In his best-selling book Unlimited Power Tony
Robbins write, “If you want to achieve
success, all you need to do is find a way to
model those who have already succeeded.” If
you’re looking for simple ways to improve
your life, here are 27 things you can start
implementing right away that will make you
more productive and awesome!
Plan your day based on your
body’s energy cycles
Our body has natural rhythms of energy
during the day which. If tracked properly, you
can take advantage of the moments where
you have most energy. Josh Kaufman, author
of “The Personal MBA,” explains that paying
attention to your energy cycles and working
accordingly will help you get the most out of
your time available. To get started, consider
the following questions:
When do you feel most energetic?
What times of the day work best to do
certain kinds of work?
What do you do to manage your energy
during the day?
Take power naps daily
Do you think napping is for lazy people? Think
again. Many studies have reported that a nap
as brief as 20 minutes can improve alertness,
psychomotor performance, and mood. Here
are some suggestions to make the most out
of your power nap:
Plan to take your nap at a good time in
your daily sleep-wake cycle; for many
people, sometime between noon and 4
p.m. is best.
Don’t sleep too long; a 20- to 40-minute
nap may refresh your day without keeping
you up at night.
Give yourself 10 to 15 minutes to wake up
fully before you resume a demanding task.
Wake up at the same time every
day
Every single time I wake up early and have an
active morning, I feel a lot better and have a
more productive day. The problem is that
some days I hit the snooze button a little too
much. Inevitably, I start those days with
failure and a late start. Matt Galligan, CEO of
Circa, trained himself to wake up at the same
time every day by doing this small but
effective experiment: Set an alarm for the
same time every morning for 30 days and
resist the snooze button. I know it sounds
hard, but the results are amazing. If you have
a consistent waking time, you’ll be more alert,
have stress-free mornings, and get to work in
a calm and centered state. In today’s hectic
world, that goes a long way!
Drink lots of water
Why should we drink more water? If you don’t
drink water, you will die. It’s that simple. Your
body is composed of roughly 60% water. That
means when we are dehydrated, we are
affecting the performance of the majority of
our body. None of our systems function as
well without the proper water intake. Drinking
enough water and staying hydrated can help
with weight loss, reduce joint pain, flush out
waste and bacteria, prevent headaches, make
your skin glow, and improve overall
performance. One of the best things you can
do after you wake up: drink at least 16oz
(500mL) of water. Water fires up your
metabolism, hydrates you, helps your body
flush out toxins, gives your brain fuel, and
may even make you eat less.
Avoid energy drinks
Energy drinks are overloaded with caffeine
and sugar in amounts that are harmful for
your overall health. While energy drinks may
give you a rush of energy when you first drink
them, in the long run, they usually end up
making you more tired and may result in
harmful effects such as heart palpitations,
dizziness, and even seizures. There are
plenty of other beverages to enjoy like green
tea or just plain coffee.
Don’t smoke / quit smoking
One out of every two lifetime smokers will die
from the effects of smoking. Nicotine and
carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke increase
your blood pressure and heart rate and cause
strain on your heart and blood vessels.
Smoking increases your chance of having a
stroke or heart attack dramatically as
compared to the chances of a nonsmoker.
Smoking makes you 10 times more likely to
have lung cancer than someone who does not
smoke. If you don’t smoke, that’s awesome.
If you do smoke, quit now. Your life will be
more awesome without smoking.
Organize your life
Organization provides a sense of control,
reduces stress, and is a great confidence
booster. It also allows you to concentrate on
the things that really matter avoiding
unnecessary clutter. Here are a few tips to
help you stay organized:
Write things down
Give everything a place and put
everything back in its place
Declutter regularly and keep only what
you need
Use color coding
Have a protein-packed breakfast
I’m sure you’ve heard it many times before:
breakfast is the most important meal of the
day. Tim Ferriss and many health experts
consider having 30 grams of protein with
breakfast one of the most effective ways to
lose weight. Research shows that a protein-
rich breakfast—rather than a carb- and fat-
filled one—will rev up your metabolism, keep
you fuller longer, and prevent overeating later
in the day.
Dress up with vibrant colors
One of the easiest ways to change your mood
and mindset is simply by changing the colors
you choose to wear. Many of our responses
to color are subconscious—we don’t even
realize the effect on our mood. But color is so
powerful there’s an entire alternative
medicine field dedicated to healing through
hues. Red, orange and yellow have been
shown to evoke a broad range of strong
emotions, for example, while colors like blue,
purple and green can have a calming effect.
Exercise for 20 minutes after
you wake up
When you exercise early in the morning, it
jump starts your metabolism and keeps it
elevated for hours. That means you’re burning
more calories all day long just because you
exercised in the morning. If you commit to
working out in the morning, you’re way less
likely to have the excuse of things just
popping up. Plus, you won’t be exhausted
from a rough day at the office. In fact, people
who work out in the morning have shown to
stick to their exercise plans better than people
who plan to exercise after work. It doesn’t
have to be complicated. Try something simple
like going for a walk, jogging, stretching, or
body-weight workouts.
Get enough sleep
A lot of people brag about working on projects
until 4:00 a.m. But what they fail to realize is
that lack of sleep leads to depression, ages
your skin, can make you forgetful, and even
cause weight gain. Remember, it’s not the
amount of hours you spend on a particular
task, but the quality of those hours.
Define your top three most
important tasks for the day
What are the three most important things you
can do today to move you toward achieving
your goals? Write them down before you start
your day or even the night before and get
them done first thing in the morning. It will
help you stay focused so you don’t waste
time on tasks of low importance. If you
manage to complete these tasks, you’ll feel
productive even if you do nothing else on your
list.
The 60/10 rule
A very effective productivity hack. Set up a
timer for 60 minutes and concentrate on the
task at hand. After the 60 minutes are up, take
a break for 10 minutes and do something to
re-energize you like going for a walk, calling
a good friend, or having a cup of tea.
Meditate and express gratitude
We live in a world of instant gratification. We
want things and we want them now. A lot of
this attitude can be to attributed to all the
latest technological advances in the last 20
years. But instant gratification can cloud our
ability to be present and appreciate the small
things. Gratitude is all about shifting your
focus from what your life lacks to all the
things you currently have. Gratitude makes
people more resilient, improves health, and
reduces stress. Meditation helps in noticing all
different emotions and let them be for what
they are. Arianna Huffington, founder of The
Huffington Post, says that one of the best—
and cheapest—ways to become healthier and
happier is through mindfulness exercises like
meditation. According to Mark Williams, a
professor of clinical psychology at Oxford and
co-author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to
Finding Peace in a Frantic World, meditation
helps increase your sense of purpose and
reduces feelings of isolation and depression.
Have accountability partners
When you’re the only one accountable, you’re
much more likely to procrastinate, delay
working on tasks or simply never complete
items on your list. Accountability is all about
creating real consequences and guaranteeing
you follow through with your goals. Creating
incentives and assigning accountability are
the two most important keys to achieving a
goal. Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour
Workweek, suggests using sites like StickK,
where you make your commitments public
and incur financial consequences if you fail to
meet them.
Don’t compare yourself to
others
Everyone is going through their own
challenges, struggles, and setbacks.
Comparisons are useless and detrimental to
our own self-esteem. Instead of comparing
yourself to others, focus your energy on being
the very best version of yourself. Focus your
energy and attention on your own goals and
what is required to achieve them.
Cut out people who drag you
down
Life is just too short to be surrounded by
negative people who do nothing but to bring
you down. The quickest way to make a
change in your life is to change who you
surround yourself with—and it’s totally within
your control.
Introduce music or white noise
to improve focus
Low-level background noise helps muffle any
distracting sounds that could interrupt your
work and has been shown to improve
creativity and focus for many people. Calming
music, ambient nature sounds, and simple
background noise may help you concentrate
and stay focused on your tasks.
Do the hardest or most
unappealing tasks first
When you look at your list of tasks, it’s
tempting to choose the smaller, easier tasks
to do first. If you have a big project that fills
you with dread, you’re much more likely to
procrastinate and put if off until later.
However, if you get that task out of the way
first, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing
it’s crossed off your list and the rest of your
tasks will feel like a breeze in comparison.
Write things down and capture
every idea
It’s impossible not to think about something.
Most people get distracted from the task at
hand by wandering ideas and having thoughts
about other projects. The best thing to do is to
capture those ideas in a physical or electronic
notepad. Once they’re out of your head and
down on paper (or a screen), your brain will
forget about them so you can get back to
work.
Put loose change in a jar
A quarter here and a nickel there doesn’t
seem like anything substantial, but when you
collect all your change and keep it in one
place, you’ll see how quickly it adds up! Every
time you add more change to your change jar,
you are essentially adding to a savings
account that is growing over time.
Write down yesterday’s
expenses
Tracking your expenses is the smartest way
to manage your personal finances. Writing
down everything you buy as well as how
much it costs will give you great insight into
your spending habits. Over time, you will
notice trends in your spending and be able to
easily decide where cuts can be made to save
money.
Unsubscribe from junk email
and catalogs
Receiving emails and print catalogs with
discounts and promotions often leads to
unnecessary spending. Saving 20% on a
purchase isn’t saving any money at all if you
first have to spend $100 to save $20. Getting
rid of these communications can help you
avoid impulse buys and save money.
Pack a meal, coffee, or snack
Making your lunch at home and bringing it to
work or making coffee at home instead of
buying it at the drive-through is not only
healthier for you, but cheaper as well. Going
out for lunch or coffee each day quickly adds
up. You can make coffee and lunch at home
for a fraction of the cost.
Speak words of affirmation
A few good thoughts can change the entire
course of your day for the better. If you’re
having problems with confidence, then this
could be a simple solution for feeling happier
about the upcoming day.
Listen to your favorite song
It’s amazing what listening to your favorite
song can do for your mind and body. Not only
will the upbeat music stimulate the release of
happy hormones, but the recollection of happy
times will influence your mood. Without
realizing it, you will be dancing around and
singing along, which will leave you feeling
happy and ready to take on the day.
Read 10% of a non-fiction book
every day
Reading is a simple task that can provide you
with multiple benefits. Regular reading gives
your brain a workout, which
improves concentration and slows down age-
related mental decline. Nonfiction books have
the added bonus of increasing your general
knowledge, improving your analytic thinking
skills, and giving you the opportunity to learn
something new in just a few minutes a day.
Learn a new word every day
Expanding your vocabulary comes with a wide
range of benefits. You’ll improve your ability to
communicate, give your brain a mini workout
and improve your confidence in social
situations. You can either get a dictionary in
the language of your choice and choose new
words at random, or subscribe to one of the
“word a day” mailing lists that are available
on language-learning websites.
