Deep breathing is good for you all the time (and can also help you get to sleep at night) Consciously engaging your diaphragm and slowing your breathing can also resettle and revive you when you're feeling listless after lunch.  Purposeful breathing can trigger your parasympathetic system, or the part of your autonomic nervous system that opposes the fight-flight-freeze response. As a result, it may help you feel rested and relaxed.

Take Two Deep Breaths

There are specific reasons you might want to enjoy a chapter of that new page-turner before getting back to your desk after lunch.  Disconnecting, focusing on something else, and then re-engaging can pry you out of that state of being stuck or demoralised in dealing with what you're dealing with,

Read a chapter of fiction

A lot of folks snack to get through the afternoon slump. How well that works depends not just on what you eat. Taking the time to prepare yourself a visually appealing, healthy plate can help refocus your mind and body for the rest of the day.

Up your snack game

Your space has an outsize impact on your mood which you can use that to your advantage. Tidying or organizing the physical space around you might feel like a little thing, but it's a way to physically and proactively attend to yourself and care for your space.

Take an organisation break

Rituals might seem like hocus-pocus, but modern psychology shows they can radically impact our state of mind nonetheless. Use that knowledge to beat stress, set yourself up for a more productive workday, or mentally wind down at night. The content of your ritual is up to you. But whether you decide on a quick meditation break, moment of gratitude, or something else, the key is to be intentional about creating a script that mentally moves you into the right frame of mind.

Create an afternoon transition ritual

Can't nap, slam some coffee, or hit the gym? Try these less well-known alternatives.

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

5 Ways (That Aren't Coffee or a Nap) to Boost Your Afternoon Energy

Telling yourself that you cannot concentrate, actually, weakens your concentration. It makes you believe that you cannot concentrate, and you don’t even try to improve this ability.

1. Don’t keep saying that you cannot concentrate.

Keep telling yourself that you can make your focus better, especially when doing something that requires focus. Don’t listen to the doubts that your mind brings up.

2. Program your mind to believe that you can improve your concen

In order to improve your concentration you need to train it, like any other skill. If you persevere, and are earnest enough, you will be able to focus your mind on anything you want.

3. Accept the fact that this ability requires training, like any

If there is something that is distracting your attention, such as emotional problems or unresolved business problems, tell your mind that all these problems can wait for a little while, and that you will attend to them after you finish what you are doing.If this does not help you, then write down on a piece of paper what problems you have to think about or solve. This will, to some extent, temporarily remove the problems and the distractions they are causing from your mind.

4. Make a deal with your mind.

Jumping from one thing to another will only teach your mind to be inattentive and lose attention quickly. This kind of mental restlessness can be tiring in the long run.

5. Do one thing at a time.

When you need to carry out a task that requires sustained focus, sit down, and try to relax your body for a few moments.

6. Relax your body.

If you feel stress and tension while studying, working, or doing anything that requires attention, stop for a few moments, and take a few deep breaths. This will relax your body and mind.

7. Take a few deep breaths.

Drinking some water helps your mind to be less tense and restless.

8. Drink water.

When you focus your attention on anything, be alert, and when you find yourself thinking on something else, try to stay patient, and bring your mind back to the subject again and again.

9. Be attentive and bring your mind back to what you are doing.

Often, when you remember, try to fix your attention on whatever you happen to be doing at the moment. While eating, focus on the food your eating. When exercising, focus on the movements of your body. When talking, focus on the conversation, and when working, focus on your work.“When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus, a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.”

10. Focus on what you are doing.

“The power of concentration is the only key to the treasure-house of knowledge.”– Swami Vivekananda

Successful people focus their mind on their goals, until they accomplish them. Here are simple tips to help you improve your focus and concentration skills.

education

Learning & Education

10 Effective Tips for Improving Your Concentration Skills

<ul><li>You expect yourself to succeed in making life changes without designating any time or mental space to accomplish them.</li><li>You see your capacity to change as being dependent on other people’s behavior. </li><li>You’re a <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/perfectionism">perfectionist </a>who is dismissive of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-practice/201801/easy-self-improvement-examples-one-percent-improvements">incremental improvements </a>, and you’re only satisfied when 100 percent of a problem is fixed.</li><li>You’re “too busy chasing cows to build a fence.” You’re too busy to come up with processes or systems that would help you better manage your time.</li></ul>

How You Approach Change

<ul><li>Your approach to pleasure is a <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/denial">denial </a>-binge cycle. You deny yourself simple pleasures and relaxation, and then stay up watching Netflix until 3 a.m.</li><li>You ignore the warning signs that you need a break.</li><li>You don’t solve simple roadblocks to pleasure. For example, you enjoy taking photos, but your phone is full, and you haven’t gotten around to backing it up.</li><li>You hold back from doing the things you want due to erroneous “I can’t…” thoughts.</li></ul>

Pleasure and Self-Care

<ul><li>Wasting time and emotional energy reinventing the wheel</li><li>Needing better routines that work for you. </li><li>People defer all <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/decision-making">decision-making </a>to you even though you can empower them to make decisions.</li><li>Choosing to be miserable in situations in which you can choose happiness.</li><li>Creating self-imposed rules that trigger or support procrastination.</li><li>You think and research endlessly, trying to find perfect solutions which overcomplicate problems.</li><li>Staying stuck in patterns that are psychologically comfortable, but not working for you.</li><li>Allowing yourself to ruminate or worry without taking problem-solving actions.</li></ul>

Hidden Drains on Your Time and Energy

<ul><li>Over-focus on decreasing negative interactions, but under-focus on <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-practice/201301/50-characteristics-healthy-relationships">increasing positive interactions </a>and shared experiences.</li><li>Complain about other people’s behavior when you need to make the same change yourself.</li><li>Repeat strategies for influencing others that aren’t effective 90+ percent of the time.</li><li>Operating based on how you think a situation should be rather than dealing with reality.</li><li>Not acknowledging valid points other people make and ignore when they bring up genuine behavioral problems.</li><li>Your emotional raw spots when triggered, result in out-of-proportion reactions.</li></ul>

Relationships

<ul><li>You self-generate <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/stress">stress </a>. For example, you start more projects than you have time to finish.</li><li>You work on low priority tasks, but leave high priority tasks undone.</li><li>You overwork when what you really need is to step back and see the big picture.</li><li>You’re self-critical when self-acceptance and compassion would have a more positive impact on your behavior and emotions.</li></ul>

Work

<ul><li>You hold back from investing or otherwise taking charge of your money, because of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/embarrassment">shame </a>and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/anxiety">anxiety </a>about a bad decision or experience from years ago.</li><li>You overpay for items due to risk aversion.</li><li>You will overpay for minimal extra gain. For example, you’ll spend more for a top-of-the-line model when the extra features that the model offers aren't even particularly important to you.</li><li>You make financial decisions based on being sucked into <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/consumer-behavior">marketing </a>incentives when those decisions don’t make logical sense.</li><li>You keep paying for subscriptions you rarely use.</li></ul>

Money

1. Consider addressing any habit you’ve rated a 5 or above. 2. Once you see your patterns, make specific behavioral plans of what you’ll start doing instead. 3. Any behavior change plan you come up with needs a contextual trigger. 4. Aim to improve your habits (by say <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-practice/201801/easy-self-improvement-examples-one-percent-improvements">1, 10, or 20 </a>percent), rather than to eliminate all self-defeating behavior from your life.

Overcoming Self-Sabotage

Self sabotaging patterns to be rated on a scale of 1 (not a problem) to 7 (big problem)

habits

Habits

problemsolving

Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

30 Types of Self-Sabotage (and What to Do About It)

As a freelancer, we all wish to be successful! Our definition of success might vary, but we all have bigger goals to accomplish!And most of the time, we tend to get so busy looking for a secret route that will lead to instant success! But honestly, there’s no underground route to success!The only way you can grow as a freelancer is to work hard and be smart.But your habits play a massive role in bringing you closer to success.

The Relationship Of Success & Habit

Stop considering your projects as a one-time gig!Honestly, there’s nothing like a one-time gig for an experienced freelancer. They believe in building rapport and long-lasting relationships with the clients. That pays them back very well in the form of more work, recommendations, referrals, excellent testimonials, and case studies.As a freelancer, these are the building blocks of your successful career.The only key to attaining all these is building a good relationship with clients.

RELATIONSHIP MATTERS A LOT

Freelancers tend to struggle a lot when it comes to time, tasks, and slot management.We can spend too much time on tasks that don’t need our immediate attention and in the process end up forgetting about the ones that are close to deadlines.Follow This Method: <ul><li>Note down the deadline for each project you are working on!</li><li>Then note down all the tasks you need to do to mark the project or a milestone complete.</li><li>Assign all these tasks a priority number from 1 to 10, depending on their importance.</li><li>Every day, you can pick out 5 or 6 tasks from all your projects and work on them.</li></ul>

SET YOUR PRIORITIES RIGHT

A productive day Is always a well-planned day!It means that even though you have all your tasks sorted out but didn’t plan your whole day, it won’t make much difference. You’ll still end up short on time to do other things.Remember, you are not only working for clients; you need time to work on your things, marketing, emails, portfolio, social media, client hunting, and the list goes on.Feeling stressed!!! You should, I lived the same lifestyle as a freelancer for the first two years.The only way out was to plan your whole day and get used to doing that every day!

SCHEDULE OR PLAN YOUR WHOLE DAY

Getting paid less! Not being able to assign the correct price tag! Questioning your worth and values! Doubting your skills!It has happened to every freelancer at a certain point in their freelancing career. There’s no escape, it’s part of the learning curve!No one can assign you’re worth other than yourself! They don’t know how hard you have worked to master your skills, to deliver value. They don’t know your story.So stop doubting yourself, questioning your worth! If you think you are providing value to clients, the client is generating profit because of your work, then charge accordingly.

KNOW YOUR WORTH AND VALUE

You’ll have like millions of excuses to give yourself to justify your delays, unproductiveness.You’d end up wasting days that you could have used to get ahead in the game.It’s quite a common thing for most freelancers. After all, we all go through quite similar situations in the beginning days. The decisions you make in these beginning days are what going to shape your career as a six-figure, seven-figure freelancer.How do you get out of this procrastination cycle? How can you accomplish more?Find an accountability partner! It can be anyone who cares about you and will help you keep in check.

FIND AN ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER

Skills, knowledge, experience are the three critical aspects behind the success of every six-figure freelancer.How do you get knowledge? How do you upgrade and learn new skills? How do you gain more experience?LEARN! Keep learning.You can’t stop learning because the moment you will, you will lose your position, your success to someone who is right behind you, and still eager, excited to learn new things.Freelancing is a rat race! We all are running, competing, and growing consistently. The moment we show signs of laziness is when we lose our spot.

NEVER STOP LEARNING

I firmly believe the main reason behind every six-figure freelancer is their habits. If you want to be a six-figure freelancer, then the first thing you need to do is make some habits that will help you climb the ladder of success faster than everyone else.

As a freelancer, we all wish to be successful! Our definition of success might vary, but we all have bigger goals to accomplish! And most of the time, we tend to get so busy looking for a secret route that will lead to instant success! But honestly, there’s no underground route to success!

career

Career

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Top 6 Habits of Successful Freelancers You Can Develope To Succeed

"If you confront yourself each day with reminders of only the least enjoyable parts of your job, it’ll probably wind up sapping your motivation to come to work"﻿Consider adding a sentence to every task on your to-do list that explains the value of completing that task. If you can clearly define why a task needs to be done, you’ll feel more motivated to complete it.

1. Note Why Each To-Do on Your List Is Important

One of the most common problems with to-do lists is that they’re overwhelming. When you’re constantly adding new to-dos to your list as they pop into your head, you often end up with dozens or hundreds of to-dos.Deleting low-value, no-value, and nice-to-do tasks from your list helps you create a better to-do list because it makes your list more manageable, less stressful, and more skimmable. It keeps your most pressing and important tasks top-of-mind and helps you avoid getting distracted by tasks that won’t move the needle.

2. Delete Low/No-Value Tasks and Nice-To-Dos

If you’ve deleted all of your no/low-value and nice-to-have tasks from your to-do list and still find it overwhelming, consider using one of the following prioritization techniques to create an individual to-do list for each week or day:MITs – Zen to Done’s Leo Babauta recommends starting each day by picking between one and three tasks you’ll focus on that day. These are your most important tasks (MITs), and you shouldn’t work on anything else until those tasks are complete.

3. Create a To-Do List for Each Week or Each Day

Ivy Lee Method–At the end of every workday,choose six tasks to focus on tomorrow, order them in priority from 1-6,and then work on those tasks in priority order the next day until all six tasks are complete.1-3-9–At the beginning of every workday,choose13tasks to focus on that day:one high-priority task,three medium-priority tasks andnine low-priority tasks. Complete the high-priority task first,followed by the medium-priority tasks,and finally the low-priority tasks.When using these methods,it helps to have a to-do list tool that makes it easy to drag and drop your to-dos into different lanes

One of the quickest ways to get overwhelmed when looking at your to-do list is to have a list filled with monstrous tasks that will take weeks to complete.<ul><li>conduct keyword research</li><li>conduct competitive research</li><li>audit and catalog existing content</li><li>review ideas backlog</li><li>solicit ideas from customer service and sales</li><li>ask customers for ideas</li><li>evaluate all ideas</li><li>create calendar</li></ul>﻿Instead of having lots of very large tasks on your lists, spend some time breaking those large tasks down into the smallest completable components.

4. Break Large To-Dos Down Into Smaller To-Dos

"What do I actually think that I will do today?"Asking that question changes how you approach creating a to-do list for the day. Instead of planning based on what you hope to accomplish, you plan based on what you believe you actually will accomplish, which helps you create a better, more realistic plan.If you find your reality rarely matches the plan you make ahead of time, try making your to-do list in answer to Forster’s question and see what difference it makes to your productivity.

5. Write a “What I’ll Probably Do” List

So if you find you’re not getting enough done because you forget what you’ve planned for the day—or you’re wasting time looking at your to-do list over and over during the day try drawing it instead.If drawing isn’t your strong suit, you can also try using a mind mapping tool.The visual nature of a mind map will help you create a picture in your mind of the things you need to get done,and you can also attach images to your mind map for even more visual cues to reference when you’re trying to remember what needs to be done.

6. Draw Your To-Do List

If you’ve found your simple to-do list is anything but, you might need to use one (or more) of these techniques to create a better to-do list.

6 Ways to Write a Better To-Do List and Get More Done

Presenteeism Happens When We Show Up To Work On Auto Pilot 

In everyday life, it’s easy to get sucked into the prevailing culture. We know what’s expected of us and what’s acceptable in our working life. Even when we are remote working, many of us still feel we can’t take time off for lunch, that we can’t go for a walk around the block when we need a break. <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90522017/there-but-not-there-is-your-team-suffering-from-pressenteeism">Presenteeism </a>rules. Even when there’s no one around to notice.

Fear Of Being Unprod

These office rules, real or self-imposed, are holding us back. They’re stopping us from doing our best work. When we don’t go and free-think by a lake—real or metaphorical—we are limiting our own achievements, and limiting our own success.

Ideas Come When We Are Mentally Free In Our Own Ways

Do the opposite. Sometimes, doing the opposite of what makes sense makes even more sense. When Nick got a new job in the east of London, his commute was going to take him on the packed tube. He knew that journey wasn’t going to provide the right frame of mind to set him up for the day. Instead, he worked out he could take the riverboat to work. On the face of it, it was a more inefficient journey, but taking the slow route ensured he always arrived more energized than if he’d taken the tube.

Pivo

Experiment with a “FriPlay” afternoon. Working from home can mean extended days, with often little segue from our desks to the family dinner table. Tasks creep into the weekend. Give yourself a break with a FriPlay afternoon. Every Friday (where I can), I’m clearing the decks around 3 p.m. to do something restorative: go for a walk with a podcast, jump on my bike, read a book. I’m giving myself a recharge, and providing vital mental space to cultivate new insights.

Build Time In Your Sch

Subtract, not add. A paper in the academic journal Nature outlined a human tendency that often, when we’re asked to improve something, we add something. But many times, subtracting can be a better solution. It’s why people struggle to improve things ranging from organizational red tape to their overburdened schedules at work. So if you’re looking to give your work life a boost, what can you remove to improve it?

Learn To Say No

A few years ago, Professor Francesca Gino taught two classes at Harvard Business School in which she experimented with her footwear. For one class, she wore a conservative suit with dress shoes. For the next group, she paired her suit with her favorite pair of red Converse sneakers. She discovered the “red-sneakers” students were more attentive and thoughtful, and they laughed more. Part of the difference was that the sneakers made her feel more confident and more poised when leading discussions. So, what can you wear from your wardrobe—perhaps a piece you never considered wearing

Wear your red sneakers

In his book In Praise of Wasting Time , Alan Lightman relates a story from during his time at the the California Institute of Technology about a fellow student called Paul. Paul used to sit on a bench for hours, receiving disapproving looks from passing professors who wondered why he wasn’t studying. Well, the Paul of the story is Paul L. Schechter, now a famous astronomer and observational cosmologist, and recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences. How did he get his ideas? Yes, you guessed it: sitting on that benchs

 Sit on a bench

Thought organization. When we take time to recharge we come back mentally ready. 

Presenteeism happens when we show up to work, even if we’re mentally checked out. Here’s how to get back on track and away from mindless performance.


teamwork

Teamwork

6 strategies to try when you feel checked out of work

The 2 pizza rule is a guideline for deciding how many attendees should be invited to a meeting.According to the rule, every meeting should be small enough that attendees could be fed with two large pizzas.

2-Pizza rule

This is also known as the two pizza team concept, and the science behind it has even been confirmed by Stanford University. They discovered in their research that the most productive meetings have 7 ± 2 participants.

Secret of productive meeting

According to the Stanford study<ul><li>Meetings with over 9 attendees are unproductive, as friction grows in proportion to the increase in participant numbers. </li><li>However, in meetings with under 5 people, you run the risk of the participants falling into groupthink. This means people in a group tending to fall in with the majority view, despite actually having a different opinion or even being convinced that the wrong decision is being made.</li></ul>

Importance of Number of participants in meeting

<ul><li>Members of over-sized groups tend to lose respect for the meetings. They prepare less in advance and start to take a more passive -even resigned – role. </li><li>The bigger the group, the lower an individual‘s expectation that her involvement will be noticed. </li></ul>This is the start of a downward spiral into extremely unproductive meetings.

Consequence of over-sized groups

Think before you invite!<ul><li class="ql-indent-1">Who actually needs to be there?</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Who would just be twiddling his thumbs?</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Who can provide a unique perspective?</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Who won’t offer anything new?</li></ul>Define responsibilities-<ul><li>Tell those you’ve invited what you expect from them</li><li>And they’ll be responsible for conveying the content of the meeting to those who haven’t participated.</li></ul>

The Two Pizza Rule in Practice

Make your meetings successful by getting the size right.

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Jeff Bezos and his 2-Pizza Rule

How many brilliant ideas have you forgotten? How many insights have you failed to take action on?We feel constant pressure to be reading, listening, and watching informational content. And yet, where has all that knowledge gone? Where is it when we need it? Our brain can only store a few thoughts at any one time. Our brain is for having ideas, not storing them.Building a Second Brain is a methodology for saving and systematically reminding us of the ideas, insights, and connections we've gained through experience. It expands our intellect using the modern tools of technology and networks.

How to build The Second Brain

1. Borrowed Creativity2. The Capture Habit3. Idea Recycling4. Proyects Over Categories5. Slow Burns6. Start with abundance7. Intermediate Packets8. You only know what you make9. Make it easier for your future self10. Keep your ideas moving:

10 Principles on building a Second Brain

Instead of starting from scratch, you can use other people's ideas and put them together with your own, and create something that benefits you.That way, you spend time creating what you need to reach your goals, instead of wasting hours trying to start from zero.Example:  If you use Notion, you may know that the templates created by notion users can be used and personalized by others.

1. Borrowed Creativity

Our mind is fragile, therefore every idea, thought or information that interests us must be captured and recorded either manually or digitally.Example: When reading a book, listening to a podcast, or any activity about a certain topic, if you find something that resonates with you should save it and use it.

2. The Capture Habit

Reusing our own ideas in several projects is an activity that can be very useful to us since we not only relate the new information with what we already have but in this way we avoid starting a project with a blank mind.

3. Idea Recycling

When capturing an idea, instead of categorizing it in a folder, it is better to join it with other documents that have a clear objective such as a project or activity.
Example: You want to be more productive, gather all the ideas that help to that end.

4. Projects Over Categories

Although you could finish a project, task or activity if you focus on it for a long period of time, this does not mean that you should do it.You will end up exhausted and limited to advance one project at a time. Instead, dividing your schedule into different activities and repeating them every day is more convenient.Example: Instead of cramming all night, studying a few hours every day is better for our health and more effective.

5. Slow Burns

Do not start with a blank page, when dealing with a new topic, you may have read or saved some information that is related to it, therefore you can use these papers or researches that you did to start and have a better vision on the subject.

6. Start with abundance

Known as a block of content or information in an essay. It is like a section or paragraph in the paper, you can take them and use them in other projects.If you can, memorize the blocks of information that can help you in the future so that you can insert them whenever you want.

7. Intermediate Packets

We can see, listen, and read all kinds of things that interest us, but at the end of the day what we are going to be left with is everything we do with that information, whether it is a summary of these materials or some other activity such as writing your opinion or thoughts about it.

8. You only know what you make

Create documents or files that your future self can easily understand, use your own words, make mind maps, or do your own summaries because you will most likely forget everything you are learning now.Example: The infographic at the beginning is a good example, it synthesizes the concepts and activities involved in building a Second Brain.

9. Make it easier for your future self:

It doesn't matter how much information you're storing in your second brain if you don't put it into practice, it's useless for it to be there accumulating.Example: We all know that exercising is good, but not all of us practice it.

10. Keep your ideas moving:

This is a summary of Building a Second Brain, my online course on capturing, organizing, and sharing your knowledge using digital notes. How many

writing

Reading & Writing

The Second Brain: A Method to Organize Your Ideas

“Simple is nearly always better. But if it's going to be complicated, then make sure the problem is worth the complexity. A great deal of time is wasted creating complex solutions to relatively unimportant problems.”

“Many situations in life are similar to going on a hike: the view changes once you start walking.You don't need all the answers right now. New paths will reveal themselves if you have the courage to get started.”

“Time will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.”

“You cannot define a person on just one thing. You can’t just forget all these wonderful and good things that a person has done because one thing didn’t come off the way you thought it should come off.”

“I can't tell you how much time is spent worrying about decisions that don't matter. To just be able to make a decision and see what happens is tremendously empowering, but that means you have to set up the situation such that when something does go wrong, you can fix it.”

What is something wonderful about your life that you rarely appreciate as much as you should?

1 QUESTION FOR YOU

communication

Communication

3-2-1: New paths, the danger of complexity, and making fast decisions

<ul><li>Even the technology that is mechanical, was built by a problem solver. The only thing that changes is the tools these problem-solvers use. </li><li>For developers, writing code can become muscle memory, like speaking in your native language, simply writing code is not where we problem solve.  Solutions designed by programmers are creative. </li><li>As you progress in your career as a developer, you will probably write less code and solve complex problems at a high level without worrying about the low-level details. So the really useful skill is being able to problem-solve with the resources that are available.</li></ul>

Developers are problem solvers

In a sea of options available to learn computer science, Learnly might be the right fit for you. 

computerscience

Computer Science

You Cannot Learn Coding without Problem-Solving Skills

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