Are you a master of getting things done? Or do you tend to procrastinate?
Is your brain a neat composition of carefully labelled files, or do your thoughts behave more like spaghetti boiling in a pot?
Today, I am writing to all you spaghetti-heads who want to achieve something in this life. Everyone else can shut this down and get a cup of tea.
But YOU, how, with your wonderfully messy, driven, creative, clever brain, can you ever get things done in this life?
And is there a tea that can support that?
Yes! The answer is yes.
It's taken me years to get it to work, but here's what I've found works a treat for insane productivity:
MY TIPS AND TRICKS
First of all, set yourself up with a fancy notebook. Something expensive. And forget going digital. Digital doesn't smell like a productivity-oozing bookstore.
Take your fancy notebook (as well as a super-fancy pencil), and dump ALL your brain-occupying to-do items at the top of the page. Every one of them. A dot point for each. Empty your brain of every last niggling thing to do. It feels so good.
Next, put a little exclamation mark next to 4-6 that you absolutely MUST do today.
Following this, for each of these 4-6 items, estimate and write down how long it will take you, e.g. 30 minutes, 5 minutes, 1 hour.
Finally, schedule a time of day for these 4-6 items, leaving 5-15 minutes between each, placing the most creative tasks at the start of your day. For example:
- write this blog 1.5 hours 9 am-10:30 am
- job proposal 1 hour 10:45 am-11:45 am
- bookkeeping 1 hour 12:00 pm-1:00 pm
- customer service calls 2 hours 1:30 pm-3:30 pm
You need to allow for gaps between each task, as there will always be interruptions, urgent and unexpected tasks.
And there will also be a bunch of little tasks that take barely a few minutes each to finish. You can include them on your list, just put a star instead of an exclamation mark. Get these done in your gaps.
When you complete a task, mark it off! Put a cross through that baby! It sends a surge of dopamine through your body and you FEEL GOOD. It's the good feelings your spaghetti brain needs to push through the mess and spur you on to do even more.
Do you know what else increases dopamine?
Tea, of course!
Particularly green tea and white tea!
These two varieties have increased levels of L-theanine, an amino acid which increases dopamine in your brain. This makes you feel happy, increases concentration, and improves memory - all good for productivity. It usually takes around 20-40 minutes to kick in, so the best time to start drinking is when you sit down to your first creative task.
MY TEA RECOMMENDATIONS
I recommend two teas for increased productivity: Jade Mist Green Tea and Moonlight White Tea. Jade Mist is my personal favourite to start my work day.
Rebecca Domorev
Co-founder, Tielka