Lifestyle

As you can tell by the title of this post, things are going to be changing at VisualProductivity. I recently completed a degree in education and my passions have shifted slightly from a business to toward more of an educational focus. I think you'll like the new direction as much or more than in the past. I plan on sharing my insights and revelations as I continue to learn and develop my teaching style and will share best practices and techniques that can improve your life.

Overall learning strategies including efficiency hacks

Learning strategies as well as efficiency and effectiveness strategies have always been the core focus of this blog. This won't change, however, you'll likely notice more mention of education and learning in general, as opposed to references to small business. The content will continue to be relevant to pretty much everyone, so make sure you check out some of the new content

Language learning

I'm looking forward to sharing insights describing the various learning styles. There are plenty of ways to learn a language and everyone seems to think they have the only solution. In reality, the methods you need to learn a language can vary widely between individuals. There are some best practices to follow, but there is a tremendous variety of ways to learn. You'll probably find that you might try several strategies, but one or two might resonate more with you than others.

I'll be kicking things off with a series on pronunciation in a second language. My focus is on Spanish since it's the one I've spent the most time studying and because there is still some learning for me to do. I have a lot to say on the topic, including sharing my pronunciation journey and I'll get into why most people never seem to perfect their accent in a second language.

Emotional Intelligence

There has been a seismic shift in the education system due to the pandemic. Many students (and adults) have had to deal with numerous new issues over the past year and a bit. There is a significant amount of research and information available to help people deal with their emotions and feelings. My goal will be to add some posts to help you (or someone you love) consider your thoughts, feelings, reactions and responses to what is going around them. That sounds a bit “woo woo,” but the goal is to make it completely normal. Think of it as a few hacks for daily living.

Other Educational Topics

I'll leave the door open to bring up other topics as we move along.

I look forward to sharing content with you again.

I'm at the end of my Get Driver Fit challenge. I spent seven weeks focusing on working out most days and eating the right foods more often than not. It's time to look at my final results and see what the numbers say.

I'm happy with the dedication I showed in my workouts. I started a habit of doing 40 minutes of cardio most days during the last seven weeks.
I didn't see a lot of weight come off which might seem weird, but my body composition has changed tremendously.

Here's a before and after video from the night of my final results:

YouTube Link

My final results

Like I said above, I'm happy with my final results. I built a habit of fitness and health back into my daily routine. I might not win an award for losing the most weight in seven weeks, but my plan is sustainable.

Sit and reach

6 weeks ago: 0 cm
Now: 8 cm

I felt good doing this stretch. I found a video on YouTube showing a variation of the Yoga position, Downward Facing Dog. I tried it out and found my hamstrings really loosened up. This stretch is definitely a winner for me, and I'll keep it up as I move forward.

Shuttle Run

Beginning: 260 m
Now: 200 m
The first time I did the shuttle run, we had lots of space because it was done at the Formula 1 track. The shuttle run course was 30 m that night.

During the finale, there wasn't as much room. We did the challenge using cones 10 m apart.

The first night I did 13 direction changes and I had space to get up to full speed. In contrast, on the final night, I did 19 direction changes on the much shorter course.

I would have liked to come closer to my fist night's performance, but I'm not going to stress out about it…. beyond sitting here figuring out how many times I changed direction each time.

Push ups

Beginning: 30
Now: 45

I focused on going all the way down. I could have done a lot more if I was cheating. I think 45 “legit” push ups in one minute is good. The instructors told us we could drop to our knees, but I chose to count only ones done on my toes.

Lay down and stand up

Beginning: 24 (but I accidentally cheated)
Now: 18

18 is a solid number for this exercise. I'm happy with this.

I found a great video on YouTube where it showed a guy rolling up without using his hands. I tried to emulate that, but my flexibility wasn't in a place to let me do that. Instead I focused on economy of movement. I rolled up in a linear fashion and tried to push up from both hands equally. I hated this exercise the first time I did it, but now it's just something else I can do. I don't think I'll go out and do these every day, but who knows. They're actually really tough.

Squats

Beginning: 60 – I think
Now – 60

I focused on going down so my thighs were parallel with the ground. I went as fast as I could, but when you're going deep, it takes longer to perform them. I could have done better, but I felt like I was going pretty fast.

My body measurements

The body measurements are harder to measure. The numbers all have different possible totals. Total possible points was 50. My score of 23 shows there's still room for improvement.

Here's how that breaks down:

• Waist___/6
• Waist to hip ratio:___/20
• Waist to height___/4
• BMI: ___/20
• Total:___/50

 

Overall thoughts

That's the end of the challenge for me.

There were a lot of positives that came out of it.

My biggest takeaway is that I set up my routine of working out most days. Not every day. Not 5 days a week. Just most days. I don't want to think in terms of absolutes.

From here, I'll keep up my routine and make it a permanent part of my life. I guess the weirdest thing is that I never thought I'd ever get out of shape. But work and life often get in the way of well laid-out plans.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave me a comment below.

 

 

I'm taking part in the Get Driver Fit challenge here in Abu Dhabi. It's a fitness challenge designed to get people of varying fitness levels back into shape.

Here's a link to the article with the complete backstory.

Isn't hacking cheating

I don't mean hacking as far as hacking into their computer system and changing my results. You've probably already guessed that I mean the other definition, but just in case you're not familiar, let's head over to the always useful Urban Dictionary.

According to the Urban Dictionary:

Hack

A clever solution to a tricky problem

I got the idea for this by reading about how athletes train to perform better at the NFL (American Football) combine. Here's an article on Yahoo Sports talking about how they improve results in as little as 6-8 weeks.

A lot of the hacks come down to improved technique. It could be something as simple as which foot you have forward at the beginning of an exercise, or which exercises you focus on during the preparation phase of your training.

Like I've said in my previous article, I'm not planning on winning the competition, but I always like to have fun with whatever I do. Learning better technique is definitely fun for me.

 

The Fitness Test

During the first week of testing, all contestants were put through five different tests. I've listed them in the chart down below.

 

 

Here's the breakdown:

• Squats:___/10
• Push-ups:___/10
• Lay downs:___/10
• Shuttle runs:___10
• Sit and Reach Flexibility:___/10
• Total___/50

Now that I know what they'll be measuring, I'll use that knowledge to perform better and look for ways to improve my results on those specific tests.

The one thing I can focus on with desire is the fitness portion of the Get Driver Fit test. As of the time of writing, I have a little more than two weeks left in this seven week contest.

The Five Tests:

Squats

I'm not worried about doing squats. That's the one exercise I feel like I don't need to worry about. I'll just pick a few days to practice doing as many as possible in a minute to get an idea for timing and pacing.

Push ups

Push ups are one of the exercises where a lot of people “Cheat” by not going down far enough. The official instruction for this exercise were to touch your chest to the floor. Most people never go down that low because push ups are significantly harder when you go past a 90 degree bend in your elbows.

I had been doing push ups leading up to the first test, so I had moderate expectations of what I could do. The extra few inches of travel from having parallel upper arms to touching my chest to the floor proved to be my downfall. I also gassed myself by starting too early during the drill.

Kevin's results: 30 in 1 minute.

Hacks

I'll do one minute intervals of push ups to train. That's the big thing. I'll also focus on how wide I place my hands. Wider hand placement means less distance to travel, but too wide will put way more stress on my shoulders. I'll try both distances from the video below and see which one feels better to me.

Tip: I heard a good tip from YouTuber Simon Lendore. He said hit the start button on your timer, and then give yourself 5 seconds before you start actually doing pushups. That way you're not rushing to get to the first rep. I like it.

There are a lot of videos on YouTube of people doing push ups for a minute. Here's a video where Tony Horton from P90X fame was challenged by US  Senior Airman Ryan Torralba. Wow! They're both incredible.

I also just saw a video where a guy did 27 push ups while doing a hand stand. Lol. At least I beat him.

Lay downs

I had never tried this particular drill before.

You start from a standing position. Then roll back onto the floor, touching your head and one hand to the floor. Your legs must straighten out completely. Then you get up off your back and return to a standing position.

When I was doing my testing, I learned quickly that I could roll into a ball and then swing my legs back down to create momentum to bring me back to standing. Unfortunately, that was cheating. My legs were supposed to be straight out in from of me.

Kevin's results: I think I did 23 in one minute but I was unknowingly cheating. We'll need to put an asterisk beside that number.

Hacks

This one was hard to find on YouTube. Luckily I found the perfect video. The one I've attached shows a guy doing lay down's with the exact technique I'll try to emulate. He's not reaching over his head as he lays down (to touch the back of his hand to the floor), but otherwise it's the same movement.

This guy isn't using his hands at all to push up from the ground. That would be awesome if I could do that. I'm just not sure if I can get flexible enough and fine tune my balance in time to make this work.

Here's the video:

Shuttle Run

There are three cones placed 10m, 20m, and 30m from the start line. You have one minute to go as far as possible. You first run to the 10m cone. Then back to the start line. Then it's off to the 20m cone and back to the start line. Finally you run all the way to the 30m cone and back. When you've competed one set, you repeat the same sequence as many times as possible.

Kevin's results: Two full sets plus once more to the 10m cone and back. My total distance was 260m.

Hacks

There are four things I'm going to focus on for this test.

1. One is overall cardio and good form when running. Seven weeks is plenty of time to build my cardio base. I've done an OK job, but now I'm down to two weeks before the final evaluation.
2. Muscular endurance. I could feel my legs burning as they were flooded with lactic acid. I'll be incorporating one minute intervals into both my cycling and running training to get back in the habit of dealing with this.
3. Perform shuttle runs. The best way to get good at something is to do it. This test need a lot more space than the others, and the distances should be measured fairly carefully. I haven't done any shuttle runs since that first test (five weeks ago), so it's something I need to look into.
4. I found a great video on how to train for the NFL combine shuttle run. It's similar to what I'll be doing, but the NFL test is designed to be a quicker, more explosive test. I'm going to incorporate this into my training and see if it'll help me out as I accelerate out of each change in direction.

Here's the video. It's about 9 minutes, but it's really informative.

 “The faster and more efficient the arms are, the faster and more efficient the legs will be.”

NFL Combine Trainer: Pete Bommarito

Sit and reach flexibility

60% of my room to improve.

You sit down with your legs out in front of your and try to touch your toes. If you can reach your toes exactly (like I did), you get a zero. If you can go further, they'll measure how far past your toes you reach in centimeters. If can can't quite reach your toes, they'll record how far away you get and will write it down as a negative number on your sheet.

Kevin's results: I got to my toes exactly, so I recorded a zero.

Hacks

The obvious hack for this test is to stretch my hamstrings and calves thoroughly over the next few weeks and improve my overall flexibility. An addition way to improve my distance will be sit down and stretch a minute or two before I do the test to reduce tightness from the walk or jog to the station.

I found a video on how to improve hamstring flexibility. It mostly recommends doing a modified downward facing dog stretch from yoga. I'll give this a try and report back.

Burpees

The final test was burpees. They were omitted from the initial testing, but I have no idea whether I might need to perform them in the end or not, so I'll try to do a few one minute intervals of them in preparation.

Kevin's Results: During the third week of training, I performed 20 burpees in a minute, which is decent.

Body Measurements

The second half of the physical component included weighing myself and taking reading on height, waist, and hip measurements.

According to the following chart, my body is a disaster. Lol.

Here's how that breaks down:

• BMI: ___/20
• Waist___/6
• Waist to hip ratio:___/20
• Waist to height___/4
• Total:___/50

I scored 19 points out of a possible 50. There's not much I can focus on to improve these results beyond doing the right things like exercising regularly and being selective about what I eat.

The one line I heard (I don't remember where) is to not tell yourself you can't eat something. Instead you say, “I can eat anything I want, but I choose not to eat that.” That simple change is huge. It takes something from forbidden fruit status to just another think I could choose to eat.

My weight was 101.4 KG (223.5 lbs) on the first day of the competition. I haven't weighed myself since that first night, and won't until the last day. I feel awesome that I'm focusing on doing the right things consistently and not stressing out about small fluctuations in weight.

I am where I am right now and nothing will change that. All I can do is move forward.

– Kevin

Two weeks to go!

I have two weeks to go before the final test. I'm excited to see where I end up.

It's too bad that I waited so long to do this post. Otherwise we could have seen how much of a change in the results I could have had using my hacks for a month an a half.

Oh well. I'll push myself and we'll see where I end up.

Feel free to leave me some encouragement below if you're reading this post.

Hi everyone,

I've made the decision to change the name of the site.

You're Making Me > Visual Productivity

Going forward, everything I produce will come under the VisualProductivity.net banner. I think the name gives you a much better idea of where my focus lies, and it's a lot easier for people to type in. It has been a point of confusion to have a site name with an apostrophe. The last reason is that I'll no longer have to compete with Toni Braxton's You're Making Me High video. LOL.

What was I thinking back then.

The original site name of YoureMakingMe came from a speech I gave several years ago. Here's a 5 minute version of that speech if you're interested.

I haven't presented that You're Making Me speech in years, but the name stuck around as I thought it would be too hard to change.

Now that I'm in Abu Dhabi, I've had the chance to focus on my next steps. Most notably, I'll be continuing the heavier focus on mind mapping and “Visual” techniques that relate to productivity.

I have a lot of content already in the pipeline, and now that I've made the changes to the website, I'll start rolling out the blog posts again.

Content focus

You can look for two main types of content:

Mind mapping from the ground up

We'll slow down and take a good hard look at some of the questions I often answer in emails, but have never done posts of. We'll talk about the specifics of mind mapping, like which programs to use and HOW to use them.

Intermediate and Pro tips – including more complex systems

I get emails all the time from people who have incredibly elaborate systems setup for their work flow. I love hearing about what mind maps and other visual tools are being used for, so we'll delve into that as well. We'll look into tips for intermediate to advanced users.

The podcast?

The podcast won't be going anywhere. I'm still not sure whether it's best to delete everything and start from scratch, or to just continue on. I'm leaning toward carrying on as before, but refocusing the show a bit.

Any more changes?

Nope. Besides still needing a logo, and verifying that all old links point to the new places, there's nothing else to change.

I'll be reviewing all of my products and re-branding them as I go, but if you've bought something from me in the past, you'll still have access to it like always.

That's it for now. If you have any comments, you can share them down below.

Thanks for your continued support,

Kevin