#33: Productivity, gut feelings, and transform your life

Excuse the shameless plug, but this week I’m pre-launching a new email course: The Power Up Your Life Masterplan. And I’d love for you, my loyal Power Up readers to get it for the special introductory price of just €9.

In this 10-day email course, including a FREE workbook for the first 1,000 sign-ups, I’ll walk you through the tried and tested steps I took to reconnect with my purpose, gain confidence, focus and renewed energy, giving me a much greater sense of contentment, freedom & direction as a result.

It could change your life like it did mine.

Although in many countries conversations have begun about the gradual return of employees to workplaces, it seems likely that working from home more often will be a big part of the ‘new normal’.

Whilst many of us have found a good routine for home office – the optimum location, working hours, exercise breaks etc – others just can’t get used to it. 

If you find yourself in that second group, here’s a collection of validated methods to try that could better optimise your productivity, creativity, collaboration and accountability. Fingers crossed!

Over the past couple of years I’ve really noticed an increase in general awareness of anxiety, how to identify it, and the many ways it impacts our lives.

It’s refreshing – and extremely helpful – that people now feel aware and psychologically safe enough to share their anxiety with friends and colleagues. 

And whilst anxiety and overthinking are  most often regarded as negatives, they  don’t always have to be. Anxiety is, after all, an evolutionary response to a potential threat that kept our ancestors alive for thousands of years – so it does have some often overlooked practical benefits, that this article examines. 

In a fast developing field of science, there is growing evidence of the gut-to-brain connection.
This article reports on some of the latest findings, including the link between the bacteria found in our guts and both our immune systems and memory loss. 

No clue what you want to do with your life?

Author Mark Manson’s advice is to not overthink things or pin so much on the lofty goal of finding your ‘true purpose’, but instead set your sights on the more achievable target of finding ‘important ways to spend your time’.

In this piece he shares a range of unconventional and thought-provoking questions to help you get there. Including, what’s your favourite flavour of shit sandwich?

Our happiness depends on learning to be gentle with ourselves.

Many of us have been raised to believe that being tough on ourselves is necessary for success in life. Like the army drill sergeant hurling insults at their “soft” recruits, we grow up believing that we’ll always be weak unless we “get tough” with ourselves.

And so we develop habits of harshness. 

However, if we’re constantly judging and criticising ourselves for things we can’t control, we’re going to feel weak, worthless, and eventually, hopeless.

This piece by psychologist Nick Wignall shines a light on this common phenomena, and shows us how and why we can employ greater self compassion.