The problem with “conventional advice” that works for 80% of all people is that there’s still 20% out there that it doesn’t work for…
If you read any self-improvement or business success blogs online, you’ve probably read a ton of articles on “how to be more productive.” If so, you’ve probably noticed something: they all basically same the same thing!
Not surprising since:
- The basic productivity principles are the same
- Those writers read all the same books and blogs, so they all have the same info.
You know the tips: set goals, shut off distractions, focus on your most important stuff first, plan your day, visualize, set goals, etc. Heck, I’m sure I’ve written posts on some of these topics.
The standard advice is great and works for most, but what if you have read it all, tried it all, but could never get it to work for you?
This is the boat I was in. I knew a ton of “productivity techniques,” but found it difficult to supercharge my productivity.
If you’ve read all those tips too and find that you are having trouble implementing them or that they don’t work for you, try the five tips below as a different way of approaching your day and life.
Everyone is different. This isn’t meant to be a “universal list.” It’s just a new way of trying things for people who the traditional productivity tips don’t work.
1) Work on Stuff that “Has to be Done,” Last
If you ever use a “to-do” list, you probably make a note of everything that “has to be done today.” These are usually things that are on a deadline or due that day.
What most of us do is work on those tasks first. They have to be done, so we may as well get them done early. That way, if other things come up during the day, we’ll at least have finished those.
Makes sense but if you’re at all like me then, once you finish those, “must be done today’ tasks, you have a tendency to slack off a bit. Your brain says, “Hey, you had a productive day already! Sure, you could so more, but don’t kill yourself. You accomplished what you needed to!”
I know, I know, that sounds incredibly lazy, right? I’m not defending it, I’m just telling it like it is. And I bet that happens to a lot of people reading this blog too.
Instead of tackling your “must get done today” tasks first thing, schedule them for later in the day. Since they have to get done, you’ll make sure you do them no matter what happens. As long as you’re procrastinating those tasks in order to work on other, less time sensitive stuff (as opposed to surfing the net or gabbing on the phone), you’ll get more done by the end of the day.
Three notes:
- This method may increase your stress. One reason people like to get the “musts” done early is it relaxes them. In this case, we are going to use that stress in our favor.
- Make sure your “musts” are truly musts. This usually means that there is an external accountability. If your “musts” don’t actually have to be done today (i.e. it’s just an internal goal that you set for yourself) then, when things get busy, it will be real easy to just push them off for a day. No, your “musts” must truly be “musts.” Something that if you don’t get done today you are royally screwed.
- Plan accordingly. The point of this method is not to get you fired. Even if you do your “musts” last, make sure you budget enough time to get it done (and factor in delays). You may not want to do this with the biggest stuff in your life…
2) Increase Your Commitments
Most of us have a list of stuff we’ll do “someday, when I’m not so busy.” Bah! Someday may never come. And interestingly, you might find that the more you take on, the more you get done…
Let me ask you a question: do you get more done on “free days” when you don’t have much going on, or on “crazy days,” when you have a ton of commitments, things to do, and places to go?
I always get more done on the packed days. When I have a lot to do in a little time I tend to focus, buckle down, and get stuff done. On free days I procrastinate, work without a sense of urgency, and find writer’s block appearing more often than not.
Most productivity guides will tell you to reduce your commitments down to the essentials to make room for the important stuff. I agree with that; you shouldn’t take on activities or commitments that drain you or are a waste of time. However, even though you may feel very busy now, adding a few activities that you enjoy may force you to be more productive in your “work time.”
It’s a weird concept, but stretching yourself just a bit thinner may the key to getting more done.
3) Throw Away Your Goals
I may lose my “motivational speaker” card for writing that line…
Just about every book on personal development, business success, and “living your dreams,” talks about the importance of goal setting.
They even espouse such B.S as, “Having goals is so powerful that if you write them down and don’t even look at them again you will find, at the end of a year, that you have achieved most of the things on your list,” and “A Yale study tracking the graduating class of 1953 found that the 3% graduates who set goals upon graduating, had, twenty years later, accumulated more wealth than the other 97% – combined!”
(I know the first is B.S. because it hasn’t worked for me, or anyone I know. I know the second is B.S. because I like to research stuff and discovered that the study was a myth…)
I still like goals, but that’s probably because I spent the last 15 years of my life buying into the goal setting mythos. I think they’re useful, but not “all powerful.”
I’m not saying you should abandon your goals. However, if you have had the same goals for years, and year after year you keep “refocusing” on that goal, saying things like, “This year I’ll make it happen!” then let me suggest a new strategy: throw them all away and go “goalless” for a while
“But Avish, how will I get somewhere if I don’t know where I want to go?!?!”
You’ll get somewhere. Trust me. And you may get somewhere far better than your original “goal.” Besides, if you’ve had the same goals for years, they weren’t helping you get anywhere either, right?
Try it. Let go of the goals for a while, and just be. Focus on what jazzes you now, on what makes sense right now. Don’t abandon thinking about the future, but don’t obsess over your goals either.
4) Stop Planning, Start Flowing
Most productivity guides stress the importance of planning out your day; making a list of tasks and to-dos, and potentially scheduling them.
Nothing wrong with that, if it works for you. For me, I find that the best laid plans I make at 7:00AM are often abandoned by 8:00AM (whether through an external interruption or my own deviance from the plan).
It took me a while to realize that I don’t like to be locked into a rigid anything. Planning my days was leading me to either:
- Stop work as soon as I finished the key parts of my plan (see technique #1)
- Feel overwhelmed and annoyed at what I had to do. This led to procrastination.
This one goes hand-in-hand with “throwing away your goals,” because if you don’t have a fixed goal like, “I will finish writing my book by the end of this month,” you don’t have to rigidly plan out your daily activities.
Here’s what I have been doing instead, and it has been great:
- I do start with a brain dump (on paper) of everything I could do that day.
- Then I make a sub-list of everything that has to be done that day because of external accountabilities. This list is usually very small for me.
- Then I get to work. Depending on my mood and the specific tasks, I work on the “musts” whenever it feels best – first thing, last thing, or right after lunch. Since I only put the true “musts” on this list, there are only ever one or two. That makes it easy to make sure they get done.
- When I’m not doing the “musts,” I work on whatever the hell other item I feel most compelled to work on that day.
If you’ve never worked this way before, you might be screaming, “That’s crazy! You’ll never accomplish anything that way!!”
On the contrary, you just may accomplish more than you ever have before.
My theory, and what has been working for me, is that it is better to progress something than nothing. When I try to plan my do too much, I get overwhelmed and shut down. Those are my heavy procrastination days. When I don’t plan (or minimally plan), some projects don’t move forward at all. But some do, and that’s better than none.
Admittedly, this tactic will be a lot easier for small business owners and solopreneurs to implement. If you’re working for someone else than you probably have a lot more external accountability.
However, the more you can work via flow and inspiration, the less struggle you’ll feel in getting things done.
5) Stop Trying to be Productive Every Day
Yup, you read that right. Stop trying to be productive every day.
For me, this step has made the biggest impact on my productivity.
I have spent years – years – trying to build habits, discipline, systems, etc. that would allow me to wake up and be extremely productive, every single day.
Then I listened to a brief audio interview with Dan Sullivan, the Strategic Coach. He was talking about how entrepreneurs can maximize their productivity by thinking of their schedules the same way that athletes do. They have a few “game days” when they have to perform at a high level, a bunch of “buffer days” when they practice and train, and then quite a few “free days,” when they don’t work at all and just recover and rejuvenate themselves.
This was an amazing revelation for me. I like variety in my life. The thought of spending every day in the same way depressed the hell out of me.
But when I thought about spending two or three days a week being very focused and a couple of days a week just working my normal way, it felt incredibly motivating.
I’ve modified the system a little bit myself to have three types of days:
Focused Creative Days – These are the days where I shut the internet off and do my highest value activities (for me, if I’m not speaking, that means writing).
- Buffer Days – On these days I work on lower value stuff (admin, editing, formatting, etc). I also work on some of the high value stuff, but I give myself permission to not be “super-productive.” If I want to surf and procrastinate a bit, I do, and I don’t feel guilty about it (this was an amazing relief for me, and removing that pressure really helped me let my creativity flow).
- Free Days – These days are exactly what they sound like – completely free where I do no work at all.
It has been pretty amazing. Knowing I only have two or three massive productivity days in a week has:
- Made those days incredibly productive because I know I only have to do it for one day (and not forever…)
- Made my average “non-focused” workdays better, as I work to get things done to allow me to spend a full day just on important stuff
If you have found that you bounce between some really productive days and some “blah” days, then this technique may work really well for you.
In Conclusion
If traditional time management and productivity tips have worked for you, great! Keep doing what you’re doing.
If not, and you’re ready to try something different, give the five tips above a try. You may be surprised at how an unconventional approach can net you some very powerful results.
Do you want help creating your own personal plan of awesome productivity? Then sign up for some Smart Ass Mentoring now!
