9/20/2022 0 Comments Time Abundance![]() In the second episode of Cold Water, Hot Coffee, Nate tackles his five strategies for time abundance. His first strategy is to prep for a good morning. He recommends spending 10 minutes before bed thinking deeply about the things you have to look forward to the next day. He also encourages listeners to treat the bedroom as a sanctuary for sleep and avoid watching TV, checking your, phone, or even reading in it, instead letting it serve exclusively as a space for sleep. Nate’s second strategy is waking early. He suggests no later than 6 am, and to use that time to move out of your sleep state, and not to rush. Wake practices could be a cup of tea, prayer, reading a spiritual text, meditation, light stretching, or a quiet walk. His third strategy is to start slow, something that is easier earlier in the morning. “You manage your mind, your mind is not managing you,” he says. “You manage your life, your life is not managing you.” Strategy four is self-care first. Keep it simple and consistent, he explains. For Nate, this is practiced through gardening after work, slowly making a cup of coffee, getting his heart rate up, and spending time with loved ones. The fifth and final strategy is getting enough sleep. If your day starts early, it also needs to end early. So, if you wake up at 5 am, you need to go to bed at 9 pm, and probably need to get in bed by 8:30 pm. Nate recommends keeping a journal of how you are spending your time and reflecting on how it is working for you. He also recommends natural sleep-supporting supplements that won’t leave you groggy the next day. Key Topics:
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00:12 Nate Scharff: Welcome to Cold Water, Hot Coffee - disciplines for starting your day with clarity and purpose. I’m Nate Scharff, your host. If you've been looking for ways to get inspired, if you've been looking for a way to get your head off your pillow in the morning without groaning, if you question why you're here or what you're doing, or how you ended up the life you're living, you've come to the right place. This podcast exists to invigorate your mood, and clarify your mission. Welcome to Cold Water, Hot Coffee, a cold-slap start to your day to get you awake and alive. This is episode two. Our topic title is time abundance. Let's get to it. Our first session was about getting awake. I talked about two disciplines I practice to deal with anxiety and isolation. A cold water start and communal hot coffee with friends. I also talked about some strategies that I followed to dispatch thoughts about, quote, I don't have enough time, quote, specifically enough time to do the things that bring me joy and excitement. When I have enough time, I call this the Garden of Eden of time of abundance. In this second episode, we're going to dive deeper into rituals and practices we can embrace to create that time abundance. Now come with me. Let's close our eyes. Let's imagine moving through our day rested without urgency, feeling calm, and even playful. This is the magic realm of living life with a sense of time abundance. And with a few simple practices, I think it's available to all of us. So, there's five disciplines I use to create time abundance in my life. Now, big surprise, these strategies have nothing to do with time management, or work efficiency, or how you delegate work to people. These are internal strategies to help you clear your mental space so you can maximize your energy and use your time well. Time abundance. Here's my strategies. One, prep for a good morning. Two, wake up early. Three, start slow. Four, self-care first. Five, get enough sleep. 02:48 Strategy one: prep for a good morning. The key to a good morning start is preparation the night before. What's the last thing you think about before you close your eyes? Maybe jot down a to-do list, maybe check your calendar and set your alarm. Maybe you spent some time dreading your work commitments for the next day. These are all common things many of us think about before we go to bed. But should they be the last things we think about before we go to sleep? I would say not. If you want to wake up looking forward to the next day. Try this instead. When you go to bed, spend 10 minutes or so thinking deeply about the things you have to look forward to the next day. For me, that can be the friends I'm meeting to surf with, time at the gym with one of my sons, a Zoom meeting with a colleague who I want to catch up with, or the warm couch waiting for me at the end of my workday when I can snuggle up with my loved one. If we can't think of anything to look forward to for the next day, we got to take a hard look at our life and how we're spending our time. It is, after all, our life. And if we're not looking forward to living any of it, we got to hold ourselves accountable for not filling our own spiritual gas tank, our soul. Why are we saying yes to a schedule that brings us no joy? A joyful life is our responsibility and ours alone, no one else can do it for us. So even simple things, like having food to eat, or a job that gives you purpose. These are blessings. When we focus on gratitude, we gain positive momentum, and we start attracting more things in our life to be excited about. So, fall asleep smiling, thinking about the spaces and the faces that you can look forward to the next day. Another part of prepping for a good morning is to train your body and mind to recognize your bedroom as a sanctuary for sleep. Don't work on your phone or laptop in bed. Don't watch TV in bed. I personally also avoid reading in bed because you have the light on and that messes up my circadian rhythm and delays my natural sleep clock. Those wind-down hours a bit I'm accustomed to, when you go to bed, may not be needed. If you have a habit of unwinding by watching TV, reading, checking your phone, try something different. Put those distractions away. Close your eyes. Think about the good things to look forward to and see what happens. Just sleeping bed, mate. Okay, I know what you're thinking, ‘What about intimacy and other things?’ I think we can all agree that intimacy is an acceptable and healthy bedroom exception. You'll burn some calories, you'll bond with your partner, and you'll go to bed relaxed. Alright, so we want to prep for a good morning. 05:36 Strategy two: wake early. Get up while it's still quiet outside, ideally no later than 6 am. Even better, 5 am and 4 am. Well, now you're leveling up. The realm of high achievers is filled with people who get up early. Why is that? Because they know this is the sacred space where clarity resides. The world isn't up yet. It's quiet. No one is pinging your phone and the sounds of traffic haven't reached a full roar yet. This early morning time is magically quiet. For me, my wake early practice is always the same. Feet hit the floor, kitchen for a glass of water, grab my robe, and outside to the cold shower. For you, your wake early start might be a cup of tea, prayer, reading a spiritual text, meditation, light stretching, a quiet walk, or might be all of those things. But the key here is, you're out a bit first thing, it's important you move out of your sleep state and not lay in bed checking your phone or moving into active and busy mind. So, whatever your wellness recipe contains, you do it quietly without rushing. You might be thinking, A cold shower doesn't seem like a slow start, Nate, but for me, other than some hard exhales it's all silence and done slowly. 06:58 This brings us to strategy three: start slow. Moving slowly is not the same as being sleepy or groggy. Yes, in the morning, I'm quiet because I don't want to wake up my family. But I'm also moving and breathing slowly. Because my slow start is a moving meditation, focused, present, reverent. I'm like a scuba diver underwater. There's no rush. I'm moving into the physical world. I'm not checking email, or social media. There are no earbuds in my ears. Not thinking about my calendar or my to-do list, my mind is empty. If I'm making coffee, I'm fully present in the quiet process of making coffee. If I'm wiping the kitchen counter, I'm fully engaged with wiping the kitchen counter. The well-known monk and author of Thich Nhat Hanh describes his practice beautifully in his book Peace Is Every Step. He described this glorious presence and consciousness he would achieve while hand washing dishes. By being hyper-focused with your present task in your slow and steady breathing, we eliminate distractions, our mind becomes still, and we become fully present. Try it out. If you find it hard to quiet your mind. Find a simple phrase that works for you that you can say out loud or internally, such as, ‘Not yet’ or ‘In time.’ Take a deep breath, blow out whatever distracting thought is grabbing your attention. Maybe look at the sunrise cresting over the horizon. Look at how beautiful this world is in this early hour. Focus on the water running over your hand as you wash a dish. This still mind is a doorway to peace and a return to falling in love with the splendor of your surroundings in your life. That is a slow start. You might be thinking, Did you do something more than just take a cold shower to feel that way? No, stick with it. Get up early. Enjoy the quiet. Move slowly. Breathe slowly. You are gently and lovingly and slowly moving out of your sleep state back into consciousness, easing your body and mind into the physical world. This is the magic of the slow start: the world and all its perceived needs and emergencies can wait. You'll get to it in time. Starting slow put you in control. You manage your mind, your mind is not managing you. You manage your life, your life is not managing you. This simple slow start practice will fill you with calm, clarity, and competence. You'll move through your workday with ease. The simple act of engaging with life on your terms when you are ready will reap rewards at work, at home, and in your relationships. 10:15 Strategy four: self-care first. If you prep the night before, you got your clothing, your food and your morning beverage ready to go. And if you fell asleep happily thinking about things to look forward to the next day, you are well on your way to a good day. Let's imagine you get up at 5 am. It's just a suggestion. Even if it takes you 30 minutes to make a cup of coffee and remember your name. Hey, it's still only 5:30 am. You can spend 30 delicious minutes staring out your window, sipping your beverage, watching the birds or listening to music. It's your life bathed in the luxury of uninterrupted quiet. Maybe now it’s 6 am. You lace up your running shoes which you set out the night before and you go for a long walk, watching the sun rise as the neighborhood comes to life. Exercise time. For self-care, I like high heart rate exercises that can be done without a lot of moving parts. No long commutes over 15 minutes to the gym. No extensive gear lists. I prefer to be outside greeting the morning sun. Nature and exercise together is a two-for-one. Add a friend and it's a trifecta. Whatever it is, keep it simple and keep it consistent. I live near a golf course. So, I use that to go for runs. I chase the bunnies and I steer clear of the coyotes. North County surf breaks are just 12 minutes away and teeming with buddies. If I'm short on time, I'll bike over to the community pool, not heated in the winter, which is the double bonus of more cold water therapy and the pool is always empty. If I'm low energy, I'll do a walk. Or even just some light yoga. Yes, even yoga works. Yogi's out there you will confirm a sustained vinyasa flow will get your heart pumping and your muscles burn it. Let's say you choose a walk and you're headed out at 6 am. An hour later you're back from your walk at 7 am, awake, oxygenated. Your mind has done the mental Tetris of sorting out your day's priorities. It's only 7 am. You have plenty of time you shower and dress or maybe you work from home, you throw in a shirt and the same old shorts. Say it's now 8 am you're out the door. Or if you're at home, already on your laptop, no rush, no stress. You find that you cut through your workday like a hot knife through butter. You finish your day feeling relaxed and accomplished. Instead of flopping down on the couch and losing yourself in three hours of screen time. Maybe instead you choose to spend time with your family, your partner, visit a friend, or you dive into a hobby that involves no tech. If none of these are available that day, hey, you know what, you can lace up those shoes and go for another walk. It's all good. Me, after work, I like to garden around sundown. Something about being outside communing with nature just calms me down. And if you’ve done a good job at the end of the day of avoiding screen time after work, by 9:30, your bed might be looking awfully comfortable. You already exercised. You tired out your body. You're ready to go to bed. So, you'll realize if you do this for a few weeks, the big secret known by the many high achievers who get up early every day is this. Go to bed early, bro. Go to bed early. 13:56 Stay strategy five, getting enough sleep. No doubt, our American society reveres working hard. That's what America is known for: be a grinder. And we've all heard stories of business executives and monks who exist on four to six hours of sleep every day. But for most of us, if we have an active lifestyle, a busy and demanding job, and maybe a diet that isn't perfect, we're probably going to need more than four to six hours of sleep to give our body the rest that it needs to repair itself mentally and physically. So, for me a good measure of if I'm getting enough sleep is simple. Am I waking up feeling exhausted? Do I need an alarm to get up? If the answer is yes, then I'm probably not getting enough sleep. Or I'm getting poor sleep. Getting enough good sleep doesn't really have to be complicated. We just got to do the math. If you want to get up at 5 am and you need eight hours of sleep. Well, you need to be asleep by 9 pm the night before. That means you need to be in bed before 9 pm. And if you're going to prep the night before for a good day, you're going to think about the positive things for the next day. Your sleep preparations will need to start earlier than 9 pm. Maybe even as early as 8:30 pm. 8:30 pm? Nate, that sounds like the zone for old people and little kids. But let's be honest, the health benefits of quality sleep, their undeniable sleep is when your body repairs itself, both physically and mentally. You can't make up for sleep debt by sleeping 12 hours on a Sunday. Your sleep needs to be consistent if you want to build time abundance and energy for yourself. So, we should all take a hard look at how we spend our time in the evenings. Can we drop some of our screen time and all those other technical distractions? Can we take the simple step of just going to bed? Self-care requires discipline and going to bed on time is just as important as showing up for that exercise class or drinking that healthy shake. Take a week and journal how you spend your time after 9 pm. And then look at that journal and ask yourself, are those activities necessary? Are these productive hours? Or am I spending time in a slightly vegetative state zone and out not really awake, not asleep? We have to be disciplined. Cut the veg time and see how your mind and body respond to getting consistent quality sleep. Some other practices that I follow to get ample sleep: I mind my intake of stimulants for me, no coffee, no motivation juice after 10 am. Also, consider natural sleep-supporting supplements that don't leave you groggy in the morning like some prescription medications and over-the-counter medications can I use things like lemon balm, magnesium glycinate, theanine. These are all supplements you can get at any health food store that are calming and relaxing. No morning grogginess. They relax you and prepare you for sleep. So, visit a health food store get informed. I am not advising anyone to stop prescribed medications, but natural remedies, they should be part of our toolkit. 17:31 That's a wrap my friends thank you so much for listening to Cold Water, Hot Coffee, episode two: time abundance. For more about this podcast go to coldwaterhotcoffee.com. If you want to learn more about me, you can click on About on our website menu. Thank you for listening to episode two. Remember, we are here to help you reclaim your teenage fire. You're not done yet with life. Let's fill the tank. Let's get you back on the road. Thanks for joining me for Cold Water, Hot Coffee.
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