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Productivity
One of my goals for 2021 is to be more productive. I’ve always considered myself to be a rather diligent and productive person, but after much self-reflection I’ve realized that there is some room for improvement. One strategy that I am specifically focusing on is scheduling. This might seem obvious, but my real goal is not necessarily to just be more productive, but also to be able to live more in the moment when I am not being productive and have my mind clear. One of my biggest struggles is having my to-do list heavily occupy my mind during non-productive times, like dinner with friends. So the goal is to be able to better compartmentalize my productivity so I can live more freely during designated non-productive times.
As I mentioned above one of my main strategies to accomplish this is going to be through scheduling. I think actually scheduling times to be productive and putting them in my calendar will be a huge step to accomplishing this. Currently I plan to do things on or before certain days, but I never put anything in my calendar about them, these plans just exist in my head. My thought is that by actually putting time to complete these larger tasks in my calendar it will free my brain of thinking of that task during other times because I know I have a designated time for the task to be completed.
One of my other goals for this year is to read more and the book I am reading right now is Deep Work by Cal Newport. It is a great book, and I recommend it to all of you. But one thing he talks about is having a “shut down ritual.” This is something that is done whenever you are done being productive that signals to your brain that it is ok to stop focusing and move on. An example of this would be checking your to-do list one more time to make sure that everything is good, and then audibly saying “Ok, I’m shutting down.” This ritual can really be anything you decide, but the purpose is that over time your brain will learn to trust that ritual and stop worrying or trying to focus on anything you were working on as you move on with your day.
So that is my challenge for you this week: schedule time to be productive. At the end of the day my goal for this challenge is not necessarily to be more productive, but rather to be able to enjoy non-productive time more because hopefully your brain will not be thinking about the tasks you still have to do and you can live a little more in the moment.
Stay Motivated,
-Dan
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