More Unproductive Productivity Tools and Tips
Are you a business owner who’s thought about your heart in the past few days? September 29 is World Heart Day, and taking care of your heart is linked to better productivity (no apps required!)
“I’m too busy to exercise!”
Are you too busy to be productive? I’ve talked before about busyness not being the same as productivity because, to be blunt, being busy is mostly just an ego trip. Productivity is the act of getting the important things accomplished that move you forward to your goals, whether those are business-related or not.
So many people think of exercise only in conjunction with losing weight, so you might think it’s OK to skip exercise when you feel like your schedule’s overloaded.
But deciding to deprioritize exercise, whether or not you’re overweight, is a bad idea. Skip something else instead - or better yet, refocus your priorities. Exercise doesn’t have to mean prepping for a marathon or spending hours at the gym, either, if those aren’t your thing. If they are, have at it! Your heart and brain just want you to move your body throughout the day.
Exercise actually isn’t even that good for losing weight. It can help you maintain weight loss, but more importantly than that, it’s something that your heart requires for good health. Your brain also needs you to exercise so it can get lots of oxygenated blood to fuel it and help get rid of waste products. So when you think you’re too busy for exercise, you’re endangering not weight loss, but your physical and mental health. Not to mention productivity.
What’s good for the brain is good for productivity
I say this a lot… but that doesn’t make it less true! If you want a huge boost of productivity then you need to learn how to work with your brain. There are some general principles that work for pretty much everyone’s brain, as well as some more specific guidelines for different types of brains.
As noted above, exercise brings healthy blood flow to the brain… while keeping your ticker going.
What’s good for the brain is good for the heart, even for entrepreneurs
The human body and brain are a single organism, even if Western (and other) cultures tend to treat it as a dichotomy. Information travels from your body to your brain, not just the other way around. You have neurons (brain cells) in your gut. So when you take care of one, you’re also taking care of the other.
In addition to exercise, your brain and your heart also both benefit from a nutritious diet. You know what that means. As Michael Pollan says, Eat real food, mostly plants, and not too much. As a business owner, you know that manufactured foods aren’t great and contribute to inflammation. Is it OK to eat a piece of candy or birthday cake or indulge in your favorite adult beverage from time to time? Sure.
Like stress, inflammation that’s brief and doesn’t linger is something your body can handle pretty well. (Though the occasional bout of inflammation isn’t necessarily as beneficial as a quick bout of stress can be.) It’s the chronic kind from eating a mainly processed food diet that’s the problem.
And if you don’t have a lot of time to prepare food, there are some other options besides relying on frozen or fast food meals. Your local grocery store should have some prepped food options, like precut veggies. They don't have the additives that are best to avoid. Also, there are fresh delivery programs that send you all the ingredients you need for dinner so you can just follow the directions to complete the meal. This is a bit more expensive, but you’ll still be eating mostly real foods.
What’s in your heart
Sometimes we believe emotions are coming from our hearts - the joy when we see a child taking their first wobbly steps, or seeing your true love at the marriage altar, or looking up into the night sky in a dark park and seeing all the stars above you.
It's not really your heart that’s involved in joy and happiness and contentment, but that’s okay. It’s good for your brain to do things that you enjoy, and doing your hobby or hanging out with good friends or playing with your kids or pets reduces stress… which is also good for your heart.
Recap
If it’s good for your heart (like exercise, nutrition, and play) then it’s good for your brain too. And if it’s good for your brain (all together now) it’s good for productivity! If you haven’t been thinking about your heart when it comes to productivity, know that your ticker needs love too.