Take Control Of Your Day: 35 Time Management Habits & Techniques to Help Organize Your Life

Take Control Of Your Day

35 Time Management Habits & Techniques to Help Organize Your Life

ADESH SILVA

© Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved.

The content contained within this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author or the publisher.

Under no circumstances will any blame or legal responsibility be held against the publisher, or author, for any damages, reparation, or monetary loss due to the information contained within this book. Either directly or indirectly.

Legal Notice:

This book is copyright protected. This book is only for personal use. You cannot amend, distribute, sell, use, quote or paraphrase any part, or the content within this book, without the consent of the author or publisher.

Disclaimer Notice:

Please note the information contained within this document is for educational and entertainment purposes only. All effort has been executed to present accurate, up to date, and reliable, complete information. No warranties of any kind are declared or implied. Readers acknowledge that the author is not engaging in the rendering of legal, financial, medical or professional advice. The content within this book has been derived from various sources. Please consult a licensed professional before attempting any techniques outlined in this book.

By reading this document, the reader agrees that under no circumstances is the author responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, which are incurred as a result of the use of information contained within this document, including, but not limited to, — errors, omissions, or inaccuracies.

Table of Contents

Quieting Your Brain

Introduction

Chapter 1 Identify Your Brain’s Stress Response

Fight or Flight

Reflecting on the Past

Knowing Your Triggers

Reaction Versus Response

Chapter 2 Making Peace with Imperfection

The Fake Pressures of Society

Understanding Self-Esteem

Adopting a Growth Mindset

Technique #1: Accept the Flaws of Life

Chapter 3 Taking Control of the Controllable

Dealing with Regret and Guilt

Anxiety and Panic

Technique #2: Understand What You Have Power Over

Technique #3: Practice Mindfulness

Chapter 4 Exercise and the Effects on You

How Your Health Affects Your Mind

Why Exercise is Important

Technique #4: Get Active

Technique #5: Eat the Right Food

Chapter 5  The Power of Self-Talk

Looking at the Root

How Others View You

Technique #6: Breathe It Out

Technique #7: Challenge Your Thoughts

Chapter 6 How to Take Control of Your Mindset

The Brain’s Plasticity

Technique #8: Use Positive Affirmations

Technique #9: Write and Journal

Chapter 7 Not Letting Your Emotions Dictate Your Life

Emotional Intelligence

Projection and Deflection

Technique #10: Manage Your Anger

Chapter 8 Building a Rock-Solid Routine

Laying the Groundwork for an Effective Routine

Practicing Patience

Technique #11: Focus on Your Sleep

Chapter 9 Finding Focus in a Distracting World

Setting Time Aside Every Day for Creative Thinking

When Multitasking is Bad

Technique #12: Learn to Say NO!

Technique #13: Minimize Everything

Chapter 10 Maintaining the Important Balance Between Work and Life

Cutting Yourself Off From Technology

Maintaining Balance

Being Kind

Technique #14: Work on Communication and Listening

Technique #15: Laugh and Smile

Conclusion

References

SHUT UP AND FOCUS

Introduction

Chapter 1: Avoid Procrastination and Finish the Most Urgent Task First

Habit #1: Avoid Procrastinating

Habit # 2: Finish the Most Important Task

First

Chapter 2: Handling Emails and Saying No When Appropriate

Habit 3: Getting Your Email List Down To a Zero

Habit 4: Learn to Say NO to Things That Add No

Habit 5: Dealing with Time-Wasters

Managing time-wasters

Habit 6: Living by the 80/20 Principle

The Urgency for 80/20 Principle in the Life of an Entrepreneur

How to Use the 80/20 Rule to Improve Productivity?

Chapter 4: Starting Your Day Early and Eating Healthy

Habit 7: Starting Your Day Early

X Tips to Starting Early

Habit 8: Eating Right to Achieve  the Highest Levels of Productivity

How Good Nutrition Can Boost Productivity?

Chapter 5: Importance  of Task Delegation and  a Clutter-free Space

Habit 9: Delegate Your Tasks  to Save Time

11 Tasks you Should Trust Your Employees With

Habit 10: Having a Clutter-free and Organized Space to Work

Why it’s time to Tidy Up?

Decluttering your Desk and Mind -Towards a More Productive You!

Chapter 6: Task Prioritization and Scheduling

Habit 11: Prioritizing Tasks

The How-To aka Techniques that Work

Habit 12: Schedule Your To-Dos Religiously

Why Schedule?

The Requisites of Scheduling

Chapter 7: Looking Past Failures and Achieving Focus with Single Tasks

Habit 13: Stopping to Regret Over Failures and Mistakes

How to Move Past Entrepreneurial Failure?

Habit 14: Achieving Focus with Singular Tasks

Single-tasking –It’s an Art too!

Taking One Task at a Time –How-To

Chapter 8: Scheduling Time for Tasks and Building a Goals vs. Dreams List

Habit 15: Stop Overspending Time to Complete Tasks

The Only Guide You Need For Correct Time Allocation

Habit 16: Build a Goal vs. Dream List

So what should you go after? Goals or Your Dreams

Chapter 9: Importance  of a Stress-free Environment and Disconnecting from Social Media

Habit 17: Creating a Stress-Free Work Environment

How to Create a Stress-Free Environment to Boost Productivity

Habit 18: Disconnecting from Social Media Bombardment

The Harmful Implications of Social Media Indulgence

How to Limit Social Media Addiction?

Chapter 10: Triumphing at Work-Life Balance

What Does Work-Life Balance Mean?

Why Work-Life Balance is Crucial?

How to Create Equilibrium between your Work and Personal Relationships?

Conclusion

Works Cited

Quieting Your Brain

15 Techniques and Effective Habits for Stress Management in Everyday Life

Introduction

Over half-a-million people die of heart disease every year.

With one in four deaths tied to heart-related conditions, this has become the leading cause of death in the United States alone (CDC, n.d.).

You can eat all the healthy greens you want and exercise multiple times a day, but an often-overlooked cause of heart-related conditions is stress that goes unmanaged for far too long. Stress is also related to many other health conditions, such as anxiety or depression.

Stress has many different causes, but one thing we have to remember above all else is that it is natural. It doesn’t feel great when we’re experiencing it, but surprisingly, it can have some beneficial aspects when properly managed. It isn’t a disorder, but a wiring built into the way that we think. It is a reaction to an outside threat. It is a chemical response that urges us to take action.

A happy life isn’t one that is free from stress; it is one that involves the management of stress. The biggest reason that this type of worry can be so challenging to manage is because we don’t understand exactly what stress is.

While stress does occur naturally, the negative side effects don’t have to be a part of your everyday life. The solution to managing your stress is training your brain to think in a certain way.

Often, when people think about managing their health, their first thought might go to doctor’s visits, medications, and other treatments. Luckily, stress management won’t always require a prescription. Something as simple as laughing could help to drastically reduce your stress levels.

In fact, studies have proven that increased laughter helps to reduce the level of stress hormones present in your body, as well as the reduction of inflammation. On top of this, laughter can increase the good cholesterol in your body (Harvard Health Publishing, n.d.).

When stress goes unmanaged, it will affect every other part of your body. You can struggle with sleep, appetite, and mood control when worry is consuming every facet of your Adesh Silva

mind. Reducing stress isn’t just good for your thoughts, but for your overall health.

There are plenty of other concerns that you might have in your life, so don’t let stress be one of them. Constant worry could lead to anxiety, which could even increase symptoms of depression.

In this book, we are going to discuss the best methods and techniques that you can use to quiet your brain. This isn’t about shutting out stressful thoughts and eliminating the worrying triggers in your life – unfortunately, we can’t take your stressors away. There will always be work issues, monetary struggles, and relationship problems that you will just have to confront.

What we can promise to do is give you the resources needed to work through your greatest issues. We can provide you with what the body needs to feel relaxed and calm, even in the most challenging situations.

Each time you feel stress, you are doing damage to your body. Still, it can be hard for even the greatest medical professionals to link some of your health problems to stress, so it’s important that we get it under control now.

There are enough issues in this world that could keep your worried mind busy for eternity. There will never be a lack of things to stress over. The urgency comes when we let this stress consume our daily thoughts, however. Our time on this beautiful earth is limited, so it’s essential now that we learn to appreciate and enjoy each moment.

You are in charge of your own stress management, and your perspective plays a huge role in the thoughts and emotions that you have. What we have to remember is that each person is going to have their unique view on life. What stresses you out might not be a big deal to other people, and vice versa.

It’s time now to take your own life into your hands. Now, more than ever, we have to put an emphasis on stress management. It seems normal to talk about health and nutrition, but what about the management of our emotions? What about the way that we experience and talk about our feelings?

It shouldn’t be taboo to discuss the things that you feel. We can’t be ashamed or afraid of the emotions that we have. When we pretend as though these are feelings that we can just stuff down and ignore, that creates an unhealthy mindset that will eventually show through your physical body.

Our minds can be like a bottle of soda. The more you shake it, the more it is going to explode when the top finally opens. The deeper you push your feelings down, the harder they are going to be to clean up once you finally let them out.

Think of it like a swinging pendulum. We always know that what goes up must come down. What we forget is that the harder it swings one way, the harder it swings the other. Pretending that everything is fine when it’s not is only going to make those dark emotions feel even worse when you’re forced to confront them.

Take action not just so that your day-to-day life is easier, but so you can live longer. Choose to manage stress for yourself, but for your friends and family, too. You want to be around them as long as possible. You should want to make the most of this life that you have been given!

There will always be things to cause you worry. There will still be hard days where you just want to give up. It is your mentality that is going to carry you through. It is the way that you think and feel that can be your greatest strength.

Stress is like a tool. Just like a hammer, you can either use this to build something great or you can let it be something that destroys everything around you.

Chapter 1

Identify Your Brain’s Stress Response

The reason something like stress can be so challenging to manage is because we don’t understand it. If you have a cold, you can take some medicine and have some soup. If you have a cut on your arm, you can put a Band-Aid on it. If you have chronic pain, you can take a hot bath or use a pain-relieving cream.

What do you do when your mind needs fixed? How can you heal the thoughts you have when the very thing that should be able to help you is where the problem starts? If we knew exactly how to manage our stress and the thoughts that we have, we wouldn’t be stressed out at all.

Stress is something that is built into all animals. Humans are not the only ones to experience something like stress. It is a driving force that keeps us alive. If we never felt stress over anything, fear of the future and worry about what lies ahead, would we get anything done? Why would anyone go to work and operate within this society if we all just didn’t care about anything?

Passion drives us, but even then it is connected to stress and worry. The same kinds of emotions which drive us towards what we love are helping to push us away from the things that we fear.

In this chapter, we’re going to lay out what stress actually is.

It is only once you begin to comprehend what your thoughts are and how your mind operates that you will know how to change it in your favor. Many individuals will go their entire lives living with fear and stress, all because they aren’t aware that the tools to help alleviate those challenging emotions already exist within them.

We might be wired to have stress, but we are also wired to think logically in a way that helps to manage it.

Fight or Flight

As animals, we all have instincts that are naturally wired into us. These are responses and signals within our bodies that  ensure our protection and survival. When you’re hungry, you seek out food. When you’re tired, you lay down and rest. When your stomach hurts, you go to the bathroom. These are instincts we never really had to be taught. We had to be potty-trained and taught how to eat, but we didn’t have to learn that we wanted to eat. That has always just been a part of us.

One of these natural instincts is our fight or flight response.

When you are presented with a stressor, you will either run from it or you will face it head-on. This isn’t just an emotional reaction, either. It’s a chemical process which occurs within your body. You will first notice that your breathing and your heart rate become faster. This is meant to help ensure we are prepared for anything that comes our way.

Your pupils will dilate and your mouth can become dry. You will have tense muscles and you may begin sweating. This is all caused by the release of cortisol – the stress hormone. Inside the body is gearing up for battle, too. Your adrenaline is released so that you can move quicker and more strategically. Your brain is kicked into high gear and you become hyper focused.

Imagine if the opposite occurred when presented with a threat! You would become sleepy and relaxed, unable to focus on anything that is going on. It is clear to see that this is a necessary process meant to keep you prepared for anything that comes your way.

Stressors come in all shapes in sizes. Some are physical threats – bugs, heights, thunderstorms, knives, guns, etc. Others aren’t as easy to see – money, relationships, failure, bullying, etc. But no matter what type of stress you encounter, your body will react in the same way.

It will either choose to fight this threat or run from it. Some individuals are more naturally wired in one way rather than the other. Those who are more passive would be likely to flee from their threats, while others with a more aggressive outward personality might be more apt to fight. Of course, this reaction is determined by a number of factors, but it’s essential that we know how we might be more inclined to behave.

Imagine a threat that you have faced, something which caused you to be afraid. How