☝🏽 The ONE Thing You Need To Be More Productive
Today we're going to talk about the only thing that you need to do to be more productive.
So many people have so much stress and frustration and guilt around this idea that they're not productive enough.
And they think the solution is a better time management system or more discipline, or maybe just deleting some of the apps off of their phone.
You don't need to do any of those things. I'm going to tell you the one and only thing that you need to do to be more productive.
And I guarantee it's something that you're not doing right now and it's probably not even occurred to you to do.
Here's it is:
Every day, all day long, you need to give yourself credit for the things that you are already doing.
You need to go in and CELEBRATE every little thing that you are getting done.
Let me give you an example of what this could look like. This is literally what I do every day.
Every time I cross something off my list, I take a few seconds, and I ask myself, “How unhappy would I be if I hadn't gotten this thing done? Okay. Now I'm going to be equally happy that I DID get it done.”
So if you respond to some emails, you can think about, “What if I didn't respond? What if this became like those emails that are languishing at the bottom of my inbox and I'm feeling guilty and bad about it? I avoided that whole situation. I responded to them right away. Awesome!”
Or this morning, I was folding laundry, and I was super grumpy. I was thinking, “I'm wasting time. I should be doing work. This is taking so long.” Not helpful.
So I asked myself, “How would I feel if this didn't get done? If I came to bed tonight and there was crumpled laundry everywhere and things weren't put away neatly? I’d be saying, ‘Why am I not on top of things?’ And that's the situation I'm avoiding. This is literally me being on top of it right now.”
And there are two reasons that we have to do this consciously and deliberately.
First, your brain has constructed a definition of what “real work” is — what kind of work counts towards your daily productivity quota and what doesn't.
And I'll bet that definition is really, really narrow. For a lot of people. It's only stuff that relates to your job and often only things that you do in long stretches of time.
So you're not counting all the OTHER things you're getting done. In your personal life, and also just those quick flashes of insight that you might have while you walk your dog or while you take a shower.
Your brain is always at work.
It's getting a lot of stuff done, but you don't notice it because your definition of productivity is so narrow.
Going through all day long and celebrating and noticing will help you expand your definition of what counts as real work, so you can start to realize you're already really productive.
Here’s the second reason that you have to go in and do this deliberately.
You have to actually build this into your routine, by the way. That's why I anchored it to something I do, which is cross things off my list.
The reason you have to do this deliberately is your automatic brain focuses on problems.
Once something is solved, your brain just doesn't think about it. Your automatic brain will put it in the background and it'll go to the next problem that it needs to solve.
And that's fine! Your automatic brain is just trying to be helpful to you.
But if you keep listening to it and you never question the story that it's giving you, you will have a life that's full of problems, because those are the only things that you are thinking about.
It's okay that that's what your automatic brain does.
But YOU have to deliberately go in and appreciate your progress and appreciate what you are getting done because your brain is not going to do that automatically for you.
Now, here's the number one complaint I get from clients when I tell them to do this work.
They tell me, “It feels weird. It feels fake. This doesn't feel natural to think this way.”
And let me tell you right now: That's not a problem.
Of course, it feels weird! You are not in the habit of thinking this way!
It's as if I asked you to start writing with your other hand, or if I told you, “Hey, you always take your shoes off before you come into the house. But today, I want you to walk around with your shoes on.”
It's going to feel weird because it's not what you’re used to.
Don't worry about it feeling weird. It's not a problem.
All you need to do is keep going. Give yourself 100 reps — 100 things you’ve appreciated and celebrated over the course of several days.
It's going to feel a lot more natural by the time you get to the end.
Now here's why it's so important to appreciate and celebrate every little thing that you are doing all day long.
I'm going to use the self-coaching model to break this down.
The circumstance, which is the neutral, boring fact of the situation, is what you got done. It doesn't mean anything. It’s just a fact!
And right now, you're looking at that fact and you're having the thought “I'm not productive. I didn't get enough done today.’
When you think that you feel bad. Of course you do! You probably feel inadequate or stressed or frustrated or guilty.
And when you're feeling that way, you're going to do less. Nobody wants to do work while they're feeling bad. You’ve created an emotional hole that you need to get out of in order to even do good work.
And when you do that to yourself, you make yourself unproductive.
It's not happening to you. It's something you're creating for yourself through your interpretation of the circumstance.
And so if you want to be more productive, you have to get in the habit of looking at that same circumstance and interpreting it differently. Of thinking, “I am so productive. I'm getting so much done. I'm so on top of it.”
Because when you believe that, you feel good. You feel proud and accomplished and in control.
And when you feel that way, it's so easy to get things done and do more.
And that's how you make yourself into a productive person.
So you don't need a time management system. You don't need more discipline.
The only thing that you need to do is build your belief that you are a productive person. You just need to practice – to get in the habit of – interpreting your circumstance in a different way.
And I've given you a super concrete, super tactical way that you can do that and get lots of reps in.
Because your problem is not that you're unproductive.
Your problem is that your accounting of your own productivity is not good. It's not giving you enough credit. It's not making you feel good. And it's making it hard to get stuff done.
So if you solve that problem, it's so easy to get things done and handle anything that your life is going to throw at you.
So if you want to do more of this work…
If you want to uncover more sneaky definitions and unhelpful assumptions that your brain has constructed without even telling you…
And if you want to learn how to actually change those assumptions and feel better and get different results.
Come talk to me and let’s get started.
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