I’d love to talk about productivity for a few moments because every day I see so many people who have forgotten that they’re the director of their life and daily flow.
Most people, from the moment they get out of bed until the moment they go to sleep at night, are living in a reactionary, “fight or flight” experience. This is an incredibly exhausting, ungrounding, frustrating and horribly unproductive way to live.
If you live like this I’m sure you know.
Lets be honest, most people’s mornings start something like this:
Wake up to the sound of an annoying alarm or an even worse sounding top 10 pop song on the radio.
Then they roll over, check Facebook, email, Twitter, the news and then Farmville to water their digital Kale so they can make digital kale chips and sell them at the pretend digital Saturday market.
Then, all of a sudden they fall back into their bodies, notice an hour and fifteen minutes just passed and they still haven’t even put their feet on the floor or taken their first conscious breath to greet the new day.
So what do they do next?
They jump outta bed like Usain Bolt racing the hundred meter dash, throw on yesterday’s underwear and two mismatched socks and head straight to the coffee grinder to bring a boost of adrenaline infused love into their day.
Not a moment of presence.
Not a second of intention setting.
Not a thought of self reflection and 0% effort in consciously creating their day.
This may not be you, but I’m sure you can relate to some of these habits. And if you fall into some of these patterns, then I must say, you are wasting your valuable energy and moving through your day forgetting that you are more powerful than this.
We must reign in our thoughts so we can master our energy and schedule; thus being far more productive with our time so we can work fewer hours and do way more of the awesome stuff we love to do with all of that time we just got back.
The most valuable asset is not money. It is not gold. It is time.
I consciously created my life and business (for the last decade) to be in alignment with my chosen lifestyle. I wrote this article while sitting down in my yard with my dog Sasha, while hitting golf balls in my driving range net, with my bare feet on the earth. I meditated before even typi
ng a word and I listened to the sounds of nature while writing. This is how productivity meets awesome lifestyle in my reality.
That harried person I described used to be me (minus the Farmville part). That is, until I smartened up, woke up, organized my day with intention and and began starting my mornings with presence and breath connection. Last year I saw well over 250 sunrises and I didn’t regret not sleeping in a single day!
I want to say this again: Freedom of lifestyle is the top priority in my life.
I want to be able to golf everyday, spend as much time as I want with my wife, friends and family, and go on epic adventures whenever I choose. This means I need to be super focused when I am working so I can get tons of work done in way less time.
I’d say with my practices the way they are, I get 8 hours worth of work done in 4 hours now (because I’m able to stay focused).
I could give all sorts of tips on how to better organize your life, but I only want to give one.
Add presence to your day and you will add power to everything you do. Period.
Here are some big things I notice when I start my work day with meditation, presence and intention setting…
1. I am more intentional.
When I meditate before starting work I find I am way more intentional. After meditating I’ll write down the most important things to focus on in the day ahead on my big white board and I make those priority over everything else (even scrolling Facebook for cat videos).
2. I pay more attention to details.
Because I am connected in my body, I pay way more attention to details rather than skimming over everything mindlessly.
3. I am way more efficient. 
I get a lot of work done in a small amount of time because my brain is working more efficiently when I fuel it on pure Prana.
4. I am able to stay focused on my Task.
I tend not to jump from browser window to work task to Facebook to random website to email to Youtube when I’ve meditated before starting my work day. Meaning, I’m way less attention deficit.
5. I feel more grateful for the work I am doing.
When I soften into my heart before going to work I find I’m way happier and more fulfilled, even if it’s just an admin or bookkeeping day.
6. I don’t get stressed.
I rarely get stressed anymore, even when working on big projects that force me to focus on a lot of different details and timelines. It’s awesome!
If my case still hasn’t landed home, below is some science that might convert you into being a conscious creator when it comes to your lifestyle, work flow and day to day life.
It has been found that meditation training helped workers concentrate better, remember more of their work details, and stay energized and experience less negative moods.
There’s also been tons of research on meditation, nature walks and the habits of exceptional artists and athletes reveals how mental breaks increase productivity, replenish attention, solidify memories and encourage creativity.
So why not meditate, give our brains a break and step away from our obsessive compulsive robotic work habits? Living a life grounded in presence and intention has transformed everything for me and fortunately, there’s no time like the now to get started if you don’t live this way (yet)!
Bradley Morris has a blast supporting people to live activated, mega-fulfilling lives. He’s launched multiple meditation eCourses that are supporting people in 20+ countries to create a daily connection practice they love, plus he’s one of the top meditation contributors on Omvana. He also coaches conscious entrepreneurs to create and launch eCourses of their own, so they can free up more of their time, make a big contribution to the world and enjoy all the other stuff they love to do. He is an aspiring professional golfer, husband and world adventurer. He feels so blessed to have a human body and loves his “day job!” For more about him, check out Cowabunga Life.