Scott Young, an entrepreneur and self-development blogger, shared tricks that help him stay alert and never give up on his way to his goal. Try to incorporate them into your life.
1. Go to bed early
If you don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis, your productivity will inevitably start to fall. While some claim that they work best when they get six hours of sleep or less, this is not supported by research. Seven to eight hours of sleep are a must if you want to keep your mind clear for a long time.
For some, lack of sleep is expressed by slight but constant fatigue during the day. You might even feel like it doesn’t affect you. But experiments have confirmed that lack of sleep causes a constant decrease in mental activity. This applies to those who sleep 4—6 hours or less.
Objective: Try going to bed at ten in the evening for a month. Every day, even on weekends.
2. Exercise every day
Training is a long-term investment in your energy. Without physical activity, overall health decreases, which means that it is more difficult to think clearly and concentrate.
If you have a busy schedule, you often don’t have time to go to the gym. So do push-ups or burpees during the day. These exercises improve blood circulation and do not require much time. If possible, add fitness classes or gym workouts to this.
Objective: Make at least ten burpees a day.
3. Take a nap during the day
This is not laziness, but a good habit with a lot of positive consequences for the body, including memory. A nap is especially helpful if you’re trying to remember a lot of new information. It also recharges, as we usually feel tired after dinner. Even if you don’t have a separate place to take a nap at work, try to use part of your work break to relax.
The main thing is to sleep for a short time. You need to wake up right after the alarm clock rings and not let yourself doze off again. If you stretch your day’s sleep too long, you will enter a deep phase and wake up even more sluggish than you lay down. Although there will also be benefits from such a dream, you will just feel it later when drowsiness disappears.
Objective: Take 20 minutes after lunch to take a nap and regain your strength.
4. Do hard work in the morning
The first four hours of the working day are the best time for important work. So get down to business as early as you can. The benefits are mostly psychological, as energy levels often depend on mood. When we’ve done important work, the mood improves and we feel productive. But if we spend a lot of time on emails, meetings, calls in the morning and don’t do anything valuable, on the contrary, we lose energy in the afternoon.
Moreover, it is impossible to work with concentration all day long. This is another reason to devote yourself to important work in the morning when you have more energy, rather than breaking it down into several segments throughout the day.
Objective: devote the first four hours of the day to quiet, focused work.
5. Make a plan for the next day in the evening
Energy levels often depend on how we start the day. If you get down to business right away, you will overcome procrastination and do a good job. If you start slowly, all the time and effort will be spent on unproductive things.
To avoid this, you need to have a clear idea of how the day will go. Especially in the morning. And to do this, you need to make plans in the evening. Visualize your intentions and write them down so you can act automatically in the morning.
Objective: Before you go to bed, visualize and write down a plan for tomorrow.
6. Sell yourself your goals
Many people simultaneously believe in two opposing claims: that marketers can convince them to do a lot of things they wouldn’t do on their own, but they can’t change their own motivation to do what they need to do.
This is not true. You need to sell your own goals to yourself. It all starts with packaging. How you formulate your goals and projects has a big impact on motivation. Compare two expressions: “a job I must do” and “an exciting and interesting task”. Can you feel the difference?
The next step is to remind yourself of what inspires you. Remember why you got down to business, what you wanted to achieve. The customer must visualize their desire to make a purchase, and good marketers help them with this. And you need to visualize what you want to achieve so that you have the energy to do it.
Objective: Spend 10 minutes a day thinking about what today’s actions are helping you move towards.
7. Talk less with people who draw energy out of you
Parents don’t get elected. This sometimes applies to colleagues and bosses. But you can choose friends. You’ve probably noticed that after talking to some friends, you feel excited and cheerful. And after talking to others, on the contrary, you lose strength.
Of course, we should not exclude from life friends who are temporarily going through a difficult period. But if a person regularly pours out his emotions on you and does not help you in return, think about the need to communicate with him. Yes, everyone needs to cry in their vest sometimes, but some people like to do it all the time.
Objective: Limit meetings with friends who you feel empty after talking to.
8. Read good books
A good book automatically switches you to thinking about what you need to work on. It doesn’t just tell you facts, it gradually changes your mindset. Just as a good song can evoke a certain emotion, a good book can energize you. Audiobooks are best for this, as they can be turned on while you’re on the go or doing other things.
Objective: Always have a book on hand that motivates you to move towards your goals.
9. Strive for balance in life
We waste a lot of energy because different aspects of our lives — both external and internal — contradict each other. You may be held back by a colleague who doesn’t want you to be promoted, friends who laugh at your goals, or your own fears and doubts.
Take time and try to untie the conflicts that you have accumulated in your life and find ways to resolve them. Sometimes it’s enough to change one thing. Sometimes you need a long-term plan to get rid of toxic environments or beliefs that keep you from moving forward.
Objective: think about what helps you move towards your goals and what hinders you, and how to resolve these contradictions.
Source: https://lifehacker.ru/privychki-dlya-bodrosti/
For questions regarding ownership, please contact the author of the original text.