Productivity is choice….CONTINUE READING
At its core, productivity is decision-making with a high success rate. The most productive people I’ve seen are not the most intelligent or the most talented folk in the room, they’re the ones that make the best choices.
Over the last 3 years, I’ve managed to crank out over 1 million words and in that time, I’ve witnessed some highly productive people fly. Here are the 5 things highly productive people don’t do.
All tasks are not created equally.
Some tasks need the brain to be all-in, and others require very little but take up a tonne of time. Segmenting tasks is important for productivity. Here’s how to think about tasks:
The aim is to optimise for type 1 and outsource or automate tasks 2. If your energy is high in the morning, it makes little sense to do repetitive tasks like scheduling your calendar or sorting through your emails.
There are two ingredients to success: time and work. Even if you are optimising for both (productivity) it’ll still take you a good while to get to where you want to be. It’s why shifting your focus to enjoyment is important.
In most cases, success is slow and steady:
The trick is to enjoy the craft so much that success comes as a byproduct. I made this mistake for years. I’d decided on Tuesday that I was going to be a millionaire by Friday. I’d worked hard for 2 days, it didn’t work (obviously) and so I gave up.
Over recent years I’ve made a shift, here are some ideas that have helped me:
Having fun in the doing is a big part of how you optimise productivity.
Instead of trying to become the next billionaire, just try and enjoy the day, it’s much more achievable.
If there’s one thing that kills productivity quicker than anything else it’s expectations. The notion that it’ll be easy is a recipe for disaster. Because when you sit down to do the work and find that actually, it’s quite difficult, you’ll get stuck.
Here’s what I know about being productive:
But here’s the thing. If you’re feeling any of those things, you are in the right place. The trick is training yourself to carry on when you feel like that.
But all of us feel a lack of inspiration. A trick that has helped me on difficult days is saying to myself that this is why many people give up. This feeling that hits every seven days or so, is when most throw in the towel. I’ll win if I just sit here and type something.
Gamification gets big attention in the startup world and for good reason.
Games work because they are fun and motivate people to keep playing. How do you do that? Well, you balance risk and reward, you add levels, you add an enemy, and you make it multi-player.
You can do all that with your work. It’s what I’ve been doing for the last 3 years. Turn your tasks into a game and it will change your productivity. Here’s how I do it:
It’s great to optimise for productivity but if you’re running fast in the wrong direction all you’re doing is getting to a place you don’t want to be quicker.
You don’t want to do that.
If you’re forcing yourself to be productive, it might be a sign that you’re working on the wrong stuff. I did that for years. I was forcing myself to start a dropshipping store or an e-commerce brand because I thought that’s how you got rich (I know cringe).
It wasn’t until I found writing that I realised that just doing something you liked to do made you infinitely more productive. It’s weird. But picking the right game really matters.
Understand the types of tasks
Develop your mindset
Enjoy the things you’re doing
Gamify….CONTINUE READING