Insomnia? High blood pressure? Try these!

It’s Q&A Thursday here at 10almonds, where each week we answer your questions! We also offer our usual spread of things we think will help make your health and productivity crazy simple. In today’s edition:

• 11 must-have life skills every adult needs

• Recipes for managing insomnia…

• …and blood pressure!

• What to do when your work grows while you’re doing it!

• 7 Principles of Becoming a Leader

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

11 Must-Have Life Skills Every Adult Needs

How many do you have, and how many do you want to get better at?

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For your convenience, they are:

• 01:00 Effective time management

• 01:32 Learn how to set goals

• 02:25 Budgeting

• 04:34 Negotiating effectively

• 05:03 Learn the art of public speaking

• 05:38 Network effectively

• 05:58 Make a positive first impression

• 06:20 Learn how to socialize with people

• 07:04 Make use of body language

• 07:48 Learn effective decision-making skills

• 10:25 Know how to use a first aid kit.

Are there any you’d like us to write about, by the way? Let us know! You can always hit reply to any of our emails or use the feedback widget at the bottom, and we love hearing from you!

🗣 MAIN FEATURE

Your Questions, Our Answers!

Q: Recipes for insomnia and high blood pressure and good foods to eat for these conditions?

A: Insomnia can be caused by many things, and consequently can often require a very multi-vector approach to fixing it. But, we’ll start by answering the question you asked (and probably address the rest of dealing with insomnia in another day’s edition!):

• First, you want food that’s easy to digest. Broadly speaking, this means plant-based. If not plant-based, fish (unless you have an allergy, obviously) is generally good and certainly better than white meat, which is better than red meat. In the category of dairy, it depends so much on what it is, that we’re not going to try to break it down here. If in doubt, skip it.

• You also don’t want blood sugar spikes, so it’s good to lay off the added sugar and white flour (or white flour derivatives, like white pasta), especially in your last meal of the day.

• Magnesium supports healthy sleep. A fine option would be our shchi recipe, but using collard greens rather than cabbage. Cabbage is a wonderful food, but collard greens are much higher in magnesium. Remember to add plenty of mushrooms (unless you don’t like them), as they’re typically high in magnesium too.

As for blood pressure, last month we gave tips (and a book recommendation) for heart health. The book, Dr. Monique Tello’s “Healthy Habits for Your Heart: 100 Simple, Effective Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure and Maintain Your Heart's Health”, also has recipes!

Here’s one from the “mains” section:

Secret Ingredient Baltimore-Style Salmon Patties with Not-Oily Aioli

❝This is a family favorite, and no one knows that it features puréed pumpkin! Most salmon cake recipes all for eggs and bread crumbs as binders, but puréed pumpkin and grated carrot work just as well, lend a beautiful color, and add plenty of fiber and plant nutrients. Canned salmon is way cheaper than fresh and has just as much omega-3 PUFAs and calcium. Serve this alongside a salad (the Summer Corn, Tomato, Spinach, and Basil Salad would go perfectly) for a well-rounded meal.❞

Serves 4 (1 large patty each)

Secret Ingredient Baltimore-Style Salmon Patties:

• 1 (15-oz) can pink salmon, no salt added

• ½ cup puréed pumpkin

• ½ cup grated carrot (I use a handheld box grater)

• 2 tablespoons minced chives (Don’t have chives? Minced green onions or any onions will do)

• 2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• ½ large lemon, sliced, for serving

Not-Oily Aioli:

• ½ cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt

• Juice and zest from ½ large lemon

• 1 clove garlic, crushed and minced fine

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

1. For the patties: mix all the ingredients for the salmon patties together in a medium bowl

2. Form patties with your hands and set on a plate or tray (you should have 4 burger-sized patties)

3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

4. Set patties in a skillet and brown for 4 minutes, then carefully flip.

5. Brown the other side, then serve hot.

6. For the Aioli: mix all the ingredients for the aioli together in a small bowl.

7. Plop a dollop alongside or on top of each salmon patty and serve with a spice of lemon.

Per serving: Calories: 367 | Fat: 13.6g | Saturated Fat: 4.4g | Protein: 46g | Sodium: 519mg | Carbohydrates: 13.2g | Fiber: 1.3g | Sugars: 9g | Calcium: 505mg | Iron: 1mg | Potassium 696mg

Notes from the 10almond team:

• If you want to make it plant-based, substitute cooked red lentils (no salt added) for the tinned salmon, and plant-based yogurt for the Greek yogurt

• We recommend adding more garlic. Seriously, who uses 1 clove of garlic for anything, let alone divided between four portions?

• The salads mentioned are given as recipes elsewhere in the same book. We strongly recommend getting her book, if you’re interested in heart health!

Q: Often I schedule time for things, but the task takes longer than I think, or multiplies while I’m doing it, and then my schedule gets thrown out. Any ideas?

A: A relatable struggle! Happily, there are remedies:

• Does the task really absolutely need to be finished today? If not, just continue it in scheduled timeslots until it’s completed.

• Some tasks do indeed need to be finished today (hi, writer of a daily newsletter here!), so it can be useful to have an idea of how long things really take, in advance. While new tasks can catch us unawares, recurring or similar-to-previous tasks can be estimated based on how long they took previously. For this reason, we recommend doing a time audit every now and again, to see how you really use your time.

• A great resource that you should include in your schedule is a “spare” timeslot, ideally at least one per day. Call it a “buffer” or a “backup” or whatever (in my schedule it’s labelled “discretionary”), but the basic idea is that it’s a scheduled timeslot with nothing scheduled in it, and it works as an “overflow” catch-all.

Additionally:

• You can usually cut down the time it takes you to do tasks by setting “Deep Work” rules for yourself. For example: cut out distractions, single-task, work in for example 25-minute bursts with 5-minute breaks, etc

• You can also usually cut down the time it takes you to do tasks by making sure you’re prepared for them. Not just task-specific preparation, either! A clear head on, plenty of energy, the resources you’ll need (including refreshments!) to hand, etc can make a huge difference to efficiency.

See Also: Time Optimism and the Planning Fallacy

Do you have a question you’d like to see answered here? Hit reply or use the feedback widget at the bottom; we’d love to hear from you!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

7 Principles of Becoming a Leader - by Riku Vuorenmaa

We urge you to overlook the cliché cover art (we don’t know what they were thinking, going for the headless suited torso) because…

This one could be the best investment you make in your career this year! You may be wondering what the titular 7 principles are. We won’t keep you guessing; they are:

1. Professional development: personal excellence, productivity, and time management

2. Leadership development: mindset and essential leadership skills

3. Personal development: your motivation, character, and confidence as a leader

4. Career management: plan your career, get promoted and paid well

5. Social skills & networking: work and connect with the right people

6. Business- & company-understanding: the big picture

7. Commitment: make the decision and commit to becoming a great leader

A lot of leadership books repeat the same old fluff that we’ve all read many times before... padded with a lot of lengthy personal anecdotes and generally editorializing fluff. Not so here!

While yes, this book does also cover some foundational things first, it'd be remiss not to. It also covers a whole (much deeper) range of related skills, with down-to-earth, brass tacks advice on putting them into practice.

This is the kind of book you will want to set as a recurring reminder in your phone, to re-read once a year, or whatever schedule seems sensible to you.

There aren't many books we'd put in that category!

Pick Up Your Copy of the “7 Principles of Becoming a Leader” on Amazon Today!

Wishing you a healthy and productive day as always,

The 10almonds Team