Hi guys, and welcome back to Change Wired Podcast, the podcast where we decode the human side of transformation and change so you can move faster, lead smarter, create more lasting impact and grow predictably and consistently. I'm your host, angela Shur, executive coach, culture, transformation and change leadership consultant, someone who's very passionate about changing our behavior, because when we change our behavior, everything else changes, and today we are talking about productivity. Today is Monday in this part of the world, in my corner of the world, and every Monday well, actually, it all starts on Sunday. Every Sunday, I open up my calendar app that, for me, is Google Calendar app and I look at everything that is going to happen this week All the meetings, all the calls, all the things that I need to do to build my business, everything my studying, and I look at it so I could better prepare for not just my meetings, not just my calls, not just to build my business, but to also make sure that my health is taken care of, that I have healthy foods to eat, that I know when and where I'm going to work out, whether that's a long workout or a very short one, and whether I'm going to do it at home using my phone or going to go to my favorite gym, which is a walking distance away. And, by the way, I almost always and I switch my place of living a lot but I always make sure that all of the things that I need, like my grocery shops and my fitness, are in a walking distance. And the reason I do so is because I do want to exercise, is because I do know that I like to do my grocery shopping and then cook my meals, and so making it more convenient makes all the sense, because these are the things that will support my performance, my productivity, my wellness, my consistency with things that matter in all the other arenas. So I am being strategic and because of that, I am more productive. So today's podcast, actually, as I think about it, it's not so much about productivity but about being strategic. Yesterday I had a session with a client, and currently we are working on his eating and his exercise habits, and at the end of our session I sent him our executive notes, and the notes start with the phrase winning starts long before the battle. Prepare smart and have. The victory is already yours. Be strategic about your health as you are about your work.
Speaker 1The second point was on hunger always wins. Have healthy options available at all times, and you'll be surprised and you'll win without any willpower, which also talks to this first point of. Very often I noticed that in myself and in my clients we would end up grabbing a muffin or a candy or whatever is there, because we are hungry and this is the only option that's there in the office or at that event that you went to and you didn't eat well and you didn't prepare anything, and hunger always wins. But if you do have some options in your backpack, in your bag a few apples, a few bananas, some dried meat, some biltong or beef chorki, depending on where in the world you are you have some protein bar, maybe some almonds, whatever does the job of helping your hunger to go away. They actually did research when they asked people to resist different foods or cookies, like freshly baked cookies. People would resist that more if they were fat right before it.
Speaker 1And there is a very well-known strategy in healthy eating where coaches, dieticians, nutritionists would advise their clients to when you go, for example, to the restaurant or to some occasion and you don't want to overeat and you don't want to make poor choices, don't go hungry. Actually. Eat something, have some water. Have something with protein like chicken breast piece of meat. Again. Have something with protein like chicken breast piece of meat, again built on. Have an apple, have a banana. Protein is the most satiating nutrient. But have something before going there and you'll be surprised how much easier it is for you to make the right choices. And the reason is because your brain is very sensitive to energy balance and when you get hungry, yeah, your brain starts prioritizing getting more energy-dense options and just getting more food. So keeping hunger at bay is one of the best strategies to eat healthier. Not trying to train your willpower and the way you do it is thinking a little bit more in advance about where you're going to get your food and how.
And that's where my Sunday ritual comes in. I prepare all the food, I do all the shopping. I cook my eggs, I cook my proteins, I prepare veggies. I make sure that I don't have to think about food. And when I have days when I'm out and I have meetings and calls and I'm just never by any food place, at least I have my essentials with me. I have my dried meat or apples, or bananas, some almonds or walnuts, some protein bars, some rice cakes, so I could crunch them on the way somewhere or in between meetings, taking a break in a co-working place. When you have options, you'd be surprised by how much better, smoother things go.
Speaker 1Every morning I also start with looking at my calendar to make sure that I am prepared for all the stuff that's coming up. And I also ask myself this question Well, if in the worst case scenario let's say there is traffic or let's say this meeting runs longer what are my options? How can I make sure that, even when the worst case scenario happens, that I'm still taken care of? And again, when you ask this question and you truly prepare for all the things like another example if you have a talk coming up or a workshop and you know that it's going to take some time to example, if you have a talk coming up or a workshop and you know that it's going to take some time to prepare and you're not sure how much exactly of time you need or how the whole preparation is going to go, your ideas etc. Are you going to get stuck? You'll need some help of others. Plan in advance more time so you're not rushed in the last moment having to put it all together even though more preparation would serve this project better. Just live more time and, based on your experience, adjust as necessary.
Speaker 1I know that for me to prepare for a talk, for example, I need to usually have three rounds. I need to have draft round when I sit down and just think about that and I put things together how I see it flowing and going, think about that and I put things together how I see it flowing and going. And then the second one is when I let it sit there, ferment for a couple of days and then I come into that and I start adding it. These days, I do it also with the help of AI and the process goes faster, but I still don't trust AI to do all the work, because AI is not in my head and it doesn't know all the details, all the intricacies. It doesn't have all my experience. No matter how much I talk to AI, it's still not me, and so I added that. And then I give it to feedback, if I can, to people who I'm going to work with, for whom it's a workshop, if I have this opportunity, or I can going to work with for whom it's a workshop, if I have this opportunity, or I can ask someone who does similar kind of work, and then, after that feedback, I'm going to do the final version, and usually during right before the event, I might edit it slightly as well, but knowing my patterns, I know that I need to live a little bit more time, not just a couple of hours right before the event. So planning in advance really helps you to also be more calm, more confident and know your material a lot better, because you know that you work on it for that amount of time and you know why you put every single piece in it.
Now, for your work, you probably are quite strategic. You probably do all the things that you got to do to show up, if not your best, then in pretty good condition. Most people are quite good with social accountability, preparing for others, especially if it's something like a job, and you are more strategic usually when it comes to, again, social accountability to your work, things that you do with others, whereas I notice that a lot of leaders that's probably their leaders, that they think more about others Leaders forget to be as strategic with themselves. Others Leaders forget to be as strategic with themselves, and sometimes they forget that to a point that they think, oh, I am too busy to take care of myself, or to start this passion project, or to maybe start writing or creating this movie or working on this side gig whatever that is working on my health, working on my fitness. Sometimes leaders forget super busy people forget that you actually can apply strategy there as well, and you'll be surprised how much better, how much more you can get done with a little bit more preparation.
Speaker 1If you always say to yourself, well, I'm too busy to eat healthy or to get fit and I don't have time for workouts or do some elaborate cooking and do meal prep, you know you don't have to. You're still going to eat, right, even if you get takeout, you still can order better options. Guess what? A lot of grocery stores also have quite good healthy options when it comes to prepared meals. You can also have meal delivery service, so you never have to think about ordering anything, but instead it's going to show up at your door every week and then you can eat for entire week healthy meals, and you can even take those meals with you. You can spend 30 minutes on Sunday, order some healthy snacks from your favorite grocery supermarket they also deliver these days and then you can have those snacks with you if you need to go out, if you need to go to work.
Speaker 1You can health-proof your workplace, your office. You can put canned tuna, beef, jerky rice, cakes, fruit, canned tuna, beef, jerky rice cakes, fruit. If you have a fridge, brick yogurt, all this stuff that is prepared, that is ready to eat. If you do any grocery shopping but I believe also your health does it's worth taking 20 minutes and looking at a side of a grocery supermarket and ordering some healthy snacks that you can put in the office, in home, so when you are hungry, you have great stuff available. Or workouts you can now have apps and different workouts to do in your home. You don't even have to go somewhere. And if you don't have five minutes for your fitness and there is also fitness snacks there's small bouts of exercise done on your breaks while you work, taking 10 body squats while you work and then continuing working.
Speaker 1All of these things don't require a lot of time. They just require a little bit of advanced thinking. And that's how being strategic about your health, about your life, about your passions, about your growth. On my lunch break, I set up an alarm in my calendar to do a 15-minute journaling exercise dedicated to developing certain aspects of my character, like kindness, generosity, being more other-oriented, and I ask chat GPT to every day, just give me exercises to work through in those 15 minutes and that also allows you to have a break, to take some time off your main work and then do this thing for yourself and then, fresher, come back to what you were doing, at the same time growing as a person you know.
Speaker 1Just today, andrew Huberman, this amazing neuroscientist from Stanford, made a post about how, when you just focus on what you want to develop more often during the day, you bring your attention towards that, like, for example, being more kind or being more other-oriented and asking yourself questions like how can I deliver more value to the people I interact with in my day, how paying your attention, focusing on that a few times a day, setting up some reminders, will already move you into that direction. And all that to say, becoming more life strategic. Strategic not just about work and projects and things you got to do for other people, but also strategic about your health, about your personal development, about your fitness, about your relationship. Becoming a little bit more strategic and thinking a little bit more in advance will not just save you a lot of frustration, but also will help you to use your time smarter, back to productivity, and also will move not just your work forward but also other things that make your life complete and fulfilling and a lot more enjoyable. If we're talking about your health and fitness, when you take care of yourself, you'll be surprised how more enjoyable your life gets.
And then back to strategy and productivity. Sam Altman, the founder, the CEO of OpenAI, chat, gpt creator, has this post on productivity, and the first and last thing he writes about is basically strategy what you work on before how you work on it. So I'm reading you from Sam Altman's blog post on productivity it doesn't matter how fast you move if it's in a worthless direction. Picking the right thing to work on is the most important element of productivity and usually almost ignored. And picking the right thing, guys, is being strategic. So think about it more. Independent thought is hard, but it's something you can get better at with patience. And then, to finish off his blog, sam Altman writes, finally, to repeat one more time productivity in the wrong direction isn't worth anything at all. Think more about what to work on, and that again comes back to looking at your calendar, looking at how you distribute, how you invest your time in advance it doesn't have to be that much in advance and asking yourself this well, if I were truly committed to my growth, to my health, to my fitness, not just to my work if I were truly committed, how can I be a little bit more strategic, a little bit more forward thinking, so I could put systems in place to help myself succeed and move forward and grow in those areas as well?
Speaker 1I'm also going to share a small, very simple personal story that will help you to relate how strategy might be very simple and how it can save you so many small frustrations that sometimes end up feeling like one big frustration. Every Friday morning I hike a mountain and at that time there are no buses, no transportation and Uber drivers are sleeping or where I am just very inconsistent. So I used to get frustrated and sometimes I would miss a hike, sometimes I would be late. And then I realized, ah, there is this feature called book for later and you can book Uber in advance even the day before. And I started doing that and Uber came on time and I would never miss a hike, I would never be late and, most importantly, I would never worry. And so, just by thinking a little bit in advance, I avoided all this downstream trouble, frustration and worry and I could dedicate my mind space to something completely different.
So I'm asking you if you say to yourself well, I'd like to take better care of myself, I'd like to start my writing project, I'd like to start my new business, new geek, or I'd like to take another project at work, or I'd like to work on my relationship, whatever it is you want to work on, but I'm too busy. Guess what? There'll never be enough time to do all the things that you want to do, that you got to do. You're never going to have more time. As far as I'm concerned, 24-hour cycle is never going to go anywhere. So you might as well start thinking a little bit more strategically about your life, not just about your work, and plan things to put systems in place to make you move forward, to make you succeed in other important areas of your life, not just your work.
Speaker 1Again back to my client session and our conversation. So the most important takeaway was just you're still going to go do grocery shopping. You're still going to spend some time on thinking about your food or ordering. So why don't you think a little bit more and get those healthy grocery snacks and meals at home. So when you eat them without preparation maybe boiling a few eggs, maybe preparing some other convenient snack at work and for home in advance and then seeing how less willpower you need to stick with your health and fitness resolutions.
Speaker 1Big things are great, but you know what works in life a lot better Small things done consistently and with a little bit forward thinking. So I hope this helps. Guys. Happy Monday. Stop and think about it today. If I was truly committed to my health, my fitness, developing myself, my side project, my passion project, what could I do today to organize my calendar, to create systems, to plan in advance, to make this happen, not in a big way, but in a small way, consistently, and consistency compounds just like a return on investment.
Have an amazing day ahead. Plan a little bit in advance. Avoid all the frustrations. Move the important things forward. Don't try to do all of it. Try to move the important things forward. Don't try to do all of it. Try to do the important things as Sam Altman recommends in his productivity blog, and stay tuned. For Wednesday, by the way, we're going to discuss more of Sam Altman's productivity on the health side. We're also going to talk more about recent discoveries on my side connecting productivity, growth, change and becoming your best by learning how to take better care of yourself, but also learning from research and neuroscientists how you optimize your workday so you don't feel fatigued, you don't feel tired and you can actually work and accomplish a lot more meaningful things. So stay tuned for that. Until next time, let's stay strategic.