Viewing entries tagged
energy

sleep

It's unavoidable. It's part of life. Some people need less of it. Some need more. But everyone needs sleep. If you want to live, you must sleep. If you want to live well, sleeping well is critical. While many studies and science can provide support for this, the goal here isn't to give a scientific analysis of the benefits of sleep. Sleep is a quick hack for improved performance. Many people in modern society are running on too little sleep. We stay up too late, get up too early, and don't sleep well in between. Sleep will have more immediate and dramatic positive impacts on your abilities than any supplement, stimulant, or exercise. Arguably, sleep can provide more immediate and greater benefits than food. Don’t misinterpret that as a claim that sleep can save a starving person. The point is simply that the average person in modern societies can get a big return on investment in their personal performance by improving their sleep. Even better, it’s free. You don’t have to pay for a subscription or drive to a gym each day. Walk in your room, get in bed, and sleep. Make sure you go to bed early enough to get the sleep you need for the next day. Take it one night at a time. You don’t need big goals or a complex plan. Start tonight. Go to bed on time to make tomorrow successful. Start reaping the benefits of your best self by getting the proper sleep.

Don't spin your wheels, find traction

I couldn’t find a solution to a problem in any of the available resources. I recorded my questions and moved on. Not long after my mentor was able to quickly answer several questions and provide context. Time saved. More learned. Momentum and energy retained.

Give your best first

When I finish my highest value work first, it gets my best brain cells. The rest of the day is less stressful knowing my most important tasks were done best.

Make a template your 20% input

Create templates. Creating a time entry template saved me not only time in entry, but also a notable amount of cognitive strain involved in counting hours on a 24-hr clock and matching against an associated activity tracker. The template took care of counting, time per day, total hours, manual entry in web fields, and start and end times. The template eliminated more than 80% of the steps in the process and the steps eliminated were the most time consuming and cognitively challenging.