S.J. Scott
*5. Spend your last hour of the evening winding down with calming activities that do not include electronics. The lighting of electronics interferes with your ability to fall asleep, so turn off the TV, shut down your computer and put away your smart phone. (Location 254)
If you wake up due to anxiety dreams… Process stressful issues during the day so you don’t take them to bed with you. Try one of the following: Talking to a therapist, self-hypnosis, venting to a friend, writing out solutions to problems or vigorous exercise. All of these stress-relief techniques will help you put anxiety aside. (Location 297)
times a night… See your doctor to rule out diabetes, and then cut down on liquids after 6:00 p.m. (Location 300)
Other people find that consuming caffeine irritates the urethra, which can make you feel like you need to urinate more often than your bladder needs to release. Lowering your sodium and caffeine consumption may help you sleep better. (Location 304)
9:00-10:00: Engage in a leisure activity you enjoy. You might want to watch TV, read to the kids and tuck them into bed, talk to your significant other or a friend about the day, surf the web or study something you’re trying to learn. 10:00: Time to shut down electronics and move to the bedroom. Take one dose of melatonin and bring a cup of chamomile or valerian tea with you to (Location 331)
the bedroom that you drink while listening to soft music and performing end-of-day hygiene. 10:30: Turn off all the lights except one soft light. Read, make love, write in a journal or meditate for 15-30 minutes. 10:45-11:00: Turn your sound machine on and the lights off. Lie down in bed. You should be asleep by 11:00 p.m. (Location 335)
I’m not a morning person—yet I’m able to get a lot done in the first few hours because I start each day by completing a series of habits that increase my energy levels. (Location 356)
The very act of cleaning up helps us to realize a new day has begun. Choose one (or all) of the following activities for your morning routine: ** Wash your face with hot water and a facial cleanser or scrub. Splash cold water on your face to finish up. (Location 370)
Mint is proven to increase mental alertness. (Location 402)
DO NOT: ** Surf the Internet. ** Turn on the TV. ** Check out social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Digg, Reddit, etc. ** Take out the garbage or put out mail. (You will chance running into neighbors who will chit chat your time away.) (Location 434)
** Hang out with your roommate or significant other. (Explain the importance of your morning plan or get up early to avoid interacting.) ** Indulge in luxurious, lazy breakfasts. (Schedule these for AFTER your morning routine, on special days.) ** Deal with kids more than is necessary. (Talk to your significant other about a morning plan—you may (Location 439)
Our culture celebrates multitasking, and very few of us focus on just one activity at a time anymore. We check email while watching television; we IM with coworkers while participating in large group meetings; some people even watch movies while typing up reports or papers. However, we lose something when we multitask. Research published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Experimental Psychology (Location 527)
As you plan out your hour of focus, you will want to choose the ONE thing that will have the biggest impact on your life. This one activity should be tied into a major life goal OR should be the single activity that will have the biggest impact on your career. You may be tempted to take on two goals at once—like writing a book and losing weight—but you’ll be far more successful if you choose one goal, tackle it for a few months and then move onto another goal when you feel you have sufficiently accomplished your first goal. (Location 534)
For now, you need to choose the one goal that will most improve your life overall. (Location 559)
Activity 2: Start an Online Business (Location 585)
** Outsource tasks to other freelancers (writers, graphic design artists, social media specialists and app programmers). (Location 594)
** Read a report or watch a webinar to increase your knowledge. ** Make an action plan after watching a webinar or reading a report. (Location 599)
** Visualize yourself succeeding in a specific scenario. Take the time to create a movie inside your head in which you walk through the scenario, step by step and sentence by sentence, successfully accomplishing something that intimidates you. Professional athletes do this. Studies show that detailed visualization can increase success rates even more than (Location 688)
** Invest an hour a day getting a head start on your work day. Answer emails, put in extra time on an important project, work on that presentation or practice your oral delivery for meetings. (Location 714)
The following activities, if practiced regularly, will improve your concentration: ** Download software that tracks your activity online and flags you every time you go onto a site you “shouldn’t” be visiting. ** Practice increasing your concentration through mind games. Google “mind games that improve (Location 762)