Doing Productivity the Right Way
Is there a right way to be productive? Is high performance really about getting things done? Or is it more about taking a deliberate approach to how you do things? One thing is for sure, it’s not about high doses of caffeine. Or luck. Or wishful thinking. So what can actually help?
Hacking productivity
Simply standing up intermittently at your desk to work can increase productivity by 45% compared to sitting all day.
Set start and end times for your tasks—and stick to them.
Create single-use spaces—for example, save your desk for high-focus activities and do your email elsewhere—or have different devices for different tasks. The idea is to create habits that reduce distraction.
Schedule distraction-only times, so you can get your dose of dopamine.
Designate no-device times and places. Give yourself a break.
By far the best way to be productive is to use altered states of consciousness, such as flow or meditation.
I used to think that having a hundred projects on my list was a fine way to assure that I got ten done. That is, until the day I realized I was setting myself up for 90% failure rate all the time. If I removed everything but the key priorities, shortened the list to something doable, I could reach 100% success all the time. With celebrations and parties and dopamine rushes. And motivation to do more. Could I have stumbled on a key to productivity?
The thing about to-do lists
To-do lists are often linked to productivity. Sometimes they work. Especially if you make them big, colourful, splashy and very visible so you are constantly reminded about what you have to do throughout the day. But if you are anything like me, they can be inhibiting the longer they get. To tell the truth, although they may serve to shame you away from distractions and do play a role in tracking progress, I’m not convinced that to-do lists help to be productive at all.
Another option is to make a don’t-do list.
Or a to-be list.
Or to take another approach all together. Rather than structuring days around a list, the idea is to block off time for an activity, but to let go of the outcome. The goal is to focus, deeply, for a period of time on doing a task, not on completing a task. It makes all the difference in the world. Really.
What you need to be productive
Productivity is the “quality or state of being productive,” which means “having the quality or power of producing; effective in bringing about; yielding results.” To produce, to bring about, to yield results, you need energy and focus. You also need goals, but not just any goals. They need to be clear and challenging. According to Steven Kotler, a specialist in reaching states of flow, high hard goals improve productivity by 11%. Note, it’s not the number of goals that count in getting to that state, but how challenging they are. The rule of thumb is to have that be just challenging enough—about 4% higher than your skill level. Above that the stress levels are to high to get anything done. Below, we get bored. The trick is to chunk those goals to avoid procrastination.
Don’t worry, be happy
Chunking has other advantages. You chunk, you focus, you complete more things, feel more sense of accomplishment, less overwhelm. Happier.
Research from the High Performance Institute shows that people who feel more productive are statistically more likely to feel happier, more successful, and more confident.
It works the other way around too. One meta-analysis of over 275,000 people across more than 200 studies found that happy people are more productive—they also receive higher evaluations for quality of work, dependability, and creativity.
It’s a virtuous circle.
Energy on fire
Happier means more positive emotions, which helps keep energy levels high. Energy levels are significantly related to productivity. You give less when you’re stressed or tired. If you are sleep deprived (low energy), you get less done. One study shows that 19 hours without sleep impacts performance the same as drinking a glass of wine—making it equivalent or worse than that of a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level of 0.05%.
To stay productive, we need to cover the basics: good sleep, nutrition, and exercise.
Dialed-in focus
Let’s be clear: Turn off the damn notifications. Distraction lowers productivity by 20%.
A single interruption can throw scheduled task off by two to three hours. Set specific times when you can be interrupted.
And use distractions to your advantage. The brain craves novelty, so give it some, but in a controllable manner. I take breaks to learn something new. And I’m always introducing a new planner or planning app, for example.
Remember that concentration requires effort. When your brain is using up energy, it’s going to be looking for a distraction. You can counter this by creating the habit of linking a specific place or time to a specific task.
Breaks
The thing about focus is that you can’t do it all the time. We are not computers—meant to run at high speeds, continuously, for long periods of time, with multiple programs spooling simultaneously. Human creatures are rhythmic. We function best when we cycle between spending energy and renewing it.
Your brain also needs downtime. And more of it than than you probably think. It takes that time to process information, recover, and deal with life so that you can be more productive.
Weekends and vacations are good. And so are 50- to 90-minute breaks throughout the day to allow the mind to restore neurochemicals and increase future attention—add a couple of minutes of physical activity and deep breathing.
The reality is that if a person works continuously all through the day, she’ll produce less than a person of equal talent who works very intensely for short periods and then recovers before working intensely again.
Is social media worth it?
Do the math. If you spend the general average of 37 minutes a day on social media, that ends up being 25 full eight-hour days per year lost to scrolling. Add to that the time lost switching tasks, and we’re looking way more. And whoever stops at 37 minutes?