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Personal Productivity
Team Task Management App Asana Introduces Premium Workspaces
Apr 24th
We’ve profiled Asana on Lifehack before (it’s my task manager of choice and I have given it the “30 Days With…” treatment), and its versatility and ubiquity is one of its strengths. So was the barrier to entry in terms of price point, because for teams of 30 or less individuals it is free.
Well, today Asana has introduced Asana Premium Workspaces, which allows for larger teams to use Asana to efficiently and effectively manage their tasks — and their teams. Here’s what Asana Premium Workspaces offers its users:
More Workspace Members
By upgrading to a higher tier of members, starting at just $300/month you can add up to 50 teammates. Tiers of larger teams (75, 100, or more members) are also available.
Project-level Permissions
You can share private Projects with a small group within your Workspace, so exactly the right people see the Projects they should see. This is a huge bonus in that you can really get as granular as you want within a Workspace and not overwhelm your team as a whole by subjecting them to Project updates that they don’t really need.
Priority Support
Any questions and issues from customers in Premium Workspaces go to the front of the line for response from Asana’s support team, which is a great resource to have at your disposal since Asana is still relatively new — and not necessarily intuitive for those who haven’t used a task management app before.
For teams that don’t need to go past the threshold of 30, they can also upgrade to a Premium Workspace to enjoy the benefits of Project-level Permissions and Priority Support for just $100/month.
Asana has seen amazing success since its launch almost 6 months ago, with 10 million Tasks created in Asana and 4 million of them seen through to completion. Better still, Asana has experienced a 75% retention rate, meaning that those using Asana haven’t switched to another task manager in the process. They’re sticking with Asana — which is a pretty incredible accomplishment considering the sheer amount of productivity-type applications (both web-based and native) that are available in the marketplace.
We’ve been using Asana here at Lifehack for the past couple of months, and we’re excited to see where it’s going. Adding Premium Workspaces is just one of the many additions we hope to see in the coming months from this team task management app.
Mike Vardy is the Managing Editor at Lifehack. An independent writer, speaker, podcaster and "productivityist", you can read more of his writing at Vardy.me. He is @mikevardy on Twitter.
Goal Setting for Success! Join Brian Tracy’s 30-Day Goals Challenge
Apr 24th
If you follow my work, you probably already know the success I’ve experienced by helping millions of people to set and achieve goals.
The one thing I’ve discovered in over 30 years of researching success patterns is that a person of average intelligence who has the ability set clear goals, and has the discipline to maintain a goal-achieving mindset is 90% more likely to succeed than a genius without a plan.
What most people don’t realize is that creating an effective, logical plan is absolutely crucial to achieve goals for success. There are specific, proven steps that, if followed, work everywhere, for everyone, in virtually every country, no matter what your education, experience, or background may be when you begin.
My personal mission statement has always been “To help people achieve their goals faster and easier than ever before.” That being said, I’ve just created a brand-new goal setting challenge that includes some of my best, time-tested strategies to help you achieve your goals in a fun, inspiring way. Oh, and you could be rewarded with some really great prizes, too.
My 30-Day Goals Challenge is a new opportunity to hone your goal achievement skills and stay motivated with a healthy, competitive fire that will keep you going until the end!
Here’s how the contest works:
-Join the contest and fill out a short questionnaire–so that we can create your unique challenge page.
-Set a realistic 30-day goal – one that you can reasonably expect to achieve at the end of the 30-day contest period.
-Each week, you’ll track and submit your progress. You can document and submit your progress in 3 different ways: Blog post, photo, or video – or any combination of the 3. At least one submission per week is required in order to remain eligible to win the challenge and challenge prizes.
-At the end of each week, the progress you submit will be added to your personal challenge page.
-Finally, at the end of the 30-Day Goals Challenge, 2 winners will be selected. One will be voted on by the challenge participants, and the other will be selected by my team and me.
This entirely FREE challenge is designed to show you that by following a proven goal setting system and by staying accountable, you CAN achieve goals you never thought were possible. Even more importantly, you can apply this same formula to any goal you want to achieve in life, at any time.
Once you begin to apply the principles you learn throughout the contest, you’ll:
-Become a more positive, powerful, and effective person.
-Build a higher level of self-esteem and self-confidence.
-Experience a tremendous sense of personal control and direction.
-Apply yourself with more energy and enthusiasm than ever before.
-Accomplish more in a few weeks than the average person might accomplish in several years.
…And the list goes on!
So if you’re ready to take on the challenge of a lifetime, with benefits that can last forever, then NOW is the time!
Because as I mentioned before, when you participate in this challenge, you are virtually guaranteed to succeed.
This is your chance to sign up—so don’t miss it! Join me for the 30 Day Goals Challenge and sign up HERE!
Please share this post on goal setting and encourage your friends and family to sign up for the 30 Day Goals Challenge! Remember, the sooner you try, the sooner you will triumph!
Topics included in this article include
Brian Tracy’s 30 Day Goals Challenge
Goal Setting
Achieve Goals
Stay Motivated
7 Ways to Slow Down Today
Apr 24th
“There is more to life than increasing its speed”
- Gandhi
I always have a list of things to do from here to Neptune, or maybe just as far as Mars but either way it’s pretty long.
Yesterday I didn’t want to do any of it I wanted to go slow. I wanted to be like the people I see collecting their children from school who have time to do their housework and bring their children to the park. I wanted to be free from all responsibilities and roles and just be.
So I took it slow. I stopped running from one responsibility to the next. From task to task, from blogger to coach, from mother to sister, from wife to friend. I slowed down.
More Haste, Less Speed
But when I look back at what I achieved yesterday it was no less than I achieve every day. I wrote, I saw a client, I washed, I ironed, I visited my photographer, I hugged my children, I finalized some design work. I commented on other blogs.
So why did it feel slower than most days? It was slower than most days because my mind was slower. My attitude changed. The voice inside my head was quieter, slower and less demanding.
I like Being Me
So I realized I don’t really want to be like those other people who outwardly appear to be calmer than I am and have less to do. They have their own challenges and roles and responsibilities. What I want is to breathe and go slowly. Productivity is not about increasing speed and ticking all the boxes on your task list, Productivity should be about only achieving the necessary to allow you to live a happier more meaningful life.
Smile, breathe and go Slowly
Running won’t help, as Thich Nhat Hanh said “Smile, Breathe and go Slowly, words that Leo from Zenhabits.net has adopted as his philosophy for life. I think there is much merit in these words. A friend of mine attended an event with him last week where he spoke about how we are never ever present. We spend our lives either in the future or the past, always outside our bodies. The only time we are truly present, when we really connect with ourselves is when we take a breath. The breath, our source of life our opportunity to realign ourselves.
So here’s the take away – 7 Ways to Slow Down Today (not tomorrow, today!)
- Breathe, take a long deep breathe and connect with who you are
- Practice Mindfulness throughout the day. Every time you remember, stop and bring your mind to the present moment. The past is gone the future unsure, all we have is the present moment
- Meditate Regularly. Meditation helps slow down the monkey mind, the one who like to jump from past to future to past again!
- Try to connect with nature everyday even if it is sitting in your garden for ten minutes. Quietly at peace, at one with yourself and nature the source of all life
- Schedule your work and remind yourself you can only do so much. Do what’s essential and don’t sweat the rest
- Become more aware of your self-talk, are you pushing yourself unnecessarily? Are you demanding more work from yourself than is required? Listen and talk back
- Spend time with the people you love, always make time for your loved ones. This is man’s number one regret, not having spent enough time with those they love
Smile, breathe and go slowly.
(Photo credit: Nice and slow via Shutterstock)
Ciara Conlon is a Personal Productivity Coach and author. Her mission is to help people achieve their best through working efficiently and being positive and present. “With Productivity and Positivity there is little you can’t achieve” Find out more about Ciara and sign up for her tips, articles and links at Productivity & Positivity
4 Simple Steps to Lift Your Dark Cloud of Stress
Apr 23rd
Is there a dark cloud over your head? Do you find it hard to get out from under the feeling of “always being behind the eight-ball?” Do you want to see the sun again? Do you want to feel contentment and happiness in your life?
The hustle and bustle of everyday life can really create a dark cloud over (and even around) you. This dark cloud weights you down, it leaves you feeling “crazed” and always behind. This dark cloud can start impacting your health, happiness and relationships.
While I don’t believe that you can eliminate stress from your life completely, I do believe there is a lot more we can do to reduce it. There is not a “one size fits all” solution either — you need to find the strategy that works best for you. Maybe even combine one or more strategies together and make a game of it.
Here are some strategies that I use to help banish my daily stress. Give them a try…I believe you will find them to be very helpful:
- Support Systems. If you’re constantly running on empty, your mind, body, and soul will suffer the repercussions of your tenacity. There’s no shame in asking for a helping hand. Sometimes, you’ll be able lean on a spouse, coworker, or friend, but other times you may have to hire help. Start with having a discussion with your partner or family and see if you can brainstorm a way to share the chores around the house. Even just taking turns cooking dinner is helpful.
- Self Care. What do you enjoy doing? Knitting, relaxing in a bubble bath, drawing, lounging in bed watching reruns of Grey’s Anatomy? Indulge yourself in your favorite restful activity a few times each week. Carving out a few hours each weekend to indulge in your favorite lazy activity. Choose at least one weeknight to relax after work. Start with a walk outside. I know you might need your sunglasses because you have been under that dark cloud for so long. But trust me — there is sunshine, fresh air, beautiful things to look at out there!
- Simplify life. Simplify your routines, your commitments, your information intake, your cluttered rooms, and have less stress as a result. Identify those things that are most important in your life…and then get rid of the rest. It may not be quite that easy, but you can certainly start somewhere with this idea. Think of just one thing that has been bothering you that you can remove and do it. Once you start with one, you will see a ray of sunlight.
- Meditation. With meditation we can learn to transform our minds from chaos to calm. And it is really not as hard as you might think. My favourite meditation is a “Breathing Meditation”. It is simple and you can do it anywhere. Sit in any comfortable position, with your eyes partially closed. Now breathe. Just breathe normally through your nose. Notice how your body moves and what the air feels like. If your mind wanders, just bring it back to your breath. Even just practicing this for two minutes a day will add another ray of sunlight. (If you’re looking for a more in-depth look at meditation, check out Lifehack’s Mindfulness Meditation Mini Guide.)
Sometime stress seems like it is a normal part of life, but it doesn’t have to be that way if you’re willing to put your sanity and happiness first. Most of the time there’s a simple fix to the challenges that are causing you stress. Simply adjust the way you perceive the issues and how you address them.
Small simple steps on a daily basis will create a huge momentum in your life and you will feel the dark clouds life away and the warm breath of the sunshine on your skin.
(Photo credit: Businessman Dark Portrait via Shutterstock)
Lori Lynn Smith is a passionate and an authentic teacher who shares her real life experiences about creating a more nurturing and fulfilling lifestyle. Get her free ebook and MP3, The 5 Myths of Self Care.
Words With Friends: Another Stupid Game — Or An Obsession?
Apr 23rd
(Editor’s note: The following is an article written by Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D., author of the book iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming its Hold on Us. Rosen is past Chair and Professor of Psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is a research psychologist and computer educator, and is recognized as an international expert in the “Psychology of Technology.” Over the past 25 years, Dr. Rosen and his colleagues have examined reactions to technology among more than 30,000 children, teens, college students, and adults in the United States and in 23 other countries. He has been quoted in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, CNN, and Good Morning America and writes a regular blog for Psychology Today. You can learn more about Rosen’s new book here.)
The New York Times Magazine ran a fascinating cover story on April 4, 2012 written with wisdom, humor and insight by Sam Anderson. Anderson’s basic premise is that the concept of gaming has changed. For decades, a special class of teen or young adult gamer would use specialized systems, to play complex multi-player, multi-level games that might last from a few hours to many days or even weeks. Now, however, anyone can play a quick game — what Anderson terms a “stupid game” — any time of the day or night right there on their smartphone that rests somewhere next to their body 24/7. And this, Anderson argues, has changed the world of gaming to ” . . . not just hard-core gamers, but their mothers, their mailmen and their college professors. Consumers who never would have put a quarter into an arcade or even set eyes on an XBOX 360 were now carrying a sophisticated game console with them, all the time, in their pockets or their purses.”
For decades I scrupulously avoided video games even when my four children delighted in playing them. I think that I once played Pong and perhaps Donkey Kong in a bar somewhere but that was under duress and the influence of a few beers. I have never played a video game that resides on a console although I have watched, fascinated, as young children seem to understand intuitively what actions to take to make the next level or win the game. Just last night I watched my friend’s 9-year-old son sit down at a game console in a restaurant as we were waiting to be seated and without even glancing at the instructions, he popped in two quarters and played.
I have, however, always enjoyed card games and board games, particularly those that required thought or cunning to win the game. I consider myself a pretty good Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit player and delighted in winning nearly every Monopoly game with my children (I used a unique strategy that I refuse to divulge as I plan to use it with my grandchildren!). My iPhones (I have owned four of them) have always come with a hefty game center in the App Store, which, as you might guess, I have avoided like the plague. Until someone pointed out Words With Friends!
Arghhhh! I shall mark that day on my calendar as the day that my life — and my brain — changed. And I am pretty sure that it changed for the worse.
As soon as I downloaded WWF I was hooked. Now I am playing a dozen games with multiple players (all of my opponents are personal friends, as I think it is a bit bizarre to play with people you don’t know, although it is a good way to meet new people). In his NYT article Sam Anderson relayed a similar situation with his wife: “My wife, who had never been a serious gamer, got one and became addicted, almost immediately, to a form of off-brand digital Scrabble called Words With Friends. Before long she was playing 6 or 10 games at a time, against people all over the world. Sometimes I would lose her in the middle of a conversation: her phone would go brinnng or pwomp or dernalernadern-dern, and she would look away from me, midsentence, to see if her opponent had set her up for a triple word score.”
That is so true! Anderson’s wife sounds like me, and like everyone else that I play with. I am beginning to see patterns in my WWF friends (I call them that even though two are colleagues, one is my partner, one is a student in my lab and two are other people that I know very well). At first I said that I was going to “just play at night” after watching Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper but before The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Pretty soon I found myself pausing the news and jumping in and making a few plays, and then returning to the news. Then, I think I said “to heck with it” and left the news on and played WWF with the news as background. Now, who cares about the news. Who cares about anything. WWF RULES!
I confess that I am now addicted. But is it truly an addiction or is there more to it? I don’t feel like an addict. I am not shirking my responsibilities at home (I still cook every night although one night I had to grab a cooked chicken because I got into a vicious back-and-forth WWF game with someone — and I WON!) nor is my work suffering. I still teach, still write, but something is happening and I think that I know what it is. What I am feeling, I believe, is a compulsion. Somewhat like Jack Nicholson in “As Good As It Gets,” I feel as though if I don’t do a certain behavior — i.e., play WWF — I will meet with some dire consequence. I am not washing my hands constantly or locking and unlocking my doors, nor am I avoiding cracks when I walk in the neighborhood. But I feel anxiety much as Jack did when I spot my smartphone. And the anxiety is “I wonder if so-and-so played a word and I better check and play one, too.”
As I sit and stare at my phone wondering about WWF, I am not feeling the discomfort that someone feels when he or she has a true psychological addiction. I am not even hoping that playing will bring me pleasure. What I am feeling is an intense NEED to play or rather to check in to see who has played. And when I do play I don’t feel that rush of dopamine, which feels like pleasure. What I feel is . . . nothing. But then my phone beckons to me and I slide to the last page of apps (I made myself put the WWF app on the last page to make it more difficult to get to. What a fool! It must take me all of a second to flick a few times and it literally pops out at me when I get to that page) and press my finger on the icon and, voila, my games appear!
So, what do I think is happening? I had some time to think about this the other day. I was at public radio studio, waiting to go on a noontime radio broadcast followed by a TV taping. Since I always arrive early I had lots of time and only my phone to keep me busy. I knew that I was going to talk about this on the air so I spent some time with my phone in front of me trying to analyze what might be going on in my brain. Wow! After just a few minutes of “thinking” I somehow found myself looking at a WWF screen of 12 ongoing games. How did I get there? Well, partially I think it was a habit and partially I think I was compelled to do so in a way that resided just below the surface of conscious activity. Sure sounds like a compulsion to me.
How do I plan to break this compulsion? I have started giving myself “WWF Time” where I grant myself the option to play for 15 minutes and no more and then put my phone away, out of sight, and do something else for 45 minutes. I set a timer (on my phone, of course) and when it rings I play and when it rings again I stop. Not sure if it will work as I have only been doing this for a week but I am finding that the 45 minutes is going by pretty quickly now compared to the crawling seconds and minutes that appeared to barely move the first few times I waited for my WWF Time.
Do you feel compelled by your technology? Do certain games or activities that you do on the phone beckon to you? This is one of the main points of my new book, iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession With Technology and Overcoming its Hold on Us, where I devote two chapters to obsessions and compulsions surrounding technology. Let me know what you think.
(Photo credit: The Sandwich Lady)
Webinar: How I Used the Power of Bad Habits to Change My Life
Apr 23rd
Post written by Leo Babauta.
Yesterday I conducted a free webinar, “How I Used the Power of Bad Habits to Change My Life“, and the video is below.
The webinar was held Mon. April 23), and in it I talked about my struggle with bad habits, why bad habits are so powerful, and how I used the principles that make bad habits stick to beat them. I then applied these same principles to forming good habits, and I shared how I did that in the webinar.
I also answered reader questions about habits of all kinds.
Learn more about habits in my new post, How to Fail at Habits.
Watch the webinar in the video below:
Do You Know Which Gear Your Life Is In?
Apr 23rd
How fast is your life going?
Many individuals feel that they are going too slow.
Some people think life is passing them by at an alarming rate.
Others still are just cruising through life, unaware of their speed or destination.
Sometimes, we need to take a moment and check just which gear our life is in.
What Speed Are You Going?
Going too slow. Going too fast.
We all go through periods of both. In fact, life is all about balance.
However, you need to be aware of just how fast you are going. You need to know which gear your life is in.
I can hear some excuses already,
“But, I drive an automatic… I don’t even know how many gears I have.”
That could be part of the issue, your life is in automatic-mode.
What Gear Are You In?
As you drive down the road of life, stop and ask yourself just which gear you are in.
You may be surprised by the answer.
So, check your gear…
- Reverse - Are you actually going backwards? Is each day actually taking you further from your goals? Are bad habits or behavior affecting you negatively? If you are not careful, you will backup until you crash into something.
- 1st Gear – You can’t finish if you don’t start. Can you get up to speed? Let your passion and drive create momentum in your life.
- 2nd Gear – Are you holding back? Are you timid? Not sure of what you want to do? Make bold decisions in your life. And by all means, choose your own path.
- 3rd Gear – You are moving, but are you keeping up? Are others passing you by? You can do more than the effort you are giving. You are stronger than you think.
- 4th Gear- You are keeping up with life’s pace. Is the cruise control on? Are you coasting? Ensure that you are not “drifting” through life.
- 5th Gear – No one can run at full speed all the time. There are two extremes that fall here. Those who are always in it, and those who never use it. The first group eventually burns out. Running at full capacity all the time leads to burn out. If you don’t pit stop on your own, life has a way of forcing you to take a break. And the second group? Well, they never reach their full potential because they never truly give it their all.
Shift Your Life
Maybe you need to speed up. (There is only one today.)
Maybe you need to slow down. (Otherwise, you will burn out.)
Perhaps, you are even headed backwards.
Check your gear today. And get your life moving.
Question: What gear is your life in? Do you need to adjust?
Top 10 Reasons Why People Don’t Reach Their Goals
Apr 23rd
With everything that happens around us, it is sometimes difficult to reach our goals. This is compounded if you have any of the reasons on the list below.
Luckily, in addition to the top 10 reasons why people don’t reach their goals, I’ve included a quick fix for each of them. So let’s get to it.
1. Creating Vague Goals
When you don’t know where you are going, it is really hard to get there. Many people set themselves up for failure when they set goals that are unclear. “I want to lose weight” sounds like a great goal but the people who set this kind of goal will never reach it. It is not because the people are not motivated or disciplined but because the goal is too general. Do you want to lose 5 lbs or 50 lbs?
Quick Fix: Set SMART goals by being Specific, making sure they are Measurable, Achievable and Realistic, and last but not least — give yourself a Time deadline. If you want to go one step further, you may want to read The Missing Letter in Your Smart Goals.
2. Lacking a Higher Purpose
Goals can be set on any topic imaginable but if you don’t have a higher purpose, it makes it is easy to give up once the initial motivation and excitement wears off. Understanding how your goal is relevant to you allows you to persevere even when the going gets tough.
Quick Fix: When setting your SMART goal, ask yourself how the goal is relevant to your life and what you want to achieve.
3. Procrastinating
Even when you have SMART goals that are relevant to your purpose, if you don’t get started, you’ll never achieve your goal. One of the most dangerous phrases is “I’ll do it later.”
Quick Fix: Make sure the goal has been broken down into manageable pieces and then start right away. Here are 11 Practical Ways to Stop Procrastination.
4. Not Taking Responsibility
Things will go wrong. That’s a fact of life. When something comes up and you don’t achieve your goal, who do you blame? Your boss who kept you at work late so you couldn’t work on your book or maybe the horrible weather that stopped you from going to the gym. If it’s not your fault, there is nothing you can do, right?
Quick Fix: Own up to not reaching your goals. When you take responsibility, you’ll become resourceful knowing that you have control over the attainment of your goals.
5. Listening to People Who Discourage You
When you go for your goals, especially the big ones that really count and fit in with your purpose in life, it is inevitable that people will discourage you. There are many reasons for this: concern, jealousy, ignorance, etc. How many goals have already been given up on because other people decided they were not worth pursuing?
Quick Fix: This one is easy. As long as you know the purpose for your goal, ignore the naysayers. You can take what they are saying into consideration but make sure you make the final choice.
6. Starting Too Many Projects
I’m a starter. That sounds like a good thing but not when you start too many things, you don’t end up finishing many of them. This usually stems from the fear of missing out (FOMO) or being someone who has many ideas.
Quick Fix: Understand that you have a limited amount of time and that you can’t do everything. To deal with FOMO, realize that by not finishing, you are missing out on all the opportunities that open up when you finish the projects you are working on.
7. Being Negative
If you think you’re not going to make it, then you’re probably not going to make it. If you don’t believe you’re going to reach your goal, then when you fail, it is expected which makes it easy to stop trying. When you are optimistic and a setback occurs, you focus your energy on finding solutions because you truly believe there is one. If you believe that you suffer from bad luck, check out this article.
Quick Fix: Consider the idea that optimism and pessimism are both expectations of the future. Each are equally likely to be true but which belief will help you lead a happier more fulfilled life? Instead of wasting your energy on complaining, spend that energy on learning.
8. Being Selfish
There are people out there that think it is silly to help others. They believe in taking and not giving. They are misers with their time, money and knowledge and are only interested in opportunities where they stand to benefit. Most big goals require the help of others and it is very difficult to help people who only care about taking.
Quick Fix: Serve others first. Always look for ways to add value to other people.
9. Surrounding Yourself with People Who Don’t Reach Their Goals
You are who you associate with. This may be hard to swallow for some people and there are always exceptions to the rule but for the most part, we act in accordance with the people around us. This comes from the strong ad natural desire to belong and to be accepted (think of all the dumb things you did in high school just to fit in).
Quick Fix: Associate with people who always reach their goals.
10. Watching Too Much TV
Not all TV is bad but if you are watching TV then most likely you are not doing anything to move one step closer to your goal. The problem with TV these days is that it is captivating. There are programs for all interests and hobbies and the shows keep getting better and better. Those who watch alot of TV usually don’t reach their goals and perhaps people watch TV because they don’t have any goals.
Quick Fix: Shut off the TV. Cancel the cable. Pick up a book that will help you move one step closer to your goal. Here are 6 Steps to Remove TV from your Life.
Do you have anything to add? What do you think are the reasons why people don’t reach their goals and what are your thought about the 10 reasons we have listed here. Feel free to give your own effective quick fixes for the different reasons in the comments section below.
(Photo credit: Golf Ball Falling Over Edge via Shutterstock)
Robert Chen is the founder of Embrace Possibility and his passion is to help undervalued individuals reach their full potential. Visit his website to learn more about him and his philosophy on personal mastery. If you're having trouble getting what you want out of life, check out How to Always Achieve Your Goals
Lifehack Presents: A Mini-Guide for Weight Loss for Men
Apr 22nd
(Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or even a nutritionist. This information comes from my own personal quest to lose weight and the research that I have personally done. It’s also what has worked for me. Please consult a professional before making any changes to your diet or exercise regimen.)
I remember looking in the mirror in the middle of last year and being somewhat disgusted with the way that I looked and felt. I became quite overweight and unhealthy during my last few years of college. I had lost weight before and leaned out. Now it was time to do it again, but this time, make it stick.
Below is a weight loss for men plan that any guy can follow to lose weight and keep it off for the long term.
Diet
I tend to hate the word “diet” because for most men it brings about thoughts of eating like a rabbit, eating too little, or eating things that don’t lack any taste whatsoever. This definitely isn’t the case though. You can definitely lose weight while eating a bunch of tasty food, you just need to change up your eating habits.
When I was losing weight, I had a two-step plan for changing my eating habits. The first was to cut out refined carbs and sugars as much as possible, while eating lean meats, green leafy vegetables, and nuts and seeds. This is what the step-one diet for weight loss for men could look like in a typical day:
Breakfast
- 3 Eggs light salt and pepper, scrambled
- 2 cups cooked spinach w/ light salt and pepper
- 1 cup of coffee, black
Mid-morning snack
- 1 handful of almonds
- 1 small apple
Lunch
- 1 Large, seasoned chicken breast over 2 cups of mixed greens, assorted fresh vegetables (onions, red peppers, tomatos, etc.)
- 1 serving of blue cheese dressing, vinegar and oil, or a vinaigrette
Mid-afternoon snack
- 1 small block of cheese (sort of like the string cheese sticks)
Dinner
- 2 servings of black beans or pinto beans (even refried beans, but not every day)
- 8oz. steak, seasoned
- Side salad or fresh broccoli w/ butter
Dessert
- mixed fruit or even a homemade fruit smoothie
Doesn’t sound too bad, huh? Basically you are cutting out a ton of carbohydrates and sugars with the first phase. This will help you lose weight faster in the beginning, which is a good thing because if men do something and don’t see results somewhat immediately, we tend to give up.
In the second step of the diet you can start to slowly add grains back into your eating habits as long as they are whole and as close to being unprocessed as possible. On my weight loss journey, I moved myself more inline with the Paleo side of eating instead of bringing back whole grains into my diet. That doesn’t mean that it is the only way of eating right, as I have seen many men go either way with great success.
For the second part of your diet just make sure to not relapse your eating back to that of refined sugars and grains. As we lose more and more weight the idea of “cheating” on our eating becomes easier and easier to do. We start to think, “well, one Oreo won’t hurt, right?”
This is dangerous territory for a one time fat guy. If you love your sweets and bad eating, then maybe you need to give yourself a cheat day once or twice a month where anything goes. This could help you stay on the straight-and-narrow for most of the month.
Exercise
If you haven’t been exercising very much or at all, then you want to start off with something that won’t completely kill you. Below is a great starter exercise plan for men.
Weight training
3 days a week, with at least one day in between, do the following:
- Body weight exercises rotating between pushups, squats, lunges, crunches, leg-lifts, and pullups.
- To start, do 5 reps of each exercise and move onto the next with only 15 second breaks in between.
- Keep the rotation going for a total of 20 minutes
- If you can’t do full pushups, then you can do modified pushups off of the wall at an angle, or even on your knees. If you can’t do full pullups (most guys can’t at first) grab a chair to keep your feet on.
- If you can’t finish the whole 20 minute set, just give yourself a break. Make sure as you move forward in the starter exercise plan, that you are continually improving on your workout.
You can also do a mixture of exercises from one of my favorite sites, SimpleFit.
Cardio
5 days a week, do the following:
- Walk for a total of 30 minutes. Use medium to high intensity on your walks. You don’t have to look like one of those crazy power walker types. Just keep your pace up while walking.
- Remember you can split up your walking during the day, like a 15 minute break in the morning and afternoon, or a 15 minute walk during the morning and night.
On your off days between your body-weight sets 3 days a week, do the following:
- High intensity intervals for a total of 12–15 minutes. This consists of walking or light running for 1–2 minutes and then sprinting for 30–45 seconds. Follow the table below for a 15 minute high intensity interval plan:
| 2.5 minutes | Warmup, light walking to running |
| 45 seconds | sprint |
| 1 minute | light running |
| 45 seconds | sprint |
| 1 minute | light running |
| 45 seconds | sprint |
| 1 minute | light running |
| 45 seconds | sprint |
| 1.5 minutes | light running |
| 30 seconds | sprint |
| 1.5 minutes | light running |
| 30 seconds | sprint |
| 2.5 minutes | Cool down, light running to walking |
If you aren’t into the plan above, you can get some other great high intensity interval plans from Men’s Health here
Basically, for this exercise plan, do the above exercises for a total of 3 weeks, then have one “light” week where all you do is your cardio. This will help you get over the dreaded “plateau” that we can face after a month or so as well as give your body a rest from the body weight exercises.
As you move forward with your exercise and it becomes easier and easier, try to add more reps or even light dumbbells to your workouts. This will help keep your exercise plans interesting as well as help you continue to see results as you move forward.
If you want to try something different when it comes to exercise, check out the NerdFitness Guides.
Bringing it together
The key to weight loss for men is to ensure that your diet is one that is sustainable and tasty and that your exercise continues to be fun yet challenging. You could possibly lose weight by simply changing your diet or by only working out a little, but if you want to drastically lose weight, especially at first, follow the above weight loss for men plan to accomplish your goals.
It isn’t unheard of to lose anywhere from 10 to 25 pounds of fat a month while using the above diet and exercise plan. When I first started, I lost a total of 30 pounds in three months. The trick is how you can keep the weight off as you move past the initial phase. As you get further and further way from your “fat days” you start to losen up on your diet and exercise regimen. Make sure to have someone keep you accountable, whether it be an exercise buddy or just a friend that knows what you are trying to do.
It also helps to keep a health journal with your food and exercise in it. With this tool, it’s easier to spot when you are starting to backslide on your new way of life.
Hopefully the above weight loss for men plan can help you reach your weight loss goals.
(Photo credit: Human weight loss chart symbol via Shutterstock)
5 Fitness and Nutrition Hacks to Build Muscle Fast
Apr 21st
Building muscle isn’t rocket surgery. All it takes is repeatedly doing the things that are proven in the lab and gym to work. This article provides the 5 great ways to build muscle fast. None of them require you to spend lots of money on fancy fitness equipment or nutritional supplements either. All you have to be willing to do is make a few adjustments to your diet, workout, and supplement routines. Put forth the effort and you’ll be able to gain 5-10 lbs. of muscle in a month or two.
1. Eat Enough Protein Every Day
Contrary to what advertisements for protein powders say, you don’t need to eat and drink hundreds of grams daily to build muscle. The truth is, eating this amount won’t help you build muscle faster. It can actually be stored as fat. All you really need is enough to meet your body’s daily needs and then a little more to stimulate muscle growth. This works out to about .8 grams per pound of body weight. So, if you weigh 150 lbs. you need to eat about 120 grams daily.
Don’t stress too much over the exactly how many grams of protein are in everything you eat. Use the eyeball method instead. This is done by looking at the protein on your plate and picturing an amount that’s the size of the palm of your hand. This amount contains about 28 grams of protein. Do this every time you eat and you’ll easily be able to make sure you eat enough.
You also need to know which foods are protein rich. They include: beef, eggs, poultry, pork, and seafood. Drink a protein shake if you’re having trouble eating enough of these foods. The best type of shake for building muscle is one that uses whey and casein proteins as its primary sources. Research shows these are the best protein powders for building muscle. One study also shows that drinking a shake that contains casein protein before bed can actually turn on the muscle building process.
2. Do ‘Big’ Lifts
Forget exercises like curls, shoulder presses, and flyes and training individual body parts (chest, back, biceps, etc.) if building muscle is your goal. You must instead perform exercises that train several muscle groups at once. Scientific studies show that exercises that do this are better for building muscle than the aforementioned isolation movements.
Exercises you should do lots of include: dips, deadlifts, farmers walks, kettlebell swings, military presses, and pull ups. These are the movements that will really stimulate your body to build muscle fast. This article outlines how to perform my favorite muscle building exercise farmer’s walks.
3. Train Hard Often
You don’t have to work out every day for hours at a time to build lots of muscle. What you need to do is train using the exercises I mentioned above often enough to stimulate muscle growth. Lifting weights 3 to 4 days a week is plenty. Give yourself a days rest after every 1-2 workouts.
Your workouts only need to have 4-6 of these exercises. Choose an exercise for every major muscle group at each workout and you’re set. This includes your legs (squats, deadlifts, lunges), chest/shoulders/triceps (bench press, dips, military press, push ups), and back (bent over rows, pull ups). I like to include a total body exercise every workout too. I find that they are the best exercises for building muscle fast. This includes exercises like kettlebell swings, kettlebell throws, and farmer’s walks.
Perform 3-5 sets of each exercise for 6-10 reps. Use a weight that makes it difficult to do the last rep of each set but not so hard that you cannot do it without using good form. Increase the weight you use when you can do every rep of each set.
4. Rest And Recover Between Your Workouts
Working out breaks down your muscles and eats into your ability to recover. You build muscle when aren’t exercising. Proper rest and recovery can speed the muscle building process. The best way is to get enough sleep. Getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night will enable you to train harder, longer and build muscle faster. If you can’t get this much sleep daily, take a 45 minute nap during the day to make up the difference.
Another way to recover faster and speed the rate at which you can build bigger, stronger muscles is to back off a little bit with regard to the number of sets and reps you do at each workout every once in awhile. Studies show that reducing the workout volume (sets and reps) by about 50% every 8-12 weeks can help you make progress significantly faster. This means that instead of doing 12 total sets at a workout you’ll only do 6 using the same weight. Do this for a week. You can then go back to your normal routine.
Cutting back every once in a while will help you stay mentally fresh too. This in turn gives you more energy to put into your future workouts.
5. Take Nutritional Supplements That Are Proven To Work
Once you have the 4 other tips in place you can consider taking nutritional supplements to help you build more muscle. The key thing is to use products that work. I felt the same way at one time too. What I did about is spend time reviewing scientific studies to see which products are shown to work and then try them on myself. While there are several that I found to work, there are 3 that work best. They are branched chain amino acids, creatine monohydrate, and fish oil.
The first supplement, branched chain amino acids are shown in several research studies to give you energy during your workout, decrease muscle soreness and ‘turn on’ the muscle building process within your body. I find that they work well for me too, especially at increasing my energy and decreasing post-workout soreness. You should take about .05 grams per pound of body weight before and after working out for best results.
Next is my favorite, creatine monohydrate. If you’re only going to take one supplement to build muscle this is the one. This is because there are dozens if not hundreds of scientific studies that show it safely helps you build muscle and get stronger and plenty of real world evidence too. Taking it helped me gain about 10 lbs. of extra muscle in a month. I also notice that I recover faster between sets and my strength increases when I use it as well.
If you decide to give it a try, make sure you buy a product that is tested and guaranteed to nothing but creatine monohydrate to ensure its purity. When you take creatine follow what’s referred to as the loading phase which is taking 10-20 grams a day for 5-7 days for the best results. Research shows this is the best way to get as creatine into your cells as quickly as possible. You can then back off to 5 grams a day to keep getting benefits. You can learn more about the best way to load and take creatine at this article.
Last but not least is fish oil. In addition to being good for the health of your brain and heart, it can also help you build muscle. In one study, subjects taking 2 grams of fish oil daily for 6 weeks added a couple pounds of muscle. They lost fat too. All without changing their diet or exercising at all. When shopping for a fish oil supplement, make sure you buy a concentrated source that’s tested to be free of impurities and pesticides.
Summary
- Eat about .8 grams of protein per pound of body weight.
- Do total body workouts using ‘big’ exercises like dips, pull ups, and squats.
- Workout 3-4 days a week using heavy weights.
- Make rest and recovery a priority. Sleeping 8 hours a night is key.
- Take a few supplements that are proven to build muscle like creatine monohydrate.
Now all that’s left for you to do is to apply this info…and get to work in the gym!
(Photo credit: Weights and Water via Shutterstock)
Curt is the founder of Stayfitcentral.com, a website which features reviews, guides, and other information to help people buy the right nutritional supplements and fitness products for their specific needs. Curt has published numerous fitness, nutrition, and health related articles online at leading online publications including: eDiets, iVillage, and Askmen.