10 Don’ts to Avoid Unproductive Mornings

Aha, the satisfaction of a productive morning is a feeling we all long for. The personal success we feel when our tasks are complete and done well, brings joy to our hearts.
Here are 10 tips to aid you in turning chaotic mornings into super productive ones.

1. Don’t Watch TV or Work/Play on Electronic Devices At Least One Hour Before Bed

” Sleep tight, but not right after looking at something bright.” as reported by By Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporter( http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/sleep/articles/2011/03/07/using-electronics-before-bed-may-hamper-sleep)
One of the best ways to have a productive morning, is simply by getting a proper night’s sleep the night before.  Sounds easy enough, however, many people suffer restless nights with interrupted sleep. Sleep deprivation will rob you of productivity.  Quality sleep is essential for good health.  One’s ability to think clearly and make rational choices actually is dependent on proper sleep.  A key element that is preventing many from getting a good night’s rest is the use of electronics.The human body naturally produces melatonin, which aids in sleeping,  this can be gravely affected by bright lights.  Begin to practice shutting off all modes of electronics for at least one hour before bedtime and see how this will aid in better sleep, and ultimately, more productive days.

2. Don’t Hit the Snooze Button

Personally, I will never understand why the “snooze button” was invented.  I find it tortuous to have to wake up and doze back to sleep only to be awaken again in a few minute time-span.   Your body begins a new sleep cycle when you hit your snooze alarm.  Instead of getting a few extra winks in, thinking it will help you get through your day, you are actually doing more harm than good. It is best that you wake up with the alarm clock.  If you find that you aren’t rested enough, then you need to readjust the time that your alarm is going off or the time that you go to bed the night before. Always remember, a good night’s rest is essential for defeating unproductive mornings.

3. Don’t Over Extend Yourself

It is very easy to set yourself up for failure by placing too many things on your “to-do” list.  I have found that by limiting your lists of things you want to accomplish in a day, to a smaller number, it allows you to be able to do more and be more productive.  The sense of a huge list of things that are needed to be done, weighing on your mind, adds stress to your day.  When you begin to stress, you lose ability to focus and your levels of productivity are greatly lessened.  Be reasonable with your limits.  You are not super-human. A smaller list accomplished is much better than a longer list only partially completed.

4. Don’t Check Your Emails First Thing in the Morning

In this electronic era, it is tempting to pick up your device the minute you wake up to check on what has happened in the world during your sleeping hours.  But don’t!  Resist the temptation to scroll through your emails.  Set appointed times throughout the day that you will check and respond to incoming email.  What happens often times when we begin to open emails, there are demands or requests upon your time. You have a plan for your morning and all of a sudden your morning has the potential of taking a whole different route just by glancing at your emails.

5. Don’t Wait Till Morning To …

One of the very best ways to avoid unproductive mornings is to prepare the night before for the day ahead.  If you were to research the lives and habits of successful men and women, you would find that much of their success lies in preparation.
•Don’t wait till morning to choose what clothes you will wear that day. Instead, pick out what you will wear, as well as, any shoes and accessories the night before. When morning comes you won’t have to waste precious time pulling things out of your closet and deciding last minute what to wear. You will have ample time to make sure everything is clean, neat, and arranged to your liking. No more rushing around in the morning to find something to wear. You will feel much more prepared to start your day by taking these steps.
•Don’t wait till morning to make your “to-do” list. Instead, set your lists of goals and tasks the night before. When morning comes you will wake up with  direction. You will be able to start the day off quicker, easier and the end result will be productivity.
•Don’t wait till morning to make your lunch. Trying to figure out what you want for lunch while slurping your morning coffee doesn’t end well. Instead, after dinner or sometime before bedtime is the best time to pack a healthy lunch for the next day.  Taking a little extra time in the evening will reap rewards the following day. You will have a nutrious lunch to take and one last thing to do early in the morning.
•Don’t wait till morning to see if you need extra time to get gas for the car, or if you have an early morning meeting, or if you are the carpool driver.  Basically it is best to check and be aware of the next days agenda before you go to sleep. By checking your calendar you will be prepared for any and all aspects of the upcoming day.

6.  Don’t Get Sidetracked

Wake up, have a mission and don’t get sidetracked! This is when your list of objectives for the day come in handy, without a direction you will easily fall into the wander mode and become easily side-tracked. It is surprising how much valuable time that can be eaten up by straying from your goal. When interrupted, one task that could be completed in 30 minutes can turn into a project that takes hours to complete. Practice being single-minded in your tasks. This tip will help make your day more productive.

7. Don’t Skip Breakfast

It is true; breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Yet, many start their day without taking time to eat.  It is a known fact that cars need fuel.  The same for our bodies.  Breakfast is fuel for our bodies. Science has shown that you have a “mental advantage” when you start the day with a healthy breakfast. You will be able to focus and concentrate much better once you have eaten.  This will aid you in problem-solving and making better choices throughout your day.  What better way to make your day productive than by starting it off with a proper breakfast.

8. Don’t Go Into Office At the Same Time As Everyone Else

I recently was speaking with a VP of a successful company. I told him about this article and asked him some of the things he avoids, in order to have productive mornings. Mr. R said, “Don’t go into the office the same time as everyone else does, go in an half hour earlier.”
Some of the benefits to arriving early include less distraction, less temptation to socialize with others, and  extra moments to set up for your day. When everyone else comes in, you will have already gotten your day in order. It is true that sometimes you can get so much more accomplished in  small undisturbed frames of time. Take advantage of tips like this to aid in making your morning as productive as possible.

9. Don’t Waste Time

If there were an award given for most time wasted I certainly have seen some viable candidates. If you want to have truly productive days, this is a luxury you cannot afford.,”Don’t say you don’t have enough time.
You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.” says H. Jackson Brown. We all have the same 24 hours in our days, how you use it is what determines your success.

10. Don’t Leave Your House Angry Ever

Anger is a powerful emotion that everyone experiences at one point or another. If not expressed correctly, anger can lead to very unpleasant consequences. When you are leaving your home in the morning the mood or tone of your day begins. If you leave in a huff, because you are upset, then you will find it difficult to concentrate on the things you need to accomplish that day.
Anger will cloud your thinking making production difficult. It also is very difficult to be productive when you have unfinished emotional baggage on your mind.  Another important reason you should never leave your house angry is because life is short and uncertain. You have heard stories of people who wished they could take back those angry words spoken in the morning because their loved one never made it home that day. Now they have to live in constant regret.
Start your day on a positive note to make it productive. Speak kind words of love and affirmation to all around you.
We will all experience those days where it seems nothing will go right. However, let’s put into practice these 10 tips to help us learn to be more productive than we ever dreamed possible. To sum it up, you need a good night’s sleep, preparations for the day ahead, healthy eating habits and a focused mindset and you will sail through your mornings with more vigor and control. Here’s to living a meaningful and productive life!

When You Start To Read More, These 10 Things Will Happen

I have a confession. I’m an addict.
It’s almost a lifelong thing, really. Since I was a kid. I should be embarrassed… but I’m not.
I should get help… but I won’t.
I’ll just go back to the bookstore. Back to the library. Back to my endless queue of ebooks. Back to my stuffed shelves.
They know me. They love me. I’ve got everything I need here. Why would I stop?
And why wouldn’t you start? When you read more, life expands. Here’s how.

1. You will find a safe way to escape when your own life is depressing, overwhelming, or just boring.

No need to turn to drugs or alcohol. Save your money. Get a library card, or start downloading some of those thousands of ebooks in the public domain. Get wrapped up in a story. Get lost in another world. Get into a character’s head and out of your own.
It’s instant. It’s economical. It’s portable: your own personal escape route when things get to be too much.
And who’s going to look down on you for reading a book? You smart thing, you. I won’t tell them what’s really going on. Promise.

2. You find out that you have a family.

Okay, I know. You have parents and maybe siblings, and maybe a whole slew of aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents and whatnot.
Or maybe not.
Maybe you do feel alone in the world, bereft.
Whether you’re a literal orphan or you simply feel like you totally don’t fit into the family you’ve got, becoming an avid reader is a way to find the family you can fit into.
It’s a worldwide, totally open, and really awesome family.
It’s the family of readers. Book lovers. Literary addicts. Bibliophiles. Become one of us, and you have an extended family that you can find anywhere. There’s a signal, of course, like a secret family handshake. Just pull out that latest book and read it. That’s all it takes.
We’ll see you.
We’ll know.
We’re always nearby, whenever you need us.

3. You will become part of a timeless, global conversation.

Books are the way that the past communicates with us. And books are the way that we communicate across cultures and national boundaries, across social lines and class divisions.
Books let us enter into each other’s lives and worlds in a completely unobtrusive but immersive way.
Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.
Have you ever wanted to be someone else, to go somewhere else, to experience some other life than the one you got?
Books, baby. What are you waiting for?

4. You will learn to talk pretty.

Reading is the most painless way to improve your vocabulary, spelling, and grammatical proficiency.
Did you catch how I just spelled “proficiency” without even looking it up?
Yeah. That comes from reading.
Read more, and you’ll be able to snicker smugly when your friends post status updates with egregious spelling errors. You can correct their misuse of common words. You can be the Grammatical Tyrant you’ve always dreamed of being.

5. You will look forward to lines, layovers, and waiting rooms.

This could be the biggest turning point of your life, actually. Instead of tapping your foot impatiently, huffing and sighing like dyspeptic cow, or otherwise displaying your wrath and frustration in a socially acceptable way, you can simply… read.
Whatever book you’re currently lost in should be with you, in your pocket or purse. Pull it out and you’ve got entertainment, companionship, and intellectual stimulation. All in one handy portable package.
My friend Leigh says that reading gives her “the ability to be happy anytime, anywhere, even when waiting ridiculously long amounts of time.”
That’s a superpower everybody needs.

6. You will be a nicer person.

You might not care about being a nicer person, but the other people in your life probably do care.
Reading, as my friend Christine put it, “allows me to experience another’s emotions, which in turn makes me more sensitive to those around me.”
And she’s right.
Maybe you’ve never been a victim of racism, abuse, or poverty. Maybe you don’t know what unrequited love feels like. Maybe you find it easier to criticize than to sympathize.
Reading won’t take that away entirely (my Criticize-O-Meter is still in good working order, even after decades as an avid reader) but it will help you to slow down a little bit on the judging.
And speed up a lot on the empathizing.
Because when you live other lives through books, you begin to see the other lives happening in the world around you. The lives you know nothing about.
And you begin to have a little more understanding. A little more interest. A little less “us versus them” and a lot more “we’re all in this together.”

7. You will learn stuff.

Even if all you read is fiction, you can learn quite a lot about cultural influence, relationships, history, fear, human psychology, the various expressions of spirituality, the effects of war, the way robots will definitely take over the world, and how superheroes manage to keep their capes clean.
All very useful information.
Want more? Branch out into non-fiction. Biographies, history, current events. No, just kidding; skip the books on current events. Read history instead; you’ll learn more about current events that way.
Philosophy. Psychology. How-to books. Memoirs. Science. Exploration. If you’re interested in it, you can find a book about it. Probably you can find an entire section of books about it.
And hey, if you can’t find a book about it, maybe you should write one.

8. You will discover that you were dumber than you knew.

In the time prior to your avid reading addiction (also known as “The Years Which Must Not Be Named”), you thought you had a pretty open mind, didn’t you?
Go ahead, you can admit it. I won’t laugh.
You thought that you knew kind of a lot, and that you had a broad perspective on life, and a pretty accurate view on the world and how things worked.
And then you started reading.
Maybe the first few books weren’t such a big deal. They probably kept you safely in your comfort zone. But then one of the members of your new reading family gave you a recommendation.
“You’ve got to read this,” she said. “It’s so great. Really.”
So you did.
And you realized that something you thought you knew—really knew, truly and certainly—was not right at all. You felt the edges along your mind begin to crack open a little bit.
You felt a little light seeping in and you started seeing the interior of your mind the way it really was: dim, dusty, and crowded with a lot of assumptions.
You kept reading, and the more you read, the more those cracks opened up. One by one, those assumptions slipped and slid out of the cracks. The light grew. The air cleared.
You started populating your mind with different things: images, conversations, perceptions, insights, data. Poetry. Fragments of lives you didn’t live, but somehow experienced through a book. Emotions that didn’t belong to you, but that you felt just as strongly.
Real things, from the real world, instead of that crumbly old stack of assumptions and expectations.

9. You will be more creative.

As you fill your mind with fresh material from all these books, something wonderful starts happening.
Your mind wakes up.
Creativity is really all about making connections. The creative people in life, the ones we admire for their ingenuity, are the ones who can make those connections really well. They have a broad database of knowledge, and they don’t bother keeping the categories separate. They let poetry seep into science. They let faith and history hang out together.
They understand, in fact, that all those categorizations are imposed. We put labels on things so that we can feel like we understand them, but sometimes the labels are counterproductive.
Reading helps you tear the labels off.
Reading helps you to fill your mind from as many sources as you want, and then let all of that beautiful stuff mingle and mix in anyway it wants.

10. You will become more imaginative and less afraid of being weird.

When you read books that are the product of someone else’s imagination, you start to trust your own imagination, and use it.
What a great idea! Using that brain, in all of its crazy, unnerving, glorious potentiality.
Reading will help you do that. If you feel like your mind is strange, start reading. After a few runs through the world of surrealism or science fiction (or surrealistic science fiction), you will feel like the most normal person in the world. Who are these crazy people who come up with these weird, fantastical ideas?
Of course, you’ll want to read more. So you will. And then your own imagination will start to blend what you’ve read with the real life you’re living, and you’ll add in your own unique collection of information, experience, education, and personality. Who knows what will result?
Don’t you want to find out?
Why don’t you have a book open yet?

Give Me 45 Minutes in the Morning and I’ll Give You a More Productive Day

Let me guess: you don’t have time to get a decent cup of coffee in the morning, so how the hell are you going to find 45 minutes to (presumably) waste on being productive?
It’s okay; I know the pain. I sometimes have trouble getting my wheels rolling in the morning too. But, as it turns out, it’s nothing we can’t fix with a good morning routine.
Here’s how we’re going to do this. First, let’s divide our morning into two segments:

• First 45 minutes: things we’ll be doing at home, prior to getting to work,
• Then, we’ll start our workday with some easy-win tasks and overall good starting tasks that will keep our productivity at high levels throughout the day.

1. Start your day early in the morning.

For the life of me, I can’t remember who said it, but there was an excellent quote about how you should do your work early in the morning because fear is still asleep at 5 a.m.
This is an extreme take on the matter, I agree, but what I am trying to say is that you should just try getting your day started a bit earlier every day. The sooner you get up, the more you can do before your fear wakes up and starts putting you down with those “I can’t do this” thoughts.
Note that this is not about depriving yourself of sleep. What you have to do is go to sleep earlier the previous day, so you can still get 7-9 hours of rest.

2. Exercise after breakfast (15 min.)

There’s an extremely interesting paper on the benefits of exercise at Bryn Mawr College’s website. It states that exercising is one of the few activities that generates new neurons. On top of that, it also alleviates both physical and mental pain.
To put this in plain English: exercising makes you a happier human being.
You really don’t need a lot of it on a daily basis. A mere 15 minutes after breakfast will do the job. Check these simple workouts that are easy to fit into your busy day..

3. Meditation for busy people (10 min.)

“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes every day–unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for an hour.” Click to Tweet

While I’m not going to get as brutal on you as the Zen proverb suggests, I do encourage you to spend 10 minutes every morning meditating. Do this right after exercising as a cool down.
Meditation has huge benefits on both our bodies and minds. I was skeptical at first, but it took me about two weeks to notice some positive benefits.
To give you more fact-based reasons, Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School conducted a study where the participants were asked to practice some relaxation methods on a regular basis. The effects he found were:

“After two months, their bodies began to change: the genes that help fight inflammation, kill diseased cells…all began to switch on…The more people practiced relaxation methods such as meditation or deep breathing, the greater their chances of remaining free of arthritis and joint pain with stronger immunity, healthier hormone levels and lower blood pressure.”

If you’ve never meditated, here’s a quick start guide:

1. Fire up background music that doesn’t draw much attention.
2. Sit quietly, close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
3. Try thinking about nothing other than breathing in and out.

That’s all. It sounds easy, but during your first 5-10 attempts you may find it difficult. Your mind will race and keep feeding you hundreds of different thoughts. That’s okay though. Over time, you will get better at this.

4. Write a journal entry (10 min.)

Having a personal journal has been one of the biggest productivity tricks for me. It’s so simple, yet so effective.
Grab a notepad– either an actual piece of paper or open a piece of software on your laptop–and write whatever thoughts are on your mind at that moment.
Anything goes: your reflections on the previous day, your plans for dinner, your thoughts on meeting an old friend the previous weekend. There’s no bad direction here.
The idea is that writing a journal frees your mind from the things you’re thinking in the moment. The minute you get it out of your head and into a note, you no longer have to use your mind power remembering that stuff.
As a result, this means that you can focus on the new day and the tasks you’ll have to take care of in just a short while.
Once you’re done with all of the above, use the last 10 minutes to interact with your loved ones or do something else that gives you a positive vibe. Then, you can get to work.

5. Start your workday by planning.

Some people prefer to plan in the evening. I don’t, because in the evening I tend to get overly optimistic about all the things I’m going to do the next day.
When the morning comes, however, the feeling is different. I already know that what I’m planning I’ll have to start executing right away, so I’m careful only to place the essential tasks on my list.
That’s what works for me personally. I encourage you to test both approaches and see which one works best for you–planning in the morning or planning in the evening.

6. Go for the easy wins.

Try building your to-do list in a way that it has two types of tasks:

• Crucial: the thing(s) that need(s) to be done no matter what during that day,
• Easy wins: the things that can be done quickly, so you can feel that you’re being productive, which will eventually get your wheels going faster and faster.

Start your day by focusing on one or two tasks from the easy win department. Be careful though. These are not filler tasks! Your easy wins should still be things that are important and need to be done. They just happen to be relatively easy to take care of.
For example, social media is not a good easy win task. It can consume two hours of your time easily. “It’s a trap” (to quote Admiral Ackbar) that will drag you into your Twitter feed and keep you there for a good long while.
A better idea is to do things based on templates or one activity that then gets multiplied for maximum results. If you’re a freelancer or a solo-preneur then there surely are loads of tasks that fit the description for you.
Reaching out to new clients and sending proposals is a prime example. You do want to treat each client individually, obviously, but at the same time, you can use a template for the core of your communication. This is just to make sure that you don’t miss any important pieces of the puzzle and that you say everything that needs to be said.
Check these proposal templates for freelancers and consultants by the guys at Bidsketch. You can take one of them, adjust it to your needs (one-time task), and then send it to, say, four clients in a matter of minutes.
Quick win? Check.
If your solo business uses some form of content marketing, then you can promote your content with BuzzStream. You can use it to find relevant blogs and websites and send your outreach messages on a large scale.
Quick win? Check again.
Feel free to do some brainstorming on this and find the tasks that are both important to you and fit the quick win definition. Then you can alternate between them in the morning.

7. Final step: Go right into the crucial.

We’ve been quietly building up our whole morning just to be able to tackle the crucial task for the day with high energy and positive morale.
Once you have your morning ritual and early wins taken care of (which basically means that you’ve had a good start of the day), you can confidently move on to your main task for the day, whatever it might be.
Believe me, trying to get an important task done when you have the energy to finish it, versus trying to do so when you’re deprived of it makes all the difference.
What’s your take on this sort of morning ritual? Are you willing to give it a go?

10 Morning Habits of Highly Successful People That Make Them Extraordinary

Sometimes it takes a healthy dose of tough love to snap people out of their sluggish existence. If you want to lead a successful life, you need to confront these seven harsh truths today.

1. The grave is where you will end your life, so it’s not like you have anything to lose.

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” ― Mark Twain

You are going to die. Sure, you can eat healthy and exercise to add years to your lifespan, but there is no escaping the inevitable fate of death. Since the grim reaper will find you no matter how hard you try to hide, don’t you think it’s time to do the ambitious things you have always dreamed of doing?

2. Nothing you care about matters, so you need to stop worrying about everything.

“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.” ― Horace Walpole

You are obsessed with trivial things. Yes, it is a bummer to go through a nasty break-up or job-loss, but you’ve gotta confess such things are trivial when compared to the grim realities of poverty and violence that are every day occurrences in other countries. Since positive action trumps negative thoughts every time, don’t you think it’s time to get over it?

3. “Reality” is a safety net built by people who had the balls to do it, so you should break rules more often.

“I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don’t believe anything the government tells me. Nothing. Zero.” ― George Carlin

You are a sheep. I know, you’re afraid of getting criticized or upsetting people; but if no one is rattled by what you have to say, you are probably following a script that was determined by others. Since meaningful change is achieved by people who have the guts to march to the beat of their own drum, don’t you think it’s time to set the rule book on fire?

4. Agonizing over painful memories won’t get you anywhere, so you might as well deal with them.

“It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.” ― Chuck Palahniuk

You are a slave to your past. Yes, your life might include unfortunate events that are worth getting upset about, but these mishaps are meaningless when viewed through the context of your entire existence. Since your future happiness is determined by how you react in the present, don’t you think it’s time to forget about the past?

5. Being ordinary will get you nowhere, so you better get comfortable with taking risks.

“Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” ― Hunter S. Thompson

You are a weakling. Sure, it’s scary to stretch yourself beyond that bubble of comfort you have constructed for yourself, but the only way to accomplish audacious goals is through taking bold actions. Since bowing down to your fear of failure will cripple your progress before you start, don’t you think it’s time to take a risk?

6. Trying to impress people who don’t appreciate your true personality is stupid, so you need to knock it off.

“Happiness is when you feel good about yourself without feeling the need for anyone else’s approval.” ― Unknown

You are a people-pleaser. I know, life can get lonely without friends to hang out with, but a friendship built on lies isn’t a relationship worth having. Since you would be a lot happier if you focused on the true friends who appreciate you, don’t you think it’s time to stop giving a crap about the rest?

7. Doing scary things is the only way to achieve success, so it’s in your best interest to lean in to your fear.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?” ― Marianne Williamson

You are spine-less. Sure, it’s difficult to overcome your feelings of unworthiness, but there is no way to achieve success without a firm belief in your ability to achieve. Since becoming fearless will create more opportunities than you could ever imagine, don’t you think it’s time to rip every ounce of self-consciousness out of you?

7 Harsh Truths That Will Lead You To Success

Sometimes it takes a healthy dose of tough love to snap people out of their sluggish existence. If you want to lead a successful life, you need to confront these seven harsh truths today.

1. The grave is where you will end your life, so it’s not like you have anything to lose.

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” ― Mark Twain

You are going to die. Sure, you can eat healthy and exercise to add years to your lifespan, but there is no escaping the inevitable fate of death. Since the grim reaper will find you no matter how hard you try to hide, don’t you think it’s time to do the ambitious things you have always dreamed of doing?

2. Nothing you care about matters, so you need to stop worrying about everything.

“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.” ― Horace Walpole

You are obsessed with trivial things. Yes, it is a bummer to go through a nasty break-up or job-loss, but you’ve gotta confess such things are trivial when compared to the grim realities of poverty and violence that are every day occurrences in other countries. Since positive action trumps negative thoughts every time, don’t you think it’s time to get over it?

3. “Reality” is a safety net built by people who had the balls to do it, so you should break rules more often.

“I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don’t believe anything the government tells me. Nothing. Zero.” ― George Carlin

You are a sheep. I know, you’re afraid of getting criticized or upsetting people; but if no one is rattled by what you have to say, you are probably following a script that was determined by others. Since meaningful change is achieved by people who have the guts to march to the beat of their own drum, don’t you think it’s time to set the rule book on fire?

4. Agonizing over painful memories won’t get you anywhere, so you might as well deal with them.

“It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.” ― Chuck Palahniuk

You are a slave to your past. Yes, your life might include unfortunate events that are worth getting upset about, but these mishaps are meaningless when viewed through the context of your entire existence. Since your future happiness is determined by how you react in the present, don’t you think it’s time to forget about the past?

5. Being ordinary will get you nowhere, so you better get comfortable with taking risks.

“Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” ― Hunter S. Thompson

You are a weakling. Sure, it’s scary to stretch yourself beyond that bubble of comfort you have constructed for yourself, but the only way to accomplish audacious goals is through taking bold actions. Since bowing down to your fear of failure will cripple your progress before you start, don’t you think it’s time to take a risk?

6. Trying to impress people who don’t appreciate your true personality is stupid, so you need to knock it off.

“Happiness is when you feel good about yourself without feeling the need for anyone else’s approval.” ― Unknown

You are a people-pleaser. I know, life can get lonely without friends to hang out with, but a friendship built on lies isn’t a relationship worth having. Since you would be a lot happier if you focused on the true friends who appreciate you, don’t you think it’s time to stop giving a crap about the rest?

7. Doing scary things is the only way to achieve success, so it’s in your best interest to lean in to your fear.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?” ― Marianne Williamson

You are spine-less. Sure, it’s difficult to overcome your feelings of unworthiness, but there is no way to achieve success without a firm belief in your ability to achieve. Since becoming fearless will create more opportunities than you could ever imagine, don’t you think it’s time to rip every ounce of self-consciousness out of you?

10 Tips On How To Craft A Perfect Resume

If you’re trying to nail your dream job, or just looking for some part-time work, having the perfect resume is vital. You need to stand out from the crowd on a piece of paper, and that is as difficult as it sounds. But it’s not all doom and gloom.
I have prepared and tailored resumes for several clients, and I have observed common mistakes made throughout. Though these may seem minor or superficial to you, they are the difference between an interview and a rejection. Here are some things you need to consider to make yours the perfect resume:

1. Standardise

Your resume should run standardised throughout: the formatting, the font, the colours, everything. Think about the opinion this gives an employer. If your resume is messy, that is the first impression they will have of you – sloppy, disorganised, and unmotivated. Depending on the job you are going for, either use simple spacing, and a clean readable font, or grab a template for a more creative approach. If you really want to stand out, go all out and make a totally unique template, but make sure it is standardised.

2. Be transparent (social networks, phone number, address)

The perfect resume is all about you, and with the 21st century being a time of transparency (for both companies and individuals), make sure your resume reflects that you have nothing to hide. I don’t suggest adding your Twitter handle or Facebook profile to it (unless you’re going for a digital job, such as a social media role) but include your LinkedIn profile, address, and contact numbers. Employers like to know that they have the ability to contact you, or find out more information about you, from cues given within your resume. It also establishes a subtle trust between both parties.

3. Print your Pitch

If you don’t already have an elevator pitch I suggest you craft one. For those unfamiliar with the term, an elevator pitch is a quick 30-second summary of yourself, your ambitions, and your skills; you’re meant to be able to reel it off to a potential employer in a brief introduction. Not only does it help your employer, but it helps you understand yourself and what you want to be able to achieve. 30-seconds (or let’s say no more than 150 words) does not give you a lot of room for content, and forces you to prioritise your goals. Once you’ve crafted your self-summary, paste it into the top of your resume. Most employers don’t want to read your life story, but if they can understand you in 3 lines, you have a better chance at securing the job.

4. Tailor to your Market

This is probably the most important point on this list. For your resume to be perfect you have to understand who your employer is. The resume you send to Apple is not going to be the same as the one you send to Goldman Sachs. Do some research and understand your employer’s ethos, company culture, and desires. If you’re applying to a job posted, make sure you read the job description and find where you can highlight that you have the requirements – your experience, key skills, achievements, or education. If your resume is tailored to suit the employer, you have a greater chance even if you do not meet all the requirements. What’s better, a highly-experienced employee people don’t get on with, or a less-experienced employee who gets on with everyone?

5. Get your things in order

The order of your resume is also vitally important. Personally, I would say there are 5 main sections to consider: Profile, Experience, Interests, Qualifications & Achievements, Key Skills. They are listed in the order I would use them, and here’s why:
Your profile is your elevator pitch. It’s the introduction/synopsis of your resume, and gives the reader a quick glimpse of who you are. Experience is next as they will want to see your experience. I place Interests before Qualifications because they give an insight into what you do outside of working hours, and a greater insight into your personality. Not only that, but if you have some interesting things you do on the side, it is a great way of showing intrinsic motivation. The only suggestion would be that do not include anything that seems very time- or attention-consuming: employers will want you to be dedicated to your work and will not like to see your attention being shared too greatly. Keep Qualifications brief, it’s just a formality to see what education you’ve undergone but does not necessarily play a huge part in the decision-making process (again, dependent on the type of job you are applying for). Key Skills again offers insight into what you think you are good at, displaying confidence and acquired skills. It is a nice way to funnel out at the end of a resume, a smooth ending.

6. Quality, not Quantity

Don’t write your life story. Only include experience and interests which you think are relevant to the job you are applying for. If you’ve worked as an Intern for a competitor, that is more relevant than the fact that you did weekend shifts at Wall-mart. You get the gist, but this depends on how much experience you have to work with.

7. Go Backwards in Time

Write your experience in reverse chronological order (most recent first). Your employer is more concerned with the job you just had then something you did 5, 10 years ago. However, relating to point 1, do this for all forms of time-scale throughout your resume. Consistency is key.

8. Unfinished Business

Do not omit any current or on-going work and projects. Your employers want to know what you are currently up to, to gauge whether or not you are ready for the job on offer. They will understand that in having a job you have to give notice periods and these do not often change the opinion of an employer. They would much rather know than not (point 2 – transparency).

9. Add some flare

Do not write your resume like it’s a status report. The common misconception is that a resume is there just so the employer knows what you’ve done, a historical document of your professional life. No! This is not the case. Your resume is designed to sell you. It’s a personal advert. Add some flare, some personality. You’re selling yourself, so sell YOU, not your experience.

10. Include experience, aims, and achievements

So you’ve got some personality and your experience is listed. However, most people forget to include their aims, goals, and ambitions on their resumes. A company does not only want to know if you’re right for them, but if the company is right for you. They want to be sure that they can give you what you desire also, so that you can both grow alongside each other. This is more important than you think; it may be what you consider your ideal job, but if you feel like you are not learning or developing at all, you will slowly tire and get bored.
Extra Tip for Paper Resumes: Use heavy, quality paper. Psychological research has shown that resumes printed on heavier, good quality paper are seen as more important and better qualified than those on flimsy paper. If you really want the job, you’ve got to pull out all the stops.
I understand that this has been a somewhat lengthy article, but it was my intention to make it thorough the reasonings behind each section so as to give you more insight and ideas in formatting and writing your own resumes. I wish you all the best of luck with job-hunting, and hope your perfect resume allows you to get the perfect job.

Get Productive! 15 Ideas That Really Work!

Can I tell you a little secret?

Working smart isn’t about doing more in less time. It’s about doing less in more time.

Confused?

Let me explain: Being truly productive — maybe “effective” is a better word — is not about rushing mindlessly through your to do list. It’s about first being prudent with task selection and then doing the tasks that make the biggest difference.

The Most Important Thing

If there’s one thing I’d want you to take away from this post, then it’s this: Use the Eisenhower matrix to identify what tasks are important and what tasks are urgent and then act on them in this order:

• Quadrant 1 – Urgent and Important tasks – these are critical to your day and must be dealt with immediately. Think dealing with a heart attack or child in hospital.
• Quadrant 2 – Not Urgent and Important tasks - You want to spend most of your time in this quadrant. Think regular exercise or good parenting. If you exercise regularly you’re less likely to end up with a heart attack.
• Quadrant 3 – Urgent but not Important tasks – Unfortunately we waste alot of time in this quadrant. Think ‘urgent’ emails or constantly responding to SMS messages. These appear urgent but are just interruptions and hijack your day.
• Quadrant 4 – Not Urgent and Not Important – These are downtime and recreational activities. You need to decompress but try and schedule these towards the end of the day.

Once you’ve decided on which tasks fall into which quadrant you can use one of the productivity tricks below to work through your targeted to do list.

1. The Pomodoro technique.

Essentially this is breaking your tasks down into 25 minute increments and attacking your work with intense focus for those time slices. After each 25 minute slice you take a 3-5 minute break. And every four pomodoro’s you take a 15-3- minute break. That’s it. The idea here is that frequent breaks can improve mental agility.

2. The Getting Things Done (GTD) approach.

This approach categorises tasks in two ways. By projects (which we’re all familiar with) and by contexts which is a set of conditions necessary to execute on the tasks. Imagine this: You need to make an appointment to see the doctor, call the plumber to fix the bathroom and call back your accountant. These tasks would probably fall into the health, home maintenance and finance projects respectively. But they would all be executed from one context – your phone. One of the benefits of the GTD method is that it allows you to club tasks by context and keep several projects moving forward using the ‘context handle’.

3. Process your email in batches.

Email is one of those quadrant 4 tasks that can really hijack your day. Don’t check your email too often. That’s a recipe for disaster when it comes to productivity. Train your stakeholders to expect replies from you at 10am, 12pm and 3pm (using an out off office message and/or a message in your email signature) and then stick to these times. You’ll be amazed at how many ‘urgent’ tasks ‘resolve themselves’!

4. Reserve your creative work for the morning.

If your day involves work that’s creative or requires critical thinking, schedule this for your mornings. For most people mornings are their ‘prime time’. This is when you’re likely to get the best breakthroughs and maximum output on creative pursuits. Save the admin tasks for later in the day.

5. Plan your day the night before using time boxing.

Planning your tasks the night before gives you emotional distance from the overwhelm that inevitably creeps into your busy work day. Plan your tasks on your calendar using time boxing and stick to the plan. Only make exceptions for emergencies!

6. Learn the art of saying “no”.

Know what makes Apple so successful? They know how to say ‘no’. They say no to hundreds of possible design features that they could cram into their devices and distill it down to the bare essentials. They are masters of elimination. The end result? Simplicity in form and functionality. This is the approach you need to take to your to do list. Distill it down to the bare essentials and then go to town on those tasks first.

7. Use a timer (I like Vitamin R for the Mac).

Here’s another very powerful secret. Time yourself while you’re working. Set yourself aggressive time lines too. Think it’ll take you an hour to write that article. Try and do it in 45 mins. You’ll find that it’ll sharpen your focus if nothing else.

8. Consume audio content while running or exercising.

Use audiobooks whenever possible. Check out the Amazon matchmakeroffering which allows you to swap between reading the ebook and and listening to audiobook version while still keeping your bookmarks intact. It’s an awesome product and often offers the complimentary audiobooks to go with your existing ebook at prices as low as $1.99.

9. Develop rhythms of focus and rest.

In keeping with the Pomodoro technique make sure you figure out a rhythm of focus and rest. I tend to keep the longer work sessions and shorter rest sessions towards the beginning of the day. As the day wears on I tend to shorten the work sessions and take longer breaks. Work out the rhythm that’s right for you and then go for it.

10. Do a productivity audit on yourself.

Having experimented with excel, handwritten notes, and a few other methodologies, I’ve found the best way to track your time is to getrescuetime.com setup on your computer. It automatically tracks your activities while you’re online. And if you decide to upgrade to the professional version (currently around $10 a month) you can even track your activities offline.

You only need to track your activities for a month to do a productivity audit on yourself. That’s enough to get an understanding of how you’re spending your time and compare it to how you think you’re spending your time.

Trust me you’ll be surprised.

11. Don’t multitask, Uni task.

Let’s bust one of the biggest prevailing myths around productivity.Multitasking does not work. Several studies have demonstrated the myth of multitasking.

Mult-tasking causes more distractions, dulls your focus and increases stress levels. Its costs far outweigh its benefits.

12. Use your mornings as a springboard for success.

Know the secret of the highest achievers? They use their mornings to get a jump on their day. By the time they’ve reached their afternoon they’ve completed their most important tasks. They even get a workout done, read or listen to inspiring material (often while working out) before they start their day. This increases their energy levels and sets them up for success.

The first few hours of the day sets the tone. What do you do to get yourself into gear when you wake up?

13. Identify your prime time and eliminate distractions during those hours.

Get very clear over all the times when you’re most productive. Most people hit their stride at about 10 am. When’s your prime time?

Also, eliminate distractions to take full advantage of your prime-time hours. For example, if you find that your prime time is at 10 am then make sure you don’t change your email and avoid meetings around that time.

Block out that time in your calendar and use it to become laser focused.

14. Develop rituals that you associate with high performance.

Have you seen Rafael Nadal arrange his drink bottles obsessively in between sets at wimbledon? That’s an example of a high performance ritual.

Rituals are great because that don’t involve a lot of thinking, and automatically get you into the design for high-performance work. I find this is one of the best ways to achieve ‘flow’.

15. Stop procrastination dead in its tracks once and for all!

One of the biggest drains on your productivity is procrastination. Procrastination affects your productivity in two ways. Firstly, you lose time when you are procrastinating. Secondly, and more importantly, delaying tasks often comes with a cost. For example, if you don’t exercise regularly you’re more likely to end up with a heart disease or stroke. Or if you let important tasks  build up you’re going to spend a lot more time putting out fires that you would never have had in the first place if you had completed the tasks ahead of time.

Want to overcome procrastination? Use this mindfulness approach to become aware of your patterns around procrastination so you can overcome them.

What You Achieve is More Important that How Much You Achieve

At the end of the day it’s not how many tasks you get through but how many strategically important moves you’ve made in your day. It’s about identifying the most important items on your to do list and then applying these tools to get them done first. Applying excellent productivity tools blindly to your to do list is like using a blunt instrument to cut through steel. You’re wasting your time.

How do you prioritise your tasks and what’s your favorite productivity hack?

10 Universal Android Tips And Tricks That You Should Know

I’ll admit that my relationship with Android got off to a rocky start. My first smartphone was a Samsung Galaxy S Continuum, and it was so horrible that I bought an iPhone the instant my contract was up. Though my initial experience with Android was terrible, there’s no question that it’s improved by leaps and bounds over the years. I’ve experienced the awesome side of Google’s mobile OS firsthand in the form of the 2012 Nexus 7 tablet, which I received as a gift soon after its release. Since then, I’ve used it as an e-reader, gaming device, web browser, and more. In the process I’ve discovered a few useful Android related tips and tricks, some of which I’ve listed below!

1. Maintain it like a PC to improve performance.

While Android can do much more than iOS, it requires more horsepower and user finagling to run smoothly. You can’t do much about upgrading your smartphone or tablet’s processor (barring a new purchase), but youcan take the time to optimize what you have. Much like a PC, Android devices need to be tuned up now and again. There are several apps that can assist you in this, like All-In-One Toolbox. Even without that app though, you can do stuff like deleting old, unused apps, removing widgets you don’t use, and ending unnecessary processes on your own. To do that last one (the concept of which is much like ending processes through control + alt + delete on a PC), go to settings, apps, running, and manually end anything taking up too much RAM memory.

2. Take advantage Android’s customization potential.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used someone’s Android phone, only to see that they’ve configured it so that their homescreen is full of app icons, much like an iPhone. That’s great and all, but if you want streamlined and simple, Apple’s products do it better. You might as well go crazy if you have an Android device! This means using your homescreen for cool widgets, search bars, etc. To find all the widgets you have, go to your apps page, then select widgets at the top. You might be surprised by how many interesting options are available to you…

3. Ensure your device gets back to you if you lose it.

There’s no surefire way to guarantee you’ll ever see your phone or tablet again if you leave it out in public by accident. That being said, you can improve the chances of it being returned to you by editing your security settings. Go to settings, then security, then owner info. There you’ll see a little box where you can type in contact information that will show up on your lockscreen. This will make it easier for a good Samaritan to return a lost device to its rightful owner.

4. Carry around multiple batteries.

OK, so this tip isn’t quite as universal as it used to be since many Android manufacturers like HTC are taking a page out of Apple’s book and disallowing you from swapping batteries. Still, this will work if you own a Samsung device, which most Android users have. It’s pretty simple: if you buy multiple batteries, charge them up, and store them in your backpack or briefcase, you can ensure that your phone will never run out of power. All you’ll have to do is take out your battery when it’s dead and swap in a new one. This way, you won’t have to rely on wall sockets, which is useful if you travel a lot.

5. Make your phone harder to break into than Fort Knox.

Reader warning: don’t do this one unless you’re really afraid of your phone’s information being stolen. To permanently encrypt your Android device, go to settings, security, encryption, and tap “Encrypt phone.” You’ll then be required to create a pin, which you’ll enter every time you turn your phone on (in order to decrypt it). This is like the unlock code on an iPhone, except way more drastic. Usually it will take about an hour for your device to encrypt itself, and it can only be undone through a factory reset. Only do this if you have sensitive information, or want your phone to be as secure as humanly possible. Be aware that encrypting your information will slow down how fast you can access it.

6. Test out different launchers.

If you have an Android phone, you can use these things called “launchers,” which are essentially apps that allow you to make drastic edits to your device’s homescreen. The most popular one is probably Nova Launcher, which will allow you to change just about everything you can think of. There are several other launchers out there too, and you can play around with them until you find one you like. Often, they can make your phone perform faster than they would with the clunky interfaces that companies like Samsung and HTC give them.

7. Say “Ok, Google” to start a search from any screen.

It’s the 21st century and we’re all busy 24/7. Cut down on the time it takes to manually search for things by doing it with your voice. To activate vocal control over Google searches, go to your apps page and find the Google app. Tap it (it should take you to Google Now), and scroll down until you see the settings icon on the bottom right. Hit that and select “Voice.” Then, tap on “Ok Google Detection” and activate the “From any screen” setting. Now you’ll be able to start a Google search from any screen on your phone simply by speaking the phrase, “Ok, Google.”

8. Access the hidden developer options.

To really get a sense of how customizable Android is, activate the “secret” developer mode. Go to settings, about phone, and click on “build number” seven times. Your device should tell you something like “you’re now a developer!” It’s all very Easter Egg-esque. Once that’s done, return to system settings, and with luck you’ll now see something entitled “developer options.” One of the cool things you can do here is reduce the time it takes for animations to execute, thereby making your phone feel snappier. Do this by going to the “animation scale” options and turning them off (you can make them take longer too, but I don’t see why you would want that). There are plenty of other sweet customizations you can do on this page, but don’t go too crazy unless you know what you’re doing.

9. See useful information on your lock screen.

You probably know by now that you can put widgets on your homescreen, but did you know you can do the same for your lockscreen? This means that you won’t have to unlock your phone anymore if all you want is to see some basic information. To do this, go to settings, security, and tap “enable widgets.” Then, go to the lockscreen and swipe left. You should see a big “+” sign. Hit that and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can select widgets to place on your lockscreen. Put anything from your e-mail to Google Now there in order to see stuff like weather, new messages, etc.

10. You aren’t tied to the Google Play store.

OK, well, you sort of are, but you can download other app stores like Amazon’s if you want to. Indeed, I highly suggest you do so because they are always offering insane deals to try and rip you away from Google’s warm embrace. One of these is their “App of the Day,” in which Amazon offers up a free app to entice you to spend more time in their store. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to save lots of money using these promotions, as at times they’ll put up apps for free that cost several dollars on Google Play.

11 Ways To Think Out Of The Box

Thinking outside the box is more than just a business cliche. It means
approaching problems in new, innovative ways; conceptualizing problems differently; and understanding your position in relation yo any particular situation in a way you'd never thought of before. Ironically, its a cliche that means to think of cliched situations in ways that aren't cliched.

We’re told to “think outside the box” all the time, but how exactly do we do that? How do we develop the ability to confront problems in ways other than the ways we normally confront problems? How do we cultivate the ability to look at things differently from the way we typically look at things?

Thinking outside the box starts well before we’re “boxed in” – that is, well before we confront a unique situation and start forcing it into a familiar “box” that we already know how to deal with. Or at least think we know how to deal with.

Here are 11 ways to beef up your out-of-the-box thinking skills. Make an effort to push your thinking up to and beyond its limit every now and again – the talents you develop may come in handy the next time you face a situation that “everybody knows” how to solve.

1. Study another industry.

I’ve learned as much about teaching from learning about marketing as I have from studying pedagogy – maybe more. Go to the library and pick up a trade magazine in an industry other than your own, or grab a few books from the library, and learn about how things are done in other industries. You might find that many of the problems people in other industries face are similar to the problems in your own, but that they’ve developed really quite different ways of dealing with them. Or you might well find new linkages between your own industry and the new one, linkages that might well be the basis of innovative partnerships in the future.

2. Learn about another religion.

Religions are the way that humans organize and understand their relationships not only with the supernatural or divine but with each other. Learning about how such relations are structured can teach you a lot about how people relate to each other and the world around them. Starting to see the reason in another religion can also help you develop mental flexibility – when you really look at all the different ways people comprehend the same mysteries, and the fact that they generally manage to survive regardless of what they believe, you start to see the limitations of whatever dogma or doxy you follow, a revelation that will transfer quite a bit into the non-religious parts of your life.

3. Take a class.

Learning a new topic will not only teach you a new set of facts and figures, it will teach you a new way of looking at and making sense of aspects of your everyday life or of the society or natural world you live in. This in turn will help expand both how you look at problems and the breadth of possible solutions you can come up with.

4. Read a novel in an unfamiliar genre.

Reading is one of the great mental stimulators in our society, but it’s easy to get into a rut. Try reading something you’d never have touched otherwise – if you read literary fiction, try a mystery or science fiction novel; if you read a lot of hard-boiled detective novels, try a romance; and so on. Pay attention not only to the story but to the particular problems the author has to deal with. For instance, how does the fantasy author bypass your normal skepticism about magic and pull you into their story? Try to connect those problems to problems you face in your own field. For example, how might your marketing team overcome your audiences normal reticence about a new “miracle” product?

5. Write a poem.

While most problem-solving leans heavily on our brain’s logical centers, poetry neatly bridges our more rational left-brain though processes and our more creative right-brain processes. Though it may feel foolish (and getting comfortable with feeling foolish might be another way to think outside the box), try writing a poem about the problem you’re working on. Your poem doesn’t necessarily have to propose a solution – the idea is to shift your thinking away from your brain’s logic centers and into a more creative part of the brain, where it can be mulled over in a non-rational way. Remember, nobody has to ever see your poem…

6. Draw a picture.

Drawing a picture is even more right-brained, and can help break your logical left-brain’s hold on a problem the same way a poem can. Also, visualizing a problem engages other modes of thinking that we don’t normally use, bringing you another creative boost.

7. Turn it upside down.

Turning something upside-down, whether physically by flipping a piece of paper around or metaphorically by re-imagining it can help you see patterns that wouldn’t otherwise be apparent. The brain has a bunch of pattern-making habits that often obscure other, more subtle patterns at work; changing the orientation of things can hide the more obvious patterns and make other patterns emerge. For example, you might ask what a problem would look like if the least important outcome were the most important, and how you’d then try to solve it.

8. Work backwards.

Just like turning a thing upside down, working backwards breaks the brain’s normal conception of causality. This is the key to backwards planning, for example, where you start with a goal and think back through the steps needed to reach it until you get to where you are right now.

9. Ask a child for advice.

I don’t buy into the notion that children are inherently ore creative before society “ruins” them, but I do know that children think and speak with a n ignorance of convention that is often helpful. Ask a child how they might tackle a problem, or if you don’t have a child around think about how you might reformulate a problem so that a child could understand it if one was available. Don’t run out and build a boat made out of cookies because a child told you to, though – the idea isn’t to do what the child says, necessarily, but to jog your own thinking into a more unconventional path.

10. Invite randomness.

If you’ve ever seen video of Jackson Pollock painting, you have seen a masterful painter consciously inviting randomness into his work. Pollock exercises a great deal of control over his brushes and paddles, in the service of capturing the stray drips and splashes of paint that make up his work. Embracing mistakes and incorporating them into your projects, developing strategies that allow for random input, working amid chaotic juxtapositions of sound and form – all of these can help to move beyond everyday patterns of thinking into the sublime.

11. Take a shower.

There’s some kind of weird psychic link between showering and creativity. Who knows why? Maybe it’s because your mind is on other things, maybe it’s because you’re naked, maybe it’s the warm water relaxing you – it’s a mystery. But a lot of people swear by it. So maybe when the status quo response to some circumstance just isn’t working, try taking a shower and see if something remarkable doesn’t occur to you!