Tap water.

Few things have such a boring and unglamorous image.

Of course, it’s hard to sell regular tap water in a cool and expensive way.

So it becomes boring as nails and concrete. But just as useful.

One healthy habit I’ve had for just about all my life is to drink water. A lot of water. And mostly tap water. For more than one reason. Actually, I’ve found nine of them.

But first, how much water should you drink? Recommendations seem to fall somewhere between 2-3 liters (that’s 67-100 liquid ounces) of water a day. And that does not include the 20 percent of your daily water that you get through food.

If you are pregnant, exercising or in a hot and/or humid environment you may need more. It’s quite a bit of water to drink every day. So it may not be so surprising that 75 percent of Americans do not consume the recommended amounts.

If you want to drink more water my three best tips are:

• Always carry a bottle of water with you (at school, at work etc.). As soon as you have emptied it, fill it up again. And drink on.
• Substitute what you are drinking with your daily meals – maybe juice or soda – for a glass or two of water instead. If you really like your juice, try to at least replace it with water for a meal or two a day.
• Put a glass of water next to your bed. You may be quite thirsty when you wake up after a long night of sleep and no water. This is a simple way to replenish some of your fluids after the alarm goes off.

Now, on to the reasons why you should drink more tap water:

1. Soda is bad in more than one way.

One small can of soda – about 12 ounces or 33 cl – contains 10-12 teaspoons of sugar. This will not only help you put on pounds of fat. It will also damage your teeth. And going to the dentist isn’t cheap. If you on the other hand drink more water and less soda you can both lose weight and use your dental money for something more pleasurable.

2. Juice is healthy but contains sugar.

There are a lot of vitamins and healthy goodies in fruit juice. However, there is also quite a bit of sugar that will add to the weight and teeth-problems described above. So don’t drink too much of the stuff.

3. Bottled water isn’t good for the environment.

Americans buy 28 billion water bottles a year. Then you have to add the rest of the world. That’s a whole lot of bottles. All that plastic and the energy used for manufacturing and transportation wears and tears on the environment. Adding to the problem is the fact that few bottles are recycled or reused but instead just dropped in the nearest trashcan.

4. You’ll save boatloads of money.

Here’s another good reason to switch from bottled to tapped water. And you’ll not only save money by buying less soda, juice and water in a bottle. You can also avoid costs that come with the health problems caused by putting too much sugar into your body. You may save hundreds of dollars a year by drinking tap water instead. Over a lifetime you can save a whole lot more both health-wise and money-wise.

5. It tastes great.

Here in Sweden the tap water is pretty delicious. You may have a different situation where you live. You can however often improve the quality of the water by getting a filter for your faucet. Or spruce up your cold glass of water with a slice of lemon or lime.

6. Better skin.

I first heard about this one in a Cindy Crawford interview a long time ago. Drinking enough water keeps your skin hydrated and washes out toxins from your body.

7. More energy.

If you keep your body properly hydrated you’ll have more energy. You’ll avoid the headaches, nausea, fatigue and concentration problems that come from not consuming enough fluids. And that’s not just after a hard workout in the gym. It you feel a slump in energy in middle of the day that may be because you are becoming dehydrated.

8. Reduced health risks.

Drinking more water isn’t just about improving your health. You can also also prevent a few health problems besides the ones with your teeth and weight. According to studies you can slice the risk of bladder cancer or dying from a heart attack in half by consuming the recommended amount of water. Drinking enough water can also lower the risk for constipation and kidney stones.

9. It’s convenient.

You don’t have to go to the store or supermarket. You get just walk over to the nearest tap and get some.

So, yesterday my internet connection went out.

After quickly accepting that I started thinking about what I could do now.

Here’s what I came up with and got done (which to a large degree was stuff I usually forget to do).

Maybe you’ll find something of use for the next time you run into the same situation.

Write a post.

If you’re a blogger you can work on your next post. It is easier to focus on your writing when the tempting internet is out of the picture. And even if you have written a post for today or tomorrow it is always good to have an extra post of two done in case something happens (you get sick, you have to do some travelling for a few days etc.)

Clean your desk.

I find it pretty satisfying to remove old coffee-cups from my desk, sort my stuff and throw out what I don’t need. A decluttered and ordered workspace brings clarity and order to the mind. Plus, according to a series of interviews that Brian Tracy cites 50 out of 52 managers would not promote a person with a messy desk. Even if the person was doing a good job.

They couldn’t trust a position of responsibility to someone who couldn’t keep himself organized. Take a look at you workspace and see what it might reflect about you as a person.

Clean up your computer.

Cleaning up your computer has the same benefits as uncluttering your desk. You can think more clearly without 43 icons and files on your desktop. And you can find things more easily if they are put in the right folders. Plus it can improve your productivity and decrease procrastination.

If you for instance have a habit of checking website statistics, RSS-feeds, email etc. too often delete the most accessible shortcuts to those things. Remove shortcuts on your desktop and bookmarks from your browser. This has helped me to cut down on such addictive checking and rechecking. You can also uninstall programs that are wasting too much of your time (or you never use anyway).

Get things organized.

I remembered that I hadn’t changed some passwords in ages so I did that (and wrote down what those new passwords are). I added and removed some names from the address book in my email-program. I also ran a full scan for viruses with AVG and one scan for spyware with Ad-Aware. And plugged in my mp3-player to remove some old songs and fill it up with new stuff.

Back up important information.

If you’re at work I guess this often already taken care of. But if you have a computer at home you may also want backup important financial documents, emails and precious vacation photos. If you’re a blogger it can be useful to backup old texts – if you have them saved in Word or something similar like I do – and graphics you use for the blog.

Take a break and go for a snack.

If you have been working for a while and your are starting feel unfocused there is sometimes a simple solution. Get up, walk a round for a bit and eat something.

Go for a walk and some fresh air.

If the snack and the break didn’t boost your energy levels try going for a short walk and get some fresh air. This can both raise your energy and lower your stress levels. Or if you have the opportunity, take it a step further like I did and go to the gym.

When I had signed up for Blog Action Day I did a little brainstorming to generate some good ideas. After half an hour I came up with this one and decided to stick with it.

I liked it because of its simplicity. And because one thing I and I think many of my readers use for several hours each day is a computer. Plus, many of the tips can – over time – save you quite a bit of money.

These are just 20 ideas on what you can do reduce the wear and tear on the environment. Some may contradict each other a bit. How far you want to take them is up to you.

Now, what more can you do with your computer to reduce the wear and tear on the environment?

Sometimes it can feel like you are carrying a piano on your back. Pressure can really weigh you down.

Too much pressure can make a lot of us angry, feed up or sad. Or simply, over time, knock you out cold with a burnout.

Now I don’t how your mind works but personally I perform better without a lot of pressure. It’s easier to focus on your task and not second-guess or hold yourself back when you feel light and relaxed.

Like most problems in life this one is mostly in our minds. You can actually remove some of that pressure before it gets the best of you.

Here are a few of the things you can do to accomplish that.

1. Don’t listen too much to others.

Or worry about what they might think. Or getting their validation.

If you use too much time and energy to focus on these three things you may be heading down a pretty harmful road. And the thing is, most people aren’t thinking about you, what you do and your problems as much as you may fear anyway.

They are busy with being focused on their own life and challenges.

An important part of this is to not to see yourself through the eyes of others. Doing that can build a self-image and expectations that become very hard to live up to.

It can make you end up filled up with negative feelings and that won’t help anyone. And, as I said above, you don’t really know what people think about you anyway. Your worries about what people may think about you are probably mostly in your head.

What they may actually think about you shouldn’t take too seriously anyway since it’s just their opinion.

And such things are often more about the guy/gal with the opinion rather than the person/thing they have an opinion about.

2. Forget about perfectionism.

Perfectionism is pretty pointless. It’s just you putting unnecessary pressure on yourself and thereby reducing your ability to do excellent work.

Take a look at the next point to find a better replacement for perfectionism.

3. Focus on the process, not on the outcome.

Detaching from the possible outcomes and just keeping your focus on the work you are doing makes it easier to both live and live up to your potential by reducing many of your inner, mental obstacles such as performance anxiety and other worries.

4. Be OK with mistakes and failure.

This one ties in to the two previous tips. If you allow yourself to redefine mistakes you’ll be less prone to get yourself stuck in perfectionism.

And the world won’t collapse if you make mistakes or fail.

The morning of the day when you learned to ride a bike you fell off it time and time again. But you just brushed yourself off, perhaps cried for a minute or two and then you got up on the bike again.

And towards the afternoon, or the next day, you probably started to become pretty good at riding your bike. The same applies here.

You have work on your skills to sharpen them. See failure or rejection not as something incredible negative that might end your life if it strikes.

Redefine it in your mind to lessen the negative emotional impact and the fear. See failure simply as feedback on what you need to improve on.

Listen to the advice that failure gives you and you will improve.

5. Just do it!

If you often get stuck in procrastination and get little done the pressure can start to build up.

“Just doing it” is a great way to get out of an overthinking or procrastinating state and just get going with what you want to do.

But that’s not always so easy. Then everybody would be doing it.

So, what’s the problem?

I think two important factors are that you may get too wrapped up and too closely identified with your thoughts and emotions. But you aren’t them, you are the observer of them.

So you don’t have to obey what your thoughts or what your inner emotional resistance may say. You can get going anyway.

6. Cut down on busywork and unimportant stuff.

Feeling like you just have too much to do and too little time for the most important things?

Then you probably need to do some decluttering in your life. Eliminate some of the less important stuff.

To prioritize and find what’s really important to spend most of your time on, both at work/in school and life in general you can use the 80/20 rule.

To not get stuck in that unimportant busywork ask yourself: “Is this, what I’m doing right now, useful?” a few times throughout your day.

To remember to actually ask yourself this, consider writing it down on a piece of paper and put that paper where you can’t avoid seeing it. Or use that question as your screensaver.

I also think it’s important to realize that you don’t really have to do everything you are doing. You always have a choice. Sometimes there will be big consequences if you choose to do or not do something.

But you always have a choice.

And if you choose to spend more of your time on the most important stuff and less – or none – on the unimportant things your life will most likely improve in any area you apply this thinking.

7. Don’t take things too seriously.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do a good job. Or that you should avoid responsibility.

But having the attitude that the sky will fall down if something goes wrong is most often inaccurate outside of your own head. And it’s not a good headspace to be in to perform or feel well.

I guess this one ties into many of the other tips but I think it’s good to emphasize how helpful a more relaxed attitude can be both for you and the people around you.

Realize you have a choice about what attitude you should adopt, just like with what you choose to do/not do. It might take some time to replace an old and ingrained habit for another. But over time you can do it

8. Take 30 belly breaths.

This is more of a temporary solution compared to the ones above. But it’s also an immediate one.

If you are feeling pressured and stressed out right now, you can use a few dozen belly breaths or so to relieve some of that for a while. Here’s what you do:

– Sit in a relaxing position with your legs apart.

– Put your hands on your stomach. Using your stomach breathe in slowly through your nose. If you are doing it right your stomach will expand and you’ll feel it with your hands.

– Breathe out slowly through your nose and do it with some force so you feel your stomach pull slightly inwards towards your spine.

– Breathe in and out 30 times. Take slow and deep breaths.- After you have taken 30 breaths and focused on counting them you should not only feel more relaxed and centered. Your body will also be able to continue breathing in this manner without you focusing on it. And that’s it. Continue with your normal day.

Trying to reach where you want to go, trying to be successful can have it’s obstacles.

Maybe you procrastinate a lot.

Maybe you have some doubts that you’ll be able to get there.

You may feel anxiety when creating something new as everything has gone well so far. You don’t want to fail and disappoint the people around you.

Like most obstacles in life these obstacles are inner, mental obstacles.

So what do you do?

One thing that has helped me to keep striving towards where I want to go is to focus on the process instead of the outcome. You just focus on what you are doing. You don’t think about the possible outcomes of what you are doing when you are doing what you do. You detach from that. You just keep your mind focused on doing the work.

You don’t think about how you may fail, disappoint yourself or have great success. You don’t think about how you may disappoint, amuse or in some other way be seen through the eyes of others. You just focus on what you do.

For instance, don’t focus on getting great reactions from your audience while writing your blogposts. Focus on writing excellent articles without thinking about what people will think about them.

Don’t focus on losing 10 pounds. Focus, for instance, on walking for 45 minutes each day or running for 30 minutes every other day. Just go and do it and don’t think about the outcome while walking/running. In time your pounds will come off.

7 powerful advantages of focusing on the process

You feel less anxiety and stage fright. As you detach from the possible outcomes – like what your audience will say about your new post or song – you can just focus on the moment and your performance.

You don’t care about outside pressure as much. Regardless if it’s real or mostly in your head. And you’ll put less pressure on yourself. As you detach from the results inner pressure and outside influences matter less. You can only focus on one thing at a time. If you focus what you are doing you’ll enjoy just doing instead of worrying about what may come up.

You are more creative. When your mind isn’t stuck in worrying about potential negative outcomes it opens up and allows you to be both more creative and open to your own, perhaps slightly odd ideas.

You procrastinate less. That has been my experience anyway. It’s often the negative feelings described above – stage fright, worry, pressure – that makes you procrastinate about important stuff. If those feelings lessen then you’ll also have less of a need to procrastinate.

Bad days don’t stop you as easily. Your focus is on the process, not on what happened yesterday or might happen today. And even if you feel bad about what happened I’ve found that the feeling isn’t as strong as when you are wrapped up in potential outcomes. This makes it easier to keep going.

Following up on a success will be easier. You’ll have less of a problem with living up to perceived expectations after having done something well. Expectations can put a bit too much pressure or doubt in your mind.

You have less fear and more freedom overall. If you are detached from the outcome you can – from what it may look like from the outside – take larger risks. You’ll have less fear of failure and rejection since those fears to a large degree are based on worrying about outcomes.

Focusing on the process doesn’t mean that you stop planning or tweaking your processes. Focus on your goals while you plan. Focus on educating yourself so you can improve and tweak your processes. And focus on what you are doing while performing the tasks that will get you where you want to go.

Focusing on the process works well in combination with a Just do it! mentality. The combination gets you out of an overthinking state and into action. It helps you get going and do the things that will give you results. Results that sitting around thinking can never give you.

Patiently building your own inner freedom

Now I’m not saying I’ve got this down perfectly, that I never worry and that I stick to focusing on the process every time I for instance write. But I’m pretty enthusiastic about this because it gives you an inner freedom to do what you want and less power to your own, inner mental obstacles.

I have found two things that make it easier to become process-focused. One is that focusing on the process instead of worrying about the outcomes is like working a mental muscle. At first it’s weak and your old worrying habit often sneaks up on you. You have to be patient just like when you are improving your discipline or anaerobic capacity.

Two is that worrying is just a habit and a pretty useless one. And the important thing is that you don’t have to keep it up just because you are used to it. It’s easy to assume that you should keep on worrying because you’ve always done it and everyone else seems to be doing it. But leaving this habit behind and instead focusing your mind on what’s important and on strengthening your new habit is a possible and more useful choice.

So, focus on the process and it becomes easier, smoother, more relaxing and more enjoyable to do your work. Focus on the process and doing what you are doing right now in an excellent way. Focus on the process to rediscover the joy you once felt when doing something but that lately has been buried in a pile of expectations and negative feeling.

Do that continually and you’ll be in a much better place to achieve the success you’d like.