Tag: Personal

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuNSkbZ4aq0

I've made over 80 summaries of the best self improvement books, here’s a full playlist of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOImyOGN9UE&list=PLaNTB6oQAa0AYuul0tqUscg1ZLj_arZga

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How to Avoid Burnout and Always Be Productive.

Like many, you might think grinding out your work is the best way to get things done. But in this video, I’m going to show you a much easier way to achieve peak productivity. You don’t have to constantly force yourself to do things you don’t want to do to get there.

So today, I’ll show you the techniques to stay consistent and get work done, while enjoying the journey towards your goals.

Many of these ideas come from the book ‘Peak Performance’, which I highly recommend.

The first lesson is stress + rest = growth. This is the key to long-term productivity. It’s about finding the perfect balance between stress and rest. You can’t have one without the other. Think about building muscle at the gym. If you place too much stress on your muscles, you’ll injure them, but on the flip side, if you spend too much time resting, you won’t see results. To achieve the outcome you’re looking for, you need to find the right balance.

So remember, stress + rest = growth. The key is to find the right balance for you.

Lesson two Realize the importance of rest. The most difficult part of achieving the ideal stress + rest balance is to make sure you’re giving yourself enough time to rest. In today’s world, we tend to glorify people who work all hours of the day and live on 4 hours of sleep. We’re told that if you sleep too much, you’re lazy and you won’t get anything done, but this just isn’t true. When you look at high performing athletes, they know rest is vital after a tough workout. Without it, they wouldn’t recover the energy they need for the next session.

People often celebrate ‘the grind’, but if your car started grinding mid-journey, you wouldn’t think: “Great. I’m making awesome progress”. Your car might survive the rest of that journey but you know it’s likely to breakdown in the future. So you’d stop to try and figure out what’s causing the problem.

You should look at your productivity in the same way. If whatever you’re working on starts to feel like it’s grinding, then stop and try to figure out why. This is where Gary Vaynerchuk and I disagree. He promotes the idea of sacrificing everything when you’re young to achieve more later on in life. He didn’t socialize much when he was younger because he was working all the time and he paints this lifestyle as something you ‘have to do’ to succeed.

But why? Why on earth would you want to work in that way? You can achieve the same results while enjoying the process, rather than grinding it out.

It’s important to realize that peak performance doesn’t require 100% of your capacity. 60-80% is enough, so don’t feel guilty about getting the rest you need. It’s the key to your productivity and it will make you happier and more energised.

Lesson three Appreciate the value of sleep. Like I said, sleep is often associated with ‘laziness’. Notions that CEOs should live on 4 hours of sleep and quotes like “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” are celebrated. I used to think this too when I lived on 6 hours of sleep each night. But after researching more about sleep, I realized I’d be much more productive if I slept for longer, and it’s true. I now aim for 9-10 hours each night and I’ve never been so productive.

When you miss out on sleep, neurotoxins build up in your brain which can cause memory loss, problems thinking, and can weaken your immune system. According to the book the chimp paradox, when you lose sleep, the blood flow in your brain moves away from your prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain used for planning, complex cognitive behaviour, personality expression, decision making, and social behavior.

There’s a really interesting idea in the book “Why We Sleep” by Matt Walker. Millions of years ago, when we first evolved, sleeping was actually a pretty dangerous thing to do. You left yourself vulnerable to attack from predators. But even so, we didn’t evolve around this, because sleeping is so important for our brains, particularly in clearing the build-up of neurotoxins. Also, it’s during sleep that your brain processes your memories so you can retain all of the information you learned that day.

When you have more sleep, the blood flow is focused in your prefrontal cortex, so you’re much better at solving problems. If you spend an extra hour in bed, you’ll save time throughout the day by working more efficiently through the tasks on your list.

Lesson four Find the way that works for you. Everyone’s different, so there’s no ‘one size fits all’. Recently, I spent a whole week testing different ways to rest: playing video games, having a bath, exercising, playing the guitar, spending time with my friends and reading. I wanted to find out what worked best for me when I needed to recharge. Overall, 9-10 hours of sleep each night and nutritious food each day gave me the best results.

Spend some time testing out different things to see what helps you recharge the fastest. The faster you recharge, the sooner you’ll feel ready to tackle your next task. Different things work for different people. When I’m alone, playing video games doesn’t work for me, but when I play with friends, I really enjoy it and it helps me refocus. It sounds like an unusual thing to do when you’re trying to be more productive, but it makes a real difference.

When you find something you love doing, it’s a really useful tool to help you unwind and recharge. Improvement Pill did a video called “The Truth About Video Games”, which talks more about this.

So test different things to find what helps you recharge the fastest.

Lesson five Focus on the 20% that matters

When you’re working, you don’t want to waste your energy on pointless stuff. Being busy and being productive are very different things. There’s a rule called the 80/20 rule, which states that 20% of your work will give you 80% of the results, while the other 80% of the work will only give you the remaining 20%. So, focus on the most important 20% to get the best results. The ‘4 hour work week’ by Tim Ferris explains the 80/20 rule in more detail and I’d highly recommend you read it.

Lesson 6 Keep testing.

Keep testing and improving your processes. Keep tweaking and changing your approach until you find the ideal balance between stress and rest. Try out different ways of working. I’ve found that batching my videos really helps with my productivity, so I plan them all in one day, do writing sprints on a different day and then my edits on another. I’ve found that switching between tasks slows me down and batching means I can get into the flow of a particular task without distractions.

I’ve also found that only working Monday to Friday and ending my workday at 3pm has really helped. But maybe a different schedule will work for you. If you have a full-time job, you need to figure out how best to fit in projects around your work and home life.

Keep testing, reviewing and improving your processes until you find the right balance for you. Work hard, rest harder.

So, to recap:

Stress + Rest = Growth

Realize the importance of rest

Appreciate the value of sleep

Find the way that works for you

Focus on 20% that matters.

Keep testing and iterating your process

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Thanks for watching, have a great day!

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuNSkbZ4aq0

I've made over 80 summaries of the best self improvement books, here’s a full playlist of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOImyOGN9UE&list=PLaNTB6oQAa0AYuul0tqUscg1ZLj_arZga

I release a new video every other day, if you’re interested in subscribing here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfbLDMh6uGOZePAfqqjVZ-g?sub_confirmation=1"