I used to stress out if I didn’t get eight hours of sleep a night. “I’m not going to be very productive today – I didn’t get enough sleep,” I would tell myself.

Just like me, you may be even scheduling your sleep in 8-hour increments each night.

But here’s the thing: Sleeping eight hours can actually be more harmful than you think.

Here’s why.

A 2002 study concluded that the lowest mortality rates occurred among the subjects who slept between 6.5 and 7.4 hours per night.

Basically, it means that people who slept for that amount of time each night were the healthiest among those included in the study. So, maybe, the optimal amount of time to sleep each night is less than what we’ve all been told since we were six.

For those of us who have felt guilty with each new article and doctor who frowns upon the less-than-stellar sleep habits, this is good news.

If this correlation holds true, your sleep habits might not be so bad after all.

But Don’t Be So Quick

Keep in mind that simply because the study found a correlation between sleep duration and mortality, it still doesn’t prove that less than 8 hours of sleep is better for you. But it is an interesting suggestion.

Media outlets (and, yes, even some scientists) are quick treat correlation and causation as the same thing when, in fact, it is quite possible for two factors to share a correlation, without one factor directly causing the other.

The logical fallacy of correlation-causation can lead to many false conclusions.

In this case, one study that reveals a correlation between sleep duration and mortality is not enough to prove that improper sleep duration causes or directly affects mortality rates.

There are countless other factors that can and do come in to play for both sleep duration and mortality.

For instance, diseases and disorders that contribute to mortality rates may also cause an increase in sleep duration. When you suffer from the common cold or the flu, you tend to sleep more as your body exhausts itself working to fight the illness.

Those suffering from devastating and life-threatening illnesses also tend to sleep longer as their bodies fight or succumb to said illness.

It is difficult for any study to take each and every possible factor into account. So it is possible that the sleep habits of mortally ill patients could have skewed the results of such a study (and, in turn, the conclusions drawn from said study).

Similarly, warnings that oversleeping could cause illnesses and health risks such as depression, diabetes, obesity or heart disease also fail to take other factors into account.

For example, income status, genetics and lifestyle can all contribute to mortality rates. Assuming that sleep habits cause heart disease, without accounting for these other factors, will likely result in incorrect or incomplete conclusions.

So What Does All this Say about Your Sleep Habits?

Should we return to striving for eight hours a night? Should we try for seven now? Will it really affect our health or productivity at all?

Regardless of whether or not oversleeping increases mortality, it is clear that flawed sleep habits do have a negative affect on our health, personalities, productivity and overall well-being.

Research and personal experience also makes it clear that sleep needs are highly personalized.

An adult male who repairs and operates machinery may find that his ideal sleep schedule is 7.5 hours a night, while a six-year-old girl adjusting to elementary school may require 10 hours to feel fully rested.

In fact, our sleep needs are proven to differ with age. Children and teens tend to need between eight to ten hours a day, while adult needs vary between seven to nine hours. Senior citizens may require even less.

Perfecting Your Sleep Habits

Rather than looking for a magic number to chase, try discovering your own unique sleep needs and meet them. Next time you have a free weekend, try going to bed at a decent hour—without setting an alarm—and then noting what time you naturally wake up.

This should give you a rough ideal to follow.

Sleep habits can be just as critical as how long you sleep.

Luckily, good sleep habits have a strong connection to good old common sense:

• Aim to go to sleep and wake up at a similar time each day. (Yes, even on the weekends!)

• Take 10 or 15 minutes to unwind before going to bed.

• Avoid caffeine too close to bedtime.

• Keep your bedroom free of distractions: Televisions, computers, work you’ve brought home — everything needs to go.

• Exercise regularly.

• Invest in a mattress and pillow that meets your body’s unique needs.

Studies will come and go, and the mythical “magic amount of sleep” will change and change again.

Focus on determining the amount of sleep that makes you feel best throughout the day, and try to stick to that pattern.

The amount of sleep that is best for someone else might not be best for you, so try not to get caught up in the latest sleep fads and studies if they go against what your body naturally tells you to do.

Your Turn

How much sleep do *you* think you need? Share your experiences below!

You look up at the clock on your bedroom wall, and watch the second hand tick away with a ruthless, mechanical precision. Tick … tock … tick … tock – the time slips away like quicksand.

You let out a sigh of defeat, and look back down at the computer screen, your face bathed in an eerie artificial glow.

This was supposed to be the day when I finished my report for the boss, what went wrong? Where did the last few hours go? Surely that clock has to be wrong.

Your mind starts counting back through everything you’ve done today that wasn’t the work you wanted to complete.

You reckon a couple of hours were spent on Facebook and Twitter … after all; you’ve got to know what your friends are up to, right?

Then there was that cooking show on TV that you just couldn’t miss, and religious checking of your favorite news sites, and all those text messages that you just can’t ignore when your phone starts buzzing.

A familiar feeling of frustration spreads through your mind – you’ve just wasted another day, with nothing to show for it when the sun goes down.

You woke up this morning ready to own the day; knowing exactly what you needed to do. And now, as you ought to be winding down for a well-deserved night’s rest, you’re mentally kicking yourself instead.

Can you relate?

If you do and you want to go “cold turkey” on your time-wasting habit, then I’ve got the medicine for you.

When I was at college, I’d waste a lot of time. I would sleep in until lunchtime (missing classes in the process) and crawl out of bed just in time to play video games or watch movies.  Of course, my essays and assignments would only just manage to be completed in time.

Basically, I threw away dozens of hours every week. This is time I can never get back. At a conservative estimate of six wasted hours every day, seven days a week, for three years, I threw away something in the region of 6552 hours.

That’s 273 days over a three year period; practically one year of my college life up in smoke, like burning paper, never to return.

It was at this stage of my life that I realized I needed to tackle my demons, and stop wasting so much precious time. I couldn’t afford to throw away almost a third of every day – and no longer did I want to.

So what did I do? Made some changes.

In this article I’m going to share some of my favorite strategies for eliminating wasted time, so that you have more opportunities to accomplish your goals and do great things in your life.

How to Stop Wasting Time and Get More From Life

1. Limit How Others Access You

One of the most powerful time management lessons I have ever learned comes from The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss.

Ferriss suggests that one of the most common time wasters – especially for those of us who work in a corporate office environment – is allowing colleagues and those around you too much access to your time.

Basically, in an office environment it’s not unusual to have people come up to your desk to ask questions, or bombard your direct dial with requests, or send endless litanies of emails to your inbox.

These interruptions vie for your attention, and therefore waste your time – taking away from the resource you have to meet your goals and get important work done.

The solution is to manage the access that others have to you in a better fashion.

Here’s a simple blueprint you can follow, which delivers very positive results:

• Let your colleagues know (in the friendliest possible way) that you are busy. Consider putting up a “do not disturb” sign when you really cannot afford to be interrupted.
• Respond to emails at set intervals – rather than on a when-they-come-in basis. I’ll talk more about this shortly, but for now know that this will free up a lot of time.
• Give off an air that makes others not want to interrupt you. My favorite strategy here is to don a pair of noise-canceling headphones; wearing headphones gives off a vibe that you are busy and don’t want unplanned company. The other benefit of wearing noise-canceling headphones is you can block background noise, and removing the distraction.

By managing your own access better and discouraging those around you from needlessly interrupting you, you’ll free up large swathes of time that would otherwise be wasted, and get more work done.

2. Quit Checking Devices and Emails

Another massive time-waster (and a problem that seems only to be growing in stature) is the 21^st Century affliction that I call “device addiction”.

Are you bitten by the device-addiction bug? Here’s how to find out:

• You check your phone for texts/notifications/missed calls every few minutes.
• You sometimes imagine you are hearing your phone ring or vibrate – but when you check you haven’t missed any notification.
• You constantly check your email inbox (whether at work in front of your computer, or at home, or on-the-go on your smart phone or device).
• You cannot leave any message, missed call, or email unanswered … even if responding would actually interrupt the flow of what you are currently working on.

Device addiction leads to massive amounts of wasted time. And what does that mean? You are missing out on getting the most from life.

I’ll be realistic here – it’s unlikely that you will be able to “banish” device addiction completely.

Our modern lives are so intrinsically tied up with digital technology, that to try and eliminate it from your life would be a totally Luddite and pointless.

Instead, make it a goal to structure your use of mobile devices and email.

Rather than constantly checking, replying, and getting caught up in procrastination, make it a habit to limit to a set “timing structure”.

For example, resolve to check your emails and mobile phone once every hour.

And give yourself no more than ten minutes to make any replies (which means that unimportant messages will have to remain without a response).

Of course, you need to be ruthless in doing this and wean yourself out of the mentality that you have to check your phone every five minutes, or that all work emails are 100% mission-critical.

3. Avoid Time-Wasting Activities (aka Kick Procrastination)

Lastly, avoid things that contribute to procrastination.

Go ahead and create a list of activities you often indulge in, which also happen to be a time-suck.

I’m talking about things like:

• Playing video games
• Browsing online shopping sites
• Channel surfing on the TV
• Reading trashy magazines

Your list can include anything you would rather not spend your time doing.

Once you’ve created your list of activities that waste time in your life, you need to take steps to reduce the impact of that wastage.

This will obviously depend on what activities you included on your list.

In order to get the ball rolling, here are some examples:

• Playing video games – Sell your games consoles and games. You’ll free up some extra cash, de-clutter, and eliminate the temptation completely.
• Browsing online shopping sites – Use technology against technology! Get a site-blocking tool, such as StayFocusd, in order to limit the time you can spend on such websites.
• Channel surfing on the TV – Get rid of your expensive cable plan, and set yourself a time limit for how much TV you will allow yourself to watch on any given day. Plan your viewing in advance, so that you don’t need to channel surf.
• Reading trashy magazines – Cancel your subscriptions, and throw away existing magazines (or donate to someone who wants them).

By the way, this will have a double benefit of saving you money too. So not only do you get more time, but you free up extra cash as well!

The point?

Make it super hard for yourself to procrastinate. Soon, you’ll procrastinate procrastination itself

Conclusion

To recap, we’ve looked at three very powerful strategies for reducing the amount of time you waste. Now it’s up to you to implement these strategies, and redirect the time you free up into more productive pursuits (such as accomplishing your life goals).

I’ll leave you with a powerful and pertinent quote from Benjamin Franklin:

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

If you love life, then do your best to eradicate wasted time – it’s a challenge you’ll never regret undertaking.

It’s round up time of the month!

This time, I’ve hand-picked 6 newest and coolest posts on confidence, success and productivity from the Net.

Pick one post from the list at a time and give it a read. Number 3 and 4 are my favourites.

Don’t forget to come back to leave a comment on which one’s your favourite and why!

6 Best Confidence + Productivity Posts this Week

1. How to Get 40 Hours of Work Done in 16.7: Like most people, the author worked 60 hours a week, sometimes totaling to 100 hours even. That’s when he experimented with Pomodoro Technique and in doing so, he asked a key question: Is it better to work 5 days a week or 7 days a week? The answer will surprise you. Neat post!

2. Nine Nuggets of Career Advice I’d Give to My Younger Self: What would you tell your teenage self? Twenty-year-old self? Thirty-year-old self? Nine professionals share their best career advice such as “start saving as soon as possible” and “always dress with success in mind”. Take these 9 tips to avoid regret in your gray-hair days.

3. 10 Words People Who Are Not Confident Always Use: The next time someone uses words “might”, “suspect”, or “worried” a little too much, take it as a red flag of lack of confidence. Intrigued? Read the post for a full list.

4. 14 Ways To Manipulate Your Mind For Success: Aristotle said that excellence is not an act but a habit. And it’s true — you can’t start a business and expect it to sky-rocket under normal circumstances. You inch your way up by showing up every day. Same goes for your health. Exercising once in a while for 3 hours straight will cause your body more harm than good. The idea is to balance it all out by developing a habit and starting small.

5. Do People Only Use 10% of Their Brains?: Actually, no. It’s an age-old myth and this post does a fine job of clearing the air.

6. 10 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself. #9 Is a Must: The author shares some great tips in this post. No. 7 is spot on for me!

Hope you enjoyed this round up. More coming soon.

Which one was your favourite of the above? Do you agree/disagree with any? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

You might also enjoy: 6 Best Better Habits + Productivity Posts this Week: Round Up #7.

Pick one post from the list at a time and give it a read. Don’t forget to come back to leave a comment on which one’s your favourite and why!

6 Best Better Habits + Productivity Posts this Week

1. If you don’t know these life truths by now, you probably haven’t learned enough from life: I love this one! It’s hilarious and so true in its own sense. From simple life truths such as “nothing tastes good in a microwave” to real relationship hacks such as “if he likes you, you’ll know, if not, you’ll be confused”, the author shares 17 lessons that we are so likely to forget every now and then. Give it a read — you never know what you discover.

2. 5 books to help you build better habits: Who doesn’t love a well-thought out book list? If you want to make fast moves toward change (you know the ones you need), these books will take you places. Your daily habits form your base — if the base isn’t strong, your sky scraper will crumble down to pieces before you know. Each of these 5 behaviour-change books have something to offer so make sure you check them out.

3. 25 things you need to stop wasting your time on: Isn’t it strange that we deny what matters the most? In this post, the author opens with a story of the happiest moment in the life of a woman who was in an accident, crushed under a car, when she saw her son and husband safe on the other side of the road. In that moment, she realised what mattered the most to her. What things you need to stop wasting time on so you can make room for things that truly matter?

4. 20 books to super-charge your productivity: I love productivity hacks. Give me a good book anytime on how I can get even more done in less time and I’m sold. Out of the 20, the next on my list is The Power of Habit  by Charles Duhigg. Check out the list if you’re a productivity lover too.

5. The 12 cognitive biases that prevent you from being rational: Although a human brain is capable of doing 1016 processes, it has got its own share of problems. The author points out 12 cognitive biases, the glitch in thinking process that makes you make a less effective decision, or come to a wrong conclusion. Oh, I am so guilty of #3 and in the list.

6. The advice I’d give to a 16-year old me: The author shares 5 lessons he wished he’d known when he was 16. I can definitely relate with the first four, but I am not so sure of the last one, namely “Spotlight”. Under #5, he adds that “the more successful you become, the more you have to watch your back”. I gently disagree. To me that sounds like viewing life through lens that are soaked in thick mud — too negative. Overall though, most lessons shared are invaluable. But that’s just me; read the post to make your own informed conclusions.

I trust you enjoyed this compilation. More roundups coming soon. Which one was your favourite of the above? Do you agree/disagree with any? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

You might also enjoy 6 Best Happiness + Motivational Posts Round Up #6.

I am excited to announce my new ebook, 21 Un-Procrastination Habits: How to Beat Procrastination Permanently and Get the Results You Want is now live on Amazon.com.

Procrastination is a habit. So is Un-Procrastination. What are you choosing?

Successful people know that their success comes from what they *do* and not from what or whom they know. It’s great to have a library of books and a contact list of amazing people, but that alone is not enough to achieve success in any area.

It’s the doing that’s important. Yet, we procrastinate on so many things, be it a decision to quit a soul-sucking job, to go back to college to take up a course, or to learn how to paint.

Of course, I’ve been there myself. Over the years, I’ve discovered that the key is not to jumpstart with a “resolution” but to develop new habits.

If you REALLY want to start a new business, quit your job first and you’ll automatically take care of motivation. Really want to lose weight? Subscribe to a 6-month gym membership or sign up for a 5 km marathon that’s happens in next 3 months.

All this requires your determination to *do* something, which is where this book will help you the most.

Download Your Copy of 21 Habits: How to Beat Procrastination Permanently here.

I’ve spent days writing this one, and I share my own struggles with the big ol’ beast of Procrastination and how to overcome them with these 21 Habits.

I’ll be honest: I still procrastinate, but most of it is “conscious procrastination“, as you’ll soon learn in the eBook.

What is this eBook about?

“21 Unprocrastination Habits” will let you discover:

• Why you procrastinate (discover your personal “triggers”)
• How to stop being lazy for once and for all
• How NOT to be dominated by your moods
• The good side of procrastination
• How to employ the “5-minute rule”
• How to develop a productivity HABIT
• How to get motivated whenever you want, where ever you want
• How to take charge of your life and achieve your goals
• How to build your own anti-procrastination squad
• How to boost your productivity by doing nothing

I Need Your Help…

IF you find the guide useful and value-adding, please leave a review on Amazon.com. Once there, just click the “Review this item” link to write your review.

What if I Don’t Have a Kindle Device?

You can still read Kindle eBooks on your computer, laptop, iPad, iPhone, Android phone etc.

First buy the eBook and then:

• To read it on your computer, go here
• To read it on your Android device, go here
• To read it on your Blackberry, go here
• To read it on your iPhone or iPod Touch, go here
• To read it on your Windows phone, go here
• For more options, go here.

What Next?

I’d love for you to read it and share your thoughts/lessons/feedback/comments with me through the comments below. I’d also be most grateful if you could leave a review on Amazon.com.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments!

It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it. ~Hans Selye

Take a break from whatever you’re doing right now, even if you’re reading this, and ponder on this question: Are you stressed about something right now?

If you asked me that question, I’d reply “yes” a lot of the times, because isn’t that a natural human tendency to stress? Isn’t that normal?

To an extent, stress is good for you. Little stress exerts a certain pressure without going overboard at the boiling point. Call it stress equilibrium, or whatever you may, but some amount of stress at the right time does help you move forward.

Think about the last time you were sitting an exam – were you stressed? If you cared enough about your degree or certificate, your stress propelled you forward to study well. Stress in short bursts will trigger protective chemicals and give you the much-needed boost.

Stress kicks in when you sense danger (real or imagined) that triggers the fight or flight response. Your body releases adrenalin and cortisol that lead to heightened senses, rise in blood pressure etc. These changes ready your body to deal with the situation and speed up your response times.

That said, when you are constantly stressed, you’re unable to sit still or get the work done, snap at loved ones with you heart’s racing and muscles tensed.

Needless to say, long-term stress is harmful to your health and longevity. They say a lot of diseases begin in the mind. I am no medical advisor, but here are some simple + mindful things that have helped me keep away unwanted and excess stress out of my life.

Try them and see which one works for you the most.

1. Get Aware

There are different techniques to reduce stress in your life but the first step is awareness. How do you know when you’re in stress? Personally, I feel it in my body. I also sense it in the way I respond to others – I am usually very snappy!

Your style may be something else. Simply bring your attention back to your body and scan it. Get aware of how you’re feeling.

• Do you feel heavy and unhappy?
• Are you constantly worrying?
• Is it hard for you to concentrate?
• Do you feel overwhelmed and/or angry often?
• Are you experiencing any aches?
• Are you eating and sleeping too much or too less?

2. Face your worst fears

Make an attempt to first isolate the cause of your stress. You’ll notice than more often than not, the cause is something external – a friend, spouse, relative or a situation in your life.

When I am feeling negative thoughts that cause stress, it helps me to detach from the situation and let the thoughts come in. I’ve noticed that the more I try to stop these thoughts/feelings, the more energy I spend in the process and it’s pretty draining and stressful!

A practice that works for me is to surrender to these thoughts and stop fighting with them. This takes conscious effort and deliberate intention from my end. I let these thoughts in, and by doing this I face the fear upfront. Something powerful happens in that moment – the moment you stop resisting, you know what’s the “worse” that could happen.

This is when I can “check out” the rock bottom, and that brings in the certainty of knowing what it is really like. Human beings have astonishing power to handle things, and looking at the fear in the eye (not in the fighting mode but in an observer mode) births a new power within you that says:

“no matter what happens, I can will handle it”.

3. Apply relaxation techniques

Have you heard of meditation? Many times, you say. But have you tried it? If not, what’s stopping you?

I personally don’t use meditation for stress relief, but for positive visualization. I’ll pick a stressful situation in my life, sit in the lotus position, close my eyes, take deep breaths, and start visualizing what happens in 2 weeks time when this is no longer a problem for me.

As I do this, I feed the image to my subconscious and the results of doing so far have been amazing. I’ve noticed that I’ll attract the right opportunities in the right time that alleviates the stress from a situation without bringing more stress in.

You may also want to try Progressive Muscle Relaxation, breathing meditation, yoga and other relaxation techniques to reduce stress.

~

Are you stressed and want to share it with the community? Go ahead and write a comment – sharing helps!

Image by Pink Sherbet Photography.

If there are nine rabbits on the ground, if you want to catch one, just focus on one. ~Jack Ma

You’ve always got something to manage, be it caring for their family, accomplishing tasks at home, completing tasks at a job, or simply chasing a dream or desire that has been elusive due to “lack of time.”

So, whether you’re an entrepreneur trying to run your own business, an artist that has been looking for a way to break away from the cage of day-to-day life to pursue your passion, or a stay-at-home mom or dad who feels like a constant victim of the clock, these tips are for you to boost your personal productivity.

Personal Story

I haven’t always been an entrepreneur; at one time I had a regular job working for a regular boss and I was pulling in a regular paycheck. But as time wore on, the pull for something more became unbearable. My desire for creativity wasn’t being met and I needed more out of life.

So I quit.

I know I make that sound simple, and in a way it was. But I also had to be intentional about what I wanted to do. I outlined all my assets, made a list of all the things I wanted to do and I had to decide how I could best make those two lists match up.

And I did find that match with starting a freelance writing, editing and marketing business. The best part was that I could create my business around my lifestyle – not the other way around!

But as I grew busier with more projects and clients, I discovered something that I didn’t plan for quite as well – not at first anyway.

I found myself often checking emails, answering phone calls, spending time on the Internet. My to-do list kept getting longer, and it seemed I just wasn’t ticking stuff off my list as fast as I wanted. Essentially, I had a personal productivity problem, and I knew it.

Related: Find Your Focus -- End Procrastination Without Willpower

I started talking to other successful entrepreneurs, reading books, learning the holes in my own personal productivity. Of course, not everything worked for me; a lot of it was trial and error.

Eventually, after failing several times, I could come up a system that worked for me and made me happy with the amount of work I get done in a day. Keep reading to find out if you can resonate with it.

Personal Productivity Basics

There are a lot of personal productivity tips out there; some of them may work for you and others may not.

However, at the core of all of those tips, there is one theme: Don’t spend time on low productivity tasks during your peak productivity period.

Peak Productivity vs. Low Productivity Times

We can’t be “switched on” all the time. There are going to be times that we just don’t feel like doing much, a time when our brains and our bodies must take a break from all the things on our lists. These are known as low productivity times.

In contrast, peak productivity times are when you’re motivated, you’re in the flow of things. Tasks are quickly and easily accomplished because you are focused on the task at hand. These times should be guarded carefully because wasting them will lead to overall low productivity and, eventually, stress.

Only you will truly know when your peak productivity time is, so take the time to observe how you feel throughout the day. You’ll know you’ve found it whenever you feel the most motivated or the most energized to complete a task.

During that time, here’s how to avoid these common time wasters:

• Check and handle emails at only set times of the day.
• Have blocks of time to handle personal phone calls and let friends and family know when this will be.
• Learn how to turn devices to silent when you are working; better yet, put the device away so that you’re not tempted to check it while you are working.
• Unless what you are doing involves the Internet, avoid it altogether when you are in your peak productivity time. Only keep work-related browser windows open. (Kill the email window!)

Simple Personal Productivity Hacks that Will Work for Almost Anyone

No matter how well you manage your peak productivity times, there are going to be some other things that crop up as you try to accomplish your tasks, things that could keep you from accomplishing your goals.

Overcome some of these obstacles with these simple productivity hacks, and as always, feel free to adjust them to suit your personal needs.

1. Delegate the things you hate

Obviously you can’t always do this, but know when you’d do better having someone else handle the task at hand. Maybe you need to have someone come to your home to complete the mundane daily chores – the things that drive you nuts but take almost no time – so that you can have time to do some house repairs.

Maybe you need to hire a personal assistant to handle small secretarial stuff for your home business to give you more time to focus on connecting with clients. Whatever the need, there’s someone out there that can (and loves to!) do it.

2. Use technology to your benefit

While technology can be a major time waster, it can also be a time-saver if you know how to use it properly. Apps, phone email and more can help you stay productive during your downtime.

I discuss which ones I find most helpful in my book, Online Business Productivity: Be Super Productive. Get More Done in Less Time. Make Your Lifestyle Business Soar.

3. Use goal-setting to keep yourself on track

Whether you call them goals, desires or life plans, goals are practically essential in keeping things on track. This allows you to keep your eyes on the tasks at hand, the things that will help you accomplish what you want. You may even find it beneficial to set up a small reward system when certain tasks are complete.

Your Turn

How do you boost your personal productivity? Share your tip below.

Want to get more biz productivity tips? Check out my new ebook here.

Image by Yuri Samoilov Photo.

You might also like: 21 Unprocrastination Habits: How to Beat Procrastination Permanently & Get the Results You want.

If you’re a work-at-home online entrepreneur, this book is for you. For the past 3 and a half years, I have been working on my Lifestyle businesses on the Internet and the journey has been nothing short of eventful!

Yet if you’re a 9-5’er, this productivity guide has something for you too! So don’t miss the chance to read it for free during the promo.

I’ve had days when I’d be glued to the computer, sitting on my desk for hours without taking a break to stretch or get myself a glass of water.

Being a “shiny-object-syndrome” person, I was afraid I’d lose my “flow” if I stopped working for even a minute. . . The result? Long working nights and weekends. I was drained of energy and given a chance, would prefer to sleep in.

You’d think that doing so much, I was perhaps getting a lot done and ticking off the boxes. Actually, quite the opposite.

The outcome was an unhealthy lifestyle where productivity was at stake. I’ve realized that productivity is not about how many hours you’re on your desk or tapping away the keyboard — it is not about how “busy” you are.

Busy ≠Productive

I read a lot of text on how to be productive working from home on your lifestyle business, and what I found was hundreds of techniques that you could use. This caused another problem: Overwhelm!

So, as a new lifestyle entrepreneur, I sat down, applied the techniques suggested by the online gurus, noted down what worked and what did not, and drew a blueprint of productivity. That is how this ebook was born!

Get your free copy (for 5 days only) here: http://amzn.to/1b5htj0

What is this eBook about?

“Online Business Productivity” will let you discover:

• The mindset of a successful lifestyle entrepreneur
• 5 key steps to taming the beast of time
• 5 simple hacks that will boost your daily productivity
• 6 success principles of a profitable lifestyle business
• What procrastination really is + how to beat it
• How to procrastinate on the right thing
• The 4 major time-killers in your lifestyle business + how to tackle them
• ONE simple email tweak that will free up LOADS of your time
• 5 must-have online tools to help you do even more
• Finding your pain/pleasure point to get motivated

I Need Your Help…

As you may know, Amazon is a platform that lets you self-publish eBooks. This is my first eBook and I am giving away free copies for next five days only.

But…I also need YOUR help in doing this. IF you find the guide useful and value-adding, please leave a review on Amazon.com. The link for the eBook is this. Once there, just click the “Review this item” link to write your review.

What if I Don’t Have a Kindle Device?

You can still read Kindle eBooks on your computer, laptop, iPad, iPhone, Android phone etc.

To read it on your computer, go here

To read it on your Android device, go here

To read it on your Blackberry, go here

To read it on your iPhone or iPod Touch, go here

To read it on your Windows phone, go here

For more options, go here.

What Next?

I’d love for you to read it and share your thoughts/lessons/feedback/comments with me through the comments below. I’d also be most grateful if you could leave a review on Amazon.com.

Get your free copy (for 5 days only) here: http://amzn.to/1b5htj0

The launch ends on September 27, 2013, and I won’t be running another free promo for next 3 months, so get your copy today.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.
~Paramahansa Yogananda

I used to be an incorrigible thinker. I could not be stopped. If there were a race between thinkers of the world, I’d stand at the top. When I say thinker, I don’t mean people who invent amazing things and think creatively.

I did that too, but less frequently than obsessive thinking. There, I said it. I’m was obsessive thinker first, a creative one second.

What does it mean to think obsessively? Imagine you have a list of things to do tomorrow. You are just lying down on bed and your mind is racing, thinking of all the things you have to do next morning. You spend more time thinking about what has to be done, than doing it.

You don’t want to waste a moment either. You’d rather spend the last few minutes of your day reading or listening to an audio tape, even though you’re exhausted of the constant thinking.

That was me. In retrospect, I was worrying more about how I will achieve x, y and z, and how I must now screw up this or that instead of doing x, y or z and not screwing this or that. I heard a constant chatter in my head (I call this my “mini-me”). The result being I was tired, irritated and unsure of why I didn’t create any miracles that day.

If you’re nodding as you read, you wonder if there’s a way out of it. You’re so tired of the racing mind that a magic wand to stop the chatter would be great.

Unfortunately, there is no magic wand that can rid of your mini-me. There is no instant result. But there is a way to convert it into your best friend that cheers for you, and this is how.

How to Quiet Your Mind Aka Your Mini-me

The first step is to realize that your mini-me is not your enemy. It exists in your 40,000 years old brain because you’ve let it to linger there. It’s about time you do something about it lest you want to go to bed and wake up restless!

Here are 5 ways I used to switch from being an obsessive thinker to a purposeful one.

1. Listen to your thoughts

Sometimes, it is better to surrender and just listen intently. I noticed the more I tried to stop myself from thinking, the more I was engulfed in the chain of thoughts. I was thinking even more than before. Needless to say, it was tiring me more.

So I took a step back, reclined and just listened to what these thoughts were really saying. In essence, I became the observer. It was very unsettling in the start because I wanted to chime in. Out of habit, I wanted to interrupt these thoughts by bringing in another one.

Have you noticed this happen to you? You think about one thing and after a few seconds, you are thinking about something totally unrelated and wonder how you came to think about it? Yes, that’s what I mean. . .

So I controlled the urge to interrupt and kept at it.

That’s when something unique started to happen — I grew more and more quieter and distant from these thoughts. Or were these thoughts going away? I don’t know. But I felt a blankness and nothingness, that I was of course happy to embrace.

2. Replace your thoughts with hand-picked ones

Let’s say the observing trick doesn’t work well for you. You are really worried about something and just noticing it doesn’t make it go away.

When that happened with me, I would find hand-picked replacement thoughts to go in the negative thought’s place. I have a repository of all the good things and successes that have happened to me which come handy during this time. These are personal achievements, testimonials, kind words from friends and loved ones that are perfect to replace the worrying thought.

3. Read something promising

When things get tough, I invest my time in reading promising stuff. I am a huge non-fiction and personal development reader, and I love learning a new thing every day.

When you’re engaged in an activity like reading or painting (and I mean intently doing it), your mind is focused and in flow. You reduce or eliminate constant worrying thoughts automatically.

One more thing: I’ve tried listening to music to quiet my mind, and although it helps me remove focus from negative thoughts to new ones, I cannot say the latter are always positive. I find every song means different things to different people — it is an anchor.

For example, a piece of music might teleport you mentally to a past relationship, or a phase of life that was not very exciting. Music is an anchor to that event or time in your life. So be very careful of what you choose to listen to.

4. Breathe

Simple but works most of the time. Take a deep breath, hold it for 3 seconds and then release. When your brain is hyperactive, it uses up oxygen pretty quickly. Breathing mindfully brings fresh oxygen to your brain and you feel lighter, calmer and more relaxed as you focus on your breaths instead of the nagging thoughts.

5. Do the work

I can’t make it simpler than this. I found my mini-me the loudest when I was procrastinating or not fulfilling a long-time goal. Or, when I was overwhelmed.

One solution to this is to write down your problem or goal on one side of a piece of paper and on the right side, write down the next best immediate step you should take to fulfill it.

The “next small step” technique breaks down the impossible into possible, doable chunks. Once you’re able to achieve that, it gets easier to focus on the positive.

If there were a sixth way to quiet the mind, what do you think it would be? Share your personal tip below. Would love to hear them.

Image by Daniele Zedda.

You might also like: What is Vipassana Meditation? Try this meditation technique to quiet your mind now.

A lot of people are not that astute to realize the dangers of experiencing too much stress and anxiety as they are unable to really extricate it from their emotions.

Related: Panic Away – End Anxiety & Panic Attacks

Some people assume that stress can only affect emotions without realizing that it can impact every aspect of life at work or at home.

They soon realize they were wrong when everything turns topsy-turvy.

Sleep debt

Anxiety symptoms often make people get less sleep. It would be better if people can have some sleep at least they will have rest. Sleep deprivation feeds off anxiety and when people have less sleep they tend to become more anxious.

It is a chicken and egg thing and both anxiety and sleep debt feed each other making the situation worse.

What are the consequences of anxiety-driven sleep deprivation? Well the lack of sleep will make you less effective in making decisions. A person without much sleep cannot function fully as they may be irritable, irrational and even would try to ditch work to sleep.

Weaker immune system

When people are anxious and stressed it impacts the physical body in a strange way. Stress hormones like cortisol have a very strange effect in the body when it stays longer than it is supposed to.

Cortisol makes the body inflamed. An inflamed body makes the immune system weaker causing it to be more susceptible to viruses and other contagions.

Suddenly you are an easy prey for the common cold and flu which can dramatically affect your ability to attend to your duties at work and impact your productivity.

Overthinking

Overthinking is another negative trait that can impact productivity. If you constantly overthink and assume things that will go wrong you are not doing yourself a favor. You are just creating unnecessary stress over things that you have no real control over.

This would lead to loss of appetite which can have dire effects in metabolism and digestion. People that overthink a lot tend to skip meals that can also cause problems in blood sugar levels.

It can also cause the blood pressure to fluctuate as there is no steady supply of nutrients that are entering the body.

Aches and pains

The body muscles tend to stiffen up due to the buildup of tension. Headaches are the most identifiable symbol of stress. Often people that have been working for long hours tend to feel aches all over the body, particularly the head.

It is best to manage working hours so that the body would be less exposed to stress. While taking pain killers offer temporary solution, the aches will come back as the root cause is not addressed properly.

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The effects of stress and anxiety on productivity are far reaching. That is why offices and workplaces should be able to address the sources of stress.

A stress-free workplace would result in better workers and increased efficiency because the workers are not getting sick and will actually enjoy what they are doing.

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Online entrepreneurs: Get your proven productivity blueprint here.

Image by Evil Erin.

You might also like: 21 Unprocrastination Habits: How to Beat Procrastination Permanently & Get the Results You Want.