Strength as a Foundation
On March 15, 2013 I became a regular person - well my perception of regular anyway - and I love it!
Why did I have to relinquish my super-hero status? I’ll leave it at this: I saw my dreams not just faltering, but failing. So, to get back on track, I stopped working two full-time jobs... which I had been doing for years for "fun" versus necessity. I took a break from my love-affair with iron. I also sit more than I have in about 15 years... that's a mega regular person activity!
Well, if we fast forward to today, my big dreams in life are properly realigned and effectively back within reach. But, I want to talk about what has happened to my physical foundation over that time.
SAPT’s methodology is based on the approach of Strength as a Foundation. We use various examples to explain why this is the best approach for building speed and explosiveness, but my favorite is “imagine shooting a cannon out of a canoe” sounds silly, right? Well that’s because it is. Never having operated an actual cannon myself, I can still easily imagine how ineffective and potentially dangerous it would be to try to shoot the thing out of a canoe.
The same concept holds true for performance training. If Strength as a Foundation is ignored, you’ve effectively set yourself or your child up for ineffective and potentially dangerous training.
Okay, so getting back to my little story: since becoming proudly “regular,” I’ve been working out at home and put a huge emphasis on improving my overall fitness. “Fitness” in this case meant I wanted to put a big focus on improving my cardiovascular system's functioning and efficiency. My exercise of choice? Running. And because of time limits I have only been lifting an average of 20-minutes, twice a week... but my running workouts stick around 60-90 minutes, 4-5 days a week.
Do you see where this is heading...?
I've let my foundation crack. My strength foundation. It sort of sucks. But, I planned for this to happen... I guess I just didn't know what it would feel like once I arrived. I've been lifting consistently since I was 19 years old. The longest break I’ve ever taken (up until this year) would have been a MAXIMUM of one week off from lifting. Crazy, but this 20-min/2x per week lifting has been going on for almost 4-months. With several weeks in there taken completely off from lifting.
I’ve been trying to shoot a cannon out of an ever destabilizing canoe. Attempting to keep up such a high volume, frequency, and intensity of running without maintaining my strength foundation is trouble. I’m feeling it now.
My goals have been accomplished in terms of “fitness” but I’ve been surprised what a slippery slope running that much and lifting that little has been. It’s like the losses are compounded. My knees often ache and the muscle mass in my legs (read: glutes and hamstrings) has dropped significantly.
What’s the plan and what’s the lesson?
I need to build muscle and lift weights more frequently. That’s the plan. And the lesson? As advertised, running really is detrimental to strength levels. I’m undecided about how I feel about this. Where I am in my life, running really lines up well with my mentality and goals. I can’t even begin to tell you how many excellent ideas I’ve had while running... SAPT was actually conceived during a run 6-years ago(!). But, I need to prioritize more prehab exercises to keep myself on the trails. In terms of the biggie compound lifts, eh, I’ll probably continue to take a break. 13 years straight of weight training means I’m certain the lure of the iron will pull me back when the time is right. In the meantime, I’ll continue setting a laser focus on building an amazing business and embracing my “regular” side.
Last week I attended a workshop on marketing for the small business owner. It was amazing and led by John Jantsch who is *tha guy* when it comes to this topic. As much as I believe the experience has already had a permanent and positive change on SAPT, I will try to exercise some self-control and stay on-topic. I do mention the experience for good reason: the first - and most tangible - impact from this workshop for our readers is in how we deliver content on the blog. Here are the changes you can look forward to:
- Each month will have a theme that each primary (MWF) post will address. This month's theme: Give Me Strength!
- We will be attempting to up our quality from an internal standpoint by actually editing posts ahead of time.
- All this requires *gasp* planning, so posts should be more reliable with few, if any, missed posts.
Please engage if you like or hate or even have no feeling about what you read here!
Sneaky Brownies: Healthy Fats and Fiber Right Here!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a great time with lots of fabulous food and fantastic family time. My family has a tradition, it's the tradition of Pie. Every year, the main even at Thanksgiving is not the turkey (we had 3...) not the side dishes (not even the whipped-with-real-cream mashed potatoes) but it's, really, about the pies.
This year, the 23-pie selection included pumpkin, pecan, key lime, S'mores, chocolate creame coconut, a General Pie-treas (my witty brothers' pie) and numerous fruity variations. Delicious!
However, I don't like pie.
I made a Not-Pie instead. Also, being the nutrition nut that I am, I made a healthy Not-Pie and I thought I would share the recipe so this holiday, there can be some desserts that are not an insulin coma waiting to happen. Here's the link to the original recipe (I love Cara's site!), and below is my not-following-the-recipe version:
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 fairly ripe avocado
- 3 eggs
- 4 Trader Joe 100 calorie 70% dark chocolate bars, mostly melted (they were cheaper than other chocolate options...)
- About 2 Tbs of agave nectar (honey works too)
- Heaping tablespoon of Hershey's Dark Chocolate cocoa powder (yuuuummmm)
- 2 TBS stevia powder (or until it tastes good to you) I actually don't have sugar in my pantry, much to my tea-drinking mother's distress.
1. In a food processor, blend the eggs, beans and avocado until smooth. It will look like dark poop.
2. Pre-heat your oven to 350-ish (I always forget to to this first and since I'm relating how I made this delicious chocolaty goodness, I'm trying to stay true to my actually cooking technique.)
3. Melt the chocolate bars in the microwave (or stove if you have a double boiler) until their mostly melted. I'm impatient so I didn't wait for them to melt all the way. Add them into the black bean goopy-goop. Also add in the cocoa powder and agave nectar. Pulse until well blended.
4. Add stevia (or whatever sweetener you prefer) until it tastes good to you. Mine were not super sweet (like traditional brownies) but still maintained the bitter characteristic of dark chocolate. And sweet enough not to taste the black beans too.
5. Pour mixture into pan of choice; since I was making a Not-Pie, I used a circular pan, but I'm pretty sure that a rectangular pan will make no difference in taste. Cara suggests using an 8 x 8 pan and she's pretty smart.
6. Bake about 30-ish minutes or until you can poke the middle and the poker comes out clean. They'll be more fudge-like than cake-like.
Ta-daa!! Pretty easy huh? So, why should you make these this holiday season (and risk 5-year olds telling you they don't like your pie? (True story)). Reasons are as follows:
1. The recipe offers up a healthy dose of fiber, which we know is a good thing for our bodies and can be scarce during the holiday meals. Also, the fiber helps prevent blood sugar spikes and the ensuing insulin spikes, keeping a steady blood sugar level in the blood (and NO sugar crashes). The fiber also helps fill you up so you eat less.
2. There are healthy monosaturated fats in the avacado (the ones doctors are ga-ga about for healthy hearts). These fats are incorporated in cell walls (helping keep cells healthy, happy and young).
3. There is a good dose of protein from the beans and eggs (woefully lacking in most sweet things)
4. Avocado and black beans provide multiple beneficial compounds like luetin (prevents macular degeneration), vitamin E and glutothione (both helps fight against disease and sickness, like colds, keeping you healthy during the festivities), both contain multiple flavonoids that have anti-inflammatory properties. My favorite fact, black beans have molybdenum which is a trace element which breaks down and detoxifies the body from sulfites, compounds found in wine and salad dressing, and while only some people are sensitive to them, they can't be great to have floating around your body.
5. This is more of a personal benefit, but because they're not as sweet as most desserts, I feel less sluggish after having some.
6. The feeling of smugness knowing what is in them when people are enjoying your delightful brownies.
Band Geeks Need Strength Too!!
This past weekend I went to watch my brother, a tuba player in the Marching Virginians at Virginia Tech, play in the halftime show at football games (let's be honest, anyone who has met me quickly realizes that the band is the ONLY reason I go to football games. Blasphemous Hokie am I!) And if you're unfamiliar with the MVs and how AWESOME the tuba line is, here's a little sample:
(My brother is the one on the end closest to the camera.) Aren't they awesome? That's my bro-pod! Anyway, being the geek that I am (both a Band Geek and a Strength Geek...yup, I was in band all through high school and a bit in college!) as I watched the MVs perform I started thinking that they could really use some strength training. Not just the tuba's either! The WHOLE band would benefit from lifting heavy things that don't make music!
The MAIN point of this post (besides offering this piece of advice to my fellow band geeks: LIFT WEIGHTS!!) is that EVERYONE needs to be stronger no matter if you're an "athlete" or not. Read that again: EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE STRONGER!
Ahem, excuse me, I got a little carried away. Moving on, here are some exercises that I thought of while watching the MVs perform (and thinking back to my own marching days):
KB Swings:
Admit it, you knew I was going to say this. But seriously, this would be perfect for the tuba players doing the hokie pokie and sticking their heads in and out and shaking it all about. Check out the hip hinge (or rather, lack of) that tuba players need from the video above. Wouldn't a strong posterior chain make that easier? (especially on the 5th rendition of the Hokie Pokey)...
And then the swing:
Not only would this help make lugging the 25-45 pound tuba (technically sousaphone) up and down easier, it would prevent lower back injuries for over-enthusiastic hokie pokie-ing. Besides, swings improve cardiovascular fitness and who needs to be able to produce a lot of air without passing out more than a tuba player? (and the floutist. Fun fact: tuba players and flute players pass out more often from lack of air than any other instruments.) Every band member should swing; it'll improve their ability to make through the loooong Game Day of pre-game practice, marching and playing throughout the game. ANNND (one more thing) swings improve upper back strength and band members have to stand up straight throughout their performance, hence the need for a strong upper back.
Rows/Pullups/Chinups:
Speaking of strong upper backs, let's take a look at what the drum line has sitting on their chests:
I used to play drums and I can tell you, those instruments are NOT light! Rows, chins and pullups would be ideal to strengthen those muscles. By doing so, it will take the strain off the lower back because the upper back will be able to support the weight much more easily. (Cymbal players, I'm looking at you too! Those suckers are heavy, row/chins will also improve bicep strength which is needed in holding/clashing cymbals repeatedly.) Which leads me to my next exercise...
Planks/Anti-rotation presses/Anterior Core:
In junction with a strong upper back, a strong anterior (front side) core is CRUCIAL to preventing lower back injuries or aches while standing for long periods of time. This post highlights some exercises. I really like the landmine as there's a lot of dancing around in the bandstand so being able to resist rotation of the spine during wild cheering would be awesome!
And more anti-rotation:
Having a strong core is very, very (VERY! I'm not kidding!) important to band members who want to have a pain-free marching season.
Farmer Carrys:
This one should be obvious. Practice walking around with heavy things. Here's a post I wrote a while back about. Band geeks, read it!
And last but not least:
KB or Band-Resisted Dorsiflexion:
My high school band director used to say (or rather, shout): "I want to see 'HI MOM' written on the bottom of your shoes!!' meaning we had to march with our toes straight up to the sky (it looks nice...). Therefore, band geeks need super strong tibialis anteriors!
There are many more exercises I could list off (Pretty much everything in here) but I'll cut it here as I know band practice takes ALL of one's free time. However, I would encourage band geeks to squeeze in at least 30 minutes to improve there strength levels. And if a band geek can fit in time to get strong, then anyone can!
LET'S GO HOKIES!
How to Get More Done in Less Time: Parkinson's Law
(Note: In Part 1 we discussed how to save massive amounts of time each day by reducing the frequency at which you check/respond to email. In Part 2 we briefly discussed how to cut out distractions that keep you for working on the task at hand. Now on to the third and final installment of this series...)
Meetings. Putting together a presentation. Writing a paper or blog post. Shuffling papers around in the office. Studying for an exam. Entering data into an Excel spreadsheet.
Ever notice how, at times, you find yourself spending wayyyy longer on a task than you know you should be spending to complete? I know I do. Or did, at least, until I discovered the beauty of using Parkinson's Law to my advantage.
What is Parkison's Law? You can view it here on Wikipedia, but I think Tim Ferriss summed it up quite nicely for us:
Parkinson's Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. It is the magic of the imminent deadline. If I give you 24 hours to complete a project, the time pressure forces you to focus on execution, and you have no choice but to do only the bare essentials. If I give you a week to complete the same task, it's six days of making a mountain out of a molehill. If I give you two months, God forbid, it becomes a mental monster. The end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.
We can use Parkinson's Law to our advantage by setting extremely clear, and borderline impossibly short, deadlines for various tasks and 'To-Do' items. I've been instituting this over the past couple weeks and WOW, I can't quite express how much of a life changer this has been for me.
Personally, I've found E.gg Timerto be an invaluable source for helping me produce more output with less input (time) when doing anything at a computer. Heck, I'm using E.gg Timer right now as I type this. You can set the countdown timer for however long you wish - it will fill up your screen when it gets to zero - and it's amazing how the ticking clock will keep you inexorably focused on action steps instead of deliberation and procrastination.
Again, quoting Ferris:
If you haven't identified the mission-critical tasks and set agressive start and end times for their completion, the unimportant becomes the important. Evern if you know what's critical, without deadlines that create focus, the minor tasks forced upon you (or invented, in the case of the entrepreneur) will swell to consume time until another bit of minutiae jumps in to replace it, leaving you at the end of the day with nothing accomplished.
How else could dropping off a package at UPS, setting a few appointments, and checking e-mail consume an entire 9-5 day?
Many of us subconsciously realize this, but never actually set self-imposed deadlines to force us to get more done in less time.
While I'm not necessarily proud of this, I unknowingly used Parkinson's Law to allow me to get an A on almost every exam I took in high school and college; it didn't take me long to realize that I got the same grade whether I started studying a week out from the exam, or only 24 hours (and sometimes as little as 1-2 hours) before taking the exam.
Why? Whenever I began studying far in advance, I'd inevitably allow myself to become distracted by phone calls, the internet, outdoor games with friends, you name it, as I knew deep down that I still had plenty of time to study. But when I knew I had a major (and quite difficult) exam looming in only 5 hours or less, it FORCED me to shut out anything that would steer me away from doing well on the test.
In fact, I recently received this text from a friend of mine who had graduated from his doctorate of physical therapy program, and was preparing for the physical therapist licensure exam, "So you know how in Undergrad you were the greatest Crammer of all time. Any advice for someone who has an upcoming licensure exam and is feeling really lazy about studying?"
I had to laugh upon receiving that text, as I didn't know which was more unnerving: The fact that I was known in college for being a talented crammer (if we can even attempt to glamorize that "skill") , or that an up-and-coming practicing PT was looking for advice on studying for the licensure exam!
Now, I am certainly not advocating procrastination. And, to clear my conscious....should any individuals be reading this that are currently enrolled in an educational institution, my advice to you is to study in advance for your tests, dang it!
But it brings up a valuable point. Deadlines, whether self-imposed or not, allow us to ignore minutia and focus on the important. So I encourage all of you to begin setting deadlines on those "open ended" tasks that can take hours on end to complete, and adhere to those deadlines!
This is especially true for us perfectionists in the crowd that agonize over every single detail within a project we're working on. Set an unrealistic deadline, and stick to it. The earth will continue to spin, I promise.
3 Practical Steps: Get More Done in Less Time and Create Time to Enjoy Your Life (Part 2)
In Part 1, I discussed the first step in producing more output via less input, and how to increase your "free time" by drastically reducing the deceptively voluminous time spent on unnecessary email checking. For you those of you who missed it, you can check it out HERE.
What follows is the second step in creating more time in your day. I promise I'll spare you the waves of prolixity I may have drowned you with in Part 1.
2. Eliminate All Time Wasters In Your Day
We humans are experts at creating distractions in order to avoid completing the tasks that are actually of greatest importance. I can't tell you how many times I'm sitting in a coffee shop, or walking by an office window, and catch a glimpse of someone who's clearly supposed to be working but has Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, or a Blog pulled up on their computer screen.
And I won't try to fool you by preaching that I'm the most self-controlled guy of the bunch, nor that I'm immune to the time-wasting practice of fools. So what are a few things I recently instituted, and would be remiss not to recommend them to you as well?
1. Block all the websites you're addicted to out of pure entertainment.
For those of you who have worked on your laptop while traveling via airplane, even notice how much more you were able to accomplish in the short time you sat there? As is kinda obvious, it's because you didn't have any access to internet (I'm pretty sure some airlines may have internet access on planes now, but I digress...)
When we're connected to the internet, we almost can't help ourselves but go to our favorite "fire gazing" web domains. These websites do nothing but allow you to delay doing what will actually provide you the greatest return for investment.
The problem is, sometimes you need the internet to accomplish the task at hand (using an online program or app, for example), so it's not always a matter of simply turning off the internet to get something done. Besides, even if it is, you can always click the "On" switch should you lose self-control and desire to browse the web rather than complete your work.
So how to remedy this issue of our own depravity?
If you use Google Chrome, install Google Nanny, and if you use Firefox, then install Leech Blocker. I personally use Google Nanny, and I love it.
The beauty of these is you set a pre-determined time in which it will prevent you from logging on to particular websites. You can choose what days you're blocked, and what times within those days you are blocked. I have personally chosen to block, from 8AM-10PM on weekdays, Facebook and all the popular fitness and "lifestyle design" blogs I tend to lurk on to distract myself. I can check up on them during the weekend, to see anything I may have missed. I do schedule a 15-minute window for Facebook to open up so that I can post these blogs online, but outside of that it's an extremely refreshing media fast.
And don't worry, contrary to popular belief, the world isn't going to end if you left of the loop for a few days in the blog-o-sphere.
I chose 8AM-10PM because those are the hours I'm typically near my computer, and I can't tell you how many weekday evenings I've gotten to bed wayyyy later than planned due to some pointless internet roaming. 10PM keep me from logging on the web when I should be climbing into bed.
I can't tell you how much time this has saved me, and how much faster it has allowed me to accomplish tasks. As when Jacopo reminds the Count in The Count of Monte Cristo, "I must protect you, even if it means protecting you from yourself."
2. Stop checking your email so darn much.
Yes, I had to repeat this, even if I already belabored the point in part 1. It's funny, as I feel that all of us across the board tend to enjoy checking email much more than we enjoy sending email. If you don't batch your email and make your checking/sending an efficient and time-saving process (as discussed in part 1), this leads to the creation of an enormous gorilla on your back, constructed from all the emails you haven't replied to.
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Next week, in the last installment of this series, I'll cover a critical action step to that drastically cuts down on the amount of time it takes to finish an important task. Up until now, we've learned how to remove distractions, but next week we'll go over a bit of the actual "process" in task completion.
3 Practical Steps: Get More Done in Less Time and Create Time to Enjoy Your Life
"What's it going to be?" I mused blithely to myself as I rummaged through the gift bag. "A 21st century shaving kit? A manly hunting knife? Perhaps some Under Armour Boxers*?"
I was seated at the rehearsal dinner for the wedding of my eldest brother, Brian. The dinner and celebratory toasts had recently subsided, and Brian had just made his rounds passing out the gifts to his groomsmen, me being included in the bunch. As I extricated The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss from my gift bag, I had no clue of the impact it was about to make on my daily living.
Upon holding the book in my hands, perusing through the table of contents and the back cover, I was honestly a bit dubious of the book's promises and claims. I had heard of Tim Ferriss and his book (as probably most of you reading have, too), as Ferriss had quickly launched into semi-celebrity status in the sphere of lifestyle design and blogging upon the release of The 4-Hour Workweek. However, I'm not typically a fan of "Self-Help" materials, which is what I thought this particular book embodied. I find that 95% of the people who read self-help books may, yes, genuinely enjoy what they’re taking in during the read, but they then typically walk away and do nothing about it; they fail to implement any of the nifty solutions to their problems. And as we know: Education without action is just entertainment. Nothing more than that, really.
But at the same time, I knew that Brian had read (and applied) the concepts in The 4-Hour Workweekhimself in order to successfully create his own business, shortly after he made the decision to leave a steady and "safe" position he held at a company ranked top 100 on the Fortune 500. Not to mention, he was now living and working according to when he operated most productively (as opposed to the non-negotiable 9-5 workday most corporations enforce), and enjoying the convenience of working from home.
So I decided to give the book a shot. I was looking for a new book to read, anyway…
350 pages and a few action steps later, I realized that the 4HWWwas far from your ordinary feel-good, lets-sit-holding-hands-in-a-circle-singing-kumbaya self-help book. No, this was a book chalked full of practical, real-world strategies that anyone – be they an employee of a large corporation, an entrepreneur, a business owner, or manager – could immediately follow and see instant results.
Taking myself for example, I’ve already found myself experiencing an extra two hours of free time per day, more enjoyable weekends, and increasingly productive work periods in which I produce more output in less time. And I'm just getting started.
And so I wanted to share some of the information here, to help those of you reading who may be in need of a bit of lifestyle redesign.
-Are you perpetually buried by the incessant and stubborn flow of emails? -Do you check your Facebook 15 times per day (I'm being generous here by lowballing this number...), and wonder why you can seemingly never complete anything? -Does your To-Do List add items to itself faster than you can check them off? -Do you feel like you never get to do the things you actually ENJOY doing?
Now, before I continue, let me be clear that I have absolutely no intention of working only four hours per week; I simply love my job too much and personally prefer to be actively and intimately involved in what I do on a daily basis: Teaching athletes and regular people how to move and feel better. (If you hate your job, maybe it's best to reevaluate what you're doing as a career before we even think about moving further with this topic.)
Nor do I pretend that the majority of you could achieve a realistic 4-hour workweek, even if you followed all of the steps in the 4HWW to a tee.
But what I do think that all of you reading can (hopefully) agree with is this: We should work so that we can live, NOT live so that we can work.
And my wish is that these steps can at least help you get started walking down the right path.
1a. Check and Respond to Email Only Twice Per Day
Email (and I'll throw Facebook and Twitter into the mix, too) is perhaps the greatest time waster in modern society. With large thanks to the invention and widespread use of the smartphone, email has become a flighty temptress that people can't resist checking into at every possible moment: first thing in the morning, every 5 minutes during the work day, standing in line for coffee, walking down the city street, in between sets of squats at the gym, right before bed and even during dinner with family. Heck, when I was working as a personal trainer, I had a client who insisted that he carry his phone with him during every session, checking the incoming email as soon as his phone buzzed.
With instant access to each other and instant access to information, we have created this false sense of urgency that the world is going to end unless we check our email and/or social media accounts every few seconds.
Why does this really matter, and how does it pertain to the title of this article? Accomplishing critical tasks in less time (and thus freeing up extra time in your day) requires complete focus on the project at hand, with as few interruptions as possible. Quoting Ferriss:
There is a psychological switching of gears that can require up to 45 minutes to resume a major task that has been interrupted. More than a quarter of each 9-5 period (28%, or 134.4 minutes) is consumed by such interruptions, and 40% of people interrupted go on to a new task without finishing the one that was interrupted. This is how we end up with 20 windows open on our computers and nothing completed at 5pm.
In fact, a psychiatrist at King's College in London performed an IQ study in which he determined that people stoned (under the influence of marijuana) actually performed HIGHER on IQ tests than those who were "under the influence" of distracting email! You can read the story HERE.
I love what Ferriss points out later in the book:
Multi-tasking is dead. It never worked and it never will. Intelligent people love to sing its praises because it gives them permission to avoid the much more challenging alternative: focusing on one thing.
Here are a few steps I've employed to reduce my frequency of email interruption down to just two times per day. Guys, I really can't emphasize enough how this has RADICALLY altered how much more I accomplish in a day, and even (which may sound counterintuitive) how much more punctual it has made me with responding to emails.
A. Turn off the audible alert that lets you know when a new email has come in. B. Turn off the automatic Send/Receive feature that delivers new email as soon as it's sent to you.
I don't know anyone who can honestly say they can resist the urge to pull up the email screen as soon as they hear that oh-so-familiar "Ding!" that rings every time new email comes in. It creates an unnecessary distraction, and it's the virtual equivalent of crack.
Or, for those of you Mac users (I have one), you know how hard it is to resist perpetually checking the notification on your dock informing you of how many unread emails you have.
C. Only check email TWICE per day. This, for me personally, has been the greatest difference maker.
Ferriss recommends 12noon and 4PM, as he says that these are the times that provide the greatest likelihood of ensuring you've received a response from a previous email sent. I personally use 11AM and 2:30PM because of my schedule, but it's really up to you.
In fact, while I follow this policy for my business email, I now only check my personal email once per day, at 11AM.
Paranoid that you're going to receive something so critically important that it can't wait until your allotted email checking? Use an autoresponder to let people know of your new policy, such as the example Ferriss provides:
Greetings All,
Due to high workload and pending deadlines, I am currently responding to email twice daily at 12pm ET [be sure to indicate your time zone] and 4pm ET .
If you require help with something that can’t wait until either 12pm or 4pm, please call me on my cell phone at 555-555-5555.
Thank you for understanding this move to greater effectiveness.
All the best, Tim Ferriss
The beauty of that is you are providing your phone number for those that genuinely need to immediately reach you for an issue that's actually important or time-sensitive. You can see another example of a more "boss friendly" autoresponder HERE.
You know what a surprising side effect of this new policy has been for me, personally? I'm now actually MORE productive and punctual with responding to people via email!
Since I know that (if I'm doing my 2:30pm email check) I won't be on my email for the rest of the day, I can't use the "Oh I'll respond to them in 30 minutes" excuse, which as you know, can quickly lead to a stacking of 'Marked as Unread' items in your inbox, stressing you out to no end.
1b. Don't Check E-Mail, Texts, or Facebook First Thing In The Morning
This habit alone has changed my life. Checking email used to be one of the very first things I did every single day, even on the weekends. I'd wander out into my living room, pet my cat good morning, and then flip open my computer and check my email. I don't know what it is, but I think that most of us are now programmed to check email whenever possible, and not even out of necessity, but out of mere habit.
And I don't have a smartphone, but I can only imagine those that do probably check their email and/or social media while lying in bed. C'mon', admit it, I know you do!
After refusing to do it for a couple weeks now, I've experienced firsthand why checking email first thing, while a seemingly innocuous habit, is actually quite detrimental:
1. It will automatically cause you to get caught up and distracted by whatever you have seen arrive in your inbox. Say goodbye to a distraction-free morning, and hello to immediate saturation of seemingly uber-important, really-can't-wait-another-minute matters.
2. You will now have your thoughts occupied by the emails that arrived, dramatically hindering the real, important tasks you had to accomplish or work on that morning.
3. It can subconsciously sets the tone for the day of checking email nonstop. As we've seen above, we want to avoid this at all costs.
4. It can take up a deceptive amount of time (especially if you throw Facebook and Twitter into the mix), erasing hours from your day before you even knew what hit you. This can be especially dangerous during the weekends, pulling you away all morning from things that, oh I don't know, involve you doing something fun with the people you care about the most?
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Some of you may be sitting there thinking "This would be impossible and impractical for me to do." And you know what, I thought the same thing. But I dare you to try it. You can thank me later, don't worry.
I realize I've only covered Step 1 out of the 3 practical steps I promised you in the title of this post, but I'll be back on Friday with Part 2. (**Update: You can view Part 2 HERE**)
*The inventor of those can have my firstborn son.
