Life

Become a Lean, Mean, Productivity Machine

The times for high productivity appear to be 10 am to noon and 3 pm to 4 pm

Published

2 years ago

June 20, 2021

Jeff Davidson

For many people, Sunday is for rest and reflection. Monday through Friday is a different story.

Daily tasks can either drain or energize you. Completing them can make you feel accomplished; postponing them can leave you frustrated. Surprisingly, the order in which you approach tasks can have a notable impact on your effectiveness, energy, and enthusiasm.

Some tasks are better handled at a specific time of the day, and should be completely avoided at other times. To maintain balance, get your work done, and still have life at the end of the day, ensure that the sequence and the timing of your projects supports, rather than impedes, the likelihood that you’ll accomplish most of what you sought to do during your day.

When to Tackle the Day’s Toughest Task

Tackle the day’s toughest task first thing. Why, pray tell? Recall if this has ever happened to you: You approach the end of your workday and realize that you didn’t get to the most difficult tasks. Whether they are time-consuming or mind-boggling, the hardest tasks are the ones most likely met with procrastination.

Researchers agree that you are most able to handle your hardest tasks if you do so in the morning. Dr. Norbert Myslinski, a neuroscience professor at the University of Maryland, found that cortisol – a stress hormone that affects your “flight-or-flight” ability – peaks around the time that you wake up.

Cortisol increases your blood-sugar level, better enabling you to handle tasks energetically and with enough momentum to carry you through their completion.

Most vital, tackling tough tasks in the morning often enhances your confidence level. By striving for increased productivity at the start of your day, you are motivated to perform better and accomplish more throughout the rest of your afternoon and evening.

All told, you’re inclined to accomplish more on your daily task list when you start with the hardest tasks. Moving to the easy tasks then seems like a downhill bike ride. By contrast, moving from easy to hard tasks can be an uphill battle.

When to Ease off on Tackling Tough Tasks

When your workday begins to wind down, tie up any loose ends. What can you file so that it is out of the way? What can you make complete? Can you make that one key phone call?

Can you discard any unnecessary items, including junk mail? Can you assemble tomorrow’s project materials or notes to once again be able to tackle the toughest tasks? In this case, the early bird does indeed catch and complete the worm (work).

Tackle that Task You’ve Been Avoiding

As I discuss more broadly in my book The 60 Second Self-Starter, when is an opportune time to tackle a task you’ve been putting off continuously? Answer: When something else comes along that’s even more onerous.

Suppose you seek to start on task A, and find yourself making little headway. Along comes task B, which bigger and more difficult, and something you have to do, you have no choice. Task B now becomes the nexus of your procrastination.

Suddenly, task A doesn’t seem so big and so bad. In comparison to what else is on your plate, you find yourself starting on task A with greater ease than you recently experienced. How so? You have mentally traded off one task for another.

Eventually you’ll have to tackle task B, but for now, work the trade-off to your advantage. Buzz through task A.

A caveat: Often, you don’t have much control over when another huge task is forthcoming. When one such task arrives, that’s when to launch into the earlier task.

About High Productivity

Your body’s temperature goes up and down in the course of a day, a pattern dictated by your brain. According to John Poppy, a former senior editor for Look magazine and long established health columnist, your body’s performance ability for memory, alertness, and physical coordination is optimal when you have a sufficiently high body temperature.

Conversely, memory alertness, physical coordination, and performance ability tend to decrease with a less than optimal body temperature.

For work related tasks, in accordance with your body temperature fluctuations throughout the day, in review, here are noted times for high productivity, and other times worth knowing: From 8 am to 10 am, your mental capabilities steadily rise.

From 10 am to noon, you have the wonderful opportunity to take on a challenging project and succeed, or to hit your boss for that raise you’ve been wanting.

By noon your brain capacity begins to diminish. At 3 pm, the brain power dip you might have experienced in the early in the PM begins to diminish and your productivity rises.

By 4 pm, ‘til at least 5 pm, your muscle tone reaches its peak and so, this is the favored time to exercise for many people.

So, the times for high productivity appear to be 10 am to noon and 3 pm to 4 pm, and the best times for a productive physical workout are between 4 pm and 5 pm.

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Jeff Davidson is the world's only holder of the title "The Work-Life Balance Expert®" as awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is the premier thought leader on work-life balance, integration, and harmony. Jeff speaks to organizations that seek to enhance their overall productivity by improving the effectiveness of their people. He is the author of Breathing Space, Simpler Living, Dial it Down, and Everyday Project Management. Visit www.BreathingSpace.com for more information on Jeff's keynote speeches and seminars, including: Managing the Pace with Grace® * Achieving Work-Life Balance™ * Managing Information and Communication Overload®

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Family

Student Drinking and Drug Abuse on Campus is Over the Top

What kind of society, de facto, condones such reckless behavior?

Published

4 days ago

November 30, 2023

Jeff Davidson

Are you a conservative business person? Then check out the Red Referral Network and partner with Dinesh D’Souza by clicking the banner below:

The senseless loss of five university students in a house fire has stung my community. These were top students, accomplished individuals, and potential leaders.

Someone has got to ask the tough questions right now, while the pain of their loss is intense. In what kind of society do presumably the best and brightest engage in highly questionable activities? An all-night party? Started at what hour? Preceded by what? To end when?

How much alcohol flows? How many drugs are dispensed? Obtained from and by whom? Ingested by whom? How many cigarettes are lit? How many butts wantonly burn down to nothing? What else is lit and smoked?

Foolish Behavior Condoned

The largest and toughest question of all behind these is what kind of society, de facto, condones such foolish and, in too many tragic instances, reckless behavior? Drunk students falling out of windows to their death, engaged in chugging contests until they vomit, on weeknights no less, walking the campus in a state of high lethargy? Being rushed to emergency wards?

Sure, install the proper sprinkler and alarm systems, but acknowledge the ruthless reality that confronts us. Colleges today are the stomping grounds for legions of students who drink and take drugs with abandon. They sit like zombies in morning classes if they can make it out of bed at all. Professors pretend that it is not happening. University administrators accept such behavior as ‘part of the times.’

Such phenomena are more wide sweeping than anyone cares to admit. They are testament to the abandonment of standards, the ‘everything is allowed’ overly permissive culture in which no student is safe.

Break the Silence

If the students who died were among the finest people that communities engender, what does their loss portend for others? And when will responsible adults break the silence about the utter absurdity with which too many students live their lives?

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Life

Give Thanks and Carry On

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, if you can

Published

2 weeks ago

November 22, 2023

Jeff Davidson

Thanksgiving: that joyous time of the year when families get together, have a wonderful dinner, catch up on what everyone other is doing, give thanks for all that they have, and perhaps watch some football.

Up for the Challenge?

This Thanksgiving might prove to be a challenge for many people. For one, the cost of the turkey, the bird traditionally served, in some locals cost between 50% to 80% more than last year, and turkey was already expensive.

Among your relatives a few might be vegans or vegetarians. If you have a vegan enforcer in the family, this person will rail on and on against eating meat, and about how turkeys have lives just like we do.

One of your vegan or vegetarian relatives might offer a discourse on how cranberries should be harvested a different way, the dangers of turkey stuffing, and the problem with vegetables that you might be serving, the risk of having too many starches – potatoes or rice – and the evils of wine, beer, and other alcoholic drinks.

Topics Worth Avoiding

The politics to consider abound. Since roughly half of the country votes Democrat and half votes Republican, the odds are overwhelming that you’re going to have somebody with opposing politics at the table. During Trump’s years as president, many families had to navigate around the topic of the presidency, prevailing policies. and so on.

Today, while there’s no question that Joe Biden is completely inane as leader, the same delicate navigation needs to occur. As miraculous as this might seem, some on the left actually approve of what Biden has been doing. Note: don’t be concerned about the Bidens going hungry. With all those under-the-table payment from Ukraine and China, they can EASILY afford a huge, expensive turkey with all of the trimmings.

If you can avoid discussing the eight million invaders illegally crossing our borders, rampant inflation, the U.S. Afghanistan withdrawal, the crisis in Israel and potential for World War III, drag time story hour for children, transgenderism, the bogus lawsuits against Donald Trump, the unending crimes of Hunter Biden, the payola to Joe Biden, FBI corruption, the historic unpopularity and ineptness of Kamala Harris, and about 30 or so other topics, your dinner should go smoothly. Enjoy!

A huge current wrinkle on the political scene is that recent surveys reveal at least one-quarter of Democrats actually approve of Hamas, atrocities and all, and side with Palestine on all issues large and small. They believe that Israel is an apartheid state and that Jews are today’s Nazis. Apparently they’ve never visited Israel and have no Jewish friends.

Depending on how many Democrats attend your Thanksgiving gathering, if it’s four or more, mathematically speaking you have a decent chance that one is a pro-Hamas Democrat. Wooo… Now, you really have to stay clear of current issues or your dinner table might be as inflamed verbally as the Middle East is with armaments.

Insufferable Stuffing

After everyone is stuffed with turkey, vegeburgers, or whatever the people who like rabbit food eat, you might sit in the den and turn on a football game. Quickly, you’ll have a stark reminder of how far political correctness has infected society.

If the Washington Commanders are playing, it’s hard to forget that they used to be called the Washington Redskins until the wokesters among us demanded that the name must be changed. Not so ironically, 90% of native Americans actually want the name Washington Redskins reinstalled, and currently are petitioning for it.

In baseball, the Cleveland Indians “had” to be renamed to the Cleveland Guardians. Potentially, there’s no end of this malarkey. Should the Minnesota Vikings change their name? After all, people from Scandinavia might object to the term “Vikings.” While we’re at it, consider college basketball. The Wake Forest University Demon Deacons are due for a name change, if you’re on the Left. So, too, the Duke University Blue Devils, the Arizona University Aztecs, and on and on.

Landmines to Side Step

With all these potential land mines to side step, and all the ways that otherwise pleasant conversations on a pleasant day could occur, you have to be on guard.

Nevertheless, I wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving. May you survive the day, fully intact, and ready to have a decent Black Friday.

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