Patti Cotton

Are you oxygenating?  It may seem a funny question, but a recent academic health sciences center study found that 1-2 minutes of an oxygenating exercise each hour of the workday lowered stress and its effects for participants, increasing their focus and effectiveness.

 

Today’s article shares 3 techniques of what I call “Radical Self-Care,” or the neuroscience of effectiveness, including oxygenating (and how to do it!), that you can use immediately to raise the bar on your focus and productivity, and lower the stress that comes with multiple projects and responsibilities. 

 

1.  Oxygenating.  A recent study at an academic health sciences centered showed that participants who practiced an exercise to get the blood flowing and oxygenated reported more calm, focus, energy, and some other happy surprises, including lowered blood pressure, lowered blood sugar, and other positive aspects of their health.*   The great news is that you can do this right at your desk!  Here is the exercise concept:

 

Once every hour while working:

1. stand up, breathe in while putting your arms out in front of you are though you are reaching.
2. Now, breathe out slowly while doing what I call a “cross-country ski move” – a half squat while bringing your arms down and back, as though you are helping imaginary ski poles guide you forward.
3. Come up to standing position while breathing in, arms outstretched.
4. Repeat 15-20 times. 

We will be teaching exercises, tips and tools like this one at the upcoming Radical Self-Care Retreat in La Jolla on June 25 and 26.

 

2.  Prioritizing.  Each evening before you close up your office, select the three top items or concerns you must address the next workday.  Focus on these three items first, one at a time (uni-tasking for increased effectiveness in focus and saving time!), before moving on to the rest of your workday.

 

3.  List-Making to Remove Distractors.  When distractors and multiple demands keeps your brain juggling, it can cause concern or worry, which causes stress.  Unfortunately, when you are stressed or worried, your decision-making moves from the creative part of the brain to another place, rendering you less effective.  One simple step you can take right now to begin creating brain space and energy as distractors come your way? 

As you recall items and concerns you need to address, jot these down on a piece of paper.  This actually de-stresses, freeing up the brain from worrying about recall, and clears the mind for increased focus.

 

While these techniques may seem simple, the results are profound. 

 

* Disclaimer:  these results were study outcomes.  Individuals who practice this technique may have varying results.

 

My dad remembers World War II and being 10 years old.  He longed to enlist as a soldier, but being too young, he remained stateside.  The voices of Roosevelt and Churchill sounded over the old radio while he did his part at home.

As soldiers fought overseas, Dad and his family, as well as thousands of other families here in the United States, sacrificed food, gas, clothing, and more.  Women, men, and school-aged children would also “knit their bit,” knitting socks, mufflers, caps, and mittens for the soldiers at war.  The stories of community banding together to do what they could are heart-warming.

It took a dedicated team to win.

Who’s in your corner?  Whether you are an executive or a business owner, a leader of a movement or in another decision-making role, team efforts can make or break your effort.

Here are five commitments that winning teams must have. 

As leader, you will want to ask yourself the questions behind each commitment, and make changes, as necessary:

1.    Meaningful shared purpose.  It is no longer enough to purpose for – you, as a leader, must purpose with.  Team members are active participants in your success.  Is your team 100% excited about your shared purpose?  If not, what do you need to do in order to reconcile this?

2.    Mutual trust and commitment.  Your team members want to know if they can trust you and the others to have their backs in order to feel rapport and perform well. Do you feel the team enjoys a mutual trust and commitment to each other?  How trustworthy are you?  How committed are you to the success of each of the individuals on the team? 

3.    Clear goals and roles.  Do team members know what success looks like, and what work needs to be accomplished in order to achieve goals?  Have you asked them lately?  What might you need to clarify or change?

4.    Effective communication and collaboration.  Poor communication means little or no collaboration.  Try to reach goals with that scenario!  Does your team enjoy a high level of communication and collaboration – or are there unspoken conversations and tensions?  What needs to happen in order to rectify this? 

5.    Personal leadership. Leadership is not a position – it is an attitude.  Winning teams are filled with great leaders.  Are all members of your team rising to their personal leadership potential?  If not, what is needed?  What can you offer to support this growth?

Do you have a winning team?  Who’s in your corner?

A woman in charge of an international non-profit recently reached out to me for help.  “I’ve lost my edge,” she complained.  “I am going around in a fog and I’m fatigued all the time.”

Her decision-making was beginning to suffer, and motivating her team and volunteers was not even on her radar screen.  The non-profit was on the brink of disaster from a disengaged leader headed for burnout.

As we worked together, I discovered that she had long left behind the vision for the movement’s work.  Further, she had neglected to guard boundaries and balance around personal time.

“When was the last time you gave yourself permission to stop and do something for yourself?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s a frightening thought,” she answered.  “I feel that if I stop, everything will stop.  And I know this is unhealthy.  What do I do?”

Have you ever felt like that?

If you’re in charge of great responsibility, you no doubt have great passion for a mission or a cause. You’re experienced, you’re good at what you do, and you have ideas and beliefs about making a larger impact that keep you going each day.

Let’s face it, though—no matter how much passion you started with, being in charge can drain your energy. Leadership is demanding. You have extra responsibilities, weighty decisions to make, and people who depend on you, and, just like everyone else, you get tired.

If you find yourself losing your energy and verve, it may be time to make some intentional shifts – to take steps to regain your passion and your energy.

Here are 5 places to start:  

1.  Get back in touch with your “why”

Remind yourself why you’re there in the first place.

What’s your purpose?

What would the world be missing if you were not able to do what you do?

How do you make a difference where you are?

Answering these questions can help you re-engage your original excitement.

2.  Start the morning with a success routine 

Bring focus and clarity to your day by starting each morning with an intentional ritual. Don’t reach for technology as soon as you get out of bed. Try to completely unplug. Have a quiet place where, upon rising, you can go to meditate, journal, or whatever helps bring quiet focus. This time is meant to clear your mind, bring clarity to your day, energize you and stave off tyranny of the urgent. Try this for ten minutes every morning.

For the Morning Success Routine similar to that of Margaret Thatcher, Steve Jobs, and other leaders, click here.

3.  Practice prioritized uni-tasking

This helps you avoid becoming a slave to distractors. Here are some simple steps:

• Review your projects and rate them by importance and urgency

• Now, order the projects and tasks by how much effort each one will take. Begin with the task that takes the most effort.

• Practice uni-tasking with each project on your prioritized list, giving yourself permission to complete only that which is most important and urgent.

• Save the rest for the next day.

4.  Take breaks and move around

Recent studies have shown that taking frequent breaks is good for your productivity, focus, and creativity.  The best ratio is 52 minutes of work followed by a 17-minute break—completely away from your computer screen. Get up, walk around, do a quick exercise routine, anything that helps you reboot.

5.  Define your own success

Are you allowing others’ definition of success to cloud your judgment? Give yourself permission to define success in your own terms. Don’t let the opinions of other people get in the way of your vision.  Check in with yourself every once in a while to make sure you’re drawing your own map.

Mary, COO of an internet services company, contacted me because she suddenly found herself in a great spot – too many opportunities and not enough time! The business was about to undergo a massive growth spurt. Could they handle it?

“The business keeps coming,” she explained. “And that’s a good thing. We are at that sweet point where we are about to grow by leaps and bounds, but we can’t scare up the capital to support more staff, as yet. And the workflow and distractors seem to have ramped up – and it’s crazy-making. What do I do?”

“I can’t get rid of the unexpected,” said Mary. “My business thrives on opportunities and I have to jump on them. And of course, I am going to have distractors and interruptions – that’s just business!”

“Do the Google thing,” I countered.

“The Google thing?” she responded.

“Yes. Practice mindfulness. Being fully present in the moment. And it starts with dropping the multi-tasking, and starting to focus on what is right in front of you. Companies that want to operate at optimal level are taking this same approach and reporting phenomenal changes. Entities like Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Apple, Intel, Medium, Starbucks and General Mills.”

“Here’s what I mean: You can probably get things done in a quarter of the time it is taking now, and feel less stressed. I’ve walked around your offices and noticed something. People are picking up and putting down the same documents several times. Because of this one behavior I see, I am guessing they are also a bit scattered in other areas – responding to the tyranny of the urgent. It’s time to practice some mindfulness, Mary, by starting with focusing on what’s in front of you. Let’s do a 30-day experiment – are you willing?”

Mary was more than willing with the promise of less stress and more productivity. She wanted to include some other key staff members in the experiment.

Thirty days later, she gave me a quick call and a glowing report.

“Our productivity is up – and the stress is down. People are coming out of their cubicles to have lunch with each other, and going home on time. We are getting more done and they are happier. It’s amazing!”

I was not surprised.

A recent study showed that executives who focused on one project at a time took an average of 15 minutes to review and decide on next steps for four projects. On the other hand, those executives who multi-tasked by jumping from one project to the other, and back and forth, depending on the interruptions and distractors of the day, took an average of 2 hours to do the same!

What does that mean for you? Whether you are a business owner, an executive, or a leader in another capacity, it means that if you are not being fully present in the moment, focusing on one thing at a time, you are losing – big time.

Ready for less stress, more clarity, focus, and productivity? I challenge you to a 30-day experiment. Take the mindful approach of uni-tasking. And let me know how it works for you!

Want to fast-track? Click here to get my morning success routine for more clarity, focus, and productivity.

Outcomes from a recent study at UC Berkeley clearly indicate that confidence outweighs competence when it comes to getting the business, the promotion, the sale, or the recognition! Are you surprised?

It is confidence that sways people. At the same time, we give confidence undue weight. We may respect more highly the people who project it than those who are actually more qualified.

What does this mean? It is the confident person who is able to get the attention of others and to influence change.

It’s more often the person who has more confidence who gets the attention, the respect, the job, or the sale.  When we aren’t confident, others don’t listen to us as well. We don’t get chosen as often. We aren’t considered for the opportunity. We aren’t handed the project. We aren’t invited to the inner circle. We watch opportunities slip by while we stand still.

As we stand on the sidelines, it becomes more difficult to envision possibilities. This is because we lose sight of goals and stop reaching, if we can’t vision more potential. The cycle of confidence erosion begins – lack of belief in one’s abilities, nurtured over time, erodes the confidence we DO possess.

We begin to tell ourselves stories that aren’t true. “Maybe I don’t have what it takes to lead.” “Guess I’m not ready for that promotion.” “Maybe I am just right where I am supposed to be.” “I probably don’t deserve a better relationship…” There are lots of stories we tell ourselves in an effort to reconcile why we don’t step up and ask for more, why we don’t project that confidence that says, “I deserve this, and I am going to get it!”

When we tell ourselves these stories, we behave accordingly and actually keep a lid on the confidence we could have. Here’s what I mean: we apologize for ourselves with our language and with our bodies. We tell others that we should be discounted, that they should not pay attention to us, that we should be left alone. Others hear us and treat us, accordingly.

What are the two biggest ways we tell ourselves – and others – not to have confidence in us.

Verbal language and body language.

Here’s a quick check for you to see how you might be keeping a lid on your confidence, and asking others to do the same:

Check yourself to see if you use apologetic or self-deprecating phrases in your conversations. Here are some of those:

• “I’m not an expert, but…”
• “Well, you probably know better than I, but…”
• “I’m not sure I know how I feel about this, but…
• “I guess my question is…”
• “I don’t know anything about financial reports, but…”

Then, observe yourself in conversations or in meetings, to see how you are sitting or standing. Are you doing any of the following?

• Fidgeting
• Shuffling papers
• Doodling
• Head down, no eye contact or wandering eyes
• Feet tucked under chair
• Arms folded, or placing and replacing them in different positions

I bet you can think of more! All of these things say, “I am uncomfortable with myself, or lack confidence.”

The good thing is, these are simple changes! I challenge you to pick just one, if you have identified yours, and begin to eliminate it.

To your success!