Productivity Gladiator

In this episode, Soness Stevens, the Original TEDx Speaker Coach,joins Brian to talk about getting, giving, & excelling at, a TEDx Talk. This episode is a departure from the normal episode, since Brian’s TEDx talk went live and went viral, Brian’s received a lot of questions about how to get a TEDx talk, and tips or advice on giving one. This episode with Soness shares solid answers to those questions.Link for the full page with all the details, the video, and more, for this episode:https://www.productivitygladiator.com/episodes/soness-stevens-getting-giving-excelling-at-a-ted-talkToday’s GuestSoness StevensThe 1st TEDx Speaker coachwww.yourspeakingjourney.comSoness Stevens LinkedInSoness Stevens, the Original TEDx Speaker Coach is a communications expert, four-time speaker at TEDx, coach to more than 140 TED & TEDx presenters, and member of the TED Global faculty. Her stories inspire audiences to cry, laugh, and give standing ovations. Audiences of 10 to 1,000 are moved, connected, and engaged by Soness's presentations. 750,000 people have undergone transformation over 20 years.You can contact Soness Stevens here.***************When do you know you have an idea that’s Good for a TEDx talk?—TED calls a talk an “idea worth spreading”—Chris Anderson, the head of TED says:“Everyone has an idea worth spreading” —Soness adds to that:“…when they make it clear concise and replicable.”The application processBrian’s Process: it took 2 years (with a 14 month COVID Delay):—Researched over 100 events.—23 applications in total / ended up with 2 offers.—Idea combined with a story people can relate to.—2 offers within a couple of weeks for each other.Other recommendations:—Pick an event that’s relevant to your topic and to your audience—Recommend focusing on one event and one application at a time. A good quality and tailored application to a specific event, with a video of yourself mentioning your idea, will beat the “blast everyone with the same blueprint” every time. —Only accept or plan to give one TEDx talk at a time, for one idea at a time. In a TEDx speaker application 4 things to address: 1) What’s the idea worth spreading?2) How does your talk align with that TEDx event’s theme? 3) Why should anyone care?4) Why should they listen to YOU share the idea?Developing Your TalkFrom Brian: Write it first, focus entirely on the content and “what you’ll say”, up until 4 weeks before talk, then switch to memorizing your delivery on “how you’ll say it”.For 6 months - 3x per week zoom calls with friends. I read them the talk and showed them the slides. At the end, I asked them “On a scale of 0-not at all likely, to 10-extremely likely, how likely would you be to recommend this talk to a friend or colleague.?” and “Tell me why?”. This is the Net Promoter Score question. When I was consistently getting 9s & 10s almost all the time I knew the content of the talk was ready.From Soness:Takes more of a creative side, must bring in your personality. Bring out the type of person. Unique delivery to you. Make sure you bring in your humor. Feedback should be taken with a grain of salt. Everyone wants to be helpful, so they’re going to give you whatever they can think of, that can cause you to lose track of your talk completely. Delivering Your Talk—Clear & Concise—From Brian “I recommend it’s memorized word for word, you should be so comfortable with it it’s like wearing an old pair of pants.” —From Soness, one of her clients said “I know this talk so well I feel like I could give it while changing a tire in the rain.”What to do after your TEDx talk Comes Out—From Soness: Some people experience post talk shame where they want to “take it back”. Overcoming this comes from good preparation and connection with your talk. Often that shame comes from not being comfortable with it when you give it.—Media blitz and share it with everyone you know. —Set up your posts and emails in advance. —You can even prerecord interviews and then have the channel wait to put them out until your TEDx talk is released.Links to TEDx Talks referenced in this episode:Brian’s Talk: Reimagining the actual value of your time | Brian Nelson-Palmer | TEDxWhitingSpeakers Soness Mentioned Stories About:How to deal with toxic family relationships | Johnson Chong | TEDxRolandParkThe Bystander Effect: Why Some People Act and Others Don't | Kelly Charles-Collins | TEDxOcalaA Corporation is a Collection of Unique Souls like You & Me | Shirley Liu | TEDxCambridgeUniversityThe Flipside of Loneliness | Monica Rivera | TEDxFlatbushHappy Soles: Happy Souls | Rob Nugen | TEDxOgikuboWHAT EVERY WOMAN NEEDS TO KNOW TO CLOSE THE GENDER GAP | AYSHA VAN DE PAER | TEDxLausanneWomenBooks To Help Prepare For A TEDx TalkTalk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Mindsby Carmine GalloHow to Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World's Most Inspiring Presentations: Revised and Expanded New Editionby Jeremey DonovanTED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speakingby Chris AndersonWhy Subscribe To The Email List: Brian does special zoom events and shares hacks and tips exclusively for his email subscribers. This like “12 alternatives to checking social media on your phone” or “2 email rules which will cut your email inbox in half” and more. Sign up to start receiving the results from these events! About The Creator/Host: I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. As a kid I took time for granted, but now as an adult, time is the most precious thing that I have. I teach overworked project managers how to level-up their life balance and pump up their practical productivity through my Productivity Gladiator training system. If what you’ve seen here intrigues you, reach out, let’s chat! Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely.

In this episode, Brian shares his “year in review” for 2022, the process he uses to create the review, a template so you can try your own, and the steps he follows to automate the reminders to check back in throughout the year(s) to see if you’re still on track. Link for the full page with all the details, the video, and more, for this episode:https://www.productivitygladiator.com/episodes/my-year-in-review-heres-how-i-do-itThe Evolution Of My Year-In-ReviewRight up front, I admit that I poopoo’d this year-in-review practice for years. In my early career I heard about people doing this “year in review” thing. My thinking back then was “If YOU want to waste all that time reflecting on your year that’s fine, but I’m killing it at work right now so I’m going to keep killing it. I know what I’m doing, no need to reflect.” Looking back, I WAS WRONG. Looking back now, I think I was wrong for 2 reasons. 1) I was missing that there is a lot of power in making sure you’re headed toward my goals.I now think there’s real power in stepping back and looking at where you’re headed. In the day to day, I would often get so focused on driving metrics, completing tasks, and working toward goals, that I often lost sight of the big picture, I “couldn’t see the forest for the trees”. This reflection has really helped me to both appreciate just HOW MUCH I’ve accomplished AND reach some important realizations on whether I was really happy with the direction I was headed.2) I was completely missing the reflection and course correction in my personal life. Most of the reflection I did was entirely focused on my professional life. Performance reviews at work really facilitate this process. Your “annual performance review” is the time when you can and should do this professionally, and discuss it with your boss since they may have good ideas and further direction you can incorporate. The problem though is that I never gave myself my own personal performance review. My personal life was just “happening” to me, like I was a passenger on that train, not driving it. I missed doing a “performance review” of sorts for my personal life. Coming around to it took yearsFor more than a decade of my early career, I never even considered doing my own “year in review”. Then from around 2012 to 2019, my steadfast opposition to the practice slowly started to soften. Each year, the people in the productivity space which I followed and looked up to would talk in their blog posts and podcasts about their “year in review” they’d completed and the realizations they’d had. Over the course of 7 years, hearing these messages each year was enough to slowly shift my thinking from a “this is dumb” idea to a “hmmm, I wonder what would happen if I tried it” idea. Finally, in 2019 I did my first one of these for myself and I can honestly say, I was wrong, I love this practice of reflecting on my personal “year in review”. I also feel like I leveled up my personal life significantly!I think the power is in differentiating your “personal” from your “professional” Year-In-review.My year-in-review I’m going to share is entirely my “personal” year-in-review. In all my work now teaching life balance and personal productivity, people often lose sight of the “life” part of their “work-life balance”. I think there’s real power that comes from doing this for yourself, for you as a person, separate from you as a professional. ——What about my hobbies, & side hustles that produce income?For me, I have a primary job/career that is my primary source of income, but I also have several side hustles. Some of you may probably identify with that. Those side hustles are included in my personal year-in-review, the main job is not. Here’s where I draw the line - if my hobby or side hustle includes an annual performance review, then I do my reflecting for that one during that review. It’s alright if I touch on some of these or mention them in my personal year-in-review, but it shouldn’t be the focus here. Your personal review is on your life and your personal pursuits. ——-The Structure Of My Year-In-ReviewI keep this pretty simple, I try to capture the “highs”, the “lows”, revisiting what I said before, and then what I’m going to do now. Laid out, the sections look like this, and I have a template you can use for this later:-HIGHLIGHTS—-Accomplishments & Things That Brought Me Joy—-There were trips!—-Relationships-Last year, I said I was going to do some things this year. How’d I do on those?-Other FRUSTRATIONS, disappointments, and things that made me sad this year:-The CHANGES and NEW GOALS for YYYY—-Here’s My 2022 Year-In-ReviewHIGHLIGHTS for 2022:Accomplishments & Things That Brought Me JoyLived a true snowbird life by spending the winter in Florida for 9 weeks from late December to late February: Panama City Beach-2 weeks, Downtown Tampa-2 weeks, St. Pete-2 weeks, Clearwater-2 weeks, St. Augustine-1 week.In April Nikki and I started working with a nutrition coach. We have been counting macros for the rest of the year; I’m down 7-ish lbs from my high and I’m a notch or two tighter in the belts.This was my fourth year volunteering with the Wammies, we were finally back “in person” too and had a big red carpet event at the Capital Turnaround at the end of March. Big event, Big success!TEDxTalk Success!  60+ Initial calls with people, and 50+ practice runs, the live event in June, plus a 5 month wait for the video to go live in November, but I finally did it!  Woo!  New Car for Nikki AND for myself!  Finally driving a vehicle I can tow a boat with!I was out on the boat 29 times!  Got to play drums again with Fellowcraft twice!  Reunion baby! Played a wedding, and a private show in someone’s front yard for Halloween.  Joined the “Big Brother Big Sister” organization as a volunteer Big Bro, was connected with my Little Bro and hung out with him about twice a month; 14 times in total!  Launched the Productivity Gladiator Podcast. 7 episodes completed this year! Averaging about one per month. LOVE the cool conversations I’ve had and the really cool people I’ve gotten to meet, and I feel like I’m really delivering value with each episode.Switched from a beard to a go-tee, and NO ONE has noticed or said anything, so I’m taking that as a good sign. Reinforces that my cheeks don’t grow hair thick enough to make it worth doing the full beard, so now have a “cleaner” look without all that sparse cheek hair.  Sticking with this for now.Started working with a coach for Productivity Gladiator and this has really helped me focus and start making targeted progress. I feel more focused than ever on what I’m doing there.We were able to find renters to live in our condo while we’re down in FL this winter! Woo!  I was going to have to step back from volunteering with the Wammies, but they countered and offered me a contract to keep working on it. I LOVE the Wammies, love the team I’m working with, and love supporting an organization like the Musicianship, which does so much good for the community in DC! Wedding Venue Contract signed, date locked in, we’re off to a good start here!There were trips!Florida snowbird this winter for 2.5 months New York CityWhiting, New JerseyAtlanta, GAPennsylvania 4x - Philly & Blandon several timesVA Beach 2xNorth Carolina 3x - Charlotte, Saluda (near Asheville) & Oak IslandMaryland 3x - Baltimore, Kent Narrows, & Ocean CityRelationshipsI’m engaged!  I proposed, and Nikki said YES! I’m a lucky man with this one. Gonna be an amazing wedding!I so treasure my relationship with the “dinner party group” as we have come to call ourselves. It’s a close group of adult friends, and that’s not easy to do in today’s day and age.  We text each other directly, this isn’t just a social media connection.    6 official “dinner parties” with our dinner party group, though countless other hangouts that go way beyond dinner partiesFlorida friends! I was able to reconnect with people I haven’t seen in years in Florida, making the time we spent in Florida during the winter so much more fun!Made some amazing new adult friends that have “stuck” this year. This seems to be hard in general as adults, ‌but it’s happening, and these are some amazing people!Last year, I said I was going to do some things this year.  How’d I do on those?I SAID: Snowbird life continues: We’re headed down to FL for over 2 months to start the year. Last year we did a 3 week trip to FL during the winter and loved it. Since 100% remote work is still a possibility for both of us, we’re going again for longer this year. Ultimately, we think we want to be regulars going down to Tampa in the colder months, so this year we’re going to be checking it out, hopping around between different parts to scope it out while we’re there.Success here!  Decided that St Pete will be our move going forward!I SAID:  Boat Life: Still a member of the boat club, but the restrictions as a club member are annoying (ex: no evenings, no sunsets, I must book weekend reservations weeks in advance, there are no overnights available without booking at least a month in advance, etc). We’re ready to take the plunge and get a boat of our own. This will mean when my car lease is up this summer, we’ll be getting a truck or SUV that can tow a boat, then we’ll be trying to get the boat. *fingers crossed”Success!  Traded my car in for a truck that can tow a boat, and found the boat I want to buy, working on this up to the very last day of the year, anticipate getting the boat by February at the latest. I SAID:  Weight Loss: It’s time to work with a nutrition coach. I feel like I recognize the things I need to change, but I also think there’s so much more I can and should learn in this area. I’ve got the gym part covered, but I have got to get the “diet” right, which means it’s time to “go back to school” on that. Most of it will just be better discipline on my part. I recognize this. That said, I want to work with a few different coaches/sources. I call it “learning by committee” and the older I get, the more I’d rather learn from “a committee” of different people with different perspectives. I think that leverages the knowledge to bring me to an even better place, rather than just learning one way from one coach.  Moderate progress here!  Found a nutrition coach! Working with him has been great.  I’m down about 7lbs from where I was, though I’m certainly hoping to be down more than that. Hoping this next year will bring even better resultsI SAID:  I’d like to do more volunteering with a youth organization such as the Boys and Girls club, or Demolay. I want to give back to the next generation.Success!  I joined the Big Brother Big Sister organization, and am a big brother. My little brother, Shiloh, and I have hung out a couple of times a month!I SAID:  I’d like some more “Uncle Brian” time. I want to make sure I play with the kids when I get together with the families I know. I’d like the kids to feel like they know me too, not just their parents. I want to be more intentional about changing that.Meh, I give myself a “C” for this.  I did hang out with the kids when I went to gatherings but didn’t do much of it, so I did better here, which is why I didn’t fail completely.  I still just don’t feel like I did as much with the kids as I would like.   I SAID:  For Productivity Gladiator, I’d like to book 2 events per month. I am looking forward to giving my TED Talk and actually already have 17 events on the calendar for 2022, so it’s looking good!Success AND failure on this one.  “Success” in that I did more than 40 events this year where I was speaking on my work through Productivity Gladiator and prepping for my TED talk.  “Failure” in that almost all of these sessions weren’t paid, or business development with the idea of connect with clients which could lead to getting paid.  I elevated the brand, but definitely need to spend some more time on this one.   Take trips, go see people, and reconnect with people I’ve lost touch with because of COVID.Success! I definitely feel like I accomplished this one.Other FRUSTRATIONS, disappointments, and things that made me sad this year:The effects of diabetes were an issue in my eyes again this year.  I’m finally on a treatment regimen that seems to be working.  It’s just a bummer that my main choices to fight off the effects of diabetes on my vision are either a shot in each eye every 2 months, or a laser procedure which would be permanent change to my vision.  Since the shots are working as prescribed gonna stick with them.  Sigh…. I got an infection in my foot which was so strong that my body couldn’t fight it off on its own, ended up going to the ER to get IV antibiotics, and had to stop teaching workout classes for a couple weeks to recover.  That was kinda scary to have 3 toes and part of my foot turn another color!  Hairline thinned out some more.  Sigh, I mean, I knew this was coming.  It’s only gonna get worse. Rogaine seems to be pointless, but somehow can’t give up Rogaine because the story in my head is that it will start receding faster than it already is?!?!  Sigh….My knees are starting to give me problems. Whenever I do lunges and squats, there’s a certain point in the range of motion where I feel a “twinge” and it’s uncomfortable. Not taking pain meds, but just an “ow, that’s uncomfortable feeling”. Been to the doctor and physical therapist on this, and it’s just not resolved.  Gonna stick with it, but sadly I may be headed toward a shot in the knees in the future if it continues getting worse.  There was the loss of loved ones both close to me, family and friends, which is always hard to process. These situations really reinforced for me how precious this life is.  Several times this year, I caught myself thinking about how I’m living my own life. Grateful for these year-in-review sessions because I feel like I’m absolutely on the right track, and don’t have any regrets.  Still kinda scary to think about.  Haven’t lost as much weight as I was hoping.  Metabolisms and dieting are a bummer!  I thought I’d work with this nutrition coach and the lbs would just fly off, but sadly that didn’t happen.  Also, I’ve always heard people talk about how it gets more difficult to lose weight as you get older, I feel some of that frustration.  I’m down a few pounds and all my clothes fit better, so I’m grateful, but still a little frustrated.The used car prices got me in a bad way this year.  The beginning of the year, my car which I was going to trade in was worth $10K more than it was by the time my new vehicle came in and I went to trade it in.  Grrrrrrrr…..timing is a b!%&$The CHANGES and NEW GOALS for 2023Get ON the weight loss!  I want to get to 200 lbs by Feb 2024 (my wedding) so that means I need to get on it, that’s a rate of roughly 1.5 lbs per month-ish.  Gotta be more precise this year with my nutrition and counting PFCs.Become a boat guy! I’m almost there, the boat I want is within my grasp, just need to finish the deal and go pick it up, hoping by Feb 2023Level up “Uncle Brian” a bit more. I want to make it a point to have conversations and take some time to hang out with the kids specifically when I visit friends with kids.  I want the kids to feel like they know me too.  Keep showing up as a good Big Brother for my Little.2 big bucket list things this year. A trip on the world’s biggest cruise ship for my 40th birthday, and Alaskan cruise with the family!I wanna work on being a better partner for Nikki, focusing on supporting her in the way she wants and needs. In our conversations I want to remember that it’s not my job to “fix it”, my main role is to listen & validate in our conversations.  I want to do 2 paid Productivity Gladiator engagements per month.Upgrade Nikki and I’s living conditions to support full time remote work.  We both work from home, and to facilitate that we really each need our own office with a door that closes, which means we really need 3 bedrooms.  We have a 3 bedroom in place for the time we’re in Florida this year, but I want to figure out how we can have 3 bedrooms when we get back to DC in the spring, while still living in an area we’d like (and hopefully being close to the water because we’ll have a boat).——-NOW YOU TRYI’ve created a template google doc which you can create your own copy from this link, or just view from this link. Use either of these to try this for yourself.Instructions: This should be done just for you personally for your personal life and passions which don’t already have an annual performance review. I recommend doing a completely separate review for those roles.  Look back through your photos, calendar and social media from this yearFill in the sections below. Capture the highs and lows. Once you feel you’ve really captured the year, fill in the CHANGES AND NEW GOALS section at the end. This is written in a conversational way so that if you want to copy/paste/share this on social media or with family/friends you can.I’ve used the heading 1, 2, 3 to label the headings, so as this document grows, if you want to maintain the clickable table of contents you can.Keep it going:For the next year, copy/paste/duplicate the previous year above the last, then you’ll have them all together. Check in with yourself each quarter to see how you’re doing with your intentions for the year! To make this easy, you can click the “share” button at the top of your google doc, and copy the link to this document for yourself to access.  Then send an email to “every3months@followupthen.com” (this is a free email reminder service) with the subject “Am I on track for my year so far?” and put the link to this document in the body of the email.  Each quarter, the email will hit your inbox. Click the link in the message and it will open right up! Read through it and course correct during the year. ——-About The Creator/Host: I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. As a kid I took time for granted, but now as an adult, time is the most precious thing that I have. I teach overworked project managers how to level-up their life balance and pump up their personal productivity through my Productivity Gladiator training system. If what you’ve seen here intrigues you, reach out, let’s chat! Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely.

In this episode, Maggie Gough, Chief Operating Officer of The Wellness Council of America (WELCOA) joins Brian to talk about the right and wrong metrics to measure life balance and wellness.Link for the full page with all the details, the video, and more, for this episode:https://www.productivitygladiator.com/episodes/maggie-gough-right-wrong-metrics-to-measure-life-balance-and-wellnessToday’s GuestMAGGIE GOUGHCHIEF OPERATING OFFICER OF WELLNESS COUNCIL OF AMERICA (WELCOA)www.welcoa.orgMaggie Gough LinkedInMaggie Gough, Chief Operating Officer of WELCOA recognizes the structure and depth of the corporate wellness industry and the needs of the professionals and employees they support. As the Chief Operating Officer of WELCOA, she ensures that members receive outstanding service and build sustaining connections as a whole community.You can contact Maggie here.***************For Employees—It's important to understand what's in your control and what's out of your control. When you focus on what you can control, your thoughts can empower you and can trigger positive productivity and you’ll feel like you’re moving in a positive direction. Give yourself the freedom to release the things that are outside of our control. This will drastically improve your well-being.—This simple shift in perspective is really helpful: Well Being is NOT a destination that you work towards and reach. Balance is not a destination that you work towards and reach. Well Being and Balance are a light inside yourself, and that light can be amplified or diminished by things both inside and out of your control. Focus on the things you can control that will help amplify your light.—Consider changing the way you view well-being as the things you do which allow you to be responsive and resilient in your work environment, not a list of tasks to do daily to be “perfect”—Self Care is time spent meeting your needs, NOT time spent becoming a better version of yourself. (Self Improvement would be the part about becoming a better version of yourself, and while that’s important, be sure not to lump self care and self improvement together, they’re 2 different things!)—Check in with yourself on your well-being:——Am I spending my time in ways that care for my well-being?——Am I spending my time trying to perfect myself for others or for me?——Am I letting someone else decide how my time should be spent caring for myself?For Front-Line Supervisors & Managers—Managers should NOT look at well-being and life balance as if this was an equation that we can manage.—Do not rate someone else’s life balance or well-being, only the employee can determine their own.—All organizations should be asking the question, in some manner, human to human, how can we better support your well-being?—A Bad Metric for workplace wellness is “participation”. Looking at “how many people got their flu shot.” or “how many people are using the gym benefit” or “how many people are getting 10,000 steps a day” does NOT serve the people in your organization. —Wellness should not be something your employees “need to do” for their job. If wellness means they need to “track this thing” or “report this number” and that’s part of their performance benefit. —Don't be afraid to ask people how to solve a problem together. Collaborate. As a manager, especially in life balance and well being, it’s not your job to “fix it”. A manager’s role is to actively listen, and assist with the individual’s problems that are inside of the organization’s scope and capabilities. Respect & honor the other problems you cannot assist with. —Good metric to use, Cantrell’s Wellness Ladder. Ask yourself and your employee, “If you are looking at a ladder, on 0-10 scale, where do you currently rate your wellness now? Why? Where do you hope to be in 3 years? Do they feel like they are headed up or down? 7-10 - Thriving — wellbeing that is strong, consistent, and progressing. These respondents have positive views of their present life situation (7+) and have positive views of the next five years (8+). They report significantly fewer health problems, fewer sick days, less worry, stress, sadness, anger, and more happiness, enjoyment, interest, and respect.5-6 - Struggling — wellbeing that is moderate or inconsistent. These respondents have moderate views of their present life situation OR moderate OR negative views of their future. They are either struggling in the present, or expect to struggle in the future. They report more daily stress and worry about money than the “thriving” respondents, and more than double the amount of sick days. They are more likely to smoke, and are less likely to eat healthy.0-4 - Suffering — wellbeing that is at high risk. These respondents have poor ratings of their current life situation (4 and below) AND negative views of the next five years (4 and below). They are more likely to report lacking the basics of food and shelter, more likely to have physical pain, a lot of stress, worry, sadness, and anger. They have less access to health insurance and care, and more than double the disease burden, in comparison to “thriving” respondents.—Using an individual’s biometrics to determine their well-being can trigger disordered or unhealthy habits, thus creating toxic narratives between weight and health. The answer is not a simple formula like: “your resting heart rate is elevated, you should drink less coffee.” —As a manager, if you’re feeling burnt out of yourself, hearing somebody else needs is really hard. The more that you can remain in a state of curiosity and asking someone to tell you more, the better it will be in order to hear feedback and more thoroughly understand how you can help. If you need to take a vacation or take a step back, that’s okay too, you have to be in a place in your life where you can show up for yourself AND others. ***About The Creator/Host: I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. As a kid I took time for granted, but now as an adult, time is the most precious thing that I have. I teach overworked project managers how to level-up their life balance and pump up their personal productivity through my Productivity Gladiator training system. If what you’ve seen here intrigues you, reach out, let’s chat! Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely.

In this episode, Haysing Han, founder of H. Manifest joins Brian to talk about the ways productivity should create capacity to advance your life & career. If you only give 110% to your tasks, without any capacity left to network, or meet with a mentor, then you’ll only ever get more tasks instead of advancement.Link for the full page with all the details of this episode:https://www.productivitygladiator.com/episodes/haysing-han-productivity-should-create-capacity-to-advance-your-life-careerToday’s GuestHaysing HanFounder of H.Manifest Inc.hmanifest.com/instagram.com/haysing_hanfacebook.com/haysing.han.2Haysing Han is a certified high-performance coach with 25 years of corporate experience. She was also a research and analytics consultant for top two things in Canada and United Airlines in the US. You can learn more about Haysing and book a free call with her here.***************For EmployeesMost people rate themselves as really high on productivity because they complete their work. But if you are known to be an effective and productive person, does that just mean that you’re given more work? Or that you’re also leveling up?Many people may not be able to tell the difference between you giving your 80% and your 110% at all of the tasks that are assigned to you. But if you work with a mentor and people who can help advance your career it may result in more meaningful work, not just more of the same work.Clarity and alignment between the way you’re spending your time with the direction you want to go professionally in your career is big! Reflect for a moment, do you have that? If you showed your calendar to someone, would you be able to point to where you’re putting time and effort into your own advancement?What do you really want?Can you visualize it? Can you dream about it? Would that income do exactly what you want to do?What are you going to do to make it more meaningful for you?You have to be crystal clear about what you want to avoid having years go by and feeling the burnout or like you didn’t go anywhere.****************************************For Front-Line Supervisors & ManagersA high performing manager doesn’t just focus on the tasks. They recognize the “long game” for each of the people under them, and help with the clarity and progress toward that. In terms of leadership, how are you going to grow your team. Thinking you’re just going to keep everyone where they are, and avoid change, will not move you in a positive direction. A manager’s role is often to help their team to think differently. Supporting the creation of a working life balance as a whole person, not just for the hours they are at work. A manager’s role is to actively have the conversation about personal development objective. So then they actually feel like they have permission to set aside an hour or two hours every day to grow in a new skill set. Most importantly, managers should take a look around, if your team has been the same faces for years, and you have motivated people who want to grow and advance, this is a problem, and you’re the main person who can help or hinder solving that.

Full Episode Link: https://www.productivitygladiator.com/episodes/workr-beeing-49-tips-to-manage-stress-in-a-hectic-work-environmentTODAY’S GUESTSDR. KATINA SAWYER & DR. PATRICIA GRABAREKCO-FOUNDERS OF WORKR BEEINGhttps://workrbeeing.com/instagram.com/workrbeeing/ facebook.com/workrbeeing/ Community:  https://workrbeeing.memberful.com/join On the show we found out that Katina and Patricia are friends from grad school. They created Workr Beeing to talk about the science behind workplace wellness and work-life balance. They both have a Ph.D’s in industrial & organizational psychology so you can say they're “experts” in how people function and behave at work. They provide science backed resources and information to make better and more positive work environments. The funny part, it all started when they were several drinks in at a wedding! Workr Beeing is different, according to Katina and Patricia, because they are “nerds about data”, and the science and research behind these trends. They summarize what exists in the scientific literature in, what they hope is, a fun and exciting way. You can read their bios here. 49 TIPS & TACTICS TO MANAGE STRESS IN A HECTIC WORK ENVIRONMENTFOR EMPLOYEESBe able to name your own signs of stress, and learn to recognize them sooner. When you're in the moment of feeling stressed, all other things start to sort of fade away and you get very hyper focused on the thing that's stressing you out. When you get stressed you feel a spike in your negative emotions so you become more anxious & you start to think more negatively than positively. When that happens you go into a fight or flight type mode. Your heart rate might spike. Your palms might start to get sweaty. You might start to have racing thoughts. If you can catch yourself earlier in the stress process, like when you’re at a 3 or 4 on a 1-10 scale, you can start to deescalate sooner. If it takes you until you get to be a 10 out of 10 before you notice, then it’s a much harder and longer trip to bring yourself back down to a 1. To deescalate you can try:Breathing Exercises (app on your phone)Body scans (mental exercise)Mindfulness Exercises (Have an app ready and loaded with your favorite 2 min meditation)Nature MeditationsQuick Guided MeditationsRemove yourself from the situation physically for a few minutes (take a quick walk)Quick workout during the day (try to hit your max heart-rate, like the moment from “Rocky” where you’re completely out of breath, even if it’s just a quick sprint during a walk.)Know your long term symptoms of stress, like chronic stress. For some people it’s chronic and persistent, you can’t isolate it to one stressful moment or event. What does that feel like in your body? Some activities that can help you cope and fill your cup back up are:Mastery - Master a new skill or topic. Work on a project, like a house projectTake lessons on learning another languageTry cooking a new dish in the kitchenDo an activity where your brain is completely focused on the present moment. This causes it to leave behind the thing that’s stressing you out, and eases some of the stress from it. Something where you can focus ONLY on the present. This is why vegging out, or TV, are NOT very effective for many people.DO NOT scroll social media. Social Media is shown by research to NOT reduce stressHanging with friends who make you laughRemove notifications that will pull you back into stress. (Example: out with friends laughing and a work email notification goes off, you look at your phone, and you’re sucked RIGHT BACK INTO stress.).Clarify your “disconnected” hours. For most people work is not 24/7/365. There are off times, be clear about those and eliminate or limit notifications that can get through to only true emergencies. Balance means you need to be “off” sometimes, not “on” all the time. Journaling helps to get the stuff out of your head. Have you ever tried “writing morning pages”?If ideas or stress are spinning before bed, write it down. Keep a paper/pen or device next to you in bed and if a thought is swirling and won’t let you relax, write it down. The act of writing it down will help your brain let it go, because your brain knows it written down and won’t be forgotten, so it doesn’t need to be “front of mind” anymore.FOR FRONT-LINE SUPERVISORS & MANAGERSNow for front-line supervisors and managers, besides all the above recommendations, we added on these specifically for those who are managing others. What can you do for the people under you?  Individualization of your support is important.Know the type of support that each person needs. If you know their personal stressors, they’re easier to accommodate. 3 examples:If an employee has childcare issues, being aware of scheduling meetings (if possible) to not interfere with that.If an employee has a health condition, be aware of that in your planning, and/or the support you offer them.If your employees favorite extracurricular activity is after work on Wednesdays, then don’t schedule a meeting to conflict with that unless there truly is no other choice and it’s an emergency.Understand that while their work-life and personal lives are separate, it’s still the same person, and one affects the other. Be open to the stressors in all forms. (Example: Don’t ignore the fact that they’re pregnant, ask for updates on how the pregnancy is going periodically, and if there’s anything you can do to support. Even if you can’t offer what they ask, decline nicely, it will still mean a lot that you asked.)Role Modeling good practices yourselfIf you say to disconnect on the weekend, but you send emails on the weekend, that can be a stressor. SCHEDULE SEND emails you’re sending to arrive Monday morning instead.Don’t highlight and reward only the behaviors that are unhealthy workaholic behaviors. Examples: “Judy get’s this award because she worked so hard that she had her baby at work.” “Johnny is sending emails on nights and weekends, he really shows his dedication to the job”. When you’re on vacation, unplug completely. If you check your emails, your staff will think they need to.Share some of your life outside of work with your team. If you have hobbies, that makes it safe for your employees to have hobbies.Set AND SHARE priorities. There’s always going to be plenty to do, so the constant addition of more urgent things, and an environment where everything is urgent and must be done right away, there’s no sense of prioritization, and people won’t know how to manage their own time and stress. In short, don’t be an “Everything is always on fire” boss!Let employees have a say if you can. As the boss, you know you can ultimately decide, but it’s helpful to involve the employees when you can. Share the things that are coming and see who is interested in adding more.Allow your employees to disagree with you. Let them tell you what can or cannot be done without the fear of getting fired the first time they do. Build psychological safety with your team.Model that behavior up too. If your boss adds more to your team’s plate, go to your boss and ask for priorities, for the sake of your whole team. Don’t be afraid to ask the question of your employees because you’re afraid of finding out “the bad news”. If that’s how you’re feeling as a supervisor, it’s probably even more important that you do. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away.Support your employees fitness, sleep, & diet.If you’re buying lunch, buy a healthy lunch.Talk about finding healthy meal items you’ve tried. Even if you’ve failed, such as trying a meal service that didn’t work, drawing attention to it may help others to pay attention to it too. If you ask your employees about their sleep, it helps employees to notice and focus on it.If you ask your employees about fitness, it may help them to start to think about it too.Normalizing talking about something that happened outside of work. Remember what happens outside of work affects employees at work, so if there’s a challenging situation happening, it’s helpful for employees to feel safe to share that with you, their supervisor.WHAT ABOUT IN THE MIDDLE OF AN HR ACTION OR TERMINATIONSome managers are afraid to talk about stress with employees that are underperforming or that are under a potential HR action. What do you do there?Depends on the type of personnel action:If the employee is just not meeting deadlines, conversations with them about their wellbeing will not ultimately affect the outcome of the personnel action.If they may not be right for the role, sometimes having these kinds of conversations will help the employee realize that this isn’t the right role for them, and they may select themselves out of this role, which is the best outcome for everyone involved.Being interested in the person’s wellbeing will often deescalate and destress the situation, but that doesn’t need to affect or change the final action you are ultimately going to take. You can be kind, and be strong at the same time.Managers often try to “fill in the gaps themselves” and come up with their guess or hypothesis about why someone is underperforming. All of that “guessing” doesn’t actually help, and often creates more stress. Often the best approach is to ask, “Hey what’s been going on with you lately?” or “How are you doing really?” or “I noticed XX happened, that’s not like you, what’s up?”About The Creator/Host: I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. As a kid I took time for granted, but now as an adult, time is the most precious thing that I have. I created Productivity Gladiator because I saw what a difference it made for employees to improve their productivity, improve their life balance, and live their best life right now, today, not wait until retirement. Thanks for checking out Productivity Gladiator! Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely.

Your workload just tripled, what do you do? How do you handle it? Perhaps someone on your team leaves for another job, or someone gets pulled for another project, or maybe a new initiative starts. All the sudden you find yourself with two to three times the work you had before. What can you do to help manage all that extra work? How do you handle all that overwhelm? How does your work life balance not take a hit? Even a 10% increase in workload will warrant looking at some of these tactics. Often people pick up “a little more work” and do things like skip lunch or stay an hour late. It’s the approach of absorbing the extra and continuing to do the same thing you’ve always done, just more of it. Don’t! This cuts into your work-life balance and causes burnout. I urge you to use these tactics for all situations where workload increases over 10% to help maintain your sanity. On the show, Brian spoke with Andrew Lawless, a high performance coach, and the founder of The Consultant Profit System. Andrew coaches people to go from $100K to $1Mil a year. That’s a 10x increase in work. Clearly in those circumstances, “What got you here won’t get you there” and you need to change your processes during that much growth. Brian and Andrew shared more than 41 tips and tactics to handle this overwhelm. To see the full list, visit the episode page here:Links from the episode:Gary Keller wrote a book called “The One ThingAddiction To Social Media: Fix It With Apps And Tech HacksDistraction Free Youtube - No recommended videos appear, just the ONE you’re watching.Freedom - Blocks all distractions across all devices, currently one of the market leaders in this area.Turbocharge Your Focus & Productivity Through Music'Email Inbox To 0' Hacks: Cut Email Down To Minutes-A-Day Through Batching And Notification Changes'Email Inbox To 0' Hacks: 4d Approach To Processing Your InboxEmail Management Hacks: Deep Dive On Snoozing Emails To Come Back LaterEmail Management Hacks: 2 Email Rules To Cut Your Inbox Down By More Than HalfKolbe-a and Kolbe-B testsHere’s a Youtube video which helps explain the Eisenhower matrix and how to use it.  See the full list of all 41 solutions on the episode’s page:https://www.productivitygladiator.com/episodes/andrew-lawless-your-workload-tripled-what-do-you-do

In this episode Brian and Paul dive into work-life balance, looking at it through the lens of what you CAN control as an employee and as a supervisor., setting aside the things that are out of your control like company culture and policies. Moving past the helpless feeling of “there’s nothing I can do”.The full detail on this episode, the guest, links from the episode, as well as Productivity Gladiator, can be found on the website: www.ProductivityGladiator.com/the-show

The full detail on this episode, as well as Productivity Gladiator can be found at the website: www.ProductivityGladiator.com