“Recharging goes in the calendar,” said Brendon Burchard. This is one of the six foundations he shared in his answer to the question, “How do you get it all done?”
Mr. Burchard is the world’s leading high performance coach, a 3-time time New York Times bestselling author, and one of the most-watched, quoted, and followed personal development trainers in history; SUCCESS Magazine and O, The Oprah Magazine have both named him one of the most influential leaders in personal growth and achievement; his most recent book, High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way, is a multiple week Wall Street Journal Bestseller, and Amazon named it as one of the Top 3 Best Business & Leadership Books of 2017.
I have been learning a lot from this man but to be honest, I am far from putting into practice all the learning I am getting. But as this new year begins, let me challenge myself to increase my performance and productivity through some powerful habits. One of which is this: recharging goes in the calendar.
Among the six foundations he shared in his answer to the question mentioned above, this one struck me the most because I just spent the entire week resting and recharging my body. However, this is not the rest that I would have wanted. I simply took this week off because my body forced me to. I got sick and that was my body shouting to me, “Rest!”
I learned in life that if you do not find time to rest, your body will force you to. The problem with this is that I only tend to listen to my body the moment it is shouting – that is, when I get sick.
While recovering from my sickness, I told myself, “Nursing a sick body at the first week of the year is not a good idea. I should get healthier this year.”
There are a lot of steps I need to take to get healthier but this golden habit from Brendon Burchard is worth emulating. This year, I resolve, I will schedule time to rest and recharge.
One of the challenges that we face, however, is not knowing how and when to rest. We schedule our work but we do not schedule our rest. Another challenge is thinking that we will rest when we are able to finish everything – but that time of finishing everything will never come because there will always be something that must be done. We must change this mindset. This quote from Aristotle Onassis says it well, “We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.” Burchard commented, “I personally believe that life is full of chaos, and that external chaos will never subside. But chaos does not need to reign within.” I totally agree with him. The same is true with the things that we need to do.
With this, he said, “Part of my productivity amid the madness of life is scheduling a lot of breaks.”
Here’s how he does it.
One, he takes a break every 50 minutes when working. In one of his courses and in his book, he shared the importance of block time. This is setting aside 50 minutes to work on something with full focus. Just set your timer and start working. When the alarm goes off, you take a break. Either you take a walk, get a glass of water, or go. This will serve as your mental break from the work that you are doing. And when you go back to work, give your full focus. No distractions. No Facebook. No phone calls. Unless it’s Facebook marketing or phone calling is what is scheduled in that particular block time. (This will be one the things I shall start practicing this year. In fact, I tried doing it now while I am writing this.)
Two, he sleeps 8 hours a day. Sleep is very crucial. Tons of researches support this. (I guess I need to work on this even during holidays. And on regular days, I just have to adjust my schedule so I can go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, still completing the needed number of hours.)
Three, he meditates once or twice per day. This can simply be deep and mindful breathing and clearing your mind with clutter. (I do this but not on a daily basis. I do it once in a while. Let me strive to put this back as part of my morning routine. Along with this, I shall put back my morning routine of breathing exercises while doing some movements and mindfulness in prayer.)
Four, he takes a walk everyday. Walking is a good exercise, especially when done in nature. (As for me, I take a walk everyday as I do my errands. But I want to do it more intentionally and if possible, away from the smoke and traffic, closer to nature.)
Five, he schedules a trip with his wife every 90 days. Vacation is important. It doesn’t have to be in a far place. (I hope to take a trip or a trek every 90 days as well.) Having this in the schedule also gives a good motivation to work really hard for the tasks scheduled so that when this schedule comes, you are ready to take it and even consider it as a reward. (Let me see how I can do this in my life. Starting this year. Ooops! I’ll do my best.)
What else does he do? Well, he takes a lot of afternoons off to wander his city. He breathes a lot. He works out a lot. And he said, “During these times, I let my mind wander, too and I let my soul recharge. I stay mindful in the moment during breaks and don’t think about to-dos. In that way, I’m always recharging. I don’t wait until the gas tank is empty. I recharge so I never burnout.”
My friend, this is just a glimpse of his entire routine, of how he schedules his time to rest and recharge. But try to see how you may integrate some of this good practices in your life. Let’s discover how this can also make us do the things that we must do and “crush it!”
Together, let’s learn to rest and recharge more. Schedule them in your calendar.
(Chris Dao-anis, CPA, DTM is a communication and leadership trainer, inspirational speaker, and author of 4 books. His latest book ‘SPEAK: How to Craft and Deliver a Speech or Presentation’ is available at Mt. Cloud Bookshop, Casa Vallejo, Upper Session Road, Baguio City. You can register to his workshop ‘SPEAK 2.0: Boost Your Confidence in Public Speaking’ at http://bit.ly/SpeakBaguio, or enroll in his Speaker’s Course at http://bit.ly/speakerscourseph and avail of tons of bonuses. For speaking invitations, you may email him at info@chrisdaoanis.com or text 0945-761-6577.)