Life is like a river

Life is like a river. It’s moving, and you can be at the mercy of the river if you don’t take deliberate, conscious action to steer yourself in a direction you have pre-determined.

-Anthony Robbins

Leo Babauta over at Zen Habits recently wrote a very honest post about The Dirty Little Secrets of Productivity Bloggers, and I’ll be sharing one of my own with you in this post. To give you some background, over this last month, I have been on two extremes, and am now back to normalcy. For the first two weeks, I was on vacation. I had lots of free time, and I managed my own schedule and did what I wanted to do. I lived on my own sleep schedule (I’m a late riser). I meditated and exercised every day. I did a lot of reading, writing, and relaxing.

When I came back to work, I was immediately placed on an intense project, which involved long hours and weekend work for 2 weeks. I went from 100% free time to 100% structured time. Was I able to maintain my positive habits when my routine changed so significantly? Nope. And this explains my dirty little secret- I wasn’t able to follow my own advice.

I ended up building sleep debt due to long work hours. I was unable to maintain my exercise routine due to getting home so late from work, I ate unhealthy food (catered into our conference room at work), and I stopped meditating.

Why couldn’t I maintain my daily positive habits when my routine changed?

I love being challenged and pushed to extremes- this is a way to personal growth for me. I dedicated myself to the success of the project at work, and gained a lot of experience from it, but in doing so, I also adopted the norms (eating and sleeping habits) of the team, and temporarily lost my positive habits along the way.

I wasn’t able to follow the advice of my blog post about living like a sprinter (having a healthy balance between stress and recovery), versus living like a long distance runner (no balance/time for recovery, leading to burnout). During these past two weeks, I have been confronted with how difficult living like a sprinter can be. How do you maintain positive habits when routine changes, and the nature of your work can be so chaotic?

Your routine will change, that’s a given- plan for it

I’m learning that routine changes will happen to you and I many times in our lives, but the important thing we need to have in place is a a backup plan. A back up plan is your pre-determined way of handling drastic routine change and maintaining positive habits. Why come up with a backup plan early on? If you have to come up with the backup plan while you are in crisis mode, it’s already too late:

Changes to routine have a smaller impact on your positive habits when you use a backup plan

Routine Change: Working long hours, unable to work out at gym

Backup Plan Options: If long work hours are going to be a long-term occurrence, you will want to find an alternate work-out time, such as early in the morning or over lunch break. If it is only short-term, you can simply cut back on your daily caloric intake, and plan to get back into your workout routine as soon as your work hours go back to normal.

Routine Change: Unable to leave work for lunch break due to deadlines, unhealthy snack options in the office

Backup Plan Options: Bring a bag of trail mix or nuts with you to work, use this as a meal replacement when you are unable to eat a normal lunch. Otherwise, you may end up eating unhealthy office snacks, or even worse, you will be starving by dinner time, and overeat to make up for the missed lunch.

Routine Change: Unable to get enough sleep during the week

Backup Plan Options: Take a mid-day 20 minute nap at work. If you have you own office, this will be easier to do. If not, you will have to be more creative with napping at work.

It’s Your Turn to Share

It’s much easier to maintain positive habits when your external environment and routine stay the same. But when the situation suddenly changes, are you able to adjust? Do you maintain your positive habits, or do you revert back to the way you were before you acquired the positive habits?

I’m still working on my backup plan, and experimenting with the best ways to maintain positive habits when my routine changes. I’d love to hear your experience with maintaining positive habits through routine changes- please leave a comment!

photo credit: aledt

Be miserable or motivate yourself. Be helpless or in control. Blame someone or take responsibility. These are examples of two ways you can see your life. One way leads to happiness, the other to dissatisfaction.

I’m working through this weekend with my project team to complete an approaching deadline. At one point in time, I would have seen working the weekend as “This isn’t fair, my free time is being used to benefit the company I work for.” Now, I take responsibility and see it as “This is a rewarding opportunity to push my limits, learn and grow.” I chose my career knowing that it would involve lots of travel and the potential for long hours and weekend work. There is no reason to cope in your career (or anything else)- either change your mindset about it, or change it.

Optimism versus Pessimism

What this really comes down to is optimism versus pessimism. When you see your life pessimistically, this leads to helplessness. When you see your life optimistically, this leads to control. Optimism can be learned, but it isn’t an easy path for those accustomed to a pessimistic mindset. The easy path is to quit at the first sign of failure or negative feedback. The less-traveled path is to see negative events as temporary setbacks, or learning experiences. You will gain much more from life taking the optimist’s path versus quitting at the first sign of failure or coping.

It’s Your Choice

All you have is the now. You can spoil it by being miserable and feeling helpless- or enjoy it by motivating yourself and taking control. It’s your choice.

photo credit: vimoh

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life, and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.

-Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning

Have you answered the ultimate question in your own life? Or are you sleepwalking through each day in autopilot mode? One way to find meaning is by challenging yourself each day, and continuing to grow as an individual.

Move Your Village

An Indian tribe of British Columbia believed that without challenge, life had no meaning. The tribe lived in a very resource-plentiful area, with plenty of salmon and game, and below-ground food- tubers and roots. They had elaborate technologies for using their plentiful environment effectively, and perceived their lives as being good and rich. But at times, the tribe elders said that the world became too predictable and there was no challenge in their life. Canadian ethnographer Richard Kool describes the tribe’s solution:

So the elders, in their wisdom, would decide that the entire village should move, those moves occurring every 25 to 30 years. The entire population would move to a different part of the Shushwap land and there, they found challenge. There were new streams to figure out, new game trails to learn, new areas where the balsamroot would be plentiful. Now life would regain its meaning and be worth living. Everyone would feel rejuvenated and healthy. Incidentally, it also allowed exploited resources in one area to recover after years of harvesting.

Like the tribe, you may be ready for a new challenge. What can you change to “move your village” and bring meaning into your life?

Ways to Move Your Village

Most jobs and leisure activities are not meant to challenge us and help us grow- their intent is to make someone else money. If we are to be challenged and grow from these activities, we must take matters into our own hands.

Challenge Yourself In Your Free Time

Do: Fill your free time with activities that require concentration, increase skills, and lead to personal growth.

Examples: Play tennis, join a band, become a wine connoisseur, learn to swing dance

Don’t: Fill your free time with mindless activities that do not challenge you or lead to personal growth.

Examples: Watching a sitcom on television, watching a sporting event or concert, taking recreational drugs

Note: Some people may take offense that I put “watching a sporting event or concert” in the Don’t category. But living vicariously through musicians, actors, and sports athletes does not challenge you- actually performing the activity does challenge you.

Challenge Yourself At Work

Do: As much as possible, make your work into a game- add variety, appropriate challenges, clear goals, and constant feedback. This will make it more enjoyable and challenging.

Examples: Your manager gives you a challenging assignment, with a clear goal, and provides feedback on the results. For less difficult tasks such as organizing paperwork in file cabinets, you can challenge yourself by setting a time goal for finishing the task, and listen to some energetic music to help you along the way.

Don’t: Cope through your day at work, with no enjoyment or challenges from your job.

Examples: You are assigned work, and you complete the bare minimum of what is required, not challenging yourself or improving your own skills/technique.

How to Move Your Village in the Most Bleak/Boring/Monotonous Situations

Even the least enjoyable of situations can be turned into growth opportunities:

Richard Logan, who has studied the accounts of many people in difficult situations, concludes that they survived by finding ways to turn the bleak objective conditions into subjectively controllable experience . . . First, they paid close attention to the most minute details of their environment, discovering in it hidden opportunities for action that matched what little they were capable of doing, given the circumstances. Then they set goals appropriate to their precarious situation, and closely monitored progress through the feedback they received. Whenever they reached their goal, they upped the ante, setting increasingly complex challenges for themselves.

-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow

To create growth out of a bleak, boring, or monotonous situation-

1) Find hidden opportunities for action

2) Set goals appropriate to the difficult situation

3) Whenever you reach your goal, up the ante, creating an increasingly more complex challenge

photo credit: Ben+Sam

When we feel jittery, or worried, or anxious in thinking of the great amount of work that lies before us, the jittery feelings are not caused by the work, but by our mental attitude- which is “I ought to be able to do this all at once.” The truth is: We can only do one thing at a time. When we work with this attitude, we are able to concentrate and think our best.

-Maxwell Maltz, Psycho-Cybernetics

A few weeks ago, I realized that my multitasking habits on the computer were starting to impact my productivity. As I became more active in reading blogs/RSS feeds, Digg, Facebook, Twitter, and Plurk, I became less effective at actually getting things done that matter to me. So what did I do? I asked Timothy Ferriss (not literally- I re-read a chapter of The 4-Hour Workweek).

Ferriss recommends that each evening, you think about what task needs to be completed, and ask yourself about the next day, “If this is the only thing I accomplish tomorrow, will I be satisfied with my day?”. Then, write down 2 mission-critical tasks that you’d like to get done the next day. Instead of using computerized to-do lists, Ferriss recommends that we revert to paper, to limit the amount of information we put on our list:

I use a standard piece of paper folded three times to about 2″ x 3 1/2″, which fits perfectly in the pocket and limits you to noting only a few items. There should never be more than two mission-critical items to complete each day. Never. It just isn’t necessary if they’re actually high-impact.

-Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek

The next day, you perform these two tasks separately from start to finish without distraction. I have implemented Ferriss’ simple productivity strategy in my own life, limiting my multi-tasking habits, and focusing on 2 mission-critical tasks each day. After trying this for a few weeks, I have found that his solution works great- my productivity skyrocketed, am I am also happier and feel more gratified with my work.

What makes it work?

Parkinson’s Law- Work expands to fill the time available. This is the magic of the imminent deadline, and works well for completing 2 daily mission-critical tasks.

80/20 Rule (The Pareto Principle)- For many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In relation to 2 mission-critical tasks, your 2 tasks should be part of the 20% that results in your desired outcome (e.g. increased income, productivity, happiness). Again, make sure you ask yourself “If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?”

Before you get started using Ferriss’ approach to productivity, please be aware of these 2 challenges with the approach:

Challenges with the 2 Mission-Critical Tasks Approach

1) 80/20 optimizations can sometimes cut out critical tasks

This is what’s wrong with a lot of 80/20 optimizations- the belief that truncating the system at the head will optimize its effectiveness; in many cases it actually cuts off a critical piece of the overall ecosystem.

-Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody

Solution: When you define your daily mission-critical tasks, be careful not to cut out/stop doing anything that is critical to your long-term success.

2) You may have a bunch of smaller tasks you need to complete in a day

Solution: Bundle your tasks into 2 larger mission-critical tasks. For example, if I want to write three blog posts in a day, I would consider this one of my mission-critical tasks: “Write 3 Blog Posts for Life Evolver”.

photo credit: gabyu

This cat knows that sleeping in is good for you

There is no hope for a civilization which starts each day to the sound of an alarm clock. -Author Unknown

Super-Replicating Belief: A Belief that has some property which facilitates its own transmission, which makes it be held by an increasing number of minds.

There is a super-replicating false belief in our society that sleeping in is lazy. Sleeping in is not lazy- many individuals would actually be more productive if they slept in versus waking up early. But as a whole, promoting the belief that sleeping in is lazy serves the needs of a stable society, in which individuals are all on similar schedules.

What are some of the ways that society makes us feel guilty for sleeping in?

• “Early to Bed, Early to Rise, Makes a Man Healthy Wealthy and Wise”
• Early risers are considered more productive than those who sleep in
• We are only supposed to need 8 hours of sleep, and people often brag about getting by on less
• If we sleep in, we may feel out of synch with the 9-5 society
• The online community, including bloggers Steve Pavlina and Leo Babauta, promote becoming early risers

There is no need to feel guilty or lazy- here are 5 reasons why sleeping in will boost your productivity:

5 Reasons Why Sleeping In Every Day Will Boost your Productivity

Are you a Night Owl?

1) Depending on your chronotype, you may be a Night Owl living in a Morning Lark’s world

Morning Lark: Morning person, naturally wakes up 2 hours earlier than the majority of the population, is ready for sleep between 8pm - 10pm. Cope more easily with early shifts.

Night Owl: Night person, naturally wakes up 2 hours later than the majority of the population, doesn’t feel sleepy until 12am - 2am. Cope more easily with late shifts.

Many creative types, such as writers, actors, and computer programmers, tend to be Night Owls. If they don’t have to get up early for work, many Night Owls choose to go along with there inherent sleep schedule and work until very late at night.

2) Most people need more than 8 hours of sleep

Before the invention of the electric light in 1879, most people slept 10 hours each night, and this has recently been discovered as the ideal amount of sleep for optimum performance. Additionally, people in cultures that are free from the demands of modern society typically sleep 10 hours each night. There are big benefits to sleeping ten hours per night:

Research Center of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, have demonstrated that alertness significantly increases when eight-hour sleepers who claim to be well rested get an additional two hours of sleep. Energy, vigilance, and the ability to effectively process information are all enhanced, as are critical thinking skills and creativity.

-James B. Maas, Power Sleep

3) Sleep consistency is important; the time you wake up is not (unless you must get up for work)

Sleep consistency is key- this is why I named this post “5 Reasons Why Sleeping In Every Day Will Boost your Productivity”. But the time you wake up is not important:

In 1757 Benjamin Franklin gave us the epigram “early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” It would be more accurate to say “Consistently to bed and consistently to rise….” As long as you fulfill your sleep requirement without interruption, it doesn’t really matter what time you go to bed or get up.

-James B. Maas, Power Sleep

Sleeping in can improve your long-term memory retention

REM Sleep: Stage of sleep with predominant eye movements and dreaming. During REM, brain neuronal pathways are fired randomly, and REM sleep causes strengthening of memory circuits similar to lifting weights causes strengthening of muscles.

When you fall asleep at night, you go through 4 stages of sleep every 90 to 110 minutes. You typically go through 4-5 cycles of these stages each night. With each successive cycle, more time is spent in REM stage. During later sleep cycles, REM sleep increases from twenty to as much as sixty minutes.

Whenever you have a short night of sleep, you eliminate the long REM periods that come toward morning. This can have significant negative consequences in terms of your learning, thinking, memory, and performance. The only solution is for you to get more sleep.

5) Sleeping in allows you to catch up on sleep debt

Sleeping is a way for you to catch up on sleep debt (Hours of sleep you need per night - Hours of sleep you actually get). In my sleep debt post, I recommend that instead of sleeping in, you catch up on sleep debt by going to bed earlier. However, if you can’t get to bed early, and can’t get enough sleep in your normal schedule, it’s smart to sleep in to catch up on sleep debt when you are able to.

Now that you know the benefits, here are three tips for becoming a late riser:

How to Become a Late Riser

Note: If you are a Morning Lark, and easily awaken at an early hour, you will generally not be able to become a late riser. This advice is for Night Owls who do not wake up easily for work.

For freelancers and those in control of their own work schedule, sleeping in is an easy habit to adopt. But what about the rest of us? Here are some solutions for the regular worker:

1) Talk to your employer about flextime

Flextime allows you to determine when you work, so you can sleep in every day if you negotiate coming in late with your employer.

2) Talk to your employer about working from home

Talk to your boss about working from home one day of the week. Prove that you can be trusted, and then negotiate working from home full-time. As part of this arrangement, make sure to negotiate working on your own hours (so you can sleep in).

3) No flextime and can’t work from home? Quit your job

If your employer doesn’t allow flextime or working from home, and you are a Night Owl, and getting up early each morning is hell for you, why not consider some alternatives? You could find another employer that is more flexible, or you could start your own business. Either way, you would be more productive working your own hours, versus the hours that society chooses for you.

4) No flextime, can’t work from home, and don’t want to quit your job? Sleep in and face the consequences

A late riser in North Korea:

This post is part of the Sleep Evolver Series

photo credit: Tyla_1975, left-hand, ☣ bionerd ☢

Sushi + Mastermind Group = Raw success

Mastermind Group: A powerful alliance between people who support each other on the road to success.

Napoleon Hill formally introduced the idea of a mastermind group in his classic book Think and Grow Rich. In it, he describes a mastermind group as “The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.” Many famous entrepreneurs, such as Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison, were known to have their own mastermind groups, which were critical to their success. Mastermind groups bring together a synergy of energy, commitment, sharing, and brainstorming that you cannot get otherwise.

For several weeks now, my coworkers and I have held weekly mastermind group meetings over our lunch break. This has been a great way for each of us to stay accountable to our personal goals, help each other by sharing knowledge and brainstorming, and share our personal networks.

5 Reasons to Start a Mastermind Group Over Your Lunch Break at Work

1) It’s like having your own personal board of directors

In a mastermind group, the agenda belongs to the group, but each person’s participation is key. Your peers give you feedback, help you brainstorm new possibilities, and set up an accountability system that keeps you focused and on track. You create a community of supportive colleagues who will brainstorm with you to move the group to new heights. You gain tremendous insights, which can help improve your business and personal life. In a real way, your mastermind group is like having an objective board of directors.

-Joe Vitale and Bill Hibbler, Meet and Grow Rich

Being part of a mastermind group is like having your own board of directors. After meeting once a week over lunch, you’ll notice that you have a lot less trial and error due to running new ideas by your mastermind group beforehand.

Example from my group: I discussed what I eventually wanted to do with my side business to other group members- I received a couple great ideas I hadn’t thought of, implemented one of them, and it has helped out tremendously.

2) Knowledge sharing and The Wisdom of Crowds

James Surowiecki explains that the group has a larger intelligence than any individual member:

If you can assemble a diverse group of people who possess varying degrees of knowledge and insight, you’re better off entrusting it with major decisions rather than leaving them in the hands of one or two people, no matter how smart those people are.

-James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds

Your group will have knowledge and experience in different fields, allowing you to overcome your lack of knowledge in certain areas. Likewise, you will be able to help other group members in areas where you are an expert.

Example from my group: One member of my mastermind group has a very successful real estate side business. Another member just moved, and is considering renting out his old house. There have been significant benefits to information sharing between these two members.

3) Staying accountable to your goals

This is one of the best reasons for starting a mastermind group at work. During each meeting, you give yourself a homework assignment. The group members can keep you accountable to your homework assignment, along with your long-term goals, such as losing weight, starting a new business, writing a book, or getting into the real estate market.

4) Sharing personal networks

Mastermind groups multiply the size of your personal network.

Example: One group member might mention that they are interested in writing a novel, but don’t know how to get it published. Another member has a cousin that recently had their book published, and offers his cousin’s contact information.

5) Holding the group meetings over lunch is a time saver

By having a mastermind group at work over lunch break, you are not spending your time meeting during an evening or weekend. This also keeps the meetings more consistent.

These five reasons alone aren’t enough to get you started- based on my own experience, you’ll need these 4 tips to help you start your own mastermind group at work:

A small mastermind group (3-4 members) is more manageable for meeting over lunch breaks

4 Tips for Starting a Mastermind Group at Work

1) Choose a diverse group of individuals

Compared to a normal mastermind group, the individuals that join one at work will be less diverse. Diversity is one of the keys to success in any mastermind group, so try to find people with different ages, different backgrounds, and different personality styles. If possible, each member should be from a different department or have a different area of expertise at work.

2) Choose individuals you can trust

Trust is fundamental to the success of any mastermind group. Coworkers may become worried that you will share their personal goals with other coworkers, or use it against them in the workplace. Make sure you choose group members that trust each other, and set ground rules beforehand that you won’t talk about each other’s goals with others outside of the group.

3) Meet once per week, and let each person talk for 15 minutes

Meet over lunch at the same time each week- block the time off on your calendar. Choose a group coordinator, who will be in charge of making sure each person gets 15 minutes to discuss what’s on their mind, and get feedback from other members. The group coordinator should also record each person’s goals, to keep the person accountable at the next meeting.

4) Keep the size of the group small

Normal mastermind groups ideally have 5-6 members. But mastermind groups at work need to be half that size. If you are meeting over lunch break, and each person is talking for 15 minutes, then the group should be no larger than 3-4 people. My group currently has three members. Any more than that, and we would be rushed to discuss each member’s goals.

photo credit: yatenkaiouh, Ikhlasul Amal

The best quitters are the ones who decide in advance when they’re going to quit.

-Seth Godin, The Dip

Remember the old advice, “Winners never quit, quitters never win”? It’s wrong. In fact, winners quit often- as entrepreneur and marketing guru Seth Godin explains, “to stick with something in an absence of further progress is a waste.” In his short book The Dip, Godin provides a simple framework for looking at anything you do in life, and deciding when to quit. He uses three patterns to describe situations you could be facing in your life (e.g., your career, an exercise routine, relationships):

Three Patterns You Could Be Facing in Your Life

The Dip: The most difficult part of the journey- “the long slog between starting and mastery.”

Example: A new business that hasn’t quite taken off yet

The Cul-de-Sac: The plateau. You put in a lot of time and energy, but you still don’t end up anywhere.

Example: Dead-end job

The Cliff: The peak and drastic descend. Your future efforts, even when greater than past efforts, won’t be enough.

Example: Smoking

The Dip is a temporary setback, while The Cul-De-Sac and The Cliff ultimately lead to failure

Strategic Quitting

If you are in a cul-de-sac or cliff situation (above), these both lead to failure so you should quit. You have finite time and energy, and should use it towards parts of your life that you can be excellent at. If you are in a dip situation, you need to decide under what circumstances you will quit. Strategic quitting is when you decide to “outline your quitting strategic before the discomfort sets in.”

Using Strategic Quitting When Setting Goals

I decided to implement strategic quitting when I set new goals for myself. For each new goal I set, I now keep track of “Circumstances in which I will Quit.” This way, I will ensure that I am quitting something for the right reasons, not because of stress of the moment. It also helps me decide if a new endeavor is even worth committing to if I cannot commit to the “Circumstances in which I will quit.”

Here are a few examples of how to you can use this method in your goal setting (assuming you are in a dip pattern):

Example 1) Starting a new business

I will continue working my hardest on this my new business unless I am still unprofitable after X time.

Example 2) Maintaining your exercise routine

I will exercise X times per week for the next X months, unless I get injured.

Example 3) Doing your best at your job/career

I will continue doing my best at my current career, unless it has a significant negative impact on my health and/or professional/personal goals.

Example 4) Making an investment

If this investment loses me more than X%, I will sell it (could do this systematically if it’s a stock using a Stop Order).

The Benefit of Using Strategic Quitting When Setting Goals

The main benefit of using strategic quitting when setting goals is that you will begin giving your all in whatever endeavor you get involved in, versus coping:

Coping is what people do when they try to muddle through… The problem with coping is that it never leads to exceptional performance… All coping does is waste your time and misdirect your energy. If the best you can do is cope, you’re better off quitting. Quitting is better than coping because quitting frees you up to excel at something else… Quit the wrong stuff. Stick with the right stuff. Have the guts to do one or the other.

-Seth Godin, The Dip

Strategic quitting allows you to focus your energy on doing your best, versus that gray area where you aren’t doing your best but you aren’t quitting.

Three questions to ask yourself before quitting: Am I panicking, who am I trying to influence, and what sort of measurable progress am I making? These will help you determine if you are quitting for the right reasons, or simply quitting because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment.

Here’s some more advice from Mr. Godin on when to quit: