Archive for the ‘general productivity’ Category
Top 6 Tips for Fighting Holiday Stress
In addition to managing stress by being in control of the details of your life, yesterday we had the first half of a guest post from Dr. Harvey Kitzman, explaining exactly what stress does and how it affects us. Below he shares his top 6 easy and inexpensive ways to help you start 2010 calm and capable.
Tips to Fight Holiday Stress and Holiday Blues, Pt. 2
by Dr. Harvey Kitzman
- Get enough rest. By making sure that you get enough sleep, you will decrease your cortisol levels (this is the hormone involved in the fight-or-flight response. Elevated levels contribute to adrenal fatigue and increased belly fat).
- Continue your exercise program. Many of us, especially when we travel, get out of our normal exercise patterns. Regular exercise is well document as having stress reduction effects, especially by increasing brain hormone levels that are involved in mood regulation. I know myself that after a few minutes warming up on the elliptical trainer, I get “in the zone”, and I find it to have a very calming effect. Be sure to continue both cardiovascular and weight training.
- Don’t overindulge on the sweet foods. I enjoy Mom’s Christmas cookies every year, so I am not telling you to avoid eating them. Just watch your amounts so that you don’t get the sugar crash and feelings of lethargy that accompany them.
- Watch your alcohol consumption. Alcohol is a depressant, and too much alcohol can affect your mood levels.
- Continue to eat well (as best you can). Rich leafy greens and fruits and vegetables that have deep rich colors not only provide the proper nutrients, but they can also provide the antioxidants that we need to fight free radicals. Again, you don’t need to avoid the holiday foods, just watch your consumption levels, especially if you are in a situation where you can not exercise.
- Nutritional supplements can help you to reduce holiday stress levels as well:
- A good multivitamin will ensure that you are getting the proper nutrients to maintain normal metabolic functioning, and to supplement nutrient deficiencies in diet. They will also help your body heal itself.
- Omega III Fish Oils perform so many helpful functions in the body. With respect to mood levels, they will provide essential fatty acids needed for normal neural functioning.
- A good antioxidant will scavenge free radicals, cutting down their levels.
- B Complex vitamins help decrease stress and improve mood, help maintain healthy levels of serotonin, increase energy, and help to maintain proper neural function.
- A good Greens supplement with probiotics will boost the immune system, and aid in providing the body with enzymes, nutrients, probiotics and phytonutrients that a vegetable-rich diet offers, helping individuals to receive well rounded nutrition.
- There are herbal formals available that contain adaptogenic herbs. Adaptogens are natural herbals products that help to increase the body’s resistance to stress, fatigues, trauma, and anxiety. They help to increase the body’s resistance to stressors and return it to normal physiological functioning.
If you have any questions about this information, or would like a free consultation to learn more about nutrition, nutritional counseling, or nutritional supplementation, contact Dr. Harvey Kitzman at hkitzman@austin.rr.com or 512-657-3432 (for your free consult, just tell him you read this article on the RegainYourTime.com Blog).
Have a happy and healthy holiday season!
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/harvey-kitzman/0/8b5/388
How Stress Hurts
I think the best way to deal with the stress of our busy lives is to be in CONTROL over the details, having everything out of your head where you can see it and manage it effectively. That’s why I teach people the Empowered Productivity System, to turn chaos into control. However my friend Dr. Harvey Kitzman has some other ideas about managing your stress levels, especially during the holidays, and I invited him to share them here. Today he’ll explain what stress is and ways it can affect us that you might not know about. Tomorrow he’ll provide 6 tips for beating stress, at the holidays and throughout the year.
Tips to Fight Holiday Stress and Holiday Blues, Pt. 1
by Dr. Harvey Kitzman
With the holidays already here, many people see an increase in their stress levels, and some people even have the holiday blues. Who doesn’t get stressed out with all of the shopping, cooking and travel plans that happen during the holidays? How many of us are time crunched and sleep deprived already? Add to that the fear of the flu bug and the H1N1 flu that we hear about on the news, and that worry just adds to our holiday stress levels.
What is stress anyway? Stress is an internal reaction to external events. It is an evolutionary response – the fight or flight response. Continuous stress can manifest itself as GI problems, losing sleep, increased fatigue, heightened blood pressure, headaches, concentration problems, adrenal fatigue and other symptoms. As we all know, many events can trigger the appearance of stress in our lives – job, marriage, money, new baby, holidays etc. The body does not distinguish between “good” stress (marriage, new baby, starting a new biz) and “bad” stress. It only knows that there is stress, and it reacts. Are there other types of stresses? Yes. Our bodies are subject to stress from many sources, both internal and external. Another type of stress we need to be concerned about is oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is defined as a condition of increased oxidant production in animal cells characterized by the release of free radicals and resulting in cellular degeneration. Think of this like taking a bite of an apple and letting it sit for a few minutes. The brown pigmentation that we see is due to oxidative stress. The same analogy can also be seen by rust forming on metal. This type of stress has been shown to be present in many types of medical conditions, including atherosclerosis, diseases involving inflammation, such as IBS, IBD, arthritis, periodontal disease, Crohn’s disease and Alzheimer’s. Free radicals are produced from both our internal cellular processes, such as the electron transport chain, and from the external environment. For example smoking is one method that is used by smokers to alleviate stress. When we smoke, however, each puff delivers 1027 of free radicals into our lungs. Think about that for a second. How much damage do you think this is doing internally?
Come back tomorrow to read Dr. Kitzman’s top 6 tips for fighting stress. All are easy and inexpensive, to make sure that you can start 2010 calm and capable!
If you have any questions about this information, or would like a free consultation to learn more about nutrition, nutritional counseling, or nutritional supplementation, contact Dr. Harvey Kitzman at hkitzman@austin.rr.com or 512-657-3432 (for your free consult, just tell him you read this article on the RegainYourTime.com Blog).
Have a happy and healthy holiday season!
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/harvey-kitzman/0/8b5/388
How to ADD Time to Your Day (Really!)
Feeling like there aren’t enough hours in your day? Doesn’t everyone? I’ve discovered a powerful secret that has given me several extra hours in my day to get things done. Impossible, you say? Read on…
One of the things that’s difficult for me to “find” the time for is exercise. Sometimes I’ll think, “if I skip my workout, I can make some real progress on my to-do list.” Skipping meals, especially breakfast, also seems to be a common time-saver among my friends.
I’ve come to realize that there is an important point that’s missing with this logic. Exercise and eating right, especially breakfast, actually add time to your day. We treat them like a net-negative when it comes to how much time we have in the day to do things. They are actually a net-positive, and not only on a cumulative basis, but on a daily basis. We all recognize that when we eat right and exercise, we have more energy and motivation. But even when you look at it that way, it makes it easy to think that skipping a day is ok, and before you know it, you’ve skipped many days. But what I’ve come to realize is that if I have a healthy bite to eat in the morning AND exercise for at least 20 minutes, I get MORE time IN THAT DAY than I had without it. On the mornings when I take 15 minutes to grab a bite for breakfast, and 20-30 minutes to exercise, I actually feel energetic and productive well into the evening. On the days I don’t, I’m typically drooping in the mid-afternoon, and then again by about 7pm. During these “droopy” times, I’m easily distracted, unfocused, and end up resorting to busy-work-type activities that don’t accomplish much, or sometimes even daydreaming or otherwise fussing around without getting anything done. On the days without breakfast or a workout, I’m longing to hit the couch by 7pm, the dishes stay in the sink and the dog doesn’t get a walk because I’m spent.
Exercise and breakfast actually give me more productive hours in my day. They help me to spend a productive afternoon focusing and getting important tasks accomplished, I whirl around the kitchen making dinner, cleaning up, walking the dog, tidying the house, preparing for the next day, and feeling great about it all. That 45 minutes or so I allow in the morning to take care of my body, easily adds several hours of productive time to my day. Now every time I feel like I “don’t have the time” for breakfast or a workout, I remember this and it’s a powerful motivator to lace up my running shoes! You might find that a change of perspective, from a good diet and exercise as a net-negative, to a net-positive of time in your day, might be just what you need to motivate you to change your habits.
Do you have anything to add? I’d love to read your comments. Thanks for reading!
Productivity and Company Culture
Earlier in my career, and now again, I find myself working with either small companies (less than 50 employees) or divisions within larger companies, which often operate as small companies within a larger framework. And I’ve discovered that individual productivity (workload management) has a significant impact on the culture in the company or department.
It goes without saying that in your company or department, most employees probably have a very full workload. Have you ever considered how your staff or co-workers handle this workload? The answers are probably varied. There may be those who produce competent work and meet deadlines. Are those employees happy? Do they seem constantly stressed? Do they work long hours to get their work done?
Do you have employees who seem to be busy, but you can’t quite identify exactly what they produce? And what about those who tend to be the bottleneck in the organization? Is this causing animosity? Individual rivalries? Territorialism? Many interpersonal issues within your organization may be a result of the self-management styles of the employees.
Some people are naturally better at managing full and hectic workloads. Others aren’t, but this doesn’t mean they can’t learn. Most people are ill-equipped to handle the demands on their attention caused by the Information Age. Your employees could be losing hours in their day simply because they don’t manage information well, and usually people don’t manage information well because they have never been taught. Consider these points from Coopers & Lybrand:
- Of all the pages that get handled each day in the average office, 90% of them are merely shuffled.
- Professionals spend 5-15% of their time reading information, but up to 50% of their time looking for it.
A survey conducted by America Online found that, on average, people check their email five times a day. A study in Scotland, using optical monitors fitted to workers eyes, found workers glancing at or otherwise checking email as much as 40 times per hour!
When workers feel tied to their email, as if they MUST be immediate with their response, this reflects a culture problem in the organization. It means no one can focus on any one thing for more than a few minutes or seconds, and this must be addressed at the levels of both personal workload management, andcompany communication culture. (For more on this, read this post and thispost.)
In addition to communication, accountability has a big affect on culture. When there are employees who don’t produce, or who consistently miss deadlines, but there are no consequences, this brings down the productivity of the whole organization. But often people aren’t held accountable because of the workload-management skills of the individuals delegating the work.
If your staff has interpersonal challenges, stress issues, works more hours than you think they should, or any combination of these issues, personal productivity skills could be lacking. Giving your staff the techniques and processes they need to keep up with the demands of the Information Age could have a huge impact on your bottom line, in employee satisfaction, teamwork, and productivity.
The Three Stages of Productivity: Which One Are You?
We all have days that seemingly fly by and at the end, we know that we were busy, but we can’t really articulate exactly what we got accomplished. I’ve come to recognize that as “stage one” productivity. For some of us, many days go by like that. And for still others, it’s a way of life. When you’re at stage one productivity, you are almost exclusively in reactive mode. And being reactive doesn’t necessarily mean that you aren’t being productive, because it means that you are dealing with the other people in your world, and we all have to do that sometimes: going to meetings, answering emails, returning phone calls, putting out fires, etc. In fact, maybe you are someone whose job it is to be reactive. For example, if you are a manager, and you don’t have any other responsibilities except to be there for your employees, help keep them on track, make sure they are meeting deadlines, dealing with interpersonal issues, etc., then I would say that means your job is to be reactive. However, if you have even one responsibility that isn’t dependent on your staff, at least one thing for which you alone are responsible, and there are parts of it that other people can’t do for you, then you must find some time to be proactive, in order to get that thing done.
Which brings me to the second stage of productivity. Stage two is where you are making time, every single day, to be proactive. You are knocking things off your to-do list, and you finish each work day feeling some sense of accomplishment…some sense that you actually got some stuff done that day. This is a great place to be. If you find yourself having a hard time getting to stage two, my suggestion to you is to break your habit, which I’d bet money that you have, of checking your email first thing in the morning. If the first thing you do when you start your work day every morning is to check your email, that sets the tone of the day for being reactive. It sends you down that rabbit trail of answering emails, responding to people…before you know it you’re reading blogs, checking your Twitter stream, your FaceBook notifications…then next thing you know you’re off to a meeting, then to lunch, and when you come back, it’s back on email, and the cycle starts all over again. Break that cycle by going to your to-do list first thing in the morning, instead of checking your email. Work for an hour or ninety minutes checking items off your to-do list, and then check your email. The result will be a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, even if the rest of the time was spent being reactive. You’ll be able to point to some concrete things that you completed that day.
But for many people, there are probably things on your to-do list that need to be done, and may even be important, but completing them may not have a significant impact on your work or your life. Many of them may not bring you closer to the big picture goals you are trying to achieve. So this brings me to the third stage of productivity: not only marking things off your to-do list, but completing things that bring you closer to your goals. Some people call them “big rocks.” If you are unfamiliar with the metaphor of the big rocks, you can watch a video of Stephen Covey illustrating it. He was not the first one to come up with it, but I couldn’t find the originator to give credit.
You are working at stage three of productivity when you accomplish one or more goal-dependent things in your day. Things that are steps toward achieving your major goals or initiatives. It’s similar to the concept Brian Tracy calls, “eat that frog.” My suggestion to reaching stage three productivity is to make sure that you have your “big picture” objectives always visible to you. I do this through my “projects” list. I need to always be able to lift my head out of the “forest” and see the “trees.” Keeping a list called “projects” helps me accomplish this. However, every project must have one thing that you can do next, to keep it moving forward. These concepts are part of my process, the Empowered Productivity System, and some of them are also in the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. I learned them long before GTD was written, however, through a company called Time/system International.
It’s helpful to remember that it’s sometimes important to be in stage one and stage two productivity, but you’re really empowered and shaping your life with intention when you are spending time in stage three productivity.
Thanks for reading!
Turning Productivity into Passion
I tend to keep my life pretty busy. Luckily, I’m also pretty good at managing my own productivity. But recently I was blessed to be reminded about a truly valuable benefit of productivity: the opportunity to find something I’m really passionate about.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my work, and I’m excited to be able to help people get in control of the details of their lives. I enjoy empowering people that way. But because my high level of productivity allows me to fit more into my life, I’ve recently stumbled across an amazing non-profit that causes me to wake up every morning trying to figure out new ways to help them. And that’s very exciting for me.
The organization that has me so inspired is Girls Empowerment Network. Their mission is to foster healthy self-esteem in girls by engaging them to explore and define their personal values and to build skills that empower them with confidence and the courage to make wise choices. Having been a teen-aged girl once, I can see how valuable GEN’s services are. One of their programs is ClubGEN, which employs high-school girls to mentor middle school girls through after school programs. I’ve had the chance to hear from some of the middle school girls and the high-school girls, and it’s obvious that the impact on both sets of girls is immeasurable and priceless.
Of course I know, and I tell people often, that better managing their lives gives them more time to do things that feed their soul. But sometimes it’s easy to take things for granted, or get stuck in a rut with the things we do. If you feel like your life is already jammed full, and you can’t possibly take on one more thing, I would say you have two choices: be careful that you are still passionate and excited about the things you spend your time on, and take the opportunity to rotate older things out and newer things in. It will keep you fresh and motivated and valuable. Your second option is to evaluate what you have going on in your life, and see if you are really making the most of your time. If you often feel like you are spinning your wheels, and the days pass with you feeling like you haven’t accomplished much, then perhaps it’s time to get some help with your productivity. Not only will it lower your stress levels, and put you back in control, but it can also free up some time for you to do something that has a real and lasting impact, and inspires your passion and motivation in a way you’ve forgotten was possible. Even if you don’t know what that thing is, you will never find it if you don’t create the space in your life for the opportunity.
Good luck, and thanks for reading!
Incorporate Change in 3 Easy Steps (Part 3)
Ok, so change is hard, right? But there are ways to make it easier. If there is an area of your life that you are trying to change, first, raise your awareness about it, then educate yourself about how to get better at it.
The last component, and the most difficult one to get over, is the psychology. We all have internal barriers, and often we can’t even identify them. And we are so good at rationalizing things to death! When it comes to volunteering, for example, it’s really hard to get started, so it’s easy to convince ourselves that they don’t really need our help, and we’re too busy this month, but next month will be better, or we won’t make much of a difference anyway. Often we just avoid thinking about it, until months have passed and we think again, “man, I really should volunteer somewhere…” To get you out of this trap, the first two steps are crucial. If you are fully aware of the behaviors you want to change, and you know exactly what to do to take the next step, then it’s much easier to take action. Remember this important principle: You don’t have to convince yourself to do everything, you only have to convince yourself to do the NEXT thing.
Come up with just one step, which is clear and actionable, and put this on your to-do list. Make sure it’s as clear as possible. For example, instead of putting “research non-profits” on your to-do list, put “visit www.GENAustin.org and sign up for their newsletter.” Do you see how the latter is much more specific and actionable than the former? This greatly increases the likelihood that you’ll actually do it and make progress toward your goal. And remember, the same holds true for everything you put on your to-do list. Avoid using big, “scary” sounding words like, “organize,” “develop,” “implement,” and “create.” We get our opportunities to be proactive very infrequently, so if you have five minutes to get things done, you’ll always skip over those items on your list that sound difficult and time-consuming. If they sound easy (usually starting with words like, “call,” “click,” “email,” or “write”), you are much more likely to take action on them.
Regardless of the area of your life that you are trying to change or improve, remembering the three key steps of awareness, education, and psychology will help you to move forward and achieve your goals.
Thanks for reading!
Incorporate Change in 3 Easy Steps (Part 2)
Yesterday’s post discussed how hard it is to incorporate change in your life and the first step that might make it easier: awareness.
Educating yourself is the second step in changing your behavior. It’s hard to change habits when you don’t know how or what to change them to. Let’s say you’ve become aware that you spend too much time in your email, and you know it’s having a detrimental affect on how much you get done every day. But what choice do you have? It seems like you get an endless amount of email and if you aren’t checking it all the time, it will just pile up on you, right? Well, regardless of what you are contemplating, there are typically many people who have done it successfully before you. That’s one of the positive things about the internet: the abundance of information available for you to learn from. Find a book, or an article, or a blog (like this one! =), or an entire website, about someone who has learned how to successfully stay on top of email, while continuing to get things done and be productive. (Incidentally, besides this blog, another great place for advice and more resources about email management is Merlin Mann’s work at 43 Folders: Inbox Zero). Maybe you need more help than just reading, but those resources are available to choose and learn from as well. Another idea that works really well for me is to ask people. I typically get a wealth of information when I simply say to my friends and acquaintances during conversation, “you know, I’m trying to get better at XXX. Do you know of any resources to help me do that?” People LOVE to be helpful and look smart. If you don’t often do this, I think you’ll be surprised at the results.
So, if you’re trying to incorporate change in your life, the first step is to become aware of the habits you have that aren’t serving you. Next, educate yourself about NEW habits that might help, learning from people who have mastered the skill you are trying to acquire. Tomorrow I’ll post the third and final step: dealing with your own psychology.
Thanks for reading!
Incorporate Change in 3 Easy Steps (Part 1)
We all know that changing our behaviors is hard. Knowing we should exercise isn’t enough to get us into the gym or out on the Trail every day. It’s why most New Year’s Resolutions don’t last beyond January. But there are three components to changing behaviors, and considering these might make it much easier for you to incorporate those new things into your life.
Whether it’s “going green,” improved productivity, or incorporating a new initiative, like volunteering, into your life, if you consider the following three steps, you can do these, or most anything else, much easier.
The first component is awareness. Most of our habits are so ingrained in our lives and behavior that we don’t even recognize them anymore. Becoming aware of the behaviors that aren’t serving you is the first step in changing them. For example, if you want to incorporate more environmentally friendly habits into your lifestyle, it’s important to understand what you’re doing that doesn’t serve that desire. Do you leave the water running when you brush your teeth? Do you participate in your city’s recycling program? Do you buy recycled products? Try to think about areas where you could improve, perhaps even make a list. Then the next time an opportunity presents itself, you’ll be more likely to remember that you want to change the behavior instead of just being on “autopilot” as you move through your day.
Do you pay attention to how you work every day? Do you know how often you check your email in a day? The answer might surprise you. Do you have a process for managing your workload, or do you just respond to whatever calls your attention all day? Give some thought to your existing behaviors. Once you are aware of what you want to change, to the extent that you can articulate them to someone else, you’ll then become aware of opportunities to change them. What you measure is what gets improved. So what are YOU measuring?
Tomorrow I’ll post step 2, “education.” Thanks for reading!
The Secret to Getting What You Want
“Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it.”
If I had to pick a quote that summed up my approach to life, that would definitely be it. And coincidentally, it overlaps with my work quite nicely. The sentiment, phrased another way, is basically, “be proactive.” I’ve never been very good at being patient, and waiting for things to happen. I prefer to make them happen.
I teach this to people in my work every day, as it relates to their to-do list. It’s only when you make the time to take the actions you deem are important, that you finish your projects and achieve your goals.
But being proactive offers benefits to many other areas of your life. When you are not proactive, you are essentially passive, allowing life to “happen” to you instead of creating your own experiences. In the words of my friend Julia Cuba, Executive Director of GenAustin, you either approach your life with the attitude of “how am I going to impact my world today?” or thinking, “how is the world going to affect me today?” If your approach is the latter, it means that you aren’t in control. Taking control, being proactive, doesn’t guarantee you’ll always get what you want, but it greatly increases the odds. In the words of Wayne Gretsky, “you’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
I’m sure you can think of a time in your life when you thought something wasn’t going to work out in your favor. But then you took some action, which tipped the scales in your direction. It doesn’t always work out, of course, but it certainly never happens when you aren’t proactive.
Be proactive with your to-do list, make the time to complete the things you want to get done in a day, rather than constantly reacting to emails, phone calls, meetings, and everything else that calls your attention during the day. But also finding other opportunities to be proactive and take control of the situations of your life, will likely have a drastic impact on your experiences. I know it has on mine.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Tony Robbins: “The difference between those who produce positive results in their lives and those who do not is the ability to take action.”
If you’re constantly reacting, to emails, Twitter, the phone, instant messages, etc, you never have time or space to be proactive, and therefore can never take action.
Thanks for reading!