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One of the best ways to increase your productivity is to make sure you build some time in your schedule for inactivity, also known as rest.

Remember that when you create your list of categories that comprise your life, one of the most effective ways of making sure all aspects of your life are covered is to use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.    At the very bottom of the pyramid is the most basic need, the need for survival.   I usually put “Health” on this basic level of needs.

Here’s what I recommend you build specifically into your schedule.

1.   Exercise

You need to build time in your schedule for exercise, both strength training and cardio training.  You can do a form of circuit training, which combines aspects of the two, such as in the Spartacus routine described in Men’s Health.   (I have a blog post on this routine, which I use personally, elsewhere on this blog–such put the word “Spartacus” in the “Search” box area and the post will come up.)

2.  Meditation

Meditation is worth its weight in sanity.   15 minutes of meditation in the morning can help you maintain an equilibrium state when all around you there is disequilibrium.

3.  Sacred Space

This does not mean “church”, it means a time of the week that you rope off from your normal activities.   This is when you do the hobby that you love to do; creativity rather than traditional spirituality, is the watchword here.

4.  Inspirational Reading

Although this could be a spiritual book, it is a book which inspires you to not only do more, but become something more than you are.

5.  Sleep

If you overwork yourself, you will under-perform.   Those companies that require you to work more than 8-hour days are short-sighted.   I’m not talking about special projects, I’m talking about overtime (usually unpaid) hours on a regular basis.   Not only does it show poor resource planning on the part of the company, but they will trade short-term productivity advantage with long-term burnout.

So do what you can to make sure you get adequate sleep.   Your company may not own you 24/7 (although they might like to), but you can make a bargain with them in that, although they require 100% of your time, you will get sufficient rest so that when you are at work, you give them 100% of your effort and attention!

These tools will give you the inner strength and stamina to run the race as a marathon, and not as a short-distance sprint.

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