This 3-step science-based technique will show you how effective your current way of managing stress really is for you. And if it’s not, then what would work better, how to manage stress quickly and more effectively because… it’s a skill that not only makes us more resilient but also more confident dealing with uncertainties in life.

How to manage stress quickly and more effectively

Step 1: Get a grip

The first thing is to learn how to think clearly in that moment when feeling stressed so that we can make better choices, respond rather than react.

“The best tools to reduce stress quickly, so-called real-time tools are going to be tools that have a direct line to the so-called automatic nervous system. The automatic nervous system is a name given to the kind of general features of alertness or calmness in the body.”

– Dr. Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist

And one very effective way to quickly calm the body, the nervous system down in real is to modulate our stress response. Stepping down physiologically, modulating how our body reacts when feeling stressed gives us better access to the PFC, which is the reasoning and problem-solving part of our brain. 

Ways to do this quickly –

• When the heart starts beating faster, we instinctively know something’s not normal about a situation, right? Using respiratory sinus arrhythmia we can slow the heartbeat down without taking a break. We exploit the mind-body connection here… slowing the heart beat to calm down enough to start thinking clearly. And the science behind it is that when we breathe out, the squeezing lungs bring the diaphragm up which leaves less space for the heart to beat. And that makes the brain signal the heart to go slow to effectively pump all the blood that’s trying to get through. So, just remember to breathe out longer whenever you want to calm your nerves down.
• Stress causes our vision to narrow, so that we can focus more intensely on the things threatening us. To reverse this and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, focus in the mid-distance without looking at anything in particular. To do this, try to see what’s above, below and on both sides of your direct field of vision without moving the eyes… you know like how the vision gets a bit unfocused, looking without actually seeing anything when trying to remember something or thinking about something? Just like that, but only doing it intentionally. 

Step 2: Sort specifics

The next step is to get specific and sort. See, the problem with most of the stress management tools we usually see, hear, or read about isn’t that they aren’t helpful, most of them really are. But the problem is that they either stop midway or we tend to focus more on the quick-results feel-good part of it. 

Anything that tells us how to manage stress without showing how to manage the stressors can actually be counterproductive in the long run. That’s because it’s like putting a band-aid on without doing anything about the real cause of the problem.

That’s why it’s important to be clear about what are the things worrying you. But remember that we are only dealing with short term and mid-term stress over here because long-term stress needs a different kind of approach.

What to do –

• So, the next step is to write down all the what ifs and things you are feeling stressed about because writing not only forces us to be more specific but helps realize right-away which ones are least likely or simply silly. It also makes sorting rest of the things easier.

• Then, sort them into what you think is within your control and which ones realistically aren’t. Ask ‘what exactly am I worrying about’ and keep repeating till you get something specific, like “I fear I might discover at the last moment that I have forgotten to bring the documents with me.” Get as specific as you can because finding specific solutions to vague ideas like ‘what if I mess up’ is really difficult.

https://youtu.be/MPHjqnGrfc4

Step 3: Predictability (how to manage stress dealing with uncertainties in life)

It’s the uncertainty of situations… not knowing what might really happen that stresses us out, triggers catastrophic thinking. And having a sense of control not only tunes down stress, but also makes us more confident dealing with uncertainties in life. So, the last step is to take out the element of surprise to feel more in control.

What to do –

Watch the video up top to know what to do exactly and how doing that helps.

Hope you found this useful.

The post 3 Evidence-Based Tips on How to Manage Stress In Real Time appeared first on Nandyz Soulshine.

These 3 things can help you see if procrastinating, putting things off for later will work for you or against you. And if it is not going to work for you, then how to stop procrastinating.

3 Keys to know if it’s working for you (+ how to stop procrastinating)

1. Is it making you productive?

When we keep putting off making a decision, it could be good because we would then have time to look at it from different angles and make a well-informed choice. Even when trying to figure out something, if we just put it aside for a while and do something totally different, it usually brings up the solution more easily.

That’s because the brain got a break from processing all the information and got a chance to connect the dots more effectively. 

“Detailed analysis revealed that mindfulness was associated with impaired problem solving when approaching problems with insight, but increased problem solving when using analysis.”

– Claire M Zedelius , Jonathan W Schooler (Mind wandering “Ahas” versus mindful reasoning)

And when there’s just too much to do and things kind of start stressing us out, shifting things to later based on their priority can free up our mental bandwidth so that we can do what’s important more effectively. It can ironically help us be more productive.

How to make procrastination productive:

1. Enough time – There has to be enough time to shift things to later without compromising the quality of our effort.
2. Time limit – There has also to be a clear time-limit for when we are going to resume the task, which we need to be serious about. Because otherwise, it’s simply going to become a source of unnecessary stress in our life. 
3. Realistic – The time available should be enough to change those things that are holding us back from taking action in the first place. If it’s something that needs deeper work, the better option would be to find how to start taking action despite the hurdle making us procrastinate.

And so, how to stop procrastinating becomes all about understanding why we want to put things off to later.

https://youtu.be/kvlt6DksQZ8

2. Type of procrastinaTION

Knowing whether it’s a certain type of task that makes us procrastinate or whether it’s normal for us to leave things to the last moment can tell a lot about how things are going to pan out.

So, if we are able to more or less maintain a daily routine but can’t seem to get started on a task, it’s task specific procrastination. And that means, the resistance to act is trying to show what would work better. 

How to stop procrastinating:

1. Chunking down –  It could be telling us the task is too stretched out and so motivation is running thin because there are no little yay moments to keep us excited. So, chunking it down to multiple short-term goals gradually adding up to the big one can help stop procrastinating.
2. Skill up – Maybe the task is too difficult and at some level we feel it might not work out… and so we are worried what failing would show about us. And so in that case, skilling up or asking for help would be a more efficient way to reach the end.
3. Review goal – it may also mean that we are not too sold out on the idea and aren’t really convinced about what it’s going to do for us. So, maybe we need to stop wasting time working on something we are not too keen to add to our life. 

But, if it’s not just some specific kind of task we are procrastinating on and it’s normal for to leave things to the last moment. Or, maybe it kind of fluctuates, some days things get done on time and other days they keep piling up – then it’s general procrastination.

The good and bad of procrastination:

Maybe, working under pressure brings out the best in you… sharpens your focus or makes you more productive. And that’s good. But the downside of being a general procrastinator is that the frequent buildup of stress hormones is going to affect our physical and mental health in the long-run. And so it becomes important to know how to stop procrastinating when it’s not going to help.

3. How to stop procrastinating – what type of procrastinaTOR are you?

Also, understanding what kind of procrastinator we are makes it easier to know why we are procrastinating. There can be many reasons, like may be the task feels boring, or too tough, or may be other important things are popping up which need to be handled STAT. So, the reasons show us what needs to change so that we can start taking action again.

How to stop procrastinating:

1. Worrier or Perfectionist – For the worrier, procrastination is about trying to ensure there are no mistakes. And for the perfectionist it’s about ensuring there are no chances of failure. And that’s good. But the problem arises when it’s never perfect enough because then the good intentions come at the cost of finishing the task.  Watch the video up top to know what needs to change as well as the other types of common procrastinators.

The post How to Tell if It Will Work For You + How to Stop Procrastinating if It Won’t appeared first on Nandyz Soulshine.

What seems to be the best option in the moment isn’t always the right one for us. That’s one of the biggest reasons why only when looking back can we be sure whether a decision was good or not. Lets quickly see how that happens and also what to do instead to make better decisions in life.

How to make better decisions faster

1. Missing elements

The option that instinctively feels right could be a heuristic trap – shortcuts that our brain uses to save energy. And these shortcuts are good to make routine choices, like what would you like to order at your favorite café.  But when it comes to making decision for something new, the brain quickly finds a past experience that seems similar and suggests what worked in that situation.

But the problem is, it can ignore potentially important stuff to find similarity. And so what worked before doesn’t really mean it will work again. 

What to do instead –

If you have time, sleep on it. But if there’s no time for that, do something else for a while. It lets our brain keep working in the background without us interrupting, connecting ideas that we wouldn’t even consciously think of. 

A study conducted by the Carnegie Mellon University, finds that the brain regions responsible for making decisions continue to be active even when the conscious brain is distracted with a different task

It also gives us more clarity about the situation and so we can better see whether what seemed to be a good choice at first still feels so or not.

The bottom line is, to make better decisions it helps not to act on the first thing that comes to mind without giving it more thought.

https://youtu.be/WCJjtvEanlY

2. Overkill is not the way to make better decisions

But thinking something through to find the best option doesn’t always mean we will make better decisions. Because sometimes we end up collecting too much information. In psychology, the people who do this are called maximizers, trying to cover every base to make the best decision.

With too much information there’s the risk of analysis paralysis, which means we get stuck in indecision, and that’s what leads to missed opportunities.

What to do instead –

1. Paradox of choice – Too many options can push us into indecision. This is called the paradox of choice. Too many choices actually means we need to put in more effort to choose. And that leaves us feeling unsatisfied with the choice. So, limit options to the 3 or 4 most viable ones.
2. Use opportunity cost analysis – When we choose to go down one way, it means we are giving up all the other paths, That’s the cost of that opportunity. So, find which option leaves you with the least regrets.
3.  Pro tip – Make smaller everyday decisions part of a routine or batch them. Like, meal planning or sorting out at the beginning of every week what you will wear to work each day. Getting smaller decisions out of the way helps avoid decision fatigue, leaving more energy for our brain to process information and make better decisions.

https://youtu.be/MPHjqnGrfc4

3. Clarity

But, to do the opportunity cost analysis we have to be clear about one thing. Watch the video up top to know what makes every decision feel satisfying no matter what the outcome.

Meet you right over there.

The post How To Make Better Decisions Without Overthinking appeared first on Nandyz Soulshine.

These 4 one-minute habits may seem small, but they work quickly and are key to stop feeling overwhelmed, whether it’s with all the things you have to manage in life right now or at work. And because it’s easier to see results when you know how something works, I will also share with you why these habits are effective.

1-minute habits to stop feeling overwhelmed

1. Pause and ask

Whenever things start feeling just too much, take a pause and answer this simple question. “What is the one small thing that I feel I can do right now?”. Or, “what one small thing can I do right now to influence this situation the way I want?”

Why this works – 

1. It snaps us out of the stress mode by forcing us to think and reason. This action disengages our reptilian brain which was limiting our thinking capacity when triggered by stress.
2. Because we think this would need less effort from us compared to all that we are supposed to do, we feel less resistance to taking action. It’s based on the principle of least effort. This will shift our focus from how we are feeling to what needs to be done. 

And because action is the best antidote to stress and overwhelm, it will help us feel back in control once more.

https://youtu.be/WCJjtvEanlY

2. Smart batching to stop feeling overwhelmed

Sometimes, the sheer amount of things that need to be done can make us roll over in bed with a ‘why is it morning again’. You know what I’m talking about, right?

And the one-minute habit that can help us stop feeling overwhelmed and start the day feeling totally in control is ‘smart batching’. Before getting down to that to-do list, take a minute to sort all the like tasks together and bunch them into groups.

It’s different from batching for time management in that, smart batching focuses more on managing time, energy, and motivation better. Plan task groups alternately that demand different energy levels.

Like, outdoor tasks, followed by indoor ones. Then may be tasks that require interacting with other people followed by some quiet focused work like planning or brainstorming.

Why it works – 

1. These different groups generally use different functionally associated neurons in our brain. And so when we alternate task groups, it provides a kind of subtle downtime to the ones that we were using earlier. This helps us manage the effects of stress on our body better.

2. Because alternating task batches means working in a different way every time a batch is completed, it breaks the monotony… you know that feeling of “how long? I can’t do this anymore”. Also, knowing that you have finished a batch, putting a tick against it, keeps the motivation level up because the little doses of dopamine it releases every time.

https://youtu.be/HvCuj5hUcQI

3. Limits are good

To stop feeling overwhelmed with all that’s left to do, you know when you are doing something and the thought of all that’s left to do kind of makes you feel tired already? That’s stress mode kicking in… freeze of the fight, flight, freeze response.

So, to stop that from happening, take a few seconds before beginning any task to set the timer on. Because whatever time we allow for anything, it stretches to fill up that time.  It’s called the Parkinson’s law. So you can easily imagine what happens when you don’t begin with a timeframe in mind. 

And to know why this works and what can make it add to your stress, watch the video up top. It also has the fourth 1-minute habit that is based strongly on how our brain works.

Meet you right over there.

The post How To Stop Feeling Overwhelmed – 4 One-Minute Habits appeared first on Nandyz Soulshine.

How do you make sure you see something through to the end? Even though the obvious answer might seem to be “by staying motivated of course”… that’s not where it actually begins. So, before learning how to weave motivation into our goals so as not to have to worry about it again, let’s first see what goes into setting the right goals … the kind of goals that essentially make this possible.

3 Keys to setting the right goals for success

1. Choosing the right goals

There are countless different ways of setting the right goals and some of them are truly effective. But what we want to do today is to take the core idea away – what is it that makes them work. Because once you know that, you can adapt it to your own style.

According to NLP, neurolinguistic programming, one of the ways to look at it is that they use the head, heart, gut filter. 

Let’s take for example, the world-famous Edward de Bono’s 6 thinking hats technique. In that too,

1. We first listen to our head listing all the facts (white hat) all the benefits or plus points (yellow hat), and what are the risks that might crop up (black hat).
2. Then we consider the heart. What possibilities can we see, new ideas, (green hat) and also how we feel about it, what our intuition is saying (red hat)… things which we sometimes can’t really justify with proofs but feel is right.
3. And then comes the gut element. What seems to be the right choice having looked at the goal from every angle, considered all that is involved (blue hat). Is it going to be a yes or a no? And if it is a yes, then what’s the best way to go about it knowing all that we know now?

Because setting the right goals is about…

checking how in sync are they with –

• what we want right now,
• how we like to go about things,
• how ready are we to put in all the time and effort it demands, and

• whether the goal is taking us towards or away from how we want our life to look in the long run.

And having got this level of clarity about the goal, we then maximize its chances of succeeding. We optimize the goal for success.

2. Optimizing goals for success

One of the main reasons some goals and most of the new year resolutions don’t work for many people is because they might be setting the right goals but not setting it the right way. And that makes them

• feel either that they don’t have enough time, energy, resources after a while, or
• feel that the progress is too slow and end up losing interest in it.

1. Word your goals properly – 

Vague goals can sometimes do more harm than good because we can lose motivation just like that without knowing why. Like say, we set the goal, “I will earn more money this year.” But as we didn’t specify how much or how, even a small temporary bump in our earning can signal our brain that the goal is reached. And so, we can lose our motivation to work on the goal.

2. Set ‘towards’ goals –

One important thing to keep in mind is to set goals that are working towards than working away from something. Like, “I don’t want to gain any weight this year” is a working-away-from goal. It is kind of an ongoing indefinite kind of thing… always worrying whether what you are eating is going to add extra weight or not.

But, if we word the same thing like, “I will take x number of calories and run 2 miles every day this year maintaining my weight at y pounds and if it goes up, I will run 10 minutes extra daily till it comes back down”. It becomes a working towards goal and gives us something to do proactively not just wait and watch.

3. Use Edwin Locke’s theory of motivation –

What the goal in this example also has working for it, is that it is specific, measurable, time-bound, realistic, and doable…. so it has got all the ingredients of a SMART goal. 

And Edwin Locke’s theory of motivation also supports this, which essentially shows that clear specific goals that feel challenging but are also realistic with a clear way to evaluate the progress and clear deadline… that kind of goal has all the ingredients to keep us motivated to keep showing up.

But, this kind of motivation is extrinsic and needs constant topping up. Sure, the different parts of the SMART goal do that work pretty well… but what can amp this up is connecting it to a more constant source… backing it up with intrinsic motivation. And this is quite logical and really simple to do.

https://youtu.be/-QekJo8NM6Q

How to succeed beyond your self limiting beliefs

3. Weaving motivation into your goals

See, sometimes we set goals with the best intention, wording it the best way we know but somehow the conviction to achieve it starts to lose steam a few steps in… other things pop up which need to handled urgently and before we know it has become one of those things that we come across doing some spring cleaning and go ….”Yeah, wow, I had absolutely forgotten about this!”

Setting the right goals doesn’t guarantee the availability of motivation every step of the way. And chunking up helps shift the source of motivation from outside factors to something inside of us.

And to know how to do that, watch the video up top.

Meet you right over there.

The post Setting The Right Goals: Guidelines For Success appeared first on Nandyz Soulshine.

What do you focus on when you worry? That’s an important question when you want to learn how to stop worrying… and in a minute I will show you why. But first, let’s quickly learn how to locate your worry focus.

3 Steps to stop worrying unproductively

1. Know your worry focus

Broadly speaking there are a few categories or common thought patterns in which we think when feeling anxious or restless. Some of the common ones are –

• Overgeneralization – If what’s worrying you is on the lines of “I am never good with such things”. It means our focus is on how we think things generally are for us.
• Rumination – Things from past making us cringe or feel distressed over and over again with thoughts like “why did she say that to me”, or “why did he look at me like that?”
• Mind reading – When we focus on what we assume how the other person must be interpreting things, like “they must be thinking this about me”. And that opens up a whole bunch of uncomfortable possibilities.
• Minimization and negative attention – These are the times when we can’t stop worrying because we shortchange everything that’s going in our favor while focusing on all that could go wrong. Like, ”yeah, that’s all fine… but, what if this happens”

Why knowing your focus of worry is important is because it helps us see which technique would work best when… to stop worrying and start living, start taking action.

Like, if we are thinking in an overgeneralized pattern, then chunking down and cognitive restructuring can help…. getting down to specifics and then changing to a more productive way of looking at things.

2. How to stop worrying? Break the worry loop

For the worrying thoughts that have a more external focus, like “what if this doesn’t work” or “they must be thinking this about me”, stop and ask these 2 questions –

1. “Is it the most likely or is it the worst thing that could happen?” – When we worry, we overestimate the probability of something happening and this is what puts us in the stress mode. This question helps us snap out of that mode and look at it from a more realistic point of view…. whether it is justified worry with very likely risks or are we simply overthinking things. Getting clear about what’s truly likely to happen can help us make better decisions, stop worrying and start living.
2. “Is it really that bad?” – When we are worrying about something, we assume the worst, and the worst seems very likely to happen. And that’s enough to put us in the survival mode. That’s why we can’t sometimes just switch those thoughts off in our head. Here, we are looking for evidence to support how real we think any risk is.

Now, the question is, what do we do about the things that we now know are quite likely to happen… how to stop worrying about them?

3. Don’t make it harder

The key is to stop making things more difficult than they need to be. We worry to avoid uncertainty. But, the things out of our control will happen regardless if we worry about them or not. No need to make things more difficult than they already are because then performance anxiety sets in and it becomes tough to stop worrying and start living… start taking action.

To know what to do instead… and a helpful tool to bring all this to more solid grounds than just thoughts in your head, watch the video up top. 

I hope you found this helpful.

The post How To Stop Worrying And Start Living: 3 Keys To Worry Productively appeared first on Nandyz Soulshine.

What decides whether the time and energy you put into building your habit is going to be worth it or not? The answer is, choosing the right habit and the best approach suited to you…the one that fits you perfectly.

The right habit

And choosing the right habit means choosing one that adds a definite value to your life and also that you believe in the importance of that value to you. Because when you buy into the why of anything, believe something is going to change your life for the better, make it easier, we have got ourselves an inbuilt source of motivation.

So, before building your habit, make sure you know clearly what it’s going to do for you, or better still, what will your life look like if you don’t build this habit. It helps us know our conviction level for that habit, show how truly involved are we with that choice.

The best approach

The best approach means choosing a style that works for you.

Let’s for example, take the most trending success habit – reading daily. Now, we all have different learning styles. Broadly speaking, there are 4 learning styles – visual, auditory, reading/writing, or kinesthetic. And you might prefer a different combination of these while I might learn better with a different combination.

Like, I learn better reading about things, but am able to retain the information better if it has been presented visually through pictures and diagrams. So, I would be better able to stick to the habit of reading a book per week rather than finishing an audiobook per week because that learning style doesn’t suit me.

Managing motivation when building your habit

Now, because building your habit requires consistency, to get over the problem of fluctuating motivation, use the habit stacking plus temptation building formula from the book Atomic Habits written by James Clear. I’ve found that it works really well because it gets you doing the things you need to by leveraging the things that you want to do.

20 Best Habits to choose from when Building Your Habit

Now, about 40% of what we do every day are habits like brushing teeth, or drinking that same type of coffee every morning. And so whether we realize it or not, they set the tone of our life…reflect our approach to life.

10 Best Thinking habits

Now, doing certain things make us feel excited instantly and other things can make us take a step back or find ways to get out of it. That’s because we automatically think of them as being good or bad. Thinking habits are about keeping those automatic thoughts that help us and changing the ones which aren’t helping us in a good way. It’s like spring cleaning in a sense.

1. Habit of prioritizing

Getting into the habit of working on things according to their priority for us is one of the key ways to manage time effectively. The idea is to lean into a more decluttered and organized approach in whatever we do. Being efficient and productive, achieving our goals can be as simple as getting done whatever’s on our daily to-do list, given that that list is based on the solid foundation of insight, effective planning, and the right approach.

2. Habit of auditing who’s in your life

We tend to reflect certain qualities of the people we spend most of our time with. This is in a large part because of what’s called the Asch Paradigm – a study showing how individuals respond to group-think, and how much we conform because of social pressure. We gain from the collective knowledge and get inspired by the tenacity of others. But the opposite also holds true. According to a study done by the Biological and Clinical Psychology at Friedrich Schiller University, our brain reacts with a strong stress response when it has to deal with toxic behavior from people.

3. Maintaining healthy boundaries

One of the most effective success habits is respecting boundaries – knowing clearly what you are and aren’t ready to accept, and using that as a yardstick to make your commitments. And knowing clearly if and how much you are willing to stretch those boundaries is super important if you want to keep working on the things we believe in and not stress out over the things that don’t add value to our life.

4. Staying curious

Steve Jobs once took a calligraphy course in college just because it was something he didn’t know much about and was curious about it. But years later it sprouted the idea of stylized fonts on computer – the ones that we take granted for on our phones, tabs, and any kind of laptop or desktop.

Staying open to know about a variety of topics widens the library of information, which our conscious or subconscious mind can draw from when coming up with creative solutions to problems. Because coming up with creative ideas is essentially about connecting existing information in unusual ways. When building your habit to stay curious, the idea is to make it a natural part of our personality.

Watch the video up top for the other 6 thinking habits. The sixth one is a really powerful habit that uplevels how we approach life.

10 Best doing habits

Making intentional choices with our time, how we spend our mental energy, attention, focus is very important because it decides which direction our life takes. That’s why building your habit aligned with what you want from life, your values, is important.

11. Habit of working smart

Working hard is a very good quality, no doubts about that. But it’s better to start working smart when we want to stay consistent, motivated to push through to the end. Working smart is the habit of finding what ties in with our priorities or what’s important for us, and what we can find shortcuts for without affecting the outcome much – shortcuts that are time and energy savers.

An effective way to get into the working smart habit is to use Stephen Covey’s four quadrant matrix for time management.

12. Habit of making better decisions

The trick is to have a technique in place that helps us make the best decisions we can make. Like, legendary investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett who makes it a point to know everything about the company – it’s management, it’s future plans, the public sentiment about it, and much much more before he decides to buy its shares. And he is called the Oracle of Omaha because he rarely ever misses the mark.

One great technique to use this idea in our life is to adapt the Six Hats technique.

13. Habit of staying organized

Whether it’s a clutter-free work area, living area, or an efficiently managed to-do list, the habit of staying organized goes a long way in managing our time efficiently because it minimizes distraction. In fact, it’s a very good idea to set some time aside in your morning routine or night-time wind down routine to plan and organize your task for the day.

14. Monotasking

According to American Psychological Association, multitasking makes us less efficient because it fills our mind with too much activity. And the more complex these tasks are, the longer it takes our brain to shift gears. So, to declutter your mind, replace the habit of multitasking with the habit of focusing on and finishing one task before moving on to the next. This also helps us focus better because of what’s known as the Zeigarnik Effect.

Watch the video up top for the other 6 doing habits. The tenth one is a habit that’s essential to create and enjoy the kind of life we want.

The hardest part about change, whether it’s changing how you do something, building your habit, or changing where you live, who you talk to….the hardest part about change is the discomfort of not making the same automatic choices  that you did before. But if we don’t change what we do, we will never be able to change the results that we get.

The post Everything About Building Your Habit – 20 Best Habits to Build appeared first on Nandyz Soulshine.

Our expectation of the outcome decides whether something feels exciting or stressful. Feeling good about how things might turn out? Exciting. Have a sneaky feeling might not like the result? Stressful. And part of the answer to how to reduce stress hides within that fact.

ABC Method to Reduce Stress

The ABC method is a common-sensical approach to stress based on scientific findings and understanding that I have found to be effective. It’s about treating stress as we do any other problem in our life – contain, correct, improve.

1. Action or adding movement

Usually, we don’t have to do anything physically active to solve the tensions, the little stressors in our daily life. Like, finishing up assignments with a tight deadline, or dealing with what someone said about you, or behaved with you.

Now, stress triggers adrenaline and cortisol production in our body. And even though we might feel relieved after handling the stressors, these chemical build-ups stay put in our body until we spend them physically.

That’s one of the main reasons why exercising makes us feel more relaxed. And it doesn’t even have to be anything demanding, another thing adding to our stress. Just something that adds more movement to our day. Even going for a short 10-minute walk may be as helpful as a 45-minute workout in this context.

Anything that works for us. May be taking the stairs whenever we can, or carrying things one by one instead of picking everything up at once to make more trips around the house.

2. Balance

The next thing to do is putting things back into order, creating balance – balance between spending and recharging our energy.

When we know the things that are most important for us – the things that truly matter, that will still matter 6 months from now, that will help us move in the direction we want to go – we can choose more confidently which things we want to fit in the limited time and energy we have and still have peace of mind that we are doing good, staying on top of things.

So, the 2 things that help create and maintain balance to reduce stress in life are to

• get clear about what’s really important to us, get clear on our priorities, know what truly matters, and
• get realistic about how much we can really handle in a day.

Managing our time, our energy better means filling up our day to the right level with the right things leaving enough space to relax, recharge, and get back to things more effectively.

3. Clarity to reduce stress

The C in the ABC method is for clarity because lack of clarity…when we aren’t clear about how to get so much done or how to handle a certain situation… it adds more stress.

The video up top goes deeper into this and shows a simple way to not only reduce stress but feel more in control of the things happening in your life.

Hope you found this useful.

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The post How To Reduce Stress Using Science-Based Techniques appeared first on Nandyz Soulshine.

These are the 3 things at the core of almost every strategy or technique for managing your time more efficiently. The first involves managing the already committed things or things we just need to do. The second one is about influencing, slowly changing the kind and amount of tasks on our plate. And the third one is about getting the better of things that can derail all our painstakingly created time management plans.

Because managing your time more effectively is less about how much we can fit into our time and more about how satisfied we are with the way we spend our time because completing even a couple of important tasks with time to relax can feel way more productive, far more satisfying than a super busy day filled with a hotchpotch of things.

1. Making time for must-dos

Okay, so the first one is stacking and blocking. And there’s 2 parts to this. 

A) Stacking tasks for managing your time better

First is task stacking where we simply create different buckets of tasks that require similar kind of action. Like the tasks that require you to think creatively, or plan, or move physically, or collaborate or communicate with other people. This saves a lot of time and energy for our brain because it doesn’t have to keep switching from one type of approach to another.

B) Blocking

Things usually tend to take up more time than we think. And that’s where the 2^nd part of stacking and blocking comes in… the time blocking part. Assigning a certain amount of time to complete each task. Now, the idea behind this is something called the Parkinson’s Law, which says that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.

Essentially, if we set aside say 2 hours for something that could be done in 1 hour, the work will expand to use up those 2 hours…we may try to make it more perfect, go deeper into it, or slack our pace or things like that.

So, blocking out time realistically for every task and stacking similar tasks together helps get more done, managing your time better. But there are also bad days or lazy days where everything takes more time….your energy levels are also an important part of managing your time more effectively.  

2. Using available time efficiently

Managing your time also means managing your energy because no matter how precisely we plan everything in our day, if we don’t have the energy to match that…it simply becomes a beautifully drawn plan. When there’s too much to do in a day, we start feeling tired and unable to concentrate.

A) Manage your energy for managing your time better

Know which times of the day you do your best work. For me, it’s after midnight till around 3 to 4 in the morning. I know that’s not really healthy and I am working on changing that, but still when in a fix, I know I can cover a lot in that time. So, find out which time of the day works best for you and plan your work accordingly.

But for this to work effectively, we need to have a good idea about our priorities because using up that most productive time, in doing things that don’t really matter is simply wasting it.

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

– Peter Drucker

B) Know your priorities

Knowing our priorities makes sure that even on a bad day or a lazy day, if we can manage to do even one or two things from our list, it will make the day feel productive and keep us moving forward in the right direction.

And the most powerful thing about being aware of our priorities and our level of energy is that we can start choosing confidently…be more confident about the things we say No to and those that we take up. That’s the way to fill up our day only with those things that we know are important to us, that really matter to us, and which we can realistically do…that’s managing your time effectively.

3. Key to a successful time management plan

Distractions and lack of motivation are the two biggest culprits that can throw any time management plan out of whack. Every distraction has an antidote and we need to know ours before we begin working on something.

Managing your time more effectively means being responsible for your own motivation, because a plan doesn’t mean much if we don’t take action on that. And to start taking action…take control of our motivation,  we can do 2 things.

Watch the video up top to see which techniques help us keep showing up or take that first step when not feeling like doing anything,

But, there’s way more to it, like putting motivation on autopilot so that managing your time becomes way easier…no procrastination, more productivity, goals reached, time to relax and enjoy life. So, watch this video next to get the complete lowdown on getting and staying motivated.

The post 3 Keys To Managing Your Time More Effectively appeared first on Nandyz Soulshine.

Goals set a direction to our actions and decisions. They make sure we don’t miss out on life chasing things that don’t truly hold much meaning in our life. And since achieving a goal, no matter how big or small, means we are that much closer to creating the life we want, we’ll be exploring some of the most effective ways to achieve your goals – ways suggested by experts and proven by science.

Effective ways to achieve your goals

1. Goals – set them right

The first one is to get the goals right… because if we set the direction wrong, we are very likely to end up in the wrong place.

Now, according to neuropsychologist Dr. Theo Tsaousides who wrote the book Brainblocks, we set either promotion goals or prevention goals.

Now, promotion goals are better because they have a specific end, we want something we don’t have yet… and so it leads to action.

Like, if we set the goal ‘get better sleep’, it would mean taking action to ensure better sleep hygiene and other lifestyle changes so that we wake up feeling rested.

Setting a SMART goal with specifics would be better, but this is also good.

But, if we set prevention goals, like ‘avoid taking up any more assignments’….there’s no clear action  or a clear point of completion. And because it’s kind of ongoing, it becomes tricky to achieve such a goal.

How we word our goals makes a lot of difference because it makes the thing feel clear-cut & doable or something vague without a clear end-point.

And our motivation to keep showing up, see the thing through to the end, depends a lot on this.

2. You – uplevel the way you think

Now, one of the key ways to achieve your goals would be to keep going even through setbacks and failures. Because like Machine Intelligence Research Institute co-founder Eliezer Yudkowsky said,

“If you never fail, you’re only trying things that are too easy and playing far below your level… If you can’t remember any time in the last six months when you failed, you aren’t trying to do difficult enough things.”

If we are trying to aim for something worth having, mistakes and failures will be a natural part of the process… because, if we are already good at it, the goal isn’t really a goal… it’s simply showcasing our skill or knowledge. And as Dr. Carol Dweck has so powerfully shown through her book Mindset, being able to see failures, mistakes, and shortcomings as pointers for where there’s opportunity for us to put in work and grow… is the kind of approach that makes sure we achieve our goals.

What makes sure that hurdles and failures do not stop us from reaching the end is the habit of taking responsibility of our results and of keeping our focus on finding solutions.

And we need to stay mindful of our habits because

1. they reflect our approach to life, and
2. they put our actions on autopilot making us less dependent on motivation to keep showing up.

Related

How to change your habits the way you want and make them last

3. Stay motivated and overcome procrastination

One of the main reasons some goals get left behind is either because

• other more urgent things crop up and it kept getting put on the backburner until we totally forgot about it. Or,
• because progress was too slow and we lost interest along the way.

Stay motivated –

An easy way to fix this, one of the simpler ways to achieve your goals, is creating milestones or mini goals along the way….break the goals down into smaller simpler chunks so that you can see the result of your actions faster, get the feeling of achievement, and so stay motivated to take more action.

Dopamine, one of the main neurochemicals responsible for feeling motivated is released when our brain realizes that something important is going to happen.

When we achieve one small goal, it feels good and we get charged up to keep taking more action….and so we reach the next goal and the next. It becomes a kind of chain reaction until we reach the end.

Overcome procrastination –

Breaking the goal up into smaller ones also helps us overcome procrastination because instead of trying to climb the infinity staircase in one jump, we are more focused on climbing the first few steps to the first landing… that feels easy and we start taking action. And to stop other urgent things from taking over our time and energy, we need to schedule time in our day for working on our goals.

Now, if we plan it right and are convinced of the value of that goal, however directly or indirectly, in our life…. the dopamine process takes over and step by step we achieve our goal.

Even short-haul goals work better with a plan because winging it, puzzling out what to do every day uses up a lot of energy, which our brain doesn’t like and we are sooner or later going to start coming up with reasons why it’s a good idea to quit working on that goal.

4. Handling things out of your control

Watch the video up top to know how to do this effectively and more.

The post 4 Proven Ways To Achieve Your Goals appeared first on Nandyz Soulshine.