I’ve got a mug of Ethiopian Limu from my local favorite coffee roaster Flat Black Coffee. I made it for myself in my Bialetti coffee maker. How about you? What are you drinking? Comment below, I’d love to hear from you!

As you know, I like to start each week with some words of wisdom, this week’s words, with my awesome coffee in hand, are:

“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” – Henry David Thoreau

The future is coming quicker than you think! In fact, the future is here and it’s NOW!

You need to learn about data and new concepts like the Internet of Things. You need to understand how technological changes like artificial intelligence (AI) will affect businesses. I’m not saying to imagine that you need all of this, because you do. I’m saying the future is coming. So now, imagine how you will feel when the future arrives on your front doorstep. Will you feel overwhelmed?

The way to avoid feeling overwhelmed isn’t just learning about the latest trend. You can’t possibly learn fast enough to “keep up.” Keeping up is overwhelming. Calm yourself down by knowing your spot.

If the marketplace is shifting, where do you want to go? How do you fit? How can you contribute? This is your spot, and you must know it.

If you sell real estate: make a smart website and make it easy for anyone and everyone to find you.

If you are in the mortgage business: answer all the questions that people have when buying a home so you are considered a resource and you become the first call they make for all things, MORTGAGES.

If you were hired into a new role, where do you go to figure out new stuff required for the new position?

The prerequisite is: Learn something.

Connect with others and listen to their perspective and their resources. Then learn more from them and from your own efforts. That’s how you’ll get through all these changes. That’s how you’ll figure out where you fit, what matters, etc.

Think of how these changes will hit from all angles. For instance, if you run a vacuum store and Roomba vacuums are the future, how are you going to position yourself in front of potential customers so you’re top of mind to solve their problem? How do you compete?

Connect with people. Listen to their perspective. Learn what’s trending.

Next week, I want to share some tips with you on how you can work on your wealth. Don’t forget to comment about the morning beverage—coffee, tea or other—you’re drinking to commence your awesome day!

Carlos

It’s a new week once again, friends – are you ready?

As you know, I start each week with some positive words of wisdom, and this week’s are:

Last week, I promised to help you rid your life of some of the distractions that keep you away from being productive. Your smartphone, your inbox and the open tabs on your computer are all open invitations for distraction. You’ll give yourself extra time each day to focus when you silence your notifications, close your inbox and remove unnecessary tabs from your desktop.

If you want to focus, you can’t welcome unnecessary opportunities to intrude on your mental space.

Emails can be particularly intrusive because they often have an unnecessary sense of urgency. There are businesses and organizations that stress the importance of prompt responses to emails, but we can’t treat every situation like an emergency.

Many times, we blame electronics for distracting us from our work, but sometimes our physical body forces us into a state of serial-tasking. For example, if you’re hungry while trying to work, your attention will flip between your hunger and your work until you take care of your physical needs.

In addition, you’ll also want to be sure you’re attending to your health in a broader sense. Getting enough exercise, practicing mindfulness and incorporating regular breaks into your day will keep you from being tempted by distractions.

What works for me is looking at exercise as the gift to myself for doing my work. When 1PM comes around, an alarm sounds on my devices that it’s “me” time. I’ll then get out of the office and go to the gym or for a long walk outside.

People are more likely to login to YouTube or check social media when they need a break. Instead of trying to work and watch a mindless video at the same time, dedicate time for yourself to enjoy this distracting activity. Limit how much time you’ll spend on this break so that your guilt-free distraction time doesn’t turn into hours of wasted time.

Make technology your ally. Apps like Forest help to turn staying focused into a game. Extensions like RescueTime help to track your online habits so that you can be more aware of how you spend your time. One of my favorite browser plugins “The Great Suspender” suspends all of those open windows on your internet browser.

Multitasking is not the key to productivity. The key to productivity is focus. It’s far better to schedule time to focus on each task than it is to try to do everything at once.

Make use of the methods outlined above and prepare to be more effective and less exhausted in the process.

Carlos

You know that I start each week with some positive words of wisdom! This week’s positive wise words are:

Last week, I wrote about how humans are incapable of truly multi-tasking, engaging instead in serial switching.

It’s true that you are capable of absorbing information with your eyes while doing other things efficiently. Scientifically speaking, making use of your vision is the only thing you can truly do while doing something else. Think of walking to the street corner, looking at the traffic light while you are walking.

For everything else, you’re serial-tasking. Constant refocusing like this can be exhausting. Worse still, it prevents us from giving our work the deep attention it deserves.

Think about how much longer it takes to do something when you have to keep reminding yourself to focus. That’s one element of why multi-tasking does more harm than good for your productivity.

This element is one of four reasons to stop all these multiple-task-shenanigans: Multi-tasking wastes your time.

Yes, you’re literally losing time with all your self-imposed interruptions! People lose an average of 2.1 hours per day getting themselves back on track when switching between tasks.

You’re decreasing your productivity by as much as 40% with all your many and varied simultaneous tasking activities according to some studies. That’s a significant loss in efficiency. Would you be happy if your surgeon operated with 40% less accuracy and attention while you’re “under the knife?”

I have three other great reasons why you should stop multi-tasking. Next week I will share them with you! Stay tuned!

Carlos