Today is going to be a great day
August is the month that I set aside for “getting productive”, but what does it REALLY mean?
Every day, I wake up feeling refreshed and tell myself, “Today is going to be a great day!” I list in my head of the day’s activities. I read email, watch training videos, walk the dogs, yoga, write a blog post, etc. However, what happens is this, I get a cup of coffee, read my email, walk the dogs, do 20 minutes of yoga, and then read my email.
Before I know it, the afternoon has approached and I am nowhere closer to being as productive as I planned to be for the day.
Accountable to only me
In my previous career as an administrative assistant, I had a set schedule and lists of tasks to complete. I had a boss or co-workers that helped me be accountable for completing my job duties.
At home, or writing, I am the only one that is keeping me accountable. Guess what? I suck at it.
As an admin, my duties varied and found that I needed to do at least two or three things at the same time. In other words, multitasking.
Multitasking and the ability to do so effectively can only be done by a very few individuals in the word. I am not one of them. Something always suffered; I didn’t return a call in time, I missed billing for a new employee and their benefits, assigned tasks were not completed on the expected due date, etc., etc. etc.
Measuring productivity is a subjective idea. The only items that must be done are the ideas and schedules that you impose upon yourself.
In this case, it’s about how I consistently struggle with my focus. How do you get back to a point in time that you were successfully task completion oriented?
Getting yourself to be accountable to yourself is an ongoing struggle. Different directions that you can take:
- Tell a friend
- Talk to your significant other/spouse
- Find a mentor
- Hire a coach
What is MY thing? That is what I am really trying to find out. There are several books I have been trying to read that all have various reasons to explain my apathy for non-production.
- In BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits, The Small Changes that Change Everything, my lack of production is because I haven’t found the right combination of motivation, ability and prompt to change my behavior.
- Brendon Burchard has a line in High Performance Habits from the chapter on increasing productivity. It states “to become more productive, become more competent. You have to master the primary skills needed to win in your primary fields of interest.
- Atomic Habits calls for creating a schedule that starts with the fun. Then you fit in the rest. One must also keep a log to find out why there is procrastination and not productivity.
There are about a million books, blogs, and magazine articles written about changing habits, being more productive and overcoming fear and procrastination. Just Google it!
Each one of these books has its merits, but all of them require one thing – ACTION. I’ll just have to keep reading for my way.
Energy
The action comes from the drive to start being productive rather than the idea of completing a project. Have you heard of kinetic energy? Simply stated, it is energy in motion. I like to think of it as once action has begins it can continue. Many times I have felt overwhelmed and not known what to do. When I feel this way, I close my eyes, take and a couple of deep breaths and become mindful of what I need and am able to do right now. (Read my other post on Mindfulness here).
What will you do to take action and be more productive? Comment below and let’s find new ideas for changing our world around us.