Conquering the Virtual World: Mental Toughness, Productivity, and Wellbeing While Working from Home

Have you ever felt the weight of the virtual world on your shoulders? How can you maintain your mental edge while working remotely? 

In this enlightening episode of "me&my health up", host Anthony Hartcher deep dives into the art of being mentally tough in the ever-evolving virtual reality world and the nuances of working from home.  

Discover how the lack of traditional office structure can leave many feeling adrift amidst a barrage of digital notifications and tasks. Learn how to endure and thrive by setting clear boundaries, prioritising tasks, and fostering genuine connections in a digital age.  

Whether you're battling feelings of isolation or struggling with the blur between work and rest, this episode offers actionable strategies to fortify your mental resilience and ensure you're at the top of your game.  

So, if you're keen to master the virtual workspace and maintain peak mental health, this episode is a must-listen! 

About me&my health up & Anthony Hartcher 

me&my health up seeks to enhance and enlighten the well-being of others. Host Anthony Hartcher is the CEO of me&my health up which provides holistic health solutions using food as medicine, combined with a holistic, balanced, lifestyle approach. Anthony holds three bachelor's degrees in Complementary Medicine; Nutrition and Dietetic Medicine; and Chemical Engineering.

Podcast Disclaimer
Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more

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Transcript

Anthony Hartcher: 0:08

Welcome back to another insightful and exciting episode of me&my health up. I'm your host, Anthony Hartcher. I'm a clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist. The purpose of this podcast is to enhance and enlighten your well being. And I will be doing that for you. And today's topic is being mentally tough in a virtual reality world mentally tough in a virtual reality world, I think you can relate to that. It is that hybrid working situation, working from home remotely, working anywhere in the world remotely. I know people are doing remote working in Bali, and also bit of face to face physical in person time, however, we're spending large amounts of time working from home. And so it can become difficult creating those boundaries and how to keep upbeat energy during the times you're working virtually where you don't have other people's energy around you to keep you up and to keep you very vitalise. So this episode today is going to help you be tough, mentally tough in a virtual reality world. So what's in store for you today, we're going to talk about how to remain healthy in a virtual reality world tips and tricks to creating South safe boundaries I meant to say so the tips and tricks for safe boundaries, how to stay on course with a positive outlook, stress management practices, of course, so we want to stay on track in terms of delivering our deliverables and meeting our objectives whilst working remotely. And also we want to look after ourselves in terms of managing that stress, because you might not have someone close by to relieve the veil so to speak, in the office, you can always grab someone aside, go for a coffee and and share it with them in terms of what you're going through and sort of release that pressure. So working from home, you don't really have someone you might you may not have someone close close by where you can release that fuse, or at least the pressure on the bow. And then lastly, it's staying and remaining connected in a virtual world. So how do you do that if you're predominantly working? So some offices are working under percent still remotely? So how do you stay connected in a virtual world, or working in a virtual world. So that's what we're going to cover today. And let's get into today's topic. So how to maintain that mental and emotional well being in a virtual world? Well, we need to look at a holistic health and balance approach. So it is setting up your day and working your day based on your priorities. So what's most important to you so it is a planning elements a huge planning elements. So what goes in the diary, you'll generally execute if exercise isn't put in the diary, then it won't happen. So actually, if exercise is important to you, and staying healthy is important to you. And our recommend certainly, if you're working from home remotely in order to keep the energy up, you want to be moving the body. So scheduling in exercise, making time for exercise, actually having it as a meeting with you to do exercise, so factoring that in every day. So look at your week ahead and work out where your meetings are and where you can squeeze in some exercise. And that's probably one of the benefits of working from home. If in between meetings, you might be able to get out for a walk around the block, come back and focus for the next meeting. So it can be really helpful. Or if you go out for a sweaty workout, you can come home and shower in your own shower and put on a new outfit very conveniently. So one of the benefits from working from home is that having that element of flexibility, so leverage it, make sure you factor in exercise into your day. Do yourself a favor and don't book back to back meetings, avoid booking back to back meetings allow a 15 minute buffer This is critical for maintaining your well being your energy throughout the day. And also your focus and attention and presence in meetings. So that 15 minute buffer enables a reset and with that 15 minute buffer you can get up stretch the legs, move the body get a drink of water, go to the bathroom mentally reset for the next meeting as opposed to just rushing from one meeting being late to the next and then trying to catch up and your headspace is still in the last meeting so clear their headspace Dr. Adam Fraser did a lot of work on this around performance performing athletes high performing athletes and he found what separated the top performing athletes from the not so elite. Well, they'll still leave they'll still professional athletes, but what what made the top 10 the top 10 versus the rest of the field and it was what they did between points. It was how they reset their mind between points how they didn't carry the bad point from the previous His game into the next game or the next round, or the next five minutes of the game or whatever, after a pause in play. So they were meant they mentally reset themselves and they got present again fully connected, and they were able to execute a lot better than the previous point previous round previous five minutes. So yes, we can have those not so great meetings, but don't carry the not so great meeting into the next meeting, clear their head, get present again, and turn it all around. And you can do that by allowing some time reset time between meetings. So don't set hour long meetings and then have back to backs all day. It's it's not productive, it really isn't. Because your your mind is everywhere. It's scattered and you feel overwhelmed at the end of the day, and you feel really lethargic and de energised, set 45 minute meetings, or 50 minute meetings, or even if you can squeeze it into half an hour or so always question the length of the meeting. And don't allow extra time, allow less time put the pressure on so that you get to the point. So people stay on point, you have a parking lot for those lengthy discussions that are really off topic, park them for another meeting or set up a separate meeting for those off topic conversations. So allow yourself the freedom to have space between meetings really important in terms of that planning out the day, focus on the most important things that you want to get done for that day and tackle the most important things first up off the cuff. It's when you got the most energy, it's when it's there's less interruptions. Otherwise you'll find excuses. Other things will come into your inbox, you'll find other distractions that will just carry you away from the most important and pressing tasks get that most important pressing tasks, you feel like you've accomplished something the hard things done, okay, it's out of the way it's progressing for so as Steven Covey said, Eat the eat the frog first, that tough thing, do the tough thing off the bat. First thing whilst you got energy, whilst there's less disruptions get it done. So like my podcasting, I've pretty much predominantly do all my podcasting in the morning, because it's when I'm most energised. It's when I've got most coherence in terms of my thinking, I could not have fluent coherent thinking in the evening. Sometimes I don't have it during the day, but you can imagine what it would be like in the evening, even worse, so. So certainly do work around your energy when it's most optimal. And when you have that, like those hard things that need a lot of concentration, do it when there's least amount of other activity or disturbances. So it could be that early morning, you may get up and get that hard thing done first thing, and then go for a run and then get into your meetings. Again, that's what I like 5am is my time, it's it's the time that I have no disruptions, nothing, I can focus on my deep work, I can focus on research, I can focus on preparing for my podcast episodes, I can really plan out the day and see it how I want it to unfold. So certainly making sure you tackle the hard things first, get the priorities done and fill your day with priorities. That way you don't really want to do if they come into the picture, you can say now fully booked, I don't have that I haven't got any space, I'm completely booked. So sorry. But I just got, I'm booked out. And because you're focused on the things that are most important to progressing your career, the things that are most important to your health things most important to your relationships. So invest time in those places that are most important to you and do them first, okay, and then set up the day so that it's an achievable day, don't be unrealistic, and just put a big bucket list of all these things because then you'll look at the end of the day. And you'll think that ah, wasn't that successful only got through half of them is because you're unrealistic, unrealistic at the start of the day, get real with yourself what is humanly possible and just have like three or four items and just focus on doing them with your best ability. So I don't try to you know, flood my day with podcasting, each podcast I put a lot of energy into so pretty much one podcast per day, maybe at a stretch too, but one and I do my best to put the best amount of energy, everything I've got into that one podcast. And so I'm not just filling up my day with podcasts just to get ahead or just to get them done. For me, I want the best the best that I can do. And I find that's about one the other day I tried to do too. The first one was really good. The second one I started and it was a flunk I actually I'm not publishing it, it was just not worth publishing. And so I then I redid it the next day, and it was so much better. So again, don't over exaggerate what you can achieve in a day. Don't just put a bucket list down, prioritise it. So list the things and if it doesn't need to be done that day, it's not high priority, and it's certainly not urgent and move it out. Move it out. Just put it out to another day. And that can be done on another day. But for that day, it's the things that are most important to you. Okay. And if you've been working this way for quite some time, they should be non urgent. So for example, I do a lot of corporate wellness presentations. And I need to prepare slides for each of those presentations. However, what I do is I look ahead when they're due. And I aim to, like start them at least two weeks before they're due. And so I'm well ahead, I can work and do deep work and do the my best effort and get the best presentation done, because I haven't got that urgent pressure. And that's what I'm doing at 5am in the morning, it's uninterrupted, I can think clearly, I'm putting together these corporate wellness presentations. So again, you want to orientate your day, so you're working on the highest priorities, activities, and not just having a full list of things to do. And then looking back and think ah, you know, unaccomplished today, but it's rubbish. It's just that you're unrealistic at the start of the day as to what you'll get done. So be realistic with yourself set really realistic goals for the day, make sure that the most prioritised work to be working on the ones that are going to give you the biggest return on investment investments in terms of your career success in terms of where you want to go in terms of getting a great result for your clients work on that work and focus on it and just focus on that work until it's done. Don't allow distractions to come into it again, you could adopt the bit of the Pomodoro principle. And the Pomodoro principle is having periods of uninterrupted work for a period of time that you can work uninterruptedly, the Pomodoro principle talks about 25 to 35 minutes, I can do up to an hour really focused until I need to get up and go. And so sort of clear my head. So like the podcast time is about, it's terrific, actually, it's like typically 30 to 45 minutes, where I can just focus, I can put huge amounts of energy into it. And then and then I can rest, I can have a break, I can just think, Wow, that was great. You know, like, I feel good afterwards and what was energised after this podcast. That's why I'm always doing as much as I can keep them up to date and make sure that there's an episode dropping each week. So the other thing is around making those actions happen is you can have some reward at the end of it. So once I complete this deep work on this area, then I'm going to have a hot chocolate for examples. And again, you want it to be aligned to your goal. So my hot chocolates are, you know, raw Cacao 100% Cacao with a bit of molasses, it's the I guess, the more healthier sugar. But molasses and cacao, it's only two ingredients with some milk alternative, I heat it up, I love it, it's delicious. I'll have that after a podcast, for example, because I'm thinking yeah, that's something I really looking forward to. I'm gonna give it everything and then reward myself relax afterwards. And so today, what I'll do is I'll get outside and get some sunshine because I love just sort of sitting in the sun briefly, obviously, not getting too much, but just a little bit of sunshine, particularly this time of the year when it's a bit cooler, just to warm up the body feel that a nice infrared rays without getting too much of the ultraviolet rays less me it's another way in which I energise myself and keep myself energised. Again, you can have at the end of each session, each bit of focus, we're have a little reward it might be I'm going to call a mate who I haven't spoken to for a while and have a chat to them. And yeah, just have 5-10 minute chat to them just to you know, that's something I haven't done, I'm looking forward to catching up with them, I'm going to do this deep focus work and then catch up with them. Or I'm just going to do this deep focus work, grab a coffee with a friend and again, so just sort of tying the two together so that you know that you're recognising the effort you're putting in for that deep focus work and you're going to do it uninterruptedly. And then afterwards, you've got something to look forward to. So make it so that it's enjoyable. And that you are recognising at the, you know, the, you know, the really focused work that you've done. The other thing is bringing a couple of things together. So what I mean by this, when I have meetings that I know I don't need to share a screen or I know they're not sharing a screen is it's like a discussion or problem solving or a catch up, you know, just briefing someone where the project says or where you're at with that task or walk and talk. So get outside and walk so you're getting some activity whilst you're doing a meeting. And so I'll do I mean, I can't not every meeting, I can do walk and talk some meetings, I need to be sharing my screen. So you need to pick and choose your meetings. But if it's like an update meeting, or you're sort of just listening to get updated and you're not a main participant, then go on mute, go for a walk and that way you're getting exercise in, you're still getting updated. I find when I'm walking and listening, I am more present. I'm actually way more present when I'm walking and listening to I find it helps with my retention. And, and staying focused. Because I'm moving. I genuinely like to be moving. So sitting still, and

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Anthony Hartcher: 15:48

You know for periods of time makes me a bit of a jittery and I sort of hence why probably move around a lot in the podcast, for those watching it on YouTube. So yeah, so you can combine two things together where possible. And it could be or when you go to do exercise, you talk to a friend you catch up with friends, I see people doing this is when they're walking, they're talking as well, or they're doing they're learning, they're doing their podcast, you know, listening to a podcast, they're learning more about their field of expertise. So just looking at combining activities, I do it for example, when I'm you know, walking to meetings, if there's a flight of stairs, I can take rather than an escalator or lift, I'll take the flight of stairs, that way, I get a bit more activity and you know, sort of get the heart rate going clear the mind. And so I'm you know, going to the meeting, but I'm taking an option that also gives me a bit of more activity and helps my health goals. So looking at combining where you can. So yeah, so pretty much in terms of how this you know how to get priority, how to plan, make sure that you're when you're working from home, you don't get too distracted. And like for example, if you have washing to do or you need to start cooking the dinner again, have it at the end of focus work. So don't just think I got to get all my tasks out of the way before I start, I start when you're energised. And then in between meetings or in between focused work, but the washing on don't wait for the cycle to finish, go back to focus work. And then once it's finished, you can then hang it up. Or if you're cooking, for example, it's the same thing, you might want to just get the raw materials out focus work, come back to the raw materials, chop things up back to focus work, and then put it on cook for a little bit, finish the cooking for a little bit back to focus work and then further prep or whatever you need to do. But again, it's just allowing yourself seeing that sort of household chores as a way to break up the day successfully whilst getting work done, as opposed to getting all the household chores and then finding more household chores. And then at night realising I didn't really get any work done or better do my work now, okay, and then that's eating into your sleep time, which then creates sleep deprivation and is not going to be good for your health. Because studies show that with sleep deprivation, we eat more the next day. So you don't want that. And you'll eat more of the foods that you generally think that I should eat less of such as the ones high in carbohydrates, and fat. So that's what I wanted to share around that whole thing around. Planning. And this is also ties into boundaries. Okay, so in order to create boundaries, do what I mentioned, plan out your day, and then plan in the the incidental things where you're like so the things that don't require energy and focus that you can bid mundane, that are bland, such as washing and whatnot cooking, put them into when you're you've got lower energy. So when you got really good energy, do the hard stuff, focus on the hard stuff. And because you've got the energy and the resilience to tackle this, you can tackle the problems when you try to tackle the problems and the hard stuff. When you're tired. It gets you it gets you down and you find yourself looking to procrastinate because it's just too difficult. So do things that you could like so it could be any task that you find easy that you can do half asleep, factor them in at the end of the day when you're tired or could be if you're tired in the morning, maybe do some of those not so important tasks, you still need to do bit of admin or whatever it might be when you're got lower energy and then the hard stuff is when you got higher energy. So work with where your energy how your energy flows through the day when my energy dips, I'm not doing podcasts. So that mid afternoon slump I'm not doing podcasts that is when I choose to go out and exercise because my energy then picks up for the afternoon so I don't need a cup like I don't have a coffee I go out exercise get the blood circulating get the oxygen to my brain and that enables me then to have quite a productive afternoon without having another coffee or more caffeine which I know will affect my nighttime Sleep. So look at where your energy sort of wavers and it could be just after lunch. If you do get tired after lunch, I suggest you eat less at lunch, I find when you eat too much energy goes towards digestion and away from your brain and you can't think clearly and you're tired, there's less oxygen, less glucose going to your brain when you feel tired and sleepy and not productive. So eat less throughout the day, I find that really helps don't eat too much. Like if I eat a solid meal in the morning when I'm really hungry, because I haven't I eat late at night, I can eat a bit more in the morning. And I don't feel the fatigue because I'm you know, have huge amounts of energy. Whereas at lunch, I eat really like because I know if I eat a little bit too much I'll be I'll notice it because I don't have the same energy as the morning mornings, my best period. And then the other thing is making sure you factor in and plan things like that are important to holistic health. So relationships making sure you're factoring that into your weekly plan and scheduling that in when you're going to do that, when is a good time of the week to catch up with a bestie or catch up with you know, check in with family. So pick your times and book it in, book it into yourself, that work gets done. Otherwise, you think yeah, I'll get around to that it doesn't happen. So you need to book time block out time sheduled time and it will happen. So make sure you do it to keep relationships strong, keep investing time into relationships, quality time into relationships, and they will get stronger because anyway, where you're not investing time, particularly if it's important to you, that's where issues are going to arise, okay, so make sure you're investing the time in areas that are most important to you, okay, and then create the boundaries around you working from home. So have a designated area where you work that way, you know, when you're in that area you're working, when you're away from that area, you're not if you can't, if there's no physical boundaries, you can put tape on the grounds. And so as soon as you step over that tape, I'm in home mode, I'm out of work mode, I leave my computer and my phone in the office and then I'm stepping over that line, I'm in work mode family mode. And it just having that mental barrier shift. And it could be like if you don't want to put tape on the ground, because and you don't have physical walls, it may be turning a lamp on. So when you turn the lamp on, that means you're in work mode or study mode. And then when the light goes off, that means it's over. It's not like you're trying to do two things at once I'm trying to work I'm trying to be a parent, I'm trying to be a good partner, otherwise, you're torn between both and you're not doing either of either of them successfully, because you're only putting half energy into both, right. So this will help you put full energy full presence into the area that you want to be in when you're when you choose to. So having if you can't have that physical barrier where you've got a physical wall and you walk out a door to show that I've left the office or now in other parts of the house. This is when I put my parent hat on. Well, this is when I put my partner hat on. If you don't have that, as I said, you can put tape on the floor just to remind you or you can put you know turn the lamp on light on and off or for me I locked the screen I locked the screen and shut it. So the computers off i unfortunate enough I have an office that's physically dislocated from the house, I have to walk downstairs. So when I'm walking downstairs, I'm thinking, Okay, I'm in parent mode. I'm in partner mode, I'm in all that sort of stuff as opposed to trying to work downstairs upstairs. And yeah, it becomes very messy and people realise that you're not present and you're not doing either good, right? You're you're not doing your work really good to its highest quality, and you're not being the best partner, the best parents. So make sure there's clear delineation between the two that way and you either one or the other. You're either wearing your workouts or you're putting on your parent partner hat. Okay, so make sure there's clear delineation. And the other one that helps me is the night setting. So I put my laptop and also my phone on to night mode. So it automatically goes on to night mode, it's sunset and turns off at sunrise. And so between sunset and sunrise is where I don't do the screen time. And I realise it is that time because my screen becomes very yellow and very red and it's not sexy, it's not hasn't got that clear picture. And that's what the blue and the white light gives that clarity. It goes very, very warm. But it's hard to work. You can't really see that well. And so that's a reminder to me, ah, it's nighttime, it's time to do nighttime things. So use technology to your advantage switch on the settings to night mode. So it goes on to it. Essentially what the device does is filter out the white and the blue light and so therefore it's predominantly yellow and red, which isn't that sexy to look at anything. Okay, that's a good reminder. It's time for me to do Do nighttime things start relaxing, unwinding to get a good night's sleep. The other thing I like about night mode, particularly on the iPhone is that it silences, messages and everything notifications, and even phone calls. So once it's on night mode, I'm off, I'm off, I don't get any. I don't hear anything. I don't hear any being being. And so I can just focus on my night and enjoy my night Enjoying dinner with the family catching up with everyone as to how their day was, and then focusing on what I want to in our go through that reflection as to did I get what I wanted to do that day. Yeah, I did. I know this is hanging over. So then I put it tomorrow. Okay, yeah, didn't get through my list. So be it, things took a bit longer. But I'll put that thing for tomorrow. That way, I'm not thinking about it that night. So this is what I refer to Professor Russian psychologist refers to, I think he was a professor or doctor, but the zenganic fit. And so what Zenganic found was if you didn't put closure to things, it would ruminate on your mind, it will stay on your mind. So it will. So if you don't, if I just think I haven't done that task, I need to do it tomorrow. And just leave it in my mind, it will continue to ruminate and continue. So what he found is, if you don't bring closure to it, such as write it on paper on going do it tomorrow, or put a reminder to do it tomorrow. If you don't do that, then what happens is that it just constantly plays on your mind and affects your ability to fall asleep and to stay asleep. So get it on paper, get it out of your mind, start allowing it to ruminate and manifest get it out. So that's that's what I go through a reflection every evening as to what I've got done, what I didn't get done, what needs to carry over tomorrow. And then I start thinking what are the high priority things for tomorrow, making sure I've already gotten down. And so I just go through the sort of planning exercise and reflection exercise each night, at the end of the day, once my nighttime setting goes on once that once I start seeing that yellow and red light. So a good tip for you to do that. Right. So I mentioned making sure just want to touch on it again, making sure that you're not only planning your work and planning high priority work, but planning activities in areas that are important to you beyond work. So such as in health, I mentioned exercise before, but then also factoring in time to eat well. So that means you might need to factor this factor in a bit of prep time to actually go and buy the food to prepare the food and so that you're eating well during the week. Otherwise, you get caught out, oh, there's nothing in the house, I'll order Uber Eats. And generally what you order out is not as good as what you cook at home, generally speaking. So plan you know if eating well is important to you put aside time to order, like to do online grocery shopping, to go to the shops, and then to prepare your food for the week so that you're covered so that you're not caught out and needing to order takeaway, because you're too busy. So in addition to that plan tight like if relationships are really important for you, and family connection, and all that Plan time for family connection and Plan time for relationships, because if you don't, then things will fester and fester in the way that you don't want them to, because you're not allowing time to communicate effectively, or to open up or to share things that need to be shared. So factoring in time to do that. And again, you can stack up with other things. So you can do a walk and talk with your partner. So that you can share, update and share what's you know, how you're feeling and all that sort of stuff with your partner whilst you're both walking side by side, shoulder to shoulder going for a walk. So you're getting some exercise together. And you're also updating each other and sharing what's going on and how you're feeling and where you'd like more support or where you're challenged. And you know, where can I get the extra support from all those sorts of stuff. So doing that can be really helpful. Also, around exercise, like you could choose to plan it with friends. And that way you're catching up with friends regularly and you're exercising, you're doing both so you're seeing friends and exercising and you're connecting them both. And some days you won't feel like exercising, but because you've already made that commitment to be there with your friends, you're going to show up because you don't want to let your friends down. And so therefore your health benefits as well as your friendship benefits. So it's a double win. So look where you can have those double wins so that it leverages your time and you optimise the limited time we have we all only have 24 hours and just with relationships really focus on the quality of the relationship as opposed to thinking I just need to catch up with everyone no focus on the ones that are highest priority to you focus on the relationships that you know that person will be there for you in times of need. And they've demonstrated that in the past. So invest time in those relationships and prioritise those two relationships. Don't worry about the other ones, you know, the other ones should come secondary. So it's all about the depth of the relationship is most important to our health and longevity that the depth of the relationship, the longest ever study done on happiness and health demonstrates that relationships are first and foremost. And that's the depth of the relationship that matters most. Okay? So make sure you do that is your focus on the quality of the relationship, as opposed to spreading yourself too thin in terms of keeping optimistic and upbeat about working in a hybrid environment. Again, it's about setting a vision, and making sure that vision is clear as to where you're going with it or Okay, and finding what works best for you. So understanding that maybe you know, in terms of you like a day or two days at home, and you find that you can cope with that, and you're not procrastinating too much or not being distracted too much. And then you find, you know, three or four days in the office is really good and productive to be with colleagues and getting work done. And, and the great thing about going into the office is that there's clear delineation between work and home. And I meant that it's a bit, I guess, obscure in today's world, because we have mobile devices such as laptops, and mobile phones, but be clear and set boundaries with your colleagues as to when you're on and when you're off. And you can leave out office messengers saying I've finished for the day, I'm valuing my health and well being so I can be up most productive the next day. Yeah, leave a message. So again, you've got to create the boundaries, even though there may be some physical delineation, you need to create those boundaries, but then finding that, as I said, what that mix that works for you in terms of working from home, and working in the office, and really having a vision as to what you want to achieve in that day, what you want to achieve in that week, that month that, you know, quarter, that half year, that end of year. So having a clear vision of what you want to accomplish, and making sure that you then break down that clear vision into daily actions so that you're taking daily actions towards that vision. And that's how you want to measure a successful day, am I moving towards my vision? Have I done things today that have taken me towards my vision, and that's how you want to measure success and not compared to someone else in the office or compared to a friend or someone else, you want to measure yourself against your daily actions towards what's most important to you. And that's your vision of what you want to create in your life. So making sure you have that vision, that way you can stay focused on the the bigger picture, and then just taking daily actions towards that bigger picture. So I find people this is where people get tripped up with weight loss, for example, they're so focused on the scales, as opposed to the bigger picture in terms of what they want to how they want to feel, how they want to look and who they want to be around a new healthier them. And they're just so fixated on the scales, which do fluctuate with fluid retention based on stress. And based on the level of activity and how much you're drinking and not drinking and all these, there's so many factors that can affect that daily scale. And they're measuring their health success by just looking at the scale. It's not the greatest measure for for the bigger picture. It's just one piece of the puzzle. So what you want to be focused on is the daily actions you're taking towards that that healthier version of you. Have you done your exercise for the day, have you done your 30 minutes of exercise, that's what you want to measure, as opposed to other scales haven't moved. You know, nothing's working. Forget the scales, you can look at the scales in six months time, what I want you to do is focus on the daily actions that are taking you towards a new healthier you and so that will be reducing consumption of processed foods. So today, I cooked all my meals, I prepared all my meals I did not that's a win, right. I didn't order any takeaway or have any fast foods and things like that. So that's when I you know, that was one of my goals was I'm going to eat at home or I'm going to cook more I'm going to use more fresh produce. I'm going to save some money and not keep buying UberEATS I also went for 30 minute walk today. That's another win. Okay, so these are things you've addressed your diet, you've addressed your exercise, I've also honored my stress management and my sleep and recovery and rejuvenation by not doing work after 6pm Once the sun goes down, I've allowed myself to focus on relaxing in the evening so I can get a good night's sleep okay, that's another when I also delivered on my daily activities around a friend I saw that friend I deepen the relationship with them. You want to measure yourself against the daily actions that are taking you towards the vision that you have of yourself of what you want to achieve. Okay, that's that's the only comparison you want to do. And that way you'll stay on focus and you'll brighter outlook because You're measuring yourself against doing the daily actions, as opposed to worrying about what other people are achieving, and doing that they have completely unique set of goals and objectives. And they're probably deferring to yours. Most likely they are. And so why compare yourself to them, it's not worth it. It's a, it's not comparing apples to apples, it's comparing apples to oranges. So compare yourself to your daily actions, and go about doing that continuously. And that's the only comparison you want to do. And then check the scales in six months time, and you'll be really surprised, you will get away from those daily fluctuations. And you'll see the significant step change. Okay, that's more exciting. Okay, as much as it can be thinking I feel a lot better, I'm gonna jump on the scales, it can be disheartening as well stay away from it, just measure yourself based on your daily actions. And whether you're fulfilled those daily actions, and worry about looking at the scales or take measurements and stuff like that periodically, like every three months or every six months, but not every day, because there will be some slight fluctuations based on various factors I mentioned before, stay focused on the bigger picture and those daily actions to take you towards that bigger picture. Now, I mentioned stress management is a really important part of this overall puzzle. And particularly in the whole scheme of holistic health and keeping you focused and on track working from home remotely. As I said, not doing back to back meetings, allowing time between meetings in between those meetings, that's when you want to allow yourself to become mindful and not distracted. And so doing some breathing exercises between meetings, a short meditation, getting up and moving, connecting with nature, stepping outside, connecting with nature, will really ground you and get your present, reduce the stress, and will enable you not to have stress built up through the day. Because what can happen is if we're not getting out the stress during the day, it builds up and it becomes so big in the evening, you're looking for a massive stress relief, and some people open a bottle of wine in order to give that massive stress relief. And then that doesn't serve you because that's a whole lot of extra calories that you probably don't want and it affects your sleep that night and you wake up tighter the next day. So a better way to manage the stress is managing it periodically through the day so it doesn't build up and balloon and get so big that I'm about to explode on this you have a bottle of wine, release the valve during the day in between meetings, or when you feel under a bit of stress don't allow that stress. So then compounds alleviated through doing some breathing exercises or getting mindful doing some mindfulness activities, whatever that is for you. Maybe your exercise that can be where you get rid of the stress, hitting a punching bag or doing something that relieves your stress or ringing a friend that makes you laugh and takes you away from you know, reduces the stress load and you see the lighter side of life. So it could be any of those things, do what grounds you relaxes you and do it throughout the day as opposed to allowing it to compound and become a big issue at the end of the day, which then affects your sleep. Okay, you don't want that. So do it during the day don't allow it to build up. That's very much what I wanted to cover today. All those three areas as I just want to close, we discuss planning and make sure you plan the highest priority tasks based on your vision, okay, and work towards those highest priority tasks, and only compare your daily actions towards whether you've done those highest priority tasks. And don't compare yourself to others stay on track by regularly going back to the plan. What did you plan today, don't allow the distractions to take your way if it's not in the plan, put it aside to do at a later date, if it's important, but it's not in the plan for that day unless for some reason, it becomes super urgent and important. And maybe it's a client demands as such. So then you might need to shuffle things a bit. As I said, make sure you work on that plan. And only on that plan, do the Pomodoro principles stay focus, do focus periods of work and then have a break and then reward yourself in some way. Stepping outside getting some sunshine, or having a hot chocolate like I suggested it stick to your boundaries. Stay true to your boundaries don't deviate from those boundaries stick to them, like yeah, there's no gray. It's just hard, hard and fast because that we're going to keep you healthy, safe, and we'll keep you productive and energised is when we dilute the boundaries between work and we don't do either. As I said we don't do either really good. We become mindless, essentially. And we're not completely present in what we're doing. So delineate make sure you have clear delineation and let people know when you're on and when you're off. Okay, and just make sure it's clear in your mind and stay true to those boundaries because it will keep you safe. It will keep you healthy. And yes, there may be times where you need to breach it But that shouldn't be the norm. Okay, it shouldn't be the norm and don't do it because everyone else is doing it. That is not because you become unproductive, you come burnt out you you get sick and therefore they get behind. So focus on your daily actions focus on what you're doing. Look after yourself. And you always have upbeat energy, you have more resilience and you'll be getting stuff done towards your vision, okay? And don't forget to nurture relationships. As I said, it's really important to nurture and prioritise relationships, work on the priorities. And don't worry about spread. Don't spread yourself too thin. It's much better, to have deeper, higher quality relationships. I hope that helps you today in terms of being mentally tough in a virtual reality world. If you've enjoyed the episode and you find someone that's struggling with that hybrid work environment, please share this episode with them. It might give them some insights and tips, some gems as to what they can do to make themselves more productive to keep their energy up to keep them focused. I really appreciate your ears. Thank you for listening again, I'd love for you to share it with others. Make sure you follow what I shared today. And as I say don't You don't necessarily have to follow everything but just implement one thing one gym today and that will make a difference. Thank you.

Podcast Disclaimer: 41:26

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