Of clean spaces and mind races. How to increase your productivity without breaking your mind part 2.

Have you ever got that feeling of Deja Vu in the morning? When you sit behind your table and start your desktop? Like its a never ending same day, that just keeps repeating itself?

Yeah me too. Especially after I finished my work at like 2 o’clock in the morning last night. And especially after insomnia.

And you know what? One day I just said - screw it. I don't want that feeling. I want to complete my tasks with clean head and purpose and feel value in my life.

Well, that sounded easier than it was to implement. I tried a lot of different things - walking by foot to my workplace (7 kilometers), drinking an extra cup of coffee, exercising in the morning etc…

And after many tries and errors, I found working solutions, that helped me to start the day productively, even if I had little sleep and/or was in bad mood for some reason.

From them I formulated three rules and one recommendation:

The first rule - the desk should be clean. And I mean that it was cleaned up to its ideal condition from the previous day. Like really clean.

Why it matters?

Because I don't want to start my day cleaning!

Not only it takes your productive energy away, it also generates some disturbance in your brain. And we would like to avoid this.

The second rule - check the to-do list that you created the previous evening. Not in the morning, when (like in my case) half of your memory is sleeping, and you can forget something. Choose one minor task from this list and complete it as a warm-up.

Why it matters?

Because by the time you complete your minor task, your brain will warm up and on top of that, you will get some satisfaction from completing the task that early! Dopamine (the satisfaction hormone) is our friend if we want to be productive and not flip into burnout.

The third rule - don't check your email until you complete your warm-up task! This rule may sound counter-intuitive because many of us turned morning email check into a habit. Don't do that! In fact, don’t even read anything until you complete your warm-up task. In this morning half-asleep condition, your brain is vulnerable to be overwhelmed with information, and it sometimes takes hours to get back on track.

Again, why it matters?

Because your mind is a tricky computer, that will take any opportunity and race toward irrelevant but entertaining things. News, messages, emails and the noise of the outside world will compete for your attention. It is especially true in the modern era when attention means profits, and merchandising became a hard science.

Don't let your brain to take part in this never-ending cycle. Focus. The only race you would like to be a part of is a race toward your goals. Not the goals that were set up for you by others.

And by investing a bit of time and effort into your minor task, and gaining a bit of dopamine as a result, you will activate one of the most basic parts of your brain - part that is responsible for conserving energy. And from its perspective, the only way to stop wasting your precious life energy is to let you complete your stupid conscious tasks in as little time as possible and as effective as possible. Because your conscious mind had the audacity to do anything but gaining more fat and having sex! And also he doesn't want to gain dopamine by watching tv and doing nothing! What a downer!

(And if you need help with focusing - I described one method that helped me to increase my focus ability here - https://steemit.com/life/@lightheadfox/tale-of-three-matches-how-to-increase-your-productivity-without-breaking-your-mind-part-1)

Back to being serious:

What about exercising or walking in the morning, you mentioned before?

Well, light exercise definitely helps. Walking also. Why don't I make a rule out of it? Because for me the value of it is situational. Sometimes I have so many meetings and locations per day, that riding a taxi the next day to work actually feels more refreshing than walking.

So the recommendation will be as follows - if you can afford it, avoid public transport, ride or walk to your office with as minimum outside interference as possible. There is no use of watching morning TV. No use of checking email before work. No use of listening to the audiobook on your way to the office. Don't be afraid of not catching up to something. Really important things will come to you anyway.

Make it a meditation. Use this time to collect your thoughts and appreciate the new morning. The time will go slower for you, and you won't have that feeling of Deja Vu.

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