Happy new year everyone!
I’m sure you all have big goals and big dreams for the new year and in this episode I want to help you achieve them.
No matter the goal or objective it is always wise to work smarter and efficiently rather than flat lining and trying to power through.
In this episode I have 5 key tips you should definitely consider implementing this year to make your life easier and the journey to achieving your goals simpler.
In this episode I share:
- 3 simple sleep recovery tools to make sleep and energy recovery easier in 2024
- Some simple strategies to help you be proactive about your wellbeing rather than reactive
- My tip for how to combat the 3pm energy slump proactively
- One key strategy for how to start your day and ensure you have energy until the end
- Some specific metrics to consider with taking protein in the morning
- How to implement 90 minute cycles into your day and how they can help
- The importance of outsourcing and automating and how you can implement both in your day to day living
- An important planning factor to keep in mind to ensure workouts that you start during the break, continue during the year
Key Quotes
“The greater the deep work and the focus, the greater the recovery tactics and strategies that you want to put in place.”
“Cultivating a consistent sleep routine is one of the best practices you can implement if you want to start to maximise your sleep.”
“Instead of starting to take action when we are starting to feel tired. How about we put daily routines and rituals into our lives that support our body, mind and spirit.”
Episode Resources
Jessica Spendlove Website – www.jessicaspendlove.com
Jessica Spendlove Keynotes – JessicaspendloveKeynotes – Jessica Spendlove
The High-Performance Profile Quiz https://jessicaspendlove.com/quiz/
Jess Spendlove Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=en
Jess Spendlove LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/
About Your Host
Jessica Spendlove | Wellbeing Speaker & High Performance Strategist
Jess Spendlove is an international wellbeing and high performance speaker, coach, and advisor. With over 15 years of experience across corporate leadership, elite sport and the military she is known for helping ambitious leaders and teams optimise energy, build resilience, and sustain peak performance.
As one of Australia’s leading performance dietitians and a trusted voice in executive wellbeing, Jess delivers science-backed strategies that empower individuals, teams and organisations to thrive under pressure and achieve long-term success.
Episode Transcript
The following transcript has been automatically generated and not checked for accuracy
Jess (00:09.166)
Welcome to the first episode of Stay At The Top in 2024. Today we are talking all about working smarter, not harder, which is going beyond the standard productivity techniques. Today we’re exploring how you can elevate your behaviors and implement recovery tactics for more effective work.
for more effective work, allowing you the time to relax and recharge. Today is all about enhancing your performance while we, today is all about enhancing your performance, implementing strategies, outsourcing, and using automation as tactics to help keep your battery full or top it up regularly as you would your phone.
Jess (01:08.226)
Team, today’s episode is less about having the right workflow, time blocking, utilizing the Pomodoro technique, and all of these tactics, which is typically focused around productivity. And instead, it is about elevating yourself. It is about elevating your behaviors and implementing recovery as a strategic tool to be able to allow you to work more effectively.
and then have more time for white space to switch off, to recover, to relax, to reconnect, and just have that space in your week that you desire, that you crave. These are all important aspects of keeping your energy battery pack topped up. Yes, it will drop down, yes, it will deplete, but we need to be regularly topping it up.
The same as we charge our phones every single night so the battery is full the next day, we need to take this philosophy into 2024 for ourselves if you do really wanna commit to working smarter and not harder. This is about goodbye to the burnout, goodbye to the potential breakdown, goodbye to getting sick because we’ve worked too hard and in 2024, let’s all make a commitment that we’re going to work smarter.
and not harder.
Jess (02:45.378)
So today I’m gonna take us through five ways that we can all work smarter and not harder in 2024. Number one is maximizing sleep for optimal recovery. Team, in 2024, it’s time that each of you master your sleep cycle. It’s really about tailoring a sleep routine that syncs with your body’s natural rhythm so you were getting the deep restorative rest that you need.
Quality sleep is our number one form of physical and cognitive recovery, and it is also a non-negotiable behavior. Every single night, we’ve got an opportunity to top our battery packs up with good quality sleep, or we’ve got an opportunity to not optimize it and feed the cycle of exhaustion and depletion. Now, when it comes to maximizing sleep for optimal recovery,
There are three key points that I just want you to focus on if this is going to be one of your tactics to work smarter and not harder in 2024. Number one, the human body and brain loves consistency when it comes to sleep. This is really about finding a consistency with what time you go to bed and what time you wake up. And yes, that means weekdays and weekends.
It does allow for moments of flux, so 30 to 60 minutes, but outside of that, that is when we start to experience that social or sleep jet lag. Those similar symptoms that we experience when we’re actually jet lagged from a long haul flight, that we also experience when our sleep is inconsistent. If we’re under sleeping through the week because we’re working too hard and oversleeping on the weekend, that perpetuates that feeling. So I want you to introspectively look and see
how you might be able to create sleep consistency. Now I know for some people that can be really challenging. And again, this is about looking at what you’ve historically done and how we can improve it. We’re not reaching for unrealistic strategies here. What we are looking to implement is making the best of the situation that we’ve got. But sleep consistency is definitely one way that you can maximize your sleep for optimal recovery.
Jess (05:02.23)
The second thing is sleep routine, creating a consistent sleep routine in at least that 60 minutes before you go to bed. You know, dimming the lights, stepping away from the screens, having a relaxation and a wind down practice so your brain starts to understand, okay, we’re getting ready to wind down, we’re getting ready to go to bed. That really cultivates consistent routine. Cultivating a consistent sleep routine is one of the best practices.
that you can implement if you really want to start to maximize your sleep. It’s really about looking at tactics and techniques that you can wind down, relax, and prime you for bed. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, to win the day, I really believe it starts by winning the night. Everyone sleeps, everyone should have a sleep routine if you really want to optimize the quality and the quantity of your sleep. And the third tactic I will mention,
with this first point is within the first 30 minutes of waking up in the morning, make sure you get sunlight or light on your eyes. Sunshine is always more preferable, but depending on where you are and where you’re listening, what time you wake up, you may need to look at some artificial light there. But by waking up and getting that sunlight or that light on your eyes, that helps reset your circadian rhythm.
Your circadian rhythm is your body’s natural body clock that is really involved with your sleep-wake cycle. So by getting that sunshine on your face in the morning, that is helping to reset that circadian rhythm. So that is helping to reset that circadian rhythm. So when it comes to working smarter and not harder in 2024, we wanna maximize our sleep for optimal recovery. And within that, there are three points that we wanna try and hit, but depending on who you are.
pick one of them, start, implement, refine, and then see how much value that will bring to your life in 2024. Now, the second tactic to help you work smarter and not harder is being proactive with your wellbeing routine. This is really about crafting your very own wellbeing blueprint. This is about designing daily rituals that help nurture your mind, your body, and your spirit.
Jess (07:25.866)
This can come in so many different forms. Some popular options might be some meditation or some journaling or a morning walk to prime your day or an afternoon walk to decompress and step away from your screen and signal that you are stepping out of your work zone and work time. This is really about having daily micro forms of recovery that go a long way in sustaining your energy and giving that go a long way in sustaining your energy.
Now, micro, now the first point touched on macro recovery, which is all about sleep. Whereas this point is really about optimizing our micro recovery. This is our ability to take small, meaningful breaks across the day or have practices that help nurture our body, mind and our spirit. Now, what I see most people doing is taking action when they notice there is a problem.
But what this point is about and helping you work smarter and not harder in 2024 is instead of being reactive, it is about being proactive. Instead of starting to take action when we notice that we’re feeling tired or when we notice that we’re feeling an energy slump or when we feel like we’re on the brink of burnout, how about we put things into our daily routine and ritual? How about we put daily routines and rituals
into our lives that support our body, mind and spirit. Now, I wanna use the 3PM Energy Slump because I know it is so very common with so many high performing clients or anyone who is just motivated, driven and has a lot of things that they need to get through. Now, the all too common reactive approach is that many people experience the 3PM Energy Slump.
and when they start to have that brain fade and they feel their energy levels dropping, many people turn to caffeine and maybe even sweets as well. And what this can look like is a really quick energy boost, head downstairs to the cafe, buy the 3 p.m. coffee, which they know they’re probably going to pay for that night, but this is just a habit that they’ve developed. It’s their remedy for the energy slump, and often that can also see them having a sweet at the same time.
Jess (09:44.45)
But what happens here is that this blood sugar crash which we’re experiencing is quickly spiked, but only temporarily. It really then will come crashing back down. We will experience more fatigue and reduced focus. We’re also probably gonna pay for that decision later that night because we’ve had something which is a stimulant, which we know has a half life of eight hours and can then impact our sleep. The decision to also have a quick
The decision to also have something with refined sugar and not much nutritional value lacking in protein and also lacking in fiber is also likely to lead to us overeating later on in the day. Now that can either be snacking at the pantry all afternoon when they get home, that can be having a giant dinner, or that can be having their dinner and then going straight into the suite straight after. These are the common sweet tooth people that I hear about.
Well, instead, what if we had a proactive strategy? We know that at 3 p.m. we’re likely to have that lull. So what can we do to be proactive here? Can we take a brain break? Can we get outside and do a 10, 15, 20 minute walk away from technology in nature, moving our body, getting more oxygen around our body and our brain? Can we use this as a way to maintain consistent energy?
and focus and also strategically take a break and implement something that is supportive to elevating our energy levels. Can we then even couple that with a strategic afternoon snack, which has a good amount of protein, some healthy fats and some high fiber carbohydrates. This might look like some nuts with some fruit or a high protein yogurt with some berries and some natural peanut butter or chia seeds or a nice muesli.
This might even be a sushi roll, brown rice, smoked salmon, that type of thing. All of those foods I’ve just mentioned there compliment the idea of a protein rich, healthy fat. All of these compliment the strategic use of an everyday snack in the afternoon, which has protein, healthy fats, colors, and high fiber carbohydrates. By proactively implementing a brain break in a nutritious snack, we can limit, avoid,
Jess (12:06.29)
or reduce, ideally hopefully even eradicate that 3pm slump. And also that, and that will also help us manage our appetite and our food choices later in the evening. Talk about an absolute win-win.
Jess (12:28.994)
The third way we can work smarter and not harder in 2024 is by starting our day with a high protein meal. Now, this is really, now, this is really about powering our morning and utilizing a nutritional choice that is going to set us up, sustain our energy, sustain our appetite, and sustain our focus across the day. If you,
Really wanna maximize your energy, focus and appetite in 2024 to feel more focused, to feel more productive, to make better food choices, to reduce the sugar cravings. This tactic is an absolute must. I know it can be difficult if you’re not a breakfast eater or you’re a poor or inconsistent breakfast eater, which is why I just want you to focus on one thing. Even if all five of the tactics here today sound like something that you wanna optimize,
please choose one. You may be listening to this while you’re still on leave and that is a great time to start putting some new strategies into place. If you’ve never been good at breakfast, it can be difficult to start, but if you dedicate a few weeks and you just focus on that one thing, I promise you within a few weeks, your stomach will be more used to it and your brain will be thriving. It will be like.
wow, I feel so much better across the day and at the back end of the day when I have that protein breakfast and then that connection starts to happen. The stomach and the brain are talking to each other, the brain is communicating, hey, I feel great, this is something we should continue to do and the best bit is you start to embed a conscious decision into a subconscious behavior. When you start to feel good,
it becomes something which becomes more easy. You don’t forever have to be dedicated to implementing a strategy. That is forever my number one goal with clients I work with. It is about how quickly can we embed a behavior and get you into autopilot. So if starting your day with a high protein breakfast option sounds like something that you need to implement into your life to work smarter and not harder in 2024, then I would encourage you to make this a priority.
Jess (14:46.402)
while you are currently on leave. Now, I’ll give you some metrics because there are some specifics with this point that we do really wanna target. The goal should be 20 grams of protein or more. So what that might look like depending on if you’re plant based, depending on if you eat animal products, really there’s a way that we can maximize this for anyone. There’s a way we can maximize this for anyone and everyone. But here are a few examples.
20 grams or more of protein can look like a scoop of plant-based or whey protein powder. It can look like three eggs. It can look like 200 grams of a high protein yogurt, or it can look like 80 grams of smoked salmon. So there are quite a few different options there. There are so many more, but these are just a few of the most common popular ones that I see people starting to implement into their morning with ease, with enjoyment.
And my goodness, do they reap the benefits when it comes to focus, appetite, energy, and productivity across the day. Point four, when it comes to working smarter and not harder in 2024, is looking at ways you can work within 90-minute cycles across the day. The 90-minute rule is really about focusing your focused time deep work periods between
your focused deep work periods within 90 minute cycles. And then what you wanna do is you wanna take a brain break. Now a brain break is something where you’re stepping away from your desk, you’re getting off technology, you’re ideally getting out in nature and you’re moving your body. You’re getting more oxygen around, you’re giving your cognitive brain, you’re giving your brain some cognitive renewal time so that when you come back to your desk, you are still focused.
Taking a brain break is really about boosting your productivity and promoting cognitive renewal. And when it comes to working smarter and not harder, the quality of your work and the ability to focus is definitely one of the key factors that is going to allow you to deliver the work that you need at the quality and the level that you want. That then allows you to have more white space and more time within your diary to rest.
Jess (17:09.974)
relax, spend with family and friends, or in any way that you can focus on some deep recovery. I want you to hear this point. The greater the deep work and the focus, the greater the recovery tactics and strategies that you want to put in place. Flatlining and going hard every single day does not allow you to get the most out of yourself. Whereas,
If you implement some of these tactics, such as every 90 minutes, taking an extended 10 to 20 minute break, preferably outside in nature, but if that isn’t possible, having some space, you know, maybe there’s a room at your office or in your co-working space where you can go and do some breath work or some meditation. Or if you’re working at home and you don’t want to go outside for a walk, can you create a little space where you can go and have a meditation?
maybe you listen to a recording. So a recording I’m really enjoying is ones that are centered around non-sleep deep rest.
Jess (18:21.482)
Recordings I’m really enjoying are some that are focused around non-sleep deep rest. Now choose what works for you. I think that what I see work, what I see having the best results is people who have a number of strategies that they can call on. They set a non-negotiable. So they set that they’re going to work in 90 minute cycles. And then when that break comes up, they implement one of those multitudes of practices.
The other thing that we wanna be doing is that within every 30 to 60 minutes, so once or twice within each 90 minute cycle, we wanna at least be standing up, stretching our legs, getting some more oxygen around the body, not staying sitting for an extended period of time.
Jess (19:22.038)
And now our fifth tactic and our fifth strategy that’s going to help us work smarter and not harder in 2024 is looking at what we can either outsource or automate. Look at what tasks that we do on repeat and how can we streamline or simplify. So one example is around the grocery shopping and meal preparation. Are we able to move our in-person shop?
into an online grocery delivery. Is this going to save us time so we…
This saves time spent physically going to the grocery store, navigating the aisles and waiting in checkout lines. Another option that I’ve seen work well for a lot of people is subscribing to meal kit delivery services. This is where these kits come with pre-measured ingredients and they have easy to follow recipes, simplifying the meal preparation process. Now, both of these are strategies I use at different time points and I know particularly when I’m in seasons of being really busy,
Having strategies like these really serve me and serve so many of my high performing athletes, business leaders and entrepreneurs that I work with incredibly well. Another example is looking at the household chores and is it available to you that you might have someone come in and help? Whether that is a cleaning service for regular home maintenance, whether that’s just helping make sure that the living environment is tidy, allowing…
This could also be ensuring that the living room is tidy and without that needing to be an extra chore that is on your plate. I’ve realized that may not be something that everyone wants or is able to do, but it is just another way that we can look to outsource or automate our lives in 2024. Another great example is looking at our health and fitness, which we all want to make a priority. We wanna move regularly. This is a high performance living must.
Jess (21:27.894)
Ways that we can do that though, at the start of the year, the motivation’s high, we’re booking into the classes, and then when work comes back, the year really kicks off. We get busy, maybe school’s back if we’re a parent, then things start to eat away at some of these good practices that we’ve been able to put in. So one thing I would encourage, is there a way that you can have a set and forget exercise schedule for the week? Can you, in the holidays, look at classes?
or look at a routine that you will be able to sustain when your work goes back and life kicks off. So having a set and forget exercise schedule, booking your classes ahead. If you train with a personal trainer, having a set time each week, so these are commitments that you have, rather than each week looking at classes and just booking them in. One, you might miss the classes that you want.
And then by doing that, that can start to put pressure on a busy schedule. So my encouragement there is to look ahead, set a schedule that works and then book it in for many months or across the year. So it is a set and forget. And another point to make on that is looking at regular appointments that you might have. So an example I’ll just use here is maybe a monthly massage. Can we put that in the diary once a month, same date, same time, so it is just in there.
them also might be going to the hairdresser. So whether you’re going every six weeks, eight weeks, 12 weeks, same time, same place, set it in so you’re creating the set schedule which allows you to have more space. It allows you to not waste bandwidth, thinking about when you’re gonna put things in and move them around, and it is just a set and forget. So.
In bringing us to the end of this episode, in looking at the five ways that we can all work smarter and not harder in 2024, one, can we look to maximize our sleep for optimal recovery? And within that, we can look at our sleep consistency, our sleep routine, and getting sunshine on our eyes in each morning. This is our biggest form of recovery, and when we start to sleep better, every area of our life feels easier because we have
Jess (23:47.142)
more energy and we’ve allowed ourselves to physically and cognitively recover to the levels that we need. Two, can we start to be proactive with our wellbeing routines? Can we start to create a wellbeing blueprint that has daily and weekly practices that help us nurture our mind, our body and our spirit, which allow us to have micro forms of recovery and that we have tactics in place so we are supporting ourselves?
rather than band-aiding it or being reactionary. Are we starting our day with a high protein meal, which is setting us up for focused, which is setting us up for our best energy, our best appetite and our ability to focus and be productive across the day? Can we work in 90 minute cycles and use the 90 minute rule as a way that we can break our day up?
Most importantly though, at the end of the 90 minutes, can we take 10 to 20 minutes? Can we get outside in nature? Get away from technology. Get the oxygen pumping around our body. Get some fresh air and take a brain break. And within those 90 minutes where we’re focusing, can we break them up into 30 or 60 minute blocks? So we’re at least standing up once or twice, moving our body and stretching within that time. This will allow us to get into deep work.
but as mentioned, deep work requires deep recovery and being intentional. And the last way that we can work smarter rather than harder in 2024 is what can we look to outsource or automate? Look at your repeatable tasks. Look at what you can book in ahead of time. Can you move from going to the grocery store to shopping online? Can you have a set and forget meal delivery subscription service?
Can you book your exercise classes in same time, same place each week so that just becomes what you do? Remove that mental burden and stress and bandwidth and just have a set and forget routine. Now, I know many of my listeners will be on leave right now, which is a great time for you to look at your days, your weeks, your months, and think about how you can optimize your time as we get ready to start the new year.
Jess (26:04.338)
In 2024, it is all about working smarter rather than harder. And hopefully today’s episode has given you a few ways that you can start to set yourself up to have your best year. Let’s say goodbye to burnout, goodbye to breakdowns, goodbye to getting sick, goodbye to running on empty and only taking action when we feel totally depleted. And let’s have our best year, taking care of ourself to kick the goals that we want now.
while also looking after future us as well. Now, thank you for joining me for today. If you’re keen to have me speak to your team or your business in 2024, I have a range of workshops and speaking services available. You can check out the website, no, Sam scrapped that. If you’re keen to implement strategies and tactics into your life, setting yourself up for high performance living,
I have a range of individual services available. I have my premium coaching programs, which is high touch support designed to give you fast results now, while embedding behaviors and routines and habits for life. If you would like more information, please click on the link in my show notes. And on that note team, I really hope 2024 is the year that we all start staying at the…
And on that note, team, I’m looking forward to a big 2024 with you all and most importantly, helping you stay at the top. I’ll see you all again next week.