Are you ready?

Like most of you, I’ve gone through the public school system and learned English, Math, Social Studies, Science, P.E. and conformity. That in itself wasn’t a bad thing during the industrial age when industry required many workers that demonstrated conformity and careful following of instructions. The work was monotonous, but people were able to earn a comfortable living mass-producing widgets. Thus the educational system was tailored to produce pre-programmed ‘cogs’ ready to follow a set of instructions input by management.

“Sit down, shut up and conform with the rules.”

As is with most large systems burdened by bureaucracy, our educational system has been slow to evolve and has fallen behind in understanding what is currently in demand by society. Unfortunately, the idea of conformity and ‘going with the flow’ has become a de facto rule in making a living for oneself. Parents encourage us to stay in school, graduate and find a stable, well paying job. Peers calculate your success depending on the size your employer.

Seth Godin challenges this idea in his new book ‘Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?‘ Are you only doing the things your boss tells you, following instructions and keeping below the radar? Then you’re easy to replace, just as a cog in a machine. In Linchpin, Godin instead challenges you to become indispensable, be generous and create ‘art’. The ‘art’ Godin refers to is ‘something that creates change in another’ and can be applied to anything from products to services to that sincere smile that brightens your day from the cashier at the local coffee shop. This form of ‘art’ requires creativity and boldness to take your work from the mundane to the edge of the box. (Outside of the box may not produce the results you’re looking for).

Godin also sheds light on ‘resistance’ created by the genes passed down by our ancestors. The same fear that helped our ancestors survive has gotten a grip on our best ideas and hampered us with fear. But this fear keeps us from taking risks, standing out, or doing remarkable things because it feels safe to stay put. Staying put means you do ordinary work, and that increases your risk of being replaced.

If you’ve ever felt that you have more to offer the world, something better, something worth talking about, get the inspiration you need by getting a hold of Linchpin. This book is for anyone doing indispensable work, wants to do indispensable work and people who need to do indispensable work. Go, get out there and become a Linchpin.

Posts by Seth Godin on:

- Making Art

- Quieting the Lizard Brain (Resistance)

Cognitive performance can be improved!

You’ve heard the hype: ‘supplements’ that boost brain performance, games that improve your IQ, toys for toddlers that’ll make them the next Mozart.  Although some companies may claim an extreme brain boost at an extreme price, the verdict is still out on if the products offer a real boost to brain performance apart from the placebo effect. Much to the delight of such product peddlers, the lack of concrete research doesn’t detract the people who are driven to gain any advantage they can in the race to achieve more.

Research and the Proven Way to Boost Cognitive Functioning
Reading ‘Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School’ by John Medina, I came across a study at Nihon Fukushi University in Japan testing the benefits of jogging on mental performance, such as memory, perception and thinking over a 12-week period. The researchers, lead by Dr. Kisou Kubota, found that jogging significantly improved the mental performance of the group that had been asked to jog, while the performance of the group that had not participated in the jogging remained the same. They also found that once the jogging regimen stopped, so did the benefits of the mental performance boost.

Another study at the National Institute of Aging showed that exercise ‘has profound benefits for brain function.’ By keeping an active lifestyle and complementing it with a healthy diet, this not only boosts the performance of the brain but also delays the effects of aging.

Exercise also improves grades in school-aged children
A National Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that students who do not get sufficient physical activity are much more likely to receive poor grades in school compared to students that engage in physical activity. (Physical activity in this survey was defined as activity that gets children to sweat at least 5 or more days a week.)

Slow Down Cognitive Decline in Your Later Years
Long-term research study was conducted on elderly women aged 71-80 and found that women who were the most active (over 1:30 hours of walking a week) saw significantly better cognitive functioning than that of their more sedentary counterparts. This is also true for elderly males, as a study found that males aged 71-93 who walked more than 2 miles (3.2 km) a day were around 2 times less likely to develop dementia than males who walked less than 0.25 miles (0.4 km) a day!

How much exercise do we need to improve brain performance?
So you might ask, “How much exercise do I need to get the benefits?” A study from the University of Georgia found that moderate exercise of up to 60 minutes improves brain performance. On the other hand, extremely strenuous and extended exercise will lower brain performance for the short period one is tired and dehydrated. Studies have also shown that exercise in short bursts of 10 minutes 3 times a day yielded the same results as one 30 minute exercise session to improve cardiovascular health. With the improvement of the cardiovascular system, more fresh oxygen is introduced into both the body and brain, thus helping boost brain performance.

You will also want to consider your physical condition before you begin or up your exercise schedule. If you’re uninterested in jogging, try walking around the block for 15-30 minutes 2 to 3 times a week and if you’re just starting off, aim to break a light sweat. The key is to start moving your body and get your blood flowing to your brain.

Do I have time to exercise?
When we’re hit with a last minute work project, a call from a friend to hang out, your child’s science project that’s due tomorrow or any number of things that could happen and do happen, exercise and sleep usually take the back seat. Although a regular exercise schedule is ideal, if you’re on a time crunch, use lunchtime to get some exercise in. Don’t want to get too sweaty while exercising? Try these exercises without breaking a sweat and if you do, here are 4 ways to combat sweat. Use the often-missed opportunities to get moving. Do you need to go to the water cooler? Take the long way and get an extra few steps in. Get creative, move your body and get smarter!

Many other benefits of exercise
It’s been said time and time again that exercise has benefits beyond just losing weight. But to drive home the importance, here are some more benefits of exercise:

• Fight depression
• Improve body functioning
• Improved mood
• Stronger muscles and bones
• Boost your energy
• Get better sleep

And much more!

WB Summary:

• Exercise has been empirically proven to improve cognitive performance in every age group.
• Exercise significantly helps fight dementia in your later years.
• Exercise regularly for benefits. Once you stop exercising, the benefits will start diminishing
• Exercise with your physical condition in mind. Too much is too much. Know your limitations.
• If you haven’t started exercising, get started. The key is to get your body moving.

Do you work on projects with others that require file sharing? Do you want to share files with all of your friends? Do you have multiple computers you work on? Tired of lugging around your USB drive from computer to computer to move files? If you answered yes to any of the questions above, DropBox may be a great solution that will make your life a lot more simplified and productive.

Pros
- Simple easy to use interface
- File sharing across multiple computers and users (File sharing with your friends!)
- Use it to backup files
- Able to access all your files through the DropBox website when you’re away from your computers
- Unobtrusive background file syncing
- Free 2GB of storage

Cons
- Not able to share folders outside the DropBox folder

What Does It Do?

DropBox is a folder that sits on your computer (I placed mine on my desktop for easy access) that syncs with the DropBox servers. This means that you can install the DropBox folder onto many different computers running different operating systems. I am currently sharing files between computers running OS X Tiger, OS X Leopard, OS X Snow Leopard and Vista.

It’s Simple

Although many programs experience feature bloat as they mature, DropBox keeps everything simple by keeping one folder wherever you want.

1. Install DropBox on any computer you want to sync with. (You can also share files with friends by having them install DropBox with the account you create.)
2. Place all the files you want to share into the DropBox folder and let the automatic sync do its job. Once the files are automatically synced, a little check mark appears on all synced files.
3. Now you’re able to access your files through their (the Dropbox) website, or any other computer you’ve installed the DropBox folder on.

Syncing with multiple sources are made easy with DropBox

How I Use It

Between work, home and side projects, I alternate between multiple computers that required a lot of USB flash drive swaps in the past.  By using DropBox, the need for USB flash drives have decreased dramatically and I now only use the USB drive for sensitive work related documents.  (FYI: DropBox transmits all their data through a secure channel (SSL) and the files on their servers are encrypted for security)

I also have side projects that require sharing documents and images between my business partner and I and this is where DropBox shines. Rather than email clogging attachments, all that’s required is to place the needed document/image into the DropBox folder and after it’s done syncing, my business partner has full access to the required files. Fast and simple.

Try It Out

If you’re in need of a file sharing/syncing solution, DropBox offers a basic version that allows 2GB of storage for free. Take it for a test drive and see how you like it, they also offer an iPhone DropBox app for people who need access to files on the go.

Extra 250MB of Storage Space!

If you decide to try out DropBox, click on this link to join. It’s a referral link that will give you and I both an extra 250 MB of storage space on top of the free 2 GB, sweet! (Make sure you complete 5 of the 6 ‘Getting Started’ sections)

Take your reading skills to the next level by implementing simple strategies

Have you ever wanted to increase your reading speed and retention for school or work?  Many professors at the university level tend to assign more reading than is possible to read.  Your workplace may require you to read and digest technical manuals frequently.  Or you may be a high school student trying to develop skills for college.  Whatever your case may be, reading is a crucial skill in the information age where many jobs are fast becoming knowledge work.

The tips I’ll share with you below are especially useful for textbooks that are mainly information gathering and retention-type reading.  The tips below can also be applied to other types of reading that require high retention.

Set aside a specific time block to read (Speed/Retention) – We all have varying degrees of reading endurance; some people may be able to read for an hour without fatigue, while some may lose focus in 30 minutes.  At first, try budgeting one hour and gauge where you are in terms of reading endurance.  You’ll also want to take into account the time it takes for you to get settled and focused.  It may take you 5 minutes, 20 minutes and sometimes even longer to get yourself focused.  In most cases, reading endurance of textbooks and manuals will be significantly lower than leisure reading.

Read when your energy levels are optimal (Speed/Retention) - When is your concentration and focus at its peak?  For most people, it’s when your energy levels are at their highest.  One way to figure out when your focus is at its peak is by knowing your chronotype.  Early birds tend to have the most energy early in the day, while night owls tend to wake up and work best later in the day.

Read in multiple sessions (Speed/Retention) - When you’re fatigued, you’ll have a difficult time concentrating on the material and grasping all of the information.  I’ve had many experiences when I’d be too tired to be reading, but forced myself to keep reading and turning the page.  After many pages, I would snap awake, only to realize that I couldn’t recall anything.  Save yourself some time and take a break when you start to lose your focus.  Go for a run, take a nap or grab a bite to eat and work on something else and then come back to your reading at a later time.

Direct your focus on information rich areas (Speed/Retention) - Read the chapter headings, introductions and skim though the table of contents to get a balanced overall grasp of what the book will be covering.  The beginnings of chapters will usually contain the broad points of the chapter and the ends of chapters will have summaries.  The middle of the chapter will usually contain detailed explanations of the  points covered in the introduction section of the chapters.  Focus on the chapter openings and ends and skim through the middle to speed up your reading.  Textbooks will frequently use bold or italicized fonts to highlight important terms and ideas.

Ask questions (Retention) - As you read, ask yourself questions such as how the reading applies to real world situations.  How can the reading be applied to you?  What is the author trying to convey?  Are there points that the author brings up that you disagree with?  Why?  Also at the end of the chapter, take a few minutes to stop and quiz yourself on the main points of the chapter.

Visualize (Retention) – We are visual creatures whose vision takes up half of our brain’s resources.  Because so much of the information we take in is through vision, our brains are wired to optimize visual memory.  By visualizing the meaning of the words, you’ll be able to retain more than if you were to read the text straight through.

Bonus tip:

Retain more information in the same time it would take to read just once – We may be used to reading a book from beginning to end, but when the reading requires you to extract information and retain it in the shortest possible time, there’s a better strategy than to reading just once through.  Utilizing your time wisely, reading your book/document 3 times in the time it would take you to read once through will help you retain significantly more.

1. First Pass (Spend about 15% of your total reading time) The first pass will be very quick.  Skim though the book at a fast pace and highlight important terms and terms you don’t understand.  Your highlighting should be as minimal as possible.  Don’t highlight more than one sentence.  This is to keep from diluting the important information on the page.
2. Second Pass (Spend about 60% of your total reading time) For your second pass, you’ll want to take extra time on areas that contain important information, which you caught during the first pass.  You can skim though areas that don’t contain the information you seek, but slow down in areas with dense information and take notes including terms you don’t understand.  When taking notes, make sure you write your notes in your own words rather than just copying verbatim.  By taking notes in your own words, you’ll process the information deeper, helping you retain more.
3. Third Pass (Spend about 25% of your total reading time) The third pass will should focus on key terms and compare them to your notes you took during the second pass.  Put the book down and replay what you’ve learned in your mind.

What are your methods for reading?  Share by commenting below!

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Never Lose Great Ideas Again with Evernote : A great tool for all Bloggers and Entrepreneurs

Just like anyone else, I’m sure that you’ve lost a few great ideas along the way because you didn’t have a way to record the idea when it came up.  Moleskine® are great to carry around town, but when I’m in front of a computer at work and a flow of ideas come rushing, I need a good method to catch it.  In the past, when my ideas came up, I would rush to write it down on a piece of paper, or type it up in a text document to save it for later, but I never ended up using the notes.  I’d tried emailing it to myself and keeping the hand written notes, but it didn’t work out for me because I didn’t get into the habit of looking back at my notes.

This is when I found Evernote.

What is Evernote?
Taken directly from Evernote’s website,”Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use.”  Simply put, Evernote is an application that allows you to take notes in many forms. (Text, images, video, audio)  But the biggest selling point for me was the automatic syncing that allowed me to access the same notes on any computer I used.

A screenshot of my Evernote in action

Here are some ways I’ve been using Evernote:

A repository of my ideas: Evernote serves as my main idea repository when I’m on my computer at work or at home.  I just keep Evernote minimized and when an idea comes alive, I immediately throw it into Evernote for review at a later time.  Since Evernote syncs seamlessly between my computers, I always have all my notes on every computer I use even when I don’t have access to the Internet.  Notes can also be accessed through a web browser by going to Evernote’s homepage.  (I also have a notepad I use for note-taking when I’m in a writing mood or away from the computer.  I always make sure to retype notes into Evernote.)

Keeping track of large projects: Using Evernote’s notebook feature, I’m able to keep track of blog projects and other work that require a lot of steps to complete.  Create a notebook and within that notebook, make a new note for each idea or chapter and start writing.  Evernote also has a ‘tag’ feature that allows you to tag your notes with keywords for easy searching.

Taking book notes: I like taking notes while reading, (a side effect of having to read too many textbooks) so I tend to jot down important points on a notebook.  When I finish noting the points I want to remember, I type the notes into Evernote later so I can easily look back on the major points without having to reread the whole book.  I also keep a booklist of the books I’d like to read so I can knock them out one by one.

Webpage clippings: Evernote has a Firefox/Safari browser add-on that allows for easy one-click saving of webpages that you want to keep.  I don’t use this feature too often because the web clipping frequently looks off.  It may be something Evernote is working on, so I’ll give it another try in the next revision.

Easy to use and its free!: Did I mention that there’s a free version of Evernote?  All you have to do is register and download the program.  If you don’t want to install anything on your computer, or if your work computer doesn’t allow you access to install programs onto your computer, just use the web version.  The web version has more to be desired in terms of aesthetics, it works well and I use it when I’m on a public computer.  The free version gives you 40MB of uploads a month and if you want to upgrade to more, it’s $5 a month for 500MB of uploads.

Despite the fact that I feel Evernote’s application needs to be slimmed down aesthetically, the convenience of being able to access and sync notes across different computers is worth checking out.

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Use the 10 tips to make you a better Googler!

We know that Google holds the majority market share for search results on the Internet, and with 76.7 billion searches last year, Google gets asked a lot of questions.  But to get the best answers, we have to know how to ask the right questions.  I put together 10 simple tips below to help you get more out of Google and in less time:

1. Track Packages – Do you have a package headed your way?  Just copy and paste your tracking number into Google to track your package.  This search feature works for USPS, UPS and FedEx.
2. Area Codes – Do you get that annoying phone call from telemarketers and better yet, an automated dialer with an area code you don’t recognize?  You can track the geographic location of the phone number by searching the area code of the caller.  This won’t stop them from calling, but you can also look up the full phone number with Google and see if the caller has been harassing others too.
3. Movie Times – Want to plan out a movie night?  Just type “movies [zip code]” to see all the showtimes for nearby theaters.  You can also search “Title of current move [zip code]” to bring up specific showtimes of the movie you want to watch.
4. Local Search – Are you looking for a store or restaurant nearby?  Just search for what “[you're looking for] [zip code]“.
5. Dictionary – What does logophobia mean? Try searching for it by entering “define logophobia” for definitions.  By searching for a definition of a word using “define [word]“, Google will come up with many results with links to the leading dictionary websites.
6. Weather – Is it going to be warm today?  You can bring up the weather by searching for “weather [zip code]“.  Are you traveling and want to know the weather of a particular city, but don’t have the zip code?  No problem, you can still bring up the weather by searching “weather [city]“
7. Stock Quotes – Love the daily gut wrenching ups and downs of wall street?  Just search for your ticker symbol to bring up the latest quotes.
8. Time – PST? CDT? EDT? What time is it in Chicago? What time is it in Tasmania, Australia?  Search for “time [city]” to get your answer.
9. Sports Scores – OK, you got to get the latest score or need to look up the schedule; search for “team name” to get up to date info.
10. Map – Going out of town and looking for a map?  Search for “map [city]” to bring up a map of your destination.

Enjoy the sunrise

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.”
- Benjamin Franklin

* Ring! * ah, !@$&%*(!!!!

I’ve always been terrible at waking up early. As soon as the alarm went off, I would hit the snooze button faster than I could think about hitting the snooze button. I hated waking up early, I felt too tired, too groggy. I had tried many times to become an early riser, only to fail every single time. As I mentioned in my previous posts, because I was a night owl, I always felt best after the sun went down. Being a night owl may not have been such a problem if my work schedule fit my natural sleep patterns, but I was expected to be in the office at 8am which made for an entertaining morning sprint out the door every single day!

Fortunately, I was able to overcome the night owl chronotype by studying and experimenting with various theories and creating an effective method of early rising. After many attempts and many failures, I was able to re-create myself as an early bird. I currently wake up at 5:00 am and since creating the habit, I have personally seen a marked decrease in procrastination and solid improvement in my punctuality. If that’s not enough to convince you to wake up, here are a few more gifts waking up early will award you with.

1. Enjoy the quiet morning serenity

I used to enjoy the quiet times late at night, but I feel that the quiet of the early morning also has much to offer. Absorb the serenity of the morning with its cool fresh air while most are still fast asleep. This is a great time to plan your day and set your goals. I set aside a corner of my bedroom where I have a small table and chair where I sit and write down my goals for the day. On days I’m feeling especially attentive, I will close my eyes and visualize how I will complete my goals. I haven’t built up much endurance with visualization, so I’m practicing it as much as I can.

2. A personal ‘Good Morning!’ from the sun

The beauty of nature is something to awe, and with each sunrise, we are greeted with a bright ‘good morning.’ Sunsets are equally beautiful, signifying the end of the day, a ‘good bye for now.’ While most of us are able to enjoy the sunset, far less people are able to take in the simple beauty of the sunrise. Wake up early and watch the sunrise, and claim it as your own! You can check the sunrise and sunset times of your local at the U.S. Navy Observatory website.

3. Exercise

My exercise routine used to start around 11:00pm, comeback around 12:00am and then shower and ready for bed. Obviously not great scheduling for a person who had to be at work at 8:00am. Since waking up early gives me time to exercise in the morning and gets my blood flowing, I start the day feeling good. I have also noticed that exercising in the morning will give you great energy throughout the day, and will help you sleep earlier and have better sleep quality. I currently alternate my exercise routine between cardiovascular training and weight training.

Side note: One thing that I have noticed is that if I start my run early (5:30-6:30am) the air is cool and crisp, but if I start my run after 6:30am, the air quality quickly diminishes as cars start to appear on the roads. This is because I run in a residential neighborhood and a LOT of exhaust is produced by cars not having reached their operating temperature. Since the car has just been started, the catalytic converter is not yet doing its job. I usually avoid running if it is after 6:30am.

4. Increased productivity

I have noticed a correlation between waking up early and increased productivity. Waking up early gives me time to set goals for the day before exercising and breakfast. After exercising and breakfast, I will usually use the time before work to read the news, write articles and tie up other loose ends. Because it is quiet in the morning, distractions are kept to a minimum and I am able to complete tasks much quicker than any other time of the day.

5. Starting the day with a good wholesome breakfast

Waking up late, I never had time to eat breakfast. Always rushing out the door, I was lucky enough to have a glass of water and possibly an unhealthy snack. When you’re pressed for time, I noticed that I usually ended up eating a lot unhealthier, making me sluggish till lunch time. But by waking up earlier, I now have ample time after exercise to make myself a wholesome breakfast. It is well documented that eating breakfast has many benefits and will help kick start your metabolism. Other benefits are increased concentration and strength. Check out the full benefits of breakfast. Just eating breakfast alone is a great reason to start your day early!

6. Shorter commute times

For people who have to commute in traffic, this should be THE reason to wake up early and head to work. Traffic has a funny way of working, and just 10 minutes earlier can make commute times much shorter. (YMMV) Save yourself the stress of commuting in traffic, and having to rush to work. You’ll feel much better and ready to start your work day.

7. Other areas start to improve

As I mentioned earlier, waking up early has contributed to many benefits including better punctuality and a big decrease in procrastination. I attribute these effects to the fact that I was able to improve my self discipline resulting in better self control and focus. These changes will make a big difference in helping you achieve your goals in life, all the while having more time for family, friends and hobbies.

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photo by tormods

6 Time Blocks to Success : Learn to Schedule your Day Like Benjamin Franklin Part 2/2

America's first productivity coach?

In part 1 of the series, we took a look at how Benjamin Franklin scheduled his days and learned that Franklin divided his day into 6 time blocks, with each time block having a specific purpose. In the second part of the series, we will take a close look at how Franklin used each time block to achieve extraordinary productivity throughout his lifetime.

1. Morning (5:00 am – 8:00 am) ‘Planning’ Franklin was well known for his early rising, but early rising alone doesn’t make for a productive day. Looking at his morning schedule, Franklin would “Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness; Contrive day’s business, and take the resolution of the day; prosecute the present study, and breakfast.”

It is easier to focus and plan the day’s responsibilities in the early morning hours before the commotion begins. By creating our goals for a purposeful day early in the morning, we are able to focus and increase productivity. On the other hand, not planning your day in advance may lead you to be taken over by ‘urgent and important’ tasks that have you constantly putting out fires as taught by Stephen Covey. Finally, what may be the most important part of Franklin’s day was to ask the question “What good shall I do today?”

2. Noon (8:00 am – 12:00 pm) ‘Doing’ Work

3. Lunch (12:00 pm – 2:00 pm) ‘Rest/Study’ “Read or overlook my accounts and dine.” During his lunchtime, Franklin would take time to read and overlook his accounts. Even during lunch, Franklin would make sure that he worked to improve himself.

Although we may not be able to work at such high levels of productivity like Franklin, we can take the cues and implement them to fit our schedule and energy. Do you have extra time and energy during lunchtime? Have you been meaning to finish that book you started? Or do you want to get a little exercise in during lunch? With a little creativity, we can use lunchtime further our self-improvement.

4. Noon (2:00 pm – 6:00 pm) ‘Doing’ Work

5. Evening (6:00 pm – 10:00 pm) ‘Wrap-up/Leisure/Reflection’ Franklin used his evening time to wrap-up the work from earlier in the day and had also allotted leisure time with music and conversation. He also took time to reflect on the day and asked himself “what good have I done today?”

After a long day’s work, take time to wind down, whether it be through exercise, music, and/or a wholesome dinner and conversation. This will help you to relax and prepare you for a good night’s rest. But, before going to sleep, do you reflect on the day’s happenings? What good have you done today?

6. Night (10:00 pm – 5:00 am) ‘Sleep’

No one will deny the great productivity achieved by Benjamin Franklin was just a coincidence. Looking at his daily schedule, we are able to get a glimpse of why he was able to achieve so much during his lifetime. Retired at 42, Franklin was free to spend most of his time in leisure, but instead found himself hard at work inventing and writing. In the morning, he planned his day, then took action ‘doing,’ till the end of the day, when he would wind-down and reflect on the day’s events. Waking up at 5:00 am and sleeping at 10:00 am may not work with our schedule, but by taking the cues set forth by Franklin, we can plan each day to be as fulfilling and productive as you want.

What good will you do today?

photo by: nostri-imago

Are you aware of how you spend your time?

Hey Benny! You call that a smile?

Most everyone knows Benjamin Franklin as the man on the $100 bill. But did you know he was a philosopher, statesman, inventor, and writer among other things? Benjamin Franklin was able to accomplish more in his life than many people combined. How did he have time to accomplish so much?

The answer lies in the fact that he considered constant self-improvement as a necessity. He was a strong proponent of early rising, even writing a book titled ‘Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’ praising the virtues of early rising. But early rising alone doesn’t increase productivity if you don’t schedule your time efficiently. Although we have forgotten much of his contributions, we are fortunate enough to revisit him via the great works he has left us.

His autobiography outlines the daily schedule he followed and made sure each and every hour was used to his potential:

“The precept of Order requiring that every part of my business should have its allotted time, one page in my little book contained the following scheme of employment for the twenty-four hours of a natural day.“

Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule
Morning	5 am	Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness; Contrive day’s business, and take the resolution of the day; prosecute the present study, and breakfast. Morning Question: “What good shall I do today?”
	6 am
	7 am
Noon	8 am	Work
	9 am
	10 am
	11 am
Lunch	12 pm	Read or overlook my accounts and dine
	1 pm
Noon	2 pm	Work
	3 pm
	4 pm
	5 pm
Evening	6 pm	Put things in their places. Supper. Music or diversion, or conversation. Examination of the day. Evening Question: “What good have I done today?”
	7 pm
	8 pm
	9 pm
Night	10 pm	Sleep
	11 pm
	12 am
	1 am
	2 am
	3 am
	4 am

Benjamin Franklin scheduled his days into 6 time blocks that consisted of 1 block in the morning, 3 in the afternoon, 1 in the evening and 1 at night. As we can see in Benjamin Franklin’s schedule, he was very methodical and deliberate in his approach to each day, waking up early and planning the day in the morning. In today’s busy world, you may not be able to construct a schedule like his, but we can learn a lot by studying Franklin’s schedule to aid in improving our daily productivity.

In part II, I will be discussing Benjamin Franklin’s 6 time blocks to highlight the benefits of having a structured schedule that is tailored to your lifestyle and needs.

Is it really possible to increase my productivity by sleeping?

A good night's rest and short naps during the day can increase your performance and productivity

It sure sounds good to me, sign me up!

We know that sleep gives us the rest we need to help us restore ourselves physically, emotionally and cognitively. But did you know that depriving yourself from sleep, you can harm yourself far more than just being tired? An article by Shari Roan of the LA Times explains that a lack of sleep can contribute to many health problems, ranging from learning and mood problems on the lighter end of sleep deprivation to onset of Alzheimer’s and Bipolar disorder on the more damaging end of sleep deprivation.

Today, we are able to use computers and artificial lighting anytime of the day, which create an environment that interferes with our bodies’ normal circadian cycles. Melatonin, a hormone that aids in our sleep, lowers our body temperature and prepares us for sleep. But melatonin release is aided by darkness, and if you spend a lot of time in a brightly lit room or staring at a computer screen, the release of melatonin becomes suppressed, leading to longer wake times than your body wants. What does this all mean to us? We are much more prone to a lack of sleep.

Getting a good night’s rest

The first step to increasing your productivity is to get a good night’s rest. How do you feel at the end of the day? Do you usually feel tired, but keep yourself up watching TV or browsing the web? Instead of keeping yourself up by watching TV or browsing the web, turn it off and go to bed when you feel tired enough to sleep. Going to sleep when you feel tired will help you wake up refreshed, helping you stay focused for longer periods of time the next day.

Eating lighter meals

Do you feel tired during the middle of the day? Does the sleep monster attack after a nice hefty lunch? If so, try eating a lighter lunch and snack between breakfast and lunch, and then another light snack between lunch and dinner. I’ve noticed that throwing in a short 10 min nap during the day also helps pick me back up, boosting energy levels and productivity.

Reap the benefits

Give yourself the sleep that you need so you can increase your daily productivity. By giving your body the rest that it needs, you’ll also reap many other benefits such as improved mood, clearer thinking, better health and better memory. Take this simple tip and make big changes!

Comment and share how you get enough sleep in this busy world. Do you have any creative tips on napping during the lunch hour?