Use the ABCDE Method to Stay Organized

Timeless time management tips from an organisational and personal development legend! Brian Tracy helped to change my life!

Productivity: Efficiency and Effectiveness

Productivity is something more than putting all of your time and energy into work. Some people seem to think that working more to produce more is the best strategy to be productive, but they're wrong. There's a lot more to it than what most people realize.

Being effective and efficient is the key to productiveness. It's all about developing a strategy that will encompass whatever it is everybody else is doing. When you know the game in your workplace, you will know how to be more effective because you'll stop doing anything else that does not contribute to your output. As a result, when you know the right strategy, you will be more efficient as you'll be doing your work in less time.

We see martyrdom in the workplace so often, but do they really excel? What do these people get out of working long hours in the office, going overtime every night? They go home tired, burnt out and unable to enjoy the rest of what little time. These people spend so much unnecessary time and energy on their work, when they could be spending less and putting out more. They try to schedule everything in their lives around their work, and they rarely have time off. Time management is a thing of the past; it's for workers who haven't discovered the secret to the game yet. This is what separates productive people from mediocre ones.

Just because you're spending all day at the office doesn't mean you'll get things done. In fact, more often than not, very little work gets produced. In most cases, these people get so lost in what they need to do the job that they forget to do the job itself. For example, researching facts for an article is important, but you'll never get anything written down if all you do is research. Most of the time, you don't even need half the things you're researching! If you do know what you want to produce, you won't produce anything at all.

Efficiency and effectiveness need to go hand in hand. You need to do something in the shortest time possible while applying your knowledge in a way that will get you closer to what you want. This is productivity. Without one, you'll just be a regular working and you'll be wasting your time focusing on the things you don't need. Still, the most important part of the whole thing is to set your goals and make it clear to yourself (more than anything) what you really want to achieve.

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The Science of Productivity

Don't rely on your will power..... You will almost always lose in the long run. This video explains why. What do you think?

October 1st is International Coffee Day

My favourite is americano, with semi-skimmed milk and a teaspoon and honey. For high performance and focus I go for a Americano, with whipped cream and a tablespoon of MCT Oil. If you want to know more about this concoction leave a comment below.

What's your favourite?

How You Can Become Much More Optimistic In Three Simple Steps

I am sure that everybody wants to become a happier person in their lives and also know the benefits of becoming more optimistic. But how do you actually become more optimistic in your own lives? Here are 3 simple steps you can take today towards become a more optimistic person:

1. Be on the lookout for opportunities to learn

Chances to learn new things are almost everywhere if you know where and how to look for them. As Napoleon Hill once said before, "With every seed of adversity comes an equivalent seed of success." Every failure and negative circumstance that appears in your life actually provides you with an opportunity to learn. Learning from these mistakes and circumstances will prevent you from making the same mistakes over and over again and will help to guide you towards being a more optimistic person.

2. Always be on the lookout for chances to grow

You cannot choose whether you want to grow in life a not, you must grow. The question is are you growing into a better person or a worse person? Are you growing into someone with a strong character or just someone whose life is being governed by fear and uncertainty? Everything around you is constantly moving forward even while you sleep, and you will need to continue to grow and adapt to it.

If you view everything in life as an opportunity to learn, chances are you will definitely take what you learn and put them into practice to grow yourself into a better person. On the other hand, you may choose to take a pessimistic point of view and learn nothing, and allow yourself to grow into someone who is fearful and timid.

Growth is something that does not remain stagnant, either you grow forward, or you advance backwards. Who you become in your life at the end of the day is much more important than what you are or what you have achieved in your life.

3. Start looking for more chances to achieve

Apart from learning and growing, having great achievements is probably one of the most rewarding things anyone can experience in their lives. As long as we always focus on treating everything in life as opportunities to train and grow instead of complaining and being hung up on them, your achievements will most of the time always come as a natural results. When this happens, you will become a good inspiration to others and also become more optimistic.

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GUIDED MEDITATION - Clearing Negativity

Love this meditation. What do you think?

How To Be More Optimistic

Research has repeatedly shown that people who think positively or those who are deemed as "optimists" tend to have happier, healthier, more productive lives.

If you are a pessimist, you possibly are pretty good at creating a worst case scenario out of any possible events.

For example, you get invited to dinner with a new co-worker and you imagine how awkward it will be and how this will turn into a tormented work relationship for the rest of your career.

OR you want to upgrade your style and look sexier but the mere thought of going out, choosing clothes, waiting in the fitting room line, changing sizes and queuing to pay turns you off.

OR your spouse and kids are excited about the summer trip to the beautiful Mal Dives but all you're thinking is about getting sunburn, food positioning and other life-threatening diseases.

While being negative can be a nice defense mechanism to avoid dangers, it will drastically deteriorate your quality of life from your relationships to your work, school, hobbies and sports. It's a depressing approach that doesn't serve you too much.

So how can we become more optimistic?

One of the tricks to changing your thought process from negative to positive is that you cannot try to be too happy.

In order to truly be happy, you have to stop trying so hard.

Instead of thinking about whether or not you are happier yet, be more engaged in things and fully present in the moment.

When you get fully immersed in something, it will help distract you from your negative thoughts.

Another trick to becoming more positive is to adjust your attitude.

Look for quick distractions to help you when you continue to have the same negative thoughts.

Try an activity that will demand all of your attention. Exercise classes such as yoga or kickboxing can be a great way to distract yourself. Exercise will help improve your attitude by releasing endorphins, or "happy hormones," into your body that can improve your mood overall.

One of the secret weapons of optimistic people is their ability to reframe problems.

When it comes to becoming more optimistic, it is about learning to reframe problems as they arise. Instead of beating yourself up when things go wrong, reframe it so that you're more compassionate and forgiving to yourself.

For example, if you are alone at a party and thinking that you are boring and no one wants to talk to you, try thinking about where the host of the party is and wondering why they have not introduced you to any of the guests.

While this method of looking for a scapegoat is not something a true optimist would do, it will give you a different outlook on the situation and can help you to find other solutions to the issue as you realise that you are not entirely to blame.

Of course, you are always 100% responsible for your life and you can't really push the onus to other people or situation. But for optimistic starters, it's a nice trick to alleviate most burdens you've been carrying for so long.

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