Happy Sunday Peeps 🥞
Hope everyone was successful in writing their Q2 goals! Crazy to think that were already 6 days into our second quarter (Which is a wild 7%). When you're dealing with a smaller timeframe, things really do go by quick! As promised I posted mine below in the "Jake's Schedule" section in case you're interested. Without further ado, lets jump into this weeks updates:
Productivity Hack: The Importance of Silence 😶
I wanted to take the chance to tell you all my thoughts on silence. And I don't mean the time between breaths in a busy day, or the pause when your music is switching tracks, but a true moment of peace.
I'm disappointed to admit that I spent a lot of time mindlessly scrolling this past week. I used the excuse of my cold to give myself permission to scroll mindlessly for hours on end. I remember "Waking Up" after my last longer scrolling session on Friday and being both confused and angry with myself. It was a moment of self reflection that caused an inner battle between the two sides of my brain. "It's okay, you're not feeling great, there's nothing wrong with some downtime" "Why would you scroll mindlessly like that, you don't even remember 99% of the things you just watched", the back and fourth thoughts went on for a few moments until I asked myself the question "What else should I have done with my time if I didn't want to do anything?". It's a good question, if I wanted to relax, and give my brain a break from concentrating on work, my business, or any of my side hobbies, then what's wrong with scrolling. Or what other options are even out there?
That's when I remembered what my brain should have been telling me all along, Nothing. The solution to my scrolling problem wasn't finding something to replace it with, but simply doing nothing at all. Sitting in silence is an art that I think the world has forgotten, so with this week's productivity hack, I wanted to remind you of the importance of self reflection through silence.
Here's how I'll do this! First, I'm going to leave you with a task. A challenge for the next week if you will. For the next 7 days, try giving yourself 15 minutes of silence at the end of your day. No phone, no light, no distractions, just you and your thoughts. It doesn't have to be a meditation or anything guided, just let yourself see where your mind goes when its just you and your thoughts for 15 minutes.
Now that you have your challenge, I'll give you some science based why's on how this is beneficial! First off is the physical and mental capabilities it gives your brain. Sitting in silence for prolonged periods of time has been known to physically change the structure of your brain. A 2013 study showed that 2 hours of silence a day led to significant cell growth in the hippocampus, which is the part of your brain associated with memory and emotions 🧠. While 2 hours is a bit excessive in my opinion, the fact remains the same. Same incremental periods of time spend reflecting and thinking to yourself can create improved memory recall, and emotional intelligence.
Silence also plays a big part in your brain ability to think creatively. Studies find that the higher a persons external input (How much stimuli they are receiving from everything around them), the less creative they are able to be in the moment. This is the same reason we ask people to stop talking when were trying to think of an idea or solution. Good thing for us is that it works in the opposite as well. Here, the absence of any stimulus allows our brain to go into a state called the "Default Mode Network" (It's a real thing I promise 🤓) which heavily increases our capacity to think creatively.
I can go on and on about this one, but Ill leave it at a solid 3 reasons. Finally, silence over time creates emotional resilience. While the increase in size of our hippocampus plays a role with this, there is another factor that allows us to regulate our emotions better. Practicing silence helps the body be more conscious of time. More specifically, the short amount of time between a stimulus and your bodies response. So giving yourself time to reflect in your own time means that your body will have a easier time avoiding over reactions and fast responses in your day to day life.
If you want to partake in a fun experiment, see how silence in your own time can impact your daily conversation skills. Or rather yet, how the absence of it in others impacts their way of talking. When all we do is receive stimulus after stimulus, with little time to reflect, we tend to shout out answers and give feedback without allowing ourselves to pause and consider what we're saying. This is a large reason we say things like Ughhh, ummm and ohhh so often in everyday speech 🤐. We are so concerned with answering someone as soon as possible, that our brains start responding with nonsense, just before getting out the first answer we can formulate. Now that you're conscious of it, you'll notice that taking pauses not only gets rid of the Umms and Aghhs, but also naturally creates better flow in your thoughts and sentences 🤔
Business Update 💼
On a non-Bee Routine business update, I wanted to share a fun life update. At my regular job I've been offered a new position as Operations Manager. I don't normally talk about my 9-5 here, but I'm really excited to start a new journey and also really nervous about leaving my current building. Ill be moving to our Ancaster location which is a long drive for me, leaving a lot less time during the week for my own work. Hopefully I can use the long drives to listen to more books and podcasts to share with you all! I start next week, so with me luck 🎊
From a Bee Routine side I was not very successful last week. I was quite sick for the majority of the week but recovered well on the weekend. I was able to get in a bit of editing work Friday and Saturday, but still have a lot to do! I've planned a big time slot on Thursday and Friday this week to get a big portion of edits done! If anyone's looking to give me some feedback after this weeks work, hit me up!
Jake's Schedule 🖊️
As promised, here are my Q2 goals for April 1st - June 30th. I normally break these into 3 categories (Work, Life, Exercise), but with my new position just starting, I wanted to give myself a break from work and focus on exercise and life goals:
Life/ Business:
- Launch 2 Products
- Finalize my Productivity Journal
- Make $1000 in Sales
Exercise:
- Bench 265lb
- Squat 315lb
- Deadlift 350lb
For Bee Routine I want to have my book launched and selling, along with another product. I don't know what this will be yet, but I plan to make it something a lot more simple and easier to get on the market. For exercise, I wanted to set myself goals for the 3 powerlifting lifts, now that I want to train to compete. I'm currently sitting at 245lbs for all lifts (Which is a crazy distribution if you know anything about weight lifting), so I really need to focus on my squat and deadlift to get it to a more standardized distribution!
And that's all from me folks! Apologies for another late letter, I hope you all have a fantastic week!
Cheers 🍻,
Jacob Kadar
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