Happy Christmas we have all just been saying to each other. And then Happy New Year. We’re obsessed! Once a year we say Happy Birthday to each other as well. Clearly ‘Happy’ is very important to us. Yet it alludes us – or at least its elusive more often than we’re like it to be. Daniel Levitin in his book ‘The Organized Mind’ says that generally we think life should be easy, so, when it proves difficult we don’t like it.
‘Life’ (in all its guises) is largely difficult and takes some ‘doing’ and every so often we get that little pocket of happiness. So, if there are little pockets of happiness then the more we can find them then the more we can be happy – and happy people get more done – more in their work lives and more in their personal lives
Sometimes we look for happiness in things – but that’s not where to find it. Advertisers and sellers of things wouldn’t tell us that though. ‘Buy this’, they say, ‘and it will make you happy, have the perfect life’ etc etc. This comes with a ‘Halo Effect’. The thing you buy is wonderful. The new TV, the new car. But after a while it becomes just the car you get from A to B in or the TV you watch Masterchef on. Oh – except you are now in debt possibly paying for it for the next ‘however long’ and now you’re not happy anymore!
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says we have to find joy in everything in order to create flow. Flow is that ability to move effortlessly from thing to thing and get things done. But he means joy in everything – not just that new purchase. Joy in the washing and ironing, joy in the reporting writing. By doing this we will find flow and flow leads to people being happy.
We find happiness in the most unusual places sometimes
Sometimes, I’d argue, we get joy in difficult and problematic things. In Alex Pang’s book ‘Rest’ he talks about how difficult things – things that we are trying to master but are difficult – are actually restful and good for us – something that is mentally absorbing, that feels difficult to do, is deeply satisfying – such things – difficult things – hard work – make us happy.
In a Jewish Parable there are two men arguing over some knotty issue in the Torah. God gets annoyed so comes down from on high and says, ‘I’ve listened to you two argue about this for 20 years so let me tell you what it means’. ‘No’, they say, ‘what right have you! Clear off!’ They delight in the difficult thing – they are thinking, striving, and making a connection with one another.
I find that I am a person who finds great joy in the process rather than the outcome. Stoic philosophers say that some things are outside of our control, but we still need to do them. Some things are completely under our control and some things are not fully under our control, but we have influence. The influence is where we have control.
The secret, they would tell us, is to focus on the bit you can control and as Massimo Pigliucci (in a video presentation I watched recently on iai.tv) said “bet your happiness on those things”. We have no choice other than to take the stuff we can’t control just as it comes, because, well, we can’t control it. We also have limited control over the outcome of things. I can control when I write a blog, what I write about, what words I use, and take great joy in the doing. But I very little control over how you receive it. That is dependent on so many things, like, what you already know about the subject, what you think of me, whether you agree or disagree with the idea. So I set my happiness on the doing of it (I am currently very happy in the doing!) and not on how many ‘likes’ it gets, or how many people read it…. although I do hope you enjoy it. The pleasure and happiness is in the doing not in the plaudits.
So we need to find our happiness in every moment – the work we do – the study we do – the fun we have – tidying things up – we need to find joy in all of these things. Where do you find your joy and where do you find your happiness I wonder? And here’s the thing – if we think that everyone else has found it and we haven’t – then – sorry – for the most part they haven’t either.
Sometimes those difficult things will be at work, some will be home, some we’ll create all on our own by not being in charge of ourselves – how we approach things – how we set our minds to what is to do
Daniel Gilbert in ‘Stumbling on Happiness’ says that we come into this world wanting to control things and we go out the same way – and that research suggests that if at any point during our arrival in, and departure from, this world, we lose our ability to control things we become unhappy, feel helpless and hopeless and can become depressed. I hate to use the ‘P’ word again but planning is the key. Bringing the future into the present so we can have a look at it and control, I’d suggest, is the root to happiness. Delight in the doing!
We look into the future so we can make predictions about it and control it – that’s where happiness is.
It’s taken me a while but I’ve finally finished it. I started reading Robert A. Heinlein’s ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress‘ in July of this year. It was an interesting choice as I don’t usually read fiction and I’m not a fan of sci-fi particularly. But I’ll have seen some cool character in a film reading it and will have ordered it on Amazon in the blink of an eye. It is, by all accounts, a classic – and I would agree. For all it has taken me a while to read that was more because I needed to read lots of other things while working my way through it. It is indeed a good yarn. It’s a book of revolution.
no procrastination concept – do it now
But what has this to do with self care and productivity I hear you ask? Well, it threw me this line towards the end.“When faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.” Brilliant! We are often confronted with things that are challenging, things we don’t quite get. Tasks that seem too big, that don’t match the skills we have. But there is often a bit of it we can do. Do that bit.
My favourite ‘quote’ about procrastination is that it is the art of ruining your life for no apparent reason. Sometime we put off and put off because the task seems too difficult and we don’t quite get some aspects of it. So, we don’t do any of it! But if we just tiptoed into the bits we do understand and could do, then maybe the difficult bits would seem, well, less difficult. Sometimes I find in making a start and doing something the next step, that I hadn’t spotted, reveals itself. I don’t understand something so I do something with what I do understand and in doing so something falls into place and the next thing seems more understandable or more achievable.
I find this a lot when trying to understand some complex idea or process. It all seems too difficult. But if I, for example, read the first thing I come across – take from it what I can, and the read the second thing. The second thing sometimes makes more sense. And then I move onto a third thing and that makes more sense than the first two things and then eventually I’m all over it. This relies on another favourite idea of mine – small steps, over a period of time, lead to big changes.
Earlier last year I had the pleasure of talking to Dawn Mulvaney from Cache for their Podcast – ‘Pod-cache’ – about my favourite subject well-being. You can listen to it below!
Cache offer high quality qualifications for the care and education industry, and are the UK’s leading sector specialist.
I write for them regularly on their Cache Alumni siteon all manner of things like social work and social care, communication, and self care. It’s free to register for a year and you don’t have to give any payment details.
I recently did a Facebook Live on Sleep – which is here – and I was asked afterwards whether being a ‘night owl’ was damaging to your health. My instinctive reaction was ‘yes’ because I’m always telling people that the best sleeping pattern is to be in bed by about 10.30 and to rise at 6.30. I genuinely believe this on a personal so my answer is ‘yes’. The reason I believe this is because of what I’ve read. But a simple ‘yes’ is simply not good enough. So, as it’s been a while since I’ve read about sleep, I had to go back to the literature to find out a better answer than ‘yes’. Although the answer is still ‘yes’…… kind of.
As you may be aware we all have a circadian rhythm. An internal clock that keeps everything ticking over nicely, driven by the chemical and biological rhythms of our bodies. And it is true that some of us have a propensity towards being morning larks and some of us have a propensity towards being night owls. That’s the way our circadian rhythms are. The other factor we need to consider is that we need about 8 hours of sleep. Now – from what I read – I’d say – the 8 hours is a little more important than the timing of when we start and end sleep. To a degree if you are a night owl and like to go to bed at 12 then this is ok. You are programmed to go to bed at that time by your circadian rhythms. I’m not sure I wholly agree with this – I think we artificially keep ourselves awake beyond a sensible time to retire – but I’m going to go with it! So – if you are a night owl and want to go to bed at 12 then fine. But – and here’s where it starts to get interesting and where the problem lies – you still need 8 hours sleep. So that will take you to 8 a.m. The problem with this is that for the majority of people sleeping until 8 is not an option. Most of us start work at 9 (or earlier) and have to travel to work. So, at best, your morning, starting at 8, is going to be a hurried affair with little time to take stock of the day, have breakfast, and emerge into the day slowly and deliberately.
A study by Northumbria University in 2018 found that it is such social factors, or the choices that people engage in when being night owls, that causes some of the problems. They found that people who go to bed later tend to have unhealthier diets, consume more alcohol, sugars, caffeinated drinks and fast food than early risers. You are maybe more inclined to drink coffee later because all of the other signs that your body relies on to get to sleep, for example it being dark, are pushing you to go to sleep – but you don’t. Also if you go to bed at 12 and need to be up at 6 then you have lost two hours sleep so maybe you then drink more coffee (or caffeine) to stay awake during the day. When tired and stressed we tend to grab high sugar high fat snacks because these are easy sources for our bodies. I’m confident that at 11 p.m. you are unlikely to think – ‘tell you what, I’ll rustle up a salad!’?
In the Northumbria University study night owls consistently reported more erratic eating patterns as they had a tendency to miss breakfast and eat later in the day. Probably, I imagine, because they didn’t have time for breakfast with getting up later or were tired and lacking motivation to make something. Fatigue has a huge impact on motivation. Also, possibly as a consequence of erratic diet, the diet of night owls was found to contain less grains, rye and vegetables and they ate fewer, but larger, meals. Morning larks, interestingly, eat slightly more fruit and vegetables per day.
This could explain why night owls have a higher risk of suffering from chronic disease. Eating late in the day was linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes because circadian rhythms influence the way glucose is metabolised in in the body. Night owls often eat close to going to bed which increases blood glucose levels just before they go to bed which could negatively effect metabolism as this is not in tune with biological processes. People with an evening preference were 2.5 times more likely to have type 2 diabetes than those with a morning preference.
Why is 8 hours important? In his book ‘Why We Sleep’ Matthew Walker explains that we have a pattern to our sleep. At the start of the night our sleep is predominantly NREM (Deep Sleep) heavy and at the end of the night (or early morning) our sleep is REM heavy. Both have important functions that we can’t afford to miss. So, assuming whatever your bedtime is – let’s say you are definitely a midnight person (bear in mind I’m not convinced by this argument – I still say 10.30 is the best time for us biologically!) and you stop up late till 2 in the morning, your body started to try and do what it needed to do at 12, so you have lost what it was trying to do between 12 and 2. You’ve lost that NREM sleep that does a lot of sorting out of memories before consolidating them.
One thing that night owls do is sleep less during the week and then catch up on a weekend. Walker is clear. What you have lost as a consequence of the shortened nights sleep can not be caught up by sleeping for longer on a weekend. Not only that but you then end up losing lots of hours from your weekend which could have been used more productively and can put you further out of step with the society you are living in.
One thing that is worthy of consideration though, if we accept that it’s ok to be a night owl and sleep 12 till 8 or 2 till 10, or whatever, is that if this works for you then maybe we need more flexible working and social arrangements so that night owls are not placed in this position of their biological chemistry being badly aligned to social expectations? Personally I’m not convinced that staying up till 2 in the morning is good for you. But maybe the problem is that night owls have to live a life of misalignment?
There is a well research health impact. Shift work, which often places people into the night owl bracket whether they like it or not, is the only non-chemical item on the American Cancer Society’s carcinogens list, and other evidence shows that night owls can experience weight gain and diabetes because of diet, and are more susceptible to depression and psychiatric disorders. Now this is an interesting conundrum. Usually we associate a poor sleep pattern with being a symptom of depression and poor mental health. But actually, Walker says that we need to start exploring if it is in-fact poor sleep that is a cause of these things. The reality is it probably works both ways.
This is not fatalistic though! If you are a night owl and you want to stick to being a night owl then so be it but be conscious of what you can do to mitigate any negative factors – in essence that’s what all self care is about.
Make sure that you get 8 hours of sleep a night. I’m convinced this is a mush more decisive factor in your well being than whether you go to bed at 10, 11 or 12. This will give you a problem though depending on what time you need to be up the next day. But it is crucial as you can’t catch up on what you lost at the weekend.
So, second, don’t try and catch up on weekend! Get 8 hours and get them at the same time day in day out!
Next, watch what you eat. Be particularly careful what you eat late on a night and don’t eat just before you go to bed. Also, try and give yourself some space on a morning to eat breakfast. Watch your choices throughout the day. It seems to me that this is a significant factor rather than simply the time you go to bed. Are you making poor choices because you are tired because you are not getting your 8 hours because you went to bed at such a time that you couldn’t get them?
If you want to change your sleep pattern it is doable I believe. But, like everything, it takes time. There are idea in these blogs that might help: How do you sleep? And Sleep…. They both contain the same information
The secret to success is not to suddenly try to change from going to bed at midnight to going to bed at 10! That’s not going to work and will lead to frustration. Try to adjust your going to bed time by about 20 minutes a week. Crucially go to bed at the same time every night and once you have adjusted to that try another 20 minutes.
“Mushrooms are miniature pharmaceutical factories, and of the thousands of mushroom species in nature, our ancestors and modern scientists have identified several dozen that have a unique combination of talents that improve our health”.
(Quote by Paul Stamets, (2011)
It’s surprising what mother nature gives us as a means of keeping us healthy. Have you ever considered the medicinal benefits of mushrooms?
Disclaimer
Before we take a closer look, as always, seek medical attention or advice before pursuing any natural remedies and this blog is NOT about diagnosing any condition or even saying the following products will be right for you. So please use your own judgement and common sense especially if pregnant, nursing or on other pharmaceutical medication. Nor have I received any payment from the below mentioned companies.
Also, it is extremely dangerous to pick your own mushrooms as there are many which are poisonous and can result in death. We are not advocating you do this. We would advise you buy from a reputable source as an alternative.
What are Mushrooms exactly?
Encyclopaedia Britannica, (2020) explains mushrooms are…..”…..edible sporophores…. fleshy fungus fruiting structure of fields and meadows….” Paul Stamets, (2011) explains there are an estimated 2-4 million species of ‘fungi’, with 150,000 thought to be mushroom-forming fungi, although only 14,000 species are formally identified.
Ancient History
Mushrooms used for medicinal purposes is not a new concept
as revealed by the frozen human mummified remains of Ötzi, found on the Ötztal
Alps on the Austrian–Italian border in 1991. Ötzi is believed to have died
around 3300 BCE, and amongst his remains were Birch Fungi, known for
their Anthelmintic properties, (Capasso,
1998), and the ability to expel parasitic worms and other internal
parasites from the body.
Egyptian Hieroglyphics suggest society saw mushrooms as a
plant of immortality, (Grocycle, no date). They would also apply a poultice of
mouldy bread to infected wounds, (ACS, 1999).
Texts about Chinese Medicine dating as far back to 100 BCE
discuss various mushrooms and fungi that were used to treat cancer, respiratory
ailments, and many other conditions, (Grocycle, No date).
Modern Times
Whilst not all mushrooms are edible, culinary mushrooms such
as Shiitake, Maitake, Oyster, Enoki, Shimeji, and Pioppinos are low in fat,
have no cholesterol and are rich in vitamins, so from a nutritional viewpoint,
help with boosting the immune system, (Stamets, 2011).
Picture-courtesy-of-Getty-Images
It’s interesting to note the medicines available to us these days such as antibiotics. It is mind boggling to think that as little as a hundred years ago, if you developed a bacterial infection such as Pneumonia or blood poisoning from a simple scratch, the chances were, you may well have died. The discovery of Penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928 changed how we treat infections, when he identified the healing properties of ‘mould juice’, (ACS, 1999).
Mycologists, (people who study Fungi) and other types of scientists are now starting to understand how mushrooms can offer safer alternatives to many modern pharmaceuticals.
Here are some of the more popular benefits.
Antiviral, and Antibacterial Properties
Like all live moulds and fungi, they are a food source, so
as a means of staving off being eaten or to fight off bacteria which may kill
them fungi produce toxins to protect themselves. It is these toxins that can
act as natural antibiotics in our bodies when we consume them.
High in Antioxidants
UV sunlight, inflammation, air pollution, and smoking all
contribute towards Free Radicals that can cause oxidative stress and damage to
our cells and DNA. Mushrooms contain antioxidants which seek out free radicals
and thus diminish the damage they cause. I view them a bit like Batman seeking
out villains in Gotham City!!
Beta Glucan: is a substance that helps to stimulate the immune system.
Polysaccharides Compounds: found in mushrooms are known to offer anti-cancer, anti-obesity,
anti-diabetes, and antibiotic properties.
Health Benefits
As we have mentioned above, there are a huge range of
mushroom types, but generally the health benefits include the following:
Help prevent DNA damage, cell mutation, and tumour
formation so aid fight against cancer and Leukaemia
Loaded with antiviral and antibacterial properties so are
good for boosting your Immune System
Contain natural ‘Statins’, the compound used to lower blood cholesterol
that can cause hardening of the arteries, thus can protect against heart
attacks, strokes and heart disease.
Improving Energy Levels due to compounds that increase the
flow of oxygenated blood cells to muscles, clearing toxins from the body that
otherwise can leave you feeling tired.
improving Brain Health by producing nerve growth in the
brain, to improve memory, focus and cognitive functioning.
Low in fat and calories, so a diet high in mushrooms can aid
weight loss (which brings with it its own health benefits)
Has a hypoglycaemic effect, meaning they lower and regulate
blood sugar levels, good for diabetes
Mushrooms inhibit histamine release so are good for relieving
symptoms of asthma or allergies
Some Basic Types And To Use Them
Some of the more popular and well known ‘healthy’ mushrooms
are:
Reishi Mushrooms which grow on the side of trees, they are too bitter to eat,
but their Terpenoids compounds mean they are good for reducing
inflammation. They also help with heart disease, cancer, diabetes and liver
damage to name few.
Reishi Mushrooms
Consumed either in soup or made into
a tea, they are usually dried and come in either powder or capsule form.
Chaga Mushrooms grow on Birch Trees, (not to be confused with Birch Fungi
found on our Ötzi man). Come across this and you would be forgiven for
thinking it is charred wood as it looks more like charcoal, again not edible in
its natural state.
Chaga Mushrooms
Often combined with other mushrooms, Chaga can be consumed as herbal tea, in a powder or capsule form. Its healing properties are believed to aid the fight against cancer, improve immunity, chronic inflammation, blood sugar and reduce cholesterol levels.
Maitake Mushrooms
Unlike the above two, Maitake
Mushrooms are edible and are said to have a mild flavour and grow at the bottom
of Oak, Elm, and Maple trees, normally found in parts of Japan, China, and
North America.
Maitake Mushrooms (image courtesy of Andrew Weil)
Maitake are a good candidate for all of the above health benefits but are also useful for fighting cold and flu viruses, managing both high and low blood pressure, boosting immune function and reducing side effects of chemotherapy. You can add to any meals such as salads, stir fry, pasta and also be taken in either liquid or capsule form.
Cordyceps Mushrooms
For an unknown reason, I like the
word Cordyceps, just thought, I’d throw that snippet of useless information in
there! Cordyceps is considered to be a ‘parasitic’ fungus in as much as its
spores attach to the larvae of insects such as ants and caterpillar’s.
Cordyceps Mushrooms (Image courtesy of Wikimedia)
It feeds and sprouts on its host
insect growing into a mushroom and remains attached for most of its life,
growing mainly in high altitude regions of about 3800 m above sea level, in
cold, grassy, alpine meadows of the Himalayan mountains. So evidently not the
edible type!
Cordyceps is known to enhance energy,
aerobic capacity (breathing), reduce fatigue, anti-sickness, promotes health kidney
function and can even boost low sex drive!
You can buy cordyceps in
tinctures, liquid extracts, capsules, and powders.
Shiitake Mushrooms
Thanks to Catherine Tate, Shiitake
mushrooms are probably one of the more well known, edible variety. Native to
East Asia, Shiitake grow on decaying hardwood trees in United States, Canada,
Singapore, China, with 83% of the worlds production coming from Japan. Coming
in dried and fresh varieties shiitake mushrooms can be used in dishes such as stir-fries,
soups and stews
Shiitake Mushrooms
Benefits include being antibacterial
and antiviral, fight infections, cancer, strengthen bones, reduce high blood
pressure. They also come in powders, capsules and liquid format.
Turkey Tail Mushrooms
Growing on almost any type of wood,
these mushrooms can be found in woodlands all over Europe and China. The tend
to grow in colonies and their black, brown shades of thin, wavy rosettes bodies
take on a similar appearance of the plumage of a turkey’s tail, hence its name!
Turkey Tail Mushrooms
Although edible, they are known to be very chewy, so powder or capsule form tends to be the most common. Turkey Tail Mushrooms are said to be useful in reducing phlegm, increasing energy, helping with pulmonary problems, promoting a healthy liver, boost immune system, effective in managing diabetes and reducing inflammation.
Lion’s Mane Mushrooms
Doesn’t take much guess work to understand how this mushroom
gets its name. Its large, shaggy white appearance resembles a lion’s mane.
Edible, some describe its flavour as akin to crab or lobster and can be eaten
raw, cooked, dried or steeped as a tea.
They grow on hardwoods such as oak, maple and birch, found
in Europe, North America, Japan, China and Korea.
Lion’s Mane Mushrooms (Image Courtesy of Medicinal Herbals)
Lion’s main mushrooms are believed to promote mental wellbeing, reduce symptoms of depression, slow down signs of memory loss and reduced cognitive functioning, promote good digestive health, reduce risks associated with heart disease, beneficial for diabetes, reduce inflammation, fight against cancer and boosts immune system. Primarily capsule form, but is also available as a powder.
Conclusion
Its astonishing how beneficial mushrooms are said to be. I can remember drinking mushroom infused coffee and whilst it does sound pretty gross, actually it tasted ok. There is a range of products on the market these days and I have to say one of my favourite brands has to be Vida Divina. This is because I have had close links with the company for a few years now so have a good understanding of their products which is what got me interested in the concept of mushrooms for promoting good health. But having said that there are other companies and products available.
Given their general ability to the boost immune system, reduce inflammation as well as having antibacterial and antiviral properties I would say we are onto a winner with these.
If you’d like to grow your own mushrooms there’s some great advice here
I came across some really useful websites if you wanted to
take a closer look at the mushrooms mentioned above, a lot of which I have used
as references:
Those Stoics again! Marcus Aurelius this time, who said, “Fire feeds on obstacles”. Ryan Holiday takes this idea and says the Stoics also held that ‘The Obstacle is the Way’. He says “The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.” Aurelius wrote, “Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions.”
What does this mean for us? Simple really. Sometimes in life the path looks difficult, things seem insurmountable. But, that direction may be our path. We need to be like fire and consume what is in our path. Consume it to feed us, to nourish us.
Is this hard? Goodness yes it is. But no one said the path was going to be easy. Experiencing difficulties can help us learn and make us grow, coming out of the other end stronger, less fragile.
Once we set our intentions, identify our goal, we set out on the path to achieve our goal. There will be bumps along the way, and maybe even huge obstacles, but if we want to achieve something we should set our approach goal and set about it with intent.
I have a caveat to this. A contradiction in a sense. I like to turn the maxim ‘Failure is not an option’, on its head and offer you that failure is always an option. And failure is not to be feared, as long as we learn and grow from it. Sometimes we have set the wrong goal, sometimes we have overstretched ourselves (for now), and sometimes we simply change our minds. All of these things are fine. But something being hard shouldn’t put us off. Sometimes we need to pause, take stock, and figure out what to do next to get through that obstacle. Sometimes that takes minutes and sometimes it takes years. But it can be done.
Feed on your obstacles but don’t be afraid to say ‘you know what, I’ve changed my mind’. There is power in both. That power comes from control.
Control what you can, accept what you can’t. That way lies some degree of happiness or contentment. That way lies wisdom.(That’s the Stoics as well!)
I think you know this already but maybe don’t acknowledge it or feel you can do anything about it? Motivation is finite. The further you get into the day the less of it you have at your disposal. The perfect time to top it up is lunch time! So here are the Lunch Break Rules!
Rule Number 1: Take a lunch break! Don’t feel guilty. I remember a poster in a senior manager’s office that said – Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it right, and just because no one is doing it doesn’t make it wrong. We need to overturn this ethos that you are somehow more worthy if you work through your lunch break. The reality is taking a break makes you more productive in the afternoon. You will get back the time ‘lost’ to the lunch break in increased productivity. A study at Bristol University showed that a lunch break (with some gentle exercise – see rule 4) boosted mood and motivation by 41% and improved peoples ability to deal with stress by 20%. Put some motivation in the bank. Oh…. and you are legally entitled to a break. Just saying!
Rule Number 2: Move away from your desk. There is strong evidence that simply taking time away from your desk and moving your thoughts onto something else replenishes your ability to stay on task when you return to work. In fact when you take your attention away from the external and take some time to be a little more internal through ‘switching off’ and thinking of nothing, maybe through meditation (or just by not thinking too much!), you engage your brain’s Default Mode Network. This is the part of your brain that gets to work when you stop engaging with the external world. Interestingly your brain is only 5 to 10% less active when you are not thinking about anything. That’s your DMN getting to work on what it needs to do at a sub-conscious level, consolidating things, making connections, and the like. You must have experienced something coming to mind, a solution to a problem maybe, when you weren’t even trying to solve it. So get away from work, get away from your desk.
Rule Number 3: Get outside. Being in the natural world is a great healer. If you work somewhere where you can spend some time in a green space then do it. We are hard wired from an evolutionary point of view to be in such spaces. They have a calming effect. And fresh air is good for you. Moving around is good for you. And that brings us to rule number 4…..
Get Outside
Rule Number 4: Take some gentle exercise. I’ve already mentioned the Bristol Study above that involved some gentle exercise. A different study looked at how sitting less and moving more helped peoples productivity. They showed that a lunch time walk reduced stress, reduced sickness in staff, and led to more mindful practice. A walk will suffice but him the gym or go for a run if you want! As the UK Chief Medical Officer says…. some is good… more is better!
So…. You must achieve Rule 1!And then… if you can achieve 1 or 2 of rules 2, 3, and 4 – we’re onto a winner!
I was reminded recently of this Chinese proverb – “The man who moved a mountain was the one who began carrying away small stones.”
This resonates with me so much. I’m often put off getting started with big tasks because they just seem, well, too big! What reminded me of the Chinese proverb was Nassim Nicholas Talib writing in his great book Antifragile about the the analogy of asking someone to move a one ton rock or one ton of pebbles. One person alone can not move a one ton rock but can move a ton of pebbles, over time, by chipping away at the task.
This is how we need to approach mammoth things that confront us. Procrastination is fuelled by feeling things are too big for us to achieve. The power of small wins – a psychological concept – relies on us breaking big tasks down into smaller constituent parts. I was recently saying to someone that success is sometimes about using our brain chemistry to our advantage and tricking ourselves into better ways of thinking or doing. So, what we know is every time we tick something off our ‘to do’ list we get a little dopamine hit that drives us onto the next step. If completion of the task is only ever ‘ticked off’ when the whole task is complete we only get the one ‘hit’. If we break it down into lots of tasks we get lots of hits! Win!!
What’s even better is if you have the right tools for the job! Shifting that ton of pebbles is going to be so much easier if you have a shovel and a wheel-barrow. If all you have is your hands, you’ll get it done, but it will be painful and slow. Before you start any task ask yourself, “do I have the right tools for this task”. ‘Tools’ can be many things. Simple things like pen and paper, information things likes names and phone numbers, or bigger things like the right software or equipment. With the right stuff around us things get done.
The crucial technique for this is planning. Plan every day. Think – “what am I doing tomorrow”, and, “do I have what I need?” Prepare what you need, or check you have it in the right place and accessible. Plan big on your last working day before a break (for most of us a Friday before the the weekend). Plan all of next week – get your ducks in a row. Check before you leave that you have everything you need for next week. If you haven’t, find it, buy it, email someone about it. If there’s no chance of you getting it for next week can you move the task. If you can’t how will you get around the lack of the right thing. Planning is everything!
Planning brings the future into the present so you can do something about it (Alan Lakein). I have a little planning session daily (usually just checking stuff is where it should be because…) I have a big plan every week, and a massive plan every 3 months, usually going up to six months ahead to see what I need, including, crucially, how much time do I need.
Control it or it will control you, says David Allen.
In a recent on line conference I was asked, “what are your 3 key messages to help people with their well-being and productivity. I pinched an idea from the property world and said….
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There’s a parable of sorts, a metaphor maybe, about a donkey. The donkey in the tale is stuck. He is both ravaged with thirst and famished with hunger and he is equidistant between the water trough and the hay bale. The donkey in this tale of woe was proposed by Jean de Buridan, and is indeed named after him – the Buridan Donkey. He proposes that, disabled by indecision, the donkey becomes stuck and doesn’t know whether to satiate his hunger or quench his thirst. As a consequence, he dies. Stuck between a rock and a hard place!
It has amazed me, in a really positive way, how during lockdown many people have taken up exercise. The streets around where we live are positively strewn with people who I’ve never seen out running, cycling, or walking before. We walk the dog several times a day and I run regularly so you get used to the faces and lots of these faces are new. Turns out all it took was a pandemic, a lock down, and a suggestion from the Prime Minister (…well he has to be good for something!) to motivate people to get out and exercise. It’s great! If only someone had nudged the donkey one way or the other (probably towards the water first!) the donkey would still be alive. (Disclaimer: to my knowledge no real donkeys were harmed during this thought experiment!)
How many times is it like that for us? We want to get on with something, yet we don’t, we procrastinate. We find other things to do. Easier things. We talk about this in our recently published book How to Thrive in Professional Practice. Here’s an excerpt that talks about this idea from the chapter on motivation:
Steel (in Levitin, 2015 ) says we procrastinate because, in the moment, we have a low tolerance for frustration – so if something appears difficult, we will tend to put it off. When we do initiate a task, we tend to choose the easiest tasks rather than the ones that will give us the greatest reward in the long term. He suggests that there are two problems with the human mind. First, we think life should be easy, so we have a tendency to put off difficult things and, second, our self- worth is bound up in our success. If something looks like it is going to be difficult and there’s a risk we might not do it well then we put off doing it. There’s an obvious link here to Deci and Ryan’s idea of mastery that we’ve just considered. (Mordue et al, 2020, pg. 127) …..always wanted to do that! First time I have! Yay!
Picking up where that paragraph leaves off Deci and Ryan are talking about achieving flow, and the three things they say we need to achieve flow are Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose. When we don’t have these things we may not be able to get into flow or even get started with the task to hand and will procrastinate and put the task off. “You may delay, but time will not”, as Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said.
If Mastery is the issue, if you feel unable to complete the task then seek advice. Don’t put off. Go to someone who can help you. It seems simple but we don’t do it because we don’t want to look incapable. But how more incapable do we look when we do a poor job. Go and ask someone. Then, be in control of your development. Explore what you need to do with others, ask for help, and figure out if you need some training.
If Autonomy is the problem, then explore where you do have control. Some things are outside of our control, but we still need to do them (more below under Purpose). Some things are completely under our control – do I do this now or later (see the same bit below under Purpose!). Some things are not fully under our control, but we have influence. The influence is where we have control. “Do I have to do this now or can I make a case that it would be better done at another time?” (See the same bit below under Purpose!!!) The secret, Stoic philosophy would tell us, is to focus on the bit you can control and as Massimo Pigliucci (in video presentation I watched recently on iai.tv) said “bet your happiness on those things”. We have no choice other than to take the stuff we don’t control just as it comes, because, well, we can’t control it. (Note: This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t challenge the status quo…. That would fall under the category using our influence which is completely under our control… but it might not get you anywhere…. But don’t stop trying… in the meantime you have to accept it….)
If Purpose is the problem, then be aware it’s often a problem for us all. So, don’t beat yourself up. Our lazy brains (see Chapter 8 in the book for a layman’s summary, or ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman for a comprehensive view from the master!) like easy things so we don’t see the advantage of doing something right now that’s difficult that doesn’t need to be done right now. We prefer to do something easy. The problem is that if we don’t do those things that are due in the future, they eventually become due today, and we’re left manning the panic stations and feeling stressed. You need to accept that long term gains are more important that short term gains. Imagine it’s Monday and something is due on Friday, and you do it on Monday, and on Thursday your boss says, “don’t forget I need that report tomorrow”. And you say “yes, no problem”, because it’s done!! Of course, you don’t tell them it’s done… you play the office game. Because if you tell them it’s done then they’ll start giving you shorter timescales…. Ssshhhh just saying 😉
So, if you have the time, do it now.
Don’t put it off simply because it’s not due for a while. This, for me, is where I really started feeling in control of my work. If I had a due date, I set myself my own due date which was before the actual date and I aimed for that. And once I started getting things done in that way not much ever crept up on me.
There are other things you can do to help!
The “How to Eat an Elephant” idea of breaking down big tasks into smaller tasks
The 2-minute rule that gets small tasks done
….and others, that, you guessed it, we cover in the book 😉
