Productivity, Efficiency and Organization from Sitting on the Beach?

For the first time ever, I got to experience a whole afternoon relaxing on the beach... alone. Yep, I didn't go with a big group of friends, or family members, where my attention is typically more focused on being social, than actually taking in the insanely humbling yet mind-blowing majestic-ness, of the ocean, (yes, I'm making up words again). I experienced the most overwhelming feeling of joy and pure gratitude, starting the moment my feet hit that hot sand. Now here I am, a couple of days later, and I can't help but think of so many clients I've worked with, and I'm sure a huge percentage of the population, that haven't taken time for themselves in years. Ugh- that kills me! It's absolutely critical to take time to rejuvenate, and renew our energy. When you go months on end, running around town, taking care of work, your family, your pets, your house and on and on, and never stop to build your energy, it's quite likely you're not operating at your highest level, and probably haven't been for a while. My simple analogy would be a car- if you're not changing the oil, checking the air in the tires, or warming it up before you speed off on a cold day, your poor little car is pushing itself, but it's not going to perform at it's optimal potential.
When is the last time you took time for YOU, and YOU alone? It's time to do something that allows you to fully unplug and hit the reset button on your hard-working self! This restoration of energy is absolutely proven to be connected to your productivity and your ability to function at peak performance- and it's not like I'm telling you to go organize your paperwork here... Shift your thinking if you believe it's better to run this rat race and not stop, and schedule a YOU day, (except it'd technically be called a ME day), today!

Stressful Moments in Procrastination...

I can't tell you how many people tell me they're "big-time" procrastinators... My thought on that is, who isn't? I seriously can't think of anyone who, for the majority of the time, completes tasks ahead of schedule. I think anyone who does, must be superhuman or something, because it's just so against our natural tendencies. PLUS, it's practically a law of the universe that we're all pretty much going to be procrastinators- ever hear of Parkinson's Law? Tim Ferriss talks about it in his book, The 4 Hour Work Week. (Yes, that's me with the bold and adventurous author himself). It states that's a task will expand to the time alloted to complete it. In other words, if I ask you for a one page write up on your hopes and dreams, and I say have it back to me in three days, you'll get it done in three days. If I ask for it in three weeks, guess when I'll get it- at the end of the three weeks. It's so true, isn't it! It doesn't matter on the complexity of the task, it's the time given to complete it! I think this is pretty funny, considering many of us walk around calling ourselves procrastinators like it's a bad thing. Let's just let go of the guilt and accept it. Maybe I'll even start a club, Procrastinators Anonymous, where we can all tell stories of the ridiculously stressful moments we've gotten ourselves into, all because we put off doing something to the very last minute. What would be your worst story?
The best thing to do, considering the FACT that we're all procrastinators, is to operate as efficiently as possible throughout our days, maximizing our minutes, keeping an organized desk that's devoid of distracting piles of paper, and just immerse ourselves into our projects and to do lists. Find ways to trick yourself of the deadlines if you have to, all to create a greater sense of urgency. It's time to to get off email, pick our most important tasks for the day, and knock them each out, one at a time.