This year, don’t be a productivity junkie that lacks results
The aim isn’t just to ticks things off your list, it’s to get closer to your dreams
You wake up in the morning with high spirits. You didn’t have to snooze the alarm, and you did your exercise and had breakfast right on time. You get busy with work and tick things off your list steadily. At the end of the day, you take a shower and slump on your bed, exhausted.
You’ve had such a productive day.
But do you have somewhere you are headed with all this?
When we think of the word productivity, being able to deliver a higher amount of output with limited available resources. But remember that we are not machines, so we can’t just sit in one position all day and transform input to output continuously. Our lives have to have some form of meaning. So if you decide to sit at your table all day and churn out work, there should be a reason for it. And I’m here to tell you practical steps you can take to make sure that you’re not just being busy all day for nothing.
Simply put, you should have some result that you want to get from all the work you’re putting in. Students study hard so that they can get better grades and ultimately expand their knowledge. Athletes train for months on end because of an upcoming event and to ultimately stay fit. You need to have a ‘why’ for your productive habits. And if you don’t already have one, here is how to form one.
1. Know what your dreams are.
I’m sure the first thing you would have expected to see here is “set clear goals”. But nope, that’s not the first step. It is usually your dreams that inform the goals you want to achieve. Knowing what your goals are goes beyond just knowing the exact thing you want to achieve.
It’s about being in tune with where you are, in line with your ultimate purpose in life. Goals are rigid and rigidity usually makes activities feel more difficult than they actually are. Dreams on the other hand make you feel less like a robot when working and more life a free spirited person pursuing their goals and enjoying the process along the way.
2. Stop doing the small things first.
Every single day, you need to remember that the human brain is naturally wired to opt for an easier task among two or more alternatives. So, that means you have to make conscious effort all the time to do the more difficult task first before other easier tasks. This is the concept of “eating the biggest frog” every morning, as Brian Tracy put it in his bestselling book Eat that Frog. Doing the harder tasks first help us to reduce that mental load, so we will eventually be more willing to do those smaller tasks when we are done with the bigger ones.
See it this way: if you start off your day reading emails and sending out less important correspondences, you will be more likely to procrastinate the start of that eBook you need to write. However, if you start the day with writing that eBook, by the time you have gotten to a substantial point in that job, you will feel like you have accomplished more for the day. You will still have reserve energy left to read those emails. So, always start with the bigger and harder task.
3. Don’t just create schedules, create reviews.
There is a lot of content on the internet today that can easily show you how to create to-do lists, monthly and yearly goals, strategies, et cetera. Most of them don’t bother to show you how to measure your progress against set goals. And NO, measuring your progress doesn’t mean the number of ticks you have on your to-do. Those ticks could be for minor activities such as going to the grocery store or a random activity that may not add much to your most important goals, such as growing your business or getting fit.
Personally I have a review sheet that I use to check my progress towards my goals every week. On this list, I have the major areas of my life for which I have set goals (like career, my business, health, etc.) and I check how many of the goal-getting activities I actually performed during the week. So, if I was supposed to do strength training five times a week and I only did it 3 times, that 3/5 or 60%. In order to make progress, I would ensure that from the next week, I would have the same score or higher for my strength training. I use this technique for all my other goals.
4. Stop overthinking the whole productivity thing
I once read a post on Instagram from a productivity guru who said “the reason a lot of us are crippled from being productive is because we think too much about the work we have to do before we even start”. I know I am guilty of this, and I am actively trying to stop this every day.
Think of basic tasks like brushing your teeth or even getting up in the morning. You don’t over think it, right? You just do it. Well, the same rule has to be applied to sustain productive habits in the long-run. Our minds have a way of making things seem bigger or harder than they actually are when we think too much without acting. That’s usually what prompts the feeling of fear
The solution? Just don’t overthink stuff. Need to meditate in the morning, then just do it. Need to eat healthy, just do it. Don’t start wondering if you will enjoy it or if it’s truly worth it. And please, this is not a call to be spontaneous often. Do have a plan every day and work with it.
And every day you wake up, just look at your to-do sheet and get to work. No extra thoughts or worries. Because, really, who has that ever helped?
5. You’re not a robot, and that is fine
When all is said and done, we are still human. And human beings are not created to be busy with work all day. You need to rest, take time out for less strenuous activities, and allow yourself to recover from all the stress once in a while. A common saying among we Nigerians to avoid burnout is “body no be firewood”. This means that we are not stiff objects made to just stay in one place for one specific job only. Your work is not your life.
Remember, the reason you need to be more productive is to get more work done in less time, so that you can have more time to do the things you love to do. So once you need a break, take it. Once you achieve a major accomplishment, go for a vacation if you have to. Travel, be free, be lazy once in a while (but not for too long), and just be free with yourself.
Work isn’t supposed to tie you down in one position and make you feel like a robot. It is your life, so take charge of it, enjoy your work, and leave out more time to actually live. The way you are supposed to.
Thanks for reading!
