Most people find it almost impossible to stay at their desks all day and be productive, and there are a couple of reasons why. For one, your brain is wired to need some type of distraction after periods of intense focus–a break from the activity. Another reason you may get off task is because of the way your subconscious has programmed your mindset. This old programming is set to keep you comfortable–to keep you exactly where you have always been–and it boycotts you from making any advances in your life or your career. If you want to be more productive than you typically are, and you want to take your business, your personal life to a totally different level, you have to change some habits. And when you do that, it will increase your ability to be productive because if you want to do more, if you’re going to be more successful, you have to make changes to the way you operate. You have to program your brain and your mindset for productivity.
Productivity Defined
So, what exactly do I mean when I use the word productivity? I define productivity as what your output is in a particular amount of time. Sitting at your desk does not make you productive. You are productive when you have your to-do list, your action items, and you start going through them and crossing them off the list, one by one–then you are productive. Simply sitting in the office or at that desk is not being productive–accomplishing tasks is when you reach productivity.
Get Unplugged
To really create a productive work environment, you have to get somewhat unplugged. You do not literally have to turn everything off, but you MUST turn off all notifications that come through your phone or computer. This is of such importance because those rings, dings, and pop-ups serve to distract you from the task at hand. When you become distracted, it takes the typical person 20 minutes to get back to highly focused work. Those 20 minutes that you lost in distraction could have been spent later on something useful, like a walk to rest your brain. All emails and social media need a set time to be checked.
You can either allow notifications to dictate your time and take you off task, or you can have a plan for when to address them and take control of your productivity.
Set Your Timer
If you want to become uber-productive, you must control your time and schedule everything. When you sit down to accomplish a task, give yourself a particular amount of time to work and stay within that time frame. If the job needs two hours, then set a timer to go off every 30 minutes and take a 5 to 10-minute brain break away from the task. During this time, you can get up and walk around, make a phone call, check the email and social media notifications that came through, have coffee–do whatever you need to do away from the task–then come right back to it.
To take charge of your clock and your calendar, make sure you schedule everything you can schedule–workouts, time-off–everything possible. This helps your brain prepare for the workload and gives you the motivation needed to complete intense tasks. If you want to know more about scheduling time, I have a video dedicated to this step alone; check it out.
Own Your Mindset
Productivity is a mindset; it takes inner work, and this intentionality to mindset is critical to your success–it has to take place every single day. One way to accomplish this is to listen to mindset training or podcasts on mindfulness. You can do this when you are getting ready, driving to work, walking, or exercising–make it part of your day. By becoming disciplined to your inner mindset, you continue to move forward and remind yourself that to be super productive, there has to be an alignment of your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Happiness is what makes you the most productive because when you’re happy, work seems to fly right off the desk–it appears easy–and you begin to enjoy that feeling of accomplishment.
At the Growth Architect, we want to help you find strategies that will help you focus to increase your productivity and multiply your results. That’s what we do! If you enjoyed this article, watch my video, Simple Ways to Crack the Productivity Code — let’s grow!
Let’s grow!
Beate
Beate Chelette is The Growth Architect & Founder of The Women’s Code, a training company specialized in providing companies an ROI on Balanced Leadership. She has been named one of 50 must-follow women entrepreneurs by the Huffington Post. A first-generation immigrant who found herself $135,000 in debt as a single parent, she bootstrapped her passion for photography into a highly successful global business and eventually sold it to Bill Gates in a multimillion-dollar deal.
Beate works with business leaders and supports organizations by developing and providing training the training, tools, and expertise to create and maintain a balanced, equal, and inclusive work environment that fosters creativity, employee engagement, and corporate growth.
Recent clients include Merck, Women’s Legislative Caucus of California, Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), NFTE, CreativeLive, the Association of Corporate Growth, and TracyLocke.
Beate is the author of the #1 International Amazon Bestseller “Happy Woman Happy World – How to Go From Overwhelmed to Awesome” a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author Brian Tracy calls “a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.
To book Beate to speak or train please connect here. Your Time Is Valuable!