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- Issue #62: The Clock Is Ticking: 3 Ways to Manage Your Time Better
Issue #62: The Clock Is Ticking: 3 Ways to Manage Your Time Better
You Have the Power to Change People's Brain Chemistry
Jenae Spry
March 15, 2024
Productivity Express
Issue No. 62
The Best in Evidenced-Based Productivity
for Small Business Owners, Freelancers & Founders
Helping You Work Smarter and Live More
The Rundown
I Tried a 10-Minute Breathwork Session and It Improved My Mood Immediately
Storytelling in Business: You Have the Power to Change People's Brain Chemistry
The Clock Is Ticking: 3 Ways to Manage Your Time Better
How I Supercharged My Productivity With a Free Typing App
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🔥Quote/Prompt
Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.
Use the quote as a writing or thinking prompt to finish your week strong.
A bit from mine:
(posted in our Doer Entrepreneurs Free Community — off social media)
I'll be honest -- not feeling my best at the moment. As some of you know already, I lost my cat this past week and I know some of you understand this all too well and some of you do not. That's ok. She was my heart and I am feeling this loss hard -- but in this moment I feel grateful.
This is the card I drew on the first try today, which I find interesting because also this week my amazing, strong member Giuliana posted this on LinkedIn about me and the Doers program. And damnit if I did not cry when I read it.
So thank you to Giuliana for truly making my day, week, month...year maybe.
If you are grateful to someone professionally or personally, you don't have any idea how much of a positive experience it can be to hear about it. And you don't know what someone might be going through.
Just maybe, your words will be exactly what they need.
So whether it's a service provider you hired, an employee, or even a content creator on Instagram, take a second and tell them.
Did someone forward this to you?
📈 Performance
A 10-minute breathwork session, inspired by a routine from Yoga With Adriene on YouTube, is a quick way to de-stress and improve focus during a busy workday.
Our take: I love Headspace and use the 60-second breathing every morning and it has actually dramatically improved my productivity and focus while I’m going through a hard time right now so apparently, you don’t even need 10 minutes. Check this out though! - Jenae :)
Key Insights:
Quick and Accessible: The 10-minute breathwork session is easy to fit into a lunch break and requires only a yoga mat.
Challenging but Rewarding: Despite initial restlessness, the session helps in calming the mind and improving focus, making it easier to return to work tasks.
Improves Posture: Sitting upright during the session can also help in improving posture, which has additional mind-body benefits.
Versatile Stress Management: The breathwork session can be a valuable addition to other stress-management techniques like HIIT workouts, offering a more mindful approach to relaxation.
⚙️ Optimization
Do you have a good story for your clients and/or your team? It turns out, storytelling can influence people's brain chemistry, leading to increased focus, cooperation, and motivation by affecting oxytocin, cortisol, and dopamine.
Key Insights
Storytelling Affects Brain Chemistry: Well-crafted stories can trigger the release of oxytocin, cortisol, and dopamine, which respectively promote cooperation, focus, and reward.
High-Status Narrators Matter: The impact of a story is amplified when told by someone in a position of authority, as it adds credibility and emotional weight to the narrative.
Structure is Crucial: A good story usually follows a three-act structure, which helps in engaging the audience both cognitively and emotionally.
"First" Stories Resonate: Stories about first experiences or vulnerabilities tend to be more relatable, especially to younger audiences or new employees.
Our suggestion: Need help with storytelling? Check out Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller.
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⏲️ Time Management
Key Insights:
Be Intentional About Work Location: Leslie Perlow emphasizes that where you work affects not just your productivity but also that of your team. Being in the office when others are can have benefits, but working remotely can also have costs if the team is not aligned.
Our take: If you’re a solopreneur or work from home, being intentional can be as simple as figuring out what should be on your desk, or where it is located in your home but taking the time to be self-aware about what works for you in this way can help boost productivity.
Cut Down on Meetings for Happiness: Arthur Brooks points out that the number of meetings has increased by nearly 13% since the pandemic, contributing to job dissatisfaction. Shorter meetings with fewer people can improve job satisfaction and reduce stress.
Our take: If you don’t have a lot of meetings, consider what other energy drains exist for you and how you can outsource them, reduce them, or eliminate them. Always remember the SEAT method (Systematize everything, Eliminate what you can, Automate what’s left, and outsource the remainder to your Team to the extent possible.
Consider a Sabbatical for Perspective: DJ DiDonna suggests that taking a sabbatical can offer a new perspective on work and life. The pandemic served as a forced sabbatical for many, highlighting the importance of making intentional choices about how we spend our time.
Our take: Oftentimes business owners who can work from anywhere, tend to let work bleed into every aspect and may even put themselves in a position where they cannot step away from their business at all. If that’s you, consider the freedom of systematizing your business such that you can be away for an extended period of time (even if right now that’s just a week or two) in order to recharge. It can work wonders!
Life is Short, Make Time Count: All experts agree that time is a limited and valuable resource. Being passive about time management can lead to unforeseen disruptions, making it crucial to actively plan and set boundaries.
Our take: When you allow others to control your time (which is often most people’s default), you end up burned out faster and it reduces overall satisfaction. Consider starting your day with working on your business or doing something for yourself instead of opening your inbox seeing what items other people have already added to your to do list by emailing you.
💻 Tools & Technology
Beeftext is a free, open-source text expander app for Windows that allows users to create shortcuts for frequently used phrases, boosting typing speed and accuracy.
Key Insights:
Boosts Productivity: Beeftext allows you to create "combos" that expand short keywords into longer phrases or even entire emails, making repetitive typing tasks more efficient.
Easy to Set Up: The app involves setting up combos, keywords, and snippets. For example, typing "aio" can expand into "all-in-one," reducing the need for manual typing of repetitive phrases.
Windows-Focused but Alternatives Exist: While Beeftext is designed for Windows, alternatives like Text Replacement in macOS and Personal Dictionary in Android offer similar functionality.
Privacy-Conscious: Beeftext runs in the background but only accesses the internet for updates, which can be disabled in the preferences menu.
👀 Read, Watch, Listen
This week’s awesome books, YouTube videos, newsletters, etc. to add to your list!
In "Building a StoryBrand," author Donald Miller presents a proven framework to help businesses effectively communicate with customers. The book argues that unclear messaging costs companies millions in lost revenue. Miller's StoryBrand process teaches marketers to use seven universal elements of storytelling to create compelling brand messages. This approach simplifies complex ideas, making it easier for customers to engage and make purchases. The book covers key aspects like why customers buy products and how to optimize messaging across various platforms. Aimed at anyone from small business owners to marketing directors, the book promises to transform how you connect with customers.
🎉 Celebration Corner
Every week Doers Inner Circle members do a weekly review & get help when they need it — check out the progress they made this week!
Posted 3x on LinkedIn.
Started working with affirmations from the Confidence book.
I was able to keep up with my commitments for the first half of the week.
I'm finally caught up with billable work. Yay!
What did you do this week? We feature non-member successes too. Just post them here!
🔒Inner Circle: Events & Announcements
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If you’re not interested in improving your and your business’s productivity so you’d like to break up, that’s definitely a bummer. But, you can always use the unsubscribe link at the bottom if you do not want to get these tips — but keep in mind I am hyper-focused on making these twice-weekly emails as valuable as possible.
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I hope you found this valuable!
Wishing you much productivity!
- Jenae :)
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