Get Some Sleep Today, Be productive Tomorrow

I still remember those days, the third class in high school, when I was overwhelmed from loads of responsibilities and tasks. 

The lights in my room were on till 1 a.m. and then after four or five hours were back on. Basically I slept only for four - five hours per day, at top six. Day after day for about nine months. Slowly, but obviously surely my body was getting "destroyed" and I wasn`t able to notice that because I had such an intense schedule.

It wasn`t few days after my intense schedule came to an end, when I felt the consequences, mood swings that would disappear, gained weight, felt wasted after 18 hours of sleep and feeling huffy. 

It was then, when I learned that is not only one of the strongest productivity tools in everyone`s life, it is as well among the most undervalued. 

By nature I am a sleeper and ambitious person, two characteristic that don`t go along. So, I never get enough sleep. My sleep is always procrastinated to the very last minute before I collapse from tiredness, but luckily very rarely I wake up than I anticipated. :) 

During the week I never, and I mean really never took the recommended eight hours of sleep. Yet, my cognitive skills are pretty much fine and I am able to finish my daily routines. 

The truth is that people need more or less sleep to function. Take for example the contrast between two great minds, Albert Einstein used to sleep for 10 hours per night plus the daily naps and on the other hand Thomas Edison slept only two or four hours per day.  

According to the doctors, it is advisable eight hours of nice sleep, but at the end, you are the one to decide how much your body needs sleep. 

In the eight-hour-sleep-cycle the average human will reach REM sleep between four and six times, every 90 minutes. So if you take naps during the day of less than 90 minutes and more than 30 minutes, the chances that you will feel groggy and anxious are high, and on top of that if you sleep during the night only two-four hours. You will feel even worse before you went to bed.

And if we add to the list, that we think over and over about our tasks and errands for the next day, or the broken washing-machine or if we will manage to take the children to school and get to the meeting that begins at 8.15 A.M. it will procrastinate your sleep maybe for another few hours. 

Here`s a tip:  Before you go to sleep, take few moments to plan your next day. Make your thoughts reminders with the help of  MarkO. Now with its new feature "voice recognition" you don`t even have to bother to type your reminder! What`s the benefit? You will have an organized schedule and get reminded in the right time at the right place. Afterwards you can go to bed and have a good sleep. 

For those who can`t fall asleep in short time, you don`t need to take sleeping-pills guys! Most probably you are doing something wrong before you go to bed. Try some of the next few tricks and find out, if they have positive effect on your sleep and on your productivity the very next day. :)

1. Stay away from electronics, including your laptop, smartphone, tablet or TV. You need to something that will relax you and prepare your brain for rest. Some prefer reading a book, other soft music or warm bath. Do what pleases you, as long as it puts you in relax state!

2. Forget drinking coffee few hours before you go to bed! That means as well that you must resist "committing the eight sin" - eating chocolate, because a dark chocolate contains caffeine and eaten late night might leave counting plenty of sheep. For example, dark chocolate Hershley`s candy bar contains about 30 milligrams, ten times as much caffeine as a cup of decaffeinated coffee.

3. Try to perform everyday in the evening similar or same things and train your brain in one routine. Most importantly, don`t go to bed everyday at different time! Your brain needs to tell you everyday that it is time for sleeping, which will be achieved with a routine.

4. Take naps during the day. At some point during the day you will feel a slump, so don`t hesitate, set your timer for 10-20 minutes, shut down the outer world, turn of the lights and take a nap. Yet, be careful, naps between 30 mins and a hour can make you feel worse than before. Known as inertia. So, if you tend to take a nap for longer time, make it full 90 mins sleep, so that you can at least once enter in the RAM sleep-cycle.

5. Reserve your bed only for good sleep and sex, just like Miles Kohrman from Fast Company says: "Your bedroom should be palace of sleep. It is okey, if you have a TV or a desk in your bedroom, but make sure that they don`t stand in your way of getting a nice sleep". Other things might make it harder for you to fall asleep, as you might think of something, which means you will have to count some more sheep.

Taking naps during the day is pretty much known as polyphasic sleep, Not familiar? Well, it is about taking naps during the day, for example every 4 hours you take a nap of 20 mins. Or if you have slept for less than 6 or 7 or 8 hours the night, you can take nap or two from 20 mins to get by the day.
But you must be have on your mind not to spend too much time awake with tooo little sleep.

For example, Tom Michelson from Daily Mail tried to live conducted one experiment. He tried to get by on just two hours per day! It included as well the polyphasic sleep based on twenty-minute-naps every four hours, meaning he didn`t sleep properly, i.d. 6-7-8 hours per night. 

Only after 90 hours he felt anxiety, mood swings ans struggles with the cognitive skills.
Therefore his doctor advised him to try replace his current type of polyphasic sleep. Now he experimented with three hours sleep at night and 20-mins-naps during the day every four hours, but after 10 A.M. The score? Boost in productivity, alertness, more energized.

So, my dear readers, get some good quality sleep, cause you will be surprised from its benefits. Try as well daily naps from 20 mins, and you will definitely skyrocket your productivity! Get more done with a rested body and brain!

Failure is a step on the ladder of success

Success is a state of mind and so is failure. Every positive thought or experience regarding any task completion primes neighboring positive thoughts or experiences. Same goes for every negative thought or experience. Hence, a charmed circle encompassing positive or negative outcomes is established depending on the original thoughts and the experiences that provoked them. In effect, depending on the type of circle one becomes intertwined in, a person can be labeled as a “success” or a “failure”. However, before rushing into complete submission to the fear of failure, one must stop to think that failure can never be a full-grown person in the flesh. Failure is just a label for a certain set of unfortunate outcomes and as such is set in stone within the frame of human understanding of concepts. On the other hand, a person is a dynamic set of processes which are persistent in the promotion of transience and change. Therefore, a stable label can never be firmly applied to a dynamic person. Hence, as a firm label for a transient state of mind, failure can always be turned around to become a success. And therefore, it is merely a step on a much longer ladder.

1. Fear as prevention of making progress and how to deal with it

There are several factors imposed to one by our very own societal norms which prevent failure from being perceived as a step on the ladder of success. One of the main such factors are the ways in which instruction is given regarding a task of any nature. Instruction tends to be filled with guidelines which mainly emphasize what should not be done if one wishes to complete the task successfully. This divides the perception of an outcome as fully successful or unsuccessful and prevents creative thinking in any form. Regarding this, success is good and the lack thereof is the opposite of that. As success is perpetually promoted as the ultimate desire of every human being out there ever, one grows to despise and more importantly to trenchantly fear the possible realization of failure. The only problem with all of this is that those negative thoughts of fear tend to predominate over the positive ones of success. These negative thoughts will prime past negative experiences and set the ground for future negative outcomes which imposes the threat of activation of the charmed circle of intertwined causes and outcomes. Furthermore, it will allow one to see no further from whatever is outlined in the instruction itself. This means that there will not be the slightest amount of possibility to perceive failure as a learning tool and a step forward rather than as an utter doom and lack of personal skill.

The first step of dealing with this fear is the shift in perception which will enable one to disregard failure as something dreadful and accept it as yet another part of the game.

2. How to alter the perception of failure and fatalistic thinking patterns

As already mentioned, failure is a mere label for a stable set of outcomes. A stable label is an inadequate description for a dynamic system such as a human being. Therefore, failure should be perceived as a learning tool, a mechanism which taught us at least what should not be done for a certain goal to be obtained. What usually prevents us from seeing failure as a learning tool is a fatalistic pattern of human thinking which fails to see beyond the label-like nature of failure and attributes stability imposed by faith on any outcome. For example, imagine that you have just failed an exam. The mere labeling of that exam as a failure will bring you to generalize your own personal skills as inadequate, the situation as static and unable to be altered and the future as bleak. However, if you bother to alter your perception to not account for the failure as an inborn component of your being, but a result of an unfortunate set of circumstances (e.g. the instruction was ambiguous, the material was not adequately explained or there was a discrepancy between what was emphasized during lectures and what was emphasized on the exam), room for improvement will appear on its own. So instead of wasting time to bring yourself down about your personal (in)ability to deal with the exam during the re-sit, you will work on understanding the instruction better or emphasizing what is truly important for the subject based on your previous unfortunate experience. And just like that your previous failure will transform into a part of your future success. 

You are a dynamic system and as such change is part of your nature. What seemed impossible today might come just within reach tomorrow. Positive thoughts bring about positive outcomes and the negative ones do just the opposite. Therefore, free yourself from fatalistic thinking patterns, work on your perception and prepare yourself for a future filled with sizzling success!

Also here are a few blogs in case you lack motivational resources:
Zen Habits
Pick the brain
Lifehacker
Personal Success Today
LifeDev

10 Really Useful Smartwatch Apps

Smartwatches, they were a foreign concept just a few years ago but now you wake up everyday and without thinking you're checking your Facebook, Twitter and Gmail feeds on your smartwatch. There are many other useful Bluetooth-enabled smartwatch apps out there that will satisfy every corner of your life. There are productivity apps, wather apps, cooking apps...you name it, it's all there. Just catch a quick glimpse at Google Play or App Store and you will get your head spin. With so many apps to choose from it can be nearly impossible to separate out the useful apps from the gimmicky ones.

From weather apps to settings assistant, we made a list of 10 really useful apps for Android Wear and Apple Watch that will Supercharge your wrist and make you craving for more. And did we mention they're FREE? Start clicking the download button now!

Wear Audio Recorder

Handy for recording conversations, lectures and meetings, as well as any thoughts, song lyrics or poems that your mind may spring on you throughout the day. It's all very simple, just start and stop the recording as you wish and then scroll through a list to revisit previous recordings. You can share, delete and rename them as you see fit, and it also works when the screen is off, for covert missions.

Compatibility: Android

Wear Buddy

Wear Buddy: small, straightforward, and designed specifically for Android Wear. You can check up on the status of your phone's battery and find it when it's lost - it's even possible to control the ringtone remotely, swipe it away to make it stop or and get an alert if you leave the house without your phone connected.

Compatibility: Android

Duolingo

Duolingo lets you learn another language on the go, for free. You basically earn achievements by answering linguistic conundrums correctly in fun, bite-size lessons. The application keeps it simple, displaying flashcards for you to have a go at when you're, say, on the bus. Take enough bus rides and one day you'll realise you're fluent in French.

Compatibility: Android & iOS.

InstaWeather

Have 24-hour forecasts a wrist lift away. Choose from multiple attractive weather faces, satellite view (visible and infrared) and receive notifications if a shower's heading your way, with distance details included. There's also the option to run in low power mode so your obsession with meteorology doesn't drain your battery.

Compatibility: Android

Endomondo

Allowing you can tag your runs, cycles, hikes, climbs and about every other exercise you take part in. Also, if you're rocking a Sony SmartWatch 3 with its GPS skills, you don't even need a companion smartphone; a standalone mode stores all the metrics from your exercise sessions directly on your watch.

Compatibility: Android; iOS;

MarkO

Your productivity now is at your fingertips and being productive is just a few taps on the screen away. Easy as 1,2,3. Create your to do list on the go, quickly catch what’s on your mind and put your thoughts at rest. With feautures like “AI recognition”, create reminders with voice commands and get suggested where do you want to complete that task or with whom you want to share it. If you finish a task, you can always choose the option “Complete” or tap on "Reserve" and collaborate on your friend's reminder right into the smartwatch. MarkO can recognize the location, time and people involved in the reminder and in seconds you get reminded at the right place and time. With MarkO for Android Wear bring up and complete tasks with a few taps of your finger!

Compatibility: Android; coming soon to iOS;

Coffee SMS 

It lets you both send SMS and reply to SMS without talking to your Android Wear watch in awkward situations. If you just want to let your friends know you're on your way, or send them any other precustomized messages that you can pull up via handy little icons, then Coffee is a great way to communicate while you're on the move.

Compatibility: Android;

WebMD

WebMD’s app for the Apple Watch is a very helpful tool designed to get you to take your medication at the right times (after you set up your medications in the iPhone app). You can see your dosing schedule, and also know if you need to take food with your medication.

Compatibility: iOS;

Epicurious 

It is one of the best cooking resources anywhere, and now you can use a helpful cooking timer right on your Apple Watch. This will help ensure that you always know when the food that you are cooking is done so you don’t end up overcooking your culinary masterpiece.

Compatibility: iOS;

Shazam

Shazam will use your watch’s built-in mic to listen to the track, then display all necessary information right there on your wrist. In addition to track information, if you swipe right after receiving your results, lyrics will be placed on your smartwatch, allowing for a quick singing session. We all know you have a beautiful singing voice!

Compatibility: Android; iOS;

Women Love Tech

Some women have sheer love for clothes, fashion and style, but some women are absolutely passionate about technology. Since the dawn of time women were always curious about things going on around them. Today technology is the fastest growing and fastest and most changing space. And it is as tempting to women as to men to pivot, change their minds and to be adaptable to the constant changes. Each new innovation has the potential to improve and change lives and who doesn't love change?

Since we love writing about tech, especially about smart and ambitious women who are changing the status quo and inspiring other women to share their enthusiasm and support in the fast-growing world of technology.

We made a list of  blogs made by women that you should bookmark right away and get your daily tech fix:

Women Love Tech  by Frederique Bros

Meet Australia's number one tech site for women with busy schedules. Founded by Frederique Bros, this magazine puts everything women need to know about tech in one place. Whether it’s the best gadgets, the latest on smartphones, helpful new apps, useful how-tos, blogger tips, social media support or product reviews, it's a female geek paradise.

All you know that Frederique is an ambitious businesswoman. Everything she achieved up until now was a result of a hard work and enthusiasm to fight her way up in the tech sphere. She is an example that even an ordinary woman can be part of the world of gadgets, technology,  articles, blogs and reviews, world dominated by men. It's no wonder she was recently nominated for Telstra Women Business Awards 2015 and Women Love Tech has been awarded many times.

Women Love Tech is site of its kind, it's aesthetically pleasing and it simplifies the complicated tech world to the basic level. It maybe designed for women but it's fact that it's made for all of YOU. We personally enjoy her Video Reviews and How To's. You should definitely check her site to find out what’s hot in the technology as well as how to improve your lifestyle.

Girl About Tech by Amy Cutmore 

Amy is a product reviewer, always on the lookout for the cleverest, gorgeousest known to wo-man. The blog is carefully crafted and pleasing to the eye and there is also a category Celebs About Tech section that has celebrities reviewing products.

Techmamas By Beth Blecherman

Founded by Beth Blecherman, the blog covers a variety of topics like tech plan, tech tools, travel plan, lifestyle plan and many more. She is also the author of the book: My Parent Plan. You can also follow her on pinterest for a host of infographics related to tech and tips on social media.

Tech Girl by Sam Wright

Sam Wright the founder and editor of Tech Girl realised that women consume technology differently. They have different demands to men, when it comes to apps or smartphones. Her blog is about tech, gadgets, about glamour, about the occasional giggle…The site is filled with reviews, how to’s and generally fun content that will not only educate but also empower and entertain.

The Hacker Chick By Abby Fichtner

Abby helps people build amazing technology and push the edge on what's possible. She writes about agile computing, the importance of learning to code and building things no one ever believes are possible, A software developer by profession and extremely passionate about building communities where innovation thrives. Besides technology, there is also a section on her blog with inspirational posts that really make you move!

We hope we helped you on your search for a blog that suit your daily tech needs!

Why coffee lovers are more productive?

When we successfully establish a habit, it becomes so ingrained in us that the behaviour becomes something we do without thinking and no longer requiring a significant amount of effort to be done. Habbits can be powerful. And so is a morning cup of the heavenly taste of that sweet dark nectar. Most people drink it as a regular routine to set them up for super-charged productive day, some drink it to try and stay concentrated on work through midday slump and some drink it simply because they enjoy the taste.

 
You haven't had your morning coffee and your whole world is tumbling down, why is that? What is so special about that delightful roasted smell that wakes out bodies in an instant? In order to understand this Elixir of life, we first must understand how coffee, or better caffeine actually affects your body and mind.

How caffeine works

Adenosine is a central nervous system neuromodulator that has specific receptors. When adenosine binds to its receptors, neural activity slows down, and you feel sleepy. On the other hand, Caffeine acts as an adenosine-receptor antagonist. Since Caffeine is quite similar to Adenosine in structure, Caffeine can bind to the Adenosine receptors in your brain. Once the Caffeine is locked into Adenosine's rightful spot though, there is no way for the Adenosine to stick around — which prevents it from building up and making you sleepy. 

Caffeine can also boost up your levels of adrenaline and improve your mood — "the exact same thing cocaine does, just to a lesser degree," the video says.

Watch the ASAP Science video below for more in-depth explanation.

So, does it really make us more productive?

Next time have an internal debate over what to do next and finally decide that your current state is crap and it needs to change, it needs a boost, it needs direction. Coffee is the answer. 

• Drinking coffee after first learning something, increases the chance you'll remember it.
• Consuming Caffeine makes people more sociable.
• There have been many studies that show that caffeine helps workers perform better. Researchers studying night-shift workers found that caffeinated shift workers performed better than their decaffeinated colleagues.
• Coffee eases the pain of working at desk. Consuming coffee has been found to ease the pain in the neck, shoulders, forearms and wrists.
• Reseachers from MIT University found that employees who take coffee breaks together are more productive. When coffee breaks were scheduled so that co-workers could take them at the same time, their performance improved.
• Coffee shops, are a great place to work online. A study in the Journal of the costumer research explored the effects noise has on productivity, they found that a low to moderate ambient sound, like the one found in your favourite coffee shop working spot, improves creativity.

The answer

The best advice is to take it slow and see how your body reacts to the caffeine in a single cup of coffee, which ranges from approximately 90 to 200mg. Adjust your dosage from there and productivity will knock at your door.

Here are some coffee lovers that will inspire you with their passion for coffee: 
I Love Coffee - Ryoko
Literary Starbucks - Jill, Wilson and Nora
A Cuppa Day - Mike White
Steamfist
Mugshot Monday - Lisa Frame
Coffee Geek

7 Bestsellers that Will Improve your Productivity

These books below can help you improve yourself and can fill you with confidence and productivity to hit your goal and to be the best version of yourself. You can learn how to improve your personality which will affect your career and social life.There is much to learn reading these books, so take your sit and check this list:

1. Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity by David Allen

Quote from the book “People often complain about the interruptions that prevent them from doing their work. But interruptions are unavoidable in life.”

Allen has developed GTD system which is an Action Management Method and is the the most popular productivity system out there. That’s why this book is must have in your library. It is one of the first productivity books and it is really must read.

2. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

   

Quote from the book “The most effective way I know to begin with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement or philosophy or creed.”

Stephen R. Covey inspires every single person who has read this book to make personal changes with 7 habits in the moment of reading this amazing book. Wanna change yourself? Start with reading this book.

3. The Productive Person: by James Roper & Chandler Bolt

Quote from the book “We’re all guilty of adding too many tasks to our to do lists, only to find ourselves moving unfinished tasks to tomorrow’s list at the end of the day. Then we repeat the cycle week in and week out.”

After reading this book you will be guided with simple tips on how to be more productive personally and professionally. Simply and easy. Your “To Do” list will get more manageable and easy to make it all happened.

4. How to be a Productivity Ninja: Worry Less, Achieve More and Love What You Do by Graham Allcott 

   Quote from the book “How well you protect and use your attention determines your success.”

   If you are in the need to improve yourself or just to change something in your life, this book will provide you with good tips and tricks to improve what you are already doing well. This powerful and practical book will help you develop a Ninja-level productivity.  

5. The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

   

Quote from the book: “The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not.”

This book is based on research done on high performers. There are  the four main sources of energy : emotional, mental, physical and spiritual. This is book for anyone who is looking for lifelong practice of being productive.

6. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam

Quote from the book “Reading fiction as you commute to a job you don’t like will make you feel somewhat more fulfilled; being in the right job will make you feel incredible.”

This book presents a fantastic POV when organizing your life. It is a good book to learn how to plan ahead and then stick to the plan and not spend your time irrationally.

7. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck

Quote from the book “Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?” If so, he says, “You may be outscored but you will never lose.”

Such a excellent book that is a typical self-help book, but it is a real find. Dweck is a psychology researcher at Columbia and her book is filled with insights and illustrations regarding the differences that a fixed mindset vs. a growth mindset can have when applied to business, parenting, school, and relationships.

7 Easy Morning Exercises to Boost Your Daily Productivity

How many times did you hit the “snooze” button today? Find yourself struggling to get up or into work mode? Eventually, when you are ready to crawl out of bed you can’t seem to remember where you left your phone, hot water has run out, you managed to tie your necktie the wrong way and that smudged mascara is not exactly a trend. 

You're probably not in store for a productive day. 

Morning struggles are a real thing now, just the prospect of leaving your warm and comfy bed for 7 a.m. kick-start is simply unappealing.

Well good news everyone, latest research shows that a regular morning exercise routine can boost your energy, motivate you and make you more productive, because our willpower is at its highest in the morning. Make your morning routine stress-free and streamlined, escape from the morning's clutches and kick the work day’s ass.

Are you ready to rise and shine? This 7 easy morning exercises can help your boost your productivity.

Cat Camel Stretch

Kneel down on all fours. Start by rounding your back just like a camel so that your head will try to meet your pelvis. This is the camel position. Then lower and lift your head so that your lower back is arched. This is the cat position. Do these movements slowly and smoothly. About 4 or 5 times.

It is great for spinal flexibility and is a good warm up exercise. So, you don`t have do it in the morning only, but as well after an exhausting working day. :) 

Jumping Jacks

Stand with feet together. Jump while spreading your arms and legs. Return to first position and keep going! You can start with doing these for 1 minute and then gradually build up to the number you are comfortable with.

Balancing Table Pose

Start with the table pose (hands and knees). Breathe in before starting each movement. As you exhale, raise your left leg parallel to the floor as you raise the right arm, also parallel to the floor. Breathe in as you lower arm and leg. Repeat for the other side. 10 repetitions on each side is a good starting point.

Leg Squats

Stand with your feet a bit further out from your hips. Arms are out in front of you. Then lower yourself as if you wanted to sit down until you reach a 90 degree angle. You can go down further if you want to. Then return to the starting position. Repeat 15 times for 2 sets for beginners.

Push Ups

Start lying down (face down) but with your body held up at arm’s length. Your hands should be in line with your shoulders. Breathe in as you lower your body. That is fairly easy. Now, as you exhale, you have to get back up to the starting position. An easier version to start with is to bend your legs at the knees so you do not have to lift your whole body.

Bicycle Crunches

Lie flat on the floor with the lower back pressed into the ground. Place your hands slightly either side of your head, do not lock your fingers or pull the head up. Lift your knees to a 45 degree angle. At first slowly go through a bicycle pedal motion with the legs. Alternately touching your elbows to the opposite knee twisting back and forth through the core, keep the elbows back rather than forward to the chest as this could strain the neck.

Tuck Jumps

Great way to get your heart pumping and help tone your legs.

Standing with your feet hips width apart, slightly bend your knees then jumping as high as you can, bringing your knees in towards your chest. Land as softly as you can.

Morning exercise is not only a great mood booster, but will help you keep your weight down and make you more productive! Win-win! But before anything eat an energizing breakfast, warm up and stretch.

Also, here are some fitness gurus to follow on social media:

• Kayla Itsines
• Kathy Freston
• Lorna Jane
• Zach Deal 
• Scott Jurek