Category: Being Productive

One of my employees mentioned struggling to get her work done after being asked to take on new work.

What I told her was simple: you’re being asked to take on new work because we see you as the person who can help us solve this problem in our business.

And what I suggested she do is prioritize her work tasks and continue to take on the highest level, most important tasks on that list (it’s what adds value to her position and what leads to better titles, positions, and pay) and to delegate the rest of the lower level, easier to do tasks.

What doesn’t lead to better titles, positions, and pay is overcommitting and underperforming. Burning out isn’t good for anybody—not her and not the business. And neither is spreading herself too thin day-in and day-out and pretending like everything is fine.

And if delegating isn’t an option for you in the context of your life… then consider deploying the same strategy, but automating or deleting those lowest level tasks instead.

Something has got to give.

And if it’s not some of your tasks… then it’s probably gonna be you.

One of my college aged staff members told me she felt guilty for “bumming it” during her school’s winter break.

She said she was sleeping in, lazily spending her waking hours on the couch burrito-wrapped in a warm blanket watching Disney movies and doing… well… not much else.

What I told her is guilt will ruin the purpose of break.

I explained that her pendulum has swung proportionally to the side of recovery as it was pushed to the side of exertion (during her semester)—and that it should be honored, not defiled.

During her semester she’s a high performing, “A-Type” personality who has perfectionist tendencies and demands excellence of herself from the second she wakes up until the second she goes to sleep at night.

…And this pushes the pendulum pretty hard in one direction!

By the time winter break hits, of course she shuts down and goes into recovery mode—the pendulum needs to swing proportionally in the opposite direction. For some, they burnout and it swings in that direction at the most inconvenient times. But for her, it swung in alignment with her time off anyway—and she shouldn’t ruin the recovery time by mixing in guilt.

The reminder is simple: recovery needs to be prioritized and honored as much as exertion is.

The pendulum can only be pushed in one direction so far…

Years ago I read Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be by Steven Pressfield.

Today, I was reminded that when I sit in my work chair, my mind modes to work; when I sit on my couch, my mind modes to relax and unwind; and when I sit on my home office chair, my mind modes to reading, writing, and meditating.

The premise of the above mentioned book is exactly this: create a sacred space where only one type of task or theme of tasks happens. Then, like Pavlov’s dogs, all you need to do is sit your ass in that space and your mind will mode accordingly.

…An excellent strategy if you are hours deep into a mindless couch slump and you need to get some work done. Just tell your mind you’re just going to sit in a different space and see what happens. And if you’ve done your conditioning correct, the rest will take care of itself.

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P.s. Here are 10 of my favorite quotes from Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be.

Reading books calms my mind and tires my eyes—that’s why I read at night. Scrolling through my phone stimulates my mind and wakes my eyes—that’s why I use it in the morning.

I tend to be more introverted in the morning—that’s when I do most of my class planning, writing, curriculum designing, event planning, and strategizing. I tend to be more extroverted in the afternoon and evening—that’s when I do most of my teaching, phone calling, hanging out, communicating, and interacting.

Recording notes on my phone can be done quickly, hands-free, and copy/pasted/shared seamlessly—that’s why I do it when I’m on the move or at a business conference. Recording notes on paper with a pen/pencil elicits zero distractions or stimulation—that’s why I do it when I’m meditating and am trying to clear my mind.

If I did all of these things the opposite way (i.e. read books in the morning and used my phone at night or did my extroverted tasks in the morning and introverted tasks at night) the results would NOT be the same—they would be negatively affected—even though the time allotted would be equal.

This is the power of alignment. And this is a power you should consider and seriously consider yielding to in your own life.

What’s the difference between a workout done at 6am and the same workout done at 10pm?

…Besides the time? …Nothing.

Don’t let the 6am club-ers, early-bird-gets-the-worm-ers, finish-before-the-sun-comes-up-ers make you think otherwise.

What matters isn’t what time… what matters is that (you get it in).

And if 10pm aligns better with your lifestyle, then get it in at 10pm without even an ounce of hesitation or shame.

But on the same note, what’s the difference between a workout done at 6am and a workout skipped at 10pm?

…Everything.

The point is to do things at the time that’s most aligned for you… so that you get the most (important) things done.

Take the when comparisons out of the picture.

A lot happens throughout the day.

And a lot of what happens isn’t given enough time to be fully processed, addressed, or resolved.

Taking 5-15 minutes at the end of your day to just sit and actively replay all of the happenings that unfolded can be an excellent strategy.

Maybe not to fully process, address, or resolve every single thing that comes / came up…

…But to at least plan it into your schedule or calendar to be addressed at the appropriate later time.

Because when tomorrow comes and a lot more happens throughout the day… guess what’s going to get pushed further into the background of your mind?

…You guessed it: everything you haven’t given enough time to either process, address, resolve—or schedule and later prioritize.

If you want to prevent that feeling of having “dropped the ball”—this active replaying is an excellent way to keep your eye on all of the balls that came your way throughout your day.

Sitting down to write today, I stared at my screen for around thirty minutes.

…Not a single word typed.

My mind wandered… thinking of people, chores, tasks… and seemed to keep coming back to a task I was dreading that I’d have to do later in the day.

Thirty minutes of thinking about it was enough.

So I reminded myself that, if I wanted to have different, higher quality outputs (in thinking), I needed to interrupt that pattern with new, fresh inputs.

So I read through a few pages of a few books and finished a few thought provoking emails…

And no sooner than when I read those last few words, the idea for this post popped to mind.

Sick of an output? Change the inputs.