You’re not the only one if you’ve found yourself dragging through the day, grappling with focus, energy, or productivity while working from home. This is a shared struggle, a new-age dilemma that many of us are grappling with.

In the latest episode of The LifeHack Show, we have the privilege of hosting Matt Ragland, the brain behind the popular podcast ‘Connect the Dots’ and a renowned productivity guru on YouTube. Matt graces our show to elucidate the productive habits we need to adopt to not just do more, but also stress less each day.

Check out the full interview here:

Consider this your sneak peek. I’m about to unravel some of the vital insights from our conversation with Matt.

7 Productive Habits to Adopt to Achieve More Every Day

Let’s delve in some of Matt’s important insights that can turn our daily routines into productive engines:

1. Plan your time and tasks with purpose

Matt urges us not to let our days get lost in trivial tasks.

Really define what matters for you to get done today, so that over time, you’re living a life of meaning and intention. – Matt Ragland

Instead, we should be clear about what we really want to achieve, set significant goals, and align our actions to make the most out of every day.

2. Adopt the GAP method for goal-setting and time management

The GAP (Goals, Actions, Protection) method is the secret to achieving weekly goals. You set the goal, outline the steps to get there, and protect the time you need to accomplish those steps.

3. Prioritize tasks using time blocking

Break your day into usually these 30-minute chunks, I don’t think you should go any lower than 15 minutes, because if you’re context switching so much in a 15 minutes range, then that’s something else to break down and consider. – Matt Ragland

Time blocking is a practical way to manage your day. By breaking your day into chunks and assigning tasks to each, you can better control your schedule and prioritize effectively.

4. Keep track of your time to align activities with your goals

It’s not just about timing tasks. Matt recommends tracking time to ensure our activities line up with our goals and intentions.

Time tracking is usually a reactive practice and time blocking or calendar blocking is a proactive process, but time blocking is most effective when you’ve been time tracking. – Matt Ragland

5. Take small steps consistently

Don’t underestimate the power of small but consistent actions. Every day is an opportunity to inch towards your larger goals, one step at a time.

6. Balance enthusiasm and actions

Matt points to the 70-20-10 rule when it comes to ideas and projects. Focus mainly on proven concepts that yield results, but leave space for trying new things.

That’s how I often think about validating, developing ideas, projects, concepts to make sure that the main thing is staying the main thing. But I’m also working on new stuff all the time. – Matt Ragland

7. Maintain physical health to boost productivity and energy

Fitness isn’t just for the gym—it’s for the mind, too. Matt underlines how taking care of our bodies, like regular exercise, can boost productivity and energy levels. It’s a straightforward step with a great payoff.

Final Thoughts

The tips that Matt Ragland shared with us are more than just strategies, they are habits, life tools that can help us bring about transformative changes in our day-to-day life.

This has just been a brief overview of the insights and wisdom Matt Ragland had to share. There’s much more depth, detail, and practical advice in the full episode of The LifeHack Show. I encourage you to watch it to gain a comprehensive understanding of the productive habits you can adopt to not only achieve more but also experience less stress in your day-to-day life.

The post Productive Habits For Achieving More Every Day by Matt Ragland appeared first on LifeHack.

This is why it’s more important than ever to find ways to prioritize the things that bring us joy and fulfillment, even amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

In this episode of The Lifehack Show, we interviewed Connor Swenson, a certified teacher of Make Time, Search Inside Yourself, and Adaptive Resilience, to share with us how to make time and space to do what truly matters to our lives.

Connor has taught productivity courses to companies such as Google, YouTube, L’Oréal, Klarna, and many others. With his wife Claire, he also operates Forgewell, an education company that helps organizations alter their culture and achieve greater performance, engagement, and well-being across their workforce.

Check out the full interview here:

Here are a few key insights you can’t miss from the interview:

Focus on One Thing

We are often distracted and multitasking by default, making it challenging to stay focused and productive. What you should do is set aside an hour or so each day for intense focus on ONE thing that is actually important to you. This could be personal goals like writing a book or organizing a family trip; or professional objectives such as pursuing a new career path or position. Whatever it is, the trick is to focus all of your energy and attention on it, even if everything else in our day goes wrong. It’s essentially one big thing that you prioritize and protect in your daily schedule.

By doing so, you shift your focus from being efficient (getting lots of little things done) to being effective (making progress on something that truly matters to you). You will feel a sense of success and fulfillment knowing you’ve made progress toward something important to you.

But I think focus yourself and having the intention and the purpose of one thing is amazing, because at the end of the day, if everything else goes to sh*t, if you do have that thing that you really invested your energy and attention into, it feels really good. — Connor Swenson

Listen to Your Gut When You Prioritize

Prioritize your tasks based on what’s urgent, satisfying, or brings you joy. Listen to what your body is telling you to do each day. Ask yourself “what’s one thing I could do today that would make everything else less urgent?”

I have this time blocked every day in my calendar. But I’m not choosing my one thing weeks or months in advance, I’m usually choosing it the morning of after I go for a morning walk. I sit down, I might close my eyes, I might even journal a little bit and I might just think, “what’s that thing that’s calling for my attention?” And if I just stop and I just listen, that thing usually arises because sometimes it’s something that feels like really exciting and there’s a creative energy and it’s like, OOH, that’s a thing that I really want to dive into today. Sometimes there is something that is quite urgent. — Connor Swenson

Connor believes that prioritization is a lifelong journey and it takes time to figure out what works best for you.

Set Boundaries

Setting boundaries allows you to efficiently allocate your time and attention. When you have well defined boundaries, you can prioritize your responsibilities and manage your time more effectively. It’s easy to get sidetracked by diversions or obligations that don’t correspond with your goals and priorities if you don’t set clear boundaries.

When you’re working on a project or going to an event, you can sit down and say, all right, what are the rules of the road? How do we communicate? When people don’t do that, it’s a mistake because then it becomes just this jumble and it’s very overwhelming. Instead of saying, “all right, let’s agree,” let’s think about and also just to share boundaries. — Connor Swenson

To do so, you need to communicate with others on what you deem acceptable and unacceptable. Some people, for example, may not mind being called on weekends, but others may like to keep a strict nine to five schedule. By having these dialogues and setting boundaries, you can avoid confusion and create a better work-life balance.

Although setting boundaries can be difficult, the time and effort invested is well worth it in the long run.

Final Thoughts

Making time for what matters to your life requires setting boundaries and prioritizing tasks based on personal intuition and a balance of urgency, pleasure, and joy. It is important to listen to your intuition and identify that one thing that worths your attention.

By properly prioritizing, you can minimize stress and attain a greater sense of fulfillment in your personal and professional life.

If you want to find out more about Connor’s stories and increadible insights on productivity, watch the full interview here.

The post How To Make Time For Things That Matter by Connor Swenson appeared first on LifeHack.

In this episode of The LifeHack Show, we interviewed Graham Allcott, author of the global bestseller Productivity Ninja and founder of Think Productive, one of the world’s leading learning personal productivity and consulting firms.

In the interview, Graham discussed the key strategies for increasing personal productivity and becoming a “productivity ninja.”

Check out the full interview here:

Here I’ll summarize some of the key insights from the interview.

1. Don’t Rely on Willpower to Manage Your Attention

Willpower is a finite resource. Instead of relying on it to keep you focused, create a system to keep you organized.

Most people have two to three hours in the morning when they are most alert and capable of doing excellent work, but this varies depending on the individual. It is critical to defend these proactive attention hours by producing excellent work and pushing oneself to be productive.

On the other hand, there are hours in the day when energy and attention levels are lower, and during this time, Graham recommends having a list of simple and easy tasks to complete, called the Mindless list. This list includes tasks such as online research, email scheduling, and shopping things, and it helps in utilizing time when attention levels are low.

On the one hand, be really strict with those two to three hours of proactive attention and make sure you’re defending those really utilizing them well. On the other hand, when it’s those hours where you don’t have great energy great attention, give yourself the gift of a Mindless List where you can just be like “I’m fine to only be doing this and that’s okay. — Graham Allcott

2. Tactical Hiding

Quality thinking is an underrated and essential part of work. The best ideas often emerge from headspace rather than desk time, and we should unapologetically prioritize quality thinking time.

To allow for quality thinking, we must create space for it, which is what Tactical Hiding entails. It refers to the practice of removing yourself from your usual environment in order to work on important tasks without distractions.

Finding a quiet corner of the office, going to a coffee shop, or even booking a private meeting room could all be options. The goal is to create a physical and mental environment in which you can concentrate on your work without interruptions, notifications, or other distractions.

Tactical Hiding lets you focus more deeply and achieve a state of “flow,” in which you are completely immersed in your work and highly productive. It also allows you to prioritize your most important tasks rather than simply responding to the latest email or request that comes your way.

3. Be Weapon Savvy

The importance of selecting the right tools and technologies to support your productivity is referred to as being Weapon Savvy. There are numerous tools available to help you stay organized and focused, whether it’s a to-do list app, a calendar system, a note-taking tool, or a project management platform.

It’s crucial to select tools that suit your individual needs and preferences because not all tools are created equal.

Graham suggests that the best way to become Weapon Savvy is to try out different tools and see which ones work best for you. He also suggests that you review and update your tools and systems on a regular basis to ensure that they continue to meet your changing needs.

4. Be Agile

The ability to adapt quickly and effectively to changing circumstances, priorities, and demands is referred to as agility. In today’s rapidly changing world, it’s essential to be adaptable, responsive, and able to pivot as needed.

One of the most important aspects of being agile is to schedule regular time for reflection, review, and planning. This could include reviewing your to-do list and calendar on a daily or weekly basis, or conducting a more strategic review of your goals and priorities every quarter or year. You can identify areas where you need to be more flexible or change your approach by reviewing and assessing your progress on a regular basis.

Final Thoughts

“Ninja is a human being with good tools and good skills and some Zen and some mindfulness and agility, all these positive traits. But there’s no secret special powers. There’s no shortcuts. There’s no way of just creating magic. I feel like a ninja is a really special thing because it’s like there’s all this work that goes into making you look like you have a superpower and you don’t have a superpower but you’ve just done all that work, that’s how you got there.” — Graham Allcott

You can improve your focus, organization, and adaptability by implementing these productivity ninja strategies. Whether you’re a busy professional or an entrepreneur, these strategies can help you achieve more in less time, reduce stress and burnout.

Watch the full interview here.

The post How to Become a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott appeared first on LifeHack.

Chris Bailey is a productivity expert and the best-selling author of The Productivity Project, which has been translated into eleven languages; and Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction. Chris blogs about productivity and speaks to businesses all over the world about how to become more productive without hating the process. He has also recently released a new book How to Calm Your Mind: Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times.

Check out the full interview here:

Here I will share some of the insights Chris shared with us during the interview.

Human Brain Is Wired to Distractions

We direct our attention to every new and novel thing because our brain rewards us with a hit of this neurotransmitter – dopamine. Dopamine does not give us pleasure, but it makes us feel as if pleasure is on the way, so when we use our phones, we feel anticipation rather than pleasure, and we never truly reach a state of satisfaction. But it is this constant anticipation that keeps the distraction cycle going.

We are so prone to distractions because we are so bad at measuring our own productivity. When we are constantly distracted, our brain cannot distinguish between genuine progress and empty busyness. When our minds are stimulated, we believe we are making progress because the gears in our minds are turning. We see it as a proxy for our productivity.

Also, when we try to focus, a lot of things get in the way that we didn’t expect and in many ways don’t understand, including our own minds. So our brain has all of these biological biases that we must actively combat. Furthermore, with our phone’s addictive nature, saying no to distraction or installing a distraction blocker on the computer to be more focused is simply not enough.

This is why we must control our attention. Our attention is a resource that we must manage if we are to be productive and act with greater intention.

How to Boost Your Focus By Calming Your Mind

Having a highly stimulated brain makes you prone to stress and anxiety,^[1] which can affect your ability to stay focused.^[2]

Researchers used to believe that anxiety progressed from mild to severe, but the most recent research indicates that anxiety is not simply a spectrum with anxiety on it. It actually ranges from high anxiety to high calmness, and is determined by how active our minds are and whether we feel satisfied and pleasant in the present moment.

The calmer we become, the more productive we become because we’re able to bring a level of deliberateness to the things that we do over the course of the day. — Chris Bailey

Here are some strategies to try in order to calm your mind:

1. Respect the Speed of Your Mind

People often rail against slow work, but for example with knowledge work, we must respect the speed of our minds and work at the speed of our minds.

We can’t force our minds to move faster. It will work at the speed it is designed to work at. We must account for the proportion of our work that is mental, and that requires intensive deliberateness and intentionality.

Speed is not the enemy of productivity, it supports us in ways that we don’t really anticipate. — Chris Bailey

2. Connect with Your Future Self

One of the reasons we procrastinate is because we’re not connected with our future selves.

If you put the average person in an MRI brain scanning machine and ask them to imagine themselves in the future and then imagine a celebrity, the two brain scans would be almost identical because they saw their future selves as a stranger with whom they had no connection. As a result, putting things off is almost like giving them to a stranger to do.

The truth is that the more chances we have to connect with our future selves, the better. Journaling and writing articles to your future self, as well as planning your day and setting intentions, are all good practices.

Personally at the start of each day, I fast forward in my head to the end of the day. I ask myself what three things will I have want to accomplished by the time that this day is done, and free phrasing it very deliberately as if I am stepping over the day and looking back at it at the beginning of the day. Setting intentions in a way where I’m looking back on a day that I wish I will have had. — Chris Bailey

So, try to picture yourself where you’ll be at the end of the year, the end of the week, and the end of the day.

3. Remember: It’s Often When You Look the Least Busy That You Make the Most Progress

Chris illustrated this point with an example:

The CEO of a Fortune 500 company went on one of those nature walks to get away from the office and clear his mind of all the meetings, emails, and problems. While on that walk, his mind wandered and he came up with an idea that changed the course of his company. It allowed him to grow and make the most significant difference of his career, adding tens of billions of dollars in value to his company. One walk through nature may be more effective than answering a decade’s worth of emails in terms of progress.

Another example is when we’re reading a non-fiction book and thinking about how it relates to what we’re doing and the problems we’re facing. An idea that drops into our mental pond can ripple, cascade, and connect with other ideas. We eventually have to close the book and break out our journaling pad because we’re drowning in ideas.

There is no productivity. There are only proofs of productivity. — Chris Bailey

When we look at someone else’s work, all we have to go on are their productivity signals. It’s difficult to assess a person’s genuine progress because you don’t have control over everything on their plate. As a result, we tend to interpret signals that other people are busy as proxies for their productivity, and we do the same for ourselves. However, true productivity is slow and deliberate.

4. Embrace Boredom

The feeling we have when we go from a state of high stimulation to a state of low stimulation is known as boredom. What most people don’t realize is that boredom is a great way to bring our minds down to a lower level of stimulation where we can focus more deeply, and ideas and plans emerge. This happens because our minds have more freedom to wander.^[3]

The lower stimulation height also leads to greater depths of calm, allowing us to bring more deliberateness to whatever we do with less stimulation. In fact, Chris tried embracing boredom for an hour a day for 31 days.

During the “boredom experiment,” Chris read the iTunes terms and conditions, painted a canvas with only one color, and sat for an hour watching a clock ticking away. He tried a variety of boredom-inducing activities and discovered that, at the end of the experiment, he didn’t mind the boredom-inducing activities. He realized that boredom was when we began to try to make something new out of whatever situation we were in.

5. Meditate

Meditation is an art of focusing on the breath — the breath, the ins and outs of the flows; and the breath is extremely boring.

(If) you can become engaged though with your breath, you can become engaged with pretty much anything. — Chris Bailey

Meditation helps with focus because it leads us to seek less stimulating novel things in the moment. When you focus on your breath, your mind will wander constantly during meditation. But if you can bring your focus back to your breath, you can bring your focus to other things too. This is like a practice for sharpening our attention.

Chris recommended meditating in the morning to start the day on a positive note without immediately overstimulating our minds, which leads to more distraction, less focus, fewer ideas, and fewer plans for the rest of the day.

Final Thoughts

When we are stressed or anxious, our minds are often preoccupied with worry or racing thoughts, making it difficult to focus. We can quiet our minds and better direct our attention to the present moment by cultivating calmness. This can help us be more productive and focused in our daily activities, as well as feel more present and engaged in them.

If you want to learn more about how to calm the mind to boost your focus, check out Chris’s latest book How to Calm Your Mind on Amazon.

How to Calm Your Mind: Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times

$11.20

Get a Copy

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10/26/2025 04:46 am GMT

The post How to Calm Your Mind For Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey appeared first on LifeHack.

Alice is an award-winning author and life guidance expert who has dedicated her life to helping others find answers to life’s challenges. As one of Hawaii’s thought leaders and celebrated expert, thousands of individuals have found clarity over the past 20+ years through her work. Her unique brand of life wisdom is featured in her eight books on self-growth and happiness, as well as in her long-running column in MidWeek, Hawaii’s largest publication with 200k readers.

In this episode, Alice shares about her journey on realizing her purpose in life and has some practical tips for anyone is looking for clarity in life.

Check out the full interview here:

Here I’ll highlight some of the great insights from the interview.

The Purpose of Life Is Not About Happiness

As opposed to what many believe, the purpose of life is not about happiness. Think about it, if the purpose of life is happiness, then when all the crummy stuff happens to us, we will feel that we are not living a purpose at all. In reality, we will all face challenging moments and feel sad and frustrated often.

I have to accept the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, and the whole of it is what makes life good. And if I can accept that and I’m growing through it, then I’m fulfilled and then I’m happy. — Alice Inoue

The purpose of life is about growing and learning, and finding more of who you are and what you’re capable of.

Accepting where you are, whether you’re facing a great challenge or failure, is the first step. Once you have learned how to accept your circumstances, you know you need to take actions to get over them. This is how you grow and become a better person. The process of ever-learning and growing is the purpose of life.

Life is like two sides of a coin. It’s so valuable to recognize that you can’t have one without the other, so you may as well accept it. And once we accept it, that’s where the process of happiness. — Alice Inoue

You Find Happiness Where You Find Your Purpose

Happiness is what makes us feel good, it could be something meaningful or purposeful.

For example, if you helped someone opened a door that they couldn’t do it, and they said “thank you so much,” you would feel good; or when you have accomplished something, you feel good.

How to know what makes you feel good? Alice suggests asking yourself these 2 questions:

• Where am I teaching every day? 
• Where am I learning every day?

Try to reflect about your everyday life:

Are you a mother figure or a father figure to someone? Are you a connector to some people — say recommending someone to a person, a business or a service for good experience? Are you providing support or a nurturing experience to some people?

These simple questions help you to realize that you are a meaningful part of this world.

We probably can all identify oh I’m learning from YouTube, I’m teaching my child how to brush their teeth, or I’m teaching Executives how to coach… By asking yourself simple stuff, you recognize that you actually have a purpose. — Alice Inoue

Being Unclear About Life Actually Helps You Gain Clarity

We can never be absolutely clear about all the aspects of life, including our future. What we need to do is to accept that life is complex and will never be perfectly clear. The clarity we should go for is to focus on the one thing we can do today to move towards a greater clarity. What is unclear today can actually leads us to gain more clarity tomorrow.

Alice shares a story in the interview:

A man came to Alice and told her that he didn’t make enough money. He always thought that if he could make more money, then he could buy better gifts for friends and family. He always blamed his job for not paying him much. Then Alice asked him: “Do you have a a bank account? Do you have savings? Do you have a credit card?” And his answers were all yes. The truth was, he didn’t buy expensive gifts for others because he chose not to. It wasn’t because of not having enough money, but he chose to save the money for his children’s school.

These simple questions helped the man gain clarity in life.

Own your decisions. Don’t blame the company or other people. You can (do something) if you want to, you’re just choosing not to. Don’t fool yourself about something that you’re actually owning — this is what clarity is like. — Alice Inoue

Moving towards a greater clarity isn’t something instant, it doesn’t happen with just one positive thought. It’s a mindset shift that takes time and requires commitment of practice.

We’re so lazy we believe every thought that comes out. We believe stuff that we’re told that we never research, so we’re just half a bunch of garbage sometimes in our head that we’re living by. That’s our map and no wonder we’re not happy. — Alice Inoue

We have to start to identify where our belief systems are off, and where we’re looking that’s not taking us in the right direction. This is how we can gradually gain clarity. We must first find out where we are at and then go from there.

Final Thoughts

If you’re feeling lost and overwhelmed in life, this interview with Alice will help you gain insights to find clarity in life so you can start to figure out ways to work towards the life and goals you want to have.

Finding life purpose and happiness in life surely isn’t easy. But you have a life-time to learn and grow to become a better self every day!

The post How to Gain Clarity And Find Happiness in Life by Alice Inoue appeared first on LifeHack.

As the senior operating executive for 10 years, Lee led a team of 40,000 cast members and was responsible for the operations of 20 resort hotels, four theme parks, two water parks, a shopping and entertainment village, and the ESPN Sports and Recreation Complex, in addition to the ancillary operations which supported the number one vacation destination in the world.

One of Lee’s major and lasting legacies was the creation of the Disney Great Leader Strategies, which was used to train and develop the 7,000 leaders at Walt Disney World.

In this episode, Lee is sharing his journey to becoming who he is today, and the lessons he has learned throughout these years in order to live a full life, something that we value a lot at Lifehack.

Check out the full interview video here:

3 Things That Are Important to a Vibrant (And Magical Life)

When Lee was about 35 years old, his responsibilities were growing rapidly because he was getting bigger jobs. With a wife and a child, everything was just piling up and he started to get really stressed out. He was working way too many hours — he was working during weekends, and he was coming in early and staying late. It hurt his marriage as he wife wasn’t happy about that. He also didn’t see his son as much as he wanted to. It was until he took a seminar about time management where he learned about planning and prioritizing.

Lee has shared with us the 3 most important things we should prioritize in order to live a vibrant and magical life with our limited time and energy.

#1 Take Care of Yourself

If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of your team, your company, your business. — Lee Cockerell

Every day at five o’clock after work, Lee went to the gym and worked out before he went home. That was his daily routine. He did his best at work but would not overwork himself nor neglect his health and personal life because of work.

Lee reinforced in the interview the importance of staying fit and healthy. Many don’t feel well, and lack energy and motivation to work because they don’t take good care of their health. Getting enough sleep, having a healthy diet and exercising regularly are all crucial to staying energetic in order to achieve what you want every day.

I weigh exactly what I weighed when I was 55 years ago because I want to and I’m about to I’m about to turn 79 years old. I have more energy than anybody because if you do the right things, it works out. — Lee Cockerell

#2 Take Care of Your Family

I sleep better because I have a great family. We support each other. I don’t want to have any regrets that I wish I had spent more time with them. — Lee Cockerell

Lee invests a lot of time in his family. He goes to vacation, spends Christmas and travel together with his family. He prioritizes his energy and time for his family because he knows family is important to one’s fulfillment in life.

I don’t really care where I’m spending my money as long as enough is going into savings because I can always get that back, but where I’m spending my time. You might not get your wife back if she leaves. — Lee Cockerell

#3 Take Care of Your Business

As a highly successfuly business person, his business is surprisingly the last thing on his list of priorities.

Most people who get very rich and very successful end up with divorces and drug use and all kinds of problems… I don’t need a lot of money, I just need enough. I’m not trying to make gazillions. I don’t need a lot I just need enough. — Lee Cockerell

Lee believes that we can always get more money, but we can never get more time. This is exactly what we believe at Lifehack too. To learn more about this, you can take a look at my article The Truth About the Value of Time in Life where I share about the true value of time.

In addition, Lee had a clear priority of what to focus on when he was still working at Disney. He focused on hiring the right people, training them, and treating them right by making sure they had a good culture. Instead of doing it all on his own, Lee focsued on the high-leverage tasks which had the most impactful results in the business.

Schedule the things that are important to you and that’s how time management plays out. — Lee Cockerell

We can’t do everything and we must learn to say no to some things. Prioritizing and focusing on things that truly matter to him is his key to creating magic at work and in life.

Bottom Line

If you have always believed that success and fulfillment in life is defined by your work or career, I hope this interview with Lee can get you to rethink about that.

Life consists of different aspects, and work is only one part of our lives. To truly live life to the fullest, know what matters to you first, and focus on it. We all have limited time and energy, so don’t invest in stuff that doesn’t matter, and only regret it later in life.

Check out the YouTube video above to watch the full interview, and you will learn so much more!

The post The Key to Creating a Vibrant (And Magical Life) by Lee Cockerell appeared first on LifeHack.

Anna is a writer, coach and professor of cultural history. She has written books on the history of exhaustion and the art of self-development. Anna is deeply passionate about helping people transition from a state of exhaustion to a state of vitality in which they can direct their energy to what really matters in their life.

In this episode, Anna is sharing what exhaustion and burnout means in our fast-paced world today. She is also giving the audience some tips on how to prevent exhaustion and what we can do to transition from a state of exhaustion to a state of vitality.

Check out the full interview video here:

3 Ways to Transition from Exhaustion to Vitality

Anna explains in the interview that when we lose our capacity to experience joy, and when we don’t allow ourselves to engage in activities that make us happy because we feel like we should be working yet we can’t be productive, this is an obvious symptom of burnout.

She has shared 3 simple things we can do to overcome exhaustion and restore energy in the interview:

1. Know What Motivates And Energizes You

Sometimes, exhaustion drags people into a really murky zone where they lose contact with their feelings, values and their deeper aims and purpose in life. By understanding what exhausts you and what gives you energy can help you decide the habits to keep and the actions to avoid.

To know what revives you, what gives you pleasure, joy and what drains you and also what kind of patterns you are burdened with, and how they impact on you in your in your in in your present… The idea is not to let our patterns determine our future too much. — Anna Schaffner

Self-knowledge and self-awareness is important when you’re feeling exhausted because what energizes and drains someone tends to be completely different from others. For example, introverts need to regain energy by being on their own reading and withdrawing from from social interactions; whereas extroverts get energy by spending time with others.

2. Know What Is Under Your Control And What Isn’t

Do you know which of the exhaustion generators in your life can be controlled, and which can’t be controlled?

The ancient stories believe that we can only really control our inner life, our thoughts, our feelings, our responses to external events and that’s always a very good starting point. — Anna Schaffner

When you stop trying to control external circumstances that you can’t control, you will feel less anxious. What you can do is to focus on how you react to external circumstances. The Circles of Control is a geat mental framework to adopt if you want to take better charge of your energy. To learn more about this mental framework, read What Is the Circle of Control (And How to Use It to Stop Feeling Powerless)

3. Remember What Gives You Joy

This is a good exercise but isn’t easy especially when you’re burned out. When we are exhausted, we tend to lose contact with the feeling of joy.

Connect with past memories in which we felt very alive and very joyful and full of vitality… We need to actively remember and envisage how we want to feel, what we want to feel in the future. — Anna Schaffner

If you focus on only how bad you’re feeling when you’re burned out, you only worsen your negative energy. Instead of focusing on what you don’t want to experience, recall the happy memories so you can feel positive again — which is essential to recharging positive energy.

Anna also shared a quick tip on how to diffuse negative thoughts that drain your energy. This quick tip is to start with any negative statement in your head with “I think.”

For example, instead of saying “I’m not good at my job,” say “I think I’m not really good at my job.” Now there’s an element of doubt so the negative statement is not as strong anymore.

You can even add one more layer with “I notice.” For instance, “I notice that I think that I’m not particularly good at my job…” This way, you actually notice what is happening in your brain and you’re just looking at the thought saying it’s not reality and it’s just a thought that isn’t helpful; that it’s a bad habit of thinking that doesn’t doesn’t get us anywhere.

Bottom Line

If you experience any signs of burnout and always feel a lack of energy, stop what you’re doing and take some time to do reflection: What is draining your energy? What can you do now to feel positive again?

To learn all the burnout signs and effective ways to deal with exhaustion, don’t forget to check out the full interview with Anna!

The post How to Transition from Exhaustion to Vitality by Anna Schaffner appeared first on LifeHack.

Nathan has a passion for entrepreneurship and people, which is why he created Foundr, a global media and education company that produces magazines, books and online courses for entrepreneurs.

Nathan believes life is too short to do work you hate, and is on a mission to grow Foundr into a household name that impacts tens of millions of people with its content and online business school.

In this episode, Nathan is sharing how he started Foundr, and his hacks on getting things done as a leader and entrepreneur.

Check out the full interview video here:

You can also listen to the interview on our podcast channel Spotify, Apple Podcast and Google Podcast:

Lessons on Leadership & Productivity from Nathan Chan

Nathan has shared a lot of his thoughts and tips on how to get things done as a productive leader and entrepreneur, here’re some of the key takeaways:

1. Be Disciplined And Stick to a Routine

I’d get up early in the morning and before I started my day job, I would get up at six in the morning, go through emails et cetera… I’m basically going to the office early and find a meeting room and do an interview or two in the morning, then I’d go to my actual job and I’d start at nine. I do interviews during my lunch break as well.

When asked about how he managed time when he was still working a full-time job and starting Foundr, Nathan told us how important it was to stick to a routine.

Despite trying to grow his business, Nathan wants to be able to invest as much time as he can with his family, friends and parents  Stricking a balance is tricky yet essential. Nathan still allows time for family and friends in his disciplined schedule for work. He’d spend time with his family every Sudany and schedule catching up with friends two weeks in advance.

2. Get Help And Focus on Doing Things That You Enjoy

When Nathan just started Foundr, he did almost everything including markeintg, the writing, and the interviews. But he did get help from others and he employed people on a contractual project basis.

When you want to get ahead, sometimes there’s just things you hate that you’re really bad of and you dread it… If you can afford it, find somebody on a contractual project basis and get them to do it. Then you will focus on the things that you enjoy.

Nathan looked at it from the sense of what he was bad at, and that it was actually better for him and the business if he delegated it to someone else.

3. Be Clear of What You Want to Achieve

Many leaders and entrepreneurs struggle about when to step back from the operation and focus on seeing the bigger picture. Nathan has this piece of advice for them:

It comes down to really what you want and what the goals are… what’s the purpose and really how big do you want to build… It’s your job to go out if you want to build something really large and special, that you have to find the best possible people you can, and you have to be a great leader that can lead them.

If you want to achieve something really big, remember that you will need more than just YOU to achieve it.

4. Find the Right People to Help You

Nathan mentioned one thing that was truly inspiring in the interview:

There are people that are better than you at all sorts of different things, and you can’t be a master of every single trade.

So when it comes to getting help, it’s about the who instead of the what — who has done it before? Who has solve a similar problem already? How can you help your team and share with them these people who have done it before to give them the blueprints?

By providing your team with resources, education, and introducing them to people who have “been there, done that,” you can skill up the team effectively.

5. Empower Your Team Members Instead of “Managing” Them

Nathan believes that in order for a team to drive outcomes, it’s important to help the mebers to discover themselves what they could be doing to make improvements. To him, the key to communication comes down to making sure everyone knows where they’re going, what they need to do and what success looks like as a company at a company level, a team level as well as an individual level.

Like getting things done, it’s not good just saying hey do this, go do this…. because really you don’t want to be thinking for people, you want to empower them, you want to give them ownership, you want to give them autonomy, you want to give them accountability.

At Foundr, Nathan encourages and fosters an environment for continuous growth and learning, so team members are empowered to do their best work with autonomy at Foundr.

Bottom Line

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a leader at work, these leadership lessons by Nathan will surely help you become a more productive and effective leader.

If you want to watch the full interview with Nathan, don’t forget to check out the YouTube video above. Stay tuned with us on The Lifehack Show as we will be interviewing more leaders and productivity experts!

The post 5 Lessons on How to Be a Productive Leader by Nathan Chan appeared first on LifeHack.

When life hits you hard, you feel frustrated, lost and miserable. This is normal.

When things don’t go as planned, we start to experience a lack of control, and that is truly depressing. It affects how we behave; it prevents us from being happy, and we feel stressed out as a result of all the self-doubt we are experiencing. Luckily, by using the Life Multipliers – the core skills for life, you will be able to take back control of life and achieve what you want.

Learn from this episode of the Lifehack Show how to utilize the Life Multipliers.

The post How to Take Control of Your Life When Life Feels Hard appeared first on LifeHack.

What is your life purpose? How do you find your life purpose and how does having one, or not, impact your life?

When we don’t have a sense of purpose , our life can not only feel meaningless but it lessens the quality of different aspects of our lives. If you have a purpose, then all your goals will be directed towards reaching that big goal. Each step you take is then made more meaningful because you know it’s in the service of your life purpose.

From this episode of the Lifehack Show, you will learn how to find your life purpose and live life to the fullest.

The post Finding Life Purpose: Why Is It Important And How To Find It? appeared first on LifeHack.

Most of us juggle between work and life, and learning how to balance all aspects of life is no easy task.

Maybe you’re overwhelmed by daily demands. Maybe you don’t feel like you have enough time and energy. You just can’t seem to manage all your aspects of life efficiently, and you start to feel as if your life is falling apart.

So, what can you do?

In this episode of the Lifehack Show, you will learn how to maximize every aspect of life so you can take back control and live the life you want.

The post How to Maximize Every Aspect of Life And Improve Your Life Quality appeared first on LifeHack.

Working from home can pose productivity challenges to many. Quite a lot of people struggle to stay focused while working from home because of all sorts of distractions they can come across at home, including their kids, pets and family chores. So what can you do to stay focused and get things done quickly while working from home? In this episode of the Lifehack Show, I’m sharing with you 3 important ways to work from home without getting distracted.

The post How to Work from Home Without Getting Distracted? appeared first on LifeHack.

Do you have a lot of fears in life? Are you struggling with the fear of failure, the fear of uncertainty and the fear of success?

You don’t have to be in fear all the time! Learn how to deal with uncertainties and take control of your mind to become courageous in life in this episode of the Lifehack Show.

The post How to Be More Courageous in Life appeared first on LifeHack.

Often, people are not satisfied with their lives because they focus on what they don’t have or cannot do. We all want to find peace, purpose, and happiness in what we do. But sometimes, it can be hard to know where to start. If you’re looking for ways to live a life of fulfillment, a few tips in this episode of the Lifehack Show can help.

The post Living a Life of Fulfillment: How To Find Peace, Purpose, And Happiness appeared first on LifeHack.

We can all live a life we love. It all starts with transforming yourself into the person you want to become. The only way for this transformation to happen is by being honest about who you are and your true desires in life.

Learn from this episode of the Lifehack Show how to make the change and start to live life to the fullest.

The post How to Live the Life You Love: Transform Into Anything You Desire appeared first on LifeHack.

Success in life is different for everyone. Success might mean achieving their dream career. It can also mean owning a luxurious home, traveling to all the places we’ve ever wanted to go. It can also mean simply living happily ever after- just content and grateful every day that you wake up healthy and alive with nothing to worry about. Though success means something different for everyone, there are certain success principles we all can improve on if we choose to do so.

Find out the important success tips in this episode of The Lifehack Show.

The post Startling Life Success Tips That Help to Live the Life of Dreams appeared first on LifeHack.

Time management happens to be one of the most important skills in everyone’s life. If you don’t know how to manage your time, you probably can’t achieve much!

In this episode of the Lifehack Show, I’ll show you what you can do to manage your time efficiently and make the best out of your time. Learn how to stop juggling all of your responsibilities at once, and start living a more productive and less stressful life.

The post How to Manage Time Efficiently And Make the Best of Your Time appeared first on LifeHack.

Do you have an aim in life? Truth is, if you lack an aim in life, you’re likely to live an unfulfilling life because you don’t know what you’re living for.

In this episode of The Lifehack Show, I’m going to talk about the importance of having a good aim.

The post What Should Be Your Aim In Life? appeared first on LifeHack.

Be it in your personal life or professional life, efficiency is crucial. It is a measure of how dedicated you are in terms of work or other things as well.

In this episode of the Lifehack Show, I’m showing you how to spend less time doing unimportant stuff so that you have more time for things that really matter to you.

The post How To Become More Efficient in Life appeared first on LifeHack.

Have you ever wondered why you keep messing up big opportunities? Are you not getting important things done?

In this episode of the Lifehack Show, I’ll explain about the danger of procrastination and why NOW is the time to take action! After watching this video, you’ll also learn how to prioritize tasks so you’ll stop feeling overwhelmed easily and stop putting things off!

The post STOP Procrastinating NOW: How To Prioritize Tasks Or Else appeared first on LifeHack.