Let's get into physical, let me hear your body talk (Olivia Newton-John)

Photo by Nature Zen on Unsplash

Time to return to Thomas Oppong's 100 Habits. Here are five more:

Invest at least 30 minutes every day doing a side hobby you find relaxing — you can schedule it in the evenings or early mornings. For me it's blogging. I aim to publish one post a day on my blogs, on a revolving basis. It helps me get some perspective and I love the discipline involved.

Start a pre-sleep ritual — remove all digital distractions and read a physical book instead. Reading a book before bed prepares your mind to wind down. I do this for ten to 15 minutes each night. Drives my wife nuts but I need it.

Systemise the same decisions you make every day: how you work, what to eat, what to wear, how to start your day, etc. It saves brain energy for high level or meaningful work. A systems-first mentality changes everything. I get that this is not for everyone, but I fully support this one - my clothes are ready the night before (shirt ironed), my morning work routine is all set to go (same commute, same timings, and so on).

Use at least 10% of your time (daily) to read. The return is exponential. Warren Buffet spends 80% of his day reading. Strong reading habit improves how you think, decide, work, invest or build a better life. I read every day - nowhere near 80% though, even on holidays. I'm lucky, I've always been a reader. I've tried digital a few years ago but I quickly went back to physical books.

Move your body every morning. Spend a few minutes of your morning to stretch. A good physical shape has a massive impact on your brain health, productivity and total wellbeing. My back has been sore for some time so I have 5 exercises I need to do each day to help improve it. 

One good day does not mean you can coast tomorrow (James Clear)

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Thomas Oppong has created 100 habits for a great life.

One hundred. That's a lot to take on. So I'll pick a few that I think are worth passing on (my responses in itallics). More in the next post.

Email is the biggest time suck. If you don’t plan to deal with incoming emails, you will spend all your time reacting to what others want. Set aside time to deal with it. Period 1 in the LC works for me - the students are generally quietly getting into their day, and so am I.

For better energy and strong concentration, choose a healthy breakfast (whole grains, protein and healthy fats). With that in mind I've recently changed my habit away from sugary cereals to Weetbix - 97% wholegrain wheat. I have the cholesterol lowering version.

When you start work, remove all distractions from your work environment before starting actual work –noise, notifications, email tabs, etc. Assume focus or productive mode with calming music. This jazz piano playlist usually gets a workout from me in the hour I have at work before anyone else arrives. This Mozart meditation album is good too.

Schedule time for nature walks — even just 10 minutes outside and close to more trees can do wonders for your mood. I aim for 22 minutes at lunchtime each day (the time it takes for me to walk around the sports park next to the campus). It does wonders!

End your day with a tidy desk ready for the next day, so you don’t have to spend your morning getting ready for work. I don't have an office - wherever my device and diary are is where I work so it's easy to pack away each day.

Losing yourself in a book is the ultimate relaxation! (Thomas Oppong)

Photo by Rubén García on Unsplash

It's our duty to read; a responsibility, really. Without reading = poverty of thought.

In our staffroom at school, we talk a lot about reading. What we're reading, where we read, how to teach our students reading, when we are reading, our favourite books, book club books and events...

But we don't often touch on why we read.

Thomas Oppong wrote an interesting piece that I have bookmarked to read in my leisure. His claim is that reading rewires parts of our brain. 

He cites Maryanne Wolf's explanation in her book, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain:

Human beings invented reading only a few thousand years ago. And with this invention, we rearranged the very organization of our brain, which in turn expanded the ways we were able to think, which altered the intellectual evolution of our species. . . . Our ancestors’ invention could come about only because of the human brain’s extraordinary ability to make new connections among its existing structures, a process made possible by the brain’s ability to be reshaped by experience.

This is all important for educators as reading involves several brain functions, including visual and auditory processes, phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension, and more.

It's why we teach our students to read and encourage them to keep up the habit for life.

As an adult, I crave that mental stimulation. I'm proud to say, I'm a reader!

Want another reason it's a good idea to read? Reading every day can slow down late-life cognitive decline and keeps the brain healthier (according to Oppong).

Okay, off to continue reading more of Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

it just keeps coming and coming and coming. ... because the mail never stops (Newman)

My daily routines need some rethinking. I'm going to figure out which of these 17 small actions from Thomas Oppong I need and tutu with my day.

Newman

So, these are the things that I need to sort out:


1. Check emails at specific times

The average person checks email 77 times a day, sends and receives more than 122 email messages a day, and spends 28 percent or more of their workweek managing a constant influx of email.

Jocelyn K. Glei, author of “Unsubscribe: How to Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Done” says that while checking emails throughout the day may make you feel productive, the opposite is true.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Jocelyn said, “…keep work emails short, simple and if something can’t be resolved quickly on email, suggest a meeting or simply walk to your colleague’s desk to confirm a plan. You’ll be rescuing yourself and others from those annoying email threads that drag on for a whole afternoon, interrupting everyone involved.”

I need to use Thomas' action approach to clear my inbox more:

When opening an email - make a quick decision: delete/archive, act now (if it takes a minute or two) and then reply/archive, send a quick reply (and then archive). 

I tend to read and leave them, which just means they build up and build up and then I feel like Newman!


2. Focus on importance and suppress urgency

Resist the tyranny of the urgent. Urgency wrecks productivity. Your ability to distinguish urgent and important tasks has a lot to do with your success.

Urgent tasks are tasks that have to be dealt with immediately. Important tasks are things that contribute to your long-term mission, values, and goals.

My time is often spent on the urgent because there is so much urgent stuff to do!

3. Focus on one thing at a time

Start your day by tackling high-value tasks you can complete in the morning. This will keep you motivated to get the next task done in time.

In his book, “The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results” Gary Keller said, “Success demands singleness of purpose. You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects. It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world.”

Charles Dickens once said “I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.”

Funnily enough, I can do this easily at home on the weekends - clear the driveway, bury a water pipe, wash the car...and so on. But at work it's trickier to keep this regime going. There are many demands but I aim to maintain the 'touch it only once' policy as much as I can.

There you have it - three key things to work on, as well as carving out some me time each day.