3 Tools for Increased Clarity, Productivity and Time Management

What’s the first thought that rings through your mind each morning as the alarm clock buzzes and you emerge from the depths of the dream world?

For millions of people today the default response has become, “where’s my phone?”

Jolting you from the rest and recovery phase of the parasympathetic nervous system to full on blue light illumination, twitter feeds, news of the rising price of inflation and a building pile of unread emails with as many digits as Jeff Bezos bank account.

I write frequently about how the way we are living and working, isn’t working.

And while it’s easy and logical to acknowledge that we’ve strayed very far from our biological impulses to rise and rest with the sun, spend most of our days outside and move our bodies regularly, it’s not clear how to use these evolutionary tools today.

How to Live More Like Our Ancestors

Here's 3 ways to tap back into the power of our ancestors, utilizing the incredible tools of the Age of Information and keep it all together:

1.??????Block out time to rest and relax

In the 21st century it is almost impossible to get time to rest and relax by default. We have collectively engineered an environment that hijacks our attention around every corner. Living by default, we will continue to scroll Instagram in the bathroom for 20 minutes, doom scroll twitter on our lunch break or rush to the gym with a podcast in our ears.

I know, I’m right there with you in the struggle.

I often tell people I’ve learned more from YouTube, podcasts and public intellectuals than I did in all 4 years of my undergraduate degree (don’t tell my parents…). But it comes with a cost, being plugged in 24/7 is rapidly frying our nervous system, our ability to focus, and develop into healthy humans

In order to get time for rest and relaxation we must create it by design.

Find 2 hours in the evening to do nothing. Block it out in your calendar. Try just sitting and breathing. Let your body come back to it’s baseline. If you’re feeling the need to ‘something to do’ bring a long a journal or book to read or write.

I know to some this sounds untenable, but consider this brief and non-extensive list of benefits:

• Increased focus and concentration
• Increased immune function
• Increased mental clarity

You can think of this time as like Vitamin D for your brain. Idleness aids insight and a health psyche in 2 ways.

1.??????Rest enables your conscious mind to rest and gives your unconscious mind time to sift through the complex challenges of your life

2.??????Downtime helps recharge your mental and physical energy to help you continue to perform at a high level consistently overtime.

If you’ve tried something like this before, but you can’t seem to relax or let go of incomplete tasks you might be experiencing what psychologist Bluma Zeignarik called the Zeignarik Effect.

To successfully combat this tendency of the conscious mind try creating a plan on how you will complete those tasks tomorrow before ending your workday to close the thought loop and give your brain time to rest.

2.??????Read your goals daily

This one might seem like a bit of a stretch, but consider our ancestors had much less distractions pulling on their attention and often more of an imperative to focus on what was most important for survival. They may have had their eye on a herd of antelope they were stalking for days at a time, or they may have had their garden out the back window and knew that was where they would spend their days.

Not today. Before you’ve put a foot on the floor to begin your day you’ve likely had your attention pulled in many directions. An email from your boss, an ad for a tropical destination you’ve been considering, notifications on Facebook and texts from friends trying to make plans.

How can you possibly focus on what is most important to you?

First you must know what is most important and what you should be spending you time on. Next, put your written out goals in your visual field.

Take time in the morning and evening to visualize and meditate on these.

If you’re trying to double your income in your side hustle or get promoted take time to visualize what that will feel like, what you need to do to be prepared, who you need to be to put your best foot forward and how that will impact you. This is a way for us to examine old habits or patterns that may be slowing you down or holding you back.

And as Peter Drucker famously said you must, measure your progress. Take time at the end of each week to track the key activities moving you closer to your goal.

3.??????Take time just to think

This can be related to the first tool, but is fundamentally different because it is a more active process.

Think about all the key decisions you have to make in a week for work and your personal life.

How much time of your full attention do you give to the most important?

Most of us give our thinking our half attention. We’re listening to podcast and trying to make mental plans for the weekend. Or we have a big conversation with our boss, and we think about it going 70mph down the highway. And then after the conversation we replay what went well and what could have improved while wandering around the grocery store in a daze.

The point is we are rarely full present to our experience. We are rarely mindful of the connections between our thoughts, words, and actions.

Concentration requires directed attention. One of the best ways to benefit from reducing distractions and directing our attention on just thinking is to take a walk in nature.

It helps to boost our mood, reduce cortisol and give us the time and space to step away from the distractions of life to give our directed attention to our thinking in order to make the best decision possible.

There is nothing revolutionary about these ideas, but with time and practice you will notice a levity to your thoughts, increased clarity, mental focus and performance.?