How to Be More Productive, Fit and Mindful All at the Same Time
The secret to having maximum productivity at the same time as maximum fitness and mindfulness lies in working in focus cycles. These focus cycles have literally changed my life and here I will share my experience.
1. Combining Productivity, Fitness and Mindfulness
1.1. My work productivity
I want to get a lot of things done and as fast as possible. Because only that way am I able to achieve my business goals. That means that I have to work long hours and at maximum productivity. That is why I do not take any days off, work from early morning to late at night, try to minimize my breakfast, lunch and dinner breaks and work during holidays, even on Christmas.
Therefore, many people have called me a workaholic. Being a workaholic, it is impossible for me to achieve fitness by going to the gym, as this would just take away too much productive time. Also, it is impossible for me to achieve mindfulness by doing regular, long sessions of yoga or meditation.
At the same time after starting to work in focus cycles I have been able to not only work long hours but remain at a high level of productivity.
How is this possible?
1.2. My fitness
Despite my work routine and not going to the gym, after working in focus cycles I no longer have a problem staying fit. In fact, my nephews have called me He-Man, a fictional figure with the body of a bodybuilder and people have asked me if I take steroids, or if I train with Christiano Ronaldo. In fact, most people assume that I must be spending many hours every week in the gym, and do not believe that in fact I never go to the gym.
How is this possible?
1.3. My mindfulness
At the same time, after starting to work in focus cycles, I have gotten an acute understanding and control of my thoughts and emotions. I can now control situations that used to stir up negative emotions in me before.
How is this possible?
2. My Secret: Working in Focus Cycles
My secret for maximum productivity, while being fit and mindful is this: I work in short high focus cycles and switch between work, fitness and mindfulness.
This can be visualized as follows:
The graph above represents the following routine:
● I start the morning with a cold shower, and a few pushups.
● Then I work for an hour.
● Then I do high intensity exercise.
● Then I work for another 50 minutes
● Then I do a 10 minute meditation and drink a smoothie.
● Then I do another work session, followed by another short exercise session.
● I repeat this pattern during the day so that I will have gotten 9 hours of productive work, around 30 minutes of high intensity exercise and around 15 minutes of mindfulness exercise.
3. Why Working in Cycles Works?
This is why working in cycles works:
3.1. Effective work
In order to be productive your brain needs to work well. In order to work well it needs breaks, and the ideal break from mental work consists of exercise and meditation.
High intensity exercise gets the blood flowing especially when done outside and thus boosts your work productivity.
Also, 10 minutes of mindfulness, meditation or yoga, lets your brain defocus so that you can focus better in the following work cycle.
3.2. Effective fitness
In order to become fitter it is better to do a 10 minute workout at an extremely high intensity than to do a one hour workout at constant low intensity, especially if you do the high intensity work out several times a day.
3.3. Effective mindfulness
It is true that an hour of meditation is probably better than 10 minutes of meditation. But what about the return on investment? I would argue that 10 minute meditation twice a day in between work cycles has the same benefit as 50 minutes of meditation once a day.
3.4. Benefits of cycles
For work productivity, fitness and mindfulness our brain and our mind gets stronger by the level of intensity of the mental or physical exercise. But at the same time our brain and our physical body get tired from both mental and physical exercise. The secret is that mental exercise reduces mental energy but increases physical energy, while physical exercise reduces physical energy but increases mental energy.
This correlation can be visualized as follows:
As we can see our mental energy goes down as we work, but goes up as we do physical or mindfulness exercises.
Similarly, our physical energy gets restored if we do mental work or mindfulness exercises.
4. Combining Work, Fitness and Mindfulness
Besides working in cycles I try to combine work, fitness and mindfulness as much as possible. Here are some examples:
● Being alone in quiet nature makes me more mindful. So when I do sport I try to be in nature or at least go into a garden.
● When I am exercising indoors I make sure to be listening to some self-development audio books.
● Similarly, whenever I have to do a lot of reading or phone calls I take a walk in nature. There I am able to combine work with both physical and mindfulness exercise.
5. Reducing Off-Time
In addition to working in cycles, and combining work, fitness and mindfulness, I also try to reduce waste time. Waste time is time in which I do not contribute to my work, fitness or mindfulness.
Here are some examples of how I reduce waste time:
● When I have to get somewhere I will generally not take the underground or the car, but ride my bike, thus getting physical exercise.
● When I do have to take the underground I will either read a book or meditate.
● While I am waiting for public transport I will generally be doing physical exercise like push ups or stretching.
● While I am waiting in the queue I respond to WhatsApp messages or meditate.
Most people that wait in queues or ride in public transport seem to be doing nothing or only browse social media and thus waste their time. Don’t imitate them! Always, do something productive. And if you do not have anything to work on, do physical or mindfulness exercise.
I hope that I have been able to show a useful routine that you easily can integrate in your daily life to achieve more productivity, fitness and mindfulness.
Let’s summarize:
● Work in cycles, alternating between mental, physical and mindfulness work
● Take frequent but short breaks from your work
● Make maximum use of your time by combining mental and physical tasks
● Reduce your off-time by doing work or physical or mindfulness exercises.
