Urban Blog

Managing life and work seems to be more difficult than ever before. There are many reasons for why so many people feel that maintaining a healthy work-life relationship is harder than it was just a few years ago. For examples, our phones now tend to keep us “turned on” and overstimulated 24-7.

Let’s take a look at the steps you can take to achieve a new level of productivity while feeling better doing it.

Tip One-Your Diet

It is simply impossible to discuss boosting productivity, feeling better and having more energy without a serious discussion of diet. Your diet is critical to your health. Medical science has shown that choosing the right diet can add years to your life, whereas selecting the wrong diet can work to subtract years. What you eat and drink really does matter. There are steps, regardless of your budget, that you can take to give your body what it needs to thrive.

Start by drastically reducing or if possible even eliminating fast food and processed foods. These foods are usually very low in nutrition and, to make things worse, they are high in chemicals, preservatives and other harmful ingredients. That means you’ll have far less energy when you eat these foods regularly. No one can expect to feel great when eating junk food. Consider making healthy meals and freezing them on the weekend so that you have a fast and easy way to eat healthy.

Tip Two-Meditation

Meditation is most definitely not a waste of time. Medical science has finally caught up to what the ancients have known for well over a thousand years – meditation works.

Rather interestingly, new studies point to the fact that meditation might actually serve to help the mind function more efficiently. That means that this practice might actually be able to help you achieve more with the time you work.

Tip Three-Sleep

We’ll keep this tip short. You likely need more sleep. Not getting enough sleep will hamper your performance and can even impact your decision-making; after all, no one does there best on very little sleep.

Tip Four-Time Out

Do you check your smartphone or email constantly? This keeps your brain in a heightened state.

Relaxation is made more difficult by the ubiquitous nature of our modern gadgets and the interconnectivity that provide. Give your mind a time out and you’ll see a boost in your productivity during the hours you are working.

Tip Five-A Digital Assistant

Digital assistants are becoming popular because they work. You may have to invest some time to find a good digital assistant, but once you do, it will be money well spent.

The first step in hiring a digital assistant is to determine what you would have your assistant do. Map out all that you do in a given day and then determine which of these tasks could be outsourced to someone else. You may discover that you don’t have much that a digital assistant could do, or you may discover that a digital assistant could handle a large chunk of your daily routine. Just imagine how great that would feel!

Tip Six-Track a Typical Day

Make a list of what you are doing during your day. The best approach is to chart out what you are doing in 10 or 15-minute intervals. Next look for the wasted time.

The odds are great that you have at least some wasted time. Sure, you’ll still want to do things like watch your favorite shows or read books. But look for the major “time sponges” such as watching shows you don’t like, mindlessly surfing the web or having long and unsatisfying phone conversations.

This tip will help you find a better way to manage your time so that you can get more of what your body needs like, sleep!

Tip Seven-The Reward Board/List

Create a board that has tasks you need to accomplish and the accompanying rewards. At first, this one might seem a little silly, but it does, in fact, work.

The simple act of focusing on what tasks need to be tackled and when will help you become more efficient and effective. This is true even without the rewards! Adding in a reward makes this tip a true winner.

Tip Eight-The Priority List

Our third list related tip is to make a priority list. Again, just like making a reward board/list helps you to focus your mind the same is true for a priority list. This practice forces you to select what is and is not important.

Eliminating mental clutter will help you achieve greater clarity and that translates into greater efficiency. If you want to achieve more, then tracking your typical day, creating a reward board and making a priority list will do wonders!

These eight steps can be used rather well together. By increasing your efficiency, you can spend more time focusing on other areas of improvement. For example, tracking how you spend your time on a typical day will allow you to spot inefficiencies. Once you’ve spotted those inefficiencies, you can eliminate them and use that time to meditate, which leads to feeling better, looking better and being more productive.

Modern life has the potential to become extremely hectic. Human beings are not meant to always be on and always be connected. Yet, that is where many of us find ourselves. Finding time to relax and “be” is often the difference between being happy and healthy and being sick and miserable. Don’t be afraid to invest in you.