Live, Love, Design… Hack Your Brain to Become More Efficient – No Professional Tools Needed

We are sure that our attentive readers have noticed that the first part of our blog post’s title is similar to the “Eat Pray Love” movie. Have you seen this American romantic comedy-drama film with Julia Roberts starring as Elizabeth Gilbert? Actually, it doesn’t matter whether you like such kind of movies or not. We just wanted to make a small hint from the first rows of our article that it is possible to live a happier life and be more efficient at work even if you are a busy web designer/developer/web master.

So, our aim is to cover some psychological matters that are able to make your personal life, work and even health much better. This information won’t cost you a penny. We are not going to tell you about the best web design tools that free your hands and save your time and efforts. That was the topic of our recent blog post: Fresh Web Design Tools to Try in 2016 List. This time we would like to talk about solutions and ideas that are hidden somewhere inside us.

Our body mind and soul is a perfect combination able to cope with any life/work issue and heal any pain itself. Would you like to start improving the spheres of life that are important for you, including your web development efforts, of course? Then, we are ready to list some working tips that have already helped lots of people like you (web designers, developers and mundane) to improve the quality of their lives and boost the efficiency of their work.

So, let’s start with concentration, overcoming procrastination and launching new projects & ideas

Have you ever calculated how many times a day different things distract you from work? Skype, SMS, phone calls, conversations with colleagues, etc. Our attention skips from one thing to another. This is the reason why we feel so exhausted at the end of the day.

Just imagine your ideal working day, when nothing prevents you from doing the job you should finish. And then think about your usual crazy work tempo with all its distractive factors.

Do you know how all these little things affect your efficiency? You will be shocked if we convert this information into numbers. You are only 7% efficient in comparison with the first simulated reality. We waste 93% of our efficiency just because we can’t concentrate. So, how to pull oneself together? You will be surprised to read how easy it is.

• The first exercise will help you concentrate of your own accord. You will need a watch with a second hand. What do you need it for? Just watch the second hand on your wrist or some other watch for a minute. But during this time you should do nothing else, but watch the second hand. If you understand that some idea has crept into your mind, start the exercise from the very beginning, otherwise you won’t achieve the necessary result. If it will turn out to be too difficult to watch the second hand for a minute without any distractions for you, make as much tries as you need, start from 5, 15, 20, 30 seconds. Your goal is to prolong this time of watching the second hand without thinking of anything else to 3 minutes. When you’ll increase the time of concentration on your second hand to 3 minutes, you’ll become another person, with a powerful ability to focus.
• If you like breathing techniques, you can try the following exercise. It is directed on taking stuff out of your head. Stand straight with your coccyx tucked up like a dog’s tail, close your eyes and make several deep breathe ins and outs imagining how the exhausted dirty energy goes down into the earth through your feet and fresh green energy fills each muscle of your body.

We always have plenty of tasks and ideas. The problem is to start acting. We are so reluctant to start some of the tasks because they are too difficult, too time consuming or too tedious. That’s why we procrastinate for tomorrow, then till Monday, and at the result, we do the job at the last minute to meet the deadline.

It’s useless to struggle with our natural laziness. It is always stronger and more cunning. But it’s possible to play with procrastination habit and win. The third exercise will tell you the rules of the game.

• Now we will tell you how to get ready for any task in 30 seconds. So, here are the rules of the game. All of us have sub personalities, one of which is a child. This child can be happy, have good time, enjoy the life, etc. This exercise involves interaction with your inner child. It is always easier to agree with this part of your personality. Just say to your inner child: “Please do the job for 5 minutes only”. We won’t finish the task; just play this game for 5 minutes. The child always agrees to play. You set the timer for 5 minutes. Most probably you will forget about time and submerge into the working process. If the trick doesn’t work, do the following. Try to compliment yourself for being able to stay concentrated on the game for 5 minutes. Stroke your chest for 30 seconds; this will intensify the effect of the complement. Then make another agreement with your inner child that you will play this game for 10 more minutes. Then prolong the time to 20 minutes. It makes no sense to play more than 20 minutes as the inner child doesn’t like to play tedious games for more than 20 minutes. Even if you won’t be able to overcome your laziness from the first time, next time it will be much easier for you to do that. In any case, this exercise will be beneficial for you. Even if you don’t finish the job, you’ll raise your mood. You will work for 35 minutes, and then make a 10 minutes break and start to negotiate with your inner child again. The exercise can be repeated all day long with short 10 minutes breaks until the job is done.

What do you usually do with your business projects and ideas? Nothing? Just forget about them? But why? Don’t like to build castles in the air? It’s a big mistake and our forth exercise will teach you how to treat your precious business projects and ideas the right way.

• Very often we don’t believe that something good may come out of our ideas. But what do successful people think when an idea of a new business project comes to their mind? They think: “Why not? How can I realize it? It should be really cool!” Here goes the conclusion: if you have an idea or business project – take action. It’s much better to try and fail than stay idle. No gain without pain. It’s up to you how to live. You can continue to turn your life into an accurate set of mechanical actions. But from our viewpoint, it’s rather boring, so let’s be creative and use all possibilities that life gives to us.

How to quickly refill your sources of energy – learning to relax

Since childhood we were taught how to work hard, but do you remember any lessons of relaxation? Do you know how to restore the energy quickly? The following exercise will help you restore your energy in 15 seconds only.

• The best way to relax your mind and body is to put on an “idiot’s mask” for 15 seconds. This exercise replaces a cup of coffee. How to do it? Read on and get to know. Try to imagine a mentally retarded person with saliva dripping out of the edge of his/her lips. A person’s face is absolutely relaxed. Not a single muscle is strained. Try to copy this facial expression (without saliva, of course). This way we will relax our nervous system. It is easy to put on an “idiot’s mask”. You slightly open your mouth relaxing your lips. Relax your cheeks, nose, the area under your eyes, your forehead - and your face will take a stupid expression. This may sound funny, but just try to put on an “idiot’s mask” and you’ll notice that you have no thoughts in your head. Do this exercise when you are tired, when you feel sleepy, when you want to drink a cup of coffee to refresh, you may repeat it every hour. Sip a couple of gulps of water instead of coffee and relax your face for 15 seconds. You will notice a considerable change in your physical condition.

We hope you have nothing against fixing the result achieved while doing the previous exercise. The next one will demand 30 seconds of your time, but you will feel like a winded mechanism for 1,5 hour!

• Our body needs a respite every 1,5 hour. 1,5 hour is a cycle of our business activity. During this time we enter the phase of activity, reach its climax and then go down. How do most of us buck up? We go to the kitchen to drink a cup of coffee. That’s not quite right as coffee doesn’t supply us with energy; it just urges us to enter the next cycle of activity continuing to exhaust our body. What do we suggest to do? Make several deep breaths. Breathe in with your stomach, then with your chest, and then lift up your shoulders. Breathe out pulling in your chest, your stomach and dropping your shoulders. You need to repeat the exercise 4 times. And don’t forget to put on an “idiot’s mask”. At the end you can imagine the flow of energy we were talking of above. When you imagine that all dirty energy goes down into the ground and fresh one fills your body. The whole process will take 30-40 seconds and you will start feeling much better. What else can you do? If you like to meditate and have the possibility to do that, lie down and listen to the meditation that is relevant at the moment. It’s better to do that three times a day. If you learn how to have rest, the quality of your life will significantly improve.

How to catch the flashes of inspiration

We guess everybody faced the problems/tasks/issues that seem unsolvable at first sight. That means that you just lack inspiration and the exercise below will return it back to you.

• This exercise can be done in the evening, it doesn’t demand any separate time, so you can do it while cooking your dinner, cleaning the room, walking the dog, whatever. You just recollect the unpleasant situation that bugs you till the present moment (i.e.: getting it in the neck at the office, collision with the spouse, quarrel with kids) or maybe the task, which you have no idea how to complete. Ask yourself a question: “What would Buddha do if he was in my shoes?” When you get the answer, ask yourself the next question: “Is this the best thing or speech Buddha could do or say?” Continue doing this exercise until Buddha’s reply will seem absolutely perfect to you. Of course you can replace Buddha with the person who is an authority for you, like Bill Gates or Donald Trump, for example. It depends on many factors and your occupation, of course. This way you will learn to catch flashes of inspiration. After a kind of dialogue with your subconsciousness, you will get the best possible answer to your question. This technique just lets you look at the situation at another angle and see the non-standard solution. Actually, you view the situation from the point of the person who knows much more about your issue, who is more successful, more educated, more intelligent and get closer to his/her level.

Stay in good shape even working remotely sitting in your favorite armchair with your pajamas on

Have no time for jogging, work out in a gym or swimming in the pool? It’s not an excuse for obesity, untidy look or poor health!

• We offer you to try tabata. These exercises can be done at home. It takes only four minutes. There are 3 levels of exercises – from beginners to advanced athletes. To stay fit, practice tabata 3 times a week. This will take you 12 minutes. Want to reach extraordinary results? Work out every day. You will become stronger, hardier, and more cheerful. Tabata is highly recommended for losing weight and weight control.

Going to bed with a cloud of thoughts in your head? Do you recollect the day that passed and think about the coming day? Thoughts prevent you from falling asleep; your sleep is hard and surface. Organism doesn’t restore its strength. You can air out the room or take a walk before the night sleep. This may help. But there is a good exercise that will help to release all thoughts and let you fall asleep quickly and have a good sleep without spending much time in bed.

• The exercise is about evening planning. You just open your notebook and put down everything you should do tomorrow. When we write down our thoughts they abandon our head. That’s all, your mind is clear and you are ready to have a good sleep.

The last exercise is not actually an exercise. It includes just drinking pure water. Not tea, coffee, juice or other beverages, but water.

• You can calculate your minimal water need according to this formula: 30ml per kilogram of your weight. The author of this blog post should drink at least 1500ml of water (50kg*30ml=1500ml) a day. It’s not that much, but if your weight is 90kg, for example, your daily water consumption should be 2700ml. Some readers will start to argue that it’s impossible to drink so much. Don’t worry, just try. At first you will feel the increased thirst, it’s a normal process. This uncontrolled thirst will come to an end as soon as your organism will become sated with water. We can write long paragraphs about the numerous positive effects of proper water consumption, but we don’t want to take your time stating trivial things. Just believe us and start drinking water if you still don’t have such habit. You can increase water consumption gradually in order to relieve stress of your organism that is not used to the habit yet. Drinking enough water will help you to lose some weight in addition to other benefits.

Wrap up

So, we had a small talk about different psychological techniques that are able to improve the quality of your life and the efficiency of your work. And now we would like to know your opinion on these self improvement tips for success. Was this article useful for you? Do you use any of the listed keys to success in life? Maybe you have your own little secrets of how to be successful in life to share with the community? Will you try some of the exercises? If you do, which ones will they be? Do you consider such kind of articles interesting, helpful? Do you have any other problems that were not covered here? Please state them at the comment section and next time, our blog post will be targeted on them.

Thank you for your attention, be healthy, efficient and take care!