[00:00] Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Suddar here aka the focus b. And on this show I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.
[00:41] I'm really excited to announce that in the upcoming weeks, I am launching my new program to help you to optimize your time and your energy to reach the results and impact you want in your business and in your life. If you want to find out more about my new program, check out thefocusbee.com program. I hope you're enjoying the series on tea and pie, time, Energy and Attention for Greater Profit, Impact and expertise. We're in the second pillar of this daily series, which is energy. We've already covered so far, physical energy with nest emotional energy and mental energy and all of these are directly correlated and related to each other. Moving on today to another topic that's slightly different, but we'll be leaning on the previous ones of mental, emotional and physical energy. So there is a direct correlation here. Today's topic is on the environment. So the environment that's around you and how this impacts your energy. On one of my podcasts I interviewed Adi Cohen, who is an expert in terms of architecture, and she spoke, for instance, how different materials make us feel differently. If there's wood, for instance, it makes us feel calmer than metal. And if we have a view, this is something that generally soothes us and makes us feel better. And it's a topic I hadn't reflected on that much consciously, but unconsciously, subconsciously, I had felt that it had a tremendous impact on my well being, but also my performance. The environment around us shifts the way we work, keeping in mind all along, as we do this, the importance of the mental energy and the perspective. So for instance, if you do have an environment that isn't well suited to performance, that has poor lighting or it's quite small or dark, you can still use some cognitive reframing and looking at it from another perspective, maybe it's still a safe place or any of these things to make the environment okay. What I mean by this is, as I mentioned in last episode, though, you can work on changing your external environment or situation, it's also important, as you do this, to work on internally. So I'm fully aware that this episode is dedicated to something that's external and this is an invitation for you to tweak or shift or modify a bit your external environment, if you can. But also it's important to keep in mind that if you can't change this, then you do have the tools of cognitive reframing, managing energy and perspective to be okay with this. For instance, if you love really sunny weather and looking out at a blue sky and that day is totally great and miserable, then you can use cognitive reframing or other tools to be okay with it and still work in an ideal way and feel fulfilled and joyful. Okay, so now that it's clear that you're not dependent on a great environment, but it's a bonus, let's look at what are certain things that you can put in place to feel better, to feel more high performing, for instance, in a work context, or more balanced and calm in a home and other contexts. One aspect that I feel is noteworthy is to look that there's a separation. So I know many people over the last few years have been working from home. And if that's the case, it's essential to have a separation between your home and your work environment. This is obvious in so many ways. It helps you to think differently. And if you can't, let's say you live in a small flat and you can't have separate rooms or separate places to do this, then just having a tool, a certain light that you put on only when you're working off, when you're not working, just small things to shift in your mind. Work mode and home mode can help. It helps your mind to adjust to this. Looking at your work environment, what are the thought of things that can support you to feel good? Well, it comes down to experimenting because we're all different. I could tell you what I feel works well for me, but it might be totally different for you. You need to experiment. Do you work better when there's people around or in silence? Do you like to have a small room just to yourself? Or do you prefer big open space? And if these are things that you can't influence as much as you want, well, you know about cognitive reframing by now. But another option is to think, okay, can you just listen to music instead? Or can you find non sound headphones that you put on to block the sound? Putting in different techniques and tools to optimize your environment thinking do you like a clean, organized space? Then remove any clutter. This is very common for working environments. And what sort of postits decorations, things on your wall, things around you can inspire you to be high performing. When you think about your environment, you can look at different aspects. There's the visual aspect, which is what I was mentioning right now, the decorations, how tidy your desk is, things around you. I even have a posted. I took this idea from Ali Abdal that says on my computer, this is fun. It used to say this is going to be fun. Now it just says this is fun. And this gives you a way of looking at things, putting things around you that make you feel a certain way, excited, energized, inspired, motivated. Certain books maybe this is a visual aspect and you can shift and tweak this as much as you want. And again, there might be things that you can't change, but do the bits that you can. Adding a postit, I'm sure you can do that's. The visual aspect. Then there's the auditive aspect. And this is what I was talking about when I said do you like to work with music or people around or complete silence or maybe even a great environment for you is to listen to something upbeat before you begin to get you inspired and motivated. So start to think, what type of environment do you thrive in? And try and reproduce it as much as you can. It really is just a matter of optimizing it as much as you can and then maybe changing it from time to time. That's a visual aspect. The auditive aspect and the kinesthetic aspect of touch can be the actual materials you're using, what your desk is made of if you're surrounded by glass or if you're surrounded by metal. This is sort of a more kinesthetic touch aspect. And you can even play with smell. So looking at all the different elements of your environment, you can have essential oils that you put on, or a candle or something that makes you think of work mode, or makes you feel calm and energized for the day. All of these things are aspects and elements that you can start to tweak to optimize your environment. And I've taken the example for work, as my podcast is mostly focused on high performance and leadership. But you can also apply this to your home. You can do the same in terms of visuals, sounds, what makes you feel grounded, what makes you feel peaceful. Smells the same. Candles, essential oils, flowers, things that make you feel at home. I've noticed that one thing when it comes to environment is it's something we underestimate and we don't invest enough time and thoughts and energy on this topic. And once we start to think about it, ideas start to flow. If I ask you right now what's the ideal environment for you to work in? You start to have images in your mind straight away. And now the next question is how can you get as closely as possible to that environment? And maybe it's not the same all week round. I remember when I interviewed Simon Alexander ong on my podcast, who incidentally just wrote a book on energize. I remember him mentioning starting off the week on a Monday morning in a nice hotel lobby just to plan your week, having one tea there in the hotel lobby and just planning your week from there and taking out your journal and thinking about things, how energized you feel then. Those are examples of ways of shifting your environment to shift your internal state. And yes, we need to remember that it can work the other way, shift your internal state first, but it can also be a helpful tool and asset to get your energy levels up. This isn't as essential as physical, emotional and mental energy. It's a bonus that if you use might help you and support you, and if you can't have the ideal environment that you want to breathe, it's okay. Just how can you make it work for you? Small thing, a song, a postit, little things, having a nice tea with you that would also be both kinesthetic and smell and also visual. So all these things can just help you to tweak your environment to make you feel happy, fulfilled, high performing. I hope this episode has been useful for you and that you will start to implement some of these different elements and tools to have a fulfilling and great environment around you. If you found it useful, if you've enjoyed it, you know the drill. Please leave me a review if you haven't done yet. It really, really means so much. It supports me to continue doing this podcast and it helps other people find it. And you're doing a great action contributing to the world by dropping a two minute review. So thank you in advance for doing this. If you do it and wishing you such a wonderful, wonderful day ahead.
[11:51] Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Bee show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. So let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you, and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member. Wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.