Productivity Tips I Learned from Seth Godin

 On this blog I have talked about some of the well known experts in productivity. I caught a recent interview with Seth Godin on Marie Forleo TV and I was inspired to share it with you. Seth isn’t in the productivity biz per se, but he’s one of the most prolific writers and business developers out there. He’s written 18 bestselling books, built and sold businesses and has some of the best advice. Here are some of the top tips from his talk with Marie:

Be geared to ship

I’m a perfectionist – I can’t help it! I don’t like to put out anything that I’m not 100% happy with. I’m getting better but it’s still an issue.

The problem with that, as Seth points out, is that the focus is on making it perfect instead of just getting it out there. Seth writes a blog entry every single day, they won’t all be great, but everyday he’s putting his thoughts and ideas out there.

When you do that you can’t worry about making it perfect, you just have to go for it. Being a perfectionist can go hand in hand with overthinking or overstretching an idea. If there’s something you want to do, stop worrying about it and just get started!

Avoid time wasters

Seth likes to stay focused on the here and now. To do this he avoids meetings, emails, he doesn’t have Twitter and he doesn’t watch TV.

So what exactly does he do? Seth likes to use his time to do activities he feels are productive. It’s not about trying to cram as much into your day as possible, but trying to stay in a productive frame of mind. I do this too I suppose, like when I listen to audiobooks on my commute. I don’t know if I could ever stop watching TV though!

Push the buzzer

In his talk with Marie, Seth speaks about a blog post he once wrote about quiz teams. He explained that in a situation when everyone knows the answer, the only way to win is to press the buzzer before everyone else.

This means that sometimes you have to push the button before you even know the answer. It seems counter productive and most people are too afraid or too shy to do that, but pressing that buzzer can give you the motivation you need to think of the answer.

A little pressure can be good for us. I think it’s a good message, if you spend too much time waiting until you are ready you could end up missing your chance.