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Episode 205 - Productivity + Energy Hacks We're Loving Right Now
920 Plays1 year ago
We took a little break this summer from producing content. As some of you might know Krista got surgery in the middle of the summer, so some of that break was due to recovery. We also wanted to take some time to rest and recast some vision for our lives and businesses together. So we decided during the month of August we weren't going to produce any new content, we were just going to take some time to think about what this next season looks like for us.
Anyways, over the summer, we've picked up some new productivity and energy practices or routines that we thought would be fun to share about. One of them in particular has been a really fun, unexpected, family activity and I'm excited to hear what you think about.
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check 'em out at https://daveyandkrista.com/productivity-energy-hacks-were-loving-right-now. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Ice Baths for Energy
00:00:00
Speaker
So if you need a little bit of energy boost throughout the day, you know, doing something like this and then jumping in an ice bath, doing something like this can really help, especially if you feel like you're not a good napper or maybe you're not in a place where you can nap during the day, right? You know, for me, I find that when I go through this, I fall asleep, you know, big believer in power naps. So like 20 to 30 minutes. So, you know, this will end after 10 minutes and then I'll fall asleep. I have an alarm that goes off at the 30 minute mark. And yeah, I feel great afterwards.
00:00:30
Speaker
You're listening to the Brands That Book Show, a podcast for creative entrepreneurs who want practical tips and strategies for building engaging brands, crafting high converting websites, and creating reliable lead generation systems for their businesses. I'm your host, Davy Jones, co-founder of two agencies, a brand and website design agency, Davy & Krista, and the digital advertising agency, Till Agency.
Personal Experience Disclaimer
00:00:54
Speaker
And I ask questions so you can find answers.
00:00:59
Speaker
We took a little break this summer from producing content. And as some of you might know, Krista got surgery in the middle of the summer. So some of that break was just due to recovery. But we also want to just take some time to rest and recast some vision for our lives and businesses together. So we decided during the month of August, we weren't going to produce any new content. We're just going to take some time to think about what this next season looks like for us.
00:01:21
Speaker
Anyways, over the summer, we've picked up some new productivity and energy practices or routines that we thought would be fun to share about. One of them in particular has been a really fun, unexpected family activity. And I'm excited to hear what you think about it. Just as a quick disclaimer, we are not health professionals and absolutely nothing in this episode should be taken as health advice. We're just simply sharing some things that we've been doing lately that we've found fun and helpful for ourselves.
00:01:47
Speaker
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check them out at DavianCrista.com.
Productivity Hacks and Family Ice Bathing
00:01:52
Speaker
And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts. It really does help. Now onto the episode. So we are bulk recording podcast episodes today. This is the last one of the day. So this topic feels timely.
00:02:09
Speaker
Because we're tired because we're tired and we're talking about productivity and just energy hacks that we've been loving lately. We have quite a few episodes on productivity hacks throughout our time recording the podcast. I think one of our most popular episodes and one of our most popular blog posts for that matter is on how to create a block schedule and how we use block scheduling. That's something that we still do.
00:02:31
Speaker
which I think the first version was written before we had kids. Yes. The first version was written before we have kids. I tried to maintain some of that in the blog post itself because it's funny for us to go back and revisit those blog posts, you know, and just feel like, oh man, remember when we thought we were really busy, you know? And that's not to say that people without kids aren't busy, you know?
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's just different, right? It's just a different season that we're in. So it is interesting, though, throughout the year, even how, I mean, just with the seasons changing, our schedules and our routines change. And we're pretty good at taking a look at those things and then trying to get on the same page. And so as we go into the school year here, we're looking at that again, because our oldest is going off to a different school than our youngest, they're going to be in two different places.
Ice Baths for Chronic Pain and Sleep
00:03:15
Speaker
So how does that impact, you know, the start of our workday?
00:03:17
Speaker
different pickup times, a longer drive. Yep. And, you know, in addition to that, you know, our oldest sometimes gets out of bed a little bit earlier now and, you know, our youngest fortunately is still confined to a crib. So, I mean, it's just good to sit down and have a conversation about what everybody in the family needs in their schedule to feel like they can be successful throughout the week.
00:03:38
Speaker
And there are some fun things that we've started to do this summer that me and you started, but have turned into sort of family activities. I like that you call this fun. Yeah. I mean, I think that might be where we start. So I guess we'll just start with ice baths. All right. I don't want to get into all the different. If you think that plunging your body in 40 degree water is fun, then sure.
00:03:57
Speaker
Yeah, okay. So I do Chris has given me a hard time right now, but something to realize is that Krista has been, I think, pushing us to do this nearly every day. And it's something that I actually really enjoy doing. No, I don't find the five minutes that I'm in 40 degree water, like super enjoyable, right? But I do love the way that it makes me feel afterwards. And so I don't want to get into all the benefits of ice baths and things like that. You can look those up.
00:04:24
Speaker
or watch the Chris Hemsworth Limitless documentary, episode two on Disney Plus, right? Yeah, that's right. And they talk a little bit about it there. And then we'll also say, look up safety protocols for doing all this, yada, yada, yada, as a little disclaimer. But if you follow me on Instagram, you know that I had surgery earlier this year because chronic pain has been a challenge for me. And that's also led to sleep issues. And ice baths are supposed to help with both pain and sleep. So I've tried to commit to them daily.
00:04:53
Speaker
Davey has been doing video clips of me and just my anger at this, so maybe I'll put it into a reel. Yeah, I will put it into a reel around the time we release this episode to look for it. He gets a little pushy with me. But, you know, I mean, you've committed to doing them pretty much daily, like you feel like it's helped.
00:05:10
Speaker
Yes, I think so. I feel like I went like a week without doing them and I wasn't sleeping as well. So we'll see. We haven't done one today yet. We still need to do that. Yeah. Yeah. So for me, I think the primary benefit has been energy and recovery. You know, so I feel like it prevents me from getting as sore as I usually do. And then in addition to that energy, you know, I think that's a big thing. Like I'm a big believer in naps. I'm going to talk about that in a minute as well.
00:05:36
Speaker
But if I didn't have time for a nap, getting in the ice bath, I feel ready to go afterward. And there's really nothing like it. As somebody who drinks a lot of caffeine throughout the day in the form of both coffee and pre-workout and so on and so forth, an ice bath rivals that. I would say in the morning when I do an ice bath, I do not need coffee. But it's been a great activity for us. Typically, we would do it around this time of day. So it's like 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
00:06:04
Speaker
before you get the kids from school. Yeah, it's the perfect time to do it because it's also when I sort of feel like an afternoon wall.
00:06:11
Speaker
And we don't have like a fancy ice bathtub. We just fill up our regular tub. And then right now we're buying bags of ice from the grocery store. If we keep doing this, we might get a commercial ice machine and put it in our garage because I think you said they're only a couple hundred dollars. Well, I don't know if it's technically a commercial ice machine, but it is an ice machine that you know, a little bit more heavy duty than what you'd find in like your refrigerator at home. Right? Because ours is broken. But you can just scoop it out. Yeah.
00:06:37
Speaker
and ours is broken anyway. So, but, you know, trying to figure out maybe in the future how to do this a little bit more economically than going to buy ice at the grocery store. We have a lot of freezers because we live, we're sort of living the farm life, right? So we have a lot of frozen meat where we can store ice, but I will say this has been fun to do as a family. So I know that Krista just mentioned, we do try to do this occasionally before the kids get home from school, but certainly on the weekends or just when they're home, like Jack or all this loves to do this with us. He doesn't do it.
00:07:04
Speaker
Quick dip in it. Yeah. Yeah, of course. We're not putting we're not putting our five-year-olds in really cold water for minutes at a time But what he loves to do is just jump in dunk his head and then he'll jump out and usually he'll jump right into a shower, you know But he just thinks it's the most fun thing and you know I'll be giving Chris a hard time and he'll be like don't be mean to mama, you know, and so it's pretty it's pretty cute and
Exploring Sleep Optimization Techniques
00:07:25
Speaker
Davey normally is first and he, I let him melt the ice cubes too. So if you're doing his family. I warm it up for her. So the next thing that we've been doing a little bit more of lately is the non-sleep deep rest protocol, specifically Andrew Huberman's protocol. Basically, you know, I don't really understand the science behind why this works, but Andrew Huberman, I think is very reputable figure in the, you know, science and health world. And he has this protocol, basically it walked, I would say it's like, it feels kind of like a guided meditation.
00:07:54
Speaker
It does. Yeah. And there's two versions, at least on the app that we use, and it's a 10 minute version or 20 minute version. And, you know, I guess what they say is that it gives you just as much energy as you would get from like two hours of sleep or something like that, you know? And I can't remember the specifics. I'll link to the protocol in the show notes for sure. But I think this has been really helpful, especially for you, Krista, because unlike me, you're not a great napper.
00:08:20
Speaker
And I think that having something where you don't feel the pressure of falling asleep for just 20 or 30 minutes has been helpful for you. It has, yeah. It does feel a lot like a guided meditation. So if you need a little bit of energy boost throughout the day, you know, doing something like this and then jumping in an ice bath.
00:08:38
Speaker
doing something like this can really help, especially if you feel like you're not a good napper, or maybe you're not in a place where you can nap during the day, right? You know, for me, I find that when I go through this, I fall asleep, you know, big believer in power naps, so like 20 to 30 minutes. So, you know, this will end after 10 minutes, and then I'll fall asleep. I have an alarm that goes off at the 30 minute mark. And yeah, I feel great afterwards.
00:09:01
Speaker
When he talks you through it, he says you can be laying or sitting. And so he'll say like, you know, feel your feet on the floor or on your blanket. So he kind of does it both ways, regardless of the position that you're in. You just need to be like in a resting position. Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:17
Speaker
So, but I'm still a big believer in nap and it's always shocking to me, even if I don't feel like I slept a lot during a 25 minute nap or so, how refreshed I feel afterwards. It's always just sort of surprising to me. All right, one of the things talking about for sleep, right? I mean, sleep is something that we've been really focusing on because sleep, I think is still pretty much a struggle for you.
00:09:35
Speaker
And so just some things that we've been trying that, you know, I just feel like we're better rested throughout the day. What I noticed is that my afternoons were really suffering and that's hard because that's time with the kids, you know? And so really trying to fix that so I had more energy for them and felt like doing things like going to the pool or going to the park or whatever.
00:09:56
Speaker
So a few things that I've been trying lately that I've really liked. One, turning off my phone an hour before bed. So I try when I go into journaling and reading. That's the last time I look at my phone. Put it on airplane mode. Well, not airplane mode. I usually just put it on do not disturb. And then I set it off to the side.
00:10:13
Speaker
So the next time I look at it, it won't be until sometime the next morning. That has really helped. And this is one of the things I should preface with. I wear a whoop band. All right. WHOOP. It tracks my sleep and it gives me a recovery score and it allows me to keep this sort of automated journal so that I understand what
00:10:32
Speaker
activities lead to better rest. So these are all things that I'm mentioning that for me have actually resulted in better recovery. That was turning off my phone an hour before bed, not eating too close to bedtime. So I try to have finished eating at least two hours, but ideally three hours before I actually fall asleep. So for me, that's usually like 6.30 at the latest. We have young kids, so usually we're done dinner by then.
00:11:02
Speaker
Unless we make a batch of cookies late. Yes, the cookies you make though are just so hard to resist. In general, try not to eat too close to bedtime. It is shocking to me just my diet, how it impacts my recovery. That has been the biggest eye opener from wearing the whoop is like, exercise can remain the same. I can be in a great exercise routine, but if my diet isn't dialed in,
00:11:23
Speaker
And I don't mean necessarily the caloric restriction, but just like eating non-processed, like whole foods, you know, that sort of thing. If my diet's not dialed in, my recovery suffers. But when I have my diet dialed in and I'm eating mostly whole foods and avoiding processed foods, you know, maybe in a little bit of a caloric restriction, like all of a sudden my recovery is so much better.
00:11:44
Speaker
And that's, I mean, shocking to me. I mean, maybe it shouldn't be shocking. Maybe somebody's listening to this and they're more, more of a health person than I am, but they're like, duh, you know, but it is, it's surprising. Next thing, sleeping an extra hour. You know, I used to, if you've listened to the podcast, you know that maybe I used to wake up at four. No, somebody wakes up early. They tell you. They tell you. That's the joke. That's what my brother likes to give me a hard time. Some of my friends like to give me a hard time.
00:12:09
Speaker
Unless like you actually email people that early, when I'm emailing that early, I scheduled them to go later. So people don't see that I'm working at five, but if they get an email from you at four, then they would also know. Yeah. Yeah. The joke is, you know, the people who wake up earlier are always shouting about it, you know, but we do now both wake up at five. That extra hour of sleep has made a big difference for me. It's also nice waking up with you so we don't have like two different alarms going off, you know, at the same time. So what about for you for sleep? Anything in particular?
00:12:38
Speaker
Um, like we're still dialing this in. I feel like I need white noise. I read a physical book at night normally fiction. So right now I'm reading Anna Karenia.
00:12:50
Speaker
And actually it's a lot easier than a lot of other classics. I'm like Dusty Ebsky, but yes, it's actually not bad, but it's going to take me like six months. So I'm reading that. I think that I stopped looking at my email on my phone a few hours before bed. So long before you do, and this includes like social media and I use a weighted blanket. Is there anything else that I do?
00:13:13
Speaker
Yeah, I'm trying to think I think those are the highlights, you know, in addition to some things that I already I do as well, but reading to big one journaling.
Deep Work and Focus Strategies
00:13:21
Speaker
I think we both journal before bed. That I think is one of those things to sort of a big eye opener for me, how much journaling can help me just get out like, maybe, you know, even anxiety that I don't really realize, you know, just at the end of the day,
00:13:35
Speaker
especially if I have a lot of thoughts about, maybe I have a lot of ideas, and this is a good thing, maybe I have a lot of ideas about the business, but just getting them out on paper and feeling like, oh, I got all these out of my head on paper before I go to bed, it helps me, I think, go into the next day and feel like I have a little bit more direction, but then in addition to that, I physically remove them out of my brain before having to try to shut things off and go to bed.
00:14:00
Speaker
So that's helped as well. Yeah. I mean, the last thing I guess that I want to bring up, especially if you all followed like kind of our block scheduling episodes and things like that, which I'll try to link to in the show notes, you know, moving all of my calls to Tuesday. Previously, my call days were Tuesday and Thursday, but having like three days in a row at the end of the week to really just focus on deep work has been sort of a game changer.
00:14:25
Speaker
You know, I feel like this sort of interesting in that I get a lot like I'm an extrovert. I like connecting with other people. But I also feel very tired afterwards. And it's hard for me to make that mental shift of like being in a meeting and talking to people and the strategy and you know all that and then turning that off and then going back into something like I don't know, writing an email sequence or you know, working on our SEO course or whatever it might be.
Wrap-Up and Podcast Promotion
00:14:53
Speaker
Yeah, and I appreciate that you've taken a lot of the discovery calls. I think that if you listen to our discovery a call episode, that might be another reason. Yes. You'll also learn another reason why. Yeah, no, another reason why I'm grateful. So anyways, there's more that we could say around productivity and productivity hacks, but we've already covered a lot of that in other episodes. So I encourage you to go and check out those episodes. Again, the one on block scheduling, actually we have a few on block scheduling that just kind of explain our schedules in different seasons of our life.
00:15:22
Speaker
And those schedules do look different yet again. So for instance, I've been working out in the evening because it allows me to take advantage of really productive time in the morning and then also not sacrifice time with the kids. So after they go to bed, I'll go work out. And again, that usually contributes to good sleep as well. But point being is we cover a lot of that in other episodes. So be sure to check those out.
00:15:44
Speaker
Yeah. Thanks for joining us, guys. All right. Till next time. Bye. Thanks for tuning in to the Brands of Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, and sharing this episode with others. For show notes and other resources, head on over to DavianChrista.com.