Productivity – Page 6

Stop Working So Hard

September 3, 2015 by Camilla

People work too much. Seriously. Study after study shows that most Americans don’t even take all their vacation time. Only about half use all their time off while the rest don’t. That’s pathetic!

Even worse, 61% of American’s work while on vacation.

People are afraid to take time off and relax. Some because they work for a boss who can’t take time off him or herself or because they are afraid that by being gone they will come back to too much work (making going on vacation a dread) or even come back to no job at all.

That kind of fear is far too common. Unfortunately. Everyone knows that if you can take some time off, real time off, you feel rested and rejuvenated.

Now as a business owner it’s hard to take time off and not be on all the time. I definitely don’t have anyone covering, I’m a one-woman show!

That said, it’s still important to take down-time and get away. Last week I decided that I needed a road trip to some remote places where “No Service” shows on your phone most of the time. I headed to Colorado to enjoy the mountains there.

I take a ton of pictures while traveling so if I have any kind of connection I usually load those to Facebook but other than that and quick checks on client emails I worked maybe two hours max the entire week. I can work from anywhere but what good is it to constantly work if the goal is to get some downtime?

As I’m writing this it’s been four days since I did any kind of work. I’ve seen bears, elk, moose, and all kind of wildlife. I’ve seen incredible wilderness vistas and have had wonderful conversations with fellow travelers. I’ve decompressed by being away from the busyness and guess what? I feel rejuvenated.

I think many don’t know how hyped up they are until they force themselves to take a little downtime. Maybe that’s why so many don’t take all their vacation time. People don’t know how to relax. They don’t know how to stay away from emails, social media and the news. The thought of not being connected for even a few days can freak people out.

As I’m writing this I’m watching the rain fall outside. I’m at a cafe in Colorado. With rain in the forecast all day I decided it was time to get a little work done. Check in with the world. Somehow it’s still standing. Gasp!

I’m challenging all of you to truly take time off. No work, no emails, no social media for at least a few days. Go out in nature and listen to the birds. Give your brain and yourself some quiet time. Time away from work. Away from the busyness. Decompress. Turn off your cellphone. It will also boost your productivity and creativity. Even if you only take a day off go outside in nature, spend it at the park or go for a hike. Disconnect with the busy world.

When was the last time you took a real vacation?

Single Focus is Key to Getting More Done

August 20, 2015 by Camilla

Imagine ten buckets of water lined up horizontally in front of you. You’re at a challenge and the key is to dump as much water into a big bucket that is a hundred yards down.

Then you find out the rule is that you can only move the buckets two inches forward at a time. What do you do? You start moving each bucket forward two inches running like crazy between them.

Can you visualize that? Kind of frustrating, right? Seems like it will take forever to move all those ten buckets to the finish line.

Yet you do it every day.

Now, you may not be moving buckets of water but take a look at your to-do list. How many things are you trying to move forward each day? And how many of those are you actually finishing each day?

If you are like most people you jump between projects and to-do’s, you answer emails, phone and text as they arrive and you thrive in that you are productive because you can multi-task! You’re the master of juggling ten things at a time.

Now, let’s go back to moving the ten buckets of water forward. I’d think most would agree doing that is incredibly inefficient instead of grabbing one bucket at a time and moving it to the finish line. After all, the key was to dump as much water into the big bucket as possible. But the rule didn’t say anything about having to move all ten buckets forward. The rule only said you could move the buckets two inches forward at a time.

Who would win the race of dumping as much water into the big bucket without losing their mind if you focused on moving one bucket forward two inches at a time (two inches, put bucket down, move it two inches, put it down and so on) compared to someone moving ten buckets forward at the same time? You would win, right? I mean, by the time you have dumped one bucket the other person is still busy running between buckets.

Single focus is key to productivity and getting more done. Our brains are not wired to multi-task. It can only focus on one thing at a time. When you constantly ask it to switch tasks you don’t give it the chance to fully focus. Hence, you scatter your brain power. Ever noticed how hard it is to get back to focusing on something after you get interrupted?

Changing a habit can be challenging. It’s not easy going from being a multi-tasker to a single-tasker. But think of what you could accomplish if you only moved one bucket forward at a time.

I could go on about how to create your daily to-do list but what if you only put ONE thing on there tomorrow? Not ten, not three, not two. One thing.

What would that one thing be? What if it was the thing you’ve procrastinated on? How would you feel if you finally got that off your plate? By not having anything else to focus on you’re stuck with that one thing. Or maybe it’s something you haven’t taken the time to do but really want to do. How would that feel to get further ahead on that one project?

Go and try single tasking. Only work on ONE thing. Then come back and let me know what you thought, what you learned and how it felt. Can’t wait to hear your comments.

Cheers – Camilla

Take a Day Off. Seriously.

August 25, 2014 by Camilla

Guilty of thinking you can do it all? Join the club. We’re supposed to always be busy right? Because if we are not doing something constantly that’s a sign of laziness. Or so we’ve been told.

If you’re lucky life reminds you that you need to slow down. The other day I crashed. I was so tired I didn’t care if the to-do list doubled while I took the evening off.

The next day my brain still felt fuzzy. I was just about to force myself to attack the to-do list when I said: No, it can wait. I turned off phone, computer and plopped on the couch to read and take a nap. Obviously I felt a lot better afterwards and somehow the world didn’t end (gasp).

It’s so easy to think the world will end if we take a break. I mean, we’re that important right? We actually are. Just ask your family. But we are no good exhausted. Our creativity goes down. It affects our health. Our mood. When we are tired and exhausted it affects everything in a negative way.

Still, we have these expectations of ourselves that we can just push through that fatigue, cram everything in and keep going. It’s always…do more, be more, get more done. In addition to that we are always supposed to be available, even on vacations! It’s expected to answer emails, texts and notifications right away. We’ve been fooled into thinking multitasking is the way to do it all. It’s insane!

As I was laying on the couch I realized the only one to blame for my busy schedule was me (don’t you hate when that happens?)

After all, who is creating our schedule?

Who decides what to put on our schedule?

Who is forcing us to add extra curricular things to our already busy work-life schedule?

Who is forcing us to say yes to everything?

Who is forcing us to believe we can build Rome in one day?

Who is forcing us to be available 24/7/365?

We are. Which also means we can fix it by eliminating things from our schedule, decide not to be available 24/7 by turning the phone off, learn how to say no, tune out and incorporate quiet times. I read a great article from NY Times that truly puts things in perspective and that gives you a scientific proof why you should do all those things. Here’s the link: Hit the Reset Button in Your Brain.

Print that article out and give to your boss. Give to your friend that expects you to text him or her back at midnight. Give that to anyone that needs to slow down. Add that link to your out of office vacation notice. Leave the headphones at home when you go for a walk and let your brain reset. You have scientific proof that your brain need you to take some down time and not be available all the time. You now have a valid reason to be a little “lazy.”

I’m going to be “lazy” and take a week off blogging. I haven’t taken a break from writing or blogging for over a year. I could have a post ready to go but then that won’t give you a week off either. In other words there will be no new post on Monday September 1st landing in your inbox. I’m going to embrace Labor Day weekend not working. I hope you join me.

Now tell me. Do you feel guilty when you take some time off doing nothing? Share in the comments.

Why We Can When We Have No Choice

August 11, 2014 by Camilla

The other night as I was taking out my contacts trying not to attract mosquito’s by turning the light on (I had the window open with no screen) I struggled. I ended up having to turn the light on in order to see what I was doing.

Suddenly it occurred to me that when I go camping I never need a light in order to take my contacts out. I can easily do it in the dark as long as my eyes are adjusted to the dark.

At first I was quite puzzled. Then it dawned on me. Knowing that I could turn the light on interfered with my otherwise automatic process and suddenly I couldn’t take my contacts out without turning the light on, even when I really tried. Quite silly, right?

That scenario can be applied to a lot of things in life. Think about it.

You’re hungry and open the fridge. There’s plenty of food in there but nothing really jumps out at you. You look in your wallet, it’s empty and you have a week until pay day. Your bank account is equally empty. You go back to the fridge and figure out how to make meals out of what you have and you do. In matter of fact, you discover a new favorite dish that you never thought of putting together before.

Now replicate that scenario with access to money in your wallet. You know that you shouldn’t spend more on food until pay day but this is an emergency. No matter how many times you look in the fridge there’s absolutely no food in there!!! At least none that can be put together into anything eatable. You head to the grocery store but on the way you realize you are tired and well, it’s late and you should do some relaxing too and not spend the rest of the day slaving in the kitchen. The Mexican place that has your favorite burrito is open. You tell yourself it’s inexpensive food and you might even get leftovers.

Sound familiar? Because you have an option your brain interferes with your creative meal planning skills.

Now let’s take a look at some of those other mysteries in life.

Why is it that we get so much done right before we go on vacation?
Why is it that the house, closets and garage have never looked as great as they do right before we sell or move? It’s not as if all those projects suddenly appears, right? Most of them have been on a to-do list for months, sometime even years!
Remember those dreadful term papers we had to do in school? We managed to turn them in on time even if we stared at a blank page the night before.

When we don’t have another choice available our brain shifts into a creative and productive mood.

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How can we replicate that when we are not forced to? Here are a few ideas:

1. Set a deadline. The Parkinson’s Law states that a task expands into the time it’s allotted. If we don’t have a deadline the task expands into the time you give it and if you don’t give it a deadline it expands into indefinitely. Set a hard deadline. Get an accountability partner you have to pay if you don’t get things done in time.

2. Make it a challenge. Tap into that ‘going on vacation’ ‘selling the house/moving’ mentality for a project you really want to get done. Challenge yourself to beat your budget by coming out on the plus side and use that money to reward yourself. Have a friend with a similar to-do list? Create a friendly competition. Whoever finish last buys lunch.

3. Remove the option that you keep defaulting to. Can’t stay away from Facebook? Delete the app off your phone and install a social media blocker on your computer. Ask someone to hide the TV-remote. Cut up your credit card. Don’t even enter the candy isle. Move the alarm clock away from your bed stand and immediately make the bed so you don’t get tempted to get back in.

4. Create a reward system (get an accountability partner if needed so that you don’t cheat) for every task you struggle with. Once a task is finished you get the reward. This works great for those that are motivated by external rewards.

Our brain is just like any other muscle in our body. We have to train it in order to do what we ask. By replicating “no option” scenarios we can train our brain so that we reduce the interference with our “can do” process.

I realized as I was writing this that after I decided that Monday mornings would be a good day for new blog posts, instead of sometime during the week whenever I felt like writing, I’ve been able to consistently post on time. I’ve tricked my brain into not having an option. Although at times I wonder if I should change to another weekday (as I’m sitting here on a Sunday night finishing up this post!).

Do you have any tricks you use in order to tap into that creative and productive ‘get things done’ phase? Please share in the comments.

5 Ways to Be Productive While Driving

June 23, 2014 by Camilla

Most of us spend quite a bit of time in our car going places like work, running errands, going to various activities and the list goes on. But what do you do with all that time you spend in the car?

The time we spend in our car can be utilized to catch up on things we don’t have time to do or would like to do more of. Drive time can become our own little sanctuary, if we are just a bit more intentional about it.

What if you don’t spend extensive time in the car? Doesn’t matter. It all adds up. My commute to the office is 8 minutes. That becomes 16 minutes each day. During a regular work week, that’s 80 minutes. And that is just my commute time. An hour and twenty minutes each week!

What do I do with that time? I do things I wouldn’t have time to do otherwise.

1. Listen to podcasts. It’s a great way to expand your knowledge. There are thousands of different podcasts covering every subject you can think of that you can download for free. If you have an iPhone there is a free Podcast App you can download. From there you can subscribe for free to any podcast. For Android users PocketCast seems to be the most popular.

Here are the current podcasts that I listen to on a weekly basis that may be worth for you to check out:

48 Days by Dan Miller

This Is Your Life by Michael Hyatt

The Tim Ferriss Show by Tim Ferriss

Live Your List by Ryan Eller & Jerod Murr

The Portfolio Life by Jeff Goins

Life and Business by Chris LoCurto

Entrepreneur on Fire by John Lee Dumas

Beyond the to List by Erik Fisher

Smart Passive Income by Pat Flynn

Online Marketing Made Easy by Amy Porterfield

Right Where You Are by Tammy Helfrich

Ray Edwards Podcast by Ray Edwards

EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey

Learn French by Podcast

Travel by Rick Stevens

I actually manage to listen to all of these podcasts in a week thanks to the little podcast app on my phone. Podcasts are a great way to expand your knowledge and also get inspired in areas of your interest.

2. Listen to audio books. I can’t tell you how often I hear people say: “I miss reading books but I don’t have time to read!” Well, there’s an app for that. It’s called Audible. I recently listened to my first audio book from them and really liked it. Audiobooks are a great way to “read” more books.

Audible is a free app but you have to pay for the audio books. However, did you know that most libraries allow you to not only borrow e-books for free but also audiobooks? Yes. Check with your local library. I haven’t tested this service yet but OverDrive allows you to borrow audio books from your local library without ever leaving your home. Free is always nice.

3. Learn a new language. Why not learn a new language (or dust one off that you learned in school) while you are driving? I’m trying to dust off my rusty French by listening to a podcast but there are several audio classes to choose from on Amazon that you can purchase with a study guide.

4. Write a book, a letter, a blog post, a journal. But wait, how can I write while I drive? Today’s audio recorders are incredible and many allow you to speak hands free while driving. Then connect the recorder to your computer and voila it convert the audio to text. Prices vary but the Philips DVT1500/00 2 GB Digital Voice Tracer is a good recorder for the price. There are many different brands and options (some work on PC only, some on Mac only) so do the research before you purchase one. You can also download an app on your iPhone or iPad called the Dragon Dictation that converts your voice into text. If you have an Android I’ve been told Evernote has a way to turn audio files into text files.

5. Call a friend. In today’s technology driven world of texting, tweeting and facebooking it’s nice to hear a real voice once in a while. When was the last time you actually talked to a friend or family member over the phone?

I hope I have given you a few ideas for how you can grow as a person and learn new things while spending time in your car. Just remember, safety first. No fumbling around with the phone switching podcasts while driving.

How could you spend your time in the car more productively? Share in the comments.