[This is part 10 in the RPG Productivity Player’s Guide series.]
The great thing about games, and RPG’s specifically, is that you can do stuff you can’t do in real life. Twinking is a perfect example: giving a new or lowly character resources he’d normally not have access to through a powerful character. It’s in essence a smart way of cheating.
In real life, it doesn’t quite work that way. And one of the areas where this is most true is in your health.
In this whole series on productivity, we’ve been talking about all kinds of hacks and smart strategies to increase your productivity. Work smarter, not harder, that idea.
Heart Containers
So you may wonder what your health has to do with it. Well, everything. Your health has everything to do with your productivity. You cannot expect top performance of your body and mind if you’re running on lousy fuel and don’t do regular ‘maintenance.’
Most of us have an opinion on health where theory and reality clash in full force. We know in theory that our health matters, but in reality it’s not our first priority.
We know that the amount of sleep you get affects our moods, our energy, our weight, our creativity, and more. Yet most people come nowhere near the recommended 8 hours of sleep per night.
We know what you eat affects our energy level, our general health, but also our moods and of course our weight. Yet many of us do not eat the recommended amounts of vitamins, minerals, fibers and other crucial nutrients.
We know that exercise improves our mood by releasing endorphins, that it helps us maintain weight, that it strengthens our bodies and helps us sleep better. Yet the recommended amount of daily exercise is a far-away dream for many.
Plus, if there’s one area where many of us try to twink, it’s this. We take vitamin supplements instead of eating healthy. We take sleeping pills to sleep better. We play ball with our kids and tell ourselves that’s exercise too. In short: we fool ourselves into thinking we’re being way healthier than we are.
I’m not one to judge, because I’ve been there. And as I’m still seriously overweight, I clearly haven’t ‘mastered’ this aspect of my life completely either. But I have made crucial changes to my habits the last couple of years that have affected my health in a positive way.
Level Up Your Activity
I’ve started exercising regularly, taking up hiking, running, and other activities (tip: track them with RunKeeper!). I’m eating way healthier and keep track of what I eat so I can see if I meet the recommended amounts of nutrients (I use MyFitnessPal for this). Even if you don’t want to lose weight that’s an excellent way to monitor your eating pattern! And my health has improved significantly. I have way more energy, feel better, sleep better and am a lot more clear and focused in my head.
The surprising truth was this: of all the tweaks and changes I did to increase my productivity over the year, getting healthier has proved to be the most dramatic improvement. And it was all because of healthy habits I introduced into my life, one at a time.
Stop trying to twink your way into being healthy. Do the work. It will pay off big time.
Eric Dye says
Become more active. That’s what I need to start doing!