For years there have been copious books, blogs and articles written on healthy time and energy management, and in today’s digital environment, it’s even more essential for success. Experts suggest a shift in how we approach our daily routines, starting with our emails and social media notifications. While our email inbox or WhatsApp notifications may seem like the most urgent priority, it can often lead to “energy zero” if we are not careful.

After running a quick Google search, some of the following stats became clear:

• On average, 28% of work time is spent on email
• We check email on average 11 times per hour
• 84% keep email open in the background while working

Email Apnea, a phrase coined by Linda Stone around 2014, is the temporary cessation of breath when we’re in front of a screen, especially when texting or doing email. This chronic breath-holding puts us in a state of fight or flight, affecting emotions, physiology and attention.

In the book, Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Creative Mind, the recurring advice across many of the 20 experts who contributed essays to the book was simple: don’t start the day by dealing with your email.

Instead, start the day by tackling the most challenging task first. This may seem impractical for some work environments, but we can apply it to any situation. For some, arriving at work early to carve out creative time could be beneficial. For others, it may require retraining themselves not to assume that the priorities of their inbox match their own goals and responsibilities.

Best-selling author and founder of The Energy Project, Tony Schwartz, suggests building energy renewal into our workday. Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance, recommends allowing unstructured time between meetings to recharge and absorb what just happened.

By taking responsibility for our own time and energy, we can avoid letting email, social media or other reactive tasks blunt our focus. James Victore (yourworkisagift.com) writes, “We are losing the distinction between urgent and important—now everything gets heaped in the urgent pile.”

Taking charge of our priorities helps us filter distractions and plan focused time to use our energy and creativity wisely, and it can also make it easier for our family and colleagues to do the same. Before you begin your day with a race to reach inbox zero, take a breath and consider what’s most important for your day.

Staying motivated to change can be a challenge! It’s too easy to fall into old patterns and habits. 

It can be difficult to remain committed to change because change can be a complex process that requires effort, discipline, and perseverance. Sometimes, people need more motivation to change, and with a clear and compelling reason, it can be easier to stay committed. Negative self-talk, such as negative thoughts and self-doubt, can erode commitment and motivation.

Some of us fear failure, whilst others may simply resist change, as it requires breaking old habits and routines, which can be uncomfortable. Sticking to the plan isn’t easy, especially when faced with distractions, temptations, or other life challenges. Without support from friends, family, a coach or a support group, it can be challenging to remain committed to change.

It’s helpful to have a positive attitude if we want to persevere through these challenges. Articulating and tracking our goals is also a practical way to measure our success, continuously improve and stay motivated and committed to change.

By regularly monitoring our progress, we can identify areas where we need to make adjustments and course-correct if necessary. This helps increase the chances of achieving the goals and ensures that our efforts are always directed towards the most important tasks.

Tracking goals also provides a sense of accountability, as we are held responsible for our progress towards our goals. It encourages us to take the necessary steps to move forward and maintain momentum.

Moreover, tracking goals gives us the opportunity to celebrate achievements and recognise the progress we have made. Celebrating small milestones boosts motivation and helps keep us on track towards our larger goals. Many coaches believe tracking our goals is essential to ensure progress and staying motivated to change our lives, and make informed decisions.

When you feel the lethargy kick in, and you’re tempted to revert to unhealthy behaviours just remember that staying motivated to change requires effort and perseverance, but by focusing on progress, setting realistic goals, and creating a supportive environment, you can stay committed to the change you want to see in your life!

Do you often reach the end of your day and feel like, regardless of how busy you’ve been, you still don’t feel productive?

It’s all too easy to begin our day in our emails and allow all the interruptions of ‘urgent messages’ to run our entire day. These digital distractions can seriously affect our productivity. The constant notifications and easy access to social media and other websites can lead to procrastination, reduced focus, and decreased efficiency. It’s important to set boundaries and limit distractions in order to be more productive.

Asana, the project management tool, often talks about productivity on their website and in one article they share how digital distractions can be the arch-nemesis of deep work (focussed, uninterrupted work). 

According to them, distraction—especially of the digital variety—is more common than ever in today’s fast-paced work environment. At a time when 80% of knowledge workers report working with their inbox open and nearly three in four employees feel pressure to multitask every day, avoiding digital distractions can seem nearly impossible. 

However, minimising distractions is still doable with a few simple strategies: 

Turn off notifications.

Sounds, banners, and notifications flashing across your screen have a negative impact on focus and can quickly jolt you out of deep work. When you’re trying to focus, use Do Not Disturb mode or snooze notifications for your phone and any communication apps you use. Or to really disconnect, close your email and messaging apps completely. Remember that you can always check notifications during your next focus break.

Make depth your default.

Instead of living in a distracted state and wrangling your brain into focus mode to complete tasks, schedule focus breaks—times when you allow yourself to take a break and give in completely to distractions. You can use this strategy during your workday or in your personal life. For example, you could schedule a focus break after work when you’re allowed to browse the internet and scroll through social media—then turn your undivided attention to cooking dinner, watching a movie, or talking with loved ones.  

Choose your tools wisely.

According to Asana’s research, the average knowledge worker switches between 10 apps 25 times per day to do their work—and employees who switch between apps are also more likely to struggle with effectively prioritising their work. But just because a tool exists doesn’t mean you have to use it.

Lighten your tech stack as much as possible!

And, let’s not forget that one of the reasons all these interruptions exist is because of FOMO. We need to decide if we will let the fear of missing out run our day and leach our productivity, or if we will be ready to reduce digital distractions.

Digital distractions drain our creativity, our energy and our focus and the key to being more productive lies in managing them more wisely.

Our minds are extraordinary. The human brain has evolved to solve complex problems and successfully manage unexpected situations, and yet, coping is less about what is happening in the world and more about how our senses decipher the situation.

Perception is everything; this is why coping mechanisms focus on managing, reframing, or avoiding how we perceive triggers and stressors. Suppose our inability to cope is hindering us from enjoying a full life, achieving our goals, or causing hurt to others. In that case, we must adopt and adapt the best tools to overcome and reduce anxiety.

Depression and anxiety often co-occur, and many individuals with depression also experience symptoms of anxiety. In some cases, anxiety can lead to depression, and in others, depression can lead to increased anxiety levels. The exact relationship between depression and anxiety is complex and may be influenced by various factors, including genetics, life experiences, and brain chemistry.

For severe cases, you need to talk to someone and see a professional who can help. If you are feeling helpless, it will seem impossible to regain control of your mental health.

South Africa has one of the lowest mental health scores in the world. A 2022 Wits University study showed that 25.7% of South Africans are probably depressed, with more than a quarter of respondents reporting moderate to severe symptoms of depression.

Approximately 9.5% of American adults, ages 18 and over, will suffer from a depressive illness each year and more than 31% experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lifetimes. In the UK, the figures are around 8% for depression, and about 1 in 20 suffer from anxiety disorders.

A sudden onset of mild anxiety can be triggered by many things—from a significant event, like a death in the family, to everyday stressors, such as work or budget worries—but sometimes it can be caused by seemingly nothing at all—or even issues we are not consciously aware of.

Psychological research has proven the importance of relaxation as an effective technique for managing anxiety, recognising that we can influence our minds by taking control of our bodies (Strycharczyk & Clough, 2015). Here are two ideas if we are looking for an immediate interruption to a pattern of anxiety or even an unexpected onset.

1. Controlled distraction

Like self-talk, controlled distraction reduces anxiety by redirecting attention away from a negative situation. When a quick fix is required, take your mind off your anxiety by focusing on something that doesn’t cause stress. For example, before giving a presentation or having a difficult conversation, count lights or ceiling tiles, listen to music, or imagine being at a happy event.

2. The Mitchell Relaxation Method

According to positivepsychology.com, this technique involves flexing and relaxing specific muscles to increase awareness of body position, breathing, muscles, joints and where we might be holding tension. As we focus on this, we’re able to intentionally release somatic tension and increase our mindfulness, which helps reduce anxiety.

​​If we can see stress not as something to be shied away from but as an opportunity to embrace, we can live a more complete, authentic life. After all, although evolution has shaped our minds and bodies, we are free to choose how we react and behave. Overcoming challenges, pitfalls, and failures in life are just as crucial as celebrating the wins and enjoying happy outcomes. Stress can be a valuable force for growth.

It’s easy to feel like our lives are just a series of obligations – choices and decisions made because we have to, not necessarily because we want to. From paying bills and working 9-5 to attending continuous professional development seminars, family events and keeping up with the Joneses. When we view life through the lens of obligatory choices, we can feel frustrated, stuck and hopeless.

On his blog in 2019, Seth Godin wrote: “If it’s an obligation, then you don’t have a choice. Pretending you do is simply a way to create frustration. Free yourself to simply do what you have to do. On the other hand, if you do have a choice (and you probably do) then it doesn’t make sense to treat it as an obligation. Own the choice.”

He’s not actually talking about obligations and choices here; he’s talking about mindset. Whilst acknowledging that some things are as they are and we can’t change them, Godin reminds us that we can choose how we think and feel about our actions. Rather than blaming others, owning our choices empowers us to make different choices.

When we own the choice, we can change the choice. Then, it’s not because we have to, but because we want to.

But – we need to understand what’s happening when we make a choice. With every choice, there is a trade-off (or multiple trade-offs).

Saying yes to something generally means that we’re saying no to something else. When we accept the loss inherent in the choice, we can move forward with peace and clarity.  When we choose something, it is so easy to only think about what we get from that choice. However, by choosing something, we are actually letting go of something else.

Our lives, ultimately, are not merely down to chance but choice. We don’t have to stay stuck in a job we don’t want, or a relationship that’s unhealthy for us. We can change the situation by either changing how we think about it – or trading it for something entirely different. From debt to a dead-end job, from unhealthy eating to sedentary lifestyles, we can change because we want to, not because we have to. 

When we know what’s in the trade-off, it’s so much easier to find the motivation to become unstuck.

There are moments in life when we slow down and reflect on where we’ve been, where we are – and where we’re headed. Sometimes this is at the start of a new year, or perhaps it’s at a significant milestone in life when we feel like we’ve crested a hill and can take a rest and enjoy the view.

At this point, as we identify things we’d like to change and things we’d like to amplify in our lives, we set intentions and goals and share our dreams. When it comes to financial planning, it’s vital that we set our intentions with integrity and authentic values, not superficiality and disconnected values.

There’s a quote by Kevin Heath that goes like this: “In the end, kids won’t remember that fancy toy or game you bought them; they will remember the time you spent with them.”

As you read this and reflect on your own childhood, and perhaps your parenthood, it’s easier to remember the moments – not the monetary value – that defined us and motivate our choices today.

Yes, we can remember times of financial hardship or prosperity, and we can often remember big-ticket purchases, but it’s not always about the money spent, but what the money meant. This topic keeps coming up in our reformed thinking around financial planning: it’s not about how much money we have but how much we can achieve with our money. The two are linked, for sure, but where we place our focus will determine where we find our value.

When money is tight, it’s an opportunity for us to draw together and find creative ways to achieve our goals and dreams with the resources we have. And, when money is plenty, we have an equally challenging responsibility to invest or spend it wisely in ways that will have lasting value.

Ultimately, it’s about deeper relationships, not deeper pockets. As Charles Dickens wrote in his Christmas Carol, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour. Wherever you are in your planning and reflection, may you be encouraged to focus on what you can achieve rather than what you can earn.