1. Do the Most Important Thing FirstMost of us have the highest energy and the fewest distractions at the beginning of the day. Decide the night before on the most important task for the following day. Try to do it first thing, for 60-90 minutes without interruption.2. Daydream on PurposeSchedule at least one hour a week to brainstorm or strategize around some issue at work. You can help access your right hemisphere by doodling, daydreaming, or going for a long walkanything that lets your mind wander. That's when breakthroughs and spontaneous connections are most likely to occur.3. Stay Active and MovingMake sure that you get up and move around periodically throughout the day. Too much inactivity can cause weight gain and other health problems, as well as decreased focus.4. Turn Off Email Once a DayTry shutting off your email completely for at least one hour a day. Use that hour to devote all your attention to a significant task or larger challenge before you. Resist interruptions.5. Don't Chat and DriveTalking on your cell phone while youre driving makes you four times as likely to have an accidentthe same as a driver who has a blood alcohol level of .08, which qualifies as intoxicated in most states. Texting while you drive increases your chances of having an accident by 22 times.6. Feel Your Feet, Hold Your FireBecome aware of what youre feeling physically when your emotions turn negative. That may mean noticing your heart beating faster, tightness in your chest, or butterflies in your stomach. When you sense youre getting frustrated, annoyed, or anxious, apply The Golden Rule of Triggers: whatever you feel compelled to do, don't. Instead, take a deep breath in to a count of 3, out to a count of 6. Feel your feet to ground yourself. This will decrease your physiological arousal and return you to a relaxed state. Then you can make a choice about how to respond.7. Practice Random Acts of KindnessFind small ways to make the people around you feel better. Nothing is more important to us than feeling valued and appreciated by others.8. Reflect on How You Make People FeelAfter a conversation, ask yourself whether the person you were talking to walked away feeling better or worse. If its the latter, what could you have done differently?9. Control Your AngerPay close attention to how long you stay angry because that feeling is poisonous to the body. The physiological feeling of anger moves through you in under a minute. After that, its your choice whether to stay upset.10. Reflect on Your MisstepsAt the end of the workday or before you go to sleep, take a few minutes to ponder this question: Was there a situation in which I behaved badly today? Next, ask yourself, How would I have behaved at my best?11. Use a Pedometer to Track Your StepsIf youre struggling to find the time or motivation to start an exercise routine, buy a pedometer and record the number of steps you take every day. Shoot for 10,000the recommended amount to ensure you are fit and getting enough movement in your day.12. Give Others Your Undivided AttentionIn meetings at work or conversations at home, give people your full focus. Try to listen without interrupting. Make sure that if you were asked to, you could repeat back what you just heard.13. Accentuate the PositiveMake a list of activities that you enjoy most and which make you feel best. Intentionally schedule at least one of these activities into your life each week. For example, attend a concert, go bike riding with family members, or take a class. We all bring more energy to the activities we enjoy, and pleasure itself can sustain our energy.14. Maintain a Healthy Eating PlanStrive to eat small meals every three to four hours throughout the day, starting with breakfast. A high-protein, low-carb breakfast will jump-start your metabolism and keep you from overeating later in the morning.15. Slide Towards SleepBegin powering down at least 30 minutes before you go to sleep. Avoid anything stimulating, such as the Internet, mystery novels, and intense conversations. Instead, look for ways to relax and quiet down.16. Create a Transition RitualFind an activity that allows you to make a transition from work to home. Take a few minutes to stop at a park, listen to music, or make a call on your way home to connect with someone you love. The key is that by the time you get home, you're not still at work.17. Plan Your MealsDecide in advance what youre going to eat, in what portions, and at what intervals. Its the best way to avoid endless temptations, unconscious cues, and that-looks-good! surprises that override our self-discipline and cause us to go off track.18. Practice MindfulnessOnce in the morning and once in the afternoon, stop and take a few moments to focus on your breathing. Simply be aware of what's arising and then let it pass. You may notice physical sensations, emotions, or thoughts. Learning to observe yourself helps to free you from the compulsion to act on every feeling that arises.29. Chase Your PassionThink of the aspects of your job that you find most challenging, enjoyable, and meaningful. What specific steps could you take to spend more time engaged in these activities?20. Walk the TalkTake 30-60 minutes to reflect on the qualities you can't stand when you see them in others or in yourself. The opposite of these qualities is a reflection of what you stand for. Choose the one that you believe you embody least well. What specific activity could you build into your life to close this gap? When our behaviors are aligned with our deeply held values, we feel better about ourselves and more connected with others.21. Take All of Your Vacation DaysFrequent vacationers are healthier and happier than infrequent vacationers. Try to make your vacations work-free. Leave your laptop at home. Dont check your BlackBerry. If you need to do work, designate an hour or two in the morning to devote to it, and spend the rest of the day relaxing and renewing.22. Take More Breaks During the dayTaking a break every 90 minutes throughout your day keeps your body in alignment with its natural rhythms. Just as we cycle through stages of sleep at night, so we go through similar cycles every 90 minutes throughout the day, moving between periods of high energy, and then dipping down into lower energy.23. Put Yourself in Someone Else's ShoesWhen youre feeling righteous, try applying the Reverse Lens. Put yourself in the shoes of the other person and try to imagine what he or she is feeling. Empathy allows you to value others which reconnects you to them and makes you feel better.24. Eat SlowlyTake more time to eat your meals. It helps to put your fork down or take a sip of water between bites. Your body doesnt recognize that its full for 20 minutes.25. Show More AppreciationWere far quicker to notice whats wrong than to celebrate whats right in others. It takes five positive comments to offset the impact of a single negative one. Write a note of appreciation once a week to someone in your life and send it by snail mail. Small gestures go a long way. Studies show that even a small gift of candy to medical residents improved the speed and accuracy of their diagnoses.26. Maintain a Healthy Eating PlanStrive to eat small meals every three to four hours throughout the day, starting with breakfast. A high-protein, low-carb breakfast will jump-start your metabolism and keep you from overeating later in the morning.27. Exercise RegularlySet specific days and times to do at least three 30-minute cardio sessions and two 30-45 minute strength-training sessions. How much we move influences our health, our energy, our mood, our focus, and our productivity.28. Sleep BetterMake getting 7-8 hours of sleep your highest priority. After breathing, sleep is our most fundamental need. Its also the first thing were willing to give up in an effort to get more done. The fact is that even small amounts of sleep deprivation make us vastly less efficient.29. Park Your WorriesIf you struggle to fall asleep because youre ruminating, put a pad of paper and a pen beside your bed. Whatever youre worrying about before you go to sleep, write it down. Do the same if you tend to wake up in the middle of the night. This is a powerful way to calm your mind and get a better nights sleep.30. Rev It Up Mid-WeekOn Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, your energy is at its peak. Tackle the most challenging work. That means addressing the most difficult problems, taking on writing assignments, and having strategic discussions.31. Change Channels on FridayBy the end of the week, your energy levels are usually ebbing. This can be a good day for more open-ended work such as brainstorming, long-range planning, and relationship building.32. Take Back Your LunchWhile periodic breaks at work are critical, it is also extremely beneficial to take an extended break in the middle of the day to eat lunch. By getting away from your desk, and preferably out of your office altogether, you will come back to your desk more focused and fueled to face the rest of the day.33. Keep an Emotional JournalStart a journal to build your awareness about how you are feeling at different points during the day. Choose one or two specific times to check in with yourself. Observing our emotions allows us to be more intentional about our behaviors and more effective with others.34. The Benefits of Time ManagementSet specific times during the day to perform certain tasks (e.g., I will work from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the most important task of the day). This will help ensure that you address the most important tasks rather than simply reacting to external demands.35. Surround Yourself with CreativityBegin any creative project by immersing yourself in the known. The best ideas tend to emerge by extending, deepening, rethinking, and reframing existing knowledge.36. Practice Deconstructive CriticismWhen you feel the need to criticize constructively, dont assume that youre right. Be curious and open-ended rather than making declarations and coming to conclusions.37. Take a Power NapEspecially in periods of high demand, try to find time for a 10 or 20-minute catnap in the middle of the day on weekdays. Taking a short nap between 1 and 3 p.m., especially on days when youve worked intensely in the morning, will have a remarkable impact on your ability to focus later in the afternoon. Alternatively, simply lean back in your chair with your eyes closed for 5 to 10 minutes.38. Start Slow on MondayIf possible, as you gear up for the week, focus on low-demand administrative tasks, including setting goals, organizing, and planning.39. Do the Right ThingThe next time you find yourself in a difficult or challenging situation, ask yourself: What is the right thing to do here? Under pressure, we sometimes take the expedient route and then rationalize the choices we've made, but most of us instinctively know the difference between right and wrong if we stop to think about it.40. Do One Thing at a TimeResearch shows that when we multitask, we retain less and have more difficulty applying what we learn. It also increases the time it takes for us to finish any given task by 25%.41. The Benefits of MeditationTry to incorporate meditation into your life, starting with just a couple of minutes at a time. At the most basic level, meditation is simply a means of relaxation and an antidote to stress.42. Practice Realistic OptimismWe cant change what happens to us, but we can make a choice about how to respond. Challenge the story youre telling yourself when something happens that makes you feel bad. Is there a more hopeful and empowering story you can tell without denying the facts?43. Do Interval TrainingAt least once a week, do an interval workout. Buy a heart rate monitor to better gauge your efforts and push past your comfort zone for an interval of 30 to 60 seconds. Then take 30 to 60 seconds to allow your heart to drop 30-40 heartbeats per minute. Interval training burns more calories than continuous training, more effectively lowers the resting heart rate, and increases immune response.44. Accentuate the PositiveMake a list of activities that you enjoy most and which make you feel best. Intentionally schedule at least one of these activities into your life each week. For example, attend a concert, go bike riding with family members, or take a class. We all bring more energy to the activities we enjoy, and pleasure itself can sustain our energy.45. Track How Much You EatIf you find youre eating too much or you are skipping meals too often, log your eating habits for a week. Tracking what, how much, and when you eat is the first step to changing your eating habits.46. Make Boundaries Between Home and WorkDefine clear stopping points at the end of each day so that when you're with your family or friends, you're truly with them. If you need to work when you're home, set aside designated times to do it.47. Focus on the PositiveConcentrating on a positive outcome rather than avoiding a negative one leads to greater persistence, flexibility, creativity, motivation, and satisfaction. In short, expecting success makes us more likely to succeed.You can grow if you challenge what you are currently capable of on purpose and often (Schwartz, p.89)Take Care Of Your Body I learned that in order to function better in life, we dont need to do more or work longer. Instead, we just need to do better renewal. The first form of renewal is body renewal. Schwartz suggests that to function well we need 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Before sleeping, you could start preparing like 30-60 minutes beforehand and breathe deeply, you can write out your worries and ensure the room is dark and quiet. If you are interested you can log your sleep by going http://theenergyproject.com/sleeplog to track your sleep. Healthy eating is also important and to at least snack every 2-3 hours. Try eating nutritious snacks that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates. For example you could try fruits, vegetables, yogurt and nuts. Another effective body renewal method is exercise (There are three types you can try focusing on (Strength Building, Cardiovascular, Flexibility) Here is a link to the exercise log which you can use to track your exercising in each of these categories http://theenergyproject.com/exerciselog), it was suggested to try exercising 3 times per week for at least 10 minutes per session; Swartz suggests to exercise 30-40 minutes. Yoga is another method of renewing energy as well as breathing deeply several times a day. Swartz says the deeper you breathe the more relaxed you are (P.199). Other forms include, playing, laughing, taking a nap, sleeping and meditating.What Types of Breaks Are Productive? Taking breaks is important. Try to schedule mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks. Napping is also a good thing to try as it will refresh your mind and body. Schwartz suggested to take naps either between 1 3 pm for 15-30 minutes or 30-60 minutes or 90 minutes. Going on vacations regularly is important as well because it helps you take your mind off of work and is known to help decrease depression as well. To help you get a break during the work week you can set out one evening where you decide that it will be work free and you wont do any work related tasks such as not checking emails! What do the Experts do? Being successful requires positive rituals! Repeated practice that is deliberate and uninterrupted and of high intensity is efficient. Schwartz mentioned in his book a research finding which found that the people who were the best in their profession, spent more hours practicing. They practiced an average of 3.6 hours a day and they practiced intensely for 90 minute sessions. Then they would relax and rest in between. For these positive rituals, set a specific and precise behavior that will be done at a specific time and location and which will help increase your functionality. Just choose one ritual to implement at a time (They also have a tool to help you do this on the website under the tools option). One really good ritual to have is where you reflect by using a journal to ask questions about yourself like why am I doing what I am doing? and how do I want to behave and what do I stand for? Another key component mentioned in the book in being successful is having belief in ones abilities and a good affirmation. One example is the following: I intend to be the best [you can fill in the role of your choice here] I am capable of being despite my [ you can list the disadvantages you feel you have here] disadvantages(p.15).How to have effective Meetings? In order to have effective meetings, start and end them on time, have a purpose or goal for the meeting and a rigorous agenda; also schedule time in for Q2 (Strategizing, Brainstorming, and reflecting).How to deal with the challenging situations? When events occur in life, Scwartz suggests to try finding the good in each situation and know that each event that occurs is feedback that is helping me improve and move me closer to realizing my true abilities.Whats better, Multitasking or focusing on one thing at a time? It is important to improve our skills in focusing and paying attention to one thing at a time. Try to improve your attention so you can focus deeply and sustain your attention for long periods of time. Prioritize the tasks in terms of their importance and work on the important items first; you could prioritize one night before or even early in the morning as suggested in the book FOCUS. When learning something new it is better to learn it in small chunks daily and in spaced sessions than learning it all at once. Doing one thing at a time and focusing on that one thing at a time is effective. For example, when it is time to drive, just drive, even hands free talking is distractive because you are forming images when driving and talking.Effective practices to being productive? In order to accomplish great things it is best to do work you love. If there is a task you really need to do and get done, schedule and enter a specific time, location and date when you intend to tackle that task. Second, work in uninterrupted bursts of 90 minute sessions without interruption (i.e. no cell phones and email). It is suggested to view emails at specific times during the day and put an away message for people to call you if it is very urgent. Third, if you are feeling annoyed by situations or people, Schwartz suggests breathing deeply and thinking before acting and speaking.How to improve my relationships with key people in my life? The other type of renewal is emotional and it deals with interacting well with people. Here is what I learned about how I can improve my relationships; people have a core need to feel valued and secure. So what can we do meet relationship needs? Here is a list of several suggestions and reminders mentioned by Schwartz about what we can do to improve our relationships with the significant people in our lives: Help people feel important (e.g. when talking/listening to someone give them your full attention), People want to feel accepted and appreciated, people have a need to pay attention to , Take care of them and recognize them, Give gifts to show you value them, Pay attention to their needs as well, Respect them (e.g., talk to them alone if you want to talk to them about a behavior that you feel needs to change), Acknowledge them, Talk and react to them, Help them feel like they belong, Comfort them, Make them feel assured and wanted Trust and have faith in them and inspire them to have trust in us too, Increase their confidence by seeing qualities in that person that they might not even know about themselves. Encourage them Inspire them Be kind (e.g., When you want someone to explain their behavior, one suggestion is to say, Im just wondering whyyou do or dont(p.152), Be positive, Be supportive (e.g. with you wife you can try being loving, giving advice, reassurance, having humor and being optimistic) Listen to their concerns, Let them know you believe in them and know that they can get the job done, Admit your mistakes. More things we can do is to focus on serving others with the intention to improve their health, wisdom, and autonomy. Ask yourself, What can I do to meet the needs of my partner?. When you are having a conflict with another person you could say: Here is the story I am telling myself about what happened [You could explain your view of the situation] Have I got it right? (p.173)

Ten Rituals1. Choose specific times and days to do at least three cardiovascular and two strength workouts each week.2. Eat energy rich foods,focusing on proteins and complex carbohydrates, every three hours. A typical day should include three smaller meals and two snacks (each 100-200 calories).3. Begin preparing for sleep at least 45 minutes prior to going to bed by quieting your body and mind. Sleep at least 7-8 hours per night.4. When you notice yourself feeling like youre a victim, separate the facts of the situation from the story you are telling yourself. What is the most realistically optimistic story you could tell here without denying or minimizing the facts? Put another way, how would you respond to this situation at your best?5. When you feel triggered pushed into negative emotionstake a deep breath and feel your feet. Whatever you feel compelled to do, dont. Buy time until you feel able to truly reflect on how youd like to respond, rather than simply reacting.6. Designate specific times throughout the day when you ask yourself: What energy quadrant am I in? If you find yourself on the negative side of the quadrants, ask yourself: What do I need to do to move myself back over to the positive side?7. Before you go to bed, identify the most important task you could do the following day. Do the most important thing first thing in the morning by scheduling a minimum of 45 minutes and no more than 90 minutes for this task. This time as sacredly as you would a meeting. When you are finished, take a renewal break.8. Set aside designated periods of time each week to reflect, strategize and focus on the big picture.9. Set aside regularly scheduled times at least five minutes for each one during which you meditate or engage in a deep breathing exercise in order to develop and train the muscle of absorbed focus.10. Check in with yourself once a day to reflect on this question: How aligned is my behavior today aligned with my deepest values the person I want to be? If youve fallen short, what change do you need to make going forward?