2 Scientifically Proven Daily Tips to Help You Manage Multiple Hustles
It only takes 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening
It only takes 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening
Life is sometimes hectic and stressful; today’s busy lifestyle requires us to be productive, focused, and mindful. Especially if you have multiple hustles and a family, you need to manage your free time effectively.
I have a full-time job, a side hustle as a consultant, and at the same time run multiple projects, and create content on this platform. So productivity and time management is essential.
But, we all know that it is not possible to remember every productivity tip out there. For instance, when I google “how to increase your productivity,” these are my top results:
At first glance, they seem helpful, but on a serious note. 50 ways?
The human brain can only remember three to four things in our working memory.
When I was a strategy consultant, I was told you need to keep your key points at max 3, and for a good reason. The 50 ways you read from that article will be forgotten after 24 hours, and you most probably will give up on trying to put it into practice.
So in this article, I want to keep it simple and introduce to you 2 daily tips that have helped me increase my productivity.
They are scientifically proven, easy to remember, and effective even if you follow them from today.
All it takes is 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening.
Morning Tip: Exercising 20 minutes in the morning
The first daily tip I want to share with you is exercising 20 minutes in the morning. I know, how original, talking about exercising on a productivity article.
But hear me out, there are 3 key points that I want to share with you before you move on.
First, exercise boosts your brain’s health by increasing BDNF, Dopamine/Adrenaline, and Serotonin. Of course, it goes without saying that exercising helps you with your brain activity, but let me break down the reasons as to why.
📑 Increase levels of BDNF (a protein called “brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which helps you boost learning and memory. It helps create new brain cells in the hippocampus and supports neurons to strengthen synapses. BDNF is necessary for learning new things and storing them in your memory. If you are a curious learner, it is imperative to have strong levels of BDNF. The strong correlation had motivated clinicians to prescribe exercising to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
👊 Increase dopamine and adrenaline levels: Multiple experiments prove the strong correlation between a bout of exercise and a release of dopamine. Dopamine is a critical factor in increasing your concentration. “When dopamine levels rise, you subconsciously want more of the good feeling it gives you, so you’re driven to concentrate on whatever you’re doing to keep getting it,” says Lucy Jo Palladino, Ph. D.
😃Increase levels of serotonin: Exercise has also been linked to increasing levels of serotonin. Serotonin helps you relieve stress and depression. A common antidepressant drug is called SSRI, which is designed to boost serotonin levels and help kick off the production of new brain cells, which lifts depression.
Second, you can reap the benefits of exercising within 20 minutes. Although we all have vaguely heard that exercising helps your brain activity, it is not clear how much exercise is needed.
Research from Illinois State University has shown that a 20-minute bout of physical activity can increase cognitive performance.
In the experiment, students have tested a series of stimulus-discrimination tests following a 20-minute resting period and on another day, after a 20-minute session walking on a treadmill. They found out that kids performed better and accurately on complex tasks after a 20-minute walking session.
The key point of the research is that even a 20-minute walk can provide you with the benefits of exercise.
Finally, the benefits of exercise can be felt even when starting today, despite being sedentary (did not exercise regularly). Researchers in Darthmouth college designed an experiment where they separated participants into 4 groups when testing their novel object recognition (NOR) memory.
The 4 groups were people who performed: (a) a 4-week exercise program, with exercise on the final test day, (b) a 4-week exercise program, without exercise on the final test day, (c) a single bout of exercise on the final test day, or (d) remaining sedentary between test days.
The results show that (evidently) the participants in group (a) performed the best. People who exercise regularly and had an exercise on the test day performed well. But the people who finished second were people in group (c). These are people who were sedentary but exercised only on the last day.
The research suggests that you could immediately reap the benefits even if you weren’t regularly exercising before.
Personally, I try to run 20~30 minutes in the morning before I start my work. In addition, remote work has made exercising between meetings more viable, and I highly recommend starting today!
TL;DR: Exercising in the morning helps boosts your productivity and mood during the day. Even a simple 20-minute exercise will help you, and you can feel the effects starting today.
Evening Tip: Scheduling the Next Day Before Sleeping
The second tip I highly recommend is scheduling your calendar the next day before you sleep. This idea comes from Cal Newport, an associate professor at Georgetown University and author of “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.”
In his book, he recommends a shutdown ritual similar to a light switch at the end of the day. The ritual signals your brain to “let go” of all work-related or personal-related projects and rest comfortably until you rise the following day.
There is ample evidence that suggests why this shutdown ritual is so important. For example, Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik theorized that people remember unfinished tasks better than completed ones.
It is now called the Zeigarnik effect, but it explains why cliffhangers in TV shows are memorable and luring for the viewer. The feeling of angst when you look at the words “TO BE CONTINUED…” is attributed to the human tendency to finish tasks that they have started. This is why Netflix has a billion-dollar business with its autoplay function.
The Zeigarnik effect plays into full effect even in your daily life. The average human being has about 15 projects (from small projects to large projects), and they tend to linger in your head. The feeling gives you anxiousness, and your brain is switched “on” even when you go to bed.
The good news is that research from Masicampo, E.J & Baumeiseter, R. F. (2011) suggests that planning can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. They tested the idea by frequently interrupting intrusive thoughts to participants throughout various tasks: reading tasks, anagram tasks, and others.
When participants made concrete plans about that unfinished goal, they experienced less intrusive thoughts. Making plans help free up mental space, and it gives the sense of completion and allows the brain to rest comfortably.
Personally, I used to write down a long to-do list to be completed the next day. But, of course, you get greedy with them. And I frequently found myself unable to finish the tasks that I wrote, which discouraged me.
What I found best was to write down the tasks directly on your calendar. And when doing so give yourself a buffer (about 1.5~2x). For example, if a certain task usually takes you 30 minutes, block 1 hour on your calendar. Giving yourself a buffer allows you to complete your tasks in time and even gives you extra time.
The sense of completion boosts your dopamine and allows you to continue the habit daily.
TL;DR: Your projects linger in your head and can prohibit you from having a good rest. To alleviate your brain’s angst, plan how to complete them by scheduling your calendar the next day before you sleep.
These two tips are what stuck in my life and which I practice daily. The 20 minutes of exercise in the morning boosts your productivity and mood throughout the day, and the 20 minutes at night will allow you to give yourself a good rest.
For me, simplicity and minimalism is the key to navigate through this chaotic, information-overloaded times, and hopefully, it can help you by starting today.
References
[1] University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Physical activity may strengthen children’s ability to pay attention
[2]Brain Plasticity | The Effects of Acute Exercise on Mood, Cognition, Neurophysiology, and Neurochemical Pathways: A Review
[3]Dartmouth College | Differential effects of acute and regular physical exercise on cognition and affect
[4]Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals.
[5]Cal Newport| Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
[6]Mentalist DaiGo| Tips to Change Your Life