[00:01] Welcome to The Focus B Show, where Katie Stoddart, high performance coach, interviews experts around the world in performance and mindfulness. Now here's your host. Katie.

[00:32] Welcome to a brand new episode of the Focus B show. Today I'm going to share with you some of my top daily habits. Weekly habits to optimize peak performance. It is a topic I'm really passionate about and I interview a lot of different people to find out their habits. And today I thought I'd share some of mine. To begin with, I'd like to go through my whole morning routine. I have changed this many times and it is definitely not fixed in stone. The idea of being a bit flexible, going in different directions over time is something I embrace, but overall this is the type of pattern I follow. So I like to get up somewhere between six and eight. Again, this varies. I aim for six and sometimes it can be more towards seven. This is probably the area where I allow myself the most flexibility because for me the most important aspect is having 8 hours sleep. So I aim to go to bed around ten. And if somehow I'm reading or we've seen friends or something has happened and it drags on till eight or till eleven, I mean, then the next I might get up between seven and eight, depending if it's a weekday or the weekend. Anyway, so I like to start around six or seven. Then I write morning pages. This is something I learned from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron that a lot of people refer to. And it really helps to sort of let out anything that might be preoccupying you or anything that you're maybe excited about. The concept is to write three pages first thing in the morning when you wake up, anything that's on your mind. And I have really noticed I've been doing this for months now, that it increases creativity, it helps to unblock certain aspects in your life. It's a really powerful tool. So I'd highly recommend The Morning Pages by Julia Cameron. The second thing I do is I meditate somewhere between around 15 minutes and I do this still in bed after having written my morning pages, and I just focus on my breath. Generally I count. This helps me. I do squares in my head, counting to four and then out for four and do this for 15 minutes. This way, before I've even gotten up, I've really cleared my mind both on paper and through meditating. Then I get up, I exercise around ten minutes or so. This isn't my main workout of the day, it's just to wake myself up. Might do some push ups, some squats, some sun salutations, jumping jacks. I don't have a fixed routine for this. It's literally just to get my body moving. Once I've exercised, I hop into the shower and I take a cold shower. I'm really passionate about cold showers. I talk about them a lot at my co working spaces. I think some people refer to me as a cold shower woman. I'm really passionate about wim hof's work and how cold showers can impact your life. I won't go too deeply into it now, but I will cover it for a couple of minutes. First of all, it really decreases cortisol. This is something I've noticed. If I'm going through a bit of a stressful moment, I literally will hop into the shower, there's one of the coworking space and stay there for a minute or two, have a cold shower and it's like a fast paced meditation. What I mean is, in two minutes it gives me a similar result, as if I've meditated 15, really calms down the nervous system. I feel that what it does is probably go from sympathetic nervous system to parathympathetic nervous system. I need to do some research to see if this is true, but this is how it feels to me, basically. It really calms me down. This is one of the benefits. Another one, of course, when I'm doing it first thing in the morning is it really wakes me up, but also it really increases and helps me to be in a good mood. I can't explain this otherwise, but it just gives you a burst of energy. And another reason I think it's super powerful, this is also the case with exercising, is it helps you to build up that resilience. So when you do something that's a bit uncomfortable, still good for you, like the cold showers or the exercise, there's a part in you that doesn't want to do it right. Every single morning when I take a cold shower, there's a part in me that is resistant to it. And when you overcome this, this helps you afterwards to deal with obstacles in your life and in your business. And it helps you to manage them emotionally better. So instead of being stressed by things because you have that resilience that has built up through the cold showers and the exercise makes everything easier. So the key lesson is here that if you just spend a couple of minutes every morning, literally we're talking two, three minutes tops in a cold shower, this can have a huge benefit on your business. It's really good for your health and decreases cortisol. And it also promotes right type of cholesterol and gets rid of the wrong type, et cetera. I mean, it has loads of benefits for your skin, for your breathing. It's amazing. Okay, so that was my little rant on cold showers. I couldn't help it. I love it. And I invite everyone to try at least for a month and see how it impacts your life. Moving on, still in the morning routine. Then I get ready, get dressed, have breakfast, commute to my office. So to summarize very briefly, my morning routine, it's writing, meditating, bit of exercise, cold shower and then getting ready and going to my cowork. I either walk there or bicycle. Once I'm in my coworking space, it's really important for me to start the day by being very clear on where I am going. What I mean by this is it's too easy to start the day on autopilot, opening your computer, going into emails and getting lost. So I embrace the most important task principle, which is something that Brian Tracy covered in Eat That Frog, which consists in beginning the day with your most important activity. In my case, as I'm still finishing editing my book, I start every single morning by working half an hour to an hour on my book before checking my emails, before getting on any calls, before doing any other type of activity. And while I start my day, I look at what are the three main outcomes I want for the day. I have found over the years that being outcome driven compared to to do list driven has a huge impact on productivity, on focus. Needless to say, that single tasking on each activity also is super important. So being clear on all of this before actually beginning now, go through my day. During the day, I like to fit in a workout before lunch of half an hour to an hour. I quite enjoy going to classes, yoga classes, other type of classes, and then having lunch. So this is roughly how I lead my day then with the usual calls and tasks. And in the evening, what I enjoy most is unwinding with the book, or playing the guitar, or talking with my husband, or seeing some friends. I really prefer to be technology free because I found that by the end of the day, after being on the computer all day, I don't really want to be in front of another screen. And it really helps me to relax but also learn. This is also the moment where I read and learn a lot of other things. Another important habit that I haven't covered until now is my weekly habit of reviewing the week. Every Friday, sometimes in the morning, mostly in the afternoon, I review my week. I look at what are the main outcomes I've achieved. I try and look at at least three outcomes and clarify for myself what were the big learning steps along the way and what am I celebrating. I might also look at what didn't go according to plan or what am I not satisfied with and implement that for the following week. So in my review process, I both review the past week and plan the next one. I find them to be very linked because whatever you feel you haven't achieved or didn't go according to plan during the week, you can actually put in place for the following week. This has helped me tremendously over the years, especially to see if there's anything I was procrastinating. If something keeps popping up on your main outcome for the following week, then it's a clear indication that you are procrastinating. It also really important to take the time to celebrate the wins. Being a hyperachiever, I know that it's very easy to concentrate on what isn't going well and to forget to celebrate what you are really happy about. This is so essential. My business mentors have covered this over and over again. Another important habit that I haven't mentioned yet is what Ben Grinfield talks about in terms of exercise. So we often think that we need to do one big powerful workout and then that's it. But Ben Greenfield explained in this Jarek Robbins course that I took on peak performance. He explained that our bodies are meant to move all day. This is why I have a standing desk, this is why I leave my office every hour or so to be in movement, because we're supposed to be constantly active. This doesn't mean you have to work out all day. But if you even stop every hour to just walk around your office or your home, to do a few push ups, to do some sun salutations, this will have a tremendous impact on how energized you feel. Speaking of energy, this is a huge pillar of energy is exercise. Another one is meditation. Because having that time out for your mind can't be replaced by anything else. Like that empty space. That clear space in your mind can give you so much focus during the day. It's a huge boost for peak performance. So exercise, meditation, nutrition. I cook my meals during the weekend or in the evening, so I have my lunch to take with me. We're not going to go through a nutrition class now, but obviously this is hugely important and I really notice a difference sometimes the OD lunch I eat out if it's a bit less healthy. I really can feel a bit of that food coma in the afternoon and sleep, which I've already covered in terms of getting at least 8 hours so in the evening to finish on my evening routine. So you get an overview of my whole day and weeks. Once I've read and relaxed, I write my journal, which is different to my morning pages, my morning pages in the morning, my journal as just a journal about the day or my feelings or how things have gone. And then I just go to sleep, basically. Try to dim the lights a bit, try to open the window in the bedroom half an hour or so before because we sleep so much better in a cool environment and then just fall asleep. So this is a brief overview of my key habits and the ones that I love most. As you could tell, the cold shower came up quite a bit and exercising and combined. Now you don't have to do each and every one of these. Find the ones that work for you, create your own recipe combined. They're such a powerful way to improve how you feel, to improve your energy. And this will directly impact your productivity, your peak performance in your business, and even your mindset, because we haven't delved into it here. But when you're journaling, when you're doing your morning pages, when you're doing your weekly review, that's also the moment where you can really start to write down what's going on and rewire your beliefs and rethink about certain concepts in your life and in your business. So this is also super important. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Please leave a review. Say what's inspired you most and what you're going to put into place. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day. Bye.

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