With our hectic and unnatural schedules, it’s hard enough to find the energy to accomplish our goals, let alone make time for them. Here are a few resources to help you do just that.
Take It a Week at at Time
Shift work is anything but regular – especially if you work a rotation. Our schedules could have us working, days, nights, evenings, and weekends. This makes a daily routine impossible, and can be extremely frustrating. But all that really matters is the total time we put towards our goals. Whether or not those hours occur daily, or at the same time each day, is unimportant.
We live in weeks, not days. Rather than succumbing to the “24-hour trap”–the belief that something has to happen daily on weekdays in order to be part of our lives–we can look at all seven days, and find space for things more often than not.
The 24-Hour Trap: Rethinking Daily Habits | Fast Company
Caffeine of Choice
Almost every shift worker I know has at least a slight dependence on caffeine. As such, choosing the healthiest option is a good idea. But is that coffee or tea?
Notice the absence of cola and energy drinks in this decision; too many strange ingredients. I like Nassim Taleb’s rule of thumb: Drink no liquid that isn’t at least a thousand years old (wine, water, coffee).
Tea vs. Coffee: Is One Beverage More Healthy Than The Other? | mindbodygreen
The Notorious Nap
While we’re on the topic of ancient practices, I’d like to turn your attention to naps. Napping is at least as old as the Romans, who loved a sexta hora: a sleep in the sixth hour of the waking day, around noon (this became “siesta”). Our ancestors’ sleep habits are still present in our circadian rhythms, as evidenced by the natural dip in energy and alertness every afternoon.
People throughout history have used naps not only to improve energy and alertness, but also to increase productivity. Nowadays, it’s too often cast in a negative light.
We need naps to regain the positive reputation they once held, and continue to hold in other cultures (China, Japan, Spain). The perception is already shifting in the tech world, where companies such as Facebook and Google encourage employees to recharge on the job. It’s time for the rest of the world to follow their example.
Sleeping on the job: how a quick nap makes us more efficient | The Guardian
Reframing Stress
“And we watched those groups of people over the next three to six weeks, and what we found was if we could move people to view stress as enhancing, a challenge instead of as a threat, we saw a 23% drop in their stress-related symptoms. It produced a significant increase not only in levels of happiness, but a dramatic improvement in their levels of engagement at work as well.”
Reframe stress as excitement. Studies show the physiological states are the same, it’s only how we choose to see them that is different.
New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Secrets That Will Make You Emotionally Intelligent | Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Counter the Sit
The results of a new study indicate that humans are sitting for close to 10 hours per day on average. When coupled with low physical activity, the result is a 260 percent increase in the likelihood of premature death. So how much activity is needed to reduce our risk? Not that much as it turns out. People who exercised moderately for about 11 minutes a day, were significantly less likely to have died prematurely than people who moved less.
For the greatest improvement in lifespan, the researchers concluded that 35 minutes a day of brisk walking or other moderate activities was all that was needed, no matter how many hours someone sat.
11 Minutes of Exercise a Day May Help Counter the Effects of Sitting | New York Times
Super Time-saver
When we find ourselves lacking the time to fit everything in, it’s often exercise that gets the axe first. To prevent that from happening, we need to get the most out of our limited time. According to current research, “supersets” can help us achieve the efficiency we’re after.
This Gym Routine Is Not Only Effective But Also Saves Time | Science Alert
Stay healthy-
Jason Glenn