Increase your Productivity with One Simple Question
What does it mean to YOU to be productive? I’ve been asking this in my target market research and getting a different answer every time I ask. For some people, it is checking off all their “to-do” list items, others it is reaching a financial goal, and for some it means making the most of each hour of the day.
The importance of productivity is unique to each person. To begin to increase your productivity, ask yourself this: why do I want to be productive? If you want to be productive in your business to achieve financial success for instance, perhaps your why is financial freedom. If you long for productivity in the home, maybe your why is to feel organized. The idea is that you get clear on your desired feeling. In these examples: the desired feeling behind financial freedom might be feeling “free” and organized might be “calm”. The feelings desired are individual to each person, it is important to know what feelings you long for because that is really your objective.
Once you are clear on your why, re-visit it often. Much of what gets in the way of productivity are things like; distractions, procrastination and competing priorities. When you have your why at the forefront, you can quickly get yourself back on track by remembering your desired future state or desired feeling.
Here are some examples of this strategy at play:
One client has a post it on her computer with her monthly revenue goal and the word “free”. Each time she gets pulled away by emails, phone calls or colleague requests, she looks at the post it and it helps her to remember to focus on the revenue generating tasks first.
A coach friend of mine puts her body first before her business because she wants to feel “alive”. This helps her bring the best of herself when she serves her clients. She has accountability partners that she texts after her workout is done first thing in the morning (before other distractions pull her away). She is more likely to work out knowing she needs to report back to her accountability parters (try it, you’ll notice a difference in your behavior).
A podcaster wants to be productive in his business because that will help him reach a broader audience and impact more lives to feel “influential”. He blocks his calendar every Friday to only work on podcast activities. Nothing else can get on his calendar that day. He’s dedicated sacred time to be productive because he knows that is the only way he’ll expand his reach, feel influential and leave a legacy.
What about you. What is your why? More importantly, now that you know your why—how can you use that information to change your behaviors to be more productive?
