How to inhabit your body in a stressful environment | Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle - How to inhabit your body in a stressful environment.

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My Job is Stressing Me Out. Is that true? | Byron Katie

An honest inquiry into the source of stress in your life will yield some surprising results. If you're mindful, present, and inquiring, you won't be able to fool yourself, says Byron Katie.

Katie's latest book is "A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are".

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Be, Do and Have More | Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar's early days sharing how you have to be before you can do and have more of what you want. 

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Trust your struggle | Zain Asher | TEDxEuston

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. 
Trust your struggle, knowing that the hardships you go through will somehow end up being for your own benefit.  
The more you give, the more you receive.  
Success comes when opportunity meets preparation. 
Please let me know what you think below.   Source 

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Motivational Speech

Arnold Schwarzenegger inspirational motivation speech:
Includes excerpts from a few of Arnold's speeches, including his 6 rules of success speech. I hope this video helps to motivate you.

The background track is Time by Hans Zimmer
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HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE THINK - Motivational Video

Wonderful insights into what successful people think.  
Speakers:
Magic Johnson
Arnold Schwarzeneger
Idris Elda
Serena Williams
Conor McGregor
Usain Bolt
Roger Federer

Music by Really Slow Motion
Let me know what you think below!
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Overcoming Procrastination | Steve Pavlina

Procrastination, the habit of putting tasks off to the last possible minute, can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life. Side effects include missed opportunities, frenzied work hours, stress, overwhelm, resentment, and guilt. This article will explore the root causes of procrastination and give you several practical tools to overcome it.

The behavior pattern of procrastination can be triggered in many different ways, so you won’t always procrastinate for the same reason. Sometimes you’ll procrastinate because you’re overwhelmed with too much on your plate, and procrastination gives you an escape. Other times you’ll feel tired and lazy, and you just can’t get going.

Let’s now address these various causes of procrastination and consider intelligent ways to respond.

1. Stress

When you feel stressed, worried, or anxious, it’s hard to work productively. In certain situations procrastination works as a coping mechanism to keep your stress levels under control. A wise solution is to reduce the amount of stress in your life when possible, such that you can spend more time working because you want to, not because you have to. One of the simplest ways to reduce stress is to take more time for play.

In his book The Now Habit, Dr. Neil Fiore suggests that making time for guaranteed fun can be an effective way to overcome procrastination. Decide in advance what blocks of time you’ll allocate each week to family time, entertainment, exercise, social activities, and personal hobbies. Then schedule your work hours using whatever time is left. This can reduce the urge to procrastinate because you work will not encroach on your leisure time, so you don’t have to procrastinate on work in order to relax and enjoy life. I caution against overusing this strategy, however, as your work should normally be enjoyable enough that you’re motivated to do it. If you aren’t inspired by your daily work, admit that you made a mistake in choosing the wrong career path; then seek out a new direction that does inspire you.

Benjamin Franklin advised that the optimal strategy for high productivity is to split your days into one third work, one third play, and one third rest. Once again the suggestion is to guarantee your leisure time. Hold your work time and your play time as equally important, so one doesn’t encroach upon the other.

I’m most productive when I take abundant time for play. This helps me burn off excess stress and enjoy life more, and my work life is better when I’m happier. I also create a relaxed office environment that reduces stress levels. My office includes healthy plants, a fountain, and several scented candles. I often listen to relaxing music while I work. Despite all the tech equipment, my office has a very relaxed feel to it. Because I enjoy being there, I can work a full day without feeling overly stressed or anxious, even when I have a lot to do. 
For additional tips to make your work environment more peaceful and relaxing, read the article 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace.

2. Overwhelm

Sometimes you may have more items on your to-do list than you can reasonably complete. This can quickly lead to overwhelm, and ironically you may be more likely to procrastinate when you can least afford it. Think of it as your brain refusing to cooperate with a schedule that you know is unreasonable. In this case the message is that you need to stop, reassess your true priorities, and simplify.

Options for reducing schedule overwhelm include elimination, delegation, and negotiation. First, review your to-dos and cut as much as you can. Cut everything that isn’t truly important. This should be a no-brainer, but it’s amazing how poorly people actually implement it. People cut things like exercise while leaving plenty of time for TV, even though exercise invigorates them and TV drains them. When you cut items, be honest about removing the most worthless ones first, and retain those that provide real value. Secondly, delegate tasks to others as much as possible. Ask for extra help if necessary. And thirdly, negotiate with others to free up more time for what’s really important. If you happen to have a job that overloads you with more work than you feel is reasonable, it’s up to you to decide if it’s worthwhile to continue in that situation. Personally I wouldn’t tolerate a job that pushed me to overwork myself to the point of feeling overwhelmed; that’s counterproductive for both the employer and the employee.

Be aware that the peak performers in any field tend to take more vacation time and work shorter hours than the workaholics. Peak performers get more done in less time by keeping themselves fresh, relaxed, and creative. By treating your working time as a scarce resource rather than an uncontrollable monster that can gobble up every other area of your life, you’ll be more balanced, focused, and effective.

It’s been shown that the optimal work week for most people is 40-45 hours. Working longer hours than this actually has such an adverse effect on productivity and motivation that less real work gets done. This is especially true for creative, information age work.

Don’t just take my word for it though; test this concept for yourself. Many years ago I ran a simple experiment to determine how efficiently I was working. I measured my efficiency ratio as the number of hours I spent doing important work divided by the number of hours I spent in my office each week. The first time I did this I was shocked to find that I only got 15 hours of real work done while spending 60 hours in my office, an efficiency ratio of 25%. Can you believe that? Over the following weeks, I increased my productivity dramatically while spending far fewer hours in my office. By limiting my work hours, I actually got more done. You can read the details in the article Triple Your Personal Productivity. I now know that working long hours is huge mistake, and I challenge you to discover this truth for yourself.

3. Laziness

Often we procrastinate because we feel too physically and/or emotionally drained to work. Once we fall into this pattern, it’s easy to get stuck due to inertia because an object at rest tends to remain at rest. When you feel lazy, even simple tasks seem like too much work because your energy is too low compared to the energy required by the task. If you blame the task for being too difficult or tedious, you’ll procrastinate to conserve energy. But the longer you do this, the more your resolve will weaken, and your procrastination habit may begin spiraling toward depression. Feeling weak and unmotivated shouldn’t be your norm, so it’s important to disrupt this pattern as soon as you become aware of it.

The solution is straightforward: get off your butt and physically move your body. Exercise helps to raise your energy levels. When your energy is high, tasks will seem to get easier, and you’ll be less resistant to taking action. A fit person can handle more activity than an unfit person, even though the difficulty of the tasks remains the same.

Through trial and error, I discovered that diet and exercise are critical in keeping my energy consistently high. I went vegetarian in 1993 and vegan in 1997, and these dietary 
improvements gave me a significant ongoing energy boost. When I exercise regularly, my metabolism stays high throughout the day. I rarely procrastinate due to laziness because I have the energy and mental clarity to tackle whatever comes my way. Tasks seem easier to complete than they did when my diet and exercise habits were poor. The tasks are the same, but I’ve grown stronger. A wonderful side benefit of the diet/exercise habit is that I was able to get by with less sleep. I used to need at least 8-9 hours of sleep per night to feel rested, but now I function well on about 6.5 hours.

The most energizing foods are raw fruits and vegetables. Make your diet abundant in these foods, and you’ll likely see a marked improvement in your energy levels. The first week or two, however, you may temporarily feel worse as your body takes the opportunity to detox. Erin and I each lost seven pounds the first week we went vegan. Once the dairy clog finally got cleaned out, our intestines were better able to metabolize everything we ate from then on. We later learned that this is actually quite common. There’s a good reason baby cows need four stomachs to digest their mother’s milk. Human beings can’t metabolize dairy products properly, so the partially digested cow proteins float through the bloodstream and must be eliminated as toxins (i.e. poisons). This requires even more energy, which can leave you feeling more tired than you otherwise would.

You’ll have to decide for yourself how far you want to take this. I suggest you try different dietary changes for only 30 days at first to see how it affects you. That’s how I went vegetarian and later vegan. In each case I went into the challenge fully expecting to revert back at the end of the 30 days, but I liked the results so much that I couldn’t fathom going back. Don’t take my word for this. Experiment for yourself, and discover what health habits work best for you. For more tips see the article How to Find the Best Diet for You.

4. Lack of Motivation

We all experience temporary laziness at times, but if you suffer from chronically low motivation and just can’t seem to get anything going, then it’s time for you to let go of immature thought patterns, to embrace life as a mature adult, and to discover your true purpose in life. Until you identify an inspiring purpose, you’ll never come close to achieving your potential, and your motivation will always remain weak.

For more than a decade I ran a computer game publishing company. That was a dream of mine in my early 20s, and it was wonderful to be able to fulfill that dream. However, as I entered my 30s, I began feeling much less passionate about it. I was competent at what I did, the business was doing well financially, and I enjoyed plenty of free time. But I just didn’t care that much about entertainment software anymore. As my passion faded, I started asking, “What’s the point of continuing with this line of work?” Consequently, I procrastinated on some projects that could have moved the business forward. I tried to boost my motivation using a variety of techniques but to no avail. Finally I recognized what I really needed was a total career change. I needed to find a more inspiring career path.

After much soul searching, I retired from the gaming industry and launched StevePavlina.com. What an amazing change that was! I found renewed passion in helping people grow, so I didn’t have to use motivation-boosting techniques to get going. I was naturally inspired to work. I still feel totally inspired. Best of all I procrastinated less on non-work tasks too — my passion spread across all areas of my life.

Center your work around an inspiring purpose, and you’ll greatly reduce your tendency to procrastinate. If you haven’t already done so, listen to Podcast #15 – What Is Your Purpose?. Finding your purpose is a powerful way to defeat procrastination problems because you won’t procrastinate on what you love to do. Chronic procrastination is actually a big warning sign that tells us, “You’re going the wrong way. Take a different path!”

Once you’ve centered your life around an inspiring purpose, then you can take advantage of certain motivational techniques to boost your motivation even higher. For some specific motivational tips, read Cultivating Burning Desire.

5. Lack of Discipline

Even when motivation is high, you may still encounter tasks you don’t want to do. In these situations self-discipline works like a motivational backup system. When you feel motivated, you don’t need much discipline, but it sure comes in handy when you need to get something done but really don’t want to do the work. If your self-discipline is weak, however, procrastinating will be too tempting to resist.

I’ve written a six-part series on how to develop your self-discipline, so I’ll simply refer you there: Self-Discipline Series. If you really want to overcome procrastination, you must release any attachment to the fantasy of a quick fix, and commit to making real progress. Hopefully you have the maturity to recognize that reading a single article won’t cure your procrastination problems overnight, just as a single visit to the gym won’t make you an athlete.

6. Poor Time Management Habits

Do you ever find yourself falling behind because you overslept, because you were too disorganized, or because certain tasks just fell through the cracks? Bad habits like these often lead to procrastination, often unintentionally.

The solution in this case is to diagnose the bad habit that’s hurting you and devise a new 
habit to replace it. For example, if you have a problem oversleeping, take up the challenge of becoming an early riser. To de-condition the old habit and install the new one, I recommend the 30-day trial method. Many readers have found this method extremely effective because it makes permanent change much easier.

For tasks you’ve been putting off for a while, I recommend using the timeboxing method to get started. Here’s how it works: First, select a small piece of the task you can work on for just 30 minutes. Then choose a reward you will give yourself immediately afterwards. The reward is guaranteed if you simply put in the time; it doesn’t depend on any meaningful accomplishment. Examples include watching your favorite TV show, seeing a movie, enjoying a meal or snack, going out with friends, going for a walk, or doing anything you find pleasurable. Because the amount of time you’ll be working on the task is so short, your focus will shift to the impending pleasure of the reward instead of the difficulty of the task. No matter how unpleasant the task, there’s virtually nothing you can’t endure for just 30 minutes if you have a big enough reward waiting for you.

When you timebox your tasks, you may discover that something very interesting happens. You will probably find that you continue working much longer than 30 minutes. You will often get so involved in a task, even a difficult one, that you actually want to keep working on it. Before you know it, you’ve put in an hour or even several hours. The certainty of your reward is still there, so you know you can enjoy it whenever you’re ready to stop. Once you begin taking action, your focus shifts away from worrying about the difficulty of the task and toward finishing the current piece of the task which now has your full attention.

When you do decide to stop working, claim and enjoy your reward. Then schedule another 30-minute period to work on the task with another reward. This will help you associate more and more pleasure to the task, knowing that you will always be immediately rewarded for your efforts. Working toward distant and uncertain long-term rewards is not nearly as motivating as immediate short-term rewards. By rewarding yourself for simply putting in the time, instead of for any specific achievements, you’ll be eager to return to work on your task again and again, and you’ll ultimately finish it. You may also want to read my article on Timeboxing.

If you find that clutter and disorganization are hurting you, I suggest you read the article Getting Organized. For a compelling overview of effective time management principles, read Time Management. And for a giant list of specific time management tips you can apply right away, read Do It Now.

7. Lack of Skill

If you lack sufficient skill to complete a task at a reasonable level of quality, you may procrastinate to avoid a failure experience. You then have three viable options to overcome this type of pattern: educate, delegate, or eliminate.

First, you can acquire the skill level you need by training up. Just because you can’t do something today doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to do it. Someday you may even master that skill. For example, when I wanted to create my first website in 1995, I didn’t know how to do it because I’d never done it before. But I knew I could learn to do it. I took the time to learn HTML, and I experimented. It didn’t take long before I launched a functional web site. 
In the years since then, I continued to apply and upgrade that skill. If you can’t do something, don’t whine about it. Educate yourself to gain skill until you become proficient.

A second option is to delegate tasks you lack the skill to do. There are far too many interesting skills for you to master, so you must rely on others for help. You may not realize it, but you’re already a master at delegation. Do you grow all your own food? Did you sew your own clothes? Did you build your own house? Chances are that you depend on others for your very survival. If you want a certain result but don’t want to acquire the skills to get that result, you can recruit others to help you. For example, I don’t want to spend my days trying to understand the details of the U.S. tax code, so I delegate that task to my accountant. This frees me to spend more time working from my strengths.

Thirdly, you may conclude that a result isn’t needed badly enough to justify the effort of either education or delegation. In that case the smart choice is to eliminate the task. Sometimes procrastination is a sign that a task needn’t be done at all.

When I was in college, I felt that certain assignments were pointless busywork, and I couldn’t justify the effort required to do them. If the impact on my grade wasn’t too great, I’d decline to do those assignments. Nobody cares that I received an A- instead of an A in a class because I declined to write an essay on gestural languages. If an employer or graduate school screener ever did care, I’d have turned the experience to my advantage by using it to demonstrate that I could set priorities.

8. Perfectionism

A common form of erroneous thinking that leads to procrastination is perfectionism. Believing that you must do something perfectly is a recipe for stress, and you’ll associate that stress with the task and thus condition yourself to avoid it. So you put the task off to the last possible minute until you finally have a way out of this trap. Now there isn’t enough time to do the job perfectly, so you’re off the hook because you can tell yourself that you could have been perfect if you only had more time. But if you have no specific deadline for a task, perfectionism can cause you to delay indefinitely.

The solution to perfectionism is to give yourself permission to be human. Have you ever used a piece of software that you consider to be perfect in every way? I doubt it. Realize that an imperfect job completed today is always superior to the perfect job delayed indefinitely.

Perfectionism also arises when you think of a project as one gigantic whole. Replace that one big “must be perfect” project in your mind with one small imperfect first step. Your first draft can be very, very rough. You’re always free to revise it later. For example, if you want to write a 5000-word article, allow your first draft be only 100 words if it helps you get started.

Some of these cures are challenging to implement, but they’re effective. If you really want to tame the procrastination beast, you’ll need something stronger than quick-fix motivational rah-rah. This problem isn’t going away on its own. You must take the initiative. The upside is that tackling this problem yields tremendous personal growth. You’ll become stronger, braver, more disciplined, more driven, and more focused. These benefits will become hugely significant over your lifetime, so recognize that the challenge of overcoming procrastination is truly a blessing in disguise. The whole point is to grow stronger.

Let me know what you think below.

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MOTIVATION - Work hard sleep less | Idris Elba

"I'm an ambitious person. I never consider myself in competition with anyone, and I'm not saying that from an arrogant standpoint, it's just that my journey started so, so long ago, and I'm still on it and I won't stand still. " Idris Elba
"Keep your head down!"
"You won't know you're at the top until you get there, pal!"
"Know what your target is. Don't guess it!"
Let me know what you think below.
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Work Versus Passion – Puppy and The Plough | Sid Savara

“A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means” – William Hazlitt

        

 

Imagine the last time you had to work on some dreary task – something you truly dreaded. Go on, close your eyes and do it. I bet just now, merely thinking about it changed the way you felt – your emotions. You may even have furrowed your brow, grimaced, tensed up your muscles or pursed your lips. Just thinking about it likely changed your body language.

Now close your eyes and think about a time you were doing something you loved. Perhaps a hobby, sport, or working towards a dream of yours. How does that make you feel? I bet your body language and feelings changed again.

That difference in attitude is the difference between how we approach doing something because it’s work (something that you have to do)and doing something because it’s your passion (something that you want to do) – and we’ll explore that a little in today’s post.

Note that in this case, when I say work I don’t necessarily mean your career. There are plenty of people in jobs and careers they love. I’m taking my definition of work from the general productivity sense of “stuff I don’t want to do – but have to.”

The Puppy And The Plough

I was thinking about this recently, and the best analogy I could think of is working is like pulling a plough.

The plough is cold, hard material – it has no feeling, no desire to go anywhere, and you don’t want to pull it! However, if you want to get anything accomplished, you have to muster up the motivation and determination to pull it anyway. That’s what work is like – you don’t want to do it, but you suck it up and get it done.

Passion on the other hand is like walking a puppy.

Have you ever taken a puppy out for a walk? You can barely control it! When you’re inside the house, as soon as it hears your pick up the leash it starts running in circles in anticipation. It gets excited. It starts clawing at the door trying to get out. As soon as you get outside, what happens? It tries to run up the street. It runs to the next tree. It practically pulls you behind it, and about all you can do is guide it in the general direction you want to go.

Now that’s what following your passion is like. When I”m working on an exciting piece of software, or writing a new song on guitar, or even writing new articles for this website – once I get started, the project practically does itself. I get in a zone – I forget to eat, I forget to shave, I literally will start falling asleep at the keyboard sometimes because I have to force myself to sleep!

Work Versus Passion – Energy Levels Over Time

Another way of looking at this is considering the long term impact of work. In the short term, we can put up with just about anything – but what are the long term ramifications? I think they look like this:

Work: Over time our “energy” (motivation and actual physical energy) goes down over time the longer we work on something we don’t want to do. What keeps us motivated to keep working? I think it’s small accomplishment boosts from payoffs. For example, occasionally we’ll get paid, earn a bonus, get a pat on the back – or perhaps we reach a short term goal because of the work we’re doing. Nonetheless, the general trend is downward – and without enough payoff, we’ll eventually reach a point where we can’t stand it anymore. The work in and of itself is not rewarding.

Passion on the other hand I’ve found generally increases my energy over time – almost regardless of progress. When I’m passionate about something, I go to sleep and wake up even more motivated to work on my projects than the night before. When I accomplish a small goal, it helps to further fuel my momentum – but with passion, the general trend is upward anyway – and (I didn’t show this in the graph) this helps push me through short term setbacks without losing enthusiasm. The activity itself is rewarding, and I continue doing it even without bonuses to motivate me.

Note that these are extreme examples. For me, most of my passions involve some amount of work, so it’s not always exciting. For example, I don’t especially like some aspects of software development, like tracking down frustrating bugs, but these short term instances of work don’t impact my overall passion for it.

Final Thoughts

What do you think? What are you passionate about? Share your thoughts with me in the comments, over email or over Twitter!

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Driving yourself to perform: If not you, then who? | Eugene Whelan

We all want to do better. Better at work, better in life, better at everything. But how do we achieve this and do we really know what better is?

Performance at work has always been a hot topic. At worst, performance (or the lack of it) can put a company under, at best it can make it positively flourish.

It's the reason we have performance reviews, targets and KPIs – so that our boss and the management of the company can tell how we, and they, are doing by performance results.

But performance isn’t just about facts, figures and targets. It’s not just about meeting expectations to a satisfactory level within the work place.

In terms of ourselves, performance, and our understanding of it, is the key to personal and professional development and the business success.

Or to use a driving analogy: if you can't see where you are on the map, how can you work out your route, or know when you have arrived.

So it's down to you to manage your own performance at work if you want to get the results and recognition you want and get to where you really want to be.

 North, South, East or West?
Back to our map analogy. Do you know where you are in terms of performance at work?

Have you looked at your performance, analysed your strengths and weaknesses and more importantly accepted them?

Have you ever conducted your own performance review? If not, then you need to, now.
Choose a time-frame – say the last year. Brainstorm a list of your achievements (don’t be shy), your failures (do be honest!), your challenges and issues, obstacles you feel you overcame, situations you think may have got the better of you and anything else you think may affect or contribute to your performance at work. These can include factors outside of work as well.

Group the different elements together and you will have a good idea of where you are on the map performance-wise. Then you need to decide what you need to change so you can improve your performance.

 Analysis and Investment

Change is usually a good thing, but invariably very hard to do, especially when it needs to be self-motivated.

However, now you have reviewed your current position, you will have a very good indication of where you may be falling short, not only in terms of your mindset around your job and your company, but also in terms of where you may need additional learning and development to do your job better and improve your position.

Having a good awareness of the skills/abilities you lack to improve your performance and further your career is the starting point to doing something about that.

This is when communication with your superior is key. You will need to make an investment in yourself and ideally the source of the investment will come from your company. You just need to convince them why it will be commercially profitable for them to do so. Performance reviews are the perfect time to do this.

It's this simple:

1. Arrange a meeting with your supervisor to discuss your self-review and use it to point out your strengths but also the areas where you feel you are lacking. (Ask for their feedback on this.)
2. Highlight the type of training or investment you have identified you need to undertake, to improve upon those areas. (Do they agree with you?)
3. Discuss how afterwards, you would be more effective and productive in areas, and how this would impact on your contribution to the company as whole. (What's their opinion?)

Well it’s not really that simple but you have to be the “driver” in this situation, your boss won’t just stop and hand it to you.

 So. Get your Performance Sat-Nav in Gear

If you want to get better at what you do, if you want to succeed and if you want to further your career then you need to take control.

These days, the burden of self-improvement is squarely on the shoulders of employees not the managers. The thinking being that if you want to “get ahead” then you need to do something about it. And the more pro-active you are the more favourably it will be looked upon.

That means you need to know where you are headed and how you are going to get there.

Based on your own performance review and your assessment of the investment you need to improve your skill and performance levels, you need to create a road-map of actions that will help you make it happen.

Again take the time-frame of a year (or three if that’s more reasonable) and decide where you want to be at the end of that time. Then work backwards as to what you need to do to achieve that goal.

Could it be finding and paying for your own training if it is a crucial area that just can’t wait? Is it a daily strategy or ethos that will lift your performance levels and your mindset? Perhaps you need to change the way you do or approach certain tasks or projects?

Whatever it is, it’s up to you to decide. And at the crux of all of this is honesty.

You need to be truly honest with yourself about what you need to improve upon, so that you can actually make those improvements happen.

If you can’t then you will be looking at a map with no roads and you’ll be going nowhere.

So ask yourself this question: What have you done to improve your skills, abilities, and your performance in the last six months?
Author's Bio:


Eugene Whelan is a qualified business and life coach and is the owner of One To Ten Coaching.

He has over 25 years experience at senior management level in the manufacturing and distribution industries.

Eugene has worked in various senior roles including, sales, manufacturing and commercial.

During this time he has gained an invaluable insight into the day-to-day pressures that go with such leadership roles and the expectations to be met.

Eugene is a direct and enlightened business consultant, able to see the practical side of people and situations as well as the more intangible qualities and potential of both.

Source 

Unbroken - Motivational Video

Unbroken is a 6 minute inspirational video which has been watched by 22 million people and counting. It is designed to remind us of what is important in life.

Source: https://youtu.be/26U_seo0a1g

Be inspired, and let me know below what inspired you the most.

10 Time Management Tips From Google’s Chief Evangelist | Gopi Kallayil Shares How To Prioritize Your Day To Get More Done

No matter who it is making it, I always hear the same lament. CEOs of companies tell me they are overworked. Farmers back in my home village in southern India say they have no time. We can all complain that we are under the tyranny of schedules, that there is no time in our day. Each of us can say that much of our life is driven by someone else’s agenda or outside pressures—things we have to do, things we would like to do, things we are expected to do.

When I graduated from business school, I had a terrible time organizing my day. Seven days a week, work was my number-one priority. I fed on the thrill of accomplishments. I dashed to meetings, raced to meet flights, ate whatever food was given to me—airline food and conference food, which is terrible stuff. My house was a mess—stacks of bills that I was too busy to open, let alone pay, suitcases half unpacked from the last trip and partially packed for the next. A few times my phone was cut off or my credit card declined. Not because I didn’t have the money, but because I was trying to focus so much on my work and travel that I didn’t have the time to pay bills. It was embarrassing, as though I couldn’t take control of my own life. This chaos went on for quite a long time—almost a year—until I reached my breaking point, and started asking myself,

Why am I living this life? What is the purpose of it? What am I trying to do here?And what is the price I am paying? My life had become travel, bad food, and not enough exercise and meditation. And I realized that I had to reprioritize.

I asked myself, If I only had a few hours—or just one hour— fully under my control, what would be the one thing I would  do with it that would maximize this quality of joy, presence, and life? What would support my five essentials on a day-to-day basis? I came up with ten items. As the list developed, the idea switched from a theoretical notion to a tactical way to structure my days that would support what’s important to me in my life, what resonates and brings me joy.

Your list of how to spend your hours in each day might contain different items with different priorities. My list has changed my life, and I’d like to share it with you.

1.   Sleep at least 8 hours a night

If I had a few hours to spend as I wished, then the first choice I would make would be to spend those hours sleeping. Ideally for eight hours. Sleeping dictates how we feel physically and emotionally, which affects our level of joy. We violate that simple rule and the laws of nature can respond with ruthless brutality. 

2.     Eat Mindfully 

We all know that what we put into our bodies can support or sabotage our well-being, our state of happiness, our joy, our energy, our health, how well we think, and our creativity. Conscious nutrition means we’re mindful of what we put between our lips. I’d love to say I’m 100 percent conscious all the time, but I’m not. I recall attending an official business dinner in my first job after college, and getting carried away with my business colleagues, bingeing on the free food and alcohol, and staying up late. Spicy Madrasi, Old Monk rum and Coke, and aloo parataha—talk about sabotage. I’ll never forget the embarrassment of nodding off the next day in a meeting with my boss and a senior executive of Indian Railways. Whether we grow our own food, cook our own food, or even just eat food made by somebody else—it’s important to choose and eat our food consciously and mindfully. So if I had just another 30 minutes to play with, I would shop mindfully and choose my meals with care.

3.   Move Your Body

If I had another hour, or even less, I would pick exercise as my next-highest priority. Exercise fuels my physical and mental energy. Often when I’m traveling, I can’t fit in the full hour, so I might practice a bit of yoga, maybe three or four sun salutations on a towel in my hotel room, or squeeze in 30 laps in the small hotel pool. This method works for me. You might prefer another method. Whatever you do—swim, walk, run in the hills, practice yoga, dance, or play tennis—I think it’s essential to find a form of movement that delights you.

4.    Meditate 

If I found another 20 minutes available, what would I choose? Meditation. My meditation practice guides me personally and sets the tone for the rest of the day. It fills me with joy and allows me to clear my head of noise and clutter, bringing a level of clarity to my mental processes that allows me to operate at peak performance. Often I have to get creative about my meditation, and I can’t always meditate before I begin my day. For example, since my job requires so much travel, I find time to meditate on the plane during those 15 minutes during takeoff, when all electronics are turned off, there is no service, and it’s very quiet.

5.    Give Time To Those You Love

The next thing I added to my list was love—the thoughts and actions that generate love inside me, and giving time to those I love. Many might ask, “Shouldn’t love be number one on the list?” I’ve put it fifth, because if I’ve not slept well, eaten well, exercised, and then found time for a little bit of mindful meditation, I can’t be present and in a state of high energy and joy with myself or my loved ones. I can’t operate at an optimal and peak state of love. My philosophy is no different from that of the airlines. Think about what all flight attendants tell you before takeoff: “Put on your oxygen mask first before helping someone else.”

6.    Complete Small Tasks

What is the one thing I would choose to focus on with my next chunk of time? Taking care of the stuff in my life. When I say “stuff,” I mean mail, dishes, and day-to-day chores that I need to take care of to keep my life running smoothly. These tasks aren’t urgent or life shattering, but if I let all of them pile up, they start interfering with how I feel and how I perform.

7.    Focus At Work

The next item that made my simple list is work. Now, don’t tell my employer that my work ranks seventh. Many would put work at the top of the list, but I feel that if I take care of numbers one through six, I’m a much better performer, I deliver a higher quality of work in less time, and I find my work much more fulfilling. Give it a try. I think you’ll find that everyone benefits. You benefit, your company benefits, your co-workers benefit, and your boss should be super happy.

8.    Spend Time On Passions

If I had another hour left, the one thing I would do is focus on my passions. There are things that move me, things I do because I love them, not because I have to do them or I am going to make a living out of them (although my work is also one of my passions). I have many passions—public speaking, for example, teaching yoga, singing kirtan music. So if there is an hour left in my calendar, then I put it into my passions.

9.    Learn New Things 

Whether it’s playing the harmonium, producing a TV show, cooking vegetarian food, or open-water swimming, learning helps me realize new possibilities and expand my universe.

10.    Be Of Service

If I were lucky enough to have any time left, I would spend that time in acts of service to my community, acts that draw my energy outward. For me, that time might be teaching my yoga class at Google, simply hosting my friends for a cup of tea or dinner at home, or organizing an art project for the Burning Man community. You might work with your church, or volunteer at your kids’ school, or help out at a shelter. Or maybe you devote your time to an act that’s less structured, such as taking the time to reach out and call a friend you have not spoken with in a long while, or practicing random acts of kindness to connect with others, creating a sense of community. 

Incorporating this list into my daily life shapes how I feel as a human being, and it increases my focus and sense of accomplishment. I become more conscious of investing my time in a manner that maximizes my energy potential. Once you create your list and start following it, once you consciously spend your 24 hours each day, I believe you will enjoy increased physical energy and operate at a higher level of performance and productivity. You will alter your perception of time and change how you view what you should focus on. And most important, you will live a life of greater joy and presence.

So, I ask you, what are the ten things by which you will organize your 24 hours. To learn more, see my book, The Internet To The Inner-Net - Five Ways To Reset Your Connection And Live A Conscious Life. recently released in paperback format.

Source:http://www.healyourlife.com/10-time-management-tips-from-google-s-chief-evangelist

Wow!  What do you think of that?  

How To Get More Work Done In A Day | Zig Ziglar

How do you achieve employment security in a world where there is no employment security? I start with a question: Do you consider yourself to be honest and at least reasonably intelligent? Okay. As an honest, intelligent person, do you, as a general rule, get about twice as much work done on the day before you go on vacation as you normally get done?  

Now I am going to ask you a long question, so stay with me all the way through. If we can figure out why and learn how and repeat it every day without working any longer or any harder, does it make sense that we will be more valuable to ourselves, our company, our family and our community?The answer is "Yes."

I want to make it crystal clear that I am communicating with you about you-I'm not referring to anybody else, but to you about you. You have undoubtedly already confessed that you are honest and intelligent.

Now on the night before the day before vacation, do you get your laptop or a sheet of paper out and plan, "Now tomorrow I've got to do this and this...." We've coined a very clever name for that--we call that goal setting. So, you set your goals. Then you get them organized in the order of their importance.

Let me encourage you to make one slight change there. Get the disagreeable and difficult things out of the way first. Free your mind so you can concentrate on what else you have got to do. You get it organized. You accept responsibility. You make the commitments. You know that some people are about as committed as a Kamikaze pilot on his thirty-ninth mission-they just aren't serious about it.

Now commitment is important whether it is to get your education, make one more call, keep the marriage together or whatever. Commitment is important because when you hit the wall-not IF, but WHEN you hit the wall--if you have made a commitment your first thought is, "How do I solve the problem?" If you haven't made the commitment your first thought is, "How do I get out of this deal?" And we find literally what we are looking for. 

When you make that commitment, things happen. It shows that you really care about the other people on the job. It demonstrates that you are dependable. Even though you're leaving town, you're not going to leave an unfinished task for others to do. Your integrity comes through.

Have you ever participated in organized team sports? Did you ever go home one night and say to your parents something like, "Mom, Dad, you won't believe the game plan the coach has worked out. Man alive, it is incredible. We're going to kill those suckers tomorrow. You can count on it." You were optimistic simply because you had a plan of action, and likewise you are optimistic that tomorrow you are going to be able to get all of the things done that need to be done before you can go on that vacation.

Now some of us are born optimistic, and some are born pessimistic. For your information, the 1828 Noah Webster Dictionary does not have the word pessimist in it. It has the word optimist. Now I am a natural born optimist. I really am. I would take my last two dollars and buy a money belt with it. That's the way I'm put together. But the good news is if you are a natural born pessimist, you definitely, emphatically, positively can change. You are a pessimist by choice because you are what you are and where you are because of what's gone into your mind. You can change what you are; you can change where you are, by changing what goes into your mind.

Anyway, on the day before you go on vacation you not only get to work on time, you are a little early and you immediately get started. You don't stand around and say, "Well, I wonder what I ought to do now." You can't wait to get after it. You want to do the right thing so you get started in a big hurry. You are enthusiastic about it. You are highly motivated. You decisively move from one task to another.

Now I am going to camp on this one for just a moment. Have you noticed that as a general rule people who have nothing to do want to do it with you? It's true, isn't it? Now, on this day before vacation, when you finish one task you move with purpose to another one. And people just will not block you for that two-minute gossip session or four-minute or five-minute or six-minute chat.

I am absolutely convinced and have no doubt about it that the listener has more to do with gossiping than the speaker does, because if you don't listen nobody is going to gossip to you. They just won't. When you move with purpose, people will step aside and let you go. I will absolutely guarantee that you will save a minimum of an hour a day in two-, three, five-minute spurts of time. 


An hour a day is five hours per week is 250 hours per year. That is six weeks of your life that you've wasted and six weeks of combined time that you have wasted with people who have been gossiping with you. What could you do with six extra weeks every year?

Focus on the issue at hand. Discipline yourself to stay with it until you finish. Sybil Stanton gave me the best definition of discipline I have ever read in her book, The Twenty Five Hour Woman. "Discipline isn't on your back needling you with imperatives. It is at your side encouraging you with incentives."
Treat every day like it's the day before vacation and you will get more work done!

Source: http://www.getmotivation.com/articlelib/articles/zziglar_more_done.htm

This makes a lot of sense to me.  What do you think?