Productivity Joy (eBook)

Feel Energised and Be Effective in 5 Minutes a Day

Simi Rayat (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
272 Seiten
Wiley (Verlag)
978-1-394-28222-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Start your day feeling energised, focused and ready to conquer your goals

What's holding you back from being your most productive self? Do you often feel like you're surviving, rather than thriving? If you're overwhelmed, unfulfilled or burnt out, you need to discover Productivity Joy. Whether you're a professional, an entrepreneur, a parent or a student, this step-by-step guide will show you how to embrace a life filled with purpose and passion.

In Productivity Joy, psychologist and leadership coach Simi Rayat shares her proven, science-backed 5Q formula - supported by practical solutions and real-world examples - to help you boost your productivity. Inside, you'll learn how to assess your current emotions, to set goals based on your values and to prioritise in a way that honours your time. All it takes is just 5 minutes a day to create a joy-filled, productive life.

Productivity Joy will take you on a journey to:

• Overcome procrastination and stay focused
• Gain energy and foster gratitude
• Increase your effectiveness and feel purposeful
• Show up as the best version of yourself
• Craft your day for maximum impact

To conquer every day, you need to harness your emotions and your focus. This game-changing book offers the key to unlocking your full productivity power, priming you to feel accomplished, energised and intentional each day.

'A must-read - Simi's evidence-based 5Qs Formula helps transform busy professionals, helping you achieve more of what matters, with more joy!' - Shadé Zahrai, co-founder of Influenceo Global and Peak Performance Educator for Fortune 500s

 'Simi touches the human soul and heart without judgement. Her 5Q approach is simple and practical and helps you design your day for impact and joy.' - Elif Kaypak, VP Global Marketing, Coca-Cola Brand

 'A fantastic tool for any busy professional looking to optimise their experience of, and output from, their working life. I have found the simple and pragmatic framework invaluable in helping me to continue to become the professional, leader, and person I aspire to be.' - Chris Jewel-Clark, Legal and General Plc

9781394282210

Simi Rayat is a registered psychologist and executive coach with 20 years' experience in business psychology consulting. She has helped hundreds of professionals globally with her innovative, practical and evidence-based techniques.

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Introduction

Do you feel like no matter how much you do, there is always so much more to do? Do you feel like it's only a matter of time before you drop one of the balls and forget something or let yourself or someone else down? Do you think you still have so much yet to accomplish but feel exhausted, drained and sometimes lack the motivation and energy to do what's in your heart? Do you wake up and not have time to even notice the roses, let alone smell them?

In this state, you're constantly in survival mode, completely caught up in the hustle and bustle of modern life. You constantly feel on edge, anticipating the next challenge or setback and struggling to find balance amid the chaos. Each day feels like a race just to get through to the end, not to stuff up, while barely keeping it all together. Yet somehow, along the way, you expect yourself to be calm, present, focused, productive and rational and do your best despite what life throws your way.

Being in a constant mode of survival is no fun; you are always on the lookout, on high alert, highly strung, and stuck in the reactive nature of the here and now. Constantly feeling like this takes a toll on your emotional, mental and physical health, which in turn affects your ability to do and achieve your best. Your productivity suffers, as does your wellbeing. Your relationships also suffer, as those closest to you often bear the brunt of your abrupt or reactive responses.

As I outline in the preface, I was intimately familiar with this state. I also knew my story was not mine alone, and it served as an important reminder that even those who appear to have it all together can battle internal struggles in silence. Finding solace in this realisation, I understood that acknowledging my own challenges was where I would find true strength and resilience. By taking proactive steps forward, even if they were small, I could begin to break free from stagnation and feel empowered and energised.

At this very moment, I realised I had the power to create something truly transformative, a tool that went beyond mere survival and could unlock the full potential of the human mind and spirit to help myself — and others — thrive. Having counselled and coached countless individuals through their own struggles, I knew I possessed a wealth of knowledge and insight that could benefit me in my current phase of life and serve as a beacon of hope for others. With each person I had helped over the years, I had gained invaluable insights into the intricacies of the human psyche, and now it was time to apply that wisdom to my own life. I knew that by using my journey and the lessons I learned along the way, I could find a way to inspire others to reap the benefits of transforming their mindsets for optimal daily living.

This realisation prompted me to question how our brains could be primed for greatness at the start of the day, when they are at their most malleable. Before being distracted by the challenges of the day, how could we activate and optimise our brain in a way that helps us to thrive? I started to explore the daily rituals of high-performing professionals. Through research into existing morning routines and beyond, I identified a gap: the absence of a reliable, science-backed method to prime the brain at the start of the day, to foster daily productivity and happiness.

I felt a genuine renewed sense of purpose and determination, and set out to develop an effective, simple and practical approach to a morning formula. It would not only nourish my mindset but also empower me to break free from the constant cycle of survival. This led to the development of my 5Qs Formula, and during this process I underwent my own transformation. After a long time, I finally experienced a profound sense of internal alignment, harmonising both my heart and head. I did the deep inner work to develop my impact, cultivate emotional connection, find balance, maintain rational thinking even during high pressure and stress, and embrace my inner strength. Importantly, once developed, I knew I could then pass on this formula to others.

As I worked through the process of developing and fine-tuning the formula, leaning heavily into psychology, neuroscience and my leadership experience, I knew that its principles were not just meant for me alone; they were meant to be shared with the world. Each insight gained from my years of counselling, mentoring and coaching hundreds of individuals became the building block, a cornerstone in the foundation of this transformative formula.

Introducing the 5Qs Formula

The 5Qs Formula is a science-backed, proven formula to prime the brain, unlock the full potential within and cultivate an intentional and optimistic mindset to maximise daily productivity and happiness. The formula derives its name from its five core questions, each designed to catalyse self-reflection, priming, accountability and daily personal growth. The 5Qs Formula helps you do more of what matters, magnifies your joy and helps you be 5 per cent better each day.

You can think of the 5Qs Formula as a compass that guides you through the vast sea of daily life. By starting your day with taking stock of your emotional state (question one), acknowledging the winds of gratitude (question two), assessing your current position and trajectory (question three), plotting your course with specific goals (question four) and finally setting sail with intention and purpose (question five), you ensure that you're steering towards your desired direction for the day ahead. Without this intentional navigation at the outset of your day, you risk drifting aimlessly or being at the mercy of the external currents. By starting the day with the 5Qs Formula, you can gain a clear sense of direction, empowerment and resilience, enabling you to navigate life's challenges and opportunities with clarity and purpose.

The five questions in the formula are as follows:

• Question 1: What is your emotional temperature, and what are you feeling today?
• Question 2, parts A and B: What experiences, things or people in your life are you grateful for because they inspire you to be a better version of yourself? Think of a time you have received gratitude and appreciation from someone; how did it make you feel?
• Question 3: What is working well for you right now, and what could be working better for you?
• Question 4: What three things do you want to achieve today?
• Question 5: How will you show up today?

Through focusing on these questions, the 5Qs Formula provides a reliable, science-backed solution to prime your brain to address productivity issues, energy stagnation and interpersonal communication issues. And it only takes five minutes a day! Ultimately, these five minutes spent priming your brain can help you lead a more fulfilling and successful life.

And you can even use the following PRIME acronym as a memory prompt when you first start out:

• P: Pinpoint emotions and feelings.
• R: Recognise gratitude.
• I: Identify what is working and could be working better.
• M: Make a list of three high-impact tasks for today.
• E: Envision how you want to show up today.

After outlining some of the basics in part I of this book, each of the chapters in part II is dedicated to one of the 5Qs Formula questions, to help you understand why the question is important and how it helps you maximise your productivity and joy. I've also included lots of examples throughout the book, taken from my own experience and the many clients I've worked with. (All names have been changed.) These examples, along with the self-reflection exercises through the book, help you to get started and apply the learning to your own experience.

Getting primed to act — from the start of your day

Have you been to a restaurant, looked at the menu, and been completely spoilt for choice on what to order, because everything sounds so delicious and appealing? Being a vegetarian for my entire life, I've often found myself at restaurants only being able to choose from one or two vegetarian meals on the menu, especially when growing up in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s. However, after migrating to Melbourne, Australia, in 2009 and settling into the northern suburbs, I found myself in a bohemian area with fully vegetarian restaurants, where I could actually order anything from the entire menu.

Because this was a rare situation to be in, I excitedly read and re-read the menu to see what dish I really wanted to order. I found myself in the unusual situation of having too many choices and, in a sense, I was stuck in the decision-paralysis mode by my overwhelming options. It took me so much longer to decide because I had too many other similarly attractive food options. I procrastinated in making a decision, and then second-guessed my decision, overthinking what I would really like. All this deliberation over a simple menu choice — clearly a ‘first world issue’ to contend with.

This sort of decision-paralysis — and sometimes over the smallest of choices — is far from unusual, however. In fact, research shows we make over 3500 decisions per day, most of which are not of high impact or relevance, or conducive to productivity, wellbeing and relationships. When faced with too many choices, and especially when the options are more similar than dissimilar, most people find making a...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 23.9.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung
• ISBN-10: 1-394-28222-2 / 1394282222
• ISBN-13: 978-1-394-28222-7 / 9781394282227