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Introduction

Welcome to Simple Productivity, an ebook designed to help you maximize your work output while taking care of yourself. In this book, you will find a variety of different time management techniques, morning and night routines, tools, and reminders to help you figure out the productivity system that works best for you! Whether you have been on the hunt for helpful productivity books for a while or you are brand new to the scene, do not worry. You are going to figure it all out. Besides, this book is here to help guide you along the path of discovering your behaviors, how those behaviors are woven into productivity, and how to create systems that benefit your output as well as your input!

Increasing your productivity can feel like a challenge, especially if you are low on time and motivation. It is a trap that so many of us end up falling into at one point or another during our academic years or our careers. It is easier to push something until later or to find a way to avoid the task altogether and harder to implement solutions that can increase your productivity.

If this sounds like you, then you are reading the right thing! This ebook is designed to help you find a perfect solution to your lack of productivity. Here, you will discover a variety of different tips, tactics, and tricks to help you utilize your time better and create healthier work and productivity habits!

There are many different kinds of workers, those who are already productive but want more, those who do enough to not be stressed, the procrastinators, the time mis-managers, and others! You might be a mix of several different types of workers, which is why creating a productivity plan for yourself designed to boost your weaknesses into strengths is one of the best things you can do for yourself!

Soon, you will be ready and armed with your own set of routines, techniques, tricks, and tips to maximize your productive output while also increasing your emotional input.

Remember, it is okay to have sluggish days. You are not expected to be productive 24/7. But, if you feel that the

deadlines are approaching and your to-do list is growing, then you might need some help getting on to the right path. However, you do not need to worry or feel alone. Plenty of people struggle with productivity and everyone has off days where it seems like nothing gets done. You are not alone! Your friends, coworkers, family, and the barista who makes your coffee have all struggled with feeling unproductive.

Finding the right path can also be tricky and that is why we are here to guide you. In this ebook, you will learn about many different methods to boost your productivity, keep your sanity, and meet your deadlines! Now, let's not waste any more time with introductions, and let's get straight to the good stuff!

Chapter 1: Productivity Starts with the Right Mindset

Anything that you want can be changed if you have the right mindset. Your mind is your most powerful tool and your biggest challenger when it comes to productivity. Your mind is the thing that tells you to wait until tomorrow or to watch one more episode instead of starting your work. Your mind is also capable of incredible power to push you in the right direction.

By entering the right mindset you can set yourself up for success and increase your productivity! Mindset is crucial to beginning to change your work habits and strengthen good work routines as well as kicking unhelpful and unproductive habits and routines to the curb!

But how can you change your mindset? If you are looking for a long-term change, you can change your mindset by creating new neural pathways in your brain related to your workday and productivity by practicing a variety of mindfulness and mental exercises. Short term, there are a variety of techniques you can use at the moment to help your mindset enter a positive and productive state.

Changing your mindset at the moment is a challenge for some people. However, it is not something to be afraid of! Just as previously stated, your mind is your best tool. You have ownership of your mind. It is yours and therefore you can create any change you want!

To help create a more positive and productive mindset quickly, try meditation. Mediation may seem like a long-term solution, but taking a moment to reduce your stress through meditation is extraordinarily helpful. Meditation is known to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, help return the body to homeostasis, and even lower the level of the stress hormone cortisol in your body.

This happens all through the breath. Deep and full breathing is a core aspect of mediation and can help oxygenate the blood. When we get stressed at work, we tense our shoulders, back, or stomach. We begin to take shallower and shorter breaths. Taking long and slow deep breaths can help increase your blood oxygen levels and increase blood flow to your brain to help sharpen your focus.

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Introduction

Let’s face it, high school is challenging. Not so much the lessons, which tend to be pretty simple. The most difficult aspect of high school is negotiating the norms and expectations of an opinionated adolescent microsociety, and doing everything possible, including tremendous leaps of energy and inventiveness, to avoid doing or doing anything that would earn the unshakeable label of being odd. Being labeled as unusual in high school is a death sentence. So most people try to appear like everyone else. However, in the end, we are all hiding.

We're still figuring out who we are and where we fit on the social interaction spectrum. Mistakes are unavoidable, but they should be committed in secret, away from the limelight of the halls, lunchroom, or special events. High school students are permitted to be nervous wrecks, fearful that their own shadow would mock them if they slip and fall. However, it should have stopped there.

Shouldn't the crushing desire for peer acceptance go away after we graduate from high school and become well-adjusted adults? The high school years are long gone, yet the social pressure to adhere to others' expectations remains as powerful as it has ever been. Everyone, young and old, it seemed, is still terrified of seeming odd. This widespread sense of unease overlooks a fundamental fact. It's OK to be eccentric. Weirdness is frequently a sign of latent power waiting to be unlocked.

Throughout history, the finest and brightest among us, the great inventors and innovators, have been those who have been ready to stand out and risk being viewed as strange. We are free to harness and expand the power of our various differences when I allow you to be you and you let me to be me, without judgement or criticism. Nobody is normal because everyone is strange.

And it’s okay to be strange! It’s okay to be unique! It’s okay to be different! In fact, it’s natural. And, really, it’s the only way to be. Why?

Personality occurs on a continuum. There is no correct or incorrect position on the spectrum. The concept of being objectively normal was invented in order to sell things and advance political goals. What I consider to be normal may not be normal for you. We lose sight of the natural when we seek the conventional. The new normal is natural.

We all have characteristics that distinguish us from one another, whether they be physical, intellectual, emotional, or other. The

Ego believes that differences are defects that should be concealed. The fact is that your superpower is what distinguishes you. You simply haven't figured out how to use it yet. Instead of concealing your oddness, figure out how to make it work for you. For example, your timidity may make you a better listener. Your uncomfortable chuckle may charm you to others. When we conquer our peculiarities, we gain immense power.

When you strive to fit into the mold of someone else, the outcomes will be substandard. Nobody pays to see the predictable; they pay to see the intriguing. By definition, your actual self is enticing. People will remember the thing you did that only you can do, not the thing you did that everyone can do.

Authenticity is in great demand in a society where conformity is the easy choice. Everyone wants to be more authentic, but we're all frightened of being the first. When you start living as your actual self, quirks and all, you offer others permission to do the same. We may not say it out, but everyone wants to see your authentic self. We yearn for authenticity.

Every good artistic breakthrough – artistic, musical, scientific, etc.

– is strange by definition because it provides a solution that is outside of the established paradigm. it necessitates a shift in thinking. Embracing your oddness provides you with a fresh viewpoint, and the world desperately needs a new perspective. The status quo does not foster innovation. When outsiders challenge the established quo with unusual ideas, this is when innovation occurs.

Everyone has their own qualities. Allowing ourselves to display these distinct features makes us happy. However, suppressing our distinctive features and denying our natural selves makes us feel bad and darkens our identities. Resistance to our distinctive features, however strange, results in a dark and inverted projection of self, much as a black hole emerges from the absence of a star.

Many individuals who conform do so because they are afraid of being alone. Standing out, on the other hand, will not make you lonely - far from it. By living honestly, you will meet others who share your oddness. This is your clan. When you step up and live your mission, you will discover those who have gone before you, and you will be an inspiration to those who will come after you.