Productivity – Page 5

Boost Productivity by Doing Nothing

March 14, 2016 by Camilla

We’re a society of being on the go. And, if we’re not constantly doing something then we feel as if we’re lazy. It’s become a national pride to answer “I’m so busy…gosh, can’t keep up” when someone asks us how we’re doing.

Now, don’t take me wrong. I used to be in that group too and I still struggle with the mindset that doing nothing is okay. We’ve become so trained that being busy is productive and if you’re not doing something all the time you’re simply not.

Which is ridiculous! It’s not cool to be so busy you can’t catch your breath. We’re not robots. We’re human beings cramming way too much crap into our days. That has to change.

Remember those days and times when you had nothing to do? Most of us probably have to go back to high school or early 20’s to remember that! We hung out with friends and well, just hung out. For hours at a time!

Life was certainly simpler back then or at least that’s what my memory tells me. Adult life is full of work, family, friends, responsibilities, and an array of “must-do’s” that fill our schedule from dawn to dusk. But funny enough, we’re the ones that fill our schedules.

Schedule Things On Calendar

If you were to look at my schedule I have huge blocks of “personal time” which is blocked out for me time. No meetings, no work. It’s time meant to be used any way I wish. But I can honestly say, I seldom do nothing. Although I’ve become better at chilling on the couch reading a book for longer periods (my goal is to read 100 books this year so I’m motivated) I still have that nagging feeling inside I should be doing something more “productive.” Silly, I know!

Now that said scheduling things in on your calendar is key to getting stuff done. Just think back to school, you had a full day of classes and yet found time to exercise, hang out with friends and more. Right? I don’t want to assume but I bet most of you felt you had more time then. Why? You were on a schedule. Yes, life was a bit simpler but as adults we start winging it way too much and just like Parkinson’s Law states, the task expands into the time you give it. It’s time to pretend we’re back in school and get structured with our time.

Scheduling in “Doing Nothing” Time

If we take a look at neuroscience we know that our brain needs plenty of rest, sleep and good nutrition to stay productive. Our brain use more energy than any other part of our body. The brain is not a computer, although we often forget it’s not. It works as a muscle and needs to rest after being “exercised.”

Our ancient brain, the one that kept us alive from tigers and other hungry animals back in the cave-days, tends to use its energy to scan for threats when we’re sleep deprived or not well rested. Which is why we view things in a more negative light when tired. It affects our mood too. Well, that’s your ancient brain doing it’s job. When you’re tired you’re missing out on opportunities, and your creativity and productivity goes down as well.

When you’re rested and your brain has had a chance to recharge either through sleep or by doing nothing, the ancient brain’s “scanning for threats” is reduced and you start viewing things in a more positive way. That’s why you start seeing more opportunities. And yes, your creativity and productivity goes up too.

The No Input Rule

In order to help recharge our brain and allow it to be “on” less we also need to reduce the noise it receives. The brain receives about 11 million pieces of input every single second. Only about 40 of those are transmitted to the processing part of the brain. We receive more and more input through social media, TV, news and the world. Our poor brain never gets a break. We’re constantly bombarding it with something. And during our “breaks” we check social media or surf YouTube. Hence the “brain-fog” feeling, which is your brain screaming for a break.

Day-dreaming isn’t much of a thing anymore. Henry Ford wanted his men to kick up their feet and day-dream. He found that when his men did that they came up with great ideas, which in turn helped increase revenue. Can you imagine any corporation today asking their people to “kick up their feet, lean back and daydream” in order to be more productive and boost revenue?

But when we take a break and do nothing it’s just like when we step into the shower or go for a walk. Our brain gets time to bring us ideas and answers. But instead of hiding in the shower to get your thinking time why not schedule in “doing nothing” time when you can kick up your feet and think of whatever comes to mind?

I know it’s not socially acceptable but it’s time to challenge the status quo. You may not be able to get away with it at work. Or at home. Or feel as if you have time. Hiding out in your car for 15 minutes before going somewhere could be the answer. Or very long showers, although that is not good for water conservation, nor your water bill.

I challenge you to join me in taking back our “kicking up the feet and day dream” time by scheduling it in. Find the time. Make the time. Your brain, your productivity, your creativity and your sanity depends on you taking the time.

If you decide to do it at work, when your boss comes by wondering why you have your feet up and day-dreaming, tell him or her it’s the latest productivity hack and to go try it too. I mean, you shouldn’t be keeping those kind of hacks all to yourself. 😉

Do You Do Context Switching?

February 8, 2016 by Camilla

Even if you love what you do (and you should…life’s too short to not be passionate about what you’re doing!) why work more hours than you need to? In this short video I’m talking about how context-switching can cause you to lose hours a day, which in turn makes for much longer workdays than needed. Also, something I didn’t bring up in the video is the cause of errors that can happen when you do context-switching.

I don’t believe in the word balance, however, I do believe in having as much free time as we desire for the remaining parts of our life outside work and career. And we can, if we work smarter. Remember, you can be busy but not productive, or you can be productive but not busy. When you feel as if you’re accomplishing things it helps to reduce overwhelm and that feeling of spinning the wheel.

Love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below on what your main resistance is at work that cause you to bounce from task to task?

Why Do We Procrastinate?

January 21, 2016 by Camilla

We all procrastinate but did you know beating yourself up over procrastinating is the antithesis of productivity and will slow you down even more?

When we beat ourselves up for procrastinating we dive into negative self talk. Instead of giving ourselves a clean slate to start the day over we go “Oh, I’m already screwing this up so why even bother trying now?”

That kind of negative self talk only leads to more. But there are other reasons behind procrastinating.

We all know lack of motivation is a huge reason behind procrastinating. It can be that what we are about to start feels overwhelming. It can be because we don’t know how to do something. It can be because it’s something we hate doing but know we must do. It can also be that you’re trying to do something you really shouldn’t be doing.

Overwhelm can have many reasons such as we waited too long and now the task itself is huge and all we can see is this mountain we have to tackle. The way to get around that is to break it down to small bite sizes. Instead of thinking “this will take me days to do” set aside 15 minutes a day to work on it. The way you eat an elephant is one bit at a time.

Often once we start we usually find more motivation because we realize it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. We tend to anticipate something being much more worse than it is. In our mind the task is awful and we focus on how boring it is, which only makes it more awful and boring. But when we know we only have to “suffer” for 15 minutes then it’s mentally easier as there is a way out! No more having to work on something until it’s done, it’s only 15 minutes!

More Reasons For Procrastinating

1. Perfectionism – you want everything to be perfect before you start. Since nothing will ever fit your “perfect criteria” you procrastinate because then you have an excuse as to why you haven’t done it yet.

Action: Know that nothing is ever going to be perfect. We are our own worst critics. Be brave and take that first step.

“90% finished is better than 100% stuck in your head” ~Jon Acuff

2. Analysis paralysis – avoiding making a decision causes procrastination because you are now in a land of not knowing what to move forward.

Action: Set a deadline for when you will make a decision. Research what you need to research and then make a decision and stick to it. Have someone keep you accountable. If it’s something simple, toss a coin.

3. You don’t make a plan, put things on your calendar or use to-do lists.

Action: Unless you love running around like a chicken then what one thing can you start doing to reduce the chaos in your life? Preparing things the night before is a great way to reduce stress in the morning. Even such a thing as picking what you will wear can reduce overwhelm.

4. You are afraid of either succeeding or failing and if you don’t do anything about something you don’t risk either one.

Action: The number one regret of dying people is that they didn’t live a life authentic to them and did what they wanted to do, but lived a “safe” life. Do you really want to have that kind of regret because of fear? We all fail and succeed…that’s part of life.

5. You are trying to do too many things and in constant ‘mini-exhaustion’ mode.

Action: Quit something every week or month. For every yes you say you automatically say no to something else. Exhaustion leads to procrastination because you feel overwhelmed because you’re now behind. Stop doing too many things. You are super person but even super people need to rest!

There are many reasons behind procrastination but it’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s good to procrastinate. Ignore that huge pile of dishes and go get your beauty sleep instead. But also listen to why you avoid something. Are you trying to force yourself doing something just because someone said you should? Or society said you should? Tune into what cause your procrastination and then work on fixing that.

What cause you to procrastinate? Leave a comment below and let’s start a conversation.

The Accumulative Effect

November 30, 2015 by Camilla

Looking into the future is hard. Especially if we are trying to look decades ahead. Trying to figure out what long-term results we will gain from what we choose to do today is even harder. But if we are to work less, achieve more and hit the level of success we say we want, we need to start changing our thinking.

Avoiding or ignoring doing something today won’t have much of an effect but it’s the accumulative effect of that choice that can have a major impact down the road.

The “Mindless” Accumulative Effect

For example, eating one candy bar today won’t ruin your life, but if you ate a 200 calorie candy bar every single day for the rest of your life it would have significant consequences.

In just a year that’s 73,000 ‘not-so-good-for-you’ calories which is almost 21 pounds of extra weight you pack on, unless you burn it off of course. It takes about 1 hour of moderate walking to burn 200 calories so you do the math on that.

That candy bar, or soda if that’s more your thing, would erase the hour of exercise you are doing every day in order to stay fit and clear your head so you can be more productive.

Life is too short to not enjoy a candy bar here and there but it’s pretty shocking how doing something every day, that doesn’t seem to be much and that we often do without even thinking, can create such a big accumulate effect.

The Accumulative Effect

How Can You Create Positive Accumulative Effect?

Let’s see what turning off the TV for an hour a day can do long-term. If you read a personal development book for that hour, you will have read a total of 91 books in a year based on average reading speed (four hours per 300 page book). Even if you cut that in half you will still have read about 45 books. Imagine where you would be in a year if you read 45 personal development books!

Imagine where you would be if you invested on more hyper focused hour in your business.

Imagine where you would be if you sat down and worked on that book you say you want to write.

Imagine anything that you want to achieve and how far you would be in a year if you just did that one thing for an hour a day. Consistently.

Or even 15 minutes a day, which ends up being over 91 hours in a year!

What would it mean for your stress level if you consistently spent 15 minutes a day to stay on top of your accounting, paperwork, customer relationships, or any other often neglected task you normally procrastinate on?

I have days when I don’t feel like doing something that I know will benefit me long-term. It’s in our human nature to think “oh, I’ll do that tomorrow” but it’s that kind of thinking that keeps you where you are. It’s the reason why so many dreams are never fulfilled. Accomplishing your goals isn’t always fun and games, it requires hard work, dedication and persistence.

It requires you to start asking yourself questions like:

“What if I did this [insert behavior, thought, activity] every single day for the rest of my life, would it help me achieve my goal or not?” If the answer is not, then you know what to do!

“If I don’t do this today, like I said I would, how is that congruent with my character and the vision of myself?”

“If I had the future me coming to my door visiting me how do I want that person to be and is what I’m doing today helping me become that person?”

“Successful people aren’t born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don’t like to do. The successful people don’t always like doing these things themselves, they just get on and do them.” ~Don Marquis

We all want to be successful no matter what our goals are. Join me in being 100% committed to consistently doing things that led us to our greatness, not stealing from it. Let me know what you’re going to change in the comments below or on my Facebook page.

Cheers – Camilla

ps. my two books are on SALE for only 99 cents on Amazon. Go HERE and grab them before the price change on midnight Dec 1, 2015 (affiliate link).

Addicted to Your Phone?

October 14, 2015 by Camilla

Now, before you start reading this I want you to guess how many times a day you use your cell-phone to check something.

Okay, got a number?

A study done by Kleiner Perkins on internet trends in 2013 revealed that most cell-phone users check their phone 150 times a day. One-hundred and fifty times a day!

If you’re part of the majority that check your phone first thing in the morning and throughout the day until you go to bed, let’s say from 7 am to 10 pm, you are checking your phone ten times per hour.

Okay, so let’s do the math again. 10 times per hour! That’s every 6 minutes. That’s just plain insane, even if you batch those “check my phone” times. Talk about a major distraction slowing you down from getting stuff done!

Now, of course, some of this is responding to a text, phone call or other, but we all know a lot of that “checking” goes to things like Facebook, notifications, and emails. And when you’re constantly scattered between checking your phone and doing other things, you’re not fully focused on either thing that you are trying to do.

It’s no wonder most people are always running behind not getting either work or personal tasks done. The time is squandered on distractions.

Considering the study was done in 2013 I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers are a lot higher now with Snapchat and Instagram skyrocketing in popularity. Not to mention other social media platforms like Pinterest, Twitter and Periscope. Which all are huge time suckers.

I know how easy it is to get sucked into the black hole of “checking” your cellphone. An hour later you are still on your phone, usually floating in the black hole of Facebook or some other social media, only to realize you got nothing accomplished.

When you have things you need to get done, you either need to develop huge discipline and not touch the phone or use tricks like turning your phone off, turning it to airplane mode, deleting certain apps like social media or sticking it in the freezer. The latter isn’t exactly the ideal place for a phone so if the addiction to your phone is too high, making it harder to check the things that suck you in, is the way to go.

Now, if you want to go cold turkey leave your phone at home all day while you go to the office. It’s a great way to shock your addicted system. If your risk having a heart attack at the mere thought of being separated from your phone, then start slow by deleting apps that you have a hard time staying away from, like the Facebook app or create a screen saver that says “Do you really need to check your phone?”

Now, since you can still feed your addiction via a computer (or tablet) it’s easy to cheat so if you still can’t stay away you can install apps that limit your use such as StayFocusd, Self-Control, Freedom or Anti-Social that will shut down or block certain websites after a set amount of time.

Time is something we can never create more of. Ask yourself, do you really want to waste it checking your cell-phone all the time?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this so let’s start a conversation. You can leave a comment below. Then get off the computer or phone and go get some stuff done!