Why You’re Not More Productive and How to Fix it
Here’s something that might surprise you — all this productivity stuff doesn’t always come so easily to me. I’ve shared this at several of the signings for my book Listful Thinking and people have really been shocked.
The truth is I’m actually a big procrastinator.
I know that working in television under really strict deadlines, with serious time constraints has helped to pull me out of my procrastinator ways. The same rules for productivity applies for many businesses too, as well as personal goals.
I use systems all the time like list making, rewarding myself and making fake deadlines to get more accomplished.
That’s how this blog got started but I want you all to know that I work at it every single day.
Yes I do have an advantage because I like to organize shirts by color and write my to-do list on beautiful stationery. But I have to work at maintaining my lists, keeping my schedule in check and being more efficient with my free time.
I think it’s important to share our productivity struggles as well as our successes. Too often when I speak with people who are struggling they feel like they are the only one.
If this rings true with you — remember you’re not alone!
In fact, the more people I talk to, the more I realize how similar our stories are.
The same phrases always seem to come up:
“I’m too busy.”
“I don’t have time.”
“It’s too difficult.”
I’m Grateful for You…
It’s been just about four years since I started writing this blog. My goal has been to help you become more productive and learn to use lists to get more out of your lives. It may sound a bit simple, but when you write to tell me how much this blog or my book, Listful Thinking, helps you personally — I value it so much.
I’ve written about keeping a gratitude journal in the past. It’s something I really believe in. The act of writing a list of all that I’m thankful for can boost my mood and make me happier. So I’m taking this opportunity to let you all know that you’ve been on my gratitude list for quite some time. Thank you to the regular readers of this blog for all the help and support you’ve given me over the years.
Below are a few of the delightful messages I’ve received recently:
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Track Your Time Challenge
Are you wasting precious minutes of your day without even realizing it? Many complain there aren’t enough hours in a day to get things done but it turns out you could be the problem. Gasp! I know!
The issue may not be the amount of time you have but how you’re utilizing it. Staying focused is really important in order to have a productive day.
Distractions are what keep us from reaching our daily goals. Hey- we’re in a society of instant gratification. Just today I had a few spare seconds and I was instantly checking Twitter mindlessly without really even noticing.
I want to challenge you this week to track down where all your spare minutes go. Here’s a few ideas of how to track that “busy” time:
- Moment is an app that will track how much you use your iPhone or iPad throughout the day. You can set daily limits and receive notifications once you go over the allotted time.
- iDoneThis is another great tool to keep track of your day. The app will email you at the end of the day to ask “What did you get done today?” Stop, reflect, and write about your day just by hitting “reply.” This also works well if you are managing a group. The next morning, you’ll receive an overview that shows everyone’s accomplishments from yesterday to kick off your day.
- Rescue Time A web-based service that tracks how much time you spend on tasks. You can also set limits on how long you check emails or update Facebook.
- Daily Journal – Write down every single thing you do for an entire day. This is similar to a food journal where you write out every meal, snack and drink you consume. With a time tracking journal you write out where all your minutes go. You could also do this in an Excel sheet or in Evernote. Be honest! This is not a judging contest – it’s a way to get to know your habits better so you can improve your focus.
- Toggl I just learned about this one at a conference where I was a guest speaker. It’s a digital way to track all your time. It makes it easy to capture everything on the go so you don’t forget.
Now that you know what to do – go track those minutes. I want to hear where you are wasting most of your time – it may surprise you! Please leave a comment below, a Facebook message or tweet me @Listproducer. Good luck!