Top 3 Wellbeing Tips to Boost Productivity

These wellbeing tips are aimed at making your life easier when day's are packed! These days when I'm working with clients the focus is very much on managing the busyness of life, finding a balance between work and home while utilising various hacks to boost productivity when focus is needed.

As our days become busier in this season running up to Christmas - our normal craziness is exacerbated with the additional workload of Christmas prep and the hard deadline of end of year looming. With more and more being packed into our days we may need to adjust our regular wellbeing habits. "Busy days" wellbeing tips acknowledges that wellbeing is something that can and should be adapted and enhanced according to the demands and challenges of the day/week/season. We're reminded that finding time for our wellbeing and developing wellbeing habits is a skill, a strategy, and a goal. When I'm devising wellbeing tips that fit a client's busy life I take into account how wellbeing is dynamic and flexible and depends on various factors such as time, energy, stress, and mood. Busy Days Wellbeing Tips are for anyone who is looking for smart, effective, and tailored ways to improve their wellbeing and in this instance boost productivity.

Step 1. Plan Your Week in Advance

Busy days wellbeing tips acknowledges that wellbeing is something that can and should be adapted and enhanced according to the demands and challenges of the day. Our days vary greatly - for me it's largely dictated by what's happening with other people - whether it's my clients or my kids - their schedule impacts how and when I get things done in the day!

Planning your days in advance is a skill, a strategy, and for many of us a goal that's very difficult to achieve. We need to be kind with ourselves as being dynamic and flexible depends on various factors such as time, energy, stress, and mood! All slippery topics! While everyone is different there are some general ways in which you can reduce the craziness and add structure to your busy days. Let's start by reviewing your schedule for the next week:

• Pause and think about the tasks that can be amended - deleted - delegated?
• Is there anyone else who has responsibility for these tasks?
• Who can support you with these tasks?
• What is the most important thing on your list?
• What tasks on you list can be rescheduled [shelved]??
• Make any adjustments or preparations that are necessary. Adjustments can help you reduce stress and uncertainty and start your day with clarity and confidence.
• What advice would you give a friend if they had an overwhelming schedule?

Step 2. Take Your Daily 'To-Do List' to the Next Level

Now that your week has been planned you will need to look at the list of "things" that you've got to do each day. Having a 'to-do' list can help you manage your time, energy, and stress more effectively. But what do you do when even that spins out of control? Here are my tips on how to boost productivity by organising your to-do list :

• Make a list. Before you start your day, make a list of the tasks and activities that you need to do.
• Use the The Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize your list by urgency and importance. The matrix divides tasks into four categories based on their urgency and importance:

1. Identify your important and urgent tasks and Do First: These tasks need to be done immediately. For example, if you have a medical emergency or a critical work deadline, these tasks should be completed first. Often these important, urgent tasks have loomed for awhile but can actually be completed relatively quickly. Eat the frog = just do it! NOW!
2. Which tasks can be rescheduled? Schedule Important but Not Urgent Tasks: These are tasks that need to be scheduled for later. For example, if you have a project that’s due after Christmas you can schedule time to work on it later. Remember your days are busy at the moment so really double check your list and prioritise the urgent tasks.
3. Urgent but Not Important Delegate: Tasks that can be delegated to someone else. This isn't always possible. At work you for example, if you’re in a leadership position and someone on your team can handle a task, you can delegate it to them. Outside work, think about where your time is being stretched. For example can you ask someone else to help with childcare? Can you duplicate Christmas presents; scented candle for all the Aunts and book vouchers for all the kids?! Ask your friends what great gift ideas they have - share ideas = share the load!
4. Not Urgent and Not Important: Tasks that can be eliminated. For example, if you have tasks that are neither urgent nor important, you can eliminate them from your to-do list. This time of year is a great opportunity to test your boundaries, practice saying "no". When your resources are stretched it's crucial to look after yourself. Take it from me, every single client who chooses to review their energy with the Firstbeat Life monitor sees how their energy is being depleted daily, this gives them the confidence to say "no" to demands on their time. Your health is your wealth. Look after it carefully in this demanding season.

By using the Eisenhower Matrix, you have the framework to focus on what matters most and avoid distractions or procrastination. Use and you'll be able to prioritize your most important work, increase your productivity, and ensure that your most urgent tasks get immediate attention.

Step 3. Add Structure to Your Day

With your advanced planning and organised to-do list you've build a great foundation for adding structure to your day which will help you manage your time, energy, and stress more effectively. It can also improve your productivity, performance, and wellbeing. Divide your day into blocks of time for different types of work or activities. From my work analysing every day schedules of busy executives I've learnt that everyone has their own ideal routine BUT there are hacks that can improve it! Here are some tips on how to add structure into your daily schedule which I've learnt from analysing the stress and recovery balance of my clients:

• Mornings are a great time to dedicate to creative or strategic tasks - your mind is buzzing. I recommend my clients delay their first coffee until they're ready to work, once they have that hit of caffeine they can take advantage of the boost of focussed energy that it gives you.
• The afternoons are a great time for meetings - connecting with colleagues - chatting through projects. Blocks of time after lunch that is focussed on group work, meetings, creative projects help reduce the dreaded afternoon slump. Once you know your own natural rhythm and how you it can be adjusted based on your sleep and wake pattern means that you can plan your work periods to fit with your rhythm and this leads to increased productivity.
• Evening downtime - to reduce overall stress and improve your recovery it's crucial to find time to unwind and relax before bed. If you struggle to find time to sit down and relax then you'll need to adapt the way you complete evening tasks. One way you can improve your recovery is to slow down very consciously. Move slower, listen to relaxing music, begin to wind down in a conscious manner. For example if you tend to potter, sort laundry, fill the dishwasher etc do so in a mindful manner, slowing down your heart rate, deliberate and slow movement. The aim here is to tell your body you are relaxed. Remind yourself to slow down. Data from clients shows that these deliberate actions have a positive impact on both reducing overall stress and improving sleep quality.

My client Lisa's Firstbeat Life data above shows moments of green in the evening as she was winding-down watching TV. Lisa was also focussed on managing her overall stress and incorporated 15 minutes of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) into her evening routine. These actions combined to have a positive impact on her sleep quality [all that green on the right side of the above graph is quality restorative sleep]. You can gain this quality sleep by adopting calm and relaxing actions before bedtime. Whether you're watching TV or doing laundry, reading or ironing, journaling or meal planning; as long as you are consciously slowing down by creating a rhythm in your evening and lowering your heart rate you will improve your sleep quality and ultimately boost productivity the following day.

By following these tips, you can build a routine that fits your schedule and life demands to make you a little bit happier every day. With my clients we use data from wearable technology to pinpoint exactly when is the ideal time for them to perform different tasks. Using feedback from their wearable data I'm able to advice on when they should be doing different tasks - everything from the timing of meetings to deciding when to exercise will be based on their personal response to the day - get in touch if you'd like to find your optimal daily routine and let me build the wellbeing habits that lead to around that for you!

#wellbeinghabits #healthyhabitsforlife #worldmentalheathday

By the way, have you heard about my programme 'Managing With Impact'? Companies are continuing to invest in the capability and skills of their management staff, as the high volume of work, together with the challenges of dispersed working, is having an impact on performance and productivity. 'Managing with Impact' develops staff skills and capability in managing workload, time and delegation to enhance their performance and productivity for the benefit of their teams and the whole organisation. The programme enhances individual & organisational performance through:

?? Building capability of managers

?? Practical strategies and solutions

?? Reframing workload and time

??Role modelling and supporting others

?? Sustained performance and productivity

Get in touch with Janine to find out more: [email protected]