This is part of a Siimon Reynolds series – When They Zig You Zag

Get out of the office early and work at home more often.

The average office worker is scared to leave the office. Terrified that the boss might think they’re lazy, they stay at their desks even if they have little to do. Eradicate that attitude from this moment onwards.

The only thing that matters is your performance, not how many hours you worked, or where you worked. If your work is done, leave, and give yourself a well earned rest. Perhaps the greatest swimmer in history, Mark Spitz, attributed much of his success to his ability to make the most of his time off between swimming events, and truly relax.

Likewise if you work better at home, work often at home. Do what gets results, not just what looks good to the corporate lemmings.

This is part of a Siimon Reynolds series – When They Zig You Zag

Discover the power of deep breathing.

The quality of the oxygen you consume is absolutely crucial to the health of your blood and your brain. Your brain uses a huge proportion of your oxygen intake, over 20%.

If it’s not getting good oxygen then your thought processes will be impaired. Likewise if your blood isn’t well oxygenated, your energy levels will drop.

Whenever you exercise, consciously take deep breaths, using the lower part of your lungs, not just expanding your chest. Ten deep breaths, three times a day will energise you to a level that will surprise you.

This is part of a Siimon Reynolds series – When They Zig You Zag

Dress like the person above you in the company.

If you look and act like someone more senior than you are, when the time comes for promotional reviews, it’s easy for your boss to visualise you in a more senior position.

If you dress like a junior, your company’s CEO will always see you as one.

This is part of a Siimon Reynolds series – When They Zig You Zag

Keep meetings under ten minutes.

Impossible? Try it, you’ll be amazed at how often you can pull it off. And there are great advantages. A ten-minute time limit on meetings forces people to think about the issues they want to discuss prior to the meeting’s commencement.

It also stops people babbling on with irrelevancies. Thirdly, it forces you to concentrate, and thus the resulting ideas are often better. Two tips to speed up meetings:

1. Have an agenda presented prior to the meeting, notifying participants of a start and finish time.
2. Do the meeting standing up.

This is part of a Siimon Reynolds series – When They Zig You Zag

Become a specialist, not a generalist.

Decades ago generalists ruled the roost.

Their knowledge in many fields gave them the competitive edge. But now most industries are getting so complicated that only when you specialise are you likely to be acknowledged as the best in your field.

Better to be a master of one important area than an also-ran in three areas.

This is part of a Siimon Reynolds series – When They Zig You Zag

Get a Mentor

Find someone who you really respect in an area and ask them to be your coach. It doesn’t have to be business, there may be someone you know who’s always happy, or supremely fit, maybe they’re great at cooking or tennis.

Ask them to help you along in that area and form an ongoing relationship with them that’s mutually beneficial.

The funny thing is, the more successful someone is, often the more pleasure they get from coaching others in their art.

This is part of a Siimon Reynolds series – When They Zig You Zag

Listen to Classical Music, not modern

Much research has been done on how a lot of rock music agitates the human nervous system. You may perhaps have heard of the research test where scientists played hard rock to plants for hours. The plants actually turned away from the speakers!

When played soothing classical music they turned to face the sound, evidently getting strength from it. In a recent US research study, it was found that most people performed better in IQ tests after listening to classical music, and Sheila Oestrander, the renowned expert on accelerated learning, says students can remember far more when listening to baroque classical pieces.

Switch from rock to classical and both your body and mind will thank you.

This is part of a Siimon Reynolds series – When They Zig You Zag

Put health before work and you’ll be more successful

Most people in business put health last. By devoting all their time to work they get ahead faster at first, but after a decade or so their body begins to rebel against all the strain, and sickness and mental lethargy slowly build up.

By the time the average person hits 50, they’ve lost most of their energy and their motivation. The very few people who put their health as their number one priority not only have much more spark in the second half of their careers, they also enjoy their first half a lot more because, being healthy, they’re much less prone to stress.

This is part of a Siimon Reynolds series – When They Zig You Zag

Do your most important job first each day

It seems so simple but hardly anyone does it! But doing this one thing will make you so much more effective.

There’s an interesting story about this. In the 1930s the steel magnate Charles Schwabb had a meeting with a young entrepreneur. This young man offered to teach Schwabb a way to increase his entire company’s productivity. All he asked in return was that Schwabb pay him what he thought it was worth.

The idea? Just write down the six most important things you should do each day and do number one first, before going on to number two. After trying this incredibly basic technique for a few weeks Schwab sent the young man a cheque for $25,000.

This is part of a Siimon Reynolds series – When They Zig You Zag

To stay young drink more water

Dehydration is believed by experts to be one of the major causes of ageing. Not only will you look old if you don’t drink much water (your skin becomes wrinkled), your kidneys will be less able to eliminate impurities efficiently.

Even brain cells are affected by dehydration. According to longevity expert, Professor Stanislaw Talalas, the average person loses about three litres of water a day. So drink at least two litres of water – the rest can come from water rich foods like vegetables and fruit.