Rockstar Teachers Podcast
Rockstar Teachers Podcast
EP. 05 | Productivity Hacks From A Master
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Juan Bendana is a renowned speaker, author, and DJ who speaks on high school & University campuses as well as conferences internationally. He speaks to 50,000+ students, educators, and parents across Canada & the United States every year.
He is the Founder of The 100 Day Playbook, a guided Journal that helps students build better habits, boost productivity, & optimize their life.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
Productivity is something that takes constant practice. There are good days and there are 'not so productive' days. But there are some simple strategies that you can implement to help ensure you have all the right pieces aligned to ensure a successful & productive day!
MINDSET & ACTION
Before productivity begins, you must first start with the right mindset. There are simple things you can do to 'trick' your brain to into a productive mindset.
1) Environmental Cues (setting the stage & be intentional)
2) Real Clothing (get out of your PJ's)
3) Be Present
TAKING ACTION:
1) Work out and be active!
2) Have an accountability partner
3) Drink Water
4) Stay organized
EPISODE SPONSOR: Revolution Lightboards
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Alter Ego | An award-winning performance expert reveals the secret behind many top athletes and executives: creating a heroic alter ego to activate when the chips are down.
King Warrior Lover Magician | Redefining age-old concepts of masculinity, Jungian analysts Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette make the argument that mature masculinity is not abusive or domineering, but generative, creative, and empowering of the self and others. Moore and Gillette clearly define the four mature male archetypes that stand out through myth and literature across history: the king (the energy of just and creative ordering), the warrior (the energy of aggressive but nonviolent action), the magician (the energy of initiation and transformation), and the lover (the energy that connects one to others and the world), as well as the four immature patterns that interfere with masculine potential (divine child, oedipal child, trickster and hero).
What is going on Rockstar teachers I hope that your summer is going amazing. Despite everything that is crazy going on right now. Well in today's podcast, don't you worry we have someone who is uplifting, positive and will surely drop some amazing productivity hacks that will make you dance.
Unknown Speaker :Okay, maybe not really dance but get you excited. I'm your host Brian Williams and you're listening to the rock star teacher podcast.
Unknown Speaker :Now before we jump into today's episode, I want to give each
Unknown Speaker :huge shout out to our show sponsor revolution light boards. Now, as nearly every teacher in the country has been forced to become a master at virtual teaching. One thing they may have found hard to replace was their whiteboard. So revolution light boards has created a lightboard system that allows you to literally look like you are writing in thin air all while being live on screen and to see your students at the exact same time. It works with any computer any streaming software as its equipment based. They sent me one to try out and I had to tell you this thing is amazing. I get compliments on it every time I send someone a video. It's well built, super easy to use, and there's a link in the podcast description so you can check it out. And to see them live in use. You can also go to revolution light boards.com now
Unknown Speaker :In today's episode, I get the privilege to interview one of my friends and fellow speakers want. One is one of the nation's most sought after speakers for high school and college audiences across North America. The main reason why I wanted to bring one on to the show specifically is because he is a master at at home productivity. During this entire COVID-19 crisis. Many people have been working from home, but they've also been struck with How do you stay productive while at home? This can relate to any teacher, parent or someone who just found themselves at the end of the day just thinking, Why was I so distracted today? Now I get that at time sometimes I stop and think wow, this just took me two hours to do something that should have taken me only 30 minutes and I'm sure everyone listening to this podcast right now. has felt that exact same feeling at some
Unknown Speaker :point over the last couple months. Well, there are many solutions and simple life hacks that you can use to fix this. Now one will mention many books and takeaways in today's episode so you can find those at think kindness.org slash podcast and just click on episode number five. Okay, let's do it. Let's rock.
Unknown Speaker :What's going on Juan, thank you so much for jumping on the rock star teacher podcast, man. I am stoked to have you. Thanks for jumping on. What is up, Brian, thank you for having me. I'm stoked to be a part of this and I'm excited to get to hang out. And so I know for a lot of people that are at home right now they're having to navigate this. This
Unknown Speaker :New World and for some people, it's navigating the world of obviously teaching. But it also creates this new world for a lot of people of what it's like to work from home, and working from home for a lot of people.
Unknown Speaker :At first, you're like, Man, this is this is the dream, but then you start realizing all the different things that can come into play, that can distract you from being productive, whether it is your kids running around, whether it's the fridge, the TV, the radio, you know, all the other projects, laundry, whatever it may be, and how have you been navigating on staying productive because you are a productivity machine. And that's why I wanted to bring you on this show today, and to offer some great stellar tips on how people can still be productive and at the end of the day, probably have a lot more free time. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker :I I couldn't agree more. I appreciate you saying that. And I, I think it really comes down to two separate things. And I want to sort of hit on two angles of this because when we talk about productivity, oftentimes one is left out, which is the mindset of productivity is one side. But then there's also the actions of staying and boosting your level of productivity. And for me, being someone that works from home when I'm not, you know, at high schools or colleges, universities Student Leadership Conference says giving speeches, I'm doing a lot of my work from home. So I've built systems around being at home that allow me to be more productive, and I find that there's certain things that you're able to do that drastically change your level of productivity, but the problem is, we have all of these triggers when we're at home
Unknown Speaker :We have these associations and in our minds we associate being a home, oftentimes with everything but work. And we have all of these micro associations with the living room with the bedroom with the kitchen. And what happens is when we get into those environments, when we step into those settings, we experience the emotions and the mindsets that are associated to those settings. So I think First things first is talking about the mindset of productivity. It really comes down to setting up queues. And what queues are, is certain things in your environment that you associate and can build associations to productivity with whether it's and this may sound absolutely crazy, but it is an actual thing that works. This is what I use in all of the different environments of where I live.
Unknown Speaker :Whether it's even a mug that you feel when you're drinking coffee, or a tea or even water out of that mug, you just feel a little more productive. Or it's, it's a certain way that you set up your desk. Oftentimes, you know, we were at home and we have, we don't have a pre determined workspace. So setting up and being intentional of the workspace and the desk that you're working at, whether that's having it very clean, or some people love the chaos of having papers everywhere, regardless of what it is, that's another cue that is able to set your mind up to be able to tell it, hey, this is somewhere where we're going to work. This is this is somewhere where we're actually going to become productive. So that's one cue setting up environmental cues of being at your desk and having an organized desk or having a favorite coffee mug or something else is
Unknown Speaker :actually wearing real people, clothing. I can't Brian, I cannot tell you how important this is. For all the teachers that are listening right now there's something called enclosed cognition. Essentially what that means is that the the clothes that we wear, the clothing that we have on day to day, affects the way that we see ourselves. It affects our identity, Martin Luther King, a lot of and I heard this story recently in a book that I read called the alter ego, by Todd Herman. It's a phenomenal book, a talk talks about all these alter egos. And one of the examples that he gives was that Martin Luther King, what a lot of people don't know is that he wore glasses because he felt like they made him seem more intelligent. He actually didn't need them. And he wore them and they have they have these glasses at a museum.
Unknown Speaker :These are the glasses that were just clear frames. They they he wore them to, to relay the message to the people around him that he was more intelligent. They also did a really, really cool study. I think this is this is probably ultra relevant to the listeners of this podcast, Brian, because they did a study with five year olds, and they had them solve a puzzle, an impossible task. They were given a set of locks and a set of keys and it was this puzzle that that was not possible to break. They had that group work on it. And eventually after a little, a little bit, they gave up, the students gave up. They had another group and they gave them capes, like Wonder Woman and Batman capes. And they asked them to put on the capes, and they were told to solve the exact same puzzle. That group is
Unknown Speaker :lasted 50% longer
Unknown Speaker :than a third group that they gave them the cape, they gave them the mass, but they said, Now you're going to solve this puzzle as if you were your favorite superhero as if you're Batman as if you were a wonder woman. And that group lasted twice as long as the first two groups combined.
Unknown Speaker :So that is the power of enclosed cognition of a lot of you see a lot of people in this crazy time that we're living in that are at home, that still are, you know, they have their, their, quote, unquote, regular schedule of work, but they're wearing their home clothes. So what's happening in the brain is that they're associating work with those home clothes, and they're associating the feeling of being home with work. So one of the Ninja trick that I've used that has been genuinely the most helpful in
Unknown Speaker :Staying productive at home is changing into the clothes that I would wear as if I were going into the real world. I think that is something that is so important, especially in this time where most people are, are really staying home they're not even going out for for walks, they're only going out for essential, you know, groceries and and essential things that they need to get done. I think it's drastically important to be able to wear real people clothing. And now I just have to ask one question now. If the group that worked capes lasted twice as long are you an advocate of teaching and showing up to work in a cape?
Unknown Speaker :I
Unknown Speaker :absolutely is the
Unknown Speaker :teacher teachers because they are the real heroes. Wear capes are invisible.
Unknown Speaker :Go get a real go get a real one.
Unknown Speaker :Hello, capes. Yeah, but this brings up a huge point because even my daughter with, with what she says what she notices is seeing the teachers in like, not teacher clothes. You know, and I and I see two sides of it, you know, one, it's humanizing the teachers. But at the same point, it's making sure that you're not showing up in pajamas. And as someone that works from home as well, I can attest it. Yeah, there's times where I wake up, and I do the morning routine. And then I go to my office and then come one o'clock I realize you know, wow, I'm still wearing the same clothes. You know, and and you look and it just doesn't I did I just feel muggy. I just feel like, like, I just got off on the wrong foot that day. And so that is an incredible, incredible point. Yeah. And, and I think it's, it's really because, you know, I don't think there's any single
Unknown Speaker :Unbelievably wrong with wearing you know, your, your favorite pair of track pants at home and being comfy and cozy and still getting to work. It's it's just making the, the differentiator in our day and, and being able to shut off when we when we want to turn that work off where, you know if if you're a teacher listening right now and you have you know, you have work until and you're teaching until two or 3pm and then you are marking for another few hours. And then you're transitioning to make dinner into, you know, have have a movie night with your spouse, or have a hangout with some friends over zoom. Then that differentiation there and that break allows you to bring another energy to that space and allows you to bring the part
Unknown Speaker :view that shows up in your relationship when it's needed. And that allows you to bring the part of yourself that shows up when you're teaching when it's needed, because we all have even though we are one person, and I get this, you know this whole conversation around being authentic and, and being your true self and I agree with all of those points, but we all have these different personalities. Because the person that we are at school isn't necessarily the person that we are when we show up in our relationship with our significant other and isn't the person that we show up when we're with our best friends? We have slight differences. And these archetypes there's a great book called King warrior lover magician, it talks about these different archetypes. It's the psychology of personalities. And that the premise is that we have all of these personalities within us that if we learn to tap into those personalities if we learn to harness
Unknown Speaker :The power of the personality that we bring to our relationship and the personality we bring to our students at school, then we're able to have this, this dynamic sense of who we are and it sort of builds these additional layers that allow us to serve at a higher level, allow us to contribute in more meaningful ways and allow us to be a heck of a lot more productive while we're at home because we put on or I'm going to work hat and then we make it happen and, and I think that's, that's really a key and even if, you know you want to wear the track tense and and you want to be comfy, making the intention of shift of, of, I'm showing up as a teacher, and I'm showing up as a leader and I'm showing up as this person to be able to serve this outcome at the highest level and making that intention of shifting
Unknown Speaker :Because a lot of times, people are showing up random, and the randomness and stealing their greatness. And they're they're showing up with the same personality, the same energy, the same level of commitment, the same level of energy, in their relationships, in school, in business in life with themselves. And it all blends into one picture.
Unknown Speaker :As opposed to creating this dynamic personality that has so many amazing layers to offer.
Unknown Speaker :Love it. And so step one was, was environmental cues. Step two, put on some real clothes. What are some of the next steps? So yeah, environmental cues, you know, in closed cognition, putting on real clothes, I think while we're on the topic of
Unknown Speaker :because I want to cover the productivity mindset, first, and then go into the actions that we can actually take to to really
Unknown Speaker :execute on those actions. So another piece so we have the environmental piece, which is going to affect our mindset, our environment shapes, the way we see the world and the way we see ourselves, our environment. You know, you've heard the age, old adage of you are the five people that you surround yourself with. That is also true for the environment that you put yourself in. If you're an environment that you feel inspired by, that energizes you, you're going to feel like you can get more done. If you're an environment that feels cluttered, and random and stuck. You're also going to feel those emotions. So you want to make sure your environment is is primed to get you to the outcome that is desired to get you your desired result. And that takes you know whether that's clearing up your space cleaning once a week, I do it on Sunday mornings, having those things to do
Unknown Speaker :Cleaning up that environment is going to drastically change your level of productivity. The second piece is that in quotes, cognition wearing real people human being close, and the third piece is being present. And why that is even related. Some of you are probably thinking, how is presidents related to productivity?
Unknown Speaker :Because oftentimes, we're our own worst enemy. And we are constantly because our brains are a survival mechanism. They're designed to keep us safe. And the problem is, since there is no saber toothed Tigers around like there were millions of years ago, our brains look for stress, they look for anxiety, they look for clutter, they look for all of the things that are going wrong because their sole purpose. They're just trying to keep us safe. And that's seeing from a perspective of looking at the future of what could happen, what could go wrong and in the world that we're living in today, there is more anxiety. There's more
Unknown Speaker :stress about the future than there has ever been before. People don't know we don't know when we're going to go back to normal life. We don't know when we're going to go back to school, we don't know when we're going to cable to go outside consistently. Instead, a lot of people are afraid that a lot of people are living in fear. So the third piece of being of being able to have a productive mindset is to be able to be present in the moment in what you're doing, whether that's working with your students on a call, whether that's marketing, whether that's taking some time to decompress after you're done school, but being present in the moment, because oftentimes, you know, that we we think we need to do all of these things to inspire the students that we work with and we have to do an act and and and oftentimes it comes down to being present.
Unknown Speaker :Because that's what that's what students remember the most and that's what people remember the most
Unknown Speaker :People won't remember what you said or what you acted on. And they'll remember the way you made them feel. And there's nothing that can create and generate a feeling more than presence. So in terms of the productivity mindsets, the three pieces are getting those environmental cues, because those are going to infect affect your environment more, in effect your productivity mindset more than anything. The second is enclosed cognition, making sure that you're being intentional with the superhero armor, and the superhero cape that you show up with every day. And the third is finding ways to be present. Even taking four deep breaths in a box breathing tab. This is where you hold. You breathe in for five, you hold for five, you breathe out for five, and you hold for five. So if you can picture, a box, your breathing, five seconds for each side of the box, and you're focusing on your breathing whenever I feel better
Unknown Speaker :myself thinking about the future or, or with something that happened in the past or worried about a certain outcome, I do that breathing. It takes me a whopping 20 seconds. And I'm back into the present moment. So those are the three productivity mindset pieces that are going to allow us to actually get into the productivity action pieces.
Unknown Speaker :Love it No, no, what are some hacks that you've got to where
Unknown Speaker :your mindsets just not there like you wake up and you just don't feel in the zone. You know, you've gone in and you show up to your desk, it's clean, you have your clothes on, you're ready to go but for some reason, like you just mentally are not checked in. Do you have any any tips on how to kind of like flip the switch or to get motivated when
Unknown Speaker :When you'd rather be outside because the sun is shining? Yeah, I? That's a great question. I think it's, I think it's a necessary thing to address. Because oftentimes when we wake up, maybe we didn't get a great sleep. And there's a lot of stressors that come at us in any given day. So being able to tackle those even when we don't want to, because I think the thing is, and I see this a lot with excited students, where they, you know, they go to a student leadership conference, or even excited teachers and educators when they go to a conference, and they're so excited. And they're going to act on all these things. And they're going to take action and take names and like, do all of this stuff. And then when they get home, it's a different story, because there's been a loss in momentum. So I think one of the first things and I think in my opinion, the most important thing,
Unknown Speaker :To do in those moments is not negotiate with your mind. And what I mean by that is that the stories that we're telling ourselves of being that and maybe we got four hours or five hours of sleep, maybe we're tired, maybe we're sluggish. And we feel like we're in a slump. In those moments, we have a choice, we have a choice to be able to buy into the idea that we're tired to buy into the idea that we don't want to, or decide to act action is the cure all. And the specific action that I personally think is the number one most effective thing to get you out of that mindset, get you out of your own head and into feeling more energized. Because the truth is a power plant doesn't have energy, it generates energy. Human beings are we have these amazing vessels that have so much untapped potential when it comes to energy. And oftentimes, we're not using it even remotely to its its full potential. So the one action specific action that I
Unknown Speaker :personally do every single morning is workout is move my body. That is something that has become the most important part of my day and sets my day up to be able to experience a level of energy today this morning. I woke up. It was six in the morning, I did not want to get out of bed. There was no part of me that was excited and eager to wake up and get out of bed and attack the day. I got less sleep than I wanted to. I was up in the middle of the night. I didn't get my full REM cycle. But I got up and I had the conversation in my mind that happens so often of well, I could just sleep in a little more. Well, I can you know,
Unknown Speaker :I can just miss one day I've been I've been so consistent.
Unknown Speaker :And that conversation quickly got extinguished by two things. One was the commission
Unknown Speaker :Have I'm not there, there is no negotiating, I'm making the decision to take action anyways, because I know from previous experiences and a track record that this works of moving my body works. And the second, which is a key piece to this is I knew my roommate, Shane was going to be up. And he was going to be waiting to do a workout at 615 in the morning, like we've been doing every single morning. And that level of accountability and that commitment that I gave him, and that that desire to show up for him
Unknown Speaker :is what really what really keeps me consistent and what really keeps me going. So in those moments where you feel tired, like you don't want to do anything, like you don't want to log into zoom for the seventh day in a row. Like you want to just go outside. Like you want this thing to be over.
Unknown Speaker :Those moments I think, the most important thing,
Unknown Speaker :even if it's, you know, a few jumping jacks, something to physically engage your body, I think is one of the if not the most important thing to generate energy even when it's not there. The second piece to make sure that that remains consistent is committing to someone in your life that you're going to do that and having something on the line having someone an accountability partner, to be there every step of the way, so that when you do feel like slipping, when you do feel like sleeping in when you do feel like missing that morning and that you don't have class until nine or 930 or 10, and you can just have a little bit of a lazy morning you have that person to check you. You have a person to be there with you along the way.
Unknown Speaker :So, Brian honestly I think it's fitness and and, and being active in general has changed the way my energy levels have been consistently but just changed the way I approach the day in general and have been a huge game changer one. One part I want to add to that is that when I wake up in the morning, immediately I grab my water bottle and I drink a full water ball. That is something if you are feeling you know, unmotivated, sluggish, tired, lazy in the morning, you're feeling groggy, yes workout, but before that. It's simple remedy and you're able to do this during the day if you feel like you're getting that afternoon slump. Drink a full water, full bottle of water that absolutely it oxygenates your blood cells. It it absolutely changes your level of energy.
Unknown Speaker :Those two things paired together. Are game changing. Awesome. Awesome. Now what about your planning process?
Unknown Speaker :Do you have a pen and paper task list? What do you do to plan out your day your week? To make sure that you are operating, you know, as efficiently as possible? Yeah, yeah. Oh, this is like, this is my just my jam. I love this sort of stuff. In terms of my process. What I used to do is I used to create, you know, a to do list and I would have items on there and then when I would finish them and complete them, I would just cross them off. This worked a little bit, but I realized that it was a flawed system, because it's random and there is no priority. And there is no clarity. And that
Unknown Speaker :to do as though it was it would work and by the end of
Unknown Speaker :The day you know, I'd cross off most things. It wasn't an effective product, productivity strategy long term. So what I started doing every week, I plan out my calendar, I use iCal but even if you know I've friends, I use Google calendar that works as well. Any calendar system if you have a calendar, fantastic. If you don't, I highly recommend setting one up. This is game changing when it comes to your level of productivity. So every Sunday, I schedule in my calendar to build out my calendar for the week ahead. And I plan every hour in time blocks. The difference between the to do list and time blocking is that a to do list doesn't oftentimes doesn't have a set end time on each task. It's like okay, I need to I need to complete this assignment I need to mark these papers. I need to go do a workout.
Unknown Speaker :I need to eat lunch, I need to dinner I need to read. And none of them have time slots where they're free determine, this is how long this is going to take. and at what time we're actually going to do this. So then our days by having it to do this like that become more and more random. So what I do is I build a calendar every single week, and I build day to day in time blocks. Usually I'll make those time blocks anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes, some time blocks will be two to three hours, but I have a system where I do something called focus sprints, and I build these into my calendar and this is another productivity ninja trick that is game changing. Focus burns are essentially where you focus your deep focus work for 45 sometimes, you know if you're just starting out doing it, 30 minutes, 45 minutes an hour, where you have focused time where you shut off your
Unknown Speaker :Your phone, you're not doing anything else and you're focused on the task at hand. After that focus sprint is done. Then you take a 510 15 minute break, you grab some water, you go to the bathroom, you call a friend, you take a little bit of a break and then you set up for your next focus sprint. Those have I've just with that strategy of alone, I get almost twice as much done in my days with doing those focus Sprint's because I don't burn out. And I don't sit looking at a computer, especially in the times that we live in looking at a computer for six, seven hours straight. So I'll spend 3045 minutes really honing in on the task and then I'll take a break a from looking at my screen, because you want to look at something you know, every 3040 minutes, something at least 10 or 20 feet away so that you don't get headaches.
Unknown Speaker :Even migraines and it also gives me a break from that task and allows me to have new ideas on what I'm doing. So those are focus Sprint's that I built into my calendar. So from six in the morning until 10pm I block out every single hour, including lunch, including my workout, including a movie night, if I'm just going to hang out and watch a movie, I block everything out, because it allows me to have these conscious switches in my day where I'm going from a workout to emails and I'm going from emails to a meeting and I'm going from a meeting to dinner, etc, etc, etc. And it allows me to like we mentioned before putting on those different hats. So I block those out every single day six in the morning to 10pm and I color code them
Unknown Speaker :if you're interested in the like science on this, look up just
Unknown Speaker :Look up color psychology, it's some fascinating stuff. But I color coat all of my different calendar. So I have these different categories. So I have speaking for, for speaking engagements, I have emails, I have online marketing, I have friend time, I have food, and gym. And all of these things are different colors. So when I look at my calendar, and I'll have a snapshot of what my week looks like, I know the workload that I have in terms of online marketing and video, I know the workload that I put into preparing for a speaking engagement, or a presentation or email marketing. I know the workload that I have or the friend time that I have in any given week. So I look at my calendar from Monday to Sunday, and it's full of colors and there is zero whitespace whitespace is the enemy
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, any whitespace in your calendar? Yeah, no, I love it. You know, for some people listening there's a there's an app called pomodoro that you can download to help assist you with during some of those sprints. And I know I did the same thing. Now I've kind of built the habit of doing it where I I work really well off of doing work sprints. I even like those type of hit workouts where it's just like you're going really hard. And then you stop for a little bit, you know, so and but it is important to take those breaks after each and every sprint but the same point to what I noticed, as well as a lot of teachers, you're you're home with your family or administrators, you're home with your family. It also creates a great boundary. Meaning that I can say hey, I'm going to be really focused during this next 90 minutes, but after that 90 minutes, I've got 20 minutes to like be present step outside of the office.
Unknown Speaker :You know, the home office to step outside, you know, whether it's you know, making my kids lunch or throwing the ball outside or, you know, checking another thing off the honey to do list, whatever it may be, and then bam, you're in it for another 90 minutes. activity on that has just been amazing. And then for me, what I do on my task list is I also, you know, I, I'm definitely a person that just needs to get it all out. So usually every week, you know, my strategy very similar to yours is I just write down everything that I think I have to accomplish that week, right? All the tasks, everything from my personal life to business to everything else, I write it down. And then what I do is I also think I kind of reflect back on like, what is it that I need to do next week for me to to declare that week, a win, and you can only have like two or three things like it can't be big, like what are the two or three things
Unknown Speaker :Two or three things that you need done that even if everything else went unchecked, you could say, this is still a win, because obviously no one checks everything off their to do list or their tassels, it just doesn't happen. But then what I do is I look at that, and then I kind of prioritizes everything that I just wrote down previously, then I write down the time that I estimate, certain things are going to take, you know, everything minimum takes 15 minutes, even if it's a quick phone call, it gets blocked out for at least 15 minutes, no matter how fast it could be. But then there's bigger projects like taxes, right? And where it's going to take hours for us to get ready to do our taxes. And then what I can do is I when I do my calendar ization, is I could take that task and now assign it, you know, 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 90 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, I can plug it in. So over the course of that week, I know that I allocate
Unknown Speaker :did enough time without just hyper focusing on let me get all my taxes done today and then you're burnt, then you're you're out, then you're you're checked out. But if you know, you scheduled more time in the week to accomplish that task and you've got time, then it gives us a sense of relaxation and then you're always changing it up a little bit and, and I also look at what's considered super focus work, what's considered creative work, what's considered you know, and I'm sure it kind of goes back to your colorization I like doing that. I'm gonna take your color tip, I also try to make sure I'm not doing something that's, you know, going from taxes to, to doing something that's more analytical, back to back is too similar. And so if I can do if something's really mentally intensive, I need to make sure that there's a solid break or something that's completely different, like we're trying to organize. During this time, a family photo album, like digitally, we have pictures that go down, you know, the last decade and so we're going through
Unknown Speaker :and organizing all of our family photos by year. And then we're making awesome photo books. And that to me is fun. And so usually when I do something really focused all start working on that for 30 minutes or 40 minutes and start plugging away on that project, you know, and even though it doesn't my big win for the week is never, you know, to get the family photo album done, but at least takes my brain out of that element. And so or whether it's going for a workout or playing with my kids, whatever it may be. So I love that what would you say is your typical morning routine right now you wake up in the morning?
Unknown Speaker :Do you eat breakfast right away? Do you do your workout? Do you chug a glass of water? You wake up at 6am what is one day? So yeah, wake up at 6am on this typical day during the week, wake up at six in the morning. I will go out grab my water bottle and drink a full bottle of water right after
Unknown Speaker :That I go brush my teeth, sort of splashing water on my face. Put on my gym clothes that I laid out the night before. So my morning starts the night before where I lay out the gym clothes that I'm wearing. I put my water bottle filled on the counter. I have my Apple Watch resting on my gym clothes and all of the things that I need for my workout there so I don't have to think it just happens in the morning. So with all of that stuff laid out, I wash my face on and then I go put on my gym clothes and we start the workout my room and I do about a 60 to 90 minute workout.
Unknown Speaker :And then after that I'll shower. I will put on the real people human clothes that I also laid out and then I will have apple cider vinegar alive ACV I use the
Unknown Speaker :Bragg's brand you could find in any health food store even on Amazon. It's phenomenal. It's incredible for digestion for kickstarting your metabolism. It isn't the most pleasant tasting. For some, I actually, like kind of enjoy it, which is weird, but I have friends that can't have it straight so they dilute it with some water.