Anti Depression Guide

Here are 7 ways to better manage your bipolar disorder in order to become more productive and effective in business and life:

1. Exercise-one of the most important factors in becoming a productive bipolar is to carry out a consistent program of aerobic exercise.  Exercise has been proven to be one to the most effective treatments in battling the depressive end of the bipolar spectrum and don’t worry if the slothfulness of depression makes it difficult to get out the door.  Even walking for 10-15 minutes 3-5 times per week can improve your mood in the short term.  There is even evidence that exercise can be effective in drug-resistant depressions and in one study comparing a group of depressed patients who were put on an exercise program with a group taking the anti-depressant Zoloft, the depressed group who took up exercise matched the mood improvements in the drug-group in the short-term and beat them with less chance of relapse in the long term!  If aerobic exercise isn’t your thing, activities such as yoga and Taekwondo have been shown to improve mood and lessen anxiety in cases of depression as well.
2. Eat a proper diet-A proper diet high in Omega-3 fatty acids (specifically eicosapentaenoic acid or EPA), folic acid and other B vitamins, and magnesium has been shown in studies to be an effective therapeutic supplement to typical medications in the treatment of bipolar disorder.  Supplementing your diet with the amino acid taurine has also shown some therapeutic values.  Avoid foods high in Omega-6 fatty acids which basically means do your best to cut out fried foods in your diet.  Many fried foods are cooked in soy oil which is very high in Omega-6 fatty acids.  Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids compete for absorption into the body so keep the bad acids to a minimum.  Also keep in mind that caffeine, nicotine, and other stimulants are famous for antagonizing both depression and mania, so do your best to keep these to a minimum as well.
3. Take your medications as prescribed-those who suffer from bipolar disorder are famous for not taking their medications as prescribed.  The high energy, increased productivity, sharpened sense, and euphoria that can accompany manias in their early hypomanic stages can be very seductive to the bipolar.  And while stopping medications may seem like a great idea in the short-term, the amount of time required to recover from the effects of a full-blown mania and the major depressive episode that tends to follow nullify, by far, any gains made in the hypomanic stages.  We will learn in the course of this blog’s development to become productive bipolar sufferers while taking our medications as prescribed!  If this is an issue for you, go find yourself an accountability partner right now that will make sure you take your medications even when you feel you don’t need them.
4. Incorporate scheduled relaxation time into your life-stress is one of the most famous precipitants of manic and depressive episodes.  If you are bipolar you must incorporate some form of relaxation into your schedule.  Whether that be through exercise, taking up a hobby, or finding a way to reduce your workload (we’ll discuss strategies for this in the near future), it is imperative that you find ways to reduce stress in your life to avoid relapses.
5. Have a morning and evening routine-one very helpful technique that I’ve utilized in my own journey to becoming a productive bipolar is developing a routine, especially in the morning and evening.  It’s very important that you figure out how much sleep you need and try to get that much sleep every single night.  Admittedly I’m probably not qualified to discuss the topic of sleep as I typically only sleep from 4-5 hours per night but it works for me and I feel rested and ready to go after this much.  Most humans need 8 hours of sleep however so I’ll give an example of a morning and evening routine revolving around 8 hours of rest.  I find the time before bed and first thing in the morning to be my times of rather frenetic energy.  I don’t know why this is but my moods cycle rather rapidly so I’ve found that by employing CALMING routines during these times to be effective first off, by making sure I get the amount of sleep I require and secondly, have my days tasks planned to I can focus on the most important tasks first thing in the morning.  In the evening I recommend a very calming routine that usually lasts for about 30-45 minutes.  First off prepare any lunches you may need to prepare for the next day and then lay out whatever clothing you choose to wear the following day.  After you’ve done this, decide what your 2 most important tasks are for the following day.  If you can, it’s best to work on these tasks first thing in the morning right after you complete your morning routine.  Remember to try to keep your most important task (MITs) to a maximum of 2 if possible to avoid being unable to focus your energies typical of bipolars who try to fit to much in one day.  Next, review your day in light of the MITs you’ve completed that day.  I’ve found a remarkably calming way of doing this is through the use of a journal.  Finally, once your in bed, reading a fictional book that is not to action-oriented can be a great way to fall asleep.  No non-fiction!  I’ve done this until very recently and it tends to have the effect of getting your mind racing as you try to process what you read.  Don’t do it, it doesn’t have a positive effect!  Now first thing in the morning is the best time to fit your exercise in.  It really brings a peace to the day, especially if you do it before everyone in the house wakes up.  If you happen to be a spiritual person, this is also the best time to meditate or reflect upon your beliefs.  Have a healthy breakfast while consuming whatever information you need to complete the first task of the day, then have a shower.  If you have family responsibilities, this will probably be about the time you will need to tend to them.  If not, or after you have, start to work on your first important task of the day.  You should find after a couple weeks that these routines will bring a remarkable peace into your life which will do wonders towards helping you become an effective bipolar.
6. Learn to be organized-This is a key skill you must become proficient at if you choose to become a highly effective bipolar.  We’ll will address this topic at length in the near future, but in the meantime I would encourage you to check out some of the great productivity blogs out there such as Zen Habits, Productivity 501, or for a conpendium of all the great productivity blogs out there check out LifeRemix.net.  I would encourage you for the time being to focus on working on your morning and evening routines.  Find out what works for you, but try and incorporate the same morning and evening routines everyday.  Start journaling in the evening, not only as a way to review the day but as a creative outlet.  And every evening, set out your 2 most important tasks for the next day to be worked on right after your morning routine.
7. Don’t take your self to seriously-Yes, bipolar disorder is a serious illness that can have some devastating consequences, but I’m a big believer in everything happening for a reason.  That’s the hand you’ve been dealt, so it is your duty to find a way to utilize it to be of benefit to society.  That may sound funny to you, but it’s true.  Learn to laugh, have fun, and do your best to turn your illness into a positive because it can be.  That’s my job here at Manic Productivity.  I will teach you to do exactly that as I move along this journey with you.  So smile, you’re about to become a productive bipolar!

Since the birth of Manic Productivity a few days back we’ve been attempting to repurpose and apply the principles put forth by Timothy Ferriss in “The 4-Hour Workweek” to helping the productive bipolar become more effective at work and in her personal life.

Remarkably, the information in the book doesn’t need a whole lot of repurposing so I would still encourage you to pick up a copy, read it, and APPLY the information in the book.  Yes, it definitely is an inspirational read, but it can be so useful to you I would encourage you to mark it up, reread it, and go about integrating the principles put forth in it so you can become much, much more productive in business and life, and hopefully as an offshoot of that productive behaviour much more successful as well.

So today we want to look at better focusing your hypomanic, manic, even depressive energies and dealing with distractions.  There is a great quote on page 90 of the book by Ralph Charell that says “be the chess player…not the chess piece”.  I know from experience that sufferers of bipolar disorder or any mental illness for that matter often feel like a pawn at the mercy of their illness, that they have no control over the lives whatsoever.

I want to tell you now that it doesn’t have to be that way!  4 years ago I was in and out of the hospital, completely at the mercy of my illness.  Now things are completely different.  I am a chess player, not a piece and my aim is to help you come to that place in your illness as well.  I’m not entirely where I want to be yet, but I see that as a blessing as I can share with you the lessons I learn on this blog and through my business, Manic Productivity as I learn and continue to grow.

So the past couple of days, we discussed things such as time or task management and completion, Pareto’s and Parkinson’s Laws and doing the important rather than the urgent.

Today I want to talk about dealing with distractions that may pop up and interfere with your task completion.  Many bipolar sufferers have an enormous problem with staying on task and completing projects.  Hypomania and mania can bring such an overflow of ideas and the optimism to act on all of them that many a time, a task is not completed before the next task is initiated.  Depression can sap the energy from a person to the point where even a minute task can feel like a crushing weight coming upon her shoulders.  Furthermore, interruptions and distractions have a way of easily moving the bipolar sufferer away from a task so that he finds it nearly impossible to get restarted again.  The lack of attention and concentration found in a young child with ADHD is very similar to the difficulties in concentration experienced by the bipolar.

So how do we deal with interruptions and distractions to give us the best possible chance of staying on task until its completion?

Ferriss outlines 3 types of interruptions in his book:

1. Time Wasters
2. Time Consumers
3. Empowerment Failures

My job today is to teach you how to avoid these types of interruptions in light of your illness.

1. Time Wasters-Ferriss states time wasters are “those things that can be ignored with little or no consequence.  The best example is email.  I for one am a slave to email so I’ve come up with some techniques for dealing with it more effectively.  For starters, if you use Yahoo mail or Gmail, get rid of the tool bar that’s probably at the top of your browser right now.  There is nothing more distracting than seeing that number 1 popup on your screen every time you receive a new email.  It’s just to tempting to go check it out.  So nix the toolbar, because if you’re like me you probably don’t use anything offered on the toolbar anyways.  Ferriss gives a couple of tips if you happen to use Outlook as your default inbox, namely turn off the audible alert and the automatic send/receive.  Don’t check your inbox more than twice per day, say once in the morning when you wake up and once in the late afternoon before dinner.  Not right before bed.  You can set your customize your send and receive feature on Outlook to deposit your emails into your inbox in the 2 times you happen to check it.  Other time wasters, according to Ferriss are meetings and telephone calls.  Pick up his book to learn more.
2. Time Consumers-Ferriss calls these the “repetitive tasks that interrupt the most important”.  Batching is basically grouping similar tasks together in large amounts and doing them all at one rather than doing them here and there.  This drastically reduces the amount of time lost getting set up to complete a task as it is only done once.  Also, Ferriss pulled some startling numbers out of a book entitled, “The Cost of Not Paying Attention: How Interruptions Impact Knowledge Worker Productivity”.  If we don’t batch similar tasks together, say for example we check our email every time we see the little number 1 on the Yahoo toolbar, and we check it despite being in the middle of completing an important task, then we can spend up to 45 minutes psychologically switching gears in order to get back to the important task.  45 minutes is a lot of time to waste most likely as a result of answering an email that wasn’t important in the first place.  When we add up all of the psychological switching of gears during a typical workweek as lost time, the authors found that 28% of work time is spent accomplishing nothing due to such interruptions!  We’re talking well over a day of each 5 day workweek spent trying to get back on task because of a petty interruption.  So the lesson here for the productive bipolar is to try and group similar activities together and do them once rather a bunch of times.  You’ll save the setup time required of all tasks and you’ll become much more productive as you won’t spend 28% of each work week accomplishing nothing well you try to get back to what’s important.
3. Empowerment Failures-Ferriss states that empowerment failure is “being unable to accomplish a task without first obtaining permission or information”.  I’m going to keep this one simple as most productive bipolars quite possibly already do this in light of their typical impulsive behaviour: “Don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness”.  This will save you a ton of time.  Just make sure if you’re in the workplace and you decide to go ahead on a project without the say-so from above that you do a good job.  You want the opportunity to ask for forgiveness, not the opportunity to stand in the unemployment line!

So there we have it.  Three lessons for the productive bipolar:

• limit your availability by answering emails and phone calls at pre-determined times
• batch similar tasks together to avoid wasting time due to frequent set-up
• be intelligently independent.  Don’t be afraid to make a decision and ask for forgiveness later

Before we move on to today’s post, I just want to send a call out to any bipolar student/executive/entrepreneur/employee who would like to learn how to become more productive and successful in business and life in exchange for feedback regarding the program.  This blog is serving as a test run for my new startup, also called Manic Productivity which provides productivity plans and solutions for sufferers of bipolar disorder who want to learn how to better manage and utilize the characteristics of their illness to become more productive and successful.

Whether or not the business takes off will depend alot on the number of RSS subscriptions to this blog in the next month.  I’m looking at a break-even point of 10% of visitors subscribing via RSS feeds so I encourage you to subscribe. 

Even if you do not suffer from a mood disorder such as bipolar disorder or major depression, you can still use the productivity tips and techniques you will learn from this blog even though they are repurposed and aimed mainly for the bipolar sufferer.

If you would like to participate in the product testing, either leave a comment on this blog or email me at jdavey232006 at yahoo dot ca.