Productivity: The Power of Peace

Peace is a powerful protector and preserver of personal productivity. Many do not think of peace as being something that is powerful, but when peace rules, you will make better decisions and do more quality work than when you are overly stressed and burdened with obligations and responsibilities.

I once met a manager who threw away his "to do" list because every morning when he came in and looked at it, the entire weight of everything he was responsible for and everything he had to do was laid on him and froze him right where he sat. Pinned down and unable to move, he could get nothing done. He decided to handle only whatever crisis came his way or put out whatever fire started in a corner. Instead of a proactive manager and leader who was on top of his responsibilities with a clear plan and system for accomplishing everything, he became a reactive manager who only handled what blew up in his face.

When he discussed these things with me, I told him he had gone from one extreme to the other. While I could appreciate the weight and burden that a long "to do" list of projects, responsibilities and obligations can become, to have no "to do" list was not the answer to preventing or eliminating the distress he was under. It only masked it and shifted the accumulated stress to a distributed pattern of daily stress that led to an unending and increasing cycle of never getting on top of things.

I told him that he needed to restore that "to do" list, but rather than putting the whole list in front of him at the beginning of the day, on the evening before he needed to pull the two, three, maybe five essential things that needed to get done off the list, and make his "short list" of things to do the next day. That way, in the morning, he did not need to look at the entire list of things to get done, but the short and less imposing list of essential items for the day. In addition, I told him to set aside one hour each day to do something or work on a project that would improve the way he operates to help alleviate the future burden so that he was making progress in reducing the weight of the workload.

The advice worked wonders and he was able to regain control and restore his own inner peace and harmony. Not only did it improve the quality of his life, his health and how he felt about his job and career, it improved the quality of his output so much so that he began to increase what he could accomplish each day and make rapid progress in getting on top of his workload.

Peace is a powerful protector and preserver of personal productivity. And the more productive you and I become, the more we contribute to team productivity. And if we help others gain that same peace that we enjoy, they will become more productive and the entire team will enjoy peace and productivity.

Peace, which embodies calmness, quietness and poise, is the opposite state of distress, which embodies agitation, turbulence and discomposure. Distress occurs when stress increases to beyond our capacity to remain peaceful and in control. That is when we become overly stressed and burdened with our obligations and responsibilities, and when chaos ensues.

Life is not good when it is chaotic. No one can truly enjoy chaos. No matter how much we claim that we operate better under stress, we fool ourselves. Our running around only appears like we are getting a lot of things done as we try to keep all the plates spinning. We will eventually become utterly exhausted and a breakdown will occur and the plates will come crashing down, sometimes with devastating consequences of health and livelihood.

Instead of trying to do it all until it blows up, we need to recognize when stress is increasing and take action to prevent it from mounting into distress and chaos. The best stress relief in life is stress prevention. You know the old saying, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." It's true.

We all need to adopt healthier, happier, simpler lifestyles in order to avoid stress and maintain peace. Now, realistically, we cannot avoid all stress, but we can certainly reduce it significantly.

Here are some tried and true stress relievers/busters. These may overlap in some ways, but they will give you ideas about lifestyle changes you can make to avoid stress up front (stress prevention). If you practice these things regularly, you will stay in front of stress, maintain peace, and have a fuller and richer appreciation of life and your path in it.

1. Physical Activity - a stimulating physical activity, not an intense one that produces a different kind of stress, but something that challenges you in a different way than your normal routines and provides a change of focus, like a vacation, a weekend trip, going to a beach, doing a hobby, reading or taking in some entertainment.

2. Nature - a scenic outdoor walk, sitting in a garden, working a Zen garden, going to the mountains, or some other outdoor natural environment can provide great relief and enrich life.

3. Music - engaging in deep music appreciation and taking in the harmonies and melodies is awesomely refreshing and can give the heart flight.

4. Humor - it is always good to laugh, to enjoy good times, to be filled with mirth. A merry heart does good, like a medicine.

5. Quiet Time - taking time to read and think good things, the bible, proverbs, wise sayings. Think about your accomplishments, your family, what great goals you have achieved in life, what fulfilling goals you still wish to pursue, and taking time for thought and meditation about the lovely and beautiful things in life and in the world, spending time with your loved one.

6. Rest - relax with your eyes closed or take an actual nap. This can be coupled with quiet time or thought time and will allow the physical body to relax and get a needed break to rejuvenate and re-energize. Proper sleep each night is an essential key.

Along with these stress busting activities, we should seek to make life simpler by doing the following:

1. Stay organized. Put the extra effort into each task to keep things in order. Have a place for everything you own and keep everything in its place as much as possible.

2. Reduce your stuff. Off-load unneeded items and don't accumulate new goods and things. Don't live the "warehouse stockpile" life where you think you "better keep this just in case." Instead, only get something when you need it and then give it to someone else who needs it or sell it.

3. Plan ahead. So many things can be planned ahead, such as menus, bill paying, domestic responsibilities, cleaning schedules and on.

4. Plan and eat a healthy diet. Good, nutritious foods in proper proportions coupled with physical activity will keep us fit and will ensure that a sound basis of health and peace and strength are maintained for our well-being.

5. Engage in stress busting activities. Schedule the six stress relievers/busters, listed above, into your life. Do them on a consistent basis.

Developing the ability to control what we will think about is one of the greatest keys in not only beating stress, but in life fulfillment. When we are the master of our own thoughts, we can direct ourselves to think and do the things that will benefit our lives and cease to think about the weight of responsibilities, demands, duties and obligations on us. We will have them well in hand because we plan our work and work our plan so that we can focus on what will refresh us and recharge us. We will be enjoying a healthier, happier, simpler lifestyle that is more fulfilling and peaceful. Then we can go back at that "to do" list with poise and confidence, focusing on one thing at a time.

A lifestyle of peace leads to greater productivity and greater fulfillment in life. After all, we should be enjoying our life and time on this planet. So utilize the power of peace in all you do and keep life good.

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David E Navarro is an author, poet, essayist, haiku poet-philosopher, scholar, and non-denominational biblical research minister who lives in Tucson, Arizona with his wife and family. He also works in clinical research in data science and medical writing. He was born in Newport, Rhode Island and grew up on the Southside of Chicago and in Northwestern Indiana until he went off to college at Purdue University. 

He served in the United States Air Force for ten years (three conflicts). During his tour of duty in the United Kingdom, he completed a degree in Communications and Leadership. He separated with an honorable discharge and entered a Biblical Studies program where he completed a degree in Theology and served 35 years in the ministry as a Biblical research teacher and minister. 

During this time he worked as a corporate safety compliance officer and trainer, the CEO of a credit union, HR training specialist, financial institution compliance and tech writer, power utilities company corporate compliance analyst, clinical research associate, and online adult English writing instructor.  He is the founder of NavWorks Press.

He returned to school with Purdue University Global and completed a BS degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. He writes about and teaches life and time management, quality of life, work-life balance, biblical research, teaching, and ministering principles, writing and communication, and mindfulness.

His first collection of poetry was published in 1980 in the Purdue Exponent Literary Edition, Winter Issue. Over the years, his articles, poems, and essays have been published in various magazines, literary journals, books, anthologies, and online. He plans to write, publish, and educate for the rest of his life.

Books and Publications

A Tree Frog's Eyes: Haiku, 2020, haiku, senryu, and essays on haiku 

In the Praise of His Glory, 2020, poems and Biblical notes

Archway to Beyond, 2020, haiku, haibun, poetry, and prose for an academic project

Early Childhood Learning: An Instruction Focused Framework for Ongoing Assessment, 2019, early learning educational guide

This Is the Way: Walk Ye in It, 2018, Biblical research studies and poems

Dropping Ants into Poems, 2017, literary essays and poems

Sometimes Anyway, 2016, a compilation of 39 poets

Dare to Soar, 2013, essays and poems

Between Life and Language, 2009, a compilation of 107 poets

Planned Books

Rain in the Mountain, will critically handle history, myths, and methods of writing English language haiku

The Annals of Ghalensa, a sci-fi/fantasy series of novels

Biblical Studies in Truth, a series of books with in-depth Biblical research and teaching

Man's Search for Truth, a book about man's search for truth through science, philosophy, and religion

(and other non-fiction works)

Please see his Author Page for a list of his current books

From 2006 through 2009, he ran an extremely popular online poetry writing forum with over 10,000 hits per week. He currently manages two LinkedIn Groups, Poetry & Poetry Resources, and Book Story: for Writers Authors Poets Readers.