'Shark Tank's' Daymond John: This mental exercise will make you more focused and successful
Everyone has felt tired, swamped or burned out at work.
Even Daymond John, investor on ABC's "Shark Tank" and founder of Fubu, sometimes feels overwhelmed.
"It got to the point where I have all of these 'Shark Tank' companies, I have a 2-year-old, I have the Fubu business, I have a life. What am I going to do?" John tells CNBC's Jim Cramer on "Mad Money."
To find out how to make the best use of his time, he sought out expert opinions on productivity.
"I started to reach out to people ... to say, 'how do I maximize my day?'" he explains. "We keep hearing about hard work, hard work, hard work, but that's like [saying], 'You want to be a basketball player like Michael Jordan? Go and practice.'
"That's great, but I want to know: What is his method of operation? What does he do every single minute to make himself stronger, jump higher?"
The question was so important, he wrote a book on the topic, "Rise and Grind: Outperform, Outwork, and Outhustle Your Way to a More Successful and Rewarding Life." John interviewed people like actress Catherine Zeta Jones and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk to learn how they structure their days.
He found one habit in particular has a serious effect on efficiency: Taking time to do nothing but think.
"I never realized that we all need a little bit of time for ourselves each and every single day because we never get to talk to ourselves, we're so busy putting out fires," John tells CNBC Make It.
"You wake up, you have a bunch of emails, texts, Instagrams, whatever to look at. Then you go to the office, or to work ... you come home, you're with the family or with the crew and hanging out," he says. "You never have time for yourself."
But during his research, John discovered that successful people make an effort to pause and reflect. For example, John writes in "Rise and Grind" that musician Tyler Okonma, known as Tyler The Creator, does just that.
"Once when I called him, he'd just gone to sit in a tree for a couple of hours — just you know, to think," John writes in the book. "He creates space for himself throughout the day, either [playing music] at his keyboard or up in a tree, for inspiration to find him."
The key is focusing on yourself and your goals.
"When you're out there answering everybody else, and doing everything everybody else wants, you're on defense. You're never on offense," John explains.
Instead, make sure you find the time to ask yourself, "Why am I getting up today?" John says. "What is the end purpose of today? What did I do today that I need to do better tomorrow? What did I not get to today?
For John, "The way that you use the 24 hours in the day for the best is to find out what you want the most out of that day." Then work hard and accomplish it.
—Video by Beatriz Bajuelos Castillo
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Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank."