7 sagacious secrets for slaying the sin of sloth

The alliteration is for my benefit, not yours. 

For some reason, I consider ridiculously excessive repetition in writing as recreation.

It's one of my tricks to hurl past speed bumps, specifically in writing. Weird, I know.

But today, I wanted to share some other helpful tricks that help me kick start creativity.

These were born from urgent personal need, because there’s a dirty secret in the world of entrepreneurship:

Some days, you just don’t feel like working.

Maybe you’ve had a bad night’s sleep, maybe family life was a little tense, or maybe you’re just mentally fatigued.

No matter the reason, sometimes it is very difficult to get things finished… or sometimes, started.

This is a very real downside to being your own boss.

If you choose to check out for the day at 10:30 AM, no one is going to stop you.

 No one is going to fire you.

 But if you do that every day, there will be unavoidable consequences.

Recognizing that not every day can be a 10, what are some things that I have found to flip a 3 or a 4 into a 7 or an 8?

Here are my top 7 secrets, in no particular order:

1. Supplements. This one is as easy as taking a pill. After experimenting with many different possibilities, I currently use the following:

- Creatine and Lion’s Mane for focus. Creatine has been widely researched for it’s beneficial properties when trying to build muscle, and recent research shows that it also has a measurable effect on cognition. I take 5g every morning, whether or not I plan to work out.

- Caffeine + beef liver pills for energy. Beef liver is one of the most nutrient-dense, highly bioavailable foods in the world. Unfortunately, it tastes terrible. Therefore, beef liver capsules are a great option.

- Magnesium glycinate + CBD for patience. I only take CBD at night, because I found it “dulled my edge” if taken in the morning.

I'm not going to sling product at you through affiliate links today. If you'd like to hear what brand I recommend for each one, shoot me an email.

2. Isochronic Tones. You can Google it for more details, but isochronic tones are beats or tones occurring at specific regular intervals that cause your brainwaves to "sync" to a specific frequency.   

If you'd like to give it a try, look up “Mind Amend by Jason Lewis” on YouTube.  The mixes featuring animal faces in the thumbnails are my favorites for focus.

3. Sleep.  You MUST get good sleep if you want to have a chance at a 10 day.  I've had a child under the age of 2 in my house for most of my professional life, so this isn't always easy. 

Here are a couple of things that help you get a good night of sleep.

- Turn off ALL notifications at least 1 hour before bedtime. DO NOT look at your phone again until morning.

- Quit wearing sunglasses. Allowing natural sunlight into your eyes helps regulate your Circadian rhythms.  Think this sounds crazy? Try it for a week and come back at me. I haven’t worn sunglasses in over 2 years.

- Do not sleep in. Get up and out of bed at the same time every day.

- No alcohol. Go 45 days without, see how you feel, then decide if you want to go back. If you don’t have the power to test 45 days dry, ask yourself if that’s a problem.

4. Plan Your Days and Weeks. More than a calendar or to-do list, plan and batch your most critical tasks. 

What do I mean? 

For example, on Monday, focus on creative work...strategy, brainstorming, ideation. 

On Tuesday, focus on executing. 

Wednesday, focus on connecting with others.

Thursday, do your numbers and admin work. 

Friday, assess results. 

Keeping your brain focused on similar tasks each day minimizes the inefficiency inherent with task switching.

Again, try this for a month and tell me I'm wrong.

Also, you cannot work all the time. It’s easier to slip in to intense focus if you know there’s an end in sight.

If you do not define your own work hours, every moment will be fair game and you may even feel guilty during non-work moments. This is a trap.

In fact, it’s been proven that we have the ability to make a limited number of decisions each day, then our brain craps out.

If you try to do high-value, important work after your allotment of brain fuel’s been burned, you’re going to generate lower quality output and make stupid mistakes.

Paradoxically, you’ll get more done if you set boundaries around your work time.

5. Daily Movement. Hit the gym, work out at home, or at the very least, target 10,000 steps. The state of your body affects the state of your mind.

6. Get Outside. Get daily sunshine on your bare skin and into your unshielded eyes. Let your bare feet touch earth at least once per week (weather permitting).

Walk, hike, garden...whatever it takes. Do NOT spend your entire day trapped in front of a screen.

If you live somewhere that is dark or overcast for large portions of the year, try a light therapy lamp. With one of these, you can blast yourself with full spectrum light for 20-40 minutes per day. These things are available for about $40 on Amazon.

7. Cold showers. This one might sound strange, but it works. Purposefully challenge yourself in this small, consistent way to build resilience.

Choose to do it because it’s unpleasant. You’ll survive.

Then next time an unexpected challenge hit you, you’ll be able to handle it with more chill.

Unexpected challenges won’t slow you down as much.

Do these sound too easy? Too hard?

Listen, they work for me, so give them a shot if you’re stuck.

Tomorrow, I’ll share something more email specific, so stick around.

Greg