#digital detox rest and recovery breaks

[kirbyfarrell]

Balancing Act: Self-Care Strategies for Busy Professionals in Wellington, FL

In the bustling environment of Wellington, FL, where professional demands can overshadow personal well-being, establishing a daily self-care routine is essential. For busy professionals, finding time to unwind and care for oneself can seem like a luxury, but it's a fundamental aspect of maintaining productivity and overall health. This article offers practical tips for integrating effective self-care habits into the daily lives of those always on the go.

Morning Mindfulness and Movement

Starting the day with mindfulness and physical activity can significantly impact stress levels and mental clarity. Even ten minutes of meditation or gentle yoga can help center your thoughts and prepare you for the day ahead. Apps like Headspace or simple breathing exercises can fit into any morning routine, providing a quick and accessible way to achieve calm before the day's challenges.

For those who can spare more time, a morning jog or brisk walk around the neighborhood can invigorate the body and boost endorphins. Wellington's scenic paths and parks offer the perfect backdrop for these activities, allowing you to connect with nature and clear your mind before heading to the office.

Nutritional Balance for Energy

Eating well is a cornerstone of self-care, yet many professionals skip meals or opt for fast food due to time constraints. Preparing a nutritious breakfast, even something as simple as a smoothie or overnight oats can provide sustained energy throughout the morning. Investing in a good blender and prepping ingredients the night before can make this a quick and easy process.

Lunch is another critical meal that often gets overlooked during a busy workday. Packing lunch with a balance of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates can prevent mid-afternoon slumps and help maintain focus. Salads, wraps, and grain bowls are excellent for meal prep and can be varied to prevent boredom.

Strategic Breaks to Boost Productivity

Taking scheduled breaks throughout the day is vital for high productivity and mental sharpness. The Pomodoro Technique, which involves working for 25 minutes followed by a 5-minute break, is an effective way to structure time and ensure regular rest periods. During these breaks, stepping away from the desk, stretching, or walking quickly can help reduce physical strain and mental fatigue.

Additionally, leveraging lunch breaks for relaxation rather than work can drastically improve afternoon performance. Whether it's reading a book, walking in a nearby park, or simply sitting quietly without screen time, disengaging from work tasks during lunch aids mental recovery and stress reduction.

Digital Detoxing in the Evening

In today's connected world, it's easy to let work hours bleed into personal time, especially with smartphones constantly alerting us to new emails and messages. Setting boundaries with digital devices is crucial for evening relaxation. Designating specific times in the evening to turn off work notifications or putting the phone in another room can help transition from work mode to personal time.

Engaging in activities that do not involve screens, such as reading a book, practicing a hobby, or spending quality time with family, promotes better sleep and a greater sense of well-being. This helps you unwind effectively and ensures that you do not carry the stress of work to bed.

Prioritizing Sleep for Optimal Health

Sleep is the most underrated yet crucial element of a successful self-care routine. Establishing a consistent bedtime routine that includes winding down without screens, perhaps with some light reading or meditation, can significantly improve sleep quality. Keeping the bedroom environment conducive to sleep, such as using blackout curtains, maintaining a cool temperature, and using comfortable bedding, can also make a big difference.

For those struggling with sleep, progressive muscle relaxation or aids like white noise machines can be beneficial. Prioritizing sleep is about quantity and quality, as good sleep directly impacts cognitive function and overall health.

Incorporating these self-care practices into daily routines improves personal well-being but doesn't enhance professional performance. For busy professionals in Wellington, FL, self-care is not just a daily routine but a lifestyle choice that leads to better health, happiness, and productivity. By taking these small but significant steps, individuals can ensure they are surviving and thriving in their personal and professional lives.

[mygalf-wellness]

Comprehensive Guide for Corporate Employees | MyGALF

In the fast-paced world of corporate life, prioritizing physical and mental wellness is paramount. To help corporate employees thrive in 2024, we've curated a list of healthy habits that can accelerate their well-being. Plus, discover how MyGALF can tailor custom corporate wellness plans to support companies in fostering a healthier workplace, including a variety of exercises such as running, cycling, Zumba, swimming, and more.

1. Morning Rituals for Mindfulness

Establish a morning routine that includes mindfulness practices like meditation or deep breathing exercises. This sets a positive tone for the day and enhances mental clarity.

2. Active Commuting

Opt for active commuting options such as walking or cycling to work. Physical activity in the morning kick-starts your metabolism and boosts energy levels.

3. Desk Ergonomics

Ensure your workspace is ergonomically sound. Proper desk setup and regular breaks contribute to better posture and prevent long-term musculoskeletal issues.

4. Hydration Habits

Stay hydrated throughout the day. Adequate water intake supports cognitive function and overall well-being. Keep a reusable water bottle at your desk as a constant reminder.

5. Nutritious Snacking

Replace sugary snacks with healthier alternatives. Nutritious snacks like nuts, fruits, and yogurt can provide sustained energy without the crash.

6. Digital Detox

Schedule short breaks to disconnect from screens. Use this time to stretch, take a short walk, or engage in quick relaxation exercises to alleviate eye strain and mental fatigue.

7. Regular Exercise Routine

Incorporate a diverse range of exercises into your weekly schedule. Explore activities like running, cycling, Zumba, swimming, or others you enjoy for a full-body workout and to keep your fitness routine exciting.

8. Mindful Eating

Practice mindful eating by savoring your meals without distractions. This fosters a healthier relationship with food and helps prevent overeating.

9. Social Connections

Nurture social connections with colleagues. Building positive relationships at work can enhance job satisfaction and contribute to a supportive work environment.

10. Sleep Hygiene

Prioritize quality sleep by maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and creating a conducive sleep environment. Quality rest is essential for both physical and mental recovery.

MyGALF Corporate Wellness Plans

At MyGALF, we understand the significance of employee well-being. That's why we offer customized corporate wellness plans designed to meet the unique needs of your company. Our comprehensive programs encompass fitness, mental health support, and nutritional guidance, ensuring your workforce is not only productive but also thriving in a holistic sense.

Elevate your corporate culture with MyGALF's tailored wellness solutions. Visit MyGALF Corporate Wellness to explore how we can partner with your company for a healthier, happier workplace in 2024.

[lifeofkaze]

September List

Exactly one year ago, I wrote the first of my monthly motivation lists, hoping to get a bit of a system into my steadily growing WIP list and up my productivity. Now, twelve lists later, I can happily report that I have not only finished one major project with When Stars Ignite but can actually see the finish line of the second, equally as big project, A Search for Balance. I have also pretty much mapped out most of the rest of the big ones yet to come, several mini-series planned and more than doubled the amount of shorts, challenges and other projects on my masterlist in the last twelve months. Looks like the lists are working, right? Maybe, they are actually working a little bit too well. I have felt increasingly tired lately, the creative part of my brain is harder and harder to activate but never quiet enough for me to actually rest. This September will bring many personal changes for me - after two years of being a stay-at-home-mum, my kid transitions into daycare this month, and after he's settled in, I will return to work, something I'm incredibly looking forward to. But participating more in the 'real' life also means that the time I have to spend on here will be reduced, or at least, its pattern will change, which - for this month of transition and creative recovery, in any case - will be reflected in this month's to-do list. Take care, everyone 💛

This month I need to:

This month I *need* to do nothing at all. Whatever I will do on the creative front I will do because it inspires me, and if it doesn't, well, I just won't do it. I might drum out 100k words or none at all. Both of them are legit, and both of them are fine.

The only thing I need to do is try and be more mindful of my time instead of brainless scrolling through TikTok, Tumblr and the likes. I will still be around, but I also want to try and detox my digital habits a little until they reach a healthier level.

WIP Progress: A Search for Balance

Estimated Goal: No estimated goal this month Reached Goal: 40/52 (+1)

This month I want to:

❌ Read a book ❌ Write a story from the Vault ❌ Script a story from the Vault ❌ Profile updates ❌ Timelines ❌ HPMA series Y1 ❌ Legacy series Y1 ❌ Map out Caro's series ❌ Caitlin's profile ❌ Dana's run-up stories to my Christmas series (0/2)

Publishing Schedule:

I'm adding this little section to my list to let you know that while the "Back to School"-Challenge by @cursebreakerfarrier runs for the first week of the month (which I will not be participating in), A Search for Balance goes on a one week break. Regular publishing schedule will continue on September 9th with bi-weekly posts until the Pre-Season finishes with C12 on September 30th.

I will take another publishing break during the whole month of October to edit and brush up on the second section of the story.

To not disappear from your feeds entirely (sorry if I got your hopes up there for a sec, haha), I will be posting the first two chapters of my Rockstar AU mini-series Before the Spark in this publishing break, the masterlist of which will go live on October 3rd, which I headcanon as Orion's birthday.

Until then, my lovely friends 💛

[marco42james]

5 Awesome Things for Teachers to Do This Summer

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Summer is an important time for educators. While some people debate what educators should or shouldn’t do over the summer, ultimately it is YOUR summer and YOUR plans. Here are five things to consider as you plan your summer.

Now, there are so many different ways you can spend your summer. If you’re not intentional about it, summer will just be gone in a flash just like everything else.

Check out Jennifer Gonzalez’s 2019 Teacher’s Guide to Technology. It is a great teacher PD tool which includes videos and resources to help you learn new techniques and technologies for your classroom.

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#1: Rest Up

First of all, I think one of the most important things that we can do is to rest up. Did you know that lack of sleep can reduce your pain tolerance and causes to perceive events as more stressful than we would otherwise?

Now, there are not a lot of studies on how often teachers sleep because I’ve looked. A 2008 Ball State University study found that 43% of teachers said they slept an average of 6 hours or less per night. About a fourth said their teaching skills were significantly diminished due to lack of sleep.

You may not know this, but scientists say sleep deprivation will kill you faster than food deprivation. If we sleep badly, we often crave a high-carbohydrate diet which can make us overweight.

Most of us teachers start the summer with what researchers call a “sleep debt”. A sleep debt is the difference between the amount of sleep you should be getting and the amount you actually get.

Generally, experts recommend around eight hours of sleep per night, but you can’t just have a marathon and sleep for three or four straight days, although that does sound nice, it’s just not possible for most of us.

So if you’re chronically sleep-deprived, what experts say is that you just need an extra hour or two a night.

In a quote from Scientific American from their article, “Can you catch up on lost sleep?”

“Go to bed when you are tired, and allow your body to wake you in the morning (no alarm clock allowed). You may find yourself catatonic in the beginning of the recovery cycle: Expect to bank upward of ten hours shut-eye per night. As the days pass, however, the amount of time sleeping will gradually decrease.”

Now I know some of you will want to stay up late, but listen to your body clock and determine your individual sleeping pattern.

For example, every morning at 5:30, I am going to be awake. There’s just nothing I can do about it, but I have found that I can catch a quick nap sometimes at 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon, so I try to do that as much as possible and not have guilt, even though that’s very hard for a farmer’s daughter like me who really had the importance of work ethics stressed.

This is your only time, teachers, to get caught up, and you really need to do that so that you’ll feel less stressed in the fall.

#2 Disconnect

Secondly, we need to disconnect and hang it up. You know, a Louisiana second-grader’s homework recently went viral. The girl said,

“I don’t like the phone because my parents are on the phone every day. I hate my mom’s phone and wish she never had one.”

Social media addiction can also be associated with anxiety, depression, loneliness, and ADHD.

Our summertime is an excellent time to break that social media addiction if you think you might have one.

Give Yourself a Digital Detox

Honestly, I think all of us can do with a digital detox for a week or two. Now, I know that sounds like a long time to be off Facebook, but you can start in small ways.

First of all, refuse to let phones sit down with you at the table. Enjoy your food in the company of the people there.

When my pastor goes on vacation, he has a smartphone basket, and when everybody enters the door to go on vacation, they put their phones into the basket, and then when they leave from vacation, they pick them up. I think that is a fantastic way to do it.

The Awesome (and Often Ignored Feature) of EVERY Smartphone

I also want to introduce you to a fancy awesome feature of your smartphone – yes, you have an off button. Take that button, push it, turn it off, and leave it off for a period of time.

Honestly, that peace of mind that you get from a period of time of disconnection is awesome.

Truthfully, when we go on vacation and I totally go offline, it takes me 2 or 3 days to stop wondering what’s happening on Facebook, stop wondering what’s happening on Twitter, and truthfully just focus on the people right in front of me, but I feel so good and recentered and remembering what is important when I have that digital detox or just go off the grid and get offline.

I think all of us really, really need to do it, even when we’re just at home, take the phone away from yourself. Sometimes, if I can’t trust myself to take the phone away from myself, I will get my husband Kip to take the phone away from me, and I’ll say, “Here, Kip, take it, don’t give it back to me for a period of time.”

#3 Laugh It Up

Now, the next thing, #3, is to laugh it up.

Laughter decreases stress hormones, increases oxygen in your blood, strengthens your immune system, releases endorphins, and so much more.

How can we laugh more?

Make funny friends. First of all, make a decision that you are going to spend more time laughing. One way is to have crazy friends who make you laugh. I love awesome people who make me laugh.

When I go to a conference, I like to hang with people like Jerry Blumengarten – I mean, the guy wears a cape.

One summer, I went with my son and husband and then Kevin Honeycutt and Angela Maiers– two of the funniest people I know – to the Blue Man Group concert in Orlando. It was just something we planned and said,

“Hey, you know, we’re all going to be in the same place at the same time, let’s do it.”

I still laugh thinking about that night.

Play with your pets. Now, if you don’t have a funny friend, we all have funny little friends – we have children, we have dogs, we have pets. Honestly, I love my cats, but my cats are not funny unless they’re a kitten, and then they’re just kind of annoying.

So dogs are funny, there are just so many things that are funny. Do find funny beings to hang out with.

Honestly, decide to be the kind of person who sees things as funny and laughs at yourself.

I think that’s the easiest way to laugh more.

Go with old standbys. If I’m really looking for a laugh, I’ll just look up old Tim Conway shticks on YouTube, and I am going to laugh hilariously – especially there is one where he is on a budget airline, and it cracks me up and I can’t stop laughing. I love seeing that one, or when Tim Conway numbs his leg at the dentist. (Note from Vicki: RIP Tim Conway – 2019) Those are two instant laughs, or, you know, just Young Frankenstein or something like that – although, honestly, I find more fun in laughing at people that I know than I do people on TV shows.

#4 Schedule Checkups

So #4 is not so much fun as the last one: it is having a checkup.

Now those of us who have been putting off our eye exams or all that preventative healthcare now is the time to do it.

I have read that only half of checkups have preventative healthcare. If you just get a regular old checkup, it doesn’t really do much good.

It’s when you do the preventative healthcare that it really makes a difference. So do go ahead, and if you’re behind on that, get that off your mind, because here’s the thing that happens: if we’re overdue for our checkup, we will remind ourselves a thousand times during the next school year, and every time we do, we feel guilty and it’s a downer. Don’t do that.

Go ahead and get the checkup and be done with it. Then schedule a reward for yourself afterward, like a night at the movies, or do something with a friend.

#5 Level Up

The fifth one is, after you’ve rested up, after you’ve laughed it up, and checked it up, and you’ve hung it up and had your digital detox, do take a little time to level it up.

Now, I choose to stay out of the drama, there was a drama dust-up recently on Twitter where people were talking about what’s a good teacher and what they should be doing in the summer.

Honestly, I’ve got enough drama in my real life than to worry about drama in online life. I mean, be kind, be respectful, I think teachers are just tired and some are just fussy and they choose to fuss about things that are truly not that important and really lower the nobility of our profession.

I just prefer to try to level up and say, “Okay, how can I improve my thinking?” Now, I always keep something I call the Big Three: what are the three things that I want to improve next?

Performance art and room design, these are two big things that I’m looking at.

So right now, I’ve tweeted it out, I’ve asked on Facebook, and I’ll ask be asking in my newsletter:

If you have an awesome computer lab you’d like to show off, would you please tweet me a picture, especially if you have a Mac lab or if you have digital film with a Chroma key, I’ve tried to decide, you know, “Should I have a Chromakey curtain? Should I have a Chromakey stand? What should I ask for as we plan the next several years in the new computer lab where I’m going to be working at my new school?”

I also am fascinated by some of the ideas we’ve had this year: the episodes with Wade and Hope King about their performance art.

Anyway, so that’s one thing I’m looking at, but remember this:

Innovate like a turtle. You want to have slow, steady progress forward.

I’ve still got to do work on 3D printing, honestly, I struggle with that 3D printer although it’s awesome.

I’ve got to study up on that some. I need to level up again in my digital filmmaking – in particular, how I teach three-point lighting, I want to improve that and how I teach the capture of sound.

That’s another thing that I need to improve and level up on this summer.

So what are your Big Three? List those and kind of take some time to investigate and do that.

I also want to learn more about how to help others improve and use technology in their own classroom — especially really, really busy, stressed-out teachers, because I think that’s pretty much all of us.

I’ve given you five ways to take yourself up

So I’ve given you five ways to take yourself up so that you’ll be up when you start school in the fall. Remember, this time will just zip by if you’re not intentional.

Think about what you want to do.

Do read some of those books you love.

Do get some of those things done.

Do get that closet cleaned out and some of those things that you want to do.

But remember: you’ve got to be a human being sometimes and not just a human doing.

We teachers, we work so hard – it’s so easy to just be human doings and not human beings. So I hope you have some time this summer, remarkable educators, to be a human being and so you can be a more remarkable you this fall.

You are awesome, thank you so much for listening, and I appreciate all of you remarkable educators out there who give me lots of encouragement when I wonder, “What on earth am I doing, teaching all day and going home and recording a podcast at night?”

Thanks for your encouragement. Get out there and be remarkable, and will you have a remarkable summer? I hope you do!

Disclosure of Material Connection: This episode includes some affiliate links. This means that if you choose to buy I will be paid a commission on the affiliate program. However, this is at no additional cost to you.  Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post 5 Awesome Things for Teachers to Do This Summer appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog https://www.coolcatteacher.com/5-awesome-things-for-teachers-to-do-this-summer/

[riichardwilson]

5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Rebound After a Crisis

May 15, 2020 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The current pandemic is dramatically impacting American small businesses and entrepreneurs. According to a recent report, almost 7.5 million of America’s approximately 30 million small businesses may be forced to close permanently over the next several months. However, many believe that, like other “black swan” events, the COVID-19 pandemic will fuel the next wave of innovation and more resilient and world-changing startups than ever before.

Yet, with more than 22 million Americans filing for unemployment — a decade-long setback in job creation — and some Americans fleeing major cities, many new and established entrepreneurs are too terrified to even think about starting new companies. As much as those of us who have been through the wringer want to shout from the rooftops, “Hey, now is a perfect time to start a company!” we understand that people are just not ready to hear that message. 

Related: How One Franchise Company President Makes Better, Faster Decisions During Uncertain Times

We do know, however, that in order to truly revive the economy, we’ll have to do it through entrepreneurship. But we’re still potentially nine to twelve months away from that reality. Even businesses that are managing to weather this storm aren’t thinking about growth right now; they’re thinking about survival.  

Still, there are entrepreneurial steps you can take right now to put yourself in the best position possible for when the economy does come out of lockdown. 

1. Pay attention. 

COVID-19 has shifted many consumer behaviors and business models in the short term, but we’re also starting to get an idea of the long-term economic changes COVID-19 will leave in its wake. Many of these long-term changes will come in the form of digital disruption. Not only do recessions accelerate cost-saving changes in business models, but they also necessitate completely new business models to best serve the ensuing “new normal.” 

2. Strengthen your core.

The wonderful thing about technology is that it allows us to do more with less. It also allows us to do more of what we’re good at while automating and/or outsourcing the rest. Since COVID-19 has proven the benefits of remote work, it will naturally accelerate our evolution toward a knowledge and skills-based economy. In this model, entrepreneurs can access more outside expertise more quickly than ever before, and even on-demand.

Related: 3 Fundamentals for Building a Resilient Supply Chain

Historically, entrepreneurs have been hindered by wearing too many hats. The old belief was that, in order to cut costs and conserve resources, startups should do everything in-house. For many, this in-house model correlated with the old school prioritization of in-office collaboration – the idea that, in order to maximize trust, value and efficiency, you need “butts in seats.” This belief persisted, even in the years leading up to COVID-19.

Yet many startups don’t need many (if any) butts in seats, and some companies might never get up off the ground without remote, distributed work teams. Post-pandemic, it won’t matter if you have all the necessary expertise on staff, as long as you have quick access to that expertise. And, as many businesses become more digitally complex, they’ll need to rely more on remote talent from around the world.

This way of the future will free more creative visionaries to found world-changing businesses without necessarily having or even staffing niche technical expertise. Utilizing new platforms that provide quick, on-demand access to talent around the world, founders can focus on the core day-to-day functions that keep their business running. 

3. Adopt a millennial mindset.

In 2018, millennials already represented the largest generation in the U.S. workforce. Conditioned to work with digital tools like Zoom and Slack, “Generation Nice” also embraces more compassionate leadership. With up to 71% of millennials seeking a “second family” at work, entrepreneurs who lead with empathy stand the best chance of maximizing their teams’ potential.

This post-pandemic business world will prioritize human capital alongside advancing technology because millennials know that you cannot program creativity. Millennial leaders also recognize that, despite the Soylent-drinking Silicon Valley stereotype, millennials reject the old top-down mentality that professional success means working yourself to the bone while sacrificing your relationships with friends and family.      

4. Let work stem from life.

Many who have been furloughed or shifted to remote work are spending more time with their families. And though many of us have been conditioned to view our personal lives as separate or even detracting from our professional success, true entrepreneurs know that some of our best creative ideas stem from our essential, everyday experiences. 

Related: 8 Ways the Crisis Will Forever Change the Future Workforce

Any entrepreneur who’s taken a work break can attest to the way their mind and body literally detox. When you’re out of the game, you have the opportunity to clear your mind and begin to operate on a more empathetic and understanding level. Learning how to access this more relaxed and benevolent mindset is absolutely key to successful entrepreneurship because it optimizes your ability to creatively solve problems. 

5. Learn how to recover. 

If you’re always responding to challenges with anxiety or aggression, people will be much less likely to pitch creative ideas to you. They’ll be much less likely to pull you into spontaneous Zoom meetings to brainstorm if they don’t think you’re open to new, potentially disruptive ideas. Often, the only way to develop a more open and receptive leadership style is to pull yourself out of the fight and take time to relax and recover.  

Using downtime to establish effective recovery strategies can help you rebound stronger in your next professional pursuit. Whether through meditation, exercise, or both, taking the time to recover in the way that best clears your head and leaves you feeling the most refreshed will pay dividends now and in the future, when you’re back in the thick of work stress. 

Learning how to promote your own wellbeing will not only improve the health of your personal relationships – it will also deepen the connections you build with your colleagues. And when your core team feels respected and cared for, they’ll work extra hard to take care of your customers, and your profits will take care of themselves.

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source http://www.scpie.org/5-ways-entrepreneurs-can-rebound-after-a-crisis/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/618224358950928384

[laurelkrugerr]

5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Rebound After a Crisis

May 15, 2020 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The current pandemic is dramatically impacting American small businesses and entrepreneurs. According to a recent report, almost 7.5 million of America’s approximately 30 million small businesses may be forced to close permanently over the next several months. However, many believe that, like other “black swan” events, the COVID-19 pandemic will fuel the next wave of innovation and more resilient and world-changing startups than ever before.

Yet, with more than 22 million Americans filing for unemployment — a decade-long setback in job creation — and some Americans fleeing major cities, many new and established entrepreneurs are too terrified to even think about starting new companies. As much as those of us who have been through the wringer want to shout from the rooftops, “Hey, now is a perfect time to start a company!” we understand that people are just not ready to hear that message. 

Related: How One Franchise Company President Makes Better, Faster Decisions During Uncertain Times

We do know, however, that in order to truly revive the economy, we’ll have to do it through entrepreneurship. But we’re still potentially nine to twelve months away from that reality. Even businesses that are managing to weather this storm aren’t thinking about growth right now; they’re thinking about survival.  

Still, there are entrepreneurial steps you can take right now to put yourself in the best position possible for when the economy does come out of lockdown. 

1. Pay attention. 

COVID-19 has shifted many consumer behaviors and business models in the short term, but we’re also starting to get an idea of the long-term economic changes COVID-19 will leave in its wake. Many of these long-term changes will come in the form of digital disruption. Not only do recessions accelerate cost-saving changes in business models, but they also necessitate completely new business models to best serve the ensuing “new normal.” 

2. Strengthen your core.

The wonderful thing about technology is that it allows us to do more with less. It also allows us to do more of what we’re good at while automating and/or outsourcing the rest. Since COVID-19 has proven the benefits of remote work, it will naturally accelerate our evolution toward a knowledge and skills-based economy. In this model, entrepreneurs can access more outside expertise more quickly than ever before, and even on-demand.

Related: 3 Fundamentals for Building a Resilient Supply Chain

Historically, entrepreneurs have been hindered by wearing too many hats. The old belief was that, in order to cut costs and conserve resources, startups should do everything in-house. For many, this in-house model correlated with the old school prioritization of in-office collaboration – the idea that, in order to maximize trust, value and efficiency, you need “butts in seats.” This belief persisted, even in the years leading up to COVID-19.

Yet many startups don’t need many (if any) butts in seats, and some companies might never get up off the ground without remote, distributed work teams. Post-pandemic, it won’t matter if you have all the necessary expertise on staff, as long as you have quick access to that expertise. And, as many businesses become more digitally complex, they’ll need to rely more on remote talent from around the world.

This way of the future will free more creative visionaries to found world-changing businesses without necessarily having or even staffing niche technical expertise. Utilizing new platforms that provide quick, on-demand access to talent around the world, founders can focus on the core day-to-day functions that keep their business running. 

3. Adopt a millennial mindset.

In 2018, millennials already represented the largest generation in the U.S. workforce. Conditioned to work with digital tools like Zoom and Slack, “Generation Nice” also embraces more compassionate leadership. With up to 71% of millennials seeking a “second family” at work, entrepreneurs who lead with empathy stand the best chance of maximizing their teams’ potential.

This post-pandemic business world will prioritize human capital alongside advancing technology because millennials know that you cannot program creativity. Millennial leaders also recognize that, despite the Soylent-drinking Silicon Valley stereotype, millennials reject the old top-down mentality that professional success means working yourself to the bone while sacrificing your relationships with friends and family.      

4. Let work stem from life.

Many who have been furloughed or shifted to remote work are spending more time with their families. And though many of us have been conditioned to view our personal lives as separate or even detracting from our professional success, true entrepreneurs know that some of our best creative ideas stem from our essential, everyday experiences. 

Related: 8 Ways the Crisis Will Forever Change the Future Workforce

Any entrepreneur who’s taken a work break can attest to the way their mind and body literally detox. When you’re out of the game, you have the opportunity to clear your mind and begin to operate on a more empathetic and understanding level. Learning how to access this more relaxed and benevolent mindset is absolutely key to successful entrepreneurship because it optimizes your ability to creatively solve problems. 

5. Learn how to recover. 

If you’re always responding to challenges with anxiety or aggression, people will be much less likely to pitch creative ideas to you. They’ll be much less likely to pull you into spontaneous Zoom meetings to brainstorm if they don’t think you’re open to new, potentially disruptive ideas. Often, the only way to develop a more open and receptive leadership style is to pull yourself out of the fight and take time to relax and recover.  

Using downtime to establish effective recovery strategies can help you rebound stronger in your next professional pursuit. Whether through meditation, exercise, or both, taking the time to recover in the way that best clears your head and leaves you feeling the most refreshed will pay dividends now and in the future, when you’re back in the thick of work stress. 

Learning how to promote your own wellbeing will not only improve the health of your personal relationships – it will also deepen the connections you build with your colleagues. And when your core team feels respected and cared for, they’ll work extra hard to take care of your customers, and your profits will take care of themselves.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

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source http://www.scpie.org/5-ways-entrepreneurs-can-rebound-after-a-crisis/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/05/5-ways-entrepreneurs-can-rebound-after.html

[scpie]

5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Rebound After a Crisis

May 15, 2020 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The current pandemic is dramatically impacting American small businesses and entrepreneurs. According to a recent report, almost 7.5 million of America’s approximately 30 million small businesses may be forced to close permanently over the next several months. However, many believe that, like other “black swan” events, the COVID-19 pandemic will fuel the next wave of innovation and more resilient and world-changing startups than ever before.

Yet, with more than 22 million Americans filing for unemployment — a decade-long setback in job creation — and some Americans fleeing major cities, many new and established entrepreneurs are too terrified to even think about starting new companies. As much as those of us who have been through the wringer want to shout from the rooftops, “Hey, now is a perfect time to start a company!” we understand that people are just not ready to hear that message. 

Related: How One Franchise Company President Makes Better, Faster Decisions During Uncertain Times

We do know, however, that in order to truly revive the economy, we’ll have to do it through entrepreneurship. But we’re still potentially nine to twelve months away from that reality. Even businesses that are managing to weather this storm aren’t thinking about growth right now; they’re thinking about survival.  

Still, there are entrepreneurial steps you can take right now to put yourself in the best position possible for when the economy does come out of lockdown. 

1. Pay attention. 

COVID-19 has shifted many consumer behaviors and business models in the short term, but we’re also starting to get an idea of the long-term economic changes COVID-19 will leave in its wake. Many of these long-term changes will come in the form of digital disruption. Not only do recessions accelerate cost-saving changes in business models, but they also necessitate completely new business models to best serve the ensuing “new normal.” 

2. Strengthen your core.

The wonderful thing about technology is that it allows us to do more with less. It also allows us to do more of what we’re good at while automating and/or outsourcing the rest. Since COVID-19 has proven the benefits of remote work, it will naturally accelerate our evolution toward a knowledge and skills-based economy. In this model, entrepreneurs can access more outside expertise more quickly than ever before, and even on-demand.

Related: 3 Fundamentals for Building a Resilient Supply Chain

Historically, entrepreneurs have been hindered by wearing too many hats. The old belief was that, in order to cut costs and conserve resources, startups should do everything in-house. For many, this in-house model correlated with the old school prioritization of in-office collaboration – the idea that, in order to maximize trust, value and efficiency, you need “butts in seats.” This belief persisted, even in the years leading up to COVID-19.

Yet many startups don’t need many (if any) butts in seats, and some companies might never get up off the ground without remote, distributed work teams. Post-pandemic, it won’t matter if you have all the necessary expertise on staff, as long as you have quick access to that expertise. And, as many businesses become more digitally complex, they’ll need to rely more on remote talent from around the world.

This way of the future will free more creative visionaries to found world-changing businesses without necessarily having or even staffing niche technical expertise. Utilizing new platforms that provide quick, on-demand access to talent around the world, founders can focus on the core day-to-day functions that keep their business running. 

3. Adopt a millennial mindset.

In 2018, millennials already represented the largest generation in the U.S. workforce. Conditioned to work with digital tools like Zoom and Slack, “Generation Nice” also embraces more compassionate leadership. With up to 71% of millennials seeking a “second family” at work, entrepreneurs who lead with empathy stand the best chance of maximizing their teams’ potential.

This post-pandemic business world will prioritize human capital alongside advancing technology because millennials know that you cannot program creativity. Millennial leaders also recognize that, despite the Soylent-drinking Silicon Valley stereotype, millennials reject the old top-down mentality that professional success means working yourself to the bone while sacrificing your relationships with friends and family.      

4. Let work stem from life.

Many who have been furloughed or shifted to remote work are spending more time with their families. And though many of us have been conditioned to view our personal lives as separate or even detracting from our professional success, true entrepreneurs know that some of our best creative ideas stem from our essential, everyday experiences. 

Related: 8 Ways the Crisis Will Forever Change the Future Workforce

Any entrepreneur who’s taken a work break can attest to the way their mind and body literally detox. When you’re out of the game, you have the opportunity to clear your mind and begin to operate on a more empathetic and understanding level. Learning how to access this more relaxed and benevolent mindset is absolutely key to successful entrepreneurship because it optimizes your ability to creatively solve problems. 

5. Learn how to recover. 

If you’re always responding to challenges with anxiety or aggression, people will be much less likely to pitch creative ideas to you. They’ll be much less likely to pull you into spontaneous Zoom meetings to brainstorm if they don’t think you’re open to new, potentially disruptive ideas. Often, the only way to develop a more open and receptive leadership style is to pull yourself out of the fight and take time to relax and recover.  

Using downtime to establish effective recovery strategies can help you rebound stronger in your next professional pursuit. Whether through meditation, exercise, or both, taking the time to recover in the way that best clears your head and leaves you feeling the most refreshed will pay dividends now and in the future, when you’re back in the thick of work stress. 

Learning how to promote your own wellbeing will not only improve the health of your personal relationships – it will also deepen the connections you build with your colleagues. And when your core team feels respected and cared for, they’ll work extra hard to take care of your customers, and your profits will take care of themselves.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/5-ways-entrepreneurs-can-rebound-after-a-crisis/

[aira26soonas]

5 Awesome Things for Teachers to Do This Summer

Listen or read this post

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Summer is an important time for educators. While some people debate what educators should or shouldn’t do over the summer, ultimately it is YOUR summer and YOUR plans. Here are five things to consider as you plan your summer.

Now, there are so many different ways you can spend your summer. If you’re not intentional about it, summer will just be gone in a flash just like everything else.

Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online PD courses for K-12 teachers. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout for 20% off any course.

Listen to this blog post

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

#1: Rest Up

First of all, I think one of the most important things that we can do is to rest up. Did you know that lack of sleep can reduce your pain tolerance and causes to perceive events as more stressful than we would otherwise?

Now, there are not a lot of studies on how often teachers sleep because I’ve looked. A 2008 Ball State University study found that 43% of teachers said they slept an average of 6 hours or less per night. About a fourth said their teaching skills were significantly diminished due to lack of sleep.

You may not know this, but scientists say sleep deprivation will kill you faster than food deprivation. If we sleep badly, we often crave a high-carbohydrate diet which can make us overweight.

Most of us teachers start the summer with what researchers call a “sleep debt”. A sleep debt is the difference between the amount of sleep you should be getting and the amount you actually get.

Generally, experts recommend around eight hours of sleep per night, but you can’t just have a marathon and sleep for three or four straight days, although that does sound nice, it’s just not possible for most of us.

So if you’re chronically sleep-deprived, what experts say is that you just need an extra hour or two a night.

In a quote from Scientific American from their article, “Can you catch up on lost sleep?”

“Go to bed when you are tired, and allow your body to wake you in the morning (no alarm clock allowed). You may find yourself catatonic in the beginning of the recovery cycle: Expect to bank upward of ten hours shut-eye per night. As the days pass, however, the amount of time sleeping will gradually decrease.”

Now I know some of you will want to stay up late, but listen to your body clock and determine your individual sleeping pattern.

For example, every morning at 5:30, I am going to be awake. There’s just nothing I can do about it, but I have found that I can catch a quick nap sometimes at 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon, so I try to do that as much as possible and not have guilt, even though that’s very hard for a farmer’s daughter like me who really had the importance of work ethics stressed.

This is your only time, teachers, to get caught up, and you really need to do that so that you’ll feel less stressed in the fall.

#2 Disconnect

Secondly, we need to disconnect and hang it up. You know, a Louisiana second-grader’s homework recently went viral. The girl said,

“I don’t like the phone because my parents are on the phone every day. I hate my mom’s phone and wish she never had one.”

Social media addiction can also be associated with anxiety, depression, loneliness, and ADHD.

Our summertime is an excellent time to break that social media addiction if you think you might have one.

Give Yourself a Digital Detox

Honestly, I think all of us can do with a digital detox for a week or two. Now, I know that sounds like a long time to be off Facebook, but you can start in small ways.

First of all, refuse to let phones sit down with you at the table. Enjoy your food in the company of the people there.

When my pastor goes on vacation, he has a smartphone basket, and when everybody enters the door to go on vacation, they put their phones into the basket, and then when they leave from vacation, they pick them up. I think that is a fantastic way to do it.

The Awesome (and Often Ignored Feature) of EVERY Smartphone

I also want to introduce you to a fancy awesome feature of your smartphone – yes, you have an off button. Take that button, push it, turn it off, and leave it off for a period of time.

Honestly, that peace of mind that you get from a period of time of disconnection is awesome.

Truthfully, when we go on vacation and I totally go offline, it takes me 2 or 3 days to stop wondering what’s happening on Facebook, stop wondering what’s happening on Twitter, and truthfully just focus on the people right in front of me, but I feel so good and recentered and remembering what is important when I have that digital detox or just go off the grid and get offline.

I think all of us really, really need to do it, even when we’re just at home, take the phone away from yourself. Sometimes, if I can’t trust myself to take the phone away from myself, I will get my husband Kip to take the phone away from me, and I’ll say, “Here, Kip, take it, don’t give it back to me for a period of time.”

#3 Laugh It Up

Now, the next thing, #3, is to laugh it up.

Laughter decreases stress hormones, increases oxygen in your blood, strengthens your immune system, releases endorphins, and so much more.

How can we laugh more?

Make funny friends. First of all, make a decision that you are going to spend more time laughing. One way is to have crazy friends who make you laugh. I love awesome people who make me laugh.

When I go to a conference, I like to hang with people like Jerry Blumengarten – I mean, the guy wears a cape.

One summer, I went with my son and husband and then Kevin Honeycutt and Angela Maiers– two of the funniest people I know – to the Blue Man Group concert in Orlando. It was just something we planned and said,

“Hey, you know, we’re all going to be in the same place at the same time, let’s do it.”

I still laugh thinking about that night.

Play with your pets. Now, if you don’t have a funny friend, we all have funny little friends – we have children, we have dogs, we have pets. Honestly, I love my cats, but my cats are not funny unless they’re a kitten, and then they’re just kind of annoying.

So dogs are funny, there are just so many things that are funny. Do find funny beings to hang out with.

Honestly, decide to be the kind of person who sees things as funny and laughs at yourself.

I think that’s the easiest way to laugh more.

Go with old standbys. If I’m really looking for a laugh, I’ll just look up old Tim Conway shticks on YouTube, and I am going to laugh hilariously – especially there is one where he is on a budget airline, and it cracks me up and I can’t stop laughing. I love seeing that one, or when Tim Conway numbs his leg at the dentist. Those are two instant laughs, or, you know, just Young Frankenstein or something like that – although, honestly, I find more fun in laughing at people that I know than I do people on TV shows.

#4 Schedule Checkups

So #4 is not so much fun as the last one: it is having a checkup.

Now those of us who have been putting off our eye exams or all that preventative healthcare now is the time to do it.

I have read that only half of checkups have preventative healthcare. If you just get a regular old checkup, it doesn’t really do much good.

It’s when you do the preventative healthcare that it really makes a difference. So do go ahead, and if you’re behind on that, get that off your mind, because here’s the thing that happens: if we’re overdue for our checkup, we will remind ourselves a thousand times during the next school year, and every time we do, we feel guilty and it’s a downer. Don’t do that.

Go ahead and get the checkup and be done with it. Then schedule a reward for yourself afterward, like a night at the movies, or do something with a friend.

#5 Level Up

The fifth one is, after you’ve rested up, after you’ve laughed it up, and checked it up, and you’ve hung it up and had your digital detox, do take a little time to level it up.

Now, I choose to stay out of the drama, there was a drama dust-up recently on Twitter where people were talking about what’s a good teacher and what they should be doing in the summer.

Honestly, I’ve got enough drama in my real life than to worry about drama in online life. I mean, be kind, be respectful, I think teachers are just tired and some are just fussy and they choose to fuss about things that are truly not that important and really lower the nobility of our profession.

I just prefer to try to level up and say, “Okay, how can I improve my thinking?” Now, I always keep something I call the Big Three: what are the three things that I want to improve next?

Performance art and room design, these are two big things that I’m looking at.

So right now, I’ve tweeted it out, I’ve asked on Facebook, and I’ll ask be asking in my newsletter:

If you have an awesome computer lab you’d like to show off, would you please tweet me a picture, especially if you have a Mac lab or if you have digital film with a Chroma key, I’ve tried to decide, you know, “Should I have a Chromakey curtain? Should I have a Chromakey stand? What should I ask for as we plan the next several years in the new computer lab where I’m going to be working at my new school?”

I also am fascinated by some of the ideas we’ve had this year: the episodes with Wade and Hope King about their performance art.

Anyway, so that’s one thing I’m looking at, but remember this:

Innovate like a turtle. You want to have slow, steady progress forward.

I’ve still got to do work on 3D printing, honestly, I struggle with that 3D printer although it’s awesome.

I’ve got to study up on that some. I need to level up again in my digital filmmaking – in particular, how I teach three-point lighting, I want to improve that and how I teach the capture of sound.

That’s another thing that I need to improve and level up on this summer.

So what are your Big Three? List those and kind of take some time to investigate and do that.

I also want to learn more about how to help others improve and use technology in their own classroom — especially really, really busy, stressed-out teachers, because I think that’s pretty much all of us.

I’ve given you five ways to take yourself up

So I’ve given you five ways to take yourself up so that you’ll be up when you start school in the fall. Remember, this time will just zip by if you’re not intentional.

Think about what you want to do.

Do read some of those books you love.

Do get some of those things done.

Do get that closet cleaned out and some of those things that you want to do.

But remember: you’ve got to be a human being sometimes and not just a human doing.

We teachers, we work so hard – it’s so easy to just be human doings and not human beings. So I hope you have some time this summer, remarkable educators, to be a human being and so you can be a more remarkable you this fall.

You are awesome, thank you so much for listening, and I appreciate all of you remarkable educators out there who give me lots of encouragement when I wonder, “What on earth am I doing, teaching all day and going home and recording a podcast at night?”

Thanks for your encouragement. Get out there and be remarkable, and will you have a remarkable summer? I hope you do!

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post 5 Awesome Things for Teachers to Do This Summer appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e330/

[psychotherapyconsultants]

Overwhelmed? Try This 1 Minute Self-Care Tip to Regain Control

The average person makes about 35,000 decisions every day — from choosing an outfit to deciding which seat to take at a meeting. In fact, we make 200 judgments each day about food alone.

But research shows that all that decision making can be mentally and physically draining. Although the idea of willpower as a finite resource is now contested in the field of psychology, it’s well documented that humans have a limited reserve of daily energy that’s dependent on adequate rest and sustenance. As these reservoirs are depleted, our ability to make sound judgments can deteriorate — whether that means buying on impulse, skipping the gym, or overreacting to a mild annoyance.

Case in point: Hungry judges rule differently. One study found that judges’ percentage of favorable rulings was highest in the mornings, steadily declining as the day went on. Why? As the day wore on, judges got decision fatigue and needed a break to refuel. After taking a lunch break, the likelihood of a favorable ruling jumped back up again, only to fall again by the end of the day.

The trick to making better decisions, then, is to figure out how to manage your internal resources and acknowledge your limits. As a human behavior expert and executive coach who is constantly engaged in cognitively demanding deep work, I’ve found that one of the most powerful tools for dealing with decision fatigue is a simple self-care practice called HALT.

Take a break

We often have a hard time acknowledging our limits. Instead, we power on, stay busy, and deny our need for recovery. That’s because decision fatigue essentially switches off our ability to self-monitor. We fail to recognize the symptoms that are telling us we need a break.

I recommend using the HALT system to do a personal self-inventory, so that we can recognize when we’re most vulnerable to making poor decisions. This means regularly instating times in your day to ask yourself if you are:

Hungry

Angry

Lonely

Tired

The framework includes the basic needs that are hardwired into our biology. If you’re dealing with any of these problems, you’re more likely to respond negatively to stressors and make bad decisions. This tool can help you better care for yourself and stay in control of your reactions—whether in personal relationships or in business.

If you’re hungry:

Low blood sugar can mimic anxiety and panic symptoms, studies show, so practice “hanger” management. Avoid skipping meals or going too long without eating. If you do find that you’re hungry, pause before you accidentally fire off a defensive email to your boss and find yourself a snack.

If you’re angry:

While anger is uncomfortable, it’s a normal human emotion and important to deal with constructively. Research suggests that venting does more harm than good, so think twice before lashing out on Twitter or passive-aggressively slamming doors to let your partner know you’re mad. However, bottling up your frustrations or ignoring them doesn’t work either. Instead, try journaling, progressive relaxation, or mindfulness exercises to get your prefrontal cortex back in the driver’s seat.

If you’re lonely:

Feeling rejected, misunderstood, or alone can lead to internalizing behaviors such as self-imposed isolation and withdrawal. Humans need interaction to survive, so it’s important to tend to your social needs, even if you’re shy or introverted. If you find yourself on the verge of making an emotional or impulsive decision, it may be that loneliness—rather than logic—is driving your thinking. Pick up the phone to call a friend, force yourself to go to book club, or ask a co-worker out to coffee before returning to the matter at hand. You’ll be a lot more likely to make a sound choice if your emotional reserves are full.

If you’re tired:

It’s common to tout “being busy” as a badge of honor, but living in a state of perpetual exhaustion is not sustainable. Build time into your schedule for adequate rest and recovery, and be diligent about practicing sleep hygiene. If technology is negatively effecting your well-being, consider a digital detox.

Make HALT a habit

One problem with HALT is that you need to use it the most when you’re not in a frame of mind to do so. That’s why I’ve systematized it into my routines and daily practices, which I’ve come to refer to as my personal scheduled maintenance. This includes:

Leaving a 15-minute buffer in between all appointments in order to give me wiggle room to HALT, decompress, and replenish if needed.

Eating the same thing every day to limit decision fatigue. Call me boring, but it helps me direct more energy towards creative projects.

To stave off the loneliness of working alone, I make sure to end days with an activity that will place me around other people—whether that’s a networking event, yoga class, or simply spending a few hours writing in a café.

Decision fatigue, halted.

The next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, foggy, frustrated or derailed in any way, try asking yourself: “Am I hungry, angry, lonely, or tried?” You may be surprised by how quickly your problems resolve after a snack.

*First published on Quartz.

from World of Psychology https://psychcentral.com/blog/overwhelmed-try-this-1-minute-self-care-tip-to-regain-control/

[neenjamescommunications]

Don’t Believe Distractions Cost? Think Again!

Distractions cost. They cost us mental energy, quality of work, mental health, focus and productivity.

  Did you know it takes, on average, 23 minutes to refocus your mental effort and energy on a task after being interrupted? (University of California, Irvine; Mark, Gloria)

  Have you ever considered how many times you’re interrupted in a day?

  We all know interruptions hamper productivity and make trying to accomplish even the smallest of tasks frustrating, and seemingly endless.  Consider this – If you spend a total of 5 minutes, five times per day responding to text messages and reading social media, you’ve spent (maybe wasted!) 25 minutes of work time. Even still, when you consider it takes our brains 23 minutes to refocus on our tasks at hand for each interruption, you start to see those 5 simple tasks actually cost you almost 2.5 hours in lost concentrated focus and productivity.  How do I know this? Because I have been guilty of this too.

  You see, a distraction costs more time than just the activity. It costs us mental space and time to refocus afterward.  This realization helps me to focus when I get off track.

  A study was performed by info-tech researcher Basex and found distractions cost U.S. companies $588 billion per year in lost productivity. Imagine how much of that money could have been saved if employees were able to avoid distractions and stop interruptions.

  Crazier still, a researcher of digital distraction at the University of California, Irvine found approximately 50% of the distractions were self-induced! Our curiosity to know what was going on in the world on the news, social media, emails, or other people’s lives are creating  our productivity demise.

  Attention is Key! Attention is vital. A few steps toward mindfulness can help you save time and boost productivity:

Count your interruptions. For two days, keep a running list of the distraction types and the number of times is occurs (you will be shocked!). Start proactively finding solutions to stop the self-induced time killers.

Master your schedule. Choose brief, 15 minute increments, within your calendar that permit you to take a break, respond to others and allow your mind the downtime it deserves (and craves).

Utilize technology to save you from technology. Use apps on smartphones to silence distractions. Better yet, turn them off or use the Do Not Disturb feature until a time you’ve chosen to take a scheduled recovery break. I love the Freedom App.

Prohibit devices. Create a no-phone policy for some meetings and important conversations.

Schedule. Schedule. Implement tools that manage your time spent online, such as the Freedom App.

Do Not Disturb. Allow employees to create Do Not Disturb work times on their calendar where they can truly unplug from email, visitors and disruptions.

Go public. Get accountability. We have conditioned ourselves to be available to others all day and every day. Stop. Send messages to your friends, family and colleagues sharing your commitment to productivity. Explain your new schedule has time allocated to respond to their needs. Reset their expectations for your return phone calls, text messages and mid-day visits.

Unplug from social media. Consider taking a social media detox to help clear your head of the need to be plugged in. If that seems too radical, consider establishing one or two 15 minute periods of time in the early morning or evening that allow you to log on and play. Read about my social media detox here.

Choose one day per week. We all want to personally check in with coworkers and establish relationships with our peers. So do it! Only, limit it to one day per week. For instance, Wednesdays allow you find out how their weekend was and hear about their upcoming plans.

Weekends are for fun. When you make focus and attention a priority during the workday, make fun and relaxation a priority on the weekend. This will give you the time needed to recalibrate and rest, which will improve your attention and focus throughout the week.

  With a few changes and a commitment to focus, your productivity will soar as will the results of those efforts. When you choose to become the Attention Ambassador in your workplace, others will begin to see Attention Pays.

The post Don’t Believe Distractions Cost? Think Again! appeared first on Neen James.

[marco42james]

5 Awesome Things for Teachers to Do This Summer

Listen or read this post

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Summer is an important time for educators. While some people debate what educators should or shouldn’t do over the summer, ultimately it is YOUR summer and YOUR plans. Here are five things to consider as you plan your summer.

Now, there are so many different ways you can spend your summer. If you’re not intentional about it, summer will just be gone in a flash just like everything else.

Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online PD courses for K-12 teachers. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout for 20% off any course.

Listen to this blog post

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Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

#1: Rest Up

First of all, I think one of the most important things that we can do is to rest up. Did you know that lack of sleep can reduce your pain tolerance and causes to perceive events as more stressful than we would otherwise?

Now, there are not a lot of studies on how often teachers sleep because I’ve looked. A 2008 Ball State University study found that 43% of teachers said they slept an average of 6 hours or less per night. About a fourth said their teaching skills were significantly diminished due to lack of sleep.

You may not know this, but scientists say sleep deprivation will kill you faster than food deprivation. If we sleep badly, we often crave a high-carbohydrate diet which can make us overweight.

Most of us teachers start the summer with what researchers call a “sleep debt”. A sleep debt is the difference between the amount of sleep you should be getting and the amount you actually get.

Generally, experts recommend around eight hours of sleep per night, but you can’t just have a marathon and sleep for three or four straight days, although that does sound nice, it’s just not possible for most of us.

So if you’re chronically sleep-deprived, what experts say is that you just need an extra hour or two a night.

In a quote from Scientific American from their article, “Can you catch up on lost sleep?”

“Go to bed when you are tired, and allow your body to wake you in the morning (no alarm clock allowed). You may find yourself catatonic in the beginning of the recovery cycle: Expect to bank upward of ten hours shut-eye per night. As the days pass, however, the amount of time sleeping will gradually decrease.”

Now I know some of you will want to stay up late, but listen to your body clock and determine your individual sleeping pattern.

For example, every morning at 5:30, I am going to be awake. There’s just nothing I can do about it, but I have found that I can catch a quick nap sometimes at 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon, so I try to do that as much as possible and not have guilt, even though that’s very hard for a farmer’s daughter like me who really had the importance of work ethics stressed.

This is your only time, teachers, to get caught up, and you really need to do that so that you’ll feel less stressed in the fall.

#2 Disconnect

Secondly, we need to disconnect and hang it up. You know, a Louisiana second-grader’s homework recently went viral. The girl said,

“I don’t like the phone because my parents are on the phone every day. I hate my mom’s phone and wish she never had one.”

Social media addiction can also be associated with anxiety, depression, loneliness, and ADHD.

Our summertime is an excellent time to break that social media addiction if you think you might have one.

Give Yourself a Digital Detox

Honestly, I think all of us can do with a digital detox for a week or two. Now, I know that sounds like a long time to be off Facebook, but you can start in small ways.

First of all, refuse to let phones sit down with you at the table. Enjoy your food in the company of the people there.

When my pastor goes on vacation, he has a smartphone basket, and when everybody enters the door to go on vacation, they put their phones into the basket, and then when they leave from vacation, they pick them up. I think that is a fantastic way to do it.

The Awesome (and Often Ignored Feature) of EVERY Smartphone

I also want to introduce you to a fancy awesome feature of your smartphone – yes, you have an off button. Take that button, push it, turn it off, and leave it off for a period of time.

Honestly, that peace of mind that you get from a period of time of disconnection is awesome.

Truthfully, when we go on vacation and I totally go offline, it takes me 2 or 3 days to stop wondering what’s happening on Facebook, stop wondering what’s happening on Twitter, and truthfully just focus on the people right in front of me, but I feel so good and recentered and remembering what is important when I have that digital detox or just go off the grid and get offline.

I think all of us really, really need to do it, even when we’re just at home, take the phone away from yourself. Sometimes, if I can’t trust myself to take the phone away from myself, I will get my husband Kip to take the phone away from me, and I’ll say, “Here, Kip, take it, don’t give it back to me for a period of time.”

#3 Laugh It Up

Now, the next thing, #3, is to laugh it up.

Laughter decreases stress hormones, increases oxygen in your blood, strengthens your immune system, releases endorphins, and so much more.

How can we laugh more?

Make funny friends. First of all, make a decision that you are going to spend more time laughing. One way is to have crazy friends who make you laugh. I love awesome people who make me laugh.

When I go to a conference, I like to hang with people like Jerry Blumengarten – I mean, the guy wears a cape.

One summer, I went with my son and husband and then Kevin Honeycutt and Angela Maiers– two of the funniest people I know – to the Blue Man Group concert in Orlando. It was just something we planned and said,

“Hey, you know, we’re all going to be in the same place at the same time, let’s do it.”

I still laugh thinking about that night.

Play with your pets. Now, if you don’t have a funny friend, we all have funny little friends – we have children, we have dogs, we have pets. Honestly, I love my cats, but my cats are not funny unless they’re a kitten, and then they’re just kind of annoying.

So dogs are funny, there are just so many things that are funny. Do find funny beings to hang out with.

Honestly, decide to be the kind of person who sees things as funny and laughs at yourself.

I think that’s the easiest way to laugh more.

Go with old standbys. If I’m really looking for a laugh, I’ll just look up old Tim Conway shticks on YouTube, and I am going to laugh hilariously – especially there is one where he is on a budget airline, and it cracks me up and I can’t stop laughing. I love seeing that one, or when Tim Conway numbs his leg at the dentist. Those are two instant laughs, or, you know, just Young Frankenstein or something like that – although, honestly, I find more fun in laughing at people that I know than I do people on TV shows.

#4 Schedule Checkups

So #4 is not so much fun as the last one: it is having a checkup.

Now those of us who have been putting off our eye exams or all that preventative healthcare now is the time to do it.

I have read that only half of checkups have preventative healthcare. If you just get a regular old checkup, it doesn’t really do much good.

It’s when you do the preventative healthcare that it really makes a difference. So do go ahead, and if you’re behind on that, get that off your mind, because here’s the thing that happens: if we’re overdue for our checkup, we will remind ourselves a thousand times during the next school year, and every time we do, we feel guilty and it’s a downer. Don’t do that.

Go ahead and get the checkup and be done with it. Then schedule a reward for yourself afterward, like a night at the movies, or do something with a friend.

#5 Level Up

The fifth one is, after you’ve rested up, after you’ve laughed it up, and checked it up, and you’ve hung it up and had your digital detox, do take a little time to level it up.

Now, I choose to stay out of the drama, there was a drama dust-up recently on Twitter where people were talking about what’s a good teacher and what they should be doing in the summer.

Honestly, I’ve got enough drama in my real life than to worry about drama in online life. I mean, be kind, be respectful, I think teachers are just tired and some are just fussy and they choose to fuss about things that are truly not that important and really lower the nobility of our profession.

I just prefer to try to level up and say, “Okay, how can I improve my thinking?” Now, I always keep something I call the Big Three: what are the three things that I want to improve next?

Performance art and room design, these are two big things that I’m looking at.

So right now, I’ve tweeted it out, I’ve asked on Facebook, and I’ll ask be asking in my newsletter:

If you have an awesome computer lab you’d like to show off, would you please tweet me a picture, especially if you have a Mac lab or if you have digital film with a Chroma key, I’ve tried to decide, you know, “Should I have a Chromakey curtain? Should I have a Chromakey stand? What should I ask for as we plan the next several years in the new computer lab where I’m going to be working at my new school?”

I also am fascinated by some of the ideas we’ve had this year: the episodes with Wade and Hope King about their performance art.

Anyway, so that’s one thing I’m looking at, but remember this:

Innovate like a turtle. You want to have slow, steady progress forward.

I’ve still got to do work on 3D printing, honestly, I struggle with that 3D printer although it’s awesome.

I’ve got to study up on that some. I need to level up again in my digital filmmaking – in particular, how I teach three-point lighting, I want to improve that and how I teach the capture of sound.

That’s another thing that I need to improve and level up on this summer.

So what are your Big Three? List those and kind of take some time to investigate and do that.

I also want to learn more about how to help others improve and use technology in their own classroom — especially really, really busy, stressed-out teachers, because I think that’s pretty much all of us.

I’ve given you five ways to take yourself up

So I’ve given you five ways to take yourself up so that you’ll be up when you start school in the fall. Remember, this time will just zip by if you’re not intentional.

Think about what you want to do.

Do read some of those books you love.

Do get some of those things done.

Do get that closet cleaned out and some of those things that you want to do.

But remember: you’ve got to be a human being sometimes and not just a human doing.

We teachers, we work so hard – it’s so easy to just be human doings and not human beings. So I hope you have some time this summer, remarkable educators, to be a human being and so you can be a more remarkable you this fall.

You are awesome, thank you so much for listening, and I appreciate all of you remarkable educators out there who give me lots of encouragement when I wonder, “What on earth am I doing, teaching all day and going home and recording a podcast at night?”

Thanks for your encouragement. Get out there and be remarkable, and will you have a remarkable summer? I hope you do!

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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