7 Things Happy, Healthy People Do Every Morning When you get up in the morning, think of what a priceless privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to learn, to love – and then make the day count! The morning is extremely important. It is the foundation from which the day is built. How you choose to spend your morning can be used to predict what kind of day you are going to have, and thus, what kind of life you are going to live. Each morning truly is a brand new opportunity. The happiest, healthiest people I know embrace this truth and use it to their advantage. 1. In other words, they start the day with love in their hearts and minds, and are truly appreciative of their life and all of its priceless idiosyncrasies. From the research and coaching Angel and I have done over the years, we’ve found that the more a person is inclined to gratitude, the less likely he or she is to be depressed, anxious, lonely, envious, or neurotic. 2. They know it’s a brand new day to start over and do something different. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Related
16 Apps for 16 Hours of Productivity It’s crunch time at work. You have five projects all due within the next few days, your big holiday campaign is only a few weeks away, you’re monitoring Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on the go and you have two co-workers out with the flu. You need to be at your best, and can use all the help you can get. In situations like these, technology is your best friend. 7 a.m. You wake up in the morning and you check your phone. Email is one of the biggest time sucks for almost every human being with a computer. 8 a.m. Traffic is brutal this morning so you decide to take public transit into work. UberConference lets you start conference calls instantly on your phone. By the time you get to work, you’ve already sat in on an important call and have a recording you can use for notes when you’re not so busy. 9 a.m. You’re a social media manager, so the first thing you do when you get to work should probably involve social media. Why choose? Be more productive with social media 10 a.m. 11 a.m.
What You Do Right Before Bed Determines How Productive and Focused You’ll Be Tomorrow I have written and talked a lot about how the right morning routine can set you up for a productive day. The same is true for nighttime rituals. The right activities before you sleep can set you up for success the next day. Courtesy of iStock/SandraKavas I used to have the worst time getting to sleep at night. I knew it was important for my health and productivity, but my mind raced long after the lights went out. As a result, I woke up groggy, grumpy, and ill-prepared for the day. Eventually, my doctor suggested Ambien. Today, I am happy to report that I sleep like a baby—without the help of Ambien or any other drug. These nine activities make up my nighttime ritual: Eliminate negative input. Without good sleep, I find myself unfocused, fatigued, less creative, less resilient, short-tempered, and unproductive. Some of these nine activities may work for you; some of them may not. If you do, you’ll probably discover you’re more rested, creative, energetic, and productive the next day.
Sleep after learning strengthens connections between brain cells and enhances memory -- ScienceDaily In study published today in Science, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center show for the first time that sleep after learning encourages the growth of dendritic spines, the tiny protrusions from brain cells that connect to other brain cells and facilitate the passage of information across synapses, the junctions at which brain cells meet. Moreover, the activity of brain cells during deep sleep, or slow-wave sleep, after learning is critical for such growth. The findings, in mice, provide important physical evidence in support of the hypothesis that sleep helps consolidate and strengthen new memories, and show for the first time how learning and sleep cause physical changes in the motor cortex, a brain region responsible for voluntary movements. "We've known for a long time that sleep plays an important role in learning and memory. To shed light on this process, Dr. Gan and colleagues employed mice genetically engineered to express a fluorescent protein in neurons.
Creating a Lovely Morning ‘When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.’ ~Marcus Aurelius By Leo Babauta When I wake in the morning, my mind slowly gathers, and I begin to move, the early morning light just starting to seep in. I have a glass of water, start the coffee, then meditate. Then I enjoy the coffee, a good book, and the quiet before the dust and din and steam of the day begins. This is my Lovely Morning, and I get an inordinate amount of pleasure from it. It wasn’t always this way: I used to wake later, rush through a grumpy routine before diving into email and work and errands and meetings. I was wrong. I’ll share them with you here, and if you begin to enjoy the peace of your mornings more, send a smile in my general direction. Wake a little earlier. A Lovely Morning isn’t something that just falls into your lap — it’s created consciously. ‘Waking up this morning, I smile. Creating the Wake Early Habit
A Formula to Stop You from Overcommitting Your Time When I dive into time coaching clients’ schedules, I consistently discover that people misdiagnose themselves as having a “productivity” problem when, in fact, their bigger issue is an overcommitment problem. When they have committed to more external projects and personal goals and obligations than they have hours for in the day, they feel the massive weight of time debt. One of my coaching clients suffered from a huge amount of false guilt until he realized he had the unrealistic expectation that he could fit 160 hours of tasks into a 40-hour workweek. Effective time investment begins with accepting the reality that time is a finite resource. The single most important factor in feeling like a time investment success or failure is whether or not your expectations of what you will accomplish align with how much time you have to invest. Time investment success (External expectations) + (Internal expectations) ≤ 24 hours — (Self-care) Time debt stress Here’s an example of this breakdown:
How Can I Fall Asleep Faster? How to Search Google Like a Pro: 11 Tricks You Have to Know Google is a powerful tool, but you’re missing out on a lot of that power if you just type words into it. Master Google and find the best results faster with these search tricks. Whether you’re an inexperienced user or a seasoned professional, you’ll probably find at least one search operator you weren’t aware of here. Many of Google’s search operators aren’t very well-known. Exact Words and Phrases One of the most basic and widely known search tricks is using quotation marks to search for an exact phrase. “Hello World” This same method now works for exact-word queries. “mining” Excluding a Word The minus sign allows you to specify words that shouldn’t appear in your results. linux distributions -ubuntu Site Search The site: operator allows you to perform a search in a specific site. site:howtogeek.com windows 7 You can also use the site: operator to specify a domain. Related Words ~geek Apparently, “Linux” is the most similar word to geek, followed by “Greek.” The Wildcard Time Ranges File Type
Magical Mornings: How to start your day with more creativity, serenity, and insight — Better Humans Each morning our return to waking life is marked by a unique mental state. In those first minutes of our day, our minds are in an estuary between the dream world and 3rd dimensional consciousness. Like an aquatic estuary, it’s ripe with nutrients and lifeforms that you can’t find anywhere else. This in-between state of the mind can be used for greater creativity, serenity, and flow. For many years I squandered these golden minutes. Like an engine, or a muscle group, your mind runs a lot smoother if it’s allowed to gradually warm up. Inversely, going from sleep to mental sprinting can send the nervous system into Fight or Flight mode. Meditation has become quite popular in the business world for it’s ability to train the mind towards clarity of thought. Hypnotists do their work by getting subjects to enter lower frequency brain waves states. By paying attention while waking up, we can bridge the gap between waking life the creative unconscious. I started doing Morning Pages 292 days ago.
22 Life-changing Tips on How To Phenomenally Boost Your Productivity I’ve been testing and adjusting various productivity techniques for the past five years, read lots of books (most of them repeating) and here’s some of my findings: It’s not about time. It’s about energy. We try to squeeze as many hours in one work day, to be “productive,” but in the end everything depends less on time, and more on your focus, motivation and overall well-being (all of them linked directly with energy levels). I’ve recently talked about my productivity techniques obsessions in an internal presentation at Grapefruit, and the resulting presentation is on Slideshare: Productivity porn Some of the key findings: Decide what’s important because in 5 years, 80% of what you do today will not turn into anything. Sleep, food and exercise can help you triple your outcome, because they increase focus, motivation and energy levels. The 2-minute rule: if you can do something (like replying to an email, or a house chore) in 2 minutes, do it now. Tiny habits (Tiny Habits w/ Dr. Pomodoros.
6 Bad Behaviors That Can Steal Your Sleep Sleep specialists warn against TV in the bedroom because it interferes with nighttime relaxation. You know that drinking coffee before bedtime is asking for trouble. But you may not realize the other daily habits that could be ruining your good night's sleep. Before you run to the doctor or start popping sleeping pills, check your routine for these possible sleep stealers, suggests Joyce Walsleben, PhD, associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine. Computer or TV use before bed You might think it's helping you to relax, but Letterman's Top 10 List may be too stimulating for your mind to unwind. Books in the bedroom Many people jet lag themselves on the weekend. —Joyce Walsleben, PhD, Sleep Expert Reading in bed isn't always a problem, but if it doesn't ease you into sleep, you should stop. Work late into the night Avoid doing work or paying bills at night, particularly in the bedroom. How to Eliminate Bedroom Distractions
The 10 Most Important Questions You Can Ask Yourself Today Email At the end of the day, the questions we ask ourselves determine the type of people we become. When you’ve been running a successful personal development blog and life coaching business for the better part of a decade, one thing becomes crystal clear: Everyone has the same basic wants and needs. No kidding, over the years Angel and I have gotten to know thousands of people of different ethnic backgrounds, from different cities and countries, who live at various socioeconomic levels, and trust me, every one of us basically wants the same things. Think about it. So what kind of questions might you ask instead? What is worth suffering for? Your turn… At any given moment, life is filled with unanswered questions, but it is the courage to seek these answers that continues to give our lives meaning. So with that said, which of the questions above hit home the most? This article was co-written by Marc and Angel and Mark Manson, and inspired by Mark’s insightful work which can be found here.