Karolina Pelc, Owner at Basic Strategy, is on a personal mission to increase productivity. While some of that takes the form of better tools and best practices, a lot of it actually comes from better living. To understand how it all comes together, our Becky Liggero Fontana asked Pelc to join her on the lastest episode of The Long Con.
Everything we do has to be fueled, and Pelc spoke to the importance of deciding on what we eat. “I think when people talk about productivity in general, they miss out on a subject of nutrition they just sort of focus around methodologies and tools, and I talk about it a lot as well,” she said. “But without eating the right stuff, you just simply don’t have the strength, the energy to be productive, even if you know how to. So I’ve been doing a lot of research about nutrition because I face a couple of different autoimmune diseases, and nutrition is really important managing those and not getting your body inflamed. And I think the one main thing that people misunderstand is the importance of breakfast. A lot of people always talk how important breakfast is, and you need to have breakfast. I’m of the belief that it’s better not to have breakfast than have the wrong breakfast.”
Some people may also have trouble admitting it, but how much we disconnect and rest is just as important to how much we get done, something Liggero Fontana emphasizes with a rigorous sleep regime. “So for me again, all of the things that I’m talking about is because I’ve been on a journey of sort of, optimizing my nutrition relationship with sleep and productivity,” Pelc said. “I’m still not there yet with sleep, i’m quite jealous of you that you managed to do eight hours. The optimal recommended way of sleeping is the way the Mediterranean nationalities do it, it’s seven hours sleep at night plus one-hour nap. I have no idea how you can facilitate one-hour nap sort of working full time, or even being a consultant, I manage my own hours, I just, I can’t imagine just taking a nap in the day.”
But you can’t sleep at a moment’s notice to reset from all of the fray, and for that Pelc advocates for some medium of meditation. “Yeah I think it’s amazing to be able to let go at times, especially if you if you’re running a really busy life, and you’re constantly sort of having all those pings from your Whatsapp, Skype, email, people coming over to you, content meetings where you have to be productive, you have to be contributing, where you have to be creative,” she said. “So to take a moment of mindfulness, and it doesn’t really need to be meditation, it can really be a couple of deep breaths, it could be that green tea that you’re going to take at 3 p.m, which I used to do just get away from the office, sit on my own and talk to non-work related people, which in Malta was quite tough.”
During her I think talk at iGaming Next Online, Pelc gave everyone a quick walkthrough of the methodologies she follows, and the tools she likes to use. “I follow Getting Things Done, slightly improved version with some tips from the Productivity Ninja, and it’s all about just finding the priorities that you need to focus on, because I think we used to live in the era of time management, task management, and all these authors claim that this is inefficient,” she added. “There is no such thing as time management because we never have enough time anymore. We live in a constant information overload, it’s a very different story than what it was 10 years ago, so it’s important to just manage your attention, manage your focus times rather than managing tasks.”
In the full video, Pelc offers specific apps she likes to use, techniques she would recommend, and her expanded thoughts on each of the areas covered. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the CalvinAyre.com YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of the great video content we’re putting out.
