065: Investing Your Energy in You

Welcome to Productivity Paradox from inkWELL Press. A podcast focused on  finding success and happiness through the power of productivity. Each season, Tanya  focuses on specific strategies to help you discover your own priorities and purpose.  Season Five is all about investing in you.  

 You can also join Tanya for more interaction and support in her free Facebook  group at inkwellpress.com/group. And now, here’s your host Tanya Dalton.  

 Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to Productivity Paradox. I’m your host, Tanya  Dalton and this is episode 65. Today’s episode is brought to you by inkWELL Press  and their brand-new academic year planner is launching this month. I’ll be sharing a  

little bit more about that later on in the show. But, let’s go ahead and dive in because  today is the final episode of season five where we’ve been talking about investing in  you.  

 So, I wanted to take the time today to talk about investing your energy in  yourself because we want to manage your energy, not just your time. This is about  how we invest in ourselves. For some reason, it’s drilled into us that working solidly  for eight hours or more will absolutely increase your output. It will increase your  efficiency, and your productivity, but really this couldn’t be more wrong.  

 A workplace study found that an average working professional experiences 87  interruptions in a regular workday. Which means, yeah, you may be working long  hours but you’re really having a hard time staying focused, staying truly productive,  and staying energized for that full amount of time. It’s impossible. So really, if  organizations want to reenergize their workforce, they need to shift their emphasis  from getting more out of people to investing in them so they’re more motivated to  bring their energy to work every single day. We as individuals ourselves, we need to  recognize the cost of behaviors that deplete our energy and make different choices  so we don’t burn out. You don’t really need to put in longer hours. It’s really about  making a greater effort to renew your energy along the way.  

 Energy is defined by physics as the capacity to work. For people, this comes  down to four main sources. The body, emotions, mind and spirit. In each of these  sources, energy can be exponentially grown and it can be regularly renewed by  establishing specific habits. To maximize and use our energy wisely, we need to focus  on all four of these sources so I want to take a few minutes to go through each of  them. Let’s start with the first one, which is the body. This is obvious, right? We need  to make time to exercise. We need to get more sleep. We need eat better. We need to  take care of our bodies. These are things we already know. The question is, how do  we get even more energy from these things and how can you realistically actually  implement them? We touched on some of this during last week’s episode when we  talked about exercise but let’s briefly discuss the other aspects of taking care of your  body.  

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 Let’s talk about sleeping. A lot of people like to brag, “Oh, I just don’t get any  sleep. I just work all the time.” It’s not really a healthy way to live. We want to get  more sleep, we want to get better sleep. So, to get more sleep, start by setting an  alarm for when you need to go to bed. A lot of us get really caught up in what we’re  doing and we forget. We forget we’re tired, we don’t pay attention, and then we end  up going to bed late. So, setting an alarm helps trigger you to remind you it’s time to  head to bed. iPhones now have a bedtime section of the clock app where you can set  it up for what time you’d to get up, and the amount of sleep you’d really like to get. It  will notify you when you should go to bed. You could even set this to be a little bit  earlier if you’d like, if you want it to signal the start of an evening routine. An evening  routine is a great way to signal to your body that it’s time to start shutting down, it’s  time for relaxation. I find that when people add a routine to the end of their day they  tend to fall asleep faster and deeper so it’s much more beneficial.  

 Eating is also really important for your body. We know this, but it’s hard to find  time to really eat healthy. We have to use a little psychology to get ourselves to eat  better and unfortunately it’s not as easy as just telling yourself, stop eating cookies. I  really wish that were so, because I would have told myself that a long time ago. But,  we have to try to change how we think about what we put in our mouths. Studies  show that when kids ask themselves “What would Batman eat?” They were far more  likely to reach for apple slices over french fries. Now, I think we all know kids normally  prefer french fries over apple slices but when they thought about what Batman  wanted, they would choose what they thought Batman would have chosen. You don’t  have to use Batman in your own question unless that would work, but maybe think  about someone you admire who makes healthy choices and ask yourself what would  they chose to eat? Would they chose to eat right now? What choices would they  make? Whoever it is, you’ll find that about a third of the time, that will make it easier  to start making healthier choices for food.  

 The third thing that really affects how your body processes energy is  hydration. This one isn’t as obvious for many people. Most people are actually mildly  dehydrated throughout the day and this causes overeating, mood swings, brain fog, it  causes you to be really tired. Stay hydrated by drinking a glass of water as soon as  you wake up. If you think about it, your brain has been dehydrated all night while  you’ve been sleeping. Give yourself a glass of water to help you wake up and then  about every two hours throughout the day, you need to make sure that you’re  drinking. Make sure you’re having something to drink before each meal. You could  use your habit tracker to establish this habit. I personally am amazed at how much  better I feel, and how much better I eat when I’m hydrated. The feeling of hunger and  thirst are very similar so many time when you think you’re hungry, you’re really just  thirsty. Try drinking a glass of water next time your stomach seems to be asking for  something and see if that doesn’t help.  

 I think for the most part, most of us understand we need to be taking better  care of our bodies, but I want to talk about our emotions because that’s the second  area we need to focus on with energy. Taking control of your emotions can improve  the quality of your energy tremendously regardless of the pressures that you face. To  do this, you have to first become aware of how you feel at various points of your day  and you need to acknowledge the impact these emotions have on your effectiveness.  Without intermittent breaks and some recovery, we’re not really capable of sustaining  

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high positive emotions for these long periods of time. We tend to slide into negative  emotions and our fight or flight mode multiplies all throughout the day. One simple,  yet powerful, habit for diffusing negative emotions is deep breathing. Exhaling slowly  for five or six seconds turns off that fight or flight response and it creates a sense of  relaxation and a little bit of emotional recovery.  

 The Energy Project taught this habit to Fujio Nishida, the president of Sony  Europe because he had a habit of lighting up a cigarette each time something  especially stressful occurred, which happened two or three times a day. So, when he  replaced this bad habit of smoking with deep breathing, he found he no longer had  the desire for cigarettes. It wasn’t the smoking that had given him the stress release,  but it was the relaxation prompted by the deep inhalation and exhalation. So, next  time you’re feeling stressed, really do take the time to do some deep breathing. I  know it seems kind of trite, but it can really make a difference.  

 One of the other things you can do is express appreciation for others. We  already know that social connection is the greatest predictor of overall happiness. So  it makes sense that expressing appreciation to other’s is a powerful habit that fuels  positive emotions and therefore, energy. One of the things I’ve done to really  encourage this in myself is I’ve set a goal to write one unexpected thank you note a  week to someone. It’s not a thank you note for a present, but a thank you to someone  who had brightened my day. They’ve lifted me up somehow, they’ve done something  small that has really affected me. I’ve noticed that by doing this, I’m starting to notice  an increase in my optimism and my happiness so it’s really a benefit to me and it  gives them a little boost of happiness and optimism when they get the letter.  

 The third area that affects your energy is your mind. This part mostly has to do  with changing the way we concentrate on our tasks by reducing interruptions and  cutting out multi-tasking. You know how I feel about multi-tasking, right? We want to  give our full attention to the task at hand by going to a quiet, non-distracting place,  maybe turning off your phone or turning off email notifications. You’re going to need  to change expectations. If you’re the type to respond to email mere minutes after it  hits your inbox, you’re setting some high expectations there. Those people then  expect you to always respond right away and we need to adjust that. Let people  know that you’re checking email less frequently and that you’ll respond within the  same day, but you’re not going to be constantly in your inbox. If you’re always in your  inbox, how are you getting anything important done?  

 In general, when teams implement these types of changes, they get their work  done in less time. They finish projects under budget, and they feel more productive  than ever. It’s so important to give yourself the space to work and if you’re spending  all of your time putting out fires by responding to emails or answering phone calls,  you can’t really get your deep work done. Meditation is another way to really fuel  your mind and you heard me talking about this last week in episode 64. So, you know  meditation can reduce stress, it can help you sleep better, and improve your health. I  want to encourage you to keep up with that challenge I offered to you last week and  remember, don’t worry about forcing yourself to start with 20 minutes. Start with just  regular three-minute sessions. Even two or three minutes can have a substantial  stress reduction effect and it’s such a great investment in you.  

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 The fourth area of energy is your spirit, or your outlook. The energy of the  human spirit really comes from doing work that is fulfilling and gives you a sense of  meaning and purpose. Work that matters to you will give you more positive energy, it  gives you better focus and greater perseverance. People want to make an impact,  you can do this by clarifying your priorities and establishing habits in three different  categories. Doing what you do best and enjoy most at work, prioritizing time in areas  of your life you feel are important, and living out your core values in your daily  behaviors. This could include giving and doing things for others, getting approval and  acceptance from others, anticipating an event you enjoy, learning new things. If  you’re in a position of influence over others, either as a manager or a business owner,  you can help encourage the spirit in your own team.  

 One of the things I do for my team is called High-five Fridays. Each week my  customer happiness team collects all the nice comments and nice email we receive  and on Friday, I have them send it out to everyone on my team. I do this because  every member of my team is important and everyone of them contributes in some  way, shape, or form to the mission and the vision behind my business. It’s important  for them to see the role that they play. Many times the stories that receive are  incredibly impactful and they show us the work we’re doing is really making a  difference. This is such an easy way for me to help encourage the spirit of my team  members. So, think about ways that you can do that for your team.  

 I want to talk about why investing in you means making yourself a priority, but  first, I want to give a quick shout-out to our sponsor, inkWELL Press. This month,  inkWELL Press launches our new line of 2018-2019 Academic Planners in our hard  cover and our popular coil-free design. These 12-month planners run July 2018  through June 2019. They feature the same goal-setting features, the same thick  paper, and high-end materials as our regular year planners. Academic year planners  are perfect for students, teachers, or parents. Anyone who likes to plan their year  around the school calendar. Just head to inkwellpress.com for more details and to  place your order so you can be prepared well before the school year starts.  

 All right, let’s get back to talking about why you need to be making yourself a  priority. Your self-control and energy are intricately linked. Both are finite, daily  resources that tire just like a muscle. As the day goes on, we have more difficulty  exerting self-control and really focusing and as the self-control tires, we feel tired. We  begin to feel that tasks are more difficult and we have more negative emotions. We  talked about the ultradian rhythm back in episode 59 when we discussed being  protective of your time so you know your time throughout the day is not all equal.  Some hours you can get through three steps of a big project and other times, all you  can manage is to get through a few emails.  

 We know, too, that we can’t try to beat this cycle by working longer hours.  That just makes us actually less productive. Instead, we need to harness our best  hours and become effective. We want to work the right hours. The ultradian rhythm  valleys are your body’s natural way of saying, you need a break. We can’t eliminate all  of our energy dips, but being aware of them will allow you to get your best work  done within the high peaks instead of trying to muscle through those valleys. The  best way to invest in yourself is to get intentional about your time. Instead of working  for hours and trying to battle through these distractions and energy lows, take the  

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hint. You need a break. It’s a mind-set shift. Breaks are easier to prioritize when you  know they’re going to make you more effective and more productive.  

 When you feel like they’re just a way to waste time, it feels less important so  we need to change the way we look at them. I want to encourage you to take a real  break, one that will help you recharge. Checking your emails or scrolling social  media? That doesn’t really recharge your brain the way that maybe taking a walk  does. Think back to what you really enjoy, use the breadcrumbs that we talked about  back in episode 55 as your guide and use your break for that, use it for the things you  enjoy. Maybe that’s drawing for 10 minutes, or listening to music or calling your mom.  Whatever it is, make sure it feels like a break. If you set your own hours, you might be  thinking “Great, I can start implementing this right away.” But, if you work regular  office hours, eight hours a day, five days a week, that might seem a little difficult. How  do you invest in yourself when somebody else dictates your day?  

 Well, you need to take back some of that ownership. You need to own your  day, not the other way around. And, I know that seems impossible when you have a  manager who’s telling you what to do and how to do it and when to do it, but you  can have some ownership. You’ve heard me say that I spend the first 10 minutes of  every day planning. I do this before I do anything else. Definitely, before I check email.  I want to fill my calendar first. I want to schedule in the important items. I want to put  my priorities in there before other’s have a chance to squeeze in theirs. This is an  investment in me. Then, you can break your day into hourly intervals. What I do, is I  assign a topic of what I want to cover during that time. I might do a block of design  work, or a block of content creation with a break included, of course. After I’ve  scheduled these blocks for myself, then and only then, do I allow others to get their  priorities on my calendar.  

 You can even schedule time for this. You can have a small block dedicated to  returning emails or for one-to-one meetings, but start your day with a filled calendar.  One that’s filled with your priorities. What I want you to do is look at your goals. Look  at your tasks and break them down into what you can do for an hour at a time. Not  only does this break larger tasks and goals into manageable bite-sized pieces, but  when you list these by priority, it gives you a clear picture of what you can work on  right now. This is an investment in that future self we’ve been discussing all season  long, but what’s key here is this, you have to respect your hour. This method of time  blocking only works if you respect the energy levels and allow them to reach a high  level of focus for an hour and then take a real break afterwards. Allowing yourself to  be distracted with email or social media or allowing others to disrupt your time,  doesn’t get you into that peak productivity mind-set. It doesn’t get you into that zone  we’re looking for.  

 And again, I know I’ve said this already, but I’m going to say it again, you have  to take real breaks. Workers who really separate themselves from work during their  breaks are more productive than those who do not. Good breaks include walking,  reading, chatting with others. It can be really tempting to think of dealing with emails  or taking phone calls during your breaks, but that just leaves you more tired and  needing more energy. We want to not wait until we’re fully exhausted to take our  breaks. Waiting until your body is screaming, “I need a break,” means you’ve pushed  yourself far too long already. Keeping to your schedule ensures that you work when you are really most productive. Remember, I’ve said this a few times, but it’s far more  productive to rest for short periods than it is to keep on working when you’re tired  and distracted.  

 Here’s what I want you to leave this season knowing, if you want to invest in  something with a minimum risk and a guaranteed big return, invest in yourself. There  is no greater way to see a difference in your life than in to invest in you. And, I know  all season long you’ve been hearing this message from me, and I’m hoping that you  will begin to see yourself as the priority that you really are.  

 This has been such a great season, I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every  episode and I hope you have too, and I hope that you’re walking away from this  knowing that an investment in you is so important. If you have enjoyed the show, I  would really love it for you to head to iTunes, leave me a five-star rating. Or, even  better, leave me a review. I love reading my reviews. If you don’t know how, I’ve got  simple instructions, just go to inkwellpress.com/ratethepodcast and I’ll walk you  through this. This week, I have a mini-episode all about how to live to be 100 so be  sure to listen to that on Friday. And then, next week our new season begins, season  six and we’ll have a whole new topic to explore and discover together. Tune in next  week to learn a little bit more about what that will be. All right, until next time, happy  planning.  

Thanks for listening to Productivity Paradox from inkWELL Press. To join Tanya’s free  group, simply go to inkwellpress.com/group.