may seem counter-intuitive to you, but I have shared this with a lot of my mentoring clients, and this has allowed them to grow their businesses very quickly because they are able to get a lot more done in a fraction of the time.
#1 Make sure to get a full night’s sleep every single night. Most people don’t realize just how much sleep they need. A lot of people believe that they can get by on 5-6 hours. They see some multi-billionaires and they hear that they average 5 hours of sleep per night, and they think, “Oh, in order to become a billionaire, in order to be super-productive that’s what I have to do. I have to survive on 5 hours of sleep or less, and the rest of the time I’ve gotta be grinding.”
While that may be true for some people, most of us don’t do too well. Most people need between 7-8 hours or more of sleep per night in order to function at their optimum. What that means, is studies have been shown that the people that need that much of sleep, if they get less than six hours of sleep per night, they actually have the same cognitive functions as someone who is drunk. Can you be as productive as possible if you are the equivalent of drunk? No, of course not.
So #1, make sure to get a full night’s sleep every single night whenever possible. “Wait a second Eric, but I’m a mom, and I have a business, and I have all these crazy things.” I get it. Start by getting one extra hour of sleep. Remember, it’s all about productivity. If you can be twice as productive while working half the time, that’s gonna be your ideal. Does that make sense?
#2 No screens the first hour after you wake up. Of course the one exception is if you use your phone in order to write down ideas or action steps that day, OK, I get that. Or if you are turning off an alarm, or listening to a meditation track.
Otherwise, no reading or answering messages, texts, phone calls, no checking emails, and most importantly, no checking social media! For that first full hour after you wake up.
The reason why is because that first hour is getting you primed and ready for the day. Have you ever gone on social media, or received like a really negative text message, or seen like a really negative post, and that kinda just set you up for a really crappy day for the rest of the day? That is exactly what you are wanting to avoid.
The first hour of your day is designed for goal-setting, writing down what you hope to achieve that day. It’s for prayer, if you are a praying person like I am. It’s for reading inspirational books. If you are a churchy person like me, you would read scriptures. It’s for mediation, visualization, and it’s for exercise.
Again, no screens of any kind during that first hour after waking.
#3 Work in one hour blocks. Studies have shown that there is kind of an optimal window of how long you can work and stay productive, and usually it’s about between 50-120 minutes. So I usually like to do about an hour at a time.
This is one hour of focus, and after that hour is up, you give yourself a break. Take 5-10 minutes to go get a drink of water. Take a chance if possible to go outside. Get a breath of fresh air.
Work in one hour blocks, taking a quick break after each time because that allows you to reset your brain. Studies have shown that the brain can only handle seven new bits of information at a time. If you are working for longer than that, and you try to give your brain a lot more, then that’s when your productivity levels begin to decrease.
Again, one-hour blocks whenever you are working on a project, and while you are working on that project, you are working on that project. Nothing else. You are not checking emails, you’re not checking social media, you are simply working on that project.
Now, if you are the type of person that has to respond to emails or messages, maybe you are a business owner or expecting some type of message, designate two hours, maximum three, throughout the day that you do respond to those messages.
For example, maybe there is an hour in the morning, remember not your first hour, but maybe you designate from 10am-11am for checking messages, responding to emails, sending off emails, that type of thing. And then maybe the same thing in the afternoon, like 3pm-4pm.
Now, if you are like an on-call emergency doctor or something like that has to have your phone on, OK, there is an exception, but most of us don’t have that. Most of us are simply addicted to having our phone on all the time, and we get really addicted to seeing those little red notification dots. We might be like, “Ooh, I got a notification. Somebody liked one of my posts, or I got a message or something.” That very much decreases our productivity.
However, if you designate those two hours during the day for that, your people will survive, in most cases, again unless you are an on-call heart surgeon or something like that, people will get used to you responding just during those times. In most cases, you and they will survive. Does that make sense? And again, you will be able to boost your productivity.
#4 As I mentioned, only 2, maximum 3 hours during the day that you respond and check messages. Cool?
#5 Now, this one may seem very counterproductive especially, and that is one hour of personal me time every day. Some people call this Blue Screen time, some call it personal fulfillment time. This is just one hour each day in which you spend time doing something that fulfills you. It could be something that relaxes you. For my wife, she loves relaxing in a really hot bath, all to herself after the kids are in bed when she can be by herself and she can just let her brain relax.
This time may be spent working on a hobby. It could be working on a new business idea. It could be just something that gives you joy, something that makes you say, “Ooh, I cannot wait to work on this!” Some people love playing an instrument. Some people love cuddling with their cat. Whatever it is, just one hour guilt-free, shame-free, personal me-time to fill that fulfillment tank.
#6 Make sure you have no screens the last hour before you go to bed. The reason why is because your phone emits a certain frequency and certain amounts of light. When your brain sees that light, it believes that it’s time to wake up. It believes that it’s daytime, and so it can make it really, really difficult to fall asleep and then get your full night’s sleep.
So the last hour before you go to bed, dim the lights. If you are going to turn on a meditation track, OK that’s fine. Turn that on, and use the last hour before sleep for reading. Use it for prayer. Use that hour for pondering and setting goals for the next day. Just make sure there are no screens on in that last hour before you go to bed.
Now, if you really want to take it up a notch:
#7 Is drinking a green smoothie every single day. I have talked about green smoothies how they can dramatically boost your energy levels. That’s fantastic. If you want my personal green smoothie recipe, the people that use it and drink it every single day report having dramatically higher energy levels, some people like 30%, others like 100% increase in their energy levels.
If you want my personal green smoothie recipe, send me an email at Eric@FeelWellLiveWell.com and I am happy to send that to you for free.
That’s number 7, making sure you are getting the nutrients that you need to have the energy that you need in order to be as productive as possible.
Follow these tips. If you aren’t already subscribed to my YouTube channel, it’s Feel Well Live Well. If you aren’t a member of my Enjoy Yourself Thin Facebook group, it’s totally free, and you get videos like this, and much much more, not just on weight reduction, but on business advice, on how to grow mentoring and coaching practices if that is something that you are in.
And of course, how to be more productive and how to be better. We’ve got lots of amazing videos, and 5x a week we are putting out content, so make sure to join Enjoy Yourself Thin. Love you!
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