How to increase efficiency

Those wondering how to increase efficiency should do these things:

1. Sleep more

• Sounds easy but you would not believe how many people just don’t do this. Sleep is number 1. The priority. As you get older your sleep will matter a lot more than it did when you were younger. You just cannot function as well as you did when you were young. The minimum amount should be 7 hours of sleep, but some may need more.
• Getting the improper amount of sleep can lead to higher risk of health problems and getting sick.
• Once well rested, we can focus more attentively on important tasks and our work.

Did you know sleeping can also affect your mood? Studies show that being well rested can put you in a better mood and less “moody”?

Sleeping man — https://unsplash.com/s/photos/sleeping-man

2. Eat Heathy

• Eating the right type of foods and a balance diet can keep you energized for longer and is scientifically proven. It’s also good for our overall health and maintaining energy levels. The term “You are what you eat” comes to attention here as foods can either really help or really hurt us when we start to get older. Being mindful our what we put into our bodies can help us achieve our physical goals faster than if we were eating unhealthy.
• Increasing our vegetables and fruits while reducing red meat consumption will also reduce our environmental footprint and is overall better for sustainability.
• Let’s face it, eating healthy is not easy and it requires a high degree of self control. We get cravings for comfort food and fast food all the time. If we can work to overcome these cravings when they come, we are also training our mind to be mentally strong.
• This will increase our willpower and boost our minds and help us get to our results faster.
• With more and more people becoming vegan due to newfound education, insight, health and wanting to reduce the planet’s waste, it is becoming a lifestyle that many people, celebrities and movie stars are switching to.

Fruit bowl — Creator: Wanwisa Hernandez

3. Meditation/Mindfulness

• Meditating helps ground us, relax the mind and calm our bodies. It can help us get some kind of peace when we are feeling overwhelmed or distraught or worried. Easing thoughts can help your emotional well-being and your overall health.
• Mindfulness can re-centre us when any situation arises. It can help in reassuring our decisions and actions, it’s also useful when looking for possible danger or sketchy situaitons. When our minds start to become fear based, we tend to get swayed into negative thoughts. In these situations we need to be mindful of them and understand that we have a choice in deciding which thoughts we entertain. Choose to entertain the positive thoughts and you will become more positive.
• I find yoga to be a great way to practice meditation and mindfulness as these are key principles of the practice itself. Much of the techniques and moves are designed to keep you focused on yourself, your body and your mind.
• A life hack I found is to practice meditation when you begin your day and affirm your goals and what you want to set out to do and accomplish for that day. Which leads to point number four.

(Image credit: Mooshny/Shutterstock)

4. Affirmation on your why and goals

• Affirmation can reassure us of our why and our goals when we start to stray from the path or plan we set out to do. Affirmation of our why can remind our brains to think back and remember why we chose to do something. It is perfect for re-aligning ourselves with our purpose. Re-aligning our goals and our purpose can help affirm our choices and help us through situations where we feel like giving up.
• What is your Why?
• Your “Why” is a statement of purpose that describes why you do the work you do and why you live the lifestyle you do (WARLEY).
• Your why is your commitment in deciding to go down the path that you picked for yourself and reminding yourself what you have sacrificed for it and what you will continue to sacrifice in order to reach it.
• Once your why aligns with what you want, you will focus on your goals in order to reach it. Affirming those goals every day will help motivate you to reach them in order to accomplish what it was you set out to do.
• Your goals must be hard and they must be somewhat difficult to achieve, otherwise they wouldn’t hold much meaning if anyone can do it. Accomplishing something that you set out to do for yourself that you know not many people can do is the most rewarding accomplishment we can achieve for ourselves. The harder something is, the more we want to attain it, the battlefield is no place for the meek and when there are few that can do what you do, let alone complete it, the rewards and validation will feel that much greater at the end.

There are other ways that efficiency can be increased but these are the 4 ways I believe are the easiest to implement and get started with. You can start adding these to your life in meaningful ways by being more aware of taking care of yourself first before other things. It’s easier to be more efficient with the right mindset and the right habits.

Practice these 4 things and you will be well on your way to increasing efficiency.