This week my wife returned from a short trip to the UK to visit family. It had been a long time since she saw them last because of travel restrictions caused by Covid. She returned with a bunch of my favourite childhood sweet treats. As a result I’ve spent this entire week gorging on sweet and sugary snacks, pretty much all day every day. Every-time I open the fridge or the cupboard i give in and have a treat. I simply do not have the willpower to resist the temptation to indulge myself with the treats.

This got me thinking. How do I usually maintain a healthy diet and fitness?

I’m a super active person, I exercise intensely once a day, most days as a minimum. I also compliment this with a healthy diet throughout the week and allow myself to indulge a bit on the weekends. Usually my weekend indulgences are gone by Monday morning and i’m ready to start a fresh week with healthy eating habits again. I’ve been using this technique to stay fit and healthy for the best part of a decade now.

When it comes to productivity the same principles can be applied…

Limit temptations

Opening the fridge and seeing chocolate or cookies makes it difficult not to just pick one. Identify your productivity killers and removing them from your autopilot is a great way to stay focused and on task. For me Instagram is a time vortex, so I removed the app from my phones home screen to help stop me from opening it out of habit. Not having things that distract you in eyesight helps you to avoid the temptation.

Allow for freedom

After a week of healthy eating and exercise, I binge eat anything I want every weekend. Knowing I’ve already put in the work eating healthy and exercising all week, makes it all the more guilt free to do so.

It’s okay to treat yourself and allow yourself the happiness that comes with that. Have you ever had that feeling where you fall of the waggon with a diet, then mentally punish yourself for failing? Falling into a self deprecating mindset is terrible for your mental health. Another habit people fall into is to apply a ‘fuck it’ attitude, thinking ‘I’ve already started now, may as well carry on.’

Scheduling time for freedom. The non-work activities you allow yourself the happiness with none of the guilt. Jim Rohn says – ‘When you work, work. When you play, play. Don’t mix them up.’

Time your moments

Knowing your weakness is as important as knowing your strengths. I know that I am more disciplined in the mornings, so I force myself to get exercise in as soon as my day starts. Then follow it up with a healthy breakfast.

Identify the hours that you are most productive, and build a routine that compliments you to do your best work within those hours. Understand what time of day you are most functional and schedule your work for those hours.

Key takeaways for this week are remove your temptations, make time for freedom, play to your strengths. I hope you found this post useful.