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Have you ever had the experience of looking back on your week with the sinking feeling that you didn’t get as much done as you’d hoped? When building a successful career or a business, your time is perhaps your most valuable asset, and your income is a direct result of how you spend your time.
This article looks at something we’re all trying to increase, productivity. Be it in our homes, at work or simply managing all the other every day tasks we set ourselves – we’ve listened to the experts and pulled together a list of helpful hints on how to harness the key to productivity.
Learn to speed read. Yes, even on this article! Look for the points most relevant to you and move on…
Just start. You’ve heard it before, but trust me it’s true – at times, starting is the hardest part. Once you get going, you will quickly get into a rhythm that could last for hours.
Exercise. Research has shown that midday exercise boosts productivity and morale in the workplace. Take a short walk at lunch to maximise your productivity or take up a relaxing exercise such as Yoga – great for body and mind.
Love what you do. We know it’s not always easy (there are days we all feel the world is against!) Enjoying what you do is the ultimate way to increase your productivity – it’s a pleasure, not a chore!
Complete your most dreaded tasks first thing in the morning. Whichever activity you are dreading the most is probably the one you need to complete first thing in the morning.
Learn to say “No”. We can’t do everything and therefore we must learn when to say no in order to save our sanity.
Single-handling. Once you begin a task, stick with it until it’s 100% complete. Don’t switch tasks in the middle. When distractions come up, jot them down to be dealt with later.
Tell other people about your goals and you will instantly be held accountable. People remember things long after you tell them. By setting yourself up to have a vision and objective for the future and sharing it you’ll feel you need to get these goals into motion.
Shop online whenever possible to avoid going to the shops for hours on end (You’re here – why not start today?)
Get plenty of sleep. When you work online, sleep can become a long lost memory. However, it’s important to get plenty of sleep so that your working hours can be as productive as possible. Try a little aromatherapy oil on your pillow, wearing comfortable pyjamas, having a warm bath and drink or short read are all said to help create a good sleep routine.
Glittering prizes. Give yourself frequent rewards for achievement. See a movie, book a professional massage, or spend a day at an amusement park. Most of all, don’t feel guilty about taking this time off – you deserve it!
Eliminate all distractions. This includes the phone, email notifications, and having multiple web browsers open on the desktop.
Intuition. Learn to trust your gut instinct. It will get rid of hours of deliberation (Plus It’s probably right!)
Keep a notebook and pen on hand at all times. This way, you can write down your thoughts, to-dos, and ideas at any time. The key is to get everything out of your head and onto paper. This way, your subconscious mind won’t be reminding you about it every other second.
Listen to educational audio books while you’re driving to work, cleaning the house, exercising, or cooking dinner. Audio learning has the power to add hours to your day. Not to mention, your cranium is sure to thank you for it.
Author, Gill Owen from Lovestretch.com
As a business woman and pilates teacher, founder Gill Owen wanted to find non-restrictive clothing with style, quality and versatility at it’s heart. Buying with this in mind, Gill sought out the best stretchwear brands from across the globe to create an online boutique offering stylish, chic and enduring fashion, which provides comfort throughout the day.
Thanks also to productivity experts: Steve Pavlina & Kim Roach
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Smoking kills one in five Americans, and approximately 440,000 American each year. People who smoke don’t realize how bad their clothes, hair, home and vehicles smell to non-smokers. One of the things that makes smoking so bad for you is that the nicotine and other chemicals in tobacco narrows your blood vessels and actually makes them harder. This makes your heart work harder trying to pump the blood through your body. This sets you up for arthrosclerosis, hardening of the arteries, and this can lead to a stroke or heart attack. Your lungs are poisoned with the nicotine and chemicals in tobacco and lung cancer is a leading killer of smokers.
Your Body Starts to Heal After Your Quit
The good news is once you quit smoking, your body starts to heal and your risk for many major illness and conditions drops dramatically. Within 24 hours of putting down tobacco for good your blood pressure and body temperature are back to normal, the nicotine level in your body will have dropped 93.25%, the oxygen level and carbon dioxide levels in your blood normalize, and only 72 hours after you quit the nicotine is completely out of your system.
Nicotine is Addictive
One of the things that makes quitting so hard is your body’s dependency on nicotine. Nicotine is a drug and it stimulates the pleasure centers of your brain, and also increases the hormone dopamine, which makes you feel good. Withdrawal from nicotine can cause irritability, mood swings, sleeplessness, increased appetite, anxiety and depression. When you make the decision to quit smoking it is important that you understand these withdrawal symptoms will pass with time.
You Can Beat Nicotine Cravings
As said before, it is not easy to give up smoking. But for your health and the health of your loved ones it is important to succeed. There are some things you can do to get rid of nicotine cravings. Here’s a few to help you out.
- Smoking is a habit, so when you feel the urge to smoke change your habits. For example if you always smoked after eat, get up and take a short walk.
- Take up a hobby that uses your hands. Many people feel the need to keep their hands busy. You might try needlework, crossword puzzles or any hobby you enjoy.
- Drink plenty of water. The majority of nicotine will be out of your system within 72 hours. Drinking water will help to flush out your system and rid your body of nicotine.
- Keep healthy snacks handy. Withdrawal can make you feel hungry, so keep some healthy snacks like carrots, celery sticks, low-fat pretzels and low sodium crackers on hand.
- Exercise can help you beat the cravings. Regular exercise increases your oxygen levels, lifts your mood and helps to prevent and reduce anxiety and depression.
- Practice deep breathing. When you feel a craving coming on, take a moment and take some deep breaths. You should see your stomach go in and out while you breathe. This means you’re using your diaphragm to breathe.
- Meditation is another calming method to beat nicotine cravings. Anyone can meditate. Find a quiet comfortable place to sit or lie down, clear your mind and focus on your breathing. When you focus on your breathing, keep your mind clear and your spirit calm.
- Have a support buddy. Find someone you trust that you can call when you are craving nicotine.
- Use a delay tactic. Tell yourself you have to wait 10 minutes before you smoke. If after 10 minutes you still want to smoke, delay another 10 minutes. Set up a reward system each time you make it through the allotted time.
- Hang out in places smoking is not permitted. This is almost all restaurants, libraries, museums and any public building.
- Avoid people who smoke for a few weeks. Just being around second hand smoke may be more than you can handle until after you have completely kicked the habit.
- Avoid situations where you’d normally smoke. For example if you like to have a drink after work and find you need to have a smoke, forego the drink at the club and go home to have your cocktail.
- Use a smoking cessation product. There are gums, patches and prescription medications to help you quit smoking.
- Use a quit smoking journal. Writing down your feelings and cravings sometimes helps you to overcome them.
- Quit smoking for you. Once you’ve made up your mind you will quit, you can do it.
Teena is a freelance writer for hypnosis downloads website Selfdevelopment.com where you can instantly download nlp programs, subliminal messages and binaural beats recordings from experts all across the world.
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What is Mania
Everyone goes thorough their daily ups and downs of excitement, talkativeness, being generous and outgoing, but people that suffer from mania have these episodes several times a day for a week or more. Mania is an distorted elated mental state of mind, that is usually a symptom caused by suffering from bipolar disorder.
Warnings and Symptoms of Mania
According to the American Psychiatric Association, a manic episode is defined as seven or more day of unusual irritated mood, not caused by drugs or alcohol. Here are some common signs of mania. It is suggested that if you experience a few or more of these symptoms for the better part of the day for over a week you could possibly be having a manic episode.
Some broader symptoms are mood changes, changes in thought pattern, impaired judgement, speech disruptions and increased energy. More specialized symptoms are:
- Excessive happiness, hopefulness, and excitement including sudden mood changes
- Restlessness, increased energy, and less need for sleep
- Rapid talk, talkativeness
- Distractibility
- Racing thoughts
- High sex drive
- Tendency to make large and unattainable plans
- Tendency to show poor judgment and reckless behavior, such as a expensive spending spree or quitting your job
- Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity. Having unrealistic beliefs in their ability, intelligence, and powers.
Causes of Mania
Mania is most commonly caused by bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a mental illness that affects about 5.7 million adults in the United States. Bipolar disorder causes both extreme, and sometimes rapid or quick, depressed feeling and manic episodes. Bipolar disorder used to be called manic depression, but recently the mania portion has been separated and classified on its own.
Treatments and Medication
Mania is most commonly treated with prescription drugs. The three most common drugs that are prescribed are:
- Lithium: The most commonly prescribed drug available, but because the drug takes four to seven days to reach a therapeutic level, it is sometimes prescribed in conjunction with neuroleptics and/or tranquilizers to provide more immediate relief of mania.
- Carbamazepine: Usually prescribed in conjunction with other mood-stabilizing agents. The drug is often used to treat bipolar patients who have not responded well to lithium therapy.
- Valproate: An anticonvulsant drug prescribed alone or in combination with carbamazepine and/or lithium.
Read Up
There is a ton of great resources about mania that can be used to educated yourself. Education is one of the most important things for friends and family can do to learn about what their loved ones are going through. If you have any tips or suggests for dealing with loved ones that have manic episodes, please share in the comments!
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So, you’ve decided that you want to use a sunbed to get yourself a gorgeous tan. Maybe you’re looking to add a bit of colour to your skin for the winter months or perhaps you want to want to have a healthy glow before you hit the beach. Whatever your reason, you’re all set to look amazing. But how does the process of using a sunbed work? Here’s a guide to tell you all you need to know before you hit the tanning salon.
First of all, you need to make sure you properly prepare for your session. At least an hour before you go off to use sunbeds, have a shower so your skin will be clean as clean skin tans better than dirty. Also take extra care to make sure your remove all your make up and any perfume you might be wearing. This is because it can react with the UV lights – and you definitely want to avoid that.
When you’re getting ready to get on the tanning bed, you need to apply some tanning lotion to your skin. Choose one with tyrosine as this helps with the production of melanin – which is what helps your skin appear darker, the more of it you have. The lotion will also keep your skin hydrated while its tanning, which is important as the process can be drying. Also make sure you’ve got a pair of good eye goggles that you can wear while you’re lying on the sunbed.
By now you should be pretty much prepared to start your tanning process. How long you use sunbeds for will depend on your skin tone. As a general rule, the paler your skin, the less time you should use the bed for. This is because you have less melanin in your skin and, therefore, less natural protection against UV lights. No matter what your skin colour, though, you should never spend too long on a sunbed and never go over the recommended time as spending too much time on one can restrict your ability to produce melanin – so you’ll find it harder to tan in the long run.
While you’re lying on the sunbed, pay close attention to how your body is feeling so you can be certain you won’t burn: sunburn should be avoided at all costs as it can be damaging to your skin. Also shift your body occasionally so you make sure you get an even tan and that those bits of your body that you’re resting your weight on (particularly your lower back and shoulders) will tan properly.
Once you’ve finished your tanning session, you might be tempted to immediately wash off the lotion you put on earlier. However, it’s a good idea to leave it for a few hours as this will help your tan develop. Also don’t expect to see results straight away as tans take a while to develop – don’t just jump back on the bed because you didn’t come out looking fantastically bronze! That will come with time.
Moisturising your skin is important at all times, but it is especially important when you’re using sunbeds. Use a good moisturiser every day and leave at least 48 hours between tanning sessions so your skin has time to recover after each one. You’ll probably find that you can reduce the frequency of your sessions before long, as once you’ve achieved your perfect tan, you’ll just need to top it up occasionally to keep it looking lovely.
And that’s pretty much how sunbeds work. Keep an eye on your skin to make sure it stays healthy and above all, enjoy your gorgeous tan.
Related articles
- New Sunbed Regulations Are Extremely Necessary, Says CIEH (instylenews.com)
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Nearly everyone knows that smoking is bad for the smoker and those directly around them who are exposed to secondhand smoke; however, not all know that smoking affects fertility and can cause harmful and potentially life-long problems for the child. If a couple decides that giving up smoking is simply not an option for them, and they still want to become a parent, it is important to understand the problems it could cause while trying to get pregnant, in relation to infertility, and the health problems their future child could develop as a result.
Fertility
Couples who decide that giving up smoking is not an option, should understand that it can take longer and could be nearly impossible to become pregnant while smoking. Fertility, or a person’s natural ability to give life, is directly affected by smoking cigarettes. Not only does smoking make the smoker infertile, but secondhand smoke can also affect the non-smoker, causing them to be less fertile.
According to Net Doctor, a medical site based in the United Kingdom, “Both female and male smokers have lower fertility levels, while adults who were born to mothers who smoked have less chance of becoming a parent themselves. Smoking also reduces the chances of IVF succeeding.”
In addition, the site mentions that male smokers can have problems with their sperm including a reduction of the amount of semen, damage to the motility of sperm, misshapen sperm, and erection problems.
Female smokers can experience dryness and other sexual issues. Some studies suggest that smoking may contribute to the egg being destroyed before reaching maturity, which lowers the overall egg count and fertility of the female. Additional research suggests that smoking may negatively affect the ability of an embryo to implant in the uterus. Further problems with suggestive links to smoking include fallopian tube diseases and malfunction, and cause a woman’s egg to be more prone genetic problems.
Pregnancy and Fetus Development
Many doctors and researchers alike suggest that parents should talk about giving up smoking and ultimately stop smoking as soon as they find out they are pregnant. Pregnant smokers are more likely to miscarry and develop a placental abruption. A placental abruption is when the baby’s placenta comes away from the womb before the baby is born which can lead to premature birth, the starvation of oxygen or still birth.
While in the womb, a baby receives all of its nutrients and oxygen from their mother. When a mother smokes, the baby’s oxygen, which is transferred to the child through the mother’s blood, is depleted because some of the oxygen from the mother’s blood is replaced by carbon monoxide. Likewise, toxins that enter the mother’s body are then transferred to the child through the blood and umbilical cord.
In addition, babies who are born to mothers who smoker are more likely to have low birth weights, smaller organs, poorer lung function, and are more likely to develop asthmas, illnesses, inner ear problems, bronchitis and more during infancy and childhood.
Giving up smoking is the best option for smokers who want to be pregnant or who find out they are pregnant. If that is not an option, it is important to understand the determents that smoking can have on fertility, pregnancy and the unborn child. Learn more about how to giving up smoking and decide for yourself if smoking while pregnant or trying to get pregnant is worth it for yourself and your future child.
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