Go with the flow baby, go with the flow!

It's funny how the natural order of the world ebbs and flows in a rhythm as old as time as itself, but we as individuals think that we can be in the "flow" all the time without having an ebb...Furthermore, most of us (if I can be so bold to say so...) don't understand the implications or the importance of the ebb.

We cannot be going full blast all the time. To think that we can be going full blast all the time shows a lack of understanding of the laws of nature. The key here is to understand your own natural cycles in energy, that is to say that you need to understand your own ebb and flow. It would be nice to put it into a category of awake and sleep, but it is not so easy.



We have all heard of people who can stay up late, get very little sleep and work like a champ the next day. Then there are people that need their religious 8 hours of sleep per night. Either way, these people understand their cycles and make the most of them. The problem is that no two people are exactly the same. Unfortunately, we place ourselves in the context of our work lives and expect to be product Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm or some variation of that scheme. Then we recharge over the weekend and do it again.



Well, that presents a problem because we are not all alike. I find that I have productivity bursts from 9pm-11pm...I get so much done in that time that it is crazy. During that time, I am most creative with numbers and words...meaning, that if I have a spreadsheet that needs to be looked at or created then that is the time that I am thinking the clearest...Normally, that is also the time that I blog or return emails for the day as well.



I realized a few years ago that I am productive at times when others are resting, and sometimes I am ridiculously unproductive when others are at their nine-five job. I catch myself working at 11pm on the weekends sometimes...but it never feels like work. It feels like the most productive time to work and get things done...so I just go with the flow. Doing anytyhing else feels unnatural and feels like swimmng against the tide...as well it should feel like I am swimming against the tide, because figuratively speaking, I am.

The truth is that I don't have it down to a science, but I understand that science is indeed involved in my productivity. The beauty with email is that it allows me to work at my pace and at a time that is convenient to my particular energy cycles. It also allows me to work with other people who have cycles that are opposite to mine. Rather than toss a bunch of people into a room and tell them to work together for 40 hours a week from Monday through Friday from 9-5 pm, we get more work done than a vast majority of those people in a fraction of the time.

This is the new millenium and there are ways to make the best of technology, but it is lost on so many people. Technology has made their lives busier, but not necessarily more productive....It should be the other way around...technology should allow us to be more productive, as well as, less busy. If you find that you are busier but less productive, I would recommend you take a deeper look at the role technology plays in your life.

But, as always, I digress...the point is that we can use technology in alignment with our ebbs and flows to create predictable, or at least regular, periods of "Hyper Productivity." But in order to accomplish this you must be willing and able to reshape your thoughts on what work is and the role it plays in your life. If you think of your daily activities as your job, then none of this applies. But if you think of your work as your life's work and you love it and want to be as effective as possible, it may require you to take a different approach to your work and a deeper look at your own personal cycles.

I have experienced tremendous growth at times in my professional life and those periods may last for a few days or a few months, but I can go back and look at periods of tremendous progress and when I do that I see that most of my energy and forward progress came after the hours of 5pm...If I was a clock watcher, I never would have made that progress because my eyes would have been focused on the clock.

Consider the tidal situation...can you imagine how far you can swim when you are swimming with the tide during a tidal surge? Can you imagine how little energy it would take for you to go a very far distance? You could swim a very long way with minimal effort. By the same token, can you imagine how far you could swim if you were swimming against the tide with all your effort? Chances are that you would spend more time and energy and actually end up going backwards. Figuratively speaking, that is what you are doing when you don't know or understand your own cycles. Thus is stands to reason that if the tide is going out, you need to realize that you will be spinning your wheels and maybe the best thing to do is to sit back and go with the flow...be it in the ebb or the flow of your own energy cycle.

So suck it up Buttercup and go with the flow!

Rob