by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
Over the past ten years, I developed an obsession with optimizing my performance and have tested a ton of different strategies to get more energy and make the most out of every hour of my day to give myself an edge over my competitors.
Along the way, I discovered that becoming a consistently high performing coach is a lot simpler than most people think.
You don’t need to take daily B-vitamin IVs, buy an expensive red-light therapy device, or ingest a cocktail of un-researched – and incredibly expensive – stimulants.
To get more energy and sustain peak performance during stressful times, you simply need to follow these strategies that I will be sharing with you over the next few weeks.
Use The #1 Sleep Hack to Double Your Energy Levels
When I was a first-time division 1 head coach and a new mom all within 10 days of each other, I hit a wall.
I was working crazy hours trying to dig out of the whole I inherited at one of the worst programs in the country at the time, I had no full-time help my first 3 years, I had no time to workout, and I was getting only a few hours of sleep a night because I was not blessed with a son who slept well.
And eventually, my hectic and radically misaligned lifestyle caught up with me.
I was exhausted. I was so exhausted that at one point I fell asleep at the wheel driving with my baby in the back seat (good thing my husband noticed right away). My creativity dropped, my output decreased, and my ability to GSD and tap into flow all but disappeared.
I remember reading an article from Early to Rise editor Mark Ford. In this article, he said, “You need to start waking up at the same time every single day…even on the weekends.”
I hated that advice because I thought that there was no way I could do it. In fact, I ignored that advice for seven (!) years. But when I finally gave in and took that advice, as simple as it was, it had a profound impact on my life and helped me bounce back from my burnout fast.
Listen…
This is the same top tip you’ll hear from Dr. Matthew Walker in his New York Times best-selling book, Why We Sleep. And as inconvenient as it might sound, your body craves routine and structure and will reward you with better sleep at night and better mental performance in the morning.
But when you have an erratic sleep schedule your circadian rhythm (which impacts your hormonal health, digestion, immune system, and neurochemistry) is thrown off, making low energy, insomnia, sleep deprivation, and burnout all but inevitable.
After taking Mark’s advice, I noticed an immediate improvement in my energy levels. I no longer felt like an “energy vampire” had visited me overnight, and I was more energetic and productive even first thing in the morning.
If you want to increase your energy and cognitive abilities quickly and naturally, start with this.
Wake up at the same time every day for the next 30 days and see how you feel.
If you stay out late or have a night of less than stellar sleep, wake up at the same time anyway. You can make up for your lost sleep with a short nap or by going to bed earlier the next day.
Coaching is a tough profession. Any little tweak you make can make all the difference in the world in your day to day performance.
If you try it, I’d love to hear how it goes for you. Email me at mandy@busy.coach.